Mailbag

QUESTION: Is there any Bible example(s) where Israelites or early Christians were under a "deluding influence"? The deluding influence --formerly called an “operation of error”--is a unique phenomenon associated with the return of Christ. In context, Paul was warning the brothers —who, as it turns out, is us —not to accept any announcements as authentic, [...]

QUESTION: Jehovah’s Witnesses have long understood the facets of the sign of Christ’s presence to be a description of conditions that would precede the great tribulation. My question is, are the various facets of the sign that Jesus describes merely a description of the great tribulation, rather than events that lead up to it? There [...]

QUESTION: You've written at various times about the influence of Masonry within the Watchtower organization over the years, so I would like to have your thoughts on a recent adjustment in the New World Translation. In the 1984 edition, at Hosea 12:14, the NWT translators chose to use "Grand Master," and likewise at Malachi [...]

QUESTION: Does the "inspired" recorded story of Jonah set a precedence for Jehovah to change his mind and delay the world’s destruction? —Especially upon those nations which have little to no say in world affairs or at the U.N. or who "know not their left hand from their right?" (Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, Islamists, etc... including third [...]

QUESTION: Luke 11:18,  Jesus: "If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” If all of the world's kingdoms are Satan's, and, if the Anglo-American world power is to be the last before the Kingdom stone not cut by hands strikes the feet of the Daniel image; and, if Great Britain and America became [...]

QUESTION: The Bible says that young David unnecessarily obtained an extra 100 foreskins, killing/mutilating an extra amount of men for King Saul and yet the Bible says that Jehovah’s spirit "continued with him" after this dirty deed. The Bible also says: "Do not become mutilators of the flesh..." and "look out for those who mutilate the [...]

QUESTION: With 8 million JW's being so misguided, how are we to explain/understand/apply Jesus’ parting words at Matt. 28:20 ? Was the "conclusion" he was referring to including or only the destruction in 70ce? Being "with you all the days..." -Who has he been "with" for all what days? "All" means all, or does [...]

QUESTION: Who is Elijah, foretold at Malachi 4:5, who comes before the awe-inspiring day of Jehovah? And what will he accomplish? And is he in fact the one that will be appointed over all the domestics to give them food at the proper time? The verse in question also happens to be the very last [...]

Please pardon me, I have a bit of a sniffle. Here are links to related articles 

QUESTION: Will you write an article for me and others to help with a response when talking to sisters and brothers? I appreciate your zeal and willingness to try to reason with Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is not an easy thing to do. In fact, it is near impossible. It may help to understand the underlying [...]

QUESTION: Is the stone hitting the feet/toes of the Daniel image the equivalent / same as Armageddon, or, the start of the "great tribulation? And does the not mixing of the iron and clay indicate that not all peoples will support the "eighth king" / world order dictatorship with the kind of order/unity that Hitler [...]

Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the great crowd will live on earth when Revelation 19:1 clearly says the great crowd is in heaven? It is problematic when a single verse is used as the proof of a particular teaching. Yes, obviously, Revelation 19:1 states that John “heard what seemed to be a loud voice [...]

QUESTION: Who is ‘the false prophet?" And why is he called such? Revelation 16:13 is the first mention of the false prophet. It reads: “And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out [...]

QUESTION: Who is "the one who is acting as a restraint?" --and why does God "let" anyone be fooled by a lie? God of love, really? The question is based upon Paul’s prophecy regarding the presence of a man of lawlessness, wherein the apostle revealed: “And now you know what is acting as a restraint, [...]

QUESTION: In view of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, will there perhaps be some anointed in the end who will not be killed, but will simply be "raptured"? Would appreciate your thoughts on this. The answer is no and yes. Allow me to explain. In context the verse in question states: “For this is what we tell [...]

QUESTION: Here is a quote from one of your articles I don't understand "Just as Jesus indicated that the Law and the Prophets were until John (the Baptizer), secondarily, or rather – primarily – the Prophets are until the second coming of Jesus Christ." Where do you get your understanding on the prophets are until [...]

QUESTION: At John 6:44 Jesus said no one can come to me unless the father draws him. The application always seems to be made by witnesses regarding that verse that it applies to all basically who become baptized witnesses or servants of Jehovah members of the other sheep. I have a hard time accepting that, [...]

QUESTION: As a long time reader of what you've shared through the years, I'm curious as to your view of Paul's words to the followers of Jesus living at Rome: Rom 16:17 “Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which [...]

QUESTION: When Christ returns to judge the billions of people for life or death, will it not take years, if not decades, to accomplish this feat/deed? No. The Scriptures refer to it as “that day,” as in the Lord’s day, or Jehovah’s day —indicating that it is a relatively short period of time, as is [...]

QUESTION: Do you think the upcoming total eclipse is a biblical sign? In a word, no. An eclipse, though rare, is a natural phenomenon that occurs on a regular, totally predictable schedule and has since God created the heavens and the earth. Furthermore, an eclipse is only visible to certain geographic areas and only lasts [...]

QUESTION: The June 2017 Watchtower has a couple of articles entitled Keep Your Eyes on the Big Issue and Uphold Jehovah’s Sovereignty. The “big issue” is explained to be the ‘vindication of Jehovah’s sovereignty.’ The Watchtower has used this phrase since back in the 1930’s when Rutherford published a book called Vindication. But nowhere in [...]

Question: While you do make very good and fascinating points, the question I have is the following: Everything in Prophecy (Ezekiel, Isaiah, etc.) you point to the JW's as per the fulfillment. Is it not possible that these prophecies can also point to say the Adventists, Mormons, Baptists, Christadelphians, etc? How can you be so sure [...]

This is a response to an email I recently received from one of Jehovah's Witnesses.  Satan has long used apostates in his efforts to seduce God's servants (Matt.13:36-39) Apostates may claim to worship Jehovah and to believe the Bible, but they reject the visible part of his organization. This is not true. The real apostates [...]

Question: I noticed you tweet a lot of political news. Can you possibly explain what the correlation is between prophecy and the current political scene? I find this president extremely repulsive, immature, and full of drama. I can't tell what news is fake or real. I thought we should be expecting a financial collapse soon, [...]

QUESTION: Do you see the Trump vs The Globalist "pushing" as truly the "pushing" as prophecy states or is it just a distraction? It certainly seems to be a conflict between the Iron and Clay. “In the time of the end the king of the south will engage with him in a pushing, and against him the [...]

Question: If Jehovah is all-knowing, then he had to have known that Satan would rebel and that Adam and Eve would follow. Since God had to have known beforehand, why did he go through with it and allow all the misery and mayhem? Doesn’t that make him responsible for all of the evil in the [...]

QUESTION: Given the current and developing situation for the brothers and sisters in Russia, when can we expect the Watchtower organization's leadership to admonish and encourage the friends in Russia to follow Jesus' advice at Matthew 10:23? “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another; for truly I say to you, you will [...]

QUESTION: I've been watching the development of the story out of Russia where Jehovah's Witnesses are evidently being accused of extremism by the Russian government, which is surprising since I thought Jehovah's Witnesses hold to neutrality and have since their beginning, not even taking up arms against others. How is it, then, that they [...]

QUESTION: What is the "constant feature" mentioned in Daniel chaps. 8, 11, 12? The “constant feature” is what the Watchtower has explained it to be. Most translations either use the phrase “daily sacrifice” or “continual burnt offering.” The most literal rendering is “continual sacrifice” —alluding to the sacrifices associated with the physical tabernacle and temple attended [...]

QUESTION: Jehovah's Witnesses expect there to be opposition from Satan and his agents, but given that the Watchtower's leadership is making decisions contrary to God's just and loving principles and likely to result in harassment from the authorities Jehovah has in place to punish wrongdoers, and given that the typical brother and sister has no [...]

I am not claiming that all partakers are chosen to go to heaven. But not partaking isn't scriptural, for a couple reasons. 1 Timothy 4:1-5. But if all food can be consumed, so can the emblems. And this scripture may be referring to the WT, as they are the only group of people who believe [...]

QUESTION: I have a question for you. What is your understanding of Revelation 6:10,11? The Watchtower interprets it in a way so that they may support their 1918 resurrection dogma. In their Revelation Climax book and in W07 01/01 they say that the Christian martyrs' receiving white robes represents their being resurrected in 1918 while [...]

Apologies: For some unknown reason messages sent to me from the contact form were either not being delivered or were sent to my spam folder. This question from a JW reader was recovered. QUESTION: You say in some of your videos that despite some flaws, Jehovah's Witnesses are doing God's will on earth, namely [...]

QUESTION: The Watchtower has changed their position on this several times. I would like to know your opinion. Will the people of Sodom be resurrected or not?  Pondering the question of whether or not the people of Sodom and Gomorrah will be resurrected is really peculiar to Jehovah’s Witnesses, since the mainstream churches do not [...]

As regards your video The Beginning and the End, how do you know that Satan and his angels were not thrown out of heaven in 1914? And if it happens in the future, how will we know it? As Jehovah’s Witnesses well know the Watchtower’s “evidence” for 1914 is primarily based upon chronology —the so-called [...]

QUESTION: Before I ask this question I just wish to make it clear that this is not a personal attack on you, so please do not take offense.  Okay, so I acknowledge that you have often clearly stated that you are not anti-JW, or bitter about having been disfellowshipped, and that you actively encourage those [...]

QUESTION: Why do you think the end hasn't come yet? What is the purpose of allowing the present system to continue? What is Jehovah actually waiting for to bring this miserable system to an end? It is disheartening, to say the least, that 2017 is upon us and this wicked system is still in charge. [...]

QUESTION: The seventh chapter of Revelation tells us that the 144,000 are taken from the 12 tribes of Israel —12,000 from each tribe. What do you believe these 12 tribes represent and what does the selection of 144k from these tribes indicate? What of those who are not taken and when does this selection take [...]

Why would the Watchtower organization invest the tremendous amount of money required to build their new facilities if they believed the end is as near as they proclaim it to be? And is this a parallel to the Jews continued pouring of money into Herod’s second Temple building project, even though it was all destroyed [...]

If Jesus’ presence did not occur in 1914 how is it that one of the most prominent signs of his presence —the world wide preaching of God’s Kingdom —is being fulfilled? The last thing Jesus said before he ascended to heaven was: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. Go, [...]