Friday, August 26

We are members belonging to one another.Eph. 4:25.

Jehovah is helping us “to serve him shoulder to shoulder.” He is training us to fit into his eternal purpose. What does that include? He purposes “to gather all things together in the Christ.” Yes, he wants to unify all willing creatures throughout the universe, and he will succeed in doing this. Does that help you to see the need to work unitedly with Jehovah’s organization? Jehovah is teaching us to attain unity now, with the objective of having unity forever. Again and again, the Scriptures tell us to “have mutual concern for one another,” to “have tender affection for one another,” to “keep comforting one another,” and to be “building one another up.”  Jehovah knows that Christians are imperfect, and this may make it challenging to be united, so we need to work at “freely forgiving one another.”

COMMENTARY

Are Jehovah’s Witnesses united? Yes. Is it in fulfillment of Zephaniah 3:8,9? No.

If you are so inclined take a few minutes to read the prophecy of Zephaniah. It is only three chapters. Although the prophet’s words are directed to those living in Judah and Jerusalem, the prophecy has a much broader application to the universal day of Jehovah, as ought to be apparent given what is stated at Zephaniah 1:18: “For by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be consumed, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

Foremost Jehovah expresses his determination to exterminate the false worshippers within the company of his people, those who hypocritically swear to both Jehovah and Baal and Malcam and who suppose Jehovah will never call them to account, saying to themselves: “Jehovah will not do good, and he will not do bad.”

Although it may seem far-fetched to many that this judgment could pertain to the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we do well to consider Jesus’ illustration of the wheat and the weeds. As Jesus explained, the weeds are the sons of the Devil who were planted among the sons of the Kingdom. According to Christ the two grow together until the harvest, at which point the angels are dispatched to uproot the weeds. Jesus further explained that the angels will remove all things that cause stumbling and all persons who practice lawlessness. We must assume this will be total. And this is exactly what the prophecy of Zephaniah relates to.

Zephaniah states: “‘I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked ones; and I will remove mankind from the surface of the ground,’ declares Jehovah. ‘I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will wipe out from this place every vestige of Baal…’”

One of the features of Baal worship was child sacrifice. The Watchtower has condoned a form of child sacrifice, in that, it has presided over an organization that has allowed tens of thousands of children to be sexually abused by cunning pedophiles. All the while the Watchtower has tied the hands of elders and made it as difficult as possible for them to expose and prosecute sexual predators. The Watchtower even reserves for itself the right to secretly appoint men into positions of responsibility who are known to have committed crimes against children.

The leadership of the Watchtower knows no shame. Her prophets have treacherously off-shifted all adverse judgments to Christendom, while applying to themselves Jehovah’s judgments of redemption. It is as stated in Zephaniah: “Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves in the night; they do not leave even a bone to gnaw until morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous men. Her priests defile what is holy; they do violence to the law. Jehovah is righteous in her midst; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he makes known his judgments, as unfailing as the daylight. But the unrighteous one knows no shame.”

Note that in the illustration of the harvest, the weeds are cast into the fiery furnace where they weep and gnash their teeth. This must occur at the same time as the nations are in anguish, not knowing the way out, as Jesus said. Zephaniah similarly states as regards the fiery day of Jehovah: “The sound of the day of Jehovah is bitter. There a warrior cries out.”

After the sons of the wicked one are removed Jesus said that the wheat will be gathered into the storehouse, at which point the chosen ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of God. Zephaniah is in agreement with that ordering.

It is in the aftermath of the destruction of “Jerusalem” and the removal of the wicked that God gathers his own. Thus the closing words of Zephaniah: “‘Look! At that time I will act against all those oppressing you; and I will save the one limping, and I will gather together the dispersed. I will make them an object of praise and fame in all the land of their shame.  At that time I will bring you in, at the time I gather you together. For I will make you an object of fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I gather back your captives before your eyes,’ says Jehovah.”

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