Thursday, April 22
Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. —2 Tim. 3:1.
Were you born after the year 1914? If so, you have lived your entire life during “the last days” of the present system of things. All of us have heard about the events that Jesus foretold for this time. These include wars, food shortages, earthquakes, pestilences, an increasing of lawlessness, and the persecution of Jehovah’s people. (Matt. 24:3, 7-9, 12; Luke 21:10-12) We have also seen people behave in the way foretold by the apostle Paul. As worshippers of Jehovah, we are convinced that we are living during “the final part of the days.” (Mic. 4:1) Because so much time has passed since 1914, we must now be living in the last of “the last days.” Since the end is so near, we need to know the answers to some important questions: What events will occur at the end of “the last days”? And what does Jehovah expect us to do while we wait for those events? w19.10 8 ¶1-2
“Were you born after the year 1914”? No doubt you were. We all were. Why even pose such a silly question? Out of the billions of earthlings alive today there are only a very few hangers-on who were born before 1914. And those few alive today who were born before 1914 would have been mere infants and hardly aware of world affairs back when C.T. Russell declared the nations have had their day.
I feel sorry for Jehovah’s Witnesses, that they are routinely subjected to such infantile brainwashing as this. I feel especially embarrassed for the Governing Body and their “helpers” who churn out this sort of twaddle.
I have responded to these kinds of comments by the WT for years and years. It is wearying. But as long as the Watchtower publishes lies I feel it is my duty to point them out. God give me strength.
First, Jesus indicated that those living during the climactic conclusion would personally witness all the things foretold. Jesus said: “Likewise also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near at the doors.”
But according to the Watchtower, the only way we can be made aware that we are living in the last days is by studying the history of the past century. As it stands, no one has personally seen all of the things Jesus foretold anyway. Even the Watchtower admits that not all the things foretold have occurred. For example, have men become faint with fright due to the roaring of the sea? The answer is no.
As 1914 recedes further into the past the younger generation of increasingly illiterate and undereducated persons know very little about World War One and the Spanish Flu pandemic, or anything else having to do with history. Besides, it is absurd to suppose that God expects us to base our faith on something that happened more than a hundred years ago.
Let’s look more closely at the Watchtower’s thumbnail of evidence. For instance, what about “the persecution of Jehovah’s people.” The article cites Luke 21:12, where Jesus said: “But before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name. It will result in your giving a witness.”
The gospel of Mark adds a significant detail: “Furthermore, brother will deliver brother over to death, and a father a child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all people on account of my name. But the one who has endured to the end will be saved.”
Now, with the foregoing in mind let’s reconsider the Watchtower’s statement. Have you seen the things Jesus foretold? True, some of Jehovah’s Witnesses are in prison in Islamic regions and now also a few have been imprisoned in Russia. But standing before governors and kings? The closest thing to that is Geoffrey Jackson’s disgusting spectacle before the Australian Royal Commission investigating the Watchtower’s deplorable mishandling of child abuse. Jackson’s appearance before the court was a reproach on Christ, not a witness on his behalf. If it were an honorable thing why doesn’t the Watchtower make any mention of it?
Can the Governing Body point to any instance where family members have handed over their relatives to be put to death? Of course not; for the obvious reason that it is not illegal to be a Christian in the lands where Jehovah’s Witnesses thrive. So what if young JWs spend a couple of years in an internment camp for being conscientious objectors? At least they have the support of their family and the brothers.
Jesus is foretelling something we have not seen nor can scarcely imagine. If we take seriously what is written in the Bible and we do not allow ourselves to be so easily hoodwinked, we might begin to get an inkling of what is to come.
People are totally oblivious to what is happening in the world. That is by design. A few people actually concern themselves with what is taking place. Not many. Certainly, no one in Watchtower Land is awake and aware that the Anglo war machine is in control and determined to plunge the world into war. And you may be assured, this coming war will not be confined to some faraway place. Russia and China have the technological means to strike any nation on earth within a matter of minutes. America also possesses the capability. So, it will not be like WWI when pilots of canvas-winged biplanes dropped hand grenades out of an open cockpit. We will soon witness fearful sites and great signs in the heavens.
Just imagine the confusion that will boil up in the minds of Jehovah’s Witnesses when their 1914 indoctrination crashes up against reality! As Jesus said, many will be stumbled and hate one another and betray one another.
Wars invariably always change societies. This coming war is going to be the death blow for America—the celebrated land of the free and home of the brave. It is even so written in prophecy.
No doubt Jehovah’s Witnesses will be deemed as enemies of the state—whatever sort of state is put in place after the crash. Then Christians will turn on each other, just like Jesus foretold.
As for the degradation of society that will make for critical times hard to deal with during the last days, as I have pointed out a few times before, Paul did not say that men will become more wicked during the last days. He said the last days will be hard to deal with because people will be so godless. We have witnessed the gradual corruption of civilization. The older you are the more you have seen the process. But the process precedes the beginning of the last days.
The Watchtower is right about one thing, though. The end is near.