Monday, November 20

Your servants have come . . . out of regard for the name of Jehovah your God, because we have heard about his fame and about all he did.Josh. 9:9.

The Gibeonites wisely recognized Israel’s backer to be the true God. Rahab too perceived God’s hand in the events of her day. After learning about how Jehovah rescued his people, she told two Israelite spies: “I do know that Jehovah will give you the land.” Even though taking such a stand was fraught with danger, she expressed faith that Jehovah could deliver her and her family. These and many other examples in the Bible help us to understand what it means to see God or to see his hand in matters. As we come to know him, we too can see his hand because we perceive his qualities and actions with “the eyes of [our] heart.” Surely we want to be like those past and present who have clearly seen Jehovah supporting his people.

The Governing Body must surely know in their hearts that they have made a mess of things. The public exposure of their failed child abuse policies, amplified by public hearings and class action lawsuits, has opened the eyes of many. Apparently a rather substantial number of congregants are leaving or in the process of fading. As a result of the exodus the Watchtower is shuttering kingdom halls and consolidating congregations.

Of course, the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses will never acknowledge any responsibility in stumbling millions. The Watchtower goes so far as to claim that those who leave the organization have been winnowed out by the angels because of their unsuitability. (Are the Angels Killing off Your Bible Students?)

But the days of the Watchtower’s unseemly boasting of having Jehovah’s undying support are numbered. Anyone who has even a rudimentary knowledge of the history contained in the Bible knows that Jehovah did not always support the Israelites and Jews. In fact, through Isaiah Jehovah explicitly forewarned that he was removing his support from the city where he had placed his name. The third chapter opens: “For look! the true Lord, Jehovah of armies, is removing from Jerusalem and Judah every kind of support and supply, all support of bread and water, mighty man and warrior, judge and prophet, diviner and elder, chief of 50, dignitary, and adviser…”

As was true of the Jews, the Governing Body is defiant in their course, exhibited recently by a “helper” who proclaimed that the Watchtower will never change its “scriptural” two witness policy —implying that shielding pedophiles from prosecution by the superior authorities is somehow their obligation before God. How true Jehovah’s edict: “Because in word and deed they are against Jehovah; they behave defiantly in his glorious presence. The expression of their faces testifies against them, and they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not try to hide it. Woe to them, for they are bringing disaster on themselves!” —Isaiah 3:8-9

Because of the ongoing hoax the Watchtower has perpetrated from its very inception, regarding the coming of Christ in 1914 and the supposed beginning of the judgment of the house of God in 1918, Jehovah’s Witnesses have no scriptural basis to anticipate any sort of disaster befalling them. But God does not need a consensus among men to permit him to act. Isaiah continues: “Jehovah is taking his position to accuse; He is standing up to pass sentence on peoples. Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people. ‘You have burned down the vineyard, and what you have stolen from the poor is in your houses. How dare you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor in the dirt?’ declares the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.” —Isaiah 3:13-15

Ought Jehovah’s Witnesses any longer imagine that Jehovah stood up to accuse the leaders of his people and pass sentence on the peoples back in 1918? To be sure, because the Father has committed all judging to the Son, this is exactly what will be accomplished when Christ comes in the name and glory of his Father as the messenger of the covenant. Indeed, “But who will endure the day of his coming, and who will be able to stand when he appears? For he will be like the fire of a refiner and like the lye of laundrymen.”

In furtherance of their elaborate invisible parousia fraud, the Watchtower claims that the day of his coming, as foretold in Malachi, has already come and gone. But the 1st chapter of Isaiah uses the very same analogy only it is apparent that the refining and smelting process results in the total destruction of God’s enemies within. Here is what it says in context: “Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies, the Powerful One of Israel, declares: ‘Ah! I will rid myself of my adversaries, and I will take revenge on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you, I will smelt away your dross as with lye, and I will remove all your impurities.’”

Again, although Isaiah identifies Jehovah as the Avenger and Refiner, in reality Christ has been appointed to carryout God’s work to a completion. But the point is, God’s adversaries are among his people. That is why God allows them to bring disaster upon themselves. And the disaster will completely eliminate wicked men from God’s organization.

Isaiah further states: “The rebels and the sinners will be broken together, and those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish…The strong man will become tow, and his work a spark; both of them will go up in flames together, with no one to extinguish them.” —Isaiah 1:28, 31

Paul likely had this passage in mind when he wrote the following: “For no one can lay any other foundation than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will be shown for what it is, for the day will show it up, because it will be revealed by means of fire, and the fire itself will prove what sort of work each one has built. If anyone’s work that he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved; yet, if so, it will be as through fire.”

“The day” of which Paul wrote is obviously the day of the Lord —or the day of Jehovah if you please. That is when the heat is turned up, so-to-speak. And combustible materials, likened to wood, hay and straw, will be burned up. We may be certain that the entire prophetic edifice upon which the Watchtower is built will be consumed in the conflagration just like literal straw and field stubble.

Obviously the rebels and sinners did not come to their finish in 1918. They are still very much alive and thriving among Jehovah’s Witnesses. While we may expect many more to be stumbled due to the increasing of lawlessness, the end is in sight. Already the ax is lying at the root of the trees. And as John the Baptizer warned: “every tree, then, that does not produce fine fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.” —Matthew 3:10

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