Your deliverance is getting near. —Luke 21:28.
The end of false religion will come suddenly, catching the world by surprise. (Rev. 18:8-10) The destruction of Babylon the Great will be world-shaking and may cause hardships, but God’s people will have at least two reasons to rejoice. This long-standing enemy of Jehovah God will be gone forever, and our deliverance from this wicked system of things will be at hand! Daniel foretold that “true knowledge” would “become abundant.” And indeed it has! We have received insight into prophecies about our time. (Dan. 12:4, 9, 10) The accuracy of these prophecies leaves us in awe of Jehovah and his inspired Word. (Isa. 46:10; 55:11) So continue to fortify your faith by diligently studying the Scriptures and by helping others to develop an approved relationship with Jehovah. He will safeguard all who fully lean on him, and he will give them “continuous peace.” —Isa. 26:3. w22.07 6-7 ¶16-17
It seems appropriate for the Watchtower to start off the new year by calling attention to Bible prophecy. It is true, there is no question about it, “the accuracy of these prophecies leaves us in awe of Jehovah and his inspired Word.”
At the beginning of this new year, with wars and reports of wars intensifying, the stealth invasion of the US and Europe far along, and London’s financial empire on the verge of collapse, let us review God’s astounding foresight published in the oldest book in the world.
The 13th chapter of Ezekiel ought to leave us in awe. Jehovah orders his watchman to say to “those who fabricate their own prophecies, ‘Hear the word of Jehovah. This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Woe to the stupid prophets, who follow their own spirit, when they have seen nothing!”
Jehovah continues: “They have seen false visions and foretold a lie, those who are saying, ‘The word of Jehovah is,’ when Jehovah himself has not sent them, and they have waited for their word to come true. Is it not a false vision that you have seen and a lie that you have foretold when you say, ‘The word of Jehovah is,’ when I have not said anything?”’ — Ezekiel 13:6,7
Does not the Governing Body and the Watchtower organization speak in the name of Jehovah? Do they not strongly assert what they teach is the word of Jehovah? It is undeniable. No Christian sect other than the Watchtower of Jehovah’s Witnesses makes pronouncements that in effect say: “The word of Jehovah is…”
It will surely offend Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it is the truth. The core doctrine of the Watchtower, that being that the Kingdom came to power in 1914 is a false vision. The invisible parousia doctrine is a myth. Truly, the self-declared faithful slave and prophet class and promoters of this invisible presence have literally seen nothing! The supportive “evidence” for an ongoing invisible presence does not exist. It is a fanciful fairytale.
The apostle Peter appears to have anticipated this very thing when he wrote, saying: “No, it was not by following artfully contrived false stories that we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather, we were eyewitnesses of his magnificence.”
Other translations word it differently. The Living English Bible says: “We were not echoing trumped-up myths.” The American Standard says: “We did not follow cunningly devised fables.”
The three apostles who were with Jesus on the mountain when he was transfigured were eyewitnesses to a vision that portrays the powerful parousia of Jesus Christ. It is a cunningly devised fable, a trumped-up myth, that the parousia is invisible and that it has been ongoing since 1914. For all of these many decades, the stupid prophets have waited in vain to have their word come true.
There are many aspects of the faux reality the Watchtower has fabricated besides a false parousia. Take the fact that when the Watchtower has repeatedly prophesied that Babylon the Great would be destroyed at the beginning of the great tribulation while never offering any supporting scriptures. Not even one. Yes, Babylon the Great will be destroyed. God will see to that. But will this event occur at the beginning of the tribulation? The Governing Body certainly seems confident of it since they repeat it ad nauseam. At the 2023 Annual Meeting, they doubled down and even produced a little graphic timeline of their expectations.
Ironically, because the Watchtower claims to be the prophet to whom Jehovah reveals his confidential matters, and they have published their prophetic prognostications far and wide and do not at all seem inclined to revise or issue new light, the stage is set for their false visions to dramatically collide with reality.
Jehovah went on to relate an illustration: “All of this is because they have led my people astray by saying, “There is peace!” when there is no peace. When a flimsy partition wall is built, they are plastering it with whitewash. Tell those plastering with whitewash that it will fall. A torrential downpour will come, hailstones will fall, and powerful windstorms will break it down. And when the wall falls you will be asked, ‘Where is your coating of plaster?’ I will tear down the wall that you plastered with whitewash and bring it down to the earth, and its foundation will be exposed. When the city falls, you will perish within her; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah.” (10-14)
The 1914 doctrine is the flimsy wall that must be continually splashed over with whitewash in the form of new light adjustments; for example, defining and redefining what a generation is. The flimsiness of their doctrinal wall becomes evident when we consider the fact that the entire structure is based upon what Jesus said concerning the nations trampling upon Jerusalem for an appointed time. According to the specious reasoning put forward, supposedly the trampling of Jerusalem began five centuries before Christ foretold the holy city would be trampled upon.
However, it is inconceivable that the apostles who asked Jesus to tell them when the temple was going to be destroyed in the future would have understood him to have meant that Jerusalem was already being trampled at that time. Despite this simple truth, the Watchtower has affixed the beginning of the trampling of Jerusalem to 607 B.C.E. How stupid is that?
By the way, what is the city that is destined to fall and be trampled by the nations during the time of the end? The 11th chapter of Revelation, which was written after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, speaks of the holy city being trampled on by the nations and even reveals the length of the appointed times. Even the Watchtower recognizes that the “holy city” represents Christ’s congregation. Even so, the stupid prophets have assigned the 42-month period of its trampling to the First World War. Such is the whitewashing of the flimsy partition wall.
What form will the wall-toppling, torrential downpours, hail, and powerful windstorms take? It will come as global war, pandemics, famine, great earthquakes, fearful sights in the heavens, and terrifying phenomena. In short, everything the stupid prophets have said occurred long ago and cannot be repeated in the future is what will come to be.
The very tempest of Jehovah will knock down the Watchtower’s whitewashed wall and its foundation will be exposed as a satanic scheme to deceive God’s people.
By the way, the 19th chapter of Revelation indicates that Jehovah’s judgment of the great harlot will take place immediately before the marriage of the Lamb, long after the tribulation is cut short by God’s intervention.