When Does God Express His Indignation?

Many inventions of the past 200 years have helped us to accomplish our commission to make disciples. In fulfillment of the prophecy that Jehovah’s people would “drink the milk of nations,” we have made wise use of resources of the nations, such as modern technology, in order to produce the Bible and Bible literature in many languages. Clearly, we have strong evidence of God’s blessing. Of course, Jehovah does not rely on our help to accomplish his purposes. Yet, our loving heavenly Father allows us to be his “fellow workers,” thus enabling us to show our love for him and for our neighbor.  May we take advantage of our opportunities to proclaim the Kingdom message, the most important work on earth. By all means, let us show how thankful we are that Jehovah has guided and blessed our global teaching work!

COMMENTARY

Jehovah’s Witnesses have unquestioning faith in the leadership of the Governing Body. It is considered a sin to question anything since that would be tantamount to questioning God. Of course, God lets himself be questioned by humans. And so did Jesus.

Actually, the apostles exhort us to not accept everything, even seemingly inspired statements. We are to make sure of all things —test the inspired statements to see if they actually do originate with the God of truth.

What about the Watchtower’s assertion that the advancement of the organization’s worldwide work is in fulfillment of Isaiah, chapter 60? Well, consider the context. Isaiah 60:10 states: “Foreigners will build your walls, and their kings will minister to you, for in my indignation I struck you, but in my favor I will have mercy on you.”

According to the Isaiah commentary the “foreigners” represent the great crowd who are not natural born-again “Israelites.” That is an authentic interpretation. However, what about the kings? Who are the kings that will minister to God’s organization? Are they the literal kings and rulers of this world, as the Watchtower claims? No. That cannot possibly be true. Why not? The very next verse states: “Your gates will be kept open constantly; They will not be closed by day or by night, to bring to you the resources of the nations, and their kings will take the lead.”

Here’s a simple question thinking Jehovah’s Witnesses should ponder: Have worldly rulers taken the lead in promoting the worship of Jehovah? Of course not. Those kings who will take the lead are the 144,000 kings and priests who will rule with Christ. And they begin ruling even while this system still stands. That is why verse 12 states: “For any nation and any kingdom that will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly devastated.”

When do they begin ruling? Shortly after Christ returns as King.

But that presents the Watchtower with an interpretive dilemma since they insist that Christ began ruling in 1914.

Paul once chided the Corinthians because they acted as if they had begun ruling as kings already. So, the Watchtower is careful not to proclaim anointed individuals to be ruling as kings at this present time, which is why they are forced to claim that the kings of this world are the ones who take the lead in promoting the worship of Jehovah.

There is, however, a very simple fix that brings everything into harmony. What is that? Move the parousia forward —to the future. That, though, means that God has not struck you in his indignation. Since that implies that God is not pleased with certain aspects of “true worship” the Watchtower is compelled to relegate any expression of divine disapproval to the 1914-1918 period. Ironically, it is this sort of dishonesty that is one of the reasons God will soon express his indignation.