“They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgment on you before the eyes of many women; and I will bring an end to your prostitution, and you will stop giving payment. I will satisfy my rage against you, and my indignation will turn away from you; and I will be calm and no longer feel offended.” 

–Ezekiel 16:41-42

Jesus was called “rabbi,” which means teacher. Jesus was certainly a masterful teacher when he walked among the Jews. He was a great storyteller too and used short stories to illustrate various facets of God’s character and his purpose. But Jesus himself had a teacher. His teacher was Jehovah. That is why Jesus said he only taught what his Father had shown him.

The books of the prophets showcase Jehovah as the Teacher and storyteller. What are the visions of the prophets if not epic stories of truth?

Next Jehovah showed Ezekiel a vine to impress upon him the uselessness of Jerusalem. A vine cannot be used as an ax handle or any kind of implement or utensil, for example. Its only usefulness is as fuel for a fire. And once it is partially scorched it becomes totally useless. That was the way Jerusalem and its inhabitants had become in God’s sight. And why? The brief 15th chapter of Ezekiel concludes, saying: “‘And I will make the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

In the 16th chapter, Jehovah proceeds to tell another more elaborate, even graphic story, likening Israel’s inglorious beginning to a newborn infant that had been left in the open field. God took pity on the helpless babe and took care of it. He nurtured and clothed it. As the girl grew into adulthood God clothed her in finery and exquisite jewelry, even putting a crown upon her head. God ultimately took her as a wife and she bore him children. But because of her great beauty, she went astray, as God states: “But you began to trust in your beauty, and you became a prostitute because of your fame.”

The woman whom Jehovah raised and glorified, was, of course, Israel. Israel would not even have existed had God not made it so. He watched over those offspring of Abraham, he protected and guided them –even by a pillar of cloud and a flaming fire. He fed them and clothed them —at times miraculously. He defeated their many enemies for them on numerous occasions. And just as God illustrated, his own nation betrayed him and became like an immoral wife who prostituted herself to strangers. Could there be any greater instance of unfaithfulness?

Becoming like the idol worshipping nations, the mother of God’s sons took some of them and sacrificed them to the demons. God laid it all out: “You took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to me, and you sacrificed these to idols to be devoured—have your acts of prostitution not gone far enough? You slaughtered my sons, and you offered them as sacrifices by making them pass through the fire. While engaging in all your detestable practices and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and exposed, kicking about in your own blood.”

Now consider the Watchtower’s commentary on this portion of Ezekiel, which some might call “new light.” In chapter 15 entitled I Will Bring an End to Your Prostitution there is a so-called Teaching Box that comments on the related story in the 23rd chapter regarding the prophetic prostitute sisters:

In the past, our publications have said that the two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, are prophetic types of Christendom with its division between the Catholic and Protestant faiths. However, further prayerful thought and research have raised some probing questions. Was Christendom ever Jehovah’s wife in any sense? Was she ever in a covenant with him? Clearly not. Christendom did not even exist when Jesus mediated the “new covenant” with spiritual Israel; nor was Christendom ever a part of that spiritual nation of anointed Christians. Christendom did not arise until well after the death of the apostles. She began her existence in the fourth century C.E. as an apostate, corrupt organization made up of “the weeds”​—imitation Christians—​of Jesus’ prophecy about the wheat and the weeds.​

Another key difference: Jehovah held out hope of redemption to unfaithful Jerusalem and Samaria. Does the Bible hold out similar hope for Christendom? No! She has no more hope than does the rest of Babylon the Great.

So Oholah and Oholibah do not exist as prophetic types of Christendom. However, their existence does shed light on something even more important: how Jehovah feels about those who misrepresent his holy name and his standards of pure worship. Christendom bears a special load of guilt in this regard because her myriad churches claim to represent the God of the Bible. What is more, they claim Jehovah’s own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as their leader. But they belie that claim by representing Jesus as part of a triune godhead and by disobeying his clear command to remain “no part of the world.” By her persistent involvement in idolatry and political intrigues, Christendom has proved to be very much a part of “the great prostitute.” Without question, she must share the fate that awaits the world empire of false religion!

On the one hand, according to the Watchtower’s latest “adjustment” Israel no longer represents Christendom. Neither do the prostitute sisters symbolize the two main branches of Christendom. Their reasoning is correct. Neither the Catholic Church or the plethora of Protestant sects it has spawned over the centuries ever been in a covenanted relationship with Jehovah God. That is true. 

On the other hand, in spite of the disclaimer, the 15th chapter of the Pure Worship commentary proceeds to explain the spiritual prostitution described in Ezekiel’s prophecy as applying to Christendom; specifically saying above that “Christendom bears a special load of guilt” because the churches claim to represent God. But, if there is no type/antitype how can Christendom be the greater fulfillment of prophecy? One would be hard pressed to find a more blatant contradiction. No wonder Jehovah bluntly describes them as “the stupid prophets.”

Is it not more reasonable and scriptural to recognize that Jehovah holds an accounting with those who are actually in a covenant with him; who do not merely falsely claim to represent him, but who bear his holy name on the world’s stage? Israel did not simply claim to be in a covenant with God. We know that Israel was bond to God like a wife to her husband. The Law covenant was a legally binding agreement. That is why God illustrated the relationship as husband and wife. And that is why Israel’s unfaithfulness is likened to an adulterous wife who even prostitutes herself. Israel broke the terms of the covenant —plain and simple.

Returning to the 16th chapter of Ezekiel the concluding verses state: “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘I will now do with you just as you have done, for you despised the oath by breaking my covenant. But I myself will remember the covenant that I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you a permanent covenant. You will remember your behavior and feel humiliated when you welcome your sisters, those older than you as well as those younger than you, and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. And I myself will establish my covenant with you; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah. Then you will remember and be too ashamed to open your mouth because of your humiliation, when I make an atonement for you despite all that you have done,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

In saying “I myself will establish my covenant with you,” God did not enter into another marriage agreement with Israel. In the case of the repentant Jews who returned and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, God obviously made atonement and forgave them their sins based upon the sacrifices provisioned in the Law covenant. And God’s covenant with Israel ultimately accomplished its intended purpose to produce the Messiah.

Seeing, though, that Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, foretold of a new covenant which God would conclude with “Israel,” and Jesus spoke of the new covenant on the occasion when he instituted the evening meal, the covenant which Jehovah speaks of in connection with his prostituting wife is the new covenant mediated by Christ.

Just as the Law covenant, although in force for 1,500 years, was only fulfilled in Christ, so too, the new covenant does not produce the intended results until the Second Coming of the Lord. Even though Jesus passed the cup of the blood of the covenant among his apostles 2,000 years ago, the covenant is intended to produce a kingdom of kings and priests and until it does the covenant has not accomplished the purpose that God intended. Think about it, 1914 aside, those to whom Jesus originally promised that the Father had approved to give them the Kingdom are lying moldering in their graves. They are not brought to life until Jesus returns.

That is why it is perfectly appropriate for God to speak of establishing his covenant at a point in the future when the benefits of the covenant based upon the blood of Christ are actually administered.

But what about those in a covenant with Jehovah living at the moment Jesus returns? The Lord must sit in judgment of them. And what if, as a whole, the congregation of the Firstborn is not as it should be? Strong corrective measures are in order so that God’s purpose may be realized and a kingdom of holy priests may be brought forth for the blessing of all. That is what the prophecy of Ezekiel is all about. The word atonement literally means at-one-ment, or at peace with God.

Surely, God has no intention of making peace with the thousands of sects of Christendom. God’s forgiveness is extended to those who are in the new covenant mediated by Jesus —the messenger of the covenant.

From the beginning, going back to C.T. Russell, those Bible Students took up the mission of preaching —the commission Christ gave to his anointed disciples. Since then the core of the Watchtower has always been made up of anointed persons —those in the new covenant. However, there is a problem. Those who most desperately need to be made at oneness with God already claim to be at peace with him. They claim to be offering Jehovah “pure worship.” They have no guilt before him and are in no need of forgiveness —at least not as an organization. Individuals will admit to being imperfect and all of that, but the organization is considered sacrosanct. It is because of their claim of purity and innocence that God is obligated to cause a terrible catastrophe —just to bring about a change in attitude and be rid of the truly wicked element once and for all time. 

Consider for a moment the disgusting practice of child sacrifice. Is there a modern comparison with that horrific sin? There most certainly is. The Watchtower’s lax child abuse policy has resulted in thousands of children becoming victims of pedophile predators. It is as if their innocence has been sacrificed, along with their faith. The lives of many thousands of children have been ruined. Their spiritual lives lost. And why? They have been sacrificed on the Watchtower’s altar of “pure worship.” That is to say, under the pretext of protecting the name of Jehovah from reproach, the Watchtower has sacrificed the lives of the innocents. They are considered of no account —expendable. The Watchtower’s lawyers treat the victims as if they were the abusers. This is a terrible affront to God and has brought far more reproach upon the name of Jehovah than the abuse itself.

Like the Jews who made their own children pass through the fire in solemn ceremony, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been induced to sacrifice their own children to Jehovah —or, rather, to the Watchtower in the misguided notion that Jehovah wanted them to keep the crimes committed against his precious children to be kept hidden and the pedophiles shielded from prosecution. From Jehovah’s exalted perspective, child sacrifice is an integral part of the Watchtower’s “pure worship.”

NO ONE COMMITS PROSTITUTION YOUR WAY!

Take the issue of spiritual prostitution. According to the Watchtower Christendom has committed spiritual prostitution against God by their cozying up to governments and specifically the UN. But as the Watchtower itself now admits, Christendom is not nor has it even been in a covenant with God. That being true, again, only those in the new covenant can break the terms of that covenant by seeking friendship with the world, in which case the breakers of that oath would be styled as adulteresses. And that is exactly what the leadership of the Watchtower has done.

Unbeknownst to Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1992 the Watchtower entered into a secret political partnership with the United Nations. That partnership required the Watchtower to use a portion of its resources to educate the public about the United Nations. In other words, the Governing Body contractually obligated all of Jehovah’s Witnesses to propagandize in behalf of the United Nations by disseminating literature that had been cleverly peppered with articles and factoids that touted the UN’s accomplishments and programs.

The extent of the Watchtower’s spiritual prostitution has been fully documented and published far and wide by this writer. In fact, the circumstances that brought about my judicial execution were set into motion when I mailed approximately 10,000 congregations throughout the English-speaking world information regarding the Watchtower’s secret love affair.

Even though the Watchtower dissolved their secret tryst with the UN back in 2001, Bethel has continued to lust for favor with the political system by their deep involvement in human right issues before the OSCE. Just as Jehovah described in the 16th chapter of Ezekiel, the Watchtower’s form of prostitution was the opposite of the way it normally works. The Watchtower may have received a few perks like the use of UN transportation in humanitarian assistance, for the most part, though, Bethel received no wage for her favors. It is exactly as Jehovah said: “People give all prostitutes a gift, but you are the one who has given gifts to all those lusting after you, and you bribe them to come to you from all around to commit prostitution. You are the opposite of other women who engage in prostitution. No one commits prostitution your way! You pay others, and they do not pay you. Your way is the opposite.”

As in the illustration of the abandoned, helpless infant, who Jehovah helped and provided for and nurtured, the Watchtower organization began in a most inauspicious way. Originally congregating in private homes and rented storefronts, not unlike the first-century Christians, over the decades God guided and provided for his people. After the Second World War, the Watchtower really took center stage on the world scene by holding massive international conventions and training and equipping ministers and missionaries to go door-to-door, contacting literally billions of people.

In time the Watchtower became like any other corporation. It has billions of dollars of assets. A glitzy and prestigious corporate headquarters. It has a stable of attorneys and accountants who do not consider the legal claims of the orphans and widows. The Watchtower has forgotten its humble beginnings and now boasts of its wealth and beauty as the center of “pure worship” in all the earth. That is why God states: “Because you did not remember the days of your youth and you have angered me by doing all these things, I will now bring the consequences of your ways on your own head,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and you will no longer carry on your obscene conduct and all your detestable practices.”

Jehovah certainly is a master storyteller. The story he has told in the book of Ezekiel only rings true when we take all things into consideration. Given the fact that God’s word is alive and cuts to the quick, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the prophecy of Ezekiel appears to be Jehovah’s pre-written response to the Watchtower’s Pure Worship publication.

To be continued


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