This article was originally published as the introduction to the Final Edition of Jehovah Himself Has Become King.
The Bible is unique in many ways. It provides a succinct account of the beginning of creation —even the existence of a world that preceded ours in the spirit dimension. From the happy start of Adam and Eve in the garden of pleasure and their tragic expulsion from Eden, through the great Deluge and the confusion of mankind’s original language at Babel, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Bible primarily details God’s dealings with Abraham’s offspring, the Israelites, over the course of 2,000 years, up to the beginning of Christianity.
But the Bible is so much more than an account of God’s past doings. It establishes a pattern of things to come —a revelation of the future, even the words of God yet to be spoken; the culmination of which is yet to transpire during the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
Through God-inspired prophets such as Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah —to the apostles, Peter, John, Paul and foremost Jesus Christ —the Holy Scriptures reveal Jehovah’s judgments and judicial decisions —his insuperable purpose to vindicate his sovereignty and rid the universe of evil, setting all matters straight by means of a special government —the Kingdom of God.
The designated king of the Kingdom to come, Jesus Christ, revealed much concerning that future judgment. For example, in all the Hebrew texts Satan the Devil is only mentioned in a few places and the extent of his influence is not clearly defined; however, during his brief earthly ministry Jesus revealed that the Devil was the original liar in the garden of Eden and he is actually the invisible ruler of this world and an enemy of all who reverence Jehovah.
Furthermore, Jesus revealed that the wicked one is going to be cast down, like lightning from heaven and ultimately destroyed. In fact, the successful ministry and sacrificial death of Jesus and his resurrection as an immortal spirit, stands as a guarantee of the Devil’s eventual demise.
However, Jehovah God has decreed that there shall be a time of transition between the rulership of Satan and the incoming Kingdom of Christ, when the two opposed powers shall briefly rule simultaneously. That climactic and tumultuous interim period will be marked by an intense episode of wars, food shortages, pandemics and earthquakes and ultimately a tribulation unlike anything that has ever befallen the world. We may expect the Anglo-American political and economic system to come down with a resounding crash, as if receiving a mortal wounding —only to rise up from the ashes to become a dictatorial tyrant and give rise to the eighth king of Revelation.
The New World Translation uses various expressions such as the time of the end, the final part of the days, the last days and the conclusion of a system of things, during which time peoples will ultimately be separated into two opposed camps with no middle ground. “This is where it calls for endurance and faith on the part of the holy ones.”
The beginning of the transition phase is initiated when Jesus comes as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. The Master spoke of his coming in the 12th chapter of Luke. Speaking to his “little flock,” Jesus said: “Be dressed and ready and have your lamps burning, and you should be like men waiting for their master to return from the marriage, so when he comes and knocks, they may at once open to him. Happy are those slaves whom the master on coming finds watching! Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table and will come alongside and minister to them. And if he comes in the second watch, even if in the third, and finds them ready, happy are they! But know this, if the householder had known at what hour the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also, keep ready, because at an hour that you do not think likely, the Son of man is coming.”
The coming of Christ will initiate the judgment of the house of God, which is what Jesus went on to explain to Peter. Then, some slaves who were put in charge of the master’s house in his absence will be beaten with many strokes and others with only a few. This signifies that the evil slave is judged to have been willfully disobedient; whereas, the one beaten with a few strokes —the faithful slave —will be judged to have been disobedient, but out of ignorance.
It is in the aftermath of the punishment of the ignorant slaves that Jesus “will come alongside” his disciples and minister to them.
That is what the parousia is —that Greek word being defined as “being alongside.” Their reclining at the table and Christ ministering to them is something extraordinary —evoking the last evening Jesus spent with his disciples before his death, when he passed the bread and the cup among them and girded himself as a servant and washed their feet. It was on that occasion when Christ said to them: “I will by no means drink again any of this product of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of my Father.”
Some may assume “that day” when Christ shares the cup again with his disciples is when they are joined together in heaven. But that is not the case for those who are alive when he comes, as is evident from the passage cited in the 12th chapter of Luke, which connects the original evening meal and the climactic parousia. Their sharing the cup of union with Jesus in the Kingdom means that those anointed disciples will be sealed —assured of their place in the Kingdom. That is when the “righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father” —even while still on earth. This is the phenomenon about which Paul wrote in the eighth chapter of Romans regarding the revealing of the sons of God.
In truth, there is no such thing as an invisible presence of Christ. For example, at Hebrews 9:28 Paul referred to “the second time that he appears” in connection with the return of Christ. Certainly if Jesus visibly appeared to his disciples after his resurrection even though he was a glorified spirit, why is “the second time he appears” assumed to be invisible? There is no biblical justification for it.
Moreover, the apostle John wrote the following: “Beloved ones, now we are children of God, but as yet it has not been made manifest what we shall be. We do know that whenever he is made manifest we shall be like him, because we shall see him just as he is.”
The apostle Paul referred to his encounter with Jesus as his being “born premature.” He said that because all of the other apostles saw Jesus in human form when he appeared to them after his resurrection. Paul, though, saw Jesus as he is —as the living holy ones will see him when he is made manifest to them during the unveiling.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will not be able to even ask the question, let alone consider the answer —the question being: How could the Watchtower have gotten it so wrong? But the answer is there and has been all along.
Paul prophesied in his second letter to the Thessalonians that God would allow for a “deluding influence” over Christ’s congregation, emanating from a man of lawlessness within; one whom Paul described as “the son of destruction,” which is also the title Jesus conferred upon Judas moments before his treacherous apostle betrayed him with a kiss.
The work of the man of lawlessness is described as “an operation of Satan,” consisting of “every powerful work and lying signs and wonders and every unrighteous deception.” To what end? Paul explained that Satan’s aim is to convince those whom Paul addressed as “brothers” that the presence of Christ has begun and the day of Jehovah is here.
Think of it! Satan successfully promotes a fake parousia! And he backs it up with all of his deceptive powers. How diabolic! However, the inspired apostle reveals to us that “it (the day of Jehovah) will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction.” So, the phony parousia immediately precedes the authentic coming of Christ. How reassuring!
Jesus himself indicated that a very effective deception would be in operation prior to his coming when he warned: “Look out that you are not misled, for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The due time is near.’ Do not go after them.” In fact, even during the conclusion Jesus indicated that the deception would be so convincing that if it were possible even the chosen ones would be deceived.
As is common knowledge, the Watchtower has heralded the accomplished presence of Christ from its very inception. For many years Bethel even proclaimed that the day of Jehovah had already commenced. Up until about 1930 the Watchtower had taught that Jesus’ presence began in 1874. Since 1930, the Watchtower has affixed the coming of Christ to 1914. In 2014, the Watchtower even celebrated a century of Kingdom rule!
This publication is intended to lay bare the Watchtower’s parousia fraud and expose the mystery of the apostasy that is already manifest within the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses, for the purpose of cultivating an expectation of the coming of Christ and the beginning of the time of the end and the unveiling of all of Jehovah’s judgments.
But why would Jehovah allow his people to be so misled? The words of God yet to be spoken provide the answer: “You have heard and seen all of this. Will you not declare it? From now on I am announcing new things to you, guarded secrets that you have not known. Only now are they being created, and not long ago, things that you never heard before today, so that you cannot say, ‘Look! I already know them.’ No, you have not heard, you have not known, and in the past your ears were not opened. For I know that you are very treacherous, and you have been called a transgressor from birth.”
The 48th chapter of Isaiah is a dialogue Jehovah will have with his organization when he subjects it to the refiner’s fire. Because his people have come to view their idol as the source of all knowledge, God has purposely withheld vital information from them until such time as the revelation of Christ.
What follows in this work may be considered an inquiry into God’s “closely guarded secrets” —a primer for the Apocalypse.