The Bible is history and it also tells the future. The Watchtower has explained the Bible’s core message in a very compelling way. Simply put, God is going to create a new world. The basis for it has already been established, that being the ransom sacrifice of Jesus. In the world to come there will be no more war, crime, sickness or death. No more tyrannical demons or humans. Jehovah’s Witnesses have carried this message around the world and published it into nearly 1,000 languages.
Prior to the end of the present wicked system, a great crowd of people is going to appear. Due to their faith, they will survive the end of this present world and become the first people who live under the rule of the Kingdom of God.
There are many other aspects of Bible prophecy, but as the saying goes, the Devil is in the details.
While the Watchtower has been instrumental in publishing the hope for the future as presented in the Bible, some things are not quite in focus, to put it politely. And when it comes to the voluminous prophetic interpretations published by the Watchtower, the Devil is in the details —quite literally. It is no exaggeration to say that Jehovah’s Witnesses are laboring under a powerful delusion perpetrated through the very organization millions look to as the only source of truth.
Of course, no deceptive demon can have any influence unless Jehovah permits. That is why when it comes to the operation of Satan, which is what the deluding influence is, God takes full responsibility for it. Hence, that is why in Isaiah Jehovah reveals that he is the one who conceals matters from those who are considered to be the appointed interpreters: “For Jehovah has poured a spirit of deep sleep on you; He has closed your eyes, the prophets, and he has covered your heads, the visionaries.” —Isaiah 29:10
God goes on to explain why he has hidden matters, saying: “This people approaches me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me; and their fear of me is based on commands of men that they have been taught. Therefore, I am the One who will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their discreet men will be hidden.”
Who else but Jehovah’s Witnesses approaches Jehovah with their mouths and honor him with their lips? Do not Jehovah’s Witnesses preach the name of Jehovah on the streets and doorsteps in their respective communities? Do they not give public talks and pray to Jehovah on every podium in every kingdom hall throughout the world? And do not Jehovah’s Witnesses look to the faithful and wise slave to teach them?
Please note that God does not indict his people because they do not fear him. He says their fear is based on commands of men that they have been taught. How true of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses may be fearful of doing something wrong, not soely because it might displease God, but because they fear being disfellowshipped and being ostracized from family and friends. Jehovah’s Witnesses may be motivated to go out in service, but is it really because they fear to disobey God’s will, or is it to put in a pleasing appearance before others?
To fix the problem God is going to make the wisdom of the faithful and discreet slave disappear. How will that happen? The future is not going to unfold in the way that the wise men of Bethel have projected. That is not to say that God is not going to fulfill his promise to bring about a new world. Not at all. Jehovah wants to find out what is really in our hearts. In order to accomplish that God has allowed the teachers of his people to mislead them. And not in some trivial matter, but with regards to the very coming of Jesus Christ.
Admittedly, it is very difficult for some to get their minds around, as the saying goes. The mere suggestion that the faithful and discreet slave might not be so faithful and discreet is considered blasphemous. And to be sure, the Watchtower has done its very best to muddy the waters.
But for the rare individual who is capable of thinking about such things, please consider a familiar prophecy in Malachi, where we read: “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will clear up a way before me. And suddenly the true Lord, whom you are seeking, will come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant will come, in whom you take delight. Look! He will certainly come,” says Jehovah of armies. “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.”
The Watchtower has provided a handy answer to the somewhat unsettling question of who will endure the day of his coming. It was J.F. Rutherford and friends. That is because the Watchtower claims that the coming of the messenger happened in 1914 and Christ has already cleaned things up.
Realistically, though, what exactly is entailed by the true Lord coming to his temple? It is what the apostle Peter described as the judgment of the house of God.
So, as far as Jesus coming to judge according to the Watchtower it has already taken place —back one-hundred years ago! But there is an enormous contradiction in the Watchtower’s teaching. It is glaringly obvious, but no one can see it because Jehovah has poured out a deep sleep upon them. So be it.
As regards the contradiction, Jesus spoke of his coming to judge the house of God in an illustration: “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.”
Sound reasoning would do more than suggest that the coming of the messenger of the covenant to judge the temple is the same thing as the coming of the Son of man to judge the slaves of the household. Yet, how can Christ be coming if he has already come? No wonder the Watchtower belittles the notion of a second coming. The sleepwalkers of Bethel are apparently expecting a third coming —maybe even a fourth, it’s hard to say. In any case, it is because of the Watchtower’s massive 1914 delusion that has created the situation where the Son of man will come at an hour you do not think likely.
As it stands, Bethel has created the expectation among Jehovah’s Witnesses that the next order of events according to prophecy is the sudden overthrow of all of the world’s religious institutions by the United Nations, which is claimed to be the eighth king of Revelation. While there is certainly a growing hostility towards Christianity, it is not possible for the UN to do anything of the magnitude outlined in Revelation. There is something missing in the Watchtower’s picture puzzle of prophecy —quite a lot actually.
The fact is, the Watchtower’s 1914 doctrine is the delusion. Christ has not come –not in any sense. Satan has not been hurled down. Nation has not risen against nation. Peace has not been taken from the earth so that they slaughter one another with a great slaughter. The beast has not suffered its mortal head wound and revived. The eighth king has not sprung from the seven yet.
While there is no indication that the United Nations is inclined or capable of carrying out God’s assignment at this point in time, there are indications aplenty that the nations are preparing for war. It will be global in scale. Only willfully blind people deny this reality. More disconcerting, virtually all the nations that are making preparations for war are also in possession of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
Keep in mind that WW1 began by a single assassin’s pistol. As it stands presently, the world powers are locked and loaded with a lot more than pistols. Given the precarious nature of the global financial system, upon which we all depend upon in varying degrees, one spark and the whole quadrillion-dollar debt bubble will explode. That is an absolute certainty.
Where is the Watchtower at this critical time? Where is the faithful slave who has declared himself to be God’s wide-eyed watchman? Is he not deep asleep, just as the prophecy foretold?