Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jeremiah

QUESTION #1) Someone has just sent me a link to your article, Chapter 19 – Jeremiah, and whilst reading through, I have been prompted to ask two questions: #1) When you are discussing Judah ( God’s named people) and the warnings of Jeremiah against her, can you confirm/clarify to me, whether these references you discuss are being applied to Judah before her being taken captive by the Babylonians, or after her having been set free from Babylon?

The prophecy of Jeremiah consists of God’s warning of his coming judgment and a call to repentance, then his punishment for their refusal to heed his warning, followed by a restoration to his favor for the chastened. That same pattern is found throughout most of the prophetic books. 

The opening chapter of Jeremiah, for instance, reveals that God announced his intention to call all the families of the north to come and place their thrones at the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem, for the purpose that God will declare his judgments against his people because of their wickedness. The families of the north proved to be the Babylonians, and no doubt troops mustered from the many jurisdictional districts under their control. (Even though Babylon was geographically situated virtually due East of Judah the invaders would typically follow the Euphrates River northwest and then descend south, from the north, rather than trek hundreds of miles through the Arabian wilderness.) 

Significantly, other prophecies earmarked for the time of the end portray a military force storming from out of the symbolic north, descending upon God’s possession. Obviously the king of the north, but the locust/cockroach plague of Joel is similarly described as “the northerner.” And, of course, Gog and his hoards are from the “remotest parts of the north.” 

Jeremiah’s ministry as a prophet spanned more then four decades. He not only issued Jehovah’s message to the kings and priests and prophets, but the people in general, the Jews that is. For example, God commanded Jeremiah to stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah as the people passed in and out. Jeremiah’s writings were also presented to the king of Judah, which he tore up and threw into a fire that happened to be burning before him. 

Jeremiah was also in Jerusalem when the siege began, but the Babylonians spared him and allowed him to stay behind with a few others. 

Discerning students of Jeremiah will surely note that although the fall of Jerusalem and Babylon is the primary focus of the prophecy, the judgments of Jehovah contained therein extend far beyond the lifetime of Jeremiah. For example, the phrase “the final part of the days” appears in several places. “The final part of the days” is synonymous with the last days, the time of the end, and the conclusion of the system of things.  

Ironically, the reason Jehovah’s Witnesses do not presently understand these matters is because we are not in the final part of the days yet, as Jeremiah 23:19-20 states: “Look! The windstorm of Jehovah will burst out in fury; Like a whirling tempest it will whirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of Jehovah will not turn back until he has carried out and accomplished the intentions of his heart. In the final part of the days you will clearly understand this.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the final part of the days began in 1914, but obviously, the windstorm of Jehovah was not unleashed then. 

QUESTION #2) Do you refute the Watchtower’s claims to have been inspected and then chosen as God’s channel, by 1919 C.E; if so, in what way can you apply, for example, the warnings of the prophets, such as Jeremiah to Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Yes and no. The Watchtower has it backward. God does not affect an inspection before he chooses a servant or establishes an organization. He comes to inspect those who are his people making up his household. That was certainly the case with the Jews. The prophecy of Jeremiah specifically states that the reason for his judgment is because Jerusalem was the city where he caused his name to reside and the Jews had the name of Jehovah called upon them. (God’s personal name appears in Jeremiah more than any other book of the Bible except Psalms.)

Obviously, Jehovah’s Witnesses are in a similar position — having the name of Jehovah placed upon them. 

Even the Watchtower has basically refuted itself—as regards having been inspected—with their recent junking of the long-held teaching that the master appointed the faithful slave over all of his belongings back in 1919. In the process, the Governing Body has written the evil slave out of existence. Not only that but the parables of the wise and foolish virgins and the slaves entrusted with their master’s silver talents have been adjusted from having been fulfilled in 1918-19 to a point in the future. But, again, no explanation is offered for what this may mean regarding the foolish virgins and the sluggish slave. 

Interestingly, the prophecy of Jeremiah reveals that there are evil men submerged among God’s people. Jeremiah 5:26 states: “For among my people there are wicked men. They keep peering, as when birdcatchers crouch down. They set a deadly trap. It is men whom they catch.”

However, in spite of having implicitly reset the judgment of the house of God and the coming of the master to inspect his slaves to a point in the future, the Watchtower inexplicably maintains that the coming of Malachi’s messenger of the covenant, who comes with the fire of a refiner and the lye of a laundryman, took place back in 1919. This I have refuted.

Even the prophecy of Jeremiah refutes the Watchtower’s 1914, invisible parousia doctrine. How so? 

As mentioned above, the means by which Jehovah put himself on judgment with the people bearing his name, as well as with all the nations, at least figuratively, was by means of the armies of Babylon. And in connection with Babylon, the prophecy specifies that it will be by means of the sword, famine, and pestilence, in that order. That phrase — sword, famine and pestilence — appears about a dozen times in Jeremiah. The significance of the sword, famine and pestilence is that it is also precisely what Christ foretold would mark the conclusion of the system and also parallels the three horsemen of the Apocalypse. 

But if the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 were the true fulfillment of prophecy, then why didn’t Christendom suffer God’s judgment back then, assuming it is the antitypical Jerusalem where Jehovah has caused his name to reside, as the Watchtower asserts? 

 There is another important parallel between the ancient and modern. The leadership of the Jews tried to counter Jeremiah’s judgment message, saying “there is peace, there is peace.” — meaning, they claimed there was peace between them and the God they had so deeply betrayed and offended. 

The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses project the exact same message. They have convinced Jehovah’s Witnesses that they are dwelling in spiritual paradise, that the inspection came nearly a century ago and Jesus has already bestowed God’s everlasting blessing upon the organization. Even their recent commentary on Jeremiah exults the organization and portrays itself as the greater Jeremiah. And the judgment message contained therein is presented as merely examples and lessons for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Just as the Jews clung to their belief that “the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah” was their safeguard, so too, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been induced to believe that clinging to the Watchtower is their ticket to salvation. They expect to be passive observers when God pours out his wrath upon Christendom. 

But the sub-theme of the book of Jeremiah is really the contest between Jeremiah and the judgment message God gave him to announce, and the various prophets and priests who came forward to denounce and refute him. For example, Jeremiah was once struck by a priest named Pashur, and put into stocks in the house of Jehovah. The purpose of putting him in stocks was to publicly humiliate Jeremiah. 

Similarly, e-Watchman has publicly announced Jehovah’s judgment message as contained in the Scriptures. Not only on the World Wide Web, but over the years every Bethel department, branch office and Governing Body member has received a copy of Jehovah Himself Has Become King — as if taking up a position in the gates of the temple. Whether or not anyone has dared to read it is not the issue. Perhaps they may have discarded it, as if throwing it into the fire. But that does not matter either. Neither does it matter if Jehovah’s Witnesses dismiss the message because it comes from someone who has been disfellowshipped and denounced as an apostate — the modern equivalent of being put into stocks — Jehovah’s day is sure to come, just as it did in Jeremiah’s day. 

Appropriately, Jeremiah renamed Pashur with the prophetic designation: “Fright all around.” Explaining the significance of his name, Jeremiah went on to say: “For this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am making you a fright to yourself and to all your lovers, and they will certainly fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes will be looking on; and all Judah I shall give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will actually take them into exile in Babylon and strike them down with the sword. And I will give all the stored-up things of this city and all its product and all its precious things; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I am going to give into the hand of their enemies. And they will certainly plunder them and take them and bring them to Babylon.”’

We may be certain that the cocksureness exuding from the princes of Bethel now will soon turn to abject terror when the present system is plunged into chaos and the harlot of Babylon and the her beastly mount arise from the abyss to perform the work assigned to them by God. They will be amazed and horrified that some despicable fellow on the Internet publicly foretold their crash, and that a goodly number of Jehovah’s Witnesses are aware of that fact; or as it says in Jeremiah: “And it must occur in that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “that the heart of the king will perish, also the heart of the princes; and the priests will certainly be driven to astonishment, and the prophets themselves will be amazed.”

But why might Jehovah have indignation toward the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses? There are many reasons. 

But, one: As already mentioned, the Watchtower has promoted a lie — deceiving Jehovah’s Witnesses into believing Christ came in 1914. In other words, they have prophesied in falsehood. The 1914 doctrine has been utterly refuted and yet, instead of abandoning that error they are using 2014 to celebrated a century of Kingdom rule! How timely the warning at Jeremiah 23:14: “This is what Jehovah of armies has said: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you people. They are making you become vain.The vision of their own heart is what they speak not from the mouth of Jehovah.”’

Secondly, the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses have not followed the basic tenet of true worship; namely, to render judgment in behalf of the disadvantaged and innocent. Here is what Jehovah said in the 22nd chapter of Jeremiah: “Every morning render sentence in justice, and deliver the one being robbed out of the hand of the defrauder, that my rage may not go forth just like a fire and actually burn and there be no one to extinguish it because of the badness of your dealings.”’

It is a fact that thousands of children of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sexually abused and molested by men or were/are Jehovah’s Witnesses. In effect, the children under their care have been robbed — robbed of their innocence. 

The Watchtower hypocritically claims to abhor child abuse and even boasts of having written articles designed to help parents protect their children from abusers, but in doing so the Society has never, not once, specifically warned unsuspecting parents that there maybe child predators lurking in their congregation, or that even trusted elders or ministerial servants may actually be predators. 

To add sin to sin, the Society’s lawyers strictly forbid elders from warning parents when even a known child predator is in their midst. Even after all the negative publicity and after suffering the largest jury award in history for abuse cases, recent events have shown that the Society still stubbornly refuses to allow elders to cooperate with legal authorities who investigate the crimes committed against children by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Where is the justice? Where is the righteousness?

Ironically, the rationale has always been that such crimes and their perpetrators must be kept secret so as not to bring reproach upon the name of God. But concealing and protecting pedophiles has brought far more reproach upon Jehovah. If the Watchtower Society had any fear of Jehovah they would take the profits of their recently-sold Brooklyn estate and compensate every single victim of child abuse for damages sustained and they would publicly plead for God’s forgiveness. Perhaps they might even appease Jehovah’s rage. 

And thirdly, there is the Watchtower’s 10 year secret partnership with the United Nations and their lying cover-up of it, which even according to their own pronouncements against Christendom amounts to a spiritually adulterous tryst. 

Here is what Jehovah’s future inspection will reveal: “And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things, committing adultery and walking in falsehood; and they have strengthened the hands of evildoers in order that they should not return, each one from his own badness.” — Jeremiah 23

What can Jehovah’s Witnesses do individually? There is nothing they can do except have faith in God. Reform is not possible. Leaving the organization is not the solution either. Already the destroyer of nations has set out, using his Nazis and Wahhabi terrorists to topple nations and spread chaos. Soon the full power of his military might will be unleashed upon the world. The Watchtower will be plundered because Jehovah will have abandoned it. 

Just as Jesus forewarned Christians to be prepared to abandon Jerusalem, here is what Jehovah said through Jeremiah: 

“Declare it in Judah, and proclaim it in Jerusalem.

Shout and blow a horn throughout the land.

Call out loudly and say: ‘Gather together,

And let us flee into the fortified cities.

Raise a signal toward Zion.

Seek shelter, and do not stand still,’

For I am bringing in calamity from the north, a great crash.

He has emerged like a lion from his thicket;

The destroyer of nations has set out.

He has gone out from his place to make your land an object of horror.

Your cities will be reduced to ruins, without an inhabitant.”

Jeremiah 4:5-7