QUESTION: Robert, I was curious your input on this talk by Brother Lösch. In it he highlights that ‘they who declare “peace & security” could be religious leaders joining political leaders’ – confiscating their financial accounts which would then fulfill the destruction of Babylon. Also, he points out (3) days: Judgement Day (1,000 yrs) ; Lords Day (1914-end of millennium) ; Jehovah’s Day (beginning destruction of religion thru to Armageddon.
ANSWER: Imagine you are lost in the wilderness with a faulty compass, but you do not realize the compass is faulty. That is the predicament the Watchtower finds itself in presently. They have no accurate point of reference due to their reality-distorting attachment to 1914. And consequently they cannot discern the things to come.
As a classic example of their error consider his statement that the day of the Lord and Jehovah’s day are two separate things. They claim the day of Jesus, or the Lord’s day began in 1914. But it is a relatively easy thing to prove that is not true. All one has to do is reference all the variously worded passages that speak of the day of Jesus Christ, or the day of the Lord, and honestly reason to determine whether or not the developments connected with that day have been fulfilled.
For instance, at Philippians 1:6 Paul wrote: “For I am confident of this very thing, that he who started a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”
One merely has to ask the question: Was the preaching, teaching and disciple-making work that Jesus instituted when he was on earth – the “good work” -completed in 1914? No sane person would imagine that to be true. That being the case, why do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the day of Jesus Christ began in 1914?
Consider another example. At 1 Corinthians 1:7-8 Paul wrote: “while you are eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also make you firm to the end so that you may be open to no accusation in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul connects the day of our Lord to the revelation of Jesus Christ. So, we might ask, in what way was Jesus revealed in 1914? (An invisible unveiling (revelation) is a self-contradictory term.) Is it not evidence of a mere con man’s trick that Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded to believe in an invisible revelation of Jesus Christ?
Also, Paul makes it clear that the day of Jesus Christ is the end of our faith. That means those who endure to the day enter into the Kingdom. That is the end of it. Yet, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded into believing that the day of Jesus is an ordinary time period during which Christians strive to please God and serve Christ. Paul clearly contradicts that notion.
Referring to the true and false question posed in the video the answer is false, each day is not something different. Jesus’ day initiates the judgment of the house of God, which then segues into the judgment of the great day – a judgment of nations and peoples and the demons.
As regards their saying “peace and security” the Governing Body has stated repeatedly that the destruction of Babylon the Great is the next event according to their schedule of what is to occur on the prophetic calendar. Because that is their view they are compelled to interpret the “they” who will be “saying peace and security” as the religious leaders – who will then experience “sudden destruction,” which they imagine will coincide with the end of Babylon the Great.
But when we take into consideration the error of their overall interpretation of prophecy then we have a different perspective. What I mean is, and this is a challenge that not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses can answer, but when we grasp the folly of the Watchtower’s insistence that the beast of Revelation has already received the prophesied head wound, then we get an inkling of the things to come.
To underscore the point being made, can any of Jehovah’s Witnesses reconcile the fact that the mark of the beast, the 666, which signifies the everlasting destruction of those who receive the mark, with the fact that the Watchtower is simultaneously sponsoring the greatest evangelization work that has ever been done? In case you still don’t get the point I’m making: Why are Jehovah’s Witnesses still preaching to people if they have already been consigned to the everlasting judgment of the lake of fire? Obviously, people did not begin receiving the mark of the beast in 1922 as the Watchtower preposterously claims.
What this means is that the Anglo-American dual world power is yet to receive a death-stroke. And it will not be the pedestrian affair that the Watchtower has led you to believe. The Governing Body seem to know very little about modern history. They imply that even though the United States and Great Britain were victorious in the First World War that somehow they also suffered a catastrophic defeat, analogous to their having been killed with the sword. Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses have no recourse except to accept such nonsensical drivel or else face a judicial committee.
But the point is, since an unprecedented calamity looms in the immediate future for the world-dominating Anglo-American beast, in all likelihood it is they who will be saying “peace and security” and who will then be visited with “sudden destruction.” That “suddden destruction,” however, will not be the end of nations at Armageddon, but rather, the crash of the system.
WHO IS COMING AS A THIEF?
Now a word on the day of Jehovah.
Generally I support the Watchtower’s New World Translation and their insertion of “Jehovah” into the Greek Scriptures even though there are no known copies in existence where the YHWH occurs. The evidence does exist that the name was removed long ago. Certainly where Jesus and the apostles quoted directly from the Hebrew text where the YHWH appears translators are justified in placing the Name into the text. However, where there is not a direct quotation from the Hebrew text containing YHWH it becomes more problematic.
Now, consider 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3: “For you yourselves know quite well that Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying: “Peace and security!”
In Greek the passage above states that the Lord’s day is coming as a thief – period. And Paul is not quoting from the Hebrew. Therefore, can it be said with certainty that the passage should be rendered as Jehovah’s day? No, Paul may have originally referred to the Lord’s day – meaning the day of Jesus Christ.
Even at that – as already stated above – there is no difference between the day of Jesus and the day of Jehovah. However, in the minds of Jehovah’s Witnesses there is a difference. Obviously, there is nothing that the Watchtower can point to back before 1914 where they were saying peace and security. So, to reinforce their 1914 delusion the Watchtower is forced to fabricate a separate meaning for Jehovah’s day – divorcing it from the Lord’s day, which supposedly began 101 years ago.
However, the evidence indicates that Paul was intending to refer to the day of Jesus coming as a thief in the night. That is because Jesus Christ himself used that expression on two separate occasions – referring to his coming as a thief in the night. That is why Paul said “for you yourselves know quite well that the Lord’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night.” They knew quite well because they were familiar with Jesus’ teaching.
So, it is the presence – the parousia of Christ – that is to commence as suddenly and as unexpectedly as a thief in the night – immediately preceded by their saying “peace and security.”
And while the political and financial system is sure to shudder and crash at the powerful presence of Christ, the Watchtower’s whitewashed wall will also suffer collapse and the stupid prophets will be humiliated.
Thus will commence the judgment of the house of God, even as Jesus warned in Revelation when he wrote to the Sardis congregation who were approaching the Lord’s day, saying to them: “Become watchful, and strengthen the things remaining that were ready to die, for I have not found your deeds fully performed before my God. Therefore, continue mindful of how you have received and how you heard, and go on keeping it, and repent. Certainly unless you wake up, I shall come as a thief, and you will not know at all at what hour I shall come upon you.”
