Having watched the Governing Body’s Update #7, it is most impressive that the complete NWT is now available in 158 languages and Watchtower literature has been translated into over 1,000 languages and dialects. There is no question that the good news is being preached in all the world as Jesus Christ foretold. However, it should be pointed out that Jesus said the good news must be preached first. First before what? Hold that thought…
There are some other numbers, though, that are very troubling. Some 20 years ago a Bethel researcher, sister Barbara Anderson, revealed that the organization maintains a database of 23,000 known pedophiles. Having one pedophile lurking about in spiritual paradise is one too many, but 23,000?! And that was two decades ago!
Sadly, that number represents at least that many victims, but worse, many child predators have multiple victims. Although a spokesman for the Society claimed the number was lower, the actual number was never revealed. By its silence, the Watchtower is only encouraging speculation.
Another number that is quite disturbing, in Australia over the course of 50 years there had been over 1,000 instances of child abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses and not one crime was reported to the authorities—not a single one. Zero.
Speaking of numbers, over the course of the Covid pandemic—when the JW Broadcast Updates originally began—the Governing Body regularly announced the rising death toll among Jehovah’s Witnesses. We know now that the numbers of COVID cases were grossly inflated since hospitals were financially incentivized to treat COVID-19. People seemed to stop dying of every other disease during the Covid hysteria. How strange.
At the same time, hospitals were disallowed from using cheap and effective remedies like Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and doctors in the hospital system were forced to use powerful drugs like Remdesivir, which when administered for more than a few days can cause kidney failure, which was then was attributed to the virus. The hospital system murdered hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. Why ought Christians not speak out against this great evil?
Even more disturbing, it is now also known that the various vaccines that were vigorously touted as safe and effective turned out to be neither. No honest person who is acquainted with the facts will argue otherwise. And what is the truth about the Pentagon designing the original vaccine formula? There is something very disturbing about that.
While a member of the Governing Body claimed that medical experts were consulted before the Watchtower endorsed the experimental vaccines, we might rightly ask if these 
“experts” were in any way connected to the pharmaceutical industry or the Gates Foundation, because experts and doctors who questioned the safety of the vaccines were silenced, vilified and de-platformed.
The Watchtower used to condemn the system as evil and under the Devil’s influence, but with the pandemic, the Governing Body seemingly locked arms with the captains of Satan’s world who clearly had an agenda amping up the terror of the lab-borne virus.
Although Jehovah’s Witnesses were assured by their faithful and discreet slave that the injections were a loving provision from Jehovah and the only way anyone could remain in the land of the living was to roll up their sleeves and take the jabs, a very troubling question lingers: Why would Jehovah provide an untested vaccine that does not protect one from contracting the virus or prevent an infected person from spreading the contagion to others and may cause serious side effects or even death? Why would a loving God prescribe something that evil? Maybe a future Governing Body Update can explain that.
While the Updates were used to regularly announce the deaths attributed to COVID-19, 
what are the numbers of deaths and injuries among Jehovah’s Witnesses who submitted to theocratic direction and received the jabs? It is surely more than a few. How many of God’s dear sheep are now dealing with strange health problems that did not exist before they received the injections that the Governing Body endorsed as approved by Jehovah God himself?
When it comes to numbers money is always considered foremost. We know that hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions really, were showered upon corporations, individuals and religious organizations during the pandemic. The fact that the Watchtower had already confiscated about 1,000 dedicated Kingdom Halls and sold them on the hot real estate market, given the Governing Body’s sudden reversal of policy regarding the vaccines, the leaders of God’s organization ought to be made to answer one question: Did the Watchtower receive money to promote the vaccines among Jehovah’s Witnesses? Be assured that the truth will ultimately be revealed. You have Jesus’ word on that: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be exposed; nothing is carefully concealed that will not come out in the open. Whoever has ears to listen, let him listen.” — Mark 4:22,23
There is another number that keeps popping up with greater urgency. That’s the number three. More and more people are talking about three—as in World War Three. Surely, the 
leading men at Bethel are aware of the ominous state of affairs in the world. JW dot org recently carried a banner article posing the topical question: Will Armageddon Begin in Israel? Sure it will garner some clicks, but it is really the wrong question. The more relevant question is will World War Three begin in Israel and the Middle East?
Since Charles Taze Russel started the publication of the Watchtower, deriving the 
symbolism from the Bible’s use of literal watchtowers used by watchmen, we have come to expect Bethel to keep watch on world events. How is it that as the nations lurch more and more into what is ominously appearing to be outright war between the nuclear powers Bethel’s watchmen have nothing to say? I know the answer. And so do you. The reason the anointed watchmen of Bethel see no cause for alarm is because they do not believe World War Three is possible.
Jehovah’s Witnesses certainly have no expectation of another world war and that is because of the Watchtower has convinced those under its influence that the war that began in 1914 fulfilled Bible prophecy so completely that no future fulfillment is possible.
But what will happen when nations and kingdoms go to war and it is granted to the rider of the fiery-colored horse to “take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another, and he was given a great sword”? The consequences will be virtually incalculable. Did not Jesus forewarn us that many will be stumbled and hate one another?
As for the question posed at the beginning regarding the good news of the Kingdom being preached first, in context, Jesus said: “As for you, look out for yourselves. 
People will hand you over to local courts, and you will be beaten in synagogues and be put on the stand before governors and kings for my sake, for a witness to them. Also, in all the nations, the good news has to be preached first. And when they are taking you to hand you over, do not be anxious beforehand about what to say; but whatever is given you in that hour, say this, for you are not the ones speaking, but the holy spirit is. Furthermore, brother will deliver brother over to death, and a father a child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all people on account of my name. But the one who has endured to the end will be saved.” — Mark 13:9-13
Honesty is a rare quality these days. People lack the courage to even say what is obviously true if it is not approved by the fact checkers and gatekeepers. Surely, a lack of courage affects Jehovah’s Witnesses too. Even though we may boast of being in the truth, it is a rare Christian who has the mental wherewithal and courage to speak an unsanctioned truth.
At the 2023 Annual Meeting, it was repeated for the millionth time that if there is any new light to be had God will channel the truth through the faithful and discreet slave, which is to say the Watchtower. Effectively, that means there can be no truth that does not emanate from the Watchtower. But is that really true?
If we are honest—intellectually honest and true to God’s word—we will at least admit to ourselves that what Jesus foretold, as recorded in Mark, has had no modern-day fulfillment, with one exception: the preaching of the good news. That being true, how is it that the faithful and discreet slave assures the flock that since 1914 all things have been fulfilled?
Let us put that seemingly inspired expression that is the core of the Watchtower Society to the test, as the apostle exhorts. Let us honestly answer a few simple questions: Do 
you know of any of Jehovah’s Witnesses who have stood before governors and kings, or say presidents? Jesus stood before Pilate and Herod. Paul stood before governors and apparently even Caesar. Have any anointed Christians been made to stand before the rulers of this world and been given a message conveyed to them by the holy spirit? You know the answer.
Here is one more question: Have Christians been beaten in the synagogue? Obviously not. None of Jehovah’s Witnesses attend Jewish religious meetings. However, the synagogue in Christ’s day was the forerunner of the Kingdom Hall. So, let us rephrase that question: Under what circumstance might Christians be beaten and thrown from the congregation? Impossible you say?
Okay, one more question. Have we seen Jesus’ words fulfilled where brothers hand over their former brothers to certain death? Have children had their parents killed? Do you know any parents who have had their children put to death because of their faith?
The things Jesus foretold are incomprehensible. That is because even the most diligent Bible researcher cannot conceive of a world in which such horrors exist. Yet, we dare not dismiss Christ as a false prophet.
Our dishonesty and lack of clear thinking go way back and are fixated on the number 
seven—as in “seven times.” From the beginning of Zion’s Watchtower Bible students have ever since been mesmerized by arcane chronology that pretends to divine the year of Christ’s return. Except it is a fraud. Simply reason on the fact that when the apostles asked Jesus “When will these things be”? they were responding to Christ’s declaration a few days before that the temple would be thrown down without a stone remaining upon a stone. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem because the Jews did not discern the time of their messianic inspection.
So, when Jesus answered their question he said Jerusalem will be surrounded by a fence with pointed stakes and thrown down. The holy city would be trampled upon by the nations until the appointed times of the nations had ended. What sort of mental convolutions does it require to come to the conclusion that the appointed times for Jerusalem to be trampled had already begun when Jesus spoke of the city’s future desolation? There is no justification for connecting the appointed times of which Jesus 
spoke with the seven times of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness. Amazingly, though, Russell’s mystic, chronological formula is the very foundation of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society! It is not a very firm foundation.
Jehovah’s Witnesses would be wise to consider Paul’s illustration: “Now if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will be shown for what it is, for the day will show it up, because it will be revealed by means of fire, and the fire itself will prove what sort of work each one has built.” — 1 Corinthians 3:12-13
We have not experienced the day of fire. That is because Christ has not in any sense returned. The Watchtower’s entire 1914 structure is built of wood, hay, and straw and will not survive the intense heat of the Refiner’s fire when he comes. The incineration of the Watchtower’s sacred teaching will fracture the brotherhood.
The collapse of civilization and the implementation of a totalitarian world government in the post-crash world will bring about the situation Jesus described—brothers handing over brothers, etc.
The visible presence of Christ to the chosen will be the reason they are made to stand before the rulers of the world during the final part of the days. And if you wish to know the number of the remaining ones who will give witnesses to having seen the Lord it is 7,000.
