The Watchtower study article this week is entitled: Learning From Jesus’ Final 40 Days on Earth
For as many years as the Watchtower has been around, it is puzzling how very little Jehovah’s Witnesses have learned from Jesus’ final 40 days on earth. For the past 10 years or so, the Watchtower has adopted a new approach to prophecy. Instead of trying to interpret it, they draw behavior lessons from the lives of the prophets. The Watchtower treats the last 40 days of Jesus before his ascension the same way.
The significance of the 40-day period has yet to be considered. Is that because it is unimportant? Is it just a coincidence that Jesus fasted for 40 days while he was in the wilderness, being tempted by the Devil?
What about Moses alone on the mountain with Jehovah for 40 days, neither eating nor drinking water? Is there any connection between Moses’ experience and the 40-day period after Jesus was resurrected?
First, though, there are a couple of noteworthy aspects of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. One, Jesus only appeared to believers. No unbelieving Jew saw Jesus after he was made alive. The only exception is Saul/Paul, who had the unique experience of seeing Christ after his ascension.
Secondly, on virtually every occasion when Jesus appeared, he reproved and even rebuked his disciples. For example, the fact that Jesus first appeared to two women whom Jesus then instructed to go tell the apostles was intended as a rebuke to the men who had abandoned him when he was arrested. Women were not regarded as reliable witnesses, and no doubt that is why the apostles disbelieved Mary. Peter, though, ran to the tomb but found it empty. He did not see Jesus as the women did. Instead, Peter and the others had to follow the instructions from the women to leave Jerusalem and go back to Galilee, where Jesus would appear to them. That was a rebuke. And even then, some of the apostles doubted it was Jesus.
The Watchtower article cited the account of two unnamed disciples walking on the road, and Jesus appeared as a stranger and pretended not to know what had happened. When they explained, Jesus rebuked them as senseless and slow to believe all the things the prophets spoke. The article omits Jesus’ rebuke and simply says Jesus taught them.
Then there was Thomas, who proudly refused to believe the eyewitness testimony of his fellow apostles. He would not believe unless he had a personal visitation from Christ and could examine his body for wound marks. Amazingly, Jesus accommodated him when he appeared with wounds on his hands and side. But Jesus’ appearance came with a rebuke: “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop doubting but believe.” — John 20:27
Even after Thomas exclaimed his belief, Jesus reproved him again, saying: “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
On another occasion, the disciples were fishing in a boat. When Jesus had originally called Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they were fishing, and Jesus ordered them to cast out their net. They netted so many fish their boat began to sink. When the man on the shore similarly ordered them to cast their net, they recognized it was Jesus, but not by his appearance. When they came ashore and spoke with him, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. That was also intended as a rebuke for Peter, who had denied that he knew Jesus three times.
Jesus’ last appearance was when he gathered his disciples on the Mount of Olives, where a few weeks before, Jesus spoke of the sign of the coming of the Son of man and all the chosen ones being gathered to him. Even then, though, the disciples wanted to know if he was restoring the kingdom of Israel. Jesus basically told them it was none of their business.
But then, suddenly, Jesus began to be lifted off the earth. Higher and higher, he ascended into the sky. He went up into the clouds and disappeared. At that point, two angels appeared in their midst and said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was taken up from you into the sky will come in the same manner as you have seen him going into the sky.” – Acts 1:11
If we put ourselves on the Mount of Olives on that day and beheld this fantastic sight with our own eyes, how would we have understood the angels? Would we expect to see Jesus again? If not, why not?
Of course, all of those who witnessed Christ’s ascension have died and will not be on earth when Jesus returns. But someone at some time will be on earth when Jesus “will come in the same manner.”
Even before the Watchtower was founded, one of Charles Russell’s first publications was a booklet entitled The Object and Manner of our Lord’s Return. In it, Russell claimed that Jesus is not returning in the same manner, which is to say visibly, but rather, invisible. In fact, Russell made the fantastical claim that Jesus invisibly returned in 1874. Although that date has undergone revision, to this day, the Watchtower teaches that Jesus is not returning in the same manner. His invisible return is now believed to have occurred in 1914.
Russell reasoned that Jesus could not return in the flesh because that would nullify the ransom. But didn’t Jesus appear in the flesh after his resurrection? He surely did. After Jesus departed from the two men on the road, he manifested himself again while they were in a house. “While they were speaking of these things, he himself stood in their midst and said to them: “May you have peace.” But because they were terrified and frightened, they imagined that they were seeing a spirit. So he said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why have doubts come up in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have.” — Luke 24:36-39
It is understood that Jesus did not always materialize with a body that bore the wounds of his impalement. But he did so on at least two occasions. However, according to the Watchtower’s founder, Christ could not return in the flesh. And since spirits are invisible, it is reasoned that Christ’s return must be invisible. Since we can be sure that Christ did not invalidate his human sacrifice when he materialized various bodies of flesh and blood to convince his senseless and disbelieving disciples that he was alive, we have to ask, how will Christ come in the same manner as the disciples saw him depart?
We are informed that no man may see God and live. Is that it? No. Although the Maker of countless stars is far too glorious for mere flesh to behold, God can manifest himself in a way that does not result in the deaths of those in his proximity. That was the case with Moses. Prior to his ascension to receive the second set of stone tablets, Moses asked to see God’s glory. Jehovah placed Moses in a protective rocky crag and shielded him with his figurative hand. Then God passed by, and Moses saw what God described as his “back.” Although Moses did not see the “face” of Jehovah, he did speak with Jehovah “face to face,” meaning they conversed just as two men might. When Moses descended from the mountain, his face emitted rays from the encounter.
Elijah also had a similar encounter with God. He was holed up in a cave when a supernatural display of wind and fire rocked the mountain. And then, in a calm, low voice, Jehovah spoke to Elijah. By the way, afterward, Elijah fasted for 40 days and ultimately ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot. Both Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus in the vision of the transfiguration and were conversing with him. The transfiguration was a foregleam of the parousia. The two witnesses of Revelation, also represented by Moses and Elijah, are said to be standing alongside the Lord of the whole earth. “Being alongside” is what the Greek word parousia means.
Since Moses saw God’s glory and Elijah also spoke directly with God and they both were figuratively taken by God, only to show up in the vision of the transfiguration, the two witnesses must see and converse with Jesus when they stand alongside him. There is, in fact, no such thing as an invisible parousia.
So, what have we learned from Jesus’ 40 days on earth? Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are a foregleam of his presence when he will manifest himself to the chosen. Just as the disciples were senseless and slow to believe all the things the prophets spoke, so too are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even those who are anointed cannot grasp it. They are as the disbelieving apostles were before Jesus disabused them of their senselessness.
What about the 40 days? Since Jesus appeared to over 500 disciples over the course of 40 days, it seems reasonable to expect that the parousia will transpire over a 40-day period. During that time, all 7,000 remaining ones will see him, beginning with the last first. And just as those who saw Jesus before his ascension were called upon to be witnesses of his resurrection, the chosen ones will give testimony that they have seen the manifestation of the Lord. In fact, Jesus said they would appear before governors and kings to give them a witness.
We may expect the manifestation of Jesus to bring about a transformation in those who behold his glory, the glory of the Son of Jehovah, so that they will give their witness with unveiled faces, as the apostle explained: “Now Jehovah is the Spirit, and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom. And all of us, while we with unveiled faces reflect like mirrors the glory of Jehovah, are transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, exactly as it is done by Jehovah the Spirit.” — 2 Corinthians 3:17,18
