Part 13
Exactly 100 years ago, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society published a booklet titled “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.“ The pamphlet was a collection of speeches by J.F. Rutherford, delivered beginning in 1919, following his release from prison on trumped-up sedition charges.
The nations had just experienced a series of disasters, including the Great War, followed by the Spanish Flu, which claimed more lives than the First World War. Add to that the internal power struggle at Bethel following Russell’s unexpected passing and the government persecution of the Watchtower in America. As a consequence, the Bible Students were in a heightened state of expectation that the Kingdom was at hand. Rutherford went so far as to proclaim that the earthly resurrection would begin in 1925.
Of course, all of those living then have died, and Rutherford later admitted that he had made an ass of himself.
Even so, the core message is true. How so, you ask? Unlike the phony church dichotomy of heaven and hell being the only two destinies for mankind, those original Bible Students at least had some understanding of God’s purpose to redeem Adam’s sinful, dying offspring and rejuvenate the earth; yes, to restore an Edenic paradise, only earth-wide.
Since Rutherford’s embarrassing blunder, the Watchtower’s unique message has been clarified, amplified, and proclaimed worldwide. It is now published in over 1,000 languages. Jesus said the good news would first be preached in all the world. And it has. The good news is, you may live forever in paradise right here on earth. It is God’s will that you do.
Not only that, while the billions of dead will come back to life in human form when the earth has been made new, in what Jesus termed the re-creation or the regeneration, the Lord also foretold that some will never die at all. (The Gospel’s only record of Jesus using the term “regeneration” is at Matthew 19:28.)
In a conversation with a Jewess named Martha whose brother Lazarus had just died, Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25,26
To demonstrate the veracity of his claim to be the “resurrection and the life,” Jesus went to the tomb where Lazarus had been laid to rest. Although Martha tried to dissuade Jesus, telling him that her brother had been dead for four days and must smell badly, in a loud voice, the Son of God commanded the dead man to come out. And to everyone’s astonishment, he did!
What did Jesus mean, though, by “everyone who is living…will never die at all”?
Up to this point, we have considered Christ’s second coming, his manifestation to the chosen few, and their being taken to their new home in the heavens. However, Jesus said that he has “other sheep” besides those whom he called the “little flock,” who have not personally been called to be kings and priests in the heavenly realm. Reasonably, if the Kingdom of Christ is going to rule the earth for a thousand years and all of those who experience the first resurrection will become immortal kings and priests with Jesus for the millennium, who will these 144,001 kings rule over?
The simple answer is they will minister to the multitudes who experience the second resurrection, the general resurrection of virtually all of mankind who have ever lived and died—both the righteous and the unrighteous. If anyone does not understand this, a Bible study session with one of Jehovah’s Witnesses might be enlightening.
But what about those of whom Jesus spoke who will never die at all? Even the brothers of Christ who will be changed in the twinkling of an eye must die as to the flesh. Those who will “never die at all” are Christians, to be sure. They will be alive when Christ returns and will form what Revelation calls a “great crowd” composed of people “out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues.”
Contrary to the Evangelical rapture myth, millions of people will survive the violent end of this evil civilization. They will not go anywhere. They will be happy to have been “left behind” when the wicked and faithless are torn away from the earth, even as the Proverb says: “For only the upright will reside in the earth, and the blameless will remain in it. As for the wicked, they will be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous will be torn away from it.” (2:21-22)
Although some ignorant truth-twisters claim the great crowd will be in heaven, that cannot be true. Being before God’s throne means being judged, either favorably or not. It does not mean those judged are before the very presence of God. This is evident in the illustration of the sheep and the goats. Jesus said When the Son of man sits down upon his glorious throne, all the nations will be gathered before him. That cannot possibly mean that all the people of the world will be teleported to heaven to stand before the judgment seat.
Besides, Revelation clearly says of the great crowd, that Jesus will “shepherd them and will guide them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” (7:17b) Those who receive the first resurrection will not need to be guided to the springs of waters of life. They will forever have life in themselves, as do Jehovah and his Son.
The great crowd will come under God’s protection during the great tribulation and come out of it alive and survive the destruction of Satan’s world. Because of their faith, they will have the unspeakable privilege of being the first people who have ever been born who will not die because of inherited sin, and they will become the nucleus of an entirely new world—a world without the baneful influence of Satan and his brood. That is good news—the best news!
Personally, I am confident that millions now living will never die, because, unlike 1914, now the presence of the Lord really has drawn close.
While the First World War was fought with what is now considered crude and obsolete weaponry, today the nations possess devices so lethal, so destructive, that they dare not use them for fear of igniting a firestorm that cannot be extinguished, destroying everything and everyone.
EARTH IS GROUND ZERO FOR WAR BETWEEN THE GODS
However, while sensible people may consider nuclear war unthinkable and militarists and politicians may devise treaties and policies to prevent the unthinkable, like the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), human schemes do not take into consideration that the wicked gods that rule over this world know they have been condemned to the everlasting fire of annihilation. These cruel spirits do not care at all about humans. No doubt, the Devil and his angels would prefer to continue their reign over the world, but that is not an option for them. The coming of Christ will force the wicked angels to make a last stand. We earthlings are at ground zero for what will be a war between the demonic gods of this world and the God of gods—Almighty Jehovah God and his Son, whom the Father has bequeathed with all power and authority.
When the Kingdom comes to power, war will break out in heaven. Satan and his angels will be cast down. Then they will know they have only a short period of time before they are locked away. Prophecy reveals that the short period of time is 1,260 days, or three and a half years—not coincidentally, the length of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Since the world is inescapably under demonic influence, the nations have been impelled by the demons to devise more sophisticated weapons for their own destruction. A global holocaust can literally be set in motion with the push of a button. Just as the local heavens were stored with water that produced the Deluge in Noah’s day, the heavens and the earth that exist now are stored for fire, as the apostle Peter foretold.
Satan obviously intends to manipulate men to do the unthinkable, to use their weapons of mass destruction, to set off what will surely be a global conflagration. We should not expect the proud cherub who has ruled the world since he deceived Eve in Eden to go quietly into the night. It is the Devil’s intention to destroy mankind and make the earth uninhabitable.
We are confident that God will not allow them to go so far; however, that is not to say Jehovah will not permit them to provoke an existential crisis that will require divine intervention to save mankind from extinction.
Russell, Rutherford, and those who lived before the atomic age began could not have envisioned the situation we find ourselves in now. For certain, the “woe” that Satan will bring upon the world during his last days will be beyond anything ever experienced in all of human history.
But it is not just the destructive power of weaponry. Computers and the Internet have not only made it possible to communicate instantaneously around the world, but the digital age has also given rise to a global financial system that is incomprehensibly interwoven and complex. Without trying to comprehend the complexities of a system that is becoming increasingly inscrutable and opaque, we can at least recognize that the growing burden of debt is approaching a point where the money system itself will cease to function.
There is a simple Bible principle that applies: The borrower becomes the slave of the lender. And in this case, the borrowers are nations, states, cities, banks, hedge funds, corporations, individuals—virtually everyone. And that begs the question: Who is the lender?
Ultimately, it is a mere handful of men who own the central banks that create money from nothing and loan it out at interest. Their personal names are not important. It is no secret that the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is not a federal institution. Because the power to create money is concentrated in the hands of a few men presently grouped around the British monarchy and the City of London, it is possible—and I say inevitable—that this secretive coven of financiers will deliberately crash the system and bring ruin on a global scale, bankrupting national governments. Entire nations will be put into receivership, and many institutions will be liquidated. Evidently, they intend to use war as the cover for their dastardly plot to crash the system.
When tempting Jesus, the Devil boasted that all the kingdoms of the world had been handed over to him and that to whomever he wishes, he gives it. It is apparent, at least to this watcher, that Satan has entrusted the control over modern nations to a small clique of ultra-wealthy, Luciferian financiers. After all, they say money makes the world go around, so whoever controls the money controls the world. With Satan the Devil as the invisible CEO of World Inc., should we expect anything less than an end-game conspiracy to enslave everyone in a tyrannical banker’s dictatorship?
For those who may imagine that Jehovah would never allow the Devil to enact such a scheme, please consider a prophecy concerning the last king of Satan’s system: “And in the final part of their kingdom, as the transgressors act to a completion, a fierce-looking king who understands ambiguous sayings will stand up. His power will become great, but not through his own power. He will bring ruin in an extraordinary way, and he will be successful and act effectively. He will bring mighty ones to ruin, also the people made up of the holy ones. And by his cunning he will use deception to succeed; and in his heart he will exalt himself; and during a time of security he will bring many to ruin. He will even stand up against the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human hand.” – Daniel 8:23-25
Rest assured that the mighty ones and holy ones were not brought to ruin during World War II, as the Watchtower asserts. How will this scheming tyrant be successful in bringing the mighty ones to ruin, along with Christ’s holy ones? By crashing the system and imposing a central bank digital currency, thereby locking everyone out of the system who will not bend their knee in subservience. The Devil intends to coerce Christians into compromising their allegiance by preventing persons from buying and selling who will not bow before the image of the beast. That is why Revelation 13:9-10 states: “If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone [is meant] for captivity, he goes away into captivity. If anyone will kill with the sword, he must be killed with the sword. Here is where it means the endurance and faith of the holy ones.”
Please, let thinking persons reject the Watchtower’s ridiculous nonsense that people began receiving the mark of the beast in 1922, and ever since then, billions of people have already been sentenced to everlasting death because they may have thought the League of Nations or the United Nations was a good idea.
“IT WILL CRASH SUDDENLY, IN AN INSTANT”
This unexpected outcome will present an enormous stumbling block, potentially spiritually fatal, for many under the Watchtower’s deluding influence. That is not to suggest that there will not be a great crowd that comes out of the tribulation. It means that Jesus’ words will come true— many will be stumbled and hate one another and betray one another.
Bible prophecy likens the Watchtower’s false interpretations of prophecy to a highly-raised wall. It may look impressive, but it is not very sturdy. Concerning this doctrinal wall, this is what Jehovah has said: “Since you reject this word and you trust in fraud and deceit and you rely on these, so this error will be for you like a broken wall, like a bulging high wall ready to fall. It will crash suddenly, in an instant. It will be broken like a large potter’s jar, so completely smashed that no fragment among its pieces will be left to rake the fire from the fireplace or to scoop water from a puddle.” – Isaiah 30:12-14
What will cause the utter collapse of the Watchtower? Simple. World war, famine, pestilence, and the crash of the Anglo-American empire. These are all the things the Watchtower has attached to 1914 and has assured Jehovah’s Witnesses that no future events can match Bible prophecy. The credibility of those who are looked to as God’s spokesmen will be shattered in an instant.
The prophecy goes on to reveal how God will accomplish his purpose. “Though Jehovah will give you bread in the form of distress and water in the form of oppression, your Grand Instructor will no longer hide himself, and you will see your Grand Instructor with your own eyes. And your own ears will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way. Walk in it,” in case you should go to the right or in case you should go to the left.” – Isaiah 30:20-21
When Jesus was on earth, the Jews called him “Rabbi,” which means teacher. To be sure, Jesus always acknowledged that what he taught was not his own, but he only spoke what the Father had taught him. When Christ returns, he will be the Grand Instructor and Wonderful Counselor. And the chosen will see their Grand Instructor with their own eyes when he manifests himself to them. That is when the day will dawn and the heavenly light will shine in all of its glory.
The prophecy goes on to say: “And the light of the full moon will become like the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will become seven times stronger, like the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah binds up the breakdown of his people and heals the severe wound from the blow he inflicted.” – Isaiah 30:26
This event truly will be “new light”!
After the purge of the wicked ones from Christ’s congregation and the revelation of the Lord, the chosen one will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. In this way, Christ’s glory will be revealed to creation, as Paul explained in the eighth chapter of Romans: “For I consider that the sufferings of the present time do not amount to anything in comparison with the glory that is going to be revealed in us. For the creation is waiting with eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God.”
Writing about the revelation of Christ, Paul went on to say: “These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, at the time when he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy ones and to be regarded in that day with wonder among all those who exercised faith, because the witness we gave met with faith among you.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:9-10
The other sheep are the “creation” that awaits and will favorably receive and support the glorified sons of God when they are revealed.
The prophecy of Zechariah foretold that 10 men out of all the nations will then take hold of the robe of the man who is a Jew, saying to him: “We want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you people.” (8:23b)
Note that the men of the nations speak of a singular “Jew,” but then refer to a plurality—“you people.” The Jew is Jesus. And “you people” are those in union with Christ who are revealed as the sons of God. Ten represents the complete number of people of the nations who will inherit the Kingdom because they supported the brothers of Christ. They will be those who will never die at all.
Given President Trump’s determination to end two centuries of British geopolitical dominance and endless wars, coinciding with the rise of the BRICS and the global south and the emergence of a multipolar world, we should expect the dying Anglo empire to set the world on fire. It would not take much to crash the over-ripe, debt-bloated global financial system. Given that the populations of both Europe and America have been deliberately divided into left versus right warring camps, civil war is seemingly inevitable as well. Add to that the inattentiveness of those who claim to be watchers and their cocksureness that Jesus has already appeared invisibly, the stage is set for the Son of man to arrive like a thief in the night at a time you do not think to be it.
“Be patient then, brothers, until the presence of the Lord. Look! The farmer keeps waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, exercising patience over it until the early rain and the late rain arrive. You too exercise patience; make your hearts firm, because the presence of the Lord has drawn close.”
James 5:7-8
