QUESTION: Why do you teach that the ‘authentic’ parousia will involve greater wars, when the Bible says that everything will be just normal? Matthew 24:36-39 tells us of a completely different situation concerning Christ’s presence. “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” It does not describe chaos and anarchy, but instead normal everyday living just like what we are experiencing now. Further proof that we are currently living in the Lord’s Day or Christ’s presence! Is my reasoning flawed?
Excerpted from longer inquiry.
In a word, yes. However, it is not your reasoning that is flawed as much as your point of reference. That is because you are laboring under the view imposed upon all of Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Watchtower that the parousia began in 1914.
Actually, the original Bible Students who became associated under Charles Taze Russell were led to believe that the presence of Christ had commenced in 1874. The Watchtower even taught that long after 1914. So, we would not be too far off the mark to say that the Watchtower has an overriding inclination, even an agenda, to place the presence of the Son of man in the past, no matter the date.
But since Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Christ’s presence began in 1914, marked by the Great War and it is believed that the symbolic seals of Revelation were unsealed then too, resulting in peace being taken from the earth so that they should slaughter one another with a great sword, in reality you do believe that the world was going along as normal until the presence of the Son of man, not as a future event, but as history.
That being undeniable, it would be more correct to say that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the initial presence of the Son of man is not that important. It is the conclusion of the purported long-running parousia that we should keep on the watch for. But is that really what Jesus intended? Are we to believe that Jesus was exhorting us to keep on the watch for the conclusion of the parousia? That is what the Watchtower is implying.
The reason Jehovah’s Witnesses are compelled to believe this rearward view of the parousia is because any future presence of the Son of man is considered to be an impossibility.
As pointed out in Kingdom Bulletin #10 , the Watchtower even allows for the possibility of another world war, but it strictly rules out a future world war serving as the fulfillment of what Jesus foretold regarding nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
So, it is not that your reasoning is wrong. The problem is you and millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are laboring under a powerful “deluding influence” that is an operation of Satan intended to convince the unwary that the presence of the Son of man is an accomplished fact. (Jehovah’s Witnesses: Face the Facts)
Needless to say the sudden outbreak of global war, financial collapse, food shortages, pandemics and massive earthquakes will cause many of Jehovah’s Witnesses to rethink their views on this matter.
How will the sudden tectonic shift effect the Watchtower? Just as Jesus likened the presence of the Son of man to the Flood, the Watchtower Society will be swept away.
Here is how its demise is described in the 28th chapter of Isaiah: “And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling tool. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will flood out the hiding place. Your covenant with Death will be dissolved, and your agreement with the Grave will not stand. When the raging flash flood passes through, you will be crushed by it. As often as it passes through, it will sweep you away; for it will pass through morning after morning, during the day and during the night. Only terror will make them understand what was heard.” — See article: The Coming of Jesus Christ and the Flash Flood