The symbolism that Jehovah employed when issuing the original Edenic prophecy regarding the serpent bruising the heel of the seed of the woman and the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent, would seem to be more fitting than is casually apparent.

On the one hand, Jehovah’s Witnesses have an appreciation of the paramount matter of Jehovah’s as-of-yet unresolved universal sovereignty, and the related issue regarding the faithfulness and integrity of all intelligent creation.

Jesus was, of course, the foremost witness of Jehovah and the grand champion of God’s rightful sovereignty. Having left the comfort and security of his lofty position next to God, Jesus willing exposed himself to the serpent Tempter; ultimately submitting himself to an unimaginably horrible, torturous death, in order to fully submit to Jehovah’s will; hence, the serpent bruised the seed upon the heel.

But Jehovah’s Witnesses are here behooved to consider the serpent bruising analogy in practical terms: Imagine yourself walking through a patch of tall grass and suddenly feeling a searing sting on your lower leg. Looking down you instantly realize you have been bitten by a venomous snake. A person’s instinctual reaction might be to stomp on the snake’s head and make sure it was crushed dead – so that it might not strike again. (Merely stomping upon the reptile’s body would more than likely result in another snakebite.)

But now it has been almost two thousand years since Jesus was wounded by the Devil, and even though back then Christ proclaimed that he beheld Satan already falling like a bolt of lightning from heaven, the resurrected Christ still has not crushed Satan.

The primary reason God has kept Satan in existence to this point – even these many centuries after Christ conclusively settled the aforementioned issues – is because God has willed that others, for whom Jesus died and subsequently purchased, might share with him in the kingdom. It has been God’s good pleasure that a select number of men and women of faith from the Christian era might be joined with Christ in a special union; that these might even share the glorious, immortal life that Jesus now possesses.  Those who are called into this special relationship are said to belong to Christ and to compose the symbolic body of Christ – he being the head of the body.

Those chosen ones will also share with Jesus Christ in crushing the serpent, even as Paul promised the holy ones in Rome, writing to them: For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”

Quite likely some, perhaps even many in Rome during Paul’s time, met with an untimely, violent death in the gladiatorial coliseum, and elsewhere, because of their faith in Christ. How might God crush Satan under their feet, seeing that they are no longer living? By means of the resurrection, when all of the holy ones join their Lord in heaven and are then empowered to destroy the Devil and his entire kingdom.

The foretold enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will ultimately culminate in an all-out war during the end phase – during the conclusion of the system of things. That is, because, those who are anointed by God’s spirit and who are in union with Christ are also recognized by God as his seed. So it is, when Satan is hurled down from heaven Revelation 12:17 states: “And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.”

“The remaining ones of her seed” refers to those chosen ones who are alive when the parousia begins. Having lost the war in heaven the enraged demons will engulf the world in turmoil and tyranny in order to wage war upon those who belong to Christ and Jehovah.

Towards the close of the first century, the last surviving apostle warned the brothers that it was the “last hour” and that the antichrist was coming. It was the “last hour” of the calling in the apostolic era, because, as Jesus and the apostles foretold, wicked men and imposters completely infiltrated the congregations and took control. Eventually, the antichrist became manifest when the Roman emperor established himself as the head of the “church.” For centuries Christendom prevented the Bible from being read or translated and it simply killed anyone who dared to speak the truth in any measure.

But that has all changed with the work of the Watchtower Society.

Although many of the clergy of Christendom have bitterly opposed and fought against the work sponsored by the Watchtower Society, they have utterly failed to prevent God’s spirit from activating an army of ministers who are grouped around a core of persons who have been anointed by the spirit, who have endeavored to obey the commandments of God and who are bearing witness to Jesus on a scale never before seen.

But the opposition of the clergy and the political elements under their influence has not been the result of Satan having been hurled down. After all, the Jews viciously persecuted the first century Christians, but that was not the result of Satan and the demons being evicted from heaven.

How can it be said with certainty that the original serpent has not been hurled down yet and gone off to wage war upon the so-called “remaining ones”?

Well, as Jehovah’s Witnesses know, or should know, the Devil persecutes the “woman” for a period of a “time, times and half a time,” which we understand to be a cryptic way of saying three and a half times. At Revelation 12:6 the three and a half times are expressed simply as 1,260 days. However, in the 13th chapter of Revelation the same period is expressed as forty-two months.

Whereas, in the 12th chapter Satan is personally said to wage war against the anointed remnant for the said interval, the 13th chapter of Revelation depicts the seven-headed beast that recovers from its head wound waging war against the holy ones. Obviously, Satan uses his enraged beast to wage war against the sons of God.

The 11th chapter of Revelation similarly depicts a beast waging war against God’s two anointed witnesses. The beast is said to come up out of the abyss. And after the two anointed witnesses finish their witnessing, the beast will kill them. The 17th chapter of Revelation similarly describes a seven-headed beast that emerges from the abyss of death. However, according to the Watchtower, it is a different beast. But is it reasonable to suppose that there are two different seven-headed beasts that come up out of a symbolic abyss?

It may hurt the feelings of Watchtower loyalists, but the truth is: The Watchtower’s interpretation of Revelation is absurd and nonsensical. To be sure, there are many absurdities, but specifically, it is absurd for the simple reason that the beast’s emergence from the abyss will initiate judgment day upon the world of mankind. The terrified masses that accept the rule of the resurrected beast, and thus reject the then-ruling kingdom of Christ, will have their names blotted out of the book of life.

But according to the Watchtower Society the Anglo-American head of the beast suffered a mortal wound in the First World War, then it revived and another beast came on the scene in the form of the League of Nations. But that beast supposedly went into the abyss and later emerged as the United Nations in 1945.

But if that is true that means that masses of people have already received the mark of the beast and have been condemned to everlasting death for supporting the UN in some fashion. And the Watchtower actually teaches that that is so. But if the masses of mankind have already been everlastingly condemned why do Jehovah’s Witnesses st
ill preach the good news of salvation to them? And why is it possible for any who have been active supporters of the present political system to become Jehovah’s Witnesses? After all, the mark of the beast is not like a tattoo that a person can have removed. It is the symbolic mark that signifies that a person cannot by any means avoid the punishment of everlasting death.

Sadly, Jehovah’s Witnesses are prevented from realizing the contradictions of their own belief in this regard. Although most of Jehovah’s Witnesses are surely capable of rationally thinking through these matters, they are subtly coerced by the leadership into imagining they are being disloyal to God and may even be threatened with punitive judicial action if they question anything the organization teaches; and so, they are duty-bound to believe the artfully contrived false stories and various absurdities published by Bethel that are passed off as “food at the proper time.” No doubt, though, Jehovah’s Witnesses derive a sense of security in their all believing the same thing, even if it is nonsensical!

(The paradox of how the Watchtower can practice this sort of tyranny and publish nonsensical interpretations of prophecy and still be Jehovah’s organization is the focus of numerous articles on this site)

But surely, no clear-thinking person believes that Christ would have his slaves publish the good news of salvation to a world that has no hope of receiving salvation!

This is why it can be said with certainty that Satan has not been hurled down yet, because, as stated above, when that occurs it will commence the judgment of the world.

The significance of this cannot be underestimated.

Presently the world stands on the edge of disaster. Better yet, call it the precipice of an abyss. The Anglo-American beast seems intent on setting off world war. The whole political and economic system can easily collapse. Then what?

In that eventuality, it will become apparent to many of Jehovah’s Witnesses that the Watchtower has misled them as regards the whole 1914 matter. Concurrent with that realization will come a wave of persecution Jehovah’s Witnesses have never before experienced. It will confirm that Satan has come down in great anger and is waging war on the sons of the kingdom. In that tumultuous period (three and a half years) the faithful will deliver a final judgment message to the world.

Ultimately, Satan will succeed – silencing them in death. Because they are the brothers of Christ the treatment meted out to them will be as though it was done to Jesus himself. In that respect, the same serpent that caused Jesus’ death will bruise the seed of God. This time, though, the instantaneously resurrected remaining ones of her seed will join Christ, who will then crush the serpent’s earthly seed out of existence and incarcerate the serpent and his demons for a thousand years.

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