The other day, I spoke about Isaiah in the first chapter. And hopefully, as time allows, we’ll go through the whole book of Isaiah. But before going to the second chapter, I wanted to add a couple of thoughts to the commentary on the first chapter. In verse 4, he says: They’ve treated the Holy One of Israel with disrespect. In fact it says they’ve abandoned Jehovah. They’ve turned their backs on him.
And then God says: “Where will you be struck next as you add to your rebellion. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is diseased. From the soul of the foot to the head nothing is healthy. There are wounds and bruises and open sores that have not been treated or bound up or softened with oil.”
Of course, this applies to the literal nation of Israel, but if you have spiritual discernment, and even Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize this to an extent—that there is an application to Christianity. Although, when the Watchtower wrote their commentary on Isaiah 20 years ago, all this negative stuff applied to Christendom. But I just wanted to add a couple of thoughts to this that when Jehovah says: ‘where else will you be struck next?’ You know, the Watchtower has this elaborate mythology that Jehovah’s Witnesses got out of Babylon the Great in 1919.
And the Watchtower boasts that false religion can no longer place any restraints upon Jehovah’s organization. And, well, consider a couple, three, four years ago, Russia completely liquidated Jehovah’s Witnesses. It had been a gradual process. First they blocked jw.org. No one in the Russian federation can could access the Watchtower’s website.
And that was long before they banned them. And then they banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow, from preaching anyway. And then, they liquidated the whole organization. Confiscated their new branch office facility. Shut down every Kingdom hall. And the Watchtower still claims that false religion cannot impose any restrictions. Well, you’d really have to be clueless not to appreciate that the Russian orthodox church was behind the liquidation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Vladimir Putin is actually a devout Russian Orthodox. In fact, he used to be the head of the KGB when it was in existence that’s like the equivalent of the CIA or MI6. And he was secretly baptized as a Russian Orthodox even during the communist regime when supposedly religion was outlawed. And Vladimir Putin is very close with the archbishop Kirill, I believe is his last name. So, obviously, there is a religious component.
And yet the Watchtower continues to claim that false religion…So, it is an arrogant and boastful claim that has no basis in reality.
But I’m thinking of another way that the Watchtower has turned their back on God and Christ. Because we appreciate that Jesus is representing Jehovah in every way.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have always put the preaching work to the fore. That was one of the last things that Jesus commanded his disciples before he ascended back to heaven: go therefore make disciples teaching them all the things I’ve taught you, baptize them, and then so forth. And then Jesus said the good news of this Kingdom will be preached on all the inhabited earth and then the end will come.
Well, back in March, when the coronavirus pandemic became prominent and all the states in the United States and countries throughout the world started, you know, these mandatory shutdowns, businesses, stores, schools, and everything. Stay at home, and you know, slow the spread.
Well, okay, that seemed like a reasonable thing. Nobody knew if this thing was going to go like the Spanish Influenza, which some say killed 50 million people out of a population of 1 billion back then, which was quite a high percentage.
But this coronavirus is nowhere near that level of lethality. But the Watchtower… this is like eight months into this pandemic…and the Watchtower still has a lockdown … all Jehovah’s Witnesses.
You can’t go out knocking on doors. You can’t even stand on a street corner with your little magazine, information cart. Even if you’re all mascot from gloves and everything … it’s too dangerous.
A member of the Governing Body back a few months ago on jw broadcast, he said, it was too risky, just too risky, and foolish, foolhardy to risk your life. We’re saving lives.
It used to be that preaching was a life-saving work. And now, not preaching is a life-saving work. …
It’s interesting here in the United States, you know, it’s the presidential election year. Things are really heating up. The Republicans are getting volunteers and going door-to-door as part of their campaign.
Do you know how many doors they knock on in a week? They’re claiming they knock on a million doors in the United States, canvassing door to door. A million doors by the republican volunteers who are advertising their candidate, promoting their candidate. And here’s Jehovah’s witnesses…you know every Watch Tower announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom …. It’s far too risky, too dangerous and foolhardy to go door-to-door. Well, why aren’t we seeing, you know, thousands of people dropping dead from coronavirus from these Republicans knocking on a million doors every week?
I would imagine you know back when Jehovah’s Witnesses used to have a ministry and go door-to-door, that would be about how many doors. There’s a million of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States and, you know, let’s say a quarter 25 percent of them go out knocking on doors. It wouldn’t take too many doors to get a million. If a quarter of a million Jehovah’s Witnesses go out, they say they knock on ten doors. And you’ve got two and a half million doors. But now it’s zero!
And it’s interesting that Sweden never did join in the whole lockdown thing. They kept everything pretty much going as is. Except the Watchtower. It disallowed Jehovah’s witnesses from going door-to-door or from meeting in their Kingdom halls. Even though it was not mandated by the state. It was mandated by the Watchtower. They’re in a life-saving work now. And staying at home is saving people’s lives.
Have they turned their back on Jehovah? You better believe it. They absolutely have.
Well okay, let’s get into the second chapter.
Here, this is probably the most often quoted verse by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Isaiah. “And this is what Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the final part of the days the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains. And it will be raised up above the hills and to it all nations will stream. And many peoples will go and say: come let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will instruct us about his ways. And we will walk in his paths. For law will go out of Zion and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.”
We appreciate that Jehovah is a great lawgiver and that he recorded his laws in the Bible, right?
That was a law, the law of Christ: “Go therefore, make disciples.” That is a law. So Christians have always had God’s law. It’s recorded in the Bible. So what is this the mountain of the house of Jehovah becoming elevated? In other words, coming to power gaining ascendancy over all other institutions, government institutions like hills. Jehovah’s mountain ascends above them and law comes out of mount Zion. So, that is something special.
It’s not simply the law that we have in the scripture. So that’s what Jehovah’s witnesses try to practice.
So, but here’s the problem. The Watchtower teaches that this prophecy has been undergoing fulfillment since 1918, since Jehovah’s witnesses got out of Babylon the Great (…), and now they’re going up, ascending up to Mount Zion and Jehovah’s teaching them. So, basically, the Watchtower is setting itself up on top of the hill and teaching the law. That’s a problem.
And Jehovah’s Wtnesses may be convinced that that’s the case because this next verse says: “He will render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears ito pruning shears.”
Well, Jehovah’s witnesses don’t take up arms, do they? We don’t go to war. I knew Jehovah’s Witnesses who went to prison rather than go to Vietnam. And, of course, many hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States and Britain went to prison during World War II. They wouldn’t fight against Hitler. And Hitler was persecuting them for the same reason.
But simply because Jehovah’s Witnesses are following the pattern of first-century Christians and not taking up arms, is that the fulfillment of this prophecy? Has Jehovah rendered matters straight respecting many peoples? Well, the end result of this it says: “Nation will not lift up sword against nation nor will they learn war anymore.” Well, the nation that’s probably the biggest business in the world is preparing for war armaments, right?
And as long as I’ve been online, I’ve been talking about the inevitability of World War Three. I thought it may have begun a few years ago—I guess it was five years ago. I think, it was 2013 anyway, when Vladimir Putin sent his bombers into Syria and took out Isis because the United States was, you know, funding these terrorist groups and they called moderate radicals, moderate terrorists, to overthrow Syria. And so here you had in the same proximity to nuclear powers coming into conflict.
It was a proxy war. Fortunately, Russia and the United States didn’t start shooting at each other directly. Or then we would have had a conflagration. But, anyway, I mean they’re still at it, right? I mean as long as Satan rules this world there are going to be wars. So simply because Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to take up arms, that’s not going to spare the world from another war. So this prophecy is really talking about Jehovah putting an end to this system.
And that’s what the rest of this second chapter goes into. It’s talking about the necessity for Jehovah to … well, bring on the great tribulation. Verse 6 says: “For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob. God has forsaken his people.”
This is not after they go up to the mountain…We’re backtracking here. So Jehovah comes into judgment with his people because they have left him. They’ve abandoned him. They’ve turned their backs on him. So what does God do? You leave me. I’m going to leave you. And I’m going to punish you. And allow terrible things to come upon you. And then I will save you, whoever is left.
So, God has forsaken his people because they become full of things from the East. “They practice magic like the Philistines and they abound with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold. And there is no limit to their treasures.”
And goes on to say: “Their land is filled with worthless gods.” Well Jehovah’s Witnesses say: oh that couldn’t be us …Well anything that detracts … that takes away from Jehovah’s glory is idolatry.
And the Watchtower Has … who can deny it has become like a Fortune 500 company? There’s no end to it, silver and gold. It’s a cash cow now. As I mentioned in the last video, you know, the flipping kingdom halls. A thousand of them are up have been sold or been shut down and are on the market. Houses of worship dedicated to God. Doesn’t matter. It’s business.
They abound with the children of foreigners. Jesus spoke about in his illustration of the wheat and the weeds. The weeds are the sons of the wicked one. And yet they grow together. And are virtually indistinguishable. All the Watchtower said: yeah the weeds were bundled up back in 1918. Christendom was all … I’ll let them explain that. But it’s, of course, ridiculous and nonsensical.
But yeah. So, it says they bow down to what their fingers have made. Well, there is such a thing as organizational idolatry. And the Watchtower has become this idol. It may be more sophisticated than you know a stone idol. But again, like I say, anything that detracts from Jehovah’s glory.
So, he said: “Man bows down. He becomes low.” In other words it’s a form of degradation. “And you cannot possibly pardon him.”
So …. here he comes! “Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah and his majestic splendor. The haughty eyes of man will be brought low. And the arrogance of men will bow down. Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day. For it is the day belonging to Jehovah of armies. It is coming upon everyone who was haughty and lofty, upon everyone whether exalted or lowly.” Now, notice this next verse 13: “Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and exalted and upon all the oaks of Bashan.”
Well, I think we can appreciate that Jehovah is not interested in punishing cedar trees or oak trees. What do these massive trees of Lebanon represent? Well, all prophecy is harmonious…related.
Zechariah chapter 11. And, of course, Zechariah was written after God had destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were repatriated. And yet Zechariah is speaking about the destruction of another Jerusalem, the Christian Jerusalem, which is what Isaiah is speaking about as well. “Open your doors O Lebanon. so that a fire may consume your cedars. Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen. The majestic trees have been destroyed. Wail you oaks of Bashan for the dense forest has come down.”
What does this forest represent? The next verse says: “Listen. The wailing of shepherds. For their majesty has been devastated. Listen. The roaring of young lions for the dense thickets of the Jordan have been destroyed.”
And the rest of that 11th chapter of Zechariah goes on to explain Jehovah’s judgment is upon the worthless shepherd who abandons his sheep.
Of course, the Watchtower says that, yes, these shepherds represent the worldly shepherds. You know, the dictators and the tyrants like Hitler. You know, Jehovah’s put his sheep under their charge. That’s ridiculous isn’t it? One of many absurdities embedded in the Watchtower’s prophetic interpretation.
Actually, this prophecy has to do with the betrayal of Jesus doesn’t it? “Then Jehovah said to me …” Zechariah, who was shepherding and took over as a shepherd of these sheep. “If it seems good to you give me my wages, but if not withhold them. And they paid my wages 30 pieces of silver. Then Jehovah said to me: throw it into the treasury the magnificent value with which they valued me. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the treasury at the house of Jehovah.”
Well, the apostles recognized that this applied to Jesus. Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver. And he tried to give it back and it didn’t work and he went off and killed himself. But Judas was a forerunner of the man of lawlessness, because Jesus said that Judas was a son of destruction and that’s the exact same term that Paul used to describe the man of lawlessness.
So that’s why, in verse 15, “Jehovah said to me: “now take the equipment of a useless shepherd.”” And then verse 17: “Woe to the worthless shepherd who is abandoning my flock. A sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will wither completely. And his right eye will go completely blind.”
So…back in the second chapter of Isaiah. You know, it use that expression the terrifying presence of Jehovah. I think the New World Translation is the only translation, … in fact it’s their latest revision, that uses the word presence, that terrifying presence. And that’s interesting because we know that Christ Jesus has a presence, a parousia where he comes in the name of Jehovah. And it will be during the tribulation.
That’s what the terrifying presence is. The scripture I read back in Isaiah, said this is the day belonging to Jehovah. And it is the description of their hiding in the rocks in the caves and matches what is uh revealed in Revelation in the sixth chapter regarding the opening of this sixth seal when all the mountains collapse and the stars fall from heaven and people are terrified, hide us from the Lamb because it the day of their wrath has come. That’s the great tribulation…the day of Jehovah.
And at that same time period Jehovah will reveal himself, through Jesus, that’s what the parousia is.
Well okay. I suppose that’ll do it for now. I look forward to speaking to you again.
