A consideration of the third chapter of Micah

When I published the first edition of Jehovah Himself Has Become King 20 years ago, it was not entirely clear to me how certain aspects of the prophecy of Micah applied to the Watchtower. For that matter, neither was it clear in the final edition (2016). Now, though, 2025—it is.

Since the pandemic and the Governing Body’s advocacy of mRNA vaccines, it is clear that Jehovah’s Witnesses were sold for money. Because the vaccines were neither safe nor effective, untold numbers of Jehovah’s Witnesses have died and will yet die from complications, and the leaders of the Watchtower have become bloodguilty.

Micah was appointed to tell Jacob his revolt and Israel his sin. My mission is similar: To tell the Watchtower its apostasy. Micah 3:8-10: “As for me, I am filled with power by the spirit of Jehovah, and with justice and might, to tell to Jacob his revolt and to Israel his sin. Hear this, please, you heads of the house of Jacob and you commanders of the house of Israel, who detest justice and who make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness.”

Although Micah originally spoke against the leaders of Israel and the kings of Jerusalem—God’s covenanted people—Jehovah’s denunciation is, in reality, directed to the “commanders” of Christianity. That is because Christ’s congregation originated in Jerusalem, also known as Zion. And God’s issues with the “commanders” will not be resolved until the final part of the days, long after fleshly Israel ceased to be God’s people.

Is it not true that the Watchtower claims to be the earthly Zion? In fact, initially, the organization’s flagship magazine was called Zion’s Watchtower. That being so, Micah’s prophecy confirms that the builders of Zion are bloodguilty.

That the heads and commanders are Christian overseers should be evident by reason of the fact that a few verses later in the fourth chapter, it says: “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 peoples will stream.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded into believing that the final part of the days began in 1914 and that the numerical increase in the number of “publishers” fulfills the prophecy (also found in the second chapter of Isaiah.) Jehovah foresaw this delusion, and that is why it is written: “This is what Jehovah says against the prophets who are leading my people astray, who proclaim ‘Peace!’ while they bite with their teeth but who declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths:

The commanders of the Watchtower boast of residing in a spiritual paradise, of practicing “pure worship,” of being in unity and at peace with God. But when the Governing Body proclaimed that Jehovah had provided the vaccines and God knows what is best, they essentially declared war on elders who might give voice to their reservations about the flock injecting themselves with the untested vaccine. Elders were threatened with removal if they did not submit to the Governing Body’s scheme to profit from the pandemic by promoting the WHO’s vaccination program.

The commanders claim that the light gets brighter and brighter. It is assumed to be an uninterruptible process. It says so in Proverbs. It will come as quite a shock when the light turns to darkness as if the sun were to set prematurely. How will the metaphoric sun go dark for the would-be prophets? The visionaries will be put to shame when all of the things the prophet class has declared to have been fulfilled since 1914 (world war, food shortages, pestilence, etc.) occur in the future.

You will have night; there will be no vision; there will only be darkness for you, no divination. The sun will set on the prophets, and the day will turn dark for them. The visionaries will be put to shame, and the diviners will be disappointed. All of them will have to cover over the mustache, for there is no answer from God.” — Micah 3:5-7

Is it not true that the Governing Body has declared itself to be the faithful and discreet slave even though Jesus posed it as an unanswerable question when he said: “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed…?

It is not for the ones appointed to feed the master’s domestics to declare themselves faithful and discreet. The answer to Christ’s question (“Who really is the faithful slave?”) will not be forthcoming until the Son of man makes a surprise inspection and issues his final judgment. Even so, the presumptive slave makes no allowance for any unfavorable outcome.

The self-declared faithful and discreet slave even presumes that he will be issuing “life-saving instructions” during the darkness of the tribulation. God is with them and always will be, even though it is written: “There is no answer from God” for them.

In recent decades, the Watchtower has become a business. Money is the primary focus. The Society’s lawyers war against child abuse survivors to avoid being dragged into court. The Watchtower evicts entire congregations from Kingdom Halls Jehovah’s Witnesses built with their own hands and dedicated to Jehovah and then flips them in the hot real estate market. Jehovah’s Witnesses are treated like children and told they must submit to theocratic order even while they are being defrauded and dispossessed. Now, the organization is rolling its ill-gotten booty into several Watchtower-run hedge funds. All the while, they proclaim that Jehovah is with them and that they will be saved through the oncoming tribulation. It is as if Jehovah says: “Not so fast”— “Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. And yet they lean on Jehovah, saying: “Is not Jehovah with us? No calamity will come upon us.”

God intends to rectify the deplorable spiritual condition of those whom he calls “my people,” such as in this span of verses: “But you hate what is good and love what is bad; you tear off the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones.  You also eat the flesh of my people and strip off their skin, smashing their bones, crushing them to pieces, like what is cooked in a pot, like meat in a cooking pot.” — Micah 3:2-3

As stated above, it must be so that those who skin God’s people and figuratively eat their flesh are Christian overseers at the time of Christ’s inspection and ultimate restoration in the final part of the days.

Take notice that the last verse of the third chapter of Micah segues into the first verse of the fourth chapter: “So because of you, Zion will be plowed up as a field, Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the House will become like high places in a forest. 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 peoples will stream.”

The destruction of an earthly Zion clearly precedes the establishment of the exalted heavenly mountain of the house of Jehovah in the final part of the days. A few decades ago, this order of events was recognized by certain Watchtower writers, most likely Fred Franz. It is even so stated in the July 15th, 1981 Watchtower, entitled Worship of the Only True God Already Being Exalted. The first three paragraphs state:

WORLD War I was a time of darkness such as humanity had never before experienced. It was as if the powers of darkness had prevailed universally. It seemed as if “the ruler of the world” had triumphed. (John 14:30) As his world empire of false religion, including Christendom, patriotically went over to the support of the war-mad nations, tremendous pressure was applied to all religious people. Hence, even worship of the one true and living God fell to a low ebb. Upholders of it were persecuted and put under restrictions, even to imprisonment. Their condition became calamitous, like that described in Micah 3:12:

2 “Zion will be plowed up as a mere field, and Jerusalem herself will become mere heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house [the temple] will be as the high places of a forest”—like an abandoned field covered with an overgrowth reaching to the height of trees because of the passing of so much time.

3 It appeared as if the end had come—for the whole system of things on earth. Worshipers of the God of the Bible resigned themselves to that view of matters, as they became “objects of hatred by all the nations

Now, though, there is no mention that Zion was plowed up as a field during the First World War. More than likely, the prophets of Bethel realize how tenuous that interpretation was and how it might lead some to question its authenticity. Even so, the biblical ordering is undeniable. According to Micah, Zion will first be plowed up as a mere field, and then the mountain of Jehovah’s house will be raised above the hills.

Ironically, Fred Franz had it right. Earthly Jerusalem will become heaps of ruin before Jehovah’s Kingdom is established as a refuge. And if we believe Jesus, “Jerusalem” will come to desolation during the great tribulation. How often have Jehovah’s Witnesses read these words? “However, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, let those in the midst of her leave, and let those in the countryside not enter into her, because these are days for meting out justice in order that all the things written may be fulfilled. Woe to the pregnant women and those nursing a baby in those days! For there will be great distress on the land and wrath against this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” – Luke 21:21-24

Although Luke does not mention the great tribulation in connection with the desolation of Jerusalem, Matthew’s account does. So, the question for thinking Christians is: What does “Jerusalem” represent?

Micah’s prophecy indicates that it is Jehovah’s earthly organization that has rebelled against him. Since Fred Franz has already identified the Watchtower as the Zion that was plowed up as a field, and it has never been repudiated, we may expect the Watchtower organization to become heaps of ruin in the future when “Jerusalem” is made desolate.

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