Part two of Watchtower Review of I Will Shake All the Nations
How have people reacted to this message? Most have reacted negatively. (Read Psalm 2:1-3.) The nations have become agitated. They refuse to accept Jehovah’s appointed Ruler. They do not view the Kingdom message we preach as “good news.” In fact, some governments have even banned the preaching work! Even though many of the rulers of these nations claim to serve God, they do not want to give up their own power and authority. So just as the rulers did in Jesus’ day, rulers today oppose Jehovah’s Anointed One by attacking his loyal followers. —Acts 4:25-28.
In what way have the nations become agitated? Since the end of WWI, the world’s population has increased eight-fold. Amazing inventions have made possible things like rapid travel and communications. The average human lifespan has increased as well. In America, Jehovah’s Witnesses have flourished due to the legal protections that are the constitutional foundation of the nation. How have the nations expressed their anger at God? The truth is, they have not—not yet anyway.
Jehovah is the God of justice. That being true, God would never condemn anyone for not believing falsehoods. And no matter how many times the Watchtower declares that Christ became King in 1914, it just ain’t so.
The fact is, millions of people accept Jesus as king. They just don’t accept the Watchtower. Who could blame them? As for “attacking his loyal followers” that is a delusion. I have never known any JW that has been attacked by the government. Obviously, JW’s are banned in some Muslim countries and in China, as well as most recently in Russia, but so are other Christian sects. The truth is, millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are free to go about their ministry unhindered; at least they were until the Governing Body ordered them to stop.
How does Jehovah respond to the negative reaction of the nations? Psalm 2:10-12 answers: “So now, you kings, show insight; accept correction, you judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Honor the son, or God will become indignant and you will perish from the way, for His anger flares up quickly. Happy are all those taking refuge in Him.” Jehovah kindly grants these opposers a window of opportunity. They can still change their minds and accept Jehovah’s Kingdom. However, time is running out. We are living in “the last days” of this system of things. (2 Tim. 3:1; Isa. 61:2) It has never been more urgent for people to get the facts and make the right choice.
Again, there has been no negative reaction to the false proclamation that Jesus has returned. It is fiction. The Watchtower’s 1914 invisible parousia is as phony as Christendom’s trinity; and they both originate with the Devil, the father of the lie.
Besides, the second Psalm is not exhorting the rulers of the nations to serve God and honor the son with fear and rejoicing. The rulers of Satan’s world cannot perish from the way for the simple fact that they are not on the true path. The kings and judges of the earth called upon to show insight are those in line for the Kingdom. They are those whom Christ exhorted not to let anyone steal their Kingdom crowns. Those who are pronounced happy will, by faith, seek refuge in Jehovah at the critical hour when men become faint with fear.
The figurative shaking that Haggai foretold has a positive effect on some people. He tells us that as a result of the shaking, “the precious things [honesthearted people] of all the nations will come” to worship Jehovah.* (Read Haggai 2:7-9.) Isaiah as well as Micah foretold similar developments that would occur “in the last days.”
There is a reason for the Watchtower’s irrational attachment to 1914 and it is on full display in the paragraph above. The Devil has been allowed to develop the Watchtower into a place of refuge. And placing the return of Christ in the past is an integral part of the scheme. The Watchtower has been set up as a false mountain of Jehovah to which people are streaming for salvation. But it is a trap. Does not the scripture say: “(Jehovah) will become as a sanctuary, but as a stone to strike against and as a rock to stumble over to both houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many of them will stumble and fall and be broken; They will be ensnared and caught. Wrap up the written confirmation; seal up the law among my disciples! I will keep in expectation of Jehovah, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.” — Isaiah 8:14-17
Did not Jesus foretell that many will be stumbled? And why will they be stumbled? Because they have believed the lie and expect to receive salvation by their association with the Devil’s substitute kingdom of God. No doubt the “life-saving instructions” the WT will issue then will ensnare many.
How is Christ “a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem”? As stated many times before, “Jerusalem” symbolizes Christ’s congregation, also referred to as Jehovah’s earthly organization. The authentic return of Jesus Christ will result in the desolation of Jerusalem and the sanctuary. A similar thing happened in the first century. All of the apostles were Jewish. The first-century governing body was headquartered in Jerusalem. They preached in the temple every day. Paul wrote his letter to the Hebrews explaining in considerable depth the place the Jewish form of worship had in the outworking of Jehovah’s purpose. The Law and the temple had served God’s purpose and were going to be discarded, along with Jerusalem. The apostle reminded the Jewish Christians that they did not have in Jerusalem a city that remains. Just as Jesus was executed outside the walls of the holy city, Paul explained that anointed Christians must go to Jesus outside the camp. In other words when the time arrives all will be required to leave the antitypical Jerusalem. That is why Christians will be called upon to flee out of Jerusalem when they see the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing where it ought not.
Paragraphs 15 and 16 say:
The book of Revelation describes a testing of the loyalty of God’s people in the last days. That testing will continue to bring intense pressure on us. The political systems of this world will demand our worship and will persecute those who refuse to support them. (Rev. 13:12, 15) They will put “under compulsion all people —the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves— that these should be marked on their right hand or on their forehead.” (Rev. 13:16) Slaves in ancient times were branded with a mark to show who owned them. Similarly, all in our day will be expected to have a symbolic mark on their hand or forehead. Their thoughts and actions will show that they belong to and support the political systems.
Will we accept this symbolic mark and give our allegiance to political governments? Those who refuse to receive the mark will face difficulties and danger. The book of Revelation goes on to say: “Nobody can buy or sell except a person having the mark.” (Rev. 13:17) But God’s people know what God will do to those who have the mark mentioned at Revelation 14:9, 10. Rather than bear that mark, they will, in effect, write on their hand, “Belonging to Jehovah.” (Isa. 44:5) Now is the time to make sure that our loyalty to Jehovah is strong. If it is, Jehovah will gladly claim us as his own!
The Watchtower boasts about the numbers of active JW’s in the world, many of which live in the United States, where, of course, the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses is also located. Can any JW provide any sort of sensible explanation as to how “intense pressure” is being brought upon us by the government? In what way is the political system demanding our worship? Can any rational JW provide even one instance?
Back about 90 years ago—before any current members of the GB were even born—Jehovah’s Witnesses were under intense pressure to compromise. Hitler vowed to exterminate the Bible worms, as he called them. The Nazis rounded up a few thousand JW’s and shipped them to concentration camps. A patriotic fervor in America caused Jehovah’s Witnesses problems too. Except the US government provided legal protection.
Now though, those days are long gone. In America now patriotism and nationalism are considered to be racist—something only white supremacists and Trump supporters embrace. Certainly, Jehovah’s Witnesses are under no pressure to compromise—at least not from the governments.
Can the Governing Body explain how JW’s are prevented from buying or selling? Of course not. It is pure fiction. Poppycock. Nonsense—fit only as metaphoric bovine-sourced fertilizer! Jehovah’s Witnesses truly are bewitched by a powerful deluding influence. The fact that they happily swallow this swill and praise it as blessed spiritual food is frightening.
The Watchtower is right, though—time is short. Soon Satan’s short period of time will begin. Up to the present moment, the system in which we live has provided relative stability and security. Most people live normal lives. All that will suddenly change. Civilization will be shaken to the core. The nations are armed with the most horrific weapons ever devised. Supersonic missiles can be launched on the other side of the globe and reach their target in a matter of minutes. Dozens of nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed submarines prowl the depths of the seas and are capable of launching missiles with multiple atomic warheads. One submarine has the firepower to destroy half the world.
Then there is the debt-bloated financial system that is rigged to explode and impoverish the millionaires and billionaires and everyone else. It will seem as if the ground were shaking. And in some places it literally will be, as Jesus said there will be great earthquakes.
There will be no place to hide. The governments will not be there. No more government handouts. No safety nets. Having a “go bag” isn’t going to cut it. Revelation depicts the cataclysmic collapse of civilization this way: “And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake occurred; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the entire moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as when a fig tree shaken by a high wind drops its unripe figs. And the heaven departed as a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and every island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the high officials, the military commanders, the rich, the strong, every slave, and every free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they keep saying to the mountains and to the rocks: “Fall over us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” — Revelation 6:12-17
In the aftermath of the globe-rocking crash, the eighth king will arise as if from the grave—the symbolic abyss. Then the lamblike beast will begin speaking like a dragon and demand the worship of everyone—especially those who are called into Christ’s Kingdom. Gone will be the Watchtower’s whitewashed wall. It will be no more. And the stupid prophets who have spent years plastering over it will be abashed and ashamed.
