Question: While you do make very good and fascinating points, the question I have is the following: Everything in Prophecy (Ezekiel, Isaiah, etc.) you point to the JW’s as per the fulfillment. Is it not possible that these prophecies can also point to say the Adventists, Mormons, Baptists, Christadelphians, etc? How can you be so sure it is only the JW’s they point to? Aren’t all religions misguided and cults?
When Jesus was on earth he promised his disciples that although he was going away he was going to prepare a place for them and one day he would return and take them to their own place in heaven. God’s purpose to unveil a new creation of heavenly immortals is certain to succeed, even as Jesus assured his little flock when he told them to have no fear, that his Father had approved of giving them the Kingdom. This means that when Jesus arrives he will find at least a faithful few who will have won the Father’s approval.
True enough, the vast majority of persons who profess to be followers of Jesus are not really. Jesus himself indicated that the road to destruction is broad and wide and many are those traveling upon it. Whereas, the road to life is narrow and comparatively few will find it. Jesus specifically said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will be saved —only those doing his Father’s will.
So, first it is a matter of determining what God’s will is, and then using that as a metric to establish who is at least trying to do the Father’s will.
The foremost identifying factor would be that true Christians would be public preachers. Isn’t that one of Jesus’ foremost commands —‘go, and make disciples, teaching them’?
When Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on someone’s door they are never mistaken for an Adventist, Baptist or Christadelphian, are they? And the Mormons don’t really qualify since their young people only do a two-year hitch as missionaries and then they are done. Besides, the book of Mormon is nonsensical —no other way to describe it. The author of the book of Mormon, whoever he may have been, apparently read the old King James and then re-arranged it and added some new characters. It is pure fiction. Anyone who would confuse the Latter Day Saints with Jehovah’s Witnesses is woefully ignorant.
But it is undeniable that public witnessing is what Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for. And over the past 100 years the Watchtower has published their message far and wide, now in hundreds of languages and on every continent. Didn’t Jesus say that the good news would be preached throughout the world as a prelude to the end?
Furthermore, since the Scriptures clearly teach that a great crowd of persons of faith will survive the end of this world, it is surely no coincidence that millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses embrace that hope —the hope of never dying, as a prelude to the coming of Christ and the end.
When you think about it, the truth is very simple. Jehovah is God. Jesus is his Firstborn Son who left his place in heaven and came to earth and ultimately gave his life. While the Devil rules this world now, originally God intended for humans to live forever in paradise. But sin entered in and ruined everything. The good news is, Jesus’ ransom makes it possible for us to be lifted out of death. And when the Kingdom comes the healing will begin. You could write it on an index card it is so simple. In fact, the Watchtower has become expert in reducing the message to its simplest terms, not only for ease of translation into hundreds of languages, but to reach the marginally literate and those with no education.
No other group has taken Jesus’ commission to “go make disciples” as seriously as Jehovah’s Witnesses —it’s not even close. Surely, that alone identifies them as doing the Father’s will, at least as a whole.
As an anecdote, a JW whom I knew years ago engaged a householder at the door who tried to preach to him. The householder offered my friend some of their church literature, which he refused to accept, saying that he made a special effort to contact them and if they wished to preach to him they would have to come to his house. So, pushing ahead the householder asked for his home address so they could come to his home. He refused to give it to them, saying: “No. I found you. You’ll have to find me.”
Another related factor is the connection with God’s name. While the publishers of most popular Bible translations have sanitized their versions of the Scriptures from any trace of God’s personal name and have sought to confuse the name of God with that of Jesus, Jehovah’s Witnesses have determinedly kept the name of God before the public in hundreds of languages and dialects.
Being intimately connected with Jehovah God places anointed Jehovah’s Witnesses in the position described at Isaiah 43:7, as those who not only call upon the name of Jehovah, but who themselves are called by his name.
Furthermore, because the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses have failed in their obligation to fight for the legal case of thousands of sexually abused children, which the public is very well aware of, Jehovah’s Witnesses have reproached the name of Jehovah in a way that no other religious group can. That is why in the 36th chapter of Ezekiel Jehovah addresses the house of Israel, which is the congregation of the firstborn, saying to them: “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Not for your sakes am I acting, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will certainly sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which you profaned among them; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘when I am sanctified among you before their eyes.”’
Since the religionists of Christendom refuse to call God by his proper name and are in no way associated with it, it is they who will have to know he is Jehovah when he sanctifies himself in connection with those who have, regrettably, profaned his name.
As stated already, the truth is simple. The primary obstacle to our knowing the truth is not Satan. It is fallen human nature. The truth is, most people do not wish to know the truth. The reason being, as Jesus explained: “Now this is the basis for judgment: that the light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were wicked. For whoever practices vile things hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be reproved. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest as having been done in harmony with God.” —John 3:19-21