Tuesday, September 8
God . . . will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
The Bible Students spent decades pointing out that the year 1914 would be significant. Many people at that time were optimistic. As one writer states: “The world of 1914 was full of hope and promise.” With the outbreak of World War I later that year, however, Bible prophecy came true. The subsequent famines, earthquakes, and pestilences as well as the fulfillment of other Bible prophecies proved conclusively that Jesus Christ had begun to rule in heaven as King of God’s Kingdom in 1914. The first mission of God’s newly installed King was to wage war against his Father’s chief Adversary, Satan. Jesus and his angels cast the Devil and his demons out of heaven. This brought great rejoicing in heaven but a time of unprecedented calamity to the earth. Next, the King turned his attention to his earthly subjects to refine, educate, and organize them to do God’s will.
Commentary
It is true that when God’s Kingdom begins ruling, instead of bringing peace immediately the book of Revelation informs us that war breaks out, of all places – in heaven. And Michael and his angels battle with the Devil and his angels. And down the great dragon will be hurled. The next verse informs us: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!”
Is it possible to determine if this event has transpired already ? Yes, it is a relatively easy matter to determine. That is because the ouster of Satan and his demons from heaven has an effect upon the earth in two notable ways.
First, the beastly political system suffers a catastrophic blow from which it appears to miraculously recover. This is described in the 13th chapter of Revelation. And after the beast revives from its mortal wound, also depicted as if coming up from an abyss, it persecutes the holy ones for 42 months – ultimately, conquering them.
So, the question is: Has Satan’s earthly political beast received its mortal head wound and then revived? And has the resurrected two-horned beast fabricated an image of the beast and required all to pay homage to it upon pain of death? If so, how has the political system prevented people from buying or selling? If Jehovah’s Witnesses are honest with themselves they will admit that no such thing has occurred. Since 1914 it has been business as usual.
Jehovah’s Witnesses would do well to keep in mind that when this system crashes and the terrified inhabitants of Earth clamor for a government – any government – to save them, by their embracing the image of the beast as their savior they will have rejected Christ.
And the book of Revelation is quite clear that those who do so will not have their names written in the book of life. They are described as receiving the mark of the beast and their punishment is everlasting death – no resurrection!
The Watchtower teaches that the seventh head received a mortal wound during the First World War; this, in spite of the fact that the Anglo-American duo were victorious!
Furthermore, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded into imagining that the now-nonexistent League of Nations was the image of the beast and that it went into the abyss when it became defunct during the Second World War, only to reemerge as the United Nations.
The Grand Climax book goes as far to say that people have been receiving the mark of the beast since 1922 when the League of Nations first went into operation. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not seem to realize that this could not possibly be true. For one thing, the scripture says that all persons were put under compulsion, yet the United States was not even a member of the League of Nations.
And why would God consign a person to everlasting death for their having thought that the League of Nations might be a good idea? And why would God have his ministers preach the truth and extend the hope of salvation if everyone has already received the mark of the beast and been condemned to everlasting, irreversible death?
These are questions that Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot answer. And questions the Watchtower refuses to answer.
The truth is, 1914 is a fraud. The Kingdom has not come. Satan has not been cast down. The beast has not suffered a mortal head wound and the 8th king has not come on the scene. These earthshaking events are about to unfold in astonishing fashion.