Sunday, October 16
I, Jehovah, am . . . guiding you in the way you should walk.—Isa. 48:17.
The Bible Students of the late 19th and early 20th centuries faced many obstacles. Like the first-century Christians, they proclaimed a largely unpopular message. They were few in number, and the world in general did not consider them highly educated. Moreover, they would in time face the “great anger” of Satan the Devil. (Rev. 12:12) And their preaching work would take place during “the last days,” an era characterized by “critical times hard to deal with.” (2 Tim. 3:1) Jehovah helped the Bible Students to understand fundamental Scriptural truths that had long been obscured by Christendom’s doctrines. He is now using his people to make the true knowledge known throughout the earth. Today, we see the fulfillment of the prophecy found at Daniel 12:4. Nearly 8,000,000 people have embraced Bible truth and are now declaring it worldwide.
COMMENTARY
The blindness of the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses is absolute.
Jehovah could easily remedy it, but he has chosen not to for the time being. Instead, he is allowing the ignorance to dominate until the time of the end. Then his judgments will be revealed. Unfortunately, because of sheer stubbornness and arrogance, God is obliged to use brute force to get his message across.
Ironically, the 48th chapter of Isaiah, from where the Watchtower cherry-picked the verse above to imply that everything the Governing Body does and teaches is guided by the hand of God, foretells that God has guarded secrets that are not revealed until such time as his stiff-necked people are humbled in Babylon: “From now on I am announcing new things to you, Guarded secrets that you have not known. Only now are they being created, and not long ago, things that you never heard before today, so that you cannot say, ‘Look! I already know them.’ No, you have not heard, you have not known, and in the past your ears were not opened. For I know that you are very treacherous, and you have been called a transgressor from birth.” —Isaiah 48:6-8
It is when the guarded secrets are made known that Jehovah’s guiding hand will prevail. Those guarded secrets have to do with the unveiling of Jesus Christ —a concept that is completely alien to Jehovah’s Witnesses due to the invisible parousia delusion cast by the Watchtower. That is why when Christ comes he will not find anyone to receive him, as Isaiah 50:2 says: “Why, then, was no one here when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?”
But how is it possible for God’s people to be in Babylon in modern times?
According to the Watchtower the original Bible Students got out of Babylon the Great by having their names removed from their respective church membership rosters. And then in 1919 Jehovah performed a mighty deliverance from Babylon the Great (Why that was necessary is anyone’s guess, since the Watchtower claims the Bible Students had already gotten out, individually.) And of course, since 1919 individuals continue to “get out of her” by converting to become Jehovah’s Witnesses.
It is impossible for Jehovah’s Witnesses to conceive of any type of future scenario whereby God’s people could be called upon to get out of Babylon. That is because it is assumed that the command has already been given and heeded.
But, first and foremost Babylon was an empire, an empire that was dominated by religion. The same is true of the eighth king of Revelation, which is why when the angel introduced John to Babylon the Great he spoke more about the mystery of the beast than the mother of harlots who sits upon the beast.
Contrary to the absurd notion that the League of Nations was the eighth kingdom, the scarlet-colored, seven-headed beast has not come on the scene yet. That is because, also contrary to the Watchtower’s incredible story about the Anglo head of the beast receiving a mortal wound during the First World War —a war in which the British and Americas were victorious —the beast has not had a fatal wound inflicted upon it.
But all indications are that the mighty American kingdom is about to be pulled down. It can happen very suddenly with perhaps a cyber attack taking down the financial system, or any number of other scenarios, such as a terror attack with weapons of mass destruction. The crash of the present system, followed by a miraculous recovery, is what is portrayed in the 13th chapter of Revelation by the following: “Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority. I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been fatally wounded, but its mortal wound had been healed, and all the earth followed the wild beast with admiration.”
The death and revival of the beast commences the rule of the eighth king, which is why the scarlet-colored beast is presented as a separate beast. And Babylon the Great will still be in a dominate position in the post-crash world —at least for a short while.
During that period Jehovah’s Witnesses will be conquered —their Watchtower silenced; their ministry completely curtailed; their kingdom halls confiscated and burned.
“They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the tabernacle bearing your name, casting it to the ground. They and their offspring have said in their hearts: ‘All the meeting places of God in the land must be burned.’ There are no signs for us to see; there is no longer any prophet, and no one among us knows how long this will last.” — Psalms 74
From that lowly place Jehovah will become the Repurchaser of his people and issue the command to “get out of her, my people!”
According to the 4th chapter of Micah, during the final part of the days the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be lifted up on high, in that very context Micah 10-11 states: “Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman giving birth, for now you will go from the city and reside in the field. You will go as far as to Babylon, and there you will be rescued; there Jehovah will buy you back from the hand of your enemies. Now many nations will be gathered against you; they will say, ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eyes see this happen to Zion.’ But they do not know the thoughts of Jehovah, they do not understand his purpose; for he will gather them like a row of newly cut grain to the threshing floor.”
