When you first produced commentaries and essays about the scriptures in particular about the Watchtower and Jehovah’s Witnesses, you gave me the impression that you believed the Watchtower, or at least the group that call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses was God’s earthly organization. Indeed, you said that they, as god’s people, were in line for Judgment and they were at present blind this. However your latest commentary about Babylon the Great (when you discuss other groups who were active at the same time of the bible students who also rejected the League of Nations) appears to indicate that your opinion is changing. Do you still hold to the modern day congregation being Gods slave or not?
My belief that the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses has served Jehovah’s purpose has not changed. Perhaps you misunderstood the commentary on The Myth of the Fall of Babylon the Great – or maybe it was unclear.
An oft-overlooked yet crucial aspect of the command to “get out of her my people” is the simple fact that the command is issued to those whom God calls “my people.” That means that God recognizes the captives of Babylon as his people before they come out of her – just as the Jews were God’s people before they went into captivity.
The Watchtower presently teaches that Babylon the Great fell in 1919. Does that mean that the International Bible Students were part of Babylon the Great before 1919? Not according to the Watchtower. The Society teaches that God’s people went into spiritual captivity for the brief duration of 1916-1919 only. As you are undoubtedly aware, that is when the Watchtower headquarters went through an intense period of turmoil –culminating in the incarceration of J.F. Rutherford and seven other Watchtower officials.Presumably, before 1916 the International Bible Students were not in Babylon the Great.
(In actuality, the Watchtower originally published that Babylon the Great was the Catholic Church and that it fell in 1808-9 when Napoleon had Pope Pius VII arrested and the Vatican was occupied by Napoleon’s army for approximately 10 years. Apparently, though, in 1900 the Watchtower revised their view of Babylon the Great to encompass all of Christendom and it was said to have fallen in 1874, which is the year that Jesus' parousia was originally thought to have begun. The view that Babylon the Great fell in 1919 was not adopted until some time later – probably after 1925, which is when the Society first formulated the doctrine that Christ’s presence began in 1914 -- not 1874. Interestingly, that means that the International Bible Students did not even realize the angel had sounded the call to “get out of her my people” until more than six years after they supposedly had already gotten out of her! – proving that every myth has an untidy element to it that cannot be reconciled with reality.)
The point is, our misunderstanding of what getting out of Babylon means prevents us from considering any alternative interpretation. My purpose is to tear down and uproot the numerous falsities with which Jehovah’s Witnesses have been saddled; in order to prepare the minds of a few to anticipate what the Watchtower does not expect – a future captivity to Babylon the Great.
3 comments:
Hello,
I found this article while searching the internet for Jehova's Witness info.
Apparently, some thugs attacked a union leader in Greece, and say they were threatened by Jehovah's Witnesses.
Can you check out the article and comment.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100017_07/02/2006_66095
i have re-read your essay and still feel that you have altered your original concept. that being Jehovahs witnesess are the wayward congregation of christ.
you appear to break this original belief by showing that after 1914 the watchtower society were not the only group of christians who rejected the league of nations as an abonimation against the kingdom of God.
the point i make is the scriptures that you quote as being applied judgementally to gods earthly organisation must be applied to an organisation that God considers to belong to him.
however if other groups are part of that organisation then your interpretations cannot be exclusive to JWs and that being the case then it must be true that the earthly congregation of God has not been formed as of yet in time for these judgements to be applied.
In response to Elihu's comment:
Indeed, Christ's congregation is being formed. It is a work in progress, ever since Jesus established the new covenant with his disciples for a kingdom, as later evidenced by his pouring out of God's holy spirit at the festival of Pentecost, following his resurrection and ascension to heaven.
E-watchman's point is that by calling upon the name of Jehovah, the people and the organization known worldwide as Jehovah's Witnesses are identifying themselves as God's people. As such, they are accountable to God for bearing his name. God in turn is obligated to discipline and refine them, and finally show them his mercy by pouring out his blessing upon them.
Here is a simple way to explain this:
You may have a large family that branches out to various families, but let's say that they organize themselves to meet at a particular place, say in their grandparent's house. This is what Judge Rutherford did by adopting the name Jehovah's Witnesses and using the Watchtower to organize religious services and disseminate Bible literature.
So imagine you are in your grandparent's house, but your grandparent is not actually present, so others are delegated the duties of caring for the goings-on of the household. That’s the work the governing body or the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses are attempting to do; albeit it is a huge task.
In accord with God’s holy spirit, they will render an account to God (our grandparent) as to how they manage the household of faith. After dismissing the evil slave Jesus will establish the faithful and discreet slave over all his belongings.
Apparently, this will take place when Christ begins to wrap things up during the great tribulation or the hour of test to come upon the entire inhabited earth.
No such test took place in 1914-1919 on a global scale never before seen in history. --See Revelation 3:10 and Matthew 24:21.
cg
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