Chapter 6 – THE JUDGMENT

Afew months after being immersed in the waters of the Jordan by John the Baptizer, Jesus undertook his first sojourn to Jerusalem as the Messiah. Upon arriving for the Passover festival, Jesus went into the temple courtyard and threw out the merchants and overturned the tables of the moneychangers who had set up shop there, saying to them: “Take these things away from here! Stop making the house of my Father a house of merchandise!”

During his last trip to Jerusalem, also on the Passover festival, which ultimately led to his arrest, trial, and execution, Jesus once again evicted the moneychangers and merchants from his Father’s house. No doubt to the astonishment of his disciples, immediately prior to his cleansing the temple the second time, Jesus announced the coming destruction of both Jerusalem and the temple. The stated reason being: “Because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”

As the appointed Messiah, Jesus was the Inspector of his Father’s house, and because of their deplorable lack of faith, the majority of the Jews failed to pass that inspection.

However, a new temple was going to be constructed. No, not another temple made with wood and stones—this time a spiritual one. Jesus had previously spoken of this new “temple” on the occasion immediately after the first time he threw the moneychangers out of his Father’s house; when the Jews demanded to see a sign from him as proof of his authority from God, Jesus said to them: “Break down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews, of course, assumed that Jesus was speaking about the physical structure of Herod’s temple, and so they responded: “This temple was built in forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But the apostle John, who likely witnessed the conversation, later clarified what Jesus actually meant. At John 2:21- 22 we read: “But he was talking about the temple of his body. When, though, he was raised up from the dead, his disciples called to mind that he used to say this; and they believed the Scripture and the saying that Jesus said.”

As Jehovah’s Witnesses know, Jesus was not speaking in literal terms when he spoke of “the temple of his body.” Jesus was alluding to the fact that the traditional form of worship centered on the temple in Jerusalem would become obsolete. After his resurrection, Jesus himself would become the central figure in a completely new form of worship—in essence, he would become the temple, or at least the chief cornerstone of a great spiritual, temple-like organization.

The apostle Peter likened Christ’s spiritual congregation to a literal stone temple when he wrote at 1 Peter 2:4-6, saying: “Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected, it is true, by men, but chosen, precious, with God, you yourselves also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it is contained in Scripture: ‘Look! I am laying in Zion a stone, chosen, a foundation cornerstone, precious; and no one exercising faith in it will by any means come to disappointment.’”

The apostle Paul used the exact same analogy at Ephesians 2:20-22, saying: “You have been built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, while Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone. In union with him the whole building, being harmoniously joined together, is growing into a holy temple for Jehovah. In union with him you, too, are being built up together into a place for God to inhabit by spirit.”

Just as the literal temple in Jerusalem came in line for Heaven’s inspection, so too the spiritual temple at the conclusion of the system. Actually, the apostle Peter indicated that all the prospective temple stones are continually under God’s judgment. That is why he wrote the following: “For it is the appointed time for the judgment to start with the house of God. Now if it starts first with us, what will the end be of those who are not obedient to the good news of God?” — 1 Peter 4:17

In the context of Peter’s epistle, the persecutions, sufferings, and hardships that all Christians experience are part of the stone-hewing and polishing process God has willed for prospective members of his spiritual structure. Jehovah describes his method of dealing with his sons at Hosea 6:5: “That is why I shall have to hew them by the prophets; I shall have to kill them by the sayings of my mouth. And the judgments upon you will be as the light that goes forth.”

However, it is apparent that, even though, in one sense, the appointed time for the judgment of the house of God had already begun in the first century and continues, the Scriptures foretell a final judgment period concurrent with the conclusion of the entire system of things. Hence, in the second chapter of the same letter Peter wrote of a future day of inspection, saying: “Maintain your conduct fine among the nations, that, in the thing in which they are speaking against you as evil-doers, they may as a result of your fine works of which they are eyewitnesses glorify God in the day for his inspection.” Logically, the future “day for his inspection” is an immediate preliminary to Jehovah becoming king in the fullest sense.

According to the Watchtower article cited in the title caption of this chapter, Jehovah supposedly became king in 1914, and shortly thereafter the judgment presumably commenced—not only for the house of God, but even for “professed Christian organizations” as well. But more than that, the Watchtower also claims that God passed judgment upon all of Babylon the Great back in 1918-19, which includes non-Christian religions too. As recently as 1989, the Watchtower stated:

“By 1919 it was apparent that Jehovah had passed judgment on Christendom—and indeed on all false religion.”

In reality, the Watchtower makes no distinction between the judgment that begins with the house of God and the period of judgment upon the world’s religions. The Watchtower’s assumption that by 1919 God had passed judgment on all religion is based upon the mere fact that a handful of prominent clergymen once hailed the League of Nations as “the political expression of God’s Kingdom on earth.”

But, is it reasonable that God’s judgment started back in 1918-19? Moreover, is it true? First, though, it might be best to establish what is supposed to happen when Christ comes to inspect his Father’s spiritual house, and then it can be better determined if those things have already occurred.

The prophecy of Malachi describes the coming of Jehovah’s messenger to the temple in easily understandable symbolic terms. Malachi 3:1-4 reads: “‘Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will clear up a way before me. And suddenly the true Lord, whom you are seeking, will come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant will come, in whom you take delight. Look! He will certainly come,’ says Jehovah of armies. ‘But who will endure the day of his coming, and who will be able to stand when he appears? For he will be like the fire of a refiner and like the lye of laundrymen. And he will sit as a refiner and cleanser of silver and will cleanse the sons of Levi; and he will clarify them like gold and like silver, and they will certainly become to Jehovah people presenting a gift offering in righteousness. And the gift offering of Judah and of Jerusalem will actually be pleasing to Jehovah, as in the days of long ago and as in the years of antiquity.’”

The coming of the “messenger of the covenant” is obviously a very significant event in the outworking of God’s purpose. The foretold “messenger” can be none other than Jesus Christ, since he is the messenger and mediator of a new covenant with anointed Christians. His coming as a laundryman and refiner is not in reference to his appearance on earth nearly 2,000 years ago.

As the verse above indicates, the coming of the messenger is “for the judgment.” But the initial phase of the judgment is not the judgment of mankind in general, as is implied in the April 1, 1996, Watchtower. The prophecy speaks to “the sons of Levi”—in other words, the cleansing pertains to the anointed congregation of Christ. They are likened to the “sons of Levi”—the Levitical priests— since they are to serve as priests in the Kingdom of God. So, in answer to the question of what happens when Christ comes to inspect the spiritual house of God, the answer is that Jesus initiates a thorough cleansing and purification of his congregation.

As strange as it may seem, the Watchtower actually teaches that the prophecy of Malachi has already been fulfilled. As recently as the year 2000, the Watchtower published the following comment on the third chapter of Malachi:

“It pointed to the time when Jehovah God would come to his spiritual temple accompanied by his “messenger of the covenant,” Jesus Christ. This evidently happened at the end of World War I. Jehovah inspected all of those claiming to be Christians, sifting the true from the false.” (Volume I commentary on Isaiah, Page 33)

“Evidently,” Christ came during World War I to refine and cleanse his people? Upon what evidence does the Watchtower base its bold assumption? True, the coming of the messenger has to do with cleansing and refining God’s people from their own errors and spiritual uncleanness. But if Jesus Christ came as the foretold refiner during World War I, then we would expect to see an organization cleansed of all moral and spiritual corruption. Do we?

Another question: While the Watchtower claims there is a clear distinction between the “faithful anointed remnant and the apostate clergy of Christendom,” is there, really?

For example, for decades, the Watchtower has lambasted the clergy of Christendom for their political support of the United Nations. However, as documented in the chapter “Strange Bedfellows” (retitled “The Partnership”), the Watchtower Society also entered into a secret political partnership with the United Nations by serving as an associate-level NGO to the UN for 10 years. Since the Watchtower claims to be the voice of the anointed remnant, the only discernible difference between Christendom and the anointed in this respect is that many of the churches of Christendom have openly endorsed the United Nations, while the Watchtower has done so secretly —hypocritically.

Then, take the matter of adultery: The prophecy of Malachi says that the messenger “will become a speedy witness against…the adulterers.” This harmonizes with Hebrews 13:4, which says, “God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” So, if Christ became a “speedy witness” against those practicing adultery back in 1918, how is it that the organization today is rife with fornicators and adulterers? Even the Watchtower admits that tens of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses are disfellowshipped every year for sexual immorality. Countless others live double lives and are never found out. So, in what way has Christ been a “speedy witness” against them?

Immoral sexual relations between consenting adults are bad enough, but in recent years, thousands of children in the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been victimized by depraved sexual predators—pedophilic Jehovah’s Witnesses. Worse, many of the grown victims and their advocates feel as though the Watchtower’s policies are directly responsible for shielding sexual predators from exposure.

Incredibly, while the Society’s public relations department downplays such crimes against children by claiming that the scourge of pedophilia is no worse among Jehovah’s Witnesses than that found in any other religious organization, the Watchtower still unblushingly claims to be Jehovah’s “clean organization” that has been set apart from the defiled religionists of Christendom.

Thinking Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, ought to ask why the Lord Jesus Christ is such an ineffective refiner and cleanser of his Father’s spiritual house. Of course, the preferred alternative to such blasphemy is to recognize that Christ has not yet come with the cleansing lye of a laundryman.

What does the verse mean that says: “And he must sit as a refiner and cleanser of silver…and he must clarify them like gold and like silver”? Elsewhere in prophecy, Jehovah uses the very same analogy to illustrate how he intends to refine his people of their dross-like impurities. For example, Isaiah 1:25-28 says: “I will turn my hand against you, I will smelt away your dross as with lye, and I will remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges as in the beginning and your advisers as at the start. After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town. With justice Zion will be redeemed, and her people who return, with righteousness. The rebels and the sinners will be broken together, and those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish.”

If the Christian congregation had become “the City of Righteousness” in 1918, the rebels and sinners and apostates leaving Jehovah would have been broken and come to their finish then. Surely no one is so unreasoning as to make that claim.

“YOU HAVE BECOME LIKE WORTHLESS DROSS”

We are informed by the Watchtower’s Insight on the Scriptures that laundryman’s lye was also used in smelting metals. When refining silver to separate it from base metals such as tin and copper, the refiner would sometimes add lye to the crucible to consolidate the molten metal floating on the surface. That material was then skimmed off as scummy dross, leaving behind pure molten silver.

Jehovah also used the very same imagery in the prophecy of Ezekiel, where we read: “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Because all of you have become like worthless dross, I am collecting you together inside Jerusalem. Just as silver and copper and iron and lead and tin are collected inside a furnace in order to blow fire upon them and melt them, so I will collect you together in my anger and in my rage, and I will blow upon you and make you melt. I will bring you together and blow upon you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted inside of her.” —Ezekiel 22:19-22

The apostle Paul similarly wrote concerning a day of fiery trial that is destined to come upon Christ’s congregation—consuming all that is inferior: “Now if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood materials, hay, stubble, each one’s work will become manifest, for the day will show it up, because it will be revealed by means of fire; and the fire itself will prove what sort of work each one’s is. If anyone’s work that he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved; yet, if so, it will be as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

The inspired apostle’s illustration completely harmonizes with Ezekiel’s prophecy. It is, therefore, evident that all Christians living at the time of Christ’s inspection will be “liquefied” in the blast furnace of God’s heated anger. In both illustrations, only the precious metals will remain after the fiery judgment is concluded. No doubt the Watchtower’s cherished 1914 dogma will be incinerated as if mere hay and stubble during the day of fire.

Surely, none of Jehovah’s Witnesses are so unreasonable as to insist that the day of fire has already taken place!

“WHEN THE EARTH WAS MELTING AWAY”

Consider the 75th Psalm. It speaks of the time of God’s judgment. God says: “When I set a time, I judge with fairness. When the earth and all its inhabitants were dissolved, it was I who kept its pillars firm.” (vs 2,3) The Emphacized Bible words it slightly differently: “Earth was melting away with all its inhabitants, I have fixed the pillars thereof.”

We know God’s purpose is for the earth to be inhabited forever, that God has solidly fixed it so that it will not totter. What, then, does it mean that the earth was dissolved and melting away, but that God kept it firm? Some keen Bible students may recognize a similarity to what an apostle of Jesus wrote concerning the earth being dissolved. 2 Peter 3:10 states: “But Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be exposed.”

Although discussed more fully in the ninth chapter concerning the Lord’s day coming as a thief in the night when they will be saying “peace and security,” Peter likely intended to say “the day of the Lord” in reference to Christ, since the Lord himself said he was coming as a thief in the night. In any case, not even the Governing Body has claimed that the heavens have passed away with a roar or that the elements have melted and the earth and its works exposed.

What, though, does this apocalyptic riddle mean? It means that the world will face utter destruction, as if the entire planet might melt down. What could possibly bring about such a dire catastrophe? Less than a century ago, Bible students could not have understood. Now, though, nations possess thermonuclear weapons in such numbers that the planet can literally be turned into a charred, radioactive cinder devoid of life. Everyone knows this to be true. Did not Jesus speak of a tribulation so severe that unless God intervened to cut it short, no flesh would survive?

The 75th Psalm speaks of God cutting short the tribulation: “When the earth and all its inhabitants were dissolved, it was I who kept its pillars firm.” And that is when the judgment begins. In reality, there is nothing in Christian history that fulfills the pattern of the prophecies. Reasonably, then, the fiery desolation and subsequent restoration of anti-typical Jerusalem have not taken place.

Returning to the prophecy of Malachi, consider the rhetorical question posed by the prophet: “But who will be putting up with the day of his coming, and who will be the one standing when he appears?”

Jesus echoed those words when he spoke of the trials associated with his second coming. For instance, warning his disciples of the severity of the coming tribulation, Jesus said: “For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.” — Luke 21:34

Not even the Watchtower teaches that the great tribulation has already come “upon the face of all the earth,” as Christ foretold. That being the case, it remains to be seen who will succeed in faithfully “standing before the Son of man.”

And did you notice the messenger of the covenant will “appear”? At Hebrews 9:28, the apostle Paul also made mention of “the second time he appears,” referring to Jesus. Why, then, do Jehovah’s Witnesses not understand what it means to appear? Can one appear invisibly? Was Jesus invisible the first time he appeared? Please carefully consider the next chapter.