Let the earth be joyful. Let the many islands rejoice.
Clouds and thick gloom are all around him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him and consumes his adversaries on every side.
His lightning bolts light up the land; the earth sees it and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before Jehovah, before the Lord of the whole earth.
Chapter 2:
THE GENTILE TIMES
“Brother Russell…recognized that the year 1914 would mark the end of the Gentile Times… He urged others to check his writings carefully against God’s inspired Word so that they would be satisfied that what they were learning was in
full harmony with it.”
– Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Proclaimers –
On October 2nd, 1914, the Founder of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Charles Taze Russell, confidently strode into the Bethel dining hall and made the startling announcement to the headquarters staff: “The Gentile times have ended; their kings have had their day.” And what far-reaching effects that bold proclamation has had upon the modern movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses! Since that announcement almost 100 years ago, the faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses has been made to revolve around the core belief that Jesus Christ began ruling in his heavenly kingdom back in 1914. The Watchtower has since then sponsored the proclamation—“Jehovah himself has become king”!
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Chapter 3:
THE HARVEST
“The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.”
— Jesus Christ
With or without the seven-times chronology, Jehovah’s Witnesses are absolutely convinced that the time of the end and the foretold concluding harvest commenced in 1914. However, this chapter more closely examines some dearly held erroneous assumptions and the implications of a future harvest period. What is the harvest?
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Chapter 6:
THE SIGN
“But the most important date for all human creation is 1914, for that marked the greatest turning point in all human history…” -Watchtower, May 15, 1960
When confronted with the facts already presented concerning the falsity of the 1914 parousia doctrine, many of Jehovah’s Witnesses may be inclined to reason along lines similar to this: ‘Perhaps there are some aspects of the Watchtower’s 1914 doctrine that are not yet in focus, but surely the sign of Christ’s presence has been in evidence since 1914?’
This chapter will more closely examine the evidence presented.
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Chapter 7:
THE TEMPEST
“Look! A calamity is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest itself will be roused up
from the remotest parts of the earth.”
— Jeremiah 25:32
When Charles Taze Russell formed the original Allegheny Bible study group in 1874 it had been less than a decade since the American Civil War had ended. To put things into some perspective, at that time the last wave of the westward-heading pioneers were still plodding across the open prairie in ox and horse-drawn covered wagons and wars were still being waged using muskets, bayonets and iron cannon balls. When the Watchtower originally began publishing its message to the world it was still more than a decade before the first crude “horseless carriages” would appear on city streets and country lanes. And the Wright brothers had not even launched the era of aviation when the first International Bible Students in America and Europe began to anticipate the great and fearful sights that Jesus foretold would appear in the heavens as a sign.
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Chapter 9:
SPIRITUAL PARADISE
“However, think of the spiritual paradise that we now enjoy. Compared with the sick condition that we once were in, we have been healed spiritually.” – October 15, 2004, Watchtower
Nowhere is the spiritual blindness foretold in Isaiah more painfully apparent than in the persistent belief that a spiritual paradise presently exists among Jehovah’s Witnesses. While the exact expression “spiritual paradise” is not found in the Bible, the concept of a trouble-free, Edenic, spiritual haven certainly is. However, what exactly is it? This chapter will examine that question along with the Watchtower’s claim that Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently living in the spiritual paradise the Bible describes.
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Chapter 10:
MAN OF LAWLESSNESS
Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction.”
– Apostle Paul
Faithful Christians in the apostolic era were in a high state of expectation of the return of their Lord. After all, Jesus and the apostles repeatedly exhorted believers to be watchful and ready for his return. That made them especially vulnerable, though, to the wiles of apostates who falsely claimed that the resurrection had already begun and that the day of Jehovah was imminent.
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Chapter 11:
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
An old saying is: ‘Politics makes strange bedfellows’ …But when something threatens their way of operation… they join forces with erstwhile rivals or even enemies and distastefully work together” – Watchtower March 15, 1967
It is true—politics does make strange bedfellows. And religion and politics make even stranger bedfellows. Nowhere is that more evident than in the absurd political partnership between the professedly “politically neutral” Watchtower and the purported “disgusting thing”—the United Nations. It is so incredible, even when informed of the matter many of Jehovah’s Witnesses simply refuse to believe that the Watchtower could ever have made such a compromising alliance. But it did. What follows are the facts of the strange affair.
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Chapter 12:
COLLAPSE OF THE WATCHTOWER
Therefore for you this error will become like a broken section about to fall down, a swelling out in a highly raised wall…” – Isaiah 30
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ may perhaps be the most anticipated event in the history of the world and also, paradoxically, the most misunderstood. While Jehovah’s Witnesses do not use the term “the second coming,” in his letter to the Hebrews the apostle Paul used a similar expression, saying: “The second time that he appears.”
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Chapter 14:
DOWNFALL OF AMERICA
A day belonging to Jehovah is near – A day of clouds, an appointed time of nations it will prove to be.” – Ezekiel 30:3
The world now stands at the brink of one of the most shocking events in history. What may be deemed by many today to be very unlikely, even unthinkable, will become tomorrow’s bold-cap headlines. It will take place because the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has decreed it; for the “event” will herald the very commencement of the fear-inspiring day of Jehovah. According to Ezekiel, that day will be a dark time for the peoples of the world, “a day of clouds, an appointed time of nations it will prove to be.”
What exactly is the “appointed time of nations”?
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Chapter 15:
LONDON —
SATAN’S THRONE
I am a god. In the seat of god I have seated myself, in the heart of the open sea” -Ezekiel 28:2
Just as all the nations of the earth are likened to symbolic trees planted in the Garden of Eden, Jehovah’s forest of treelike nations has an appointed overseer, as did Eden originally. The overseer of nations in Ezekiel’s prophecy is the king of Tyre, of whom Ezekiel 28:13-14 says: “In Eden, the garden of God, you proved to be…You are the anointed cherub that is covering.”
While it is evident that Jehovah was referring to Satan the Devil before his rebellion, why does God link the king of Tyre with the anointed Cherub of Eden?
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Chapter 17:
HABAKKUK
O Jehovah, for a judgment you have set it; and, O Rock, for a reproving you have founded it.” -Habakkuk 1:12
Since Adam and Eve’s rebellion and expulsion from the paradise of peace and pleasure, trouble of all kinds—including quarreling, violence, strife, despoiling, and other forms of hurtfulness—have marked mankind’s futile existence outside of Eden. And now that numerous nations and despots possess weapons with the potential to cause destruction and death on a scale that staggers the imagination, the issue of divine intervention becomes all the more urgent. Realistically, without taking God’s eventual intervention into consideration there is no valid basis to believe the human race will survive. Although most people prefer not to think about such an unpleasant outcome for the world, the message of the prophets is that this present wicked civilization is eventually going to be squarely confronted with the unthinkable! In fact, it is the intention of certain men to bring it about!
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Chapter 19:
JEREMIAH
“My heart is boisterous within me. I cannot keep silent, for the sound of the horn is what my soul has heard, the alarm signal of war. Crash upon crash is what has been called out, for the whole land has been despoiled.” -Jeremiah 4:19-20
Just as there was only one temple where Jehovah placed his name in ancient times, there is only one “house” associated with the name of Jehovah now. It is the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower. For instance, every issue of the Watchtower magazine bears the very name of God emblazoned on its cover—“Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.” Some Bethel facilities even bear signage displaying the name Jehovah. Bethel is the modern “house upon which my name has been called.” And, of course, the name of Jehovah is quite literally called upon Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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Chapter 21:
MICAH
“Hear, O you mountains, the legal case of Jehovah, also…you foundations of the earth; for Jehovah has a legal case with his people, and it is with Israel that he will argue” -Micah 6:2
Micah is one of the oldest prophetic books of the Bible, yet its message is earmarked for fulfillment in “the final part of the days”—when God’s kingdom assumes power. So, what is the significance of Micah for Christians today? The name of the prophet himself—Micah—is a shortened form of the name Michael, which, of course, is the name of the archangel who is elsewhere described in prophecy as the savior of Jehovah’s people. And appropriately, woven throughout the prophecy of Micah the Messiah is prophesied to serve in a similar capacity as savior.
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Chapter 23:
ZEPHANIAH
“The great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much. The sound of the day of Jehovah is bitter…” -Zephaniah 1:14
Through Zephaniah, Jehovah expresses his determination to annihilate faithless evildoers and false worshippers from among his people—particularly their occultic priests of Baal. The prophecy also denounces the surrounding nations—including Assyria.
As with other prophecies, though, it is evident that God intended the prophecy of Zephaniah to apply far beyond the affairs of Judah and the ancient world. For example, Zephaniah 1:18 indicates that Jehovah’s denunciation is global—total. That verse reads: “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.”
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EPILOGUE
“For the joy that was set before him he endured a torture stake, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:2
If asked the question of why it was necessary for Jesus to die, the most common response is that Jesus had to give his life to pay for our sins. And, of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses could give a more detailed explanation of the ransom.
But is the ransoming of mankind from sin and death the sole, or even primary reason Jesus gave his life?
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