The Watchtower: When Does Jesus Come? (print version)

The question is: Does Revelation 7:3 indicate that all of the remaining anointed ones are permanently sealed before the tribulation commences?

The answer is no. The ordering of events in Revelation proves the opposite; namely, that the final sealing occurs during the tribulation, but before Armageddon. How so?

The opening of the sixth seal betokens the dark days of the earth- shaking tribulation. Revelation 6:12-17 reads: "And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake occurred; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the entire moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as when a fig tree shaken by a high wind casts its unripe figs. And the heaven departed as a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and every island were removed from their places. And the kings of the earth and the top-ranking ones and the military commanders and the rich and the strong ones and every slave and every free person hid themselves in the caves and in the rock-masses of the mountains. And they keep saying to the mountains and to the rock-masses: "Fall over us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

According to Christ, the collapse of the symbolic heavens is the result of the tribulation. That's why Mathew 24:29 reads: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken."

So, the opening of the sixth seal definitely occurs during the tribulation. More than likely, the opening of the second seal unleashing the war horse, provoking nation to rise up against nation, is the actual beginning of the tribulation, which results in the "great earthquake" leading to the complete collapse of the present system. Unquestionably, the sun becoming darkened and the moon turning to blood and the mountains and islands being rocked from their foundations, is symbolic language foretelling how the present establishment will be rocked from the foundation to the rafters.

The very next span of verses in Revelation, beginning the 7th chapter, then describes the final sealing and gathering of the great crowd, saying: "After this I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding tight the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrising, having a seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads."

Notice, please, that Revelation 7:1 begins with the phrase "after this." After what exactly? After the initial phase of the tribulation that rocks the heavens and earth.

The Watchtower's error is in the mistaken notion that the angels are holding back the four winds of the tribulation. That cannot be the case since the sequence of events in the 6th and 7th chapter of Revelation indicates that the sealing occurs after the tribulation has begun. The four winds that the angels are restraining apparently symbolize the destructive winds from God that will blow during the war of Armageddon—the final phase of the tribulation.

That the sealing will occur during the tribulation and not before is apparently why Jesus said: "In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short."

But why is the tribulation cut short on account of the chosen ones? According to the angelic declaration at the opening of the 5th seal, there is a specific number of leftover chosen ones that are destined be put to death before Armageddon. Revelation 6:11 indicates that God's vengeance is withheld "until the number was filled also of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they also had been."

So, the tribulation is cut short in order that the final sealing may occur in preparation for the revealing of the true sons of God and their releasing by ransom. The Watchtower is simply wrong in their assumption that the sealing takes place before the outbreak of the tribulation. They are also wrong in assuming that Jehovah could not replace anointed Christians who prove unfaithful during the initial phase of the tribulation—before the final sealing.

Consider more closely Jesus' letters to the seven congregations of Revelation.

The seven congregations represent the entire anointed congregation of Christ during the Lord's day. With that in mind, notice Jesus' counsel to the Thyatiran congregation at Revelation 2:20-23, which reads: "'Nevertheless, I do hold this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and misleads my slaves to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her fornication. Look! I am about to throw her into a sickbed, and those committing adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And her children I will kill with deadly plague, so that all the congregations will know that I am he who searches the kidneys and hearts, and I will give to you individually according to your deeds.

The Watchtower applies this prophetic counsel to literal sexually immoral, domineering women in the congregations. The Revelation book says that such Jezebel-like individuals are disfellowshipped from the congregations. But that is not what Jesus says.

According to Revelation, Jesus allows the immoral Jezebel to continue to dominate among his people up until the time that he personally judges her and throws her into great tribulation and kills off her illegitimate children. That strongly suggests that "Jezebel" is not dealt with by any sort of human judicial committee, but only by Jesus during the great tribulation.

But not only that, Jesus even calls the symbolic Jezebel to repentance. Since she is in the anointed congregation of Christ, that means that Jezebel represents anointed Christians who are unfaithful to their husbandly owner.

So, if the symbolic "Jezebel" wields her demonic influence over Christ's slaves in the midst of the congregation, then it stands to reason that "Jezebel" represents an apostate breed of Christian that resides in God's household up until the final judgment. And, if she is not judged until the tribulation, as Revelation indicates, obviously then, she would not be sealed with Jehovah's final approval before, only to be condemned afterwards. Remember, the sealing means that such ones are given Jehovah's irrevocable final approval.

In the time of Elijah the prophet, Jezebel misled the Israelites into the worship of Baal. Although as a Baal worshipper Queen Jezebel was probably sexually immoral, the Bible highlights her spiritual fornications. When asked if there was peace between them, Jehovah's newly anointed king, Jehu, responded to Jezebel's son: "What peace could there be as long as there are the fornications of Jezebel your mother and her many sorceries?"

The point of that historical reference is that we should not necessarily assume that the "Jezebel" of Revelation represents literal female fornicators.

Revelation also indicates that the symbolic Jezebel misleads Christ's slaves into idolatry and spiritual adultery. She is also a false prophetess. So, who might the modern-day Jezebel represent? The Jezebel of Christ's prophecy likely represents a corrupt faction of anointed individuals within the Watchtower establishment who, like Jezebel, have steered the modern organization of spiritual Israel into idolatry and spiritual adultery with the Baal-like United Nations idol. (See essay: Plumbing the Depths of the Watchtower's Prostitution.)

No wonder Jesus' counsel to each of the seven congregations included the caveat: "Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations."

Exploring the Bible's intricate interconnections further: Interestingly, the 11th chapter of Revelation evokes the image of Elijah where it says of the two anointed witnesses: "These have the authority to shut up heaven that no rain should fall during the days of their prophesying." Bible students, of course, recall that during the days of Jezebel, Elijah gave the word and a drought occurred for three-and-a-half years—the same length of time the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth. Not only that, but during the time of Elijah's hiding in the wilderness from the wrathful Jezebel, Jehovah reminded his prophet that he had 7,000 other prophets who had not bent their knees to Baal or kissed his grotesque image.

The Christian prophet, Paul, makes reference to Elijah's remnant of 7,000 and applies it to the Christian congregation, saying at Romans 11:4-5: "Yet, what does the divine pronouncement say to him? "I have left seven thousand men over for myself, men who have not bent the knee to Baal." In this way, therefore, at the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing due to undeserved kindness."

Although Paul referred to the 1st century as the "present season" when the remnant of 7,000 appear, we should not overlook the fact that the 11th chapter of Revelation refers to an unnumbered remnant, or "remaining ones," who are left behind on earth after the kingdom comes and commences the resurrection of the holy ones. So, Paul's "present season" is really prophetic of the Lord's day.

Here's where it really gets interesting:

The 11th chapter of Revelation also refers to 7,000 who are killed during a "great earthquake." Revelation 11:13 reads: "And in that hour a great earthquake occurred, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand persons were killed by the earthquake, and the rest became frightened and gave glory to the God of heaven."

The tenth part of the city that falls is representative of the earthly part of the then-ruling heavenly kingdom associated with Christ's sealed congregation—in other words what we call Jehovah's visible organization. (Ten or a tenth is indicative of earthly completeness. So, the complete part of the city of God on earth would symbolize the entire body of Christ on earth at that time.)

Isaiah 6:11-13 likewise foretells of a crash and desolation and refers to the tenth part of Israel as the holy seed. The prophet writes: At this I said: "How long, O Jehovah?" Then he said: "Until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without an inhabitant, and the houses be without earthling man, and the ground itself is ruined into a desolation; and Jehovah actually removes earthling men far away, and the deserted condition does become very extensive in the midst of the land. And there will still be in it a tenth, and it must again become something for burning down, like a big tree and like a massive tree in which, when there is a cutting down of them, there is a stump; a holy seed will be the stump of it."

Because they appear in the context of the Elijah-like anointed witnesses, the 7,000 in Revelation who are killed no doubt represent the final number of sealed ones who do not bow before the image of the wild beast or get its mark during the hour of test.

We should not suppose that the 7,000 are merely symbolically killed, as the Watchtower suggests the clergy were back in 1919. That is evident from the fact that Jehovah "brings to ruin those ruining the earth" immediately after the 7,000 are killed—no doubt in response to their killing.

But, as it relates to the topic at hand, the fact that "Jezebel" remains in the midst of Christ's congregation up until Jesus personally executes her means that eventually the spiritual Jezebel will seek to murder and persecute Jehovah's real servants—just as Jezebel did in the days of Elijah.

In the future, then, we may expect the 7,000 genuine sons of the kingdom to be persecuted and betrayed by the false prophetess Jezebel faction within the congregation; during the time that Christ foretold, when: "People will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off."

The March 1st Watchtower maintains that Malachi 3:1 was fulfilled in 1918, when, supposedly, Christ came to his spiritual temple to set things in order. That verse reads: "Look! I am sending my messenger, and he must clear up a way before me. And suddenly there will come to His temple the true Lord, whom you people are seeking, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you are delighting. Look! He will certainly come," Jehovah of armies has said.

The Watchtower tries to juggle between their insistence that the judgment occurred way back when and the idea that the judgment of the anointed is ongoing. But a few verses down Malachi describes Jesus' sudden inspection of God's spiritual temple with these words, saying: "And I will come near to you people for the judgment, and I will become a speedy witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing falsely, and against those acting fraudulently with the wages of a wage worker, with the widow and with the fatherless boy, and those turning away the alien resident, while they have not feared me," Jehovah of armies has said.

Now we must ask the following painful questions: If Jesus becomes a "speedy witness" against all wrongdoers in God's household when he comes for inspection, and that inspection supposedly took place more than eight decades ago, why is it that the organization is still rife with all the aforementioned sins?

For example, why has not Jesus become a "speedy witness" against the child molesters and the policy makers who conceal them in the organization? Indeed, why does Jesus allow many of the so-called fatherless boys and girls in our organization to be raped by wicked men and then denied justice by the elders?

If Jesus has already set things straight and refined God's people, why does he continue put up with the sorceries of Jezebel, as Revelation indicates, and allow his congregation to continue to prostitute itself with the United Nations?

Indeed, in what sense has Christ already become a "speedy witness" against wrongdoing in the organization?

Clearly, he hasn't—not yet anyway.

Next week's commentary will continue to examine the topic of Jesus' coming.

The Watchtower: When DOES Jesus Come?

The Watchtower:
When DOES Jesus Come?