Jehovah designed his universe to work on a set of very specific laws and principles. Not only is the physical world governed by laws such as gravity and thermodynamics, but more especially God's intelligent creation, both angelic and human, are bound by moral and spiritual laws. One such principle is that you reap what you sow. Adam and Eve sowed the seeds of disobedience and rebellion. Should we suppose the Jehovah ought to have prematurely intervened to prevent the unfolding of the consequences of their sin? It is not reasonable to expect God to weaken his own authority by preventing Adam and Eve and their offspring from reaping the full harvest of our lawlessness.

But, the fact that God has already made provisions to redeem mankind from death and undo mess that we have made leaves God open to no accusation of unfairness or unconcern. With the knowledge we have of the issues of universal sovereignty and knowing the great sacrifice that both Jehovah and Jesus made, there is really no excuse for anyone acquainted with the issues to accuse Jehovah in this matter.

There is no question that the Watchtower has presented a very convincing case. After all, Jehovah's Witnesses are not stupid. There are many very sharp brothers and sisters who accept the Watchtower's teaching on this. But, upon closer examination there are many things that just simply do not add up.

For one thing, consider the fact that the original fall of Babylon was an earth-shaking event in the ancient world. Before her sudden downfall, Babylon was considered to be virtually unconquerable; yet, Jehovah foretold in some detail how she would be overthrown by Cyrus, which is exactly what occurred on October 2nd, 539 B.C.E. But in comparison, the modern application that the Watchtower makes seems to pale into insignificance. How can the brief incarceration of eight Watchtower officials compare to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of an entire nation? And how can their making bail compare to the overthrow of the mighty Babylonian Empire and the repatriation of the Jews?

We might ask too: When did the supposed captivity to Babylon the Great begin for the Bible Students? It seems as if genuine spiritual liberation from Christendom began back in the 1870's, when the Watchtower first began to expose Christendom's doctrinal errors.  But, in what way did Christendom spiritually enslave us during the difficult period of 1916-1919 so that God's people had to get out of her again?

Eight brothers being railroaded off to prison did not necessarily have to affect the spirituality of the whole organization in a negative way. The Watchtower says that the preaching work nearly ground to a halt back then. But why should it have? The Bible Students themselves were not really hindered from preaching. The Watchtower never even missed an issue. Again: In what way were Jehovah's people spiritually enslaved by Babylon the Great so that they had to flee out of her? Going to prison for one's faith does not necessarily mean that a Christian has been unfaithful to God. On the contrary, many Christians have been thrown in prison over the centuries because of their faith. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote several of his Bible books while he was in prison. John penned the Revelation while he was in exile on the penal island of Patmos. Does the mere fact the apostles of Christ were incarcerated for their faith mean that they had been conquered by their religious enemies? No, that is simply not reasonable.

As far as our now being the clean bearers of the temple utensils, the Watchtower claims that Jehovah punished the brothers back then for compromising their faith. They cite the instance in 1918 where the Watchtower encouraged its readers to join in the National Day of prayer for Germany's swift defeat in the Great War. As grievous a false step as that may appear to be, it does not begin to compare with the Watchtower's recent 10-year NGO membership and all of the subtle pro-UN propaganda that Jehovah's Witnesses have unwittingly disseminated through the Awake! If Jehovah was displeased with our compromise back then, how much more so now?

A reader recently made me aware of another example of the kind of subtle UN propaganda the Watchtower is guilty of distributing in recent years. Here is a quote from the opening article dealing with the problems of children appearing in the December 8th 2000, Awake! It reads: "FROM its very inception, the United Nations organization has been interested in children and their problems. At the end of 1946, it established the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as a temporary measure to care for children in areas devastated by war. In 1953 this emergency fund was turned into a permanent organization. Although it is now officially known as the United Nations Children's Fund, it retained its original acronym, UNICEF. Thus, for over half a century, UNICEF has been providing children throughout the world with food, clothing, and medical care and has been trying to look after children's needs in general."

The article goes on to show how the UN has not been all that successful in helping children. As innocuous as the above comment may seem at first glance, we ought to ask why the Awake! magazine has never commended national governments for their many programs to help children? The Watchtower's writers do not seem to realize that the UN is in competition with national governments to over-ride their sovereignty. National patriots in particular see the UN's efforts as intrusive. It would indeed seem that commending the UN for their efforts is to voice support for the globalist's scheme to subvert the independent nation states.

To illustrate the divisiveness of this seemingly simple issue, conservative American patriots would probably agree with the Watchtower that the UN has always been "interested" in children's problems. However, organizations like the John Birch Society are highly suspicious of the UN's motives in this regard. The New American magazine published an article addressing this very issue (of the UN's interest in children), but in their view the underlying motive is all about state control of the family and not any altruistic concern for the welfare of children.

What makes the Awake's glowing endorsement of the UN and UNICEF even more unseemly is that the Washington Times recently published a story revealing how UNICEF funded the distribution of a pamphlet that encouraged children to engage in all forms of sexual perversions. Not only that, but the UN has its own massive pedophilia scandal and other atrocities to deal with.

In light of their NGO membership at the time the Awake article was published, the Watchtower Society's commendation of the UN for their efforts to help children appears to be a cynical compromise of neutrality at best and subtly courting favor with powerful worldly friends at worst. More than likely, the Watchtower submitted that article to the UN, just as they did the disgusting November 22nd 1997 Awake article that was written praising the UN's Declaration of Human Rights.

Question: If Jehovah punished his erring servants back in 1919 for compromising their Christian neutrality, why does God tolerate the much more devious dealings of the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses in recent times? Also, the question: If we have been set free from babylonish influence, why does the Watchtower continue to imitate the great harlot's methods of pandering to the so-called kings of the earth?

Furthermore, how can it be said that Babylon the Great fell back in 1919? We are aware that a few politically connected clergy apparently used their influence to get the U.S. government to arrest Brother Rutherford and company on phony charges of sedition, but some clergymen are still using their influence to this day to persecute Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, some Orthodox clergy in Greece and the former Soviet states have been particularly vehement in their attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses. Recent events in Georgia (not USA) are an example of how the civil authorities are in sympathy with our religious persecutors. In Quebec during the 1950's the Catholic provincial minister bitterly opposed the work of Jehovah's Witnesses. He had them thrown in jail anytime one of Jehovah's Witnesses dared to go into the ministry. If we believe that the jailing of Rutherford was evidence that Babylon the Great had power over Jehovah's people, then we would have to say that Babylon the Great continues to exercise that power now.

Another thing to consider: When the Jews were freed from Babylon it was in masse, as a group, similar to the miraculous exodus from Egypt. However, today we apply it more on an individual basis. True, the Watchtower claims that Jehovah set the organization free back in 1919, but since that time we imagine that whenever a person forsakes their former religious affiliation and becomes one of Jehovah's Witnesses that they are responding to the ongoing call to "get out of her my people." That, however, does not harmonize with the way the Bible presents getting out of Babylon.

Finally, if we examine the context of the verse in Revelation that urges God's people to get out of her, it is apparent that such a thing has not taken place yet. Revelation 18:4-5 reads: "And I heard another voice out of heaven say: "Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind."

Reasoning on the verse above, it is apparent that the call to get out of her comes during the judgment period as an immediate prelude to the destruction of Babylon the Great. However, if Babylon's sins massed clear up to heaven in 1919 and God called her many acts of injustice to mind back then, why has Jehovah allowed the great harlot to continue on these many years since? If Christendom's sins reached as high as heaven back in 1919, we would have to say that in view of the many atrocities that religion has perpetrated since then, her sins have now been piled up higher than heaven.

According to the last verse of the 18th chapter of Revelation, Babylon the Great is charged with blood guilt for the deaths of God's "holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth."

The prophecies indicate that the greatest slaughter ever in the history of this bloody world is yet future. The Bible calls it a great tribulation. Indeed, the ominous tell-tale storm clouds of war have been gathering thick on the horizon for some time now. From a purely secular perspective, the looming conflict is called the Clash of Civilizations. (The Clash of Civilization is defined as the Christian West against Islam.) The Bible and history are in agreement that false religion is the primary fomenter of war. Presently, especially since 9-11, it is evident that the world's three great religious systems, namely Christendom, Jewry, and Islam, are being pitted against each other under the guise of the so-called war on terror. The rhetoric is certainly heating up, as can be seen in the remarks of various officials. And usually real war follows the war of words. It does not take a very vivid imagination to foresee a WMD terrorist attack serving as the detonator to ignite a world war of bloodletting on a scale never before seen—with Islam and company at ground zero.

President Bush claims to be a Christian and it is well known that fundamentalist Christians are his most ardent supporters. As a not-unrealistic hypothetical scenario: Should Israel and her Zionist Christian supporters wage a full scale nuclear war against the Islamic nations of the Middle East, we should suppose that that would be the final amassing of Babylon's sins clear up to heaven. (Not unrelated: former VP Al Gore recently voiced his concern that the United States was being ensnared in totalitarianism.)

How Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower might fare during that period is the topic of numerous essays on e-watchman. But, it is already past time for Jehovah's Witnesses, our Watchtower Society in particular, to wake up and start rethinking these things we have unquestionably accepted as the truth.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this question posted on Pathways....

The Society claims that the fulfillment of Isaiah 66:8 was fulfilled in 1919 with the release of 8 brothers held in spiritual bondage by Babylon the Great.

However, when I look at this scripture, I see much evidence of a fulfillment at Pentecost 33 C.E.

Jesus coined the term "born again" in reference to the anointing by the holy spirit. Before Jesus departed from his disciples and returned to heaven, he instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for what he called a baptism by holy spirit. As promised, the first 120 disciples received the anointing on Pentecost 33 C.E., and thousands more did so in the days to follow. However, Isaiah 66:8 is not talking about the spiritual birth of the individual sons, but rather, the prophecy is describing how all the sons are born instantaneously, as in one day, when the kingdom becomes a reality. Those who are dead are resurrected into the heavenly kingdom and those saints living on the earth experience a period of discipline likened to birth pangs and are afterwards sealed with God's irreversible approval.

Consider how the context in the 66th chapter of Isaiah places Jehovah's judgments into chronological order, that is in harmony with the apostle Peter's revelation that judgment begins first at the house of God. Isaiah 66:7 says: "There is a sound of uproar out of the city, a sound out of the temple! It is the sound of Jehovah repaying what is deserved to his enemies."

Jesus similarly foretold that the holy city and temple would become desolated. At Luke 21:22 Jesus indicated that the coming judgment was "for meting out justice, that all the things written may be fulfilled."

"All the things written" destined to be fulfilled no doubt includes virtually all the prophets—including this portion of Isaiah. It is beyond dispute that the modern antitypical city and temple are associated with the worship of Jehovah. (See essay: Babylon the Great: When Does it Fall?)

It is in the context of God's judgment that the entire nation is born. The next verses of Isaiah read:  "Before she began to come into labor pains she gave birth. Before birth pangs could come to her, she even gave deliverance to a male child. Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons. "As for me, shall I cause the breaking through and not cause the giving birth?" says Jehovah. "Or am I causing a giving birth and do I actually cause a shutting up?" your God has said."

The birth of a male child, and particularly the difficulty of the labor of his birth, is in complete harmony with Revelation the 12th chapter. Obviously, the Apocalypse was written after Pentecost of 33 C.E., which means the complimentary prophecy in Isaiah's 66th chapter is not referring to that occasion either. But, does the prophecy apply to 1919 as the Watchtower presently teaches?

Well, consider that the 26th chapter of Isaiah also refers to a difficult birth associated with the salvation of Jehovah's servants. Verses 15-18 describe the situation of God's servants on earth during a time of distress that serves as discipline from God: "You have added to the nation; O Jehovah, you have added to the nation; you have glorified yourself. You have extended afar all the borders of the land. O Jehovah, during distress they have turned their attention to you; they have poured out a whisper of prayer when they had your disciplining. Just as a pregnant woman draws near to giving birth, has labor pains, cries out in her birth pangs, so we have become because of you, O Jehovah. We have become pregnant, we have had labor pains; as it were, we have given birth to wind. No real salvation do we accomplish as regards the land, and no inhabitants for the productive land proceed to fall in birth."

The Watchtower applies this portion of Isaiah to 1919. However, the context indicates that the disciplining from God takes place during the judgment of the nations. For example, the preceding verse says: "They are dead; they will not live. Impotent in death, they will not rise up. Therefore you have turned your attention that you might annihilate them and destroy all mention of them."

Jehovah's pronouncement of death does not mean that they are literally dead at that point; otherwise, it would seem redundant that God would "annihilate them and destroy all mention of them." Saying they are dead means that they have no opportunity for life; that the sentence of death has been leveled against them. Obviously, that judgment did not take place in 1919, or any time since then for that matter.

The sentence of death upon the godless is in contrast to the spiritual awakening of God's sons. Isaiah 26:19 reads: "Your dead ones will live. A corpse of mine—they will rise up. Awake and cry out joyfully, you residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of mallows, and the earth itself will let even those impotent in death drop in birth."

The 37th chapter of Ezekiel contains a vision depicting a spiritual resurrection, whereby dead bones become clothed with sinews and flesh. Related to that, Ezekiel 36:23-28 should help us to appreciate that the spiritual rebirth of God's nation is a future event. Those verses read: 'And I shall certainly sanctify my great name, which was being profaned among the nations, which you profaned in the midst of them; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah,' is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, 'when I am sanctified among you before their eyes. And I will take you out of the nations and collect you together out of all the lands and bring you in upon your soil. And I will sprinkle upon you clean water, and you will become clean; from all your impurities and from all your dungy idols I shall cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I shall put inside you, and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And my spirit I shall put inside you, and I will act so that in my regulations you will walk, and my judicial decisions you will keep and actually carry out. And you will certainly dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers, and you must become my people and I myself shall become your God.'

Now we must ask the question: Has Jehovah's great name been profaned among the nations by Jehovah's Witnesses.

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: Has Jehovah intervened yet to sanctify his name as the prophecy foretells?

Answer: Definitely not.

Therefore, the spiritual rejuvenation and reclamation of Jehovah's people and the subsequent birth of the nation previously discussed, could not have taken place in 1919. It is a future event.

Jehovah's Witnesses presently believe that we are traveling on the highway of holiness described in the 35th chapter. However, reality simply belies that claim.

Specifically, Isaiah 35:8-10 says: "And there will certainly come to be a highway there, even a way; and the Way of Holiness it will be called. The unclean one will not pass over it. And it will be for the one walking on the way, and no foolish ones will wander about on it. No lion will prove to be there, and the rapacious sort of wild beasts will not come up on it. None will be found there; and the repurchased ones must walk there. And the very ones redeemed by Jehovah will return and certainly come to Zion with a joyful cry; and rejoicing to time indefinite will be upon their head. To exultation and rejoicing they will attain, and grief and sighing must flee away."

In view of the prevalence of sexual immorality and child predators in our midst, as well as spiritual uncleanness and double-hearted apostates lurking among us, it is simply not possible for this prophecy to apply to us presently. It is somewhat alarming that we could even suggest and believe such a thing in view of the actual spiritual conditions of our congregations. As presented already, the repurchase of God's erring servants takes place during the tribulation. That's when Jehovah reconstitutes his spiritual organization. That's when the great crowd takes form that comes out of the great tribulation. That's when Jesus' parable of the harvest applies; when the angels go out and collect all the lawless ones from our midst.

Just as Jehovah placed a cherub with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the original Garden of Eden, so too, in final preparation for the meek to inherit the earth, the angels will eventually remove all lawless and faithless persons from Jehovah's congregation and prevent their re-entry.  That's what Jesus was describing when he said one will be taken along and the other abandoned—he was referring to the final decisive separation of the doomed and the saved.