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For many years the Watchtower has taught apostate Judah and her condemnatory judgment from Jehovah is a representation of Christendom. The nation of Judah was in a covenant with Jehovah, likewise could not Christendom also be viewed as being in a covenant with Jehovah, although now apostatized, since her origins are from first century Christianity, when true Christianity was being practiced, in a covenant with Jehovah, during the time of the Apostles? Is it correct to use the spiritual decay of Judah and Israel prior to Jehovah's judgment as a precursor of what is to happen to Jehovah's earthly organization? Is not the prophetic pattern for Christendom?
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| All of the prophets and Psalms point to the coming of Christ – either to his coming as a man in the first century, or to his coming again in the power of his kingdom. In both settings of his coming, however, Jesus comes first as a judge to a nation of people who are in a covenant with Jehovah. In the first instance of his coming, Jesus inspected the Jewish temple and nation as a whole and found them to be lacking. The second time Christ appears, as Paul worded it, follows the same pattern but is in connection with his spiritual nation – those who are in a covenant with Jehovah by virtue of having been anointed. The prophecy of Malachi foretells: “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. “But who will be putting up with the day of his coming, and who will be the one standing when he appears? For he will be like the fire of a refiner and like the lye of laundrymen. And he must sit as a refiner and cleanser of silver and must cleanse the sons of Levi; and he must 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 gratifying to Jehovah, as in the days of long ago and as in the years of antiquity. “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. “For I am Jehovah; I have not changed. And you are sons of Jacob; you have not come to your finish. From the days of your forefathers you have turned aside from my regulations and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” Jehovah of armies has said. The Messenger of the covenant is none other than Jesus Christ – he being the mediator of the new covenant. Just as in the first century, Jesus is dispatched by Jehovah to make an inspection of an organization which Jehovah himself recognizes as belonging to him. Christ’s inspection of the Jewish system ultimately resulted in it being cast off and destroyed. So, too, when Christ comes to judge his Father’s spiritual temple he comes with the fire of a refiner and the lye of a laundryman in order to subject God’s people to a fiery purge. The Watchtower recognizes that the prophecy of Malachi applies to Christ’s congregation and not Christendom; however, they have formulated an extensive mythology in order to convince Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus came to the temple way back in 1918. It is necessary for the Watchtower Society to invent an alternative realty so that it might continue to present itself as the gleaming city on the hill – a sinless spiritual paradise. Placing the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy of the coming of the Messenger of the covenant to a future point in time would be an admission that all is not as it should be in the organization – and hence in need of Christ’s fiery correction for having left off the fear of Jehovah. But since Christ’s second coming to his Father’s temple follows the pattern established by his first coming, we ought to look to Jesus’ own teachings for confirmation as to the timing of his inspection. In Jesus’ prophecy concerning his presence he foretold that the holy place and Jerusalem would be destroyed by a disgusting thing. In the first century the holy place was the Jewish temple, which was indeed destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. However, as we know, Jesus prophecy had a much farther-reaching application – one pertaining to Jesus’ second appearance. The question then arises: What is the modern holy place that is destined to be destroyed and trampled on? The Watchtower says the holy place represents Christendom and the “Jerusalem” that is to be trampled on during a time allotted to the nations represents God’s kingdom – which began to be trampled on thousands of years ago, when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and deposed the Judean king. (For a discussion of the true meaning of the Gentile Times) But if the Watchtower’s interpretation is correct, why did Jesus tell his followers to flee when they first caught sight of the disgusting thing standing in a holy place? According to the Watchtower, Jehovah’s Witnesses have gotten out of Christendom and Babylon the Great back in 1919; so if the holy place of Jesus’ prophecy represents Christendom, why would true Christians need to flee out of it during the hour of Christ’s “meting out justice” – as it says at Luke 21:22? (For a more in depth discussion of the modern holy place, see the essay entitled: Let the Reader Use Discernment) If the Psalms and the prophets all relate to Christ, and since only a small portion of the Psalms and prophecies were fulfilled upon Jesus’ first coming, it is apparent that a significant portion of the Hebrew Scriptures point to Christ’s second appearance. Revelation confirms that. Since virtually all the prophets relate, not just to Jehovah’s judgment against unfaithful Israel and Judah, but more especially to the subsequent restoration of a repentant, forgiven remnant – following the administering of God’s discipline – we may be sure that the same pattern applies in the finale of things. But the problem with the Watchtower’s prophetic exegesis is that it has the order of the pattern completely reversed. On the one hand the Society claims that the holy place symbolizes unholy Christendom, but other prophecies pertaining to the desolation of the holy place are interpreted to apply to the Watchtower in 1918-19 and during the Second World War. But, really, what evidence is there that any organization representing a spiritual Israel suffered anything remotely analogous to the destruction and spiritual exile Judah suffered in the 5th century B.C.E? The Society claims that the International Bible Students fit the pattern of prophecy when Joseph Rutherford and seven other officers of the Watchtower spent seven or eight months in prison. But is that reasonable? In the ancient pattern Jerusalem and Jehovah’s temple were completely destroyed. How can any sensible person claim that the government’s censoring of a couple of pages of the Finished Mystery book compares with the complete desolation of Jerusalem? Frankly, the Society’s prophetic interpretations tied to 1918-19 are patently nonsensical. Since there are many, many prophecies that point to the ultimate desolation of Christ’s congregation during the great tribulation, the only sensible and scriptural interpretation of these many intertwined prophecies is that the holy place that is foretold to be trampled by a disgusting thing relates to those whom Jehovah recognizes as belonging to himself. For example, Isaiah 43:25-28 states: “I—I am the One that is wiping out your transgressions for my own sake, and your sins I shall not remember. Remind me; let us put ourselves on judgment together; tell your own account of it in order that you may be in the right. Your own father, the first one, has sinned, and your own spokesmen have transgressed against me. So I shall profane the princes of the holy place, and I will give Jacob over as a man devoted to destruction and Israel over to words of abuse.” The 43rd chapter of Isaiah is the basis for our calling ourselves Jehovah’s Witnesses; and the overall context appears to be Jehovah delivering a soliloquy, but which, in fact, is Jehovah speaking to his exiled sons as if by means of a message in a time capsule, during the time of Christ’s second appearance. So, now, in regards to the span of verses cited above, if the princes of the holy place who are given over to destruction during the judgment symbolizes Christendom, how can we reconcile the fact that Jehovah ultimately wipes out all their sins and transgressions? (Jehovah is merciful but will by no means grant an exemption from punishment to even his own sons) The Society’s commentary (or lack there of) on these verses of Isaiah is a study in interpretive flimflamery. (See Isaiah’s Prophecy Vol II, page 59) Of course, the Watchtower has insulated itself from accountability for its own teachings and it is not permissible for Jehovah’s Witnesses to critically discuss such things in the congregation. Any of Jehovah’s Witnesses who openly question such things are marginalized as opposers and apostates. So, that is why the organization is saddled with numerous contradictions and absurdities, such as discussed here. |
The e-Watchman Mailbag Collection
December 28, 2005
