The blog you are referring to doesn’t really explain the prophecy of Joel at all. It merely discusses one span of verses in the 2nd chapter of Joel. By restricting his treatment of Joel to a couple of verses the blogger apparently wants to give the impression that he has offered some sort of legitimate interpretation of the entire prophecy. Thinking persons, though, should realize that the prophecy of Joel cannot adequately be explained or comprehended by such simplistic means.
Even though it is his intent to defend the Watchtower, it seems most telling that the blog does not offer any comment on the Watchtower’s own bizarre interpretation of Joel. Likely the blogger recognizes that the Society’s teaching is indefensible. So, to avoid calling attention to the Society’s own ridiculous teaching and spare himself the embarrassment of actually defending the obvious absurdities, the blogger adroitly focuses on a couple of verses in Joel, which the apostle Peter applied to the Pentecost anointing.
(For the uninformed: For 70 years the Watchtower has taught that the locusts, caterpillers and loathsome cockroaches of Joel, which wreak havoc upon the world, somehow represent Jehovah’s Witnesses. Conversely, the priests ministering in Jehovah’s temple are presumed to symbolize the clergy of Christendom, who are supposedly tormented by the Watchtower’s message delivered through their army of insect-like ministers. Click here for a detailed discussion of Joel.)
Based upon the apostle’s application of one aspect of Joel, the Watchtower then extrapolates an entire timeframe for the prophecy of Joel in order to convince Jehovah’s Witnesses that the foretold outpouring of holy spirit occurred in 1919. The blogger is simply parroting the Society’s line of reasoning in an obvious attempt to persuade the gullible reader to continue to believe the Watchtower’s interpretation, without doing so overtly—for obvious reasons.
Both the Watchtower and her apologist blogger are evidently oblivious to certain vital aspects of the prophecy of Joel. For one thing, Joel had no previous fulfillment during the Babylonian conquests of Judah. That is apparent from the fact the prophecy does not even mention the Babylonians or Chaldeans—as do the other prophets. Instead, the invaders are merely referred to as “the northerner”--as in the king of the north. Also, in the 3rd chapter of Joel Jehovah indicts the Phoenicians for stealing the treasures of his temple and for selling the sons of Judah to the sons of the Greeks. Historically the nations of Philistia did not loot the temple in Jerusalem nor did the Babylonians sell the Jewish exiles to the Greeks.
Another incongruity is that in the 1st chapter of Joel Jehovah commands his priests and older men to call a solemn assembly and go to the house of God in order to call upon the name of Jehovah for salvation. That is exactly opposite of the instructions Jehovah issued to the Jews and Christians. Jeremiah, for instance, told the Jews they would keep living only if they fell away to the Chaldeans and abandoned the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Jesus similarly told his followers that they were to flee Jerusalem when the disgusting thing first stood in a holy place. In both instances if the Jews would have fled to the temple, as the older men were instructed in Joel, they would have perished at the hands of the invaders.
Furthermore, the prophecy of Joel does not merely foretell disaster for God’s people; the onslaught of the symbolic locusts devastates the world. Consider Joel 2:2-3, which says: “There is a people numerous and mighty; one like it has not been made to exist from the indefinite past, and after it there will be none again to the years of generation after generation. Ahead of it a fire has devoured, and behind it a flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden the land is ahead of it; but behind it is a desolate wilderness, and there has also proved to be nothing thereof escaping.”
Jehovah’s prophet describes the invaders as a unique military force—one which has no historical parallel. In fact, the language used in the above verse is very similar to the way Jesus described the great tribulation, when he said that no disaster has ever happened or will ever happen again to compare with the great tribulation.
A sober-minded reading of Joel reveals the timeline of events to occur. First, Jehovah unleashes his military force, which rocks the world as never before. As a result, Jehovah's people and their field of operation are devastated. Next, God intervenes to rescue his people from their plight. That is when the outpouring of holy spirit takes place upon the already anointed sons and daughters. After that the nations are judged in the Low Plain of the Decision, which is to say--Armageddon.
Clearly, though, it is during the world’s darkest hour to come that Jehovah will pour out his spirit as never before. Numerous other prophecies collaborate the series of events yet to occur. The Watchtower and her apologists fit the description of the spiritual drunkards of Joel. And no doubt they will continue babbling nonsense up until the moment when Jehovah unleashes his military force to rouse them from their drunken stupor.
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