Commentary on the Daily Text of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Saturday, July 15

Then there will be great tribulation. —Matt. 24:21.

How will the great tribulation begin? The book of Revelation answers by describing the destruction of “Babylon the Great.” (Rev. 17:5-7) How appropriate that all false religion is likened to a prostitute! The clergy have prostituted themselves with the leaders of this wicked world. Instead of loyally supporting Jesus and his Kingdom, they have given their support to human rulers and have compromised godly principles just to gain political influence. They stand in stark contrast with the clean, virginlike anointed ones of God. But who will destroy the harlotlike organization? Jehovah God will put “his thought” into the hearts of “the ten horns” of the “scarlet-colored wild beast.” These horns represent all the present political powers that give support to the United Nations, an organization pictured by the “scarlet-colored wild beast.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses and false prophecy is a very common Internet search term. There are quite a few websites with articles on the topic as well as YouTube videos. I am going to make my contribution with this article.

Numerous evangelical sites accuse Jehovah’s Witnesses of being false prophets based upon the considerable number of failed expectations associated with the original 1914 bust, 1925, 1975 and most recently, the embarrassing death of the generation that would not pass away.

Of course, those same evangelical sources may also claim that Jehovah’s Witnesses are not even Christians anyway because we don’t accept the trinity and all the other doctrinal nonsense that evangelicals espouse. So, those critics cannot possibly have any credibility from a scriptural standpoint —at least not with solidly-grounded Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The most obvious flaw in their reasoning is the fact that prophetic interpretations do not originate with Jehovah’s Witnesses. On the contrary, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses have exclusive rights to determine what is true. Jehovah’s Witnesses, be they lowly publishers, pioneers, elders, traveling overseers or Bethel workers, are required to unquestioningly accept what is published by the Watchtower. Certainly, no accepted interpretation of prophecy originates from anywhere but Bethel.

In their zeal to convince the unwary that Jehovah’s Witnesses are false, evangelicals cite the law at Deuteronomy 18:22, which made it an offense punishable by death to presumptuously speak an untruth in the name of Jehovah. The folly of their reasoning is that the mere appearance of false prophets in the midst of the Israelites did not disqualify the entire nation from being God’s people. Nor does it mean that Christians are not Christians because they are misled by false teachers. (Related Youtube video)

On the contrary, the apostle Peter prophesied that just as the Israelites were menaced by false prophets, so too, there will be false teachers among the anointed congregation of Christ, who will “greedily exploit you with counterfeit words.” (II Peter 2) Please note, Peter did not say that you might be targeted by false teachers or that the the misleaders would be on the outside. Jesus’ apostle said “there will also be false teachers among you.”

According to Peter’s inspired words such teachers would be in their midst up until the judgment of God overtakes them. That is what Peter meant when he said their judgment was not slumbering, that they bring speedy destruction upon themselves. So, here is the irony: If Jehovah’s Witnesses are the true faith then they must also have false teachers among them who exploit them. Is such the case? Absolutely!

Now, consider an extraordinary prophecy in the 13th chapter of Ezekiel. Jehovah commanded his watchman to say to the prophets: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and say to those who fabricate their own prophecies, ‘Hear the word of Jehovah. This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Woe to the stupid prophets, who follow their own spirit, when they have seen nothing!’”

But does the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses even claim to be prophets? The answer is yes. They positively make that claim, at least in a roundabout way. The only qualifier is, they do not claim to be inspired prophets. What is the difference? The Governing Body do not claim to be inspired by holy spirit the same as the ancient Hebrew prophets and apostles in the first century.

However, the Governing Body do claim to preside over God’s “spirit-directed organization.” And since all of Jehovah’s Witnesses are required to acknowledge they are guided by the spirit-directed organization and the GB take to themselves sole authority to interpret prophecy as they see fit, it is naturally assumed that the would-be interpreters of prophecy are similarly guided by the spirit. So, being uninspired is merely a technicality.

In order to bestow the prophet’s mantle upon themselves the Watchtower has fabricated a thing called the “prophet class.”

For example, the very prophet who spoke against the stupid prophets, Ezekiel, is said to typify all anointed JW’s today. Supposedly, the entire body of anointed persons make up an “Ezekiel class.” Except, the thing is, no individual anointed JW’s independently interpret prophecy. As already stated, that is the sole prerogative of the Governing Body. So, even though the so-called “Ezekiel class” is composed of several thousand individuals, the Watchtower’s Governing Body has exclusive editorial rights. In effect, that makes the Governing Body the voice of the otherwise mute “Ezekiel class.”

Although the term “Ezekiel class” is not common parlance in the theocratic lingo of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it appeared most recently in the December 1st, 2003, Watchtower. In a question from readers the WT stated:

The modern-day watchman class, anointed Christians, have been warning about the doom of Christendom, antitypical Jerusalem. When the “great tribulation” strikes and devastates “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion, the anointed Ezekiel class will need to say nothing more about the demise of Christendom, which constitutes a major part of that empire.

So, here again, in today’s daily text the Ezekiel prophet is declaring that the great tribulation will begin when the nations destroy Babylon the Great. The Watchtower repeats this ad nauseam and never with so much as a single scripture to support their assertion. Notice, please, the verse cited in the text as proof —Revelation 17:5-7. However, a careful reading of that passage and the entire context provides nothing that would allow us to make the claim that the overthrow of the harlot from the beast begins the tribulation.

As regards the Watchtower’s interpretation of Ezekiel, it is claimed that “the house of Israel” is Christendom. Contradictorily, in many other prophecies the WT recognizes that “Israel” represents Christ’s congregation —the anointed sons. This is an example of counterfeit words. And it is why the verse cited above refers to the prophets of Israel who fabricate their own prophecies. This is precisely what the WT has done. That have fabricated an elaborate interpretation that places the Watchtower upon the elevated mountain of God.

According to the prophecy of Ezekiel the stupid prophets assure God’s people that there is peace with God —meaning, God has no issues at all with his approved organization. Does that not epitomize the Watchtower?

Essentially, Bethel’s prophets have placed the destruction of Babylon the Great as the only unfinished aspect of prophecy. Everything else has already been fulfilled —most especially, the coming of Christ, the very centerpiece of all prophecy. This, more than anything else, is why Jehovah will judge them as “stupid prophets.”

Just to underscore the stupidity of the Watchtower’s 1914 doctrine, the claim is made that Christ came in 1914 as the refiner, as foretold in the 3rd chapter of Malachi. The coming of the messenger of the covenant to the temple has to do with the judging of the house of God, which the inspired apostle said judgment starts with the house of God first. The judgment of the house of God results in the final reward of the faithful and punishment of the unfaithful. But according to the Watchtower’s teaching the judgment began in 1914. Inexplicably, though, the latest “adjustment” in 2013 correctly places the appointment of the faithful slave over all of the master’s belongings to a point in the future. Jehovah’s Witnesses are oblivious to the glaring contradiction.

The truth is, Christ has not in any sense come. His coming is a future event. That is why the prophecy of Malachi poses the unsettling question: “But who will endure the day of his coming, and who will be able to stand when he appears?”

The fiery appearance of Christ will be preceded by global war, famines and searing pandemics. The tribulation will come about, not with the fall of Babylon, but rather, the collapse of the governmental system —America foremost. Along with that global crash the Watchtower will collapse. That the prophecy in Ezekiel has a fulfillment in the Christian era ought to be evident from what is stated in the following passage: “O Israel, your prophets have become like foxes among the ruins. You will not go to the broken places in the stone walls to rebuild them for the house of Israel, so that Israel may keep standing in the battle in the day of Jehovah. They have seen false visions and foretold a lie, those who are saying, ‘The word of Jehovah is,’ when Jehovah himself has not sent them, and they have waited for their word to come true. Is it not a false vision that you have seen and a lie that you have foretold when you say, ‘The word of Jehovah is,’ when I have not said anything?”’

“The battle in the day of Jehovah” is a reference to the day of the Lord, the coming of Christ. The stupid prophets of Israel have promulgated a lie in announcing that Christ’s Kingdom came in 1914. They have promoted a “false vision” in proclaiming that an invisible parousia has been ongoing for over 100 years. “They have waited for their word to come true,” but in vain. That is why the Watchtower will have no credibility during “the battle in the day of Jehovah.”

All of these decades the self-proclaimed Ezekiel class has had to revise and revise and revise again, just as portrayed in the same 13th chapter of Ezekiel, as plastering coat after coat of whitewash on a flimsy wall. All in vain, as Jehovah’s true watchman is told to announce to them: “Tell those plastering with whitewash that it will fall. A torrential downpour will come, hailstones will fall, and powerful windstorms will break it down. And when the wall falls you will be asked, ‘Where is your coating of plaster?’”

Since the first publication of Jehovah Himself Has Become King was distributed among the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2005, this watchman has continued to put them on notice that their revered 1914 edifice is doomed to fall before Christ at his coming. (Original open letter that accompanied book.)