WATCHTOWER - MAY 1, 1997

 

Page 3: Supporting this contention, The Glasgow Herald, Scotland, claims that only 2 percent of Roman Catholic clergy in the United States have avoided both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Whether this figure is accurate or not, it indicates the reputation of Catholic priests in the matter of morality.

Note: Due to many disfellowshipings, the Watchtower is also having problems.

 

Page 7: A man of outstanding integrity, John, along with Peter, explained to the Jewish rulers that he 'could not stop speaking' about the things he had seen and heard while he was with Jesus. John was also one of the apostles who said: "We must obey God as ruler rather than men."

Note: The disciples were preaching about the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

 

Page 7: It seems that when John was well into his 90's, he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos "for speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus."

Note: John was testifying about Jesus not paradise earth.

Revelation 1:9 I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

Page 7: Today, "a great crowd" of true worshipers is being prepared to enter a new world of peace and harmony, with the prospect of everlasting life. (Revelation 7:9)

Note: They are being prepared in heaven!

Revelation 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!

 

Page 8: Jehovah is also the Great Exposer of false messengers. How does he expose them? He frustrates their signs and predictions. In this way he shows that they are self-appointed prognosticators, whose messages really spring from their own false reasoning - yes, their foolish, fleshly thinking!

Note: After the spiritual captivity, the Watchtower was still a false messenger.

The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures because it is fixed by the law God gave to Israel. Viewing the present situation in Europe, one wonders how it will be possible to hold back the explosion much longer; and that even before 1925 the great crisis will be reached and probably passed. Watchtower, September 1, 1922, page 262.

 

Page 8: Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon in 617 B.C.E. He prophesied to his Jewish brothers there.

Note: The Watchtower lied about when the captivity of Ezekiel occurred.

The prophet was one of the captives deported to Babylonia in 597 BC, 11 years before the fall of Jerusalem. Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Volume 10, page 65.

 

Page 9: As for Isaiah, all his divine messages about Jerusalem came true. In the summer of 607 B.C.E., the Babylonians destroyed the city and took a Jewish remnant back to Babylon as captives. (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Ezekiel 22:28; Daniel 9:2) Did these calamities stop the false prophets from bombarding God's people with vain babblings?

Page 9: No, those lying messengers kept at it!

Page 19: In the centuries following this pronouncement, Jehovah performed many mighty acts. For example, in 607 B.C.E., he severely disciplined his chosen people because they were rebellious and bloodguilty.

Page 22: Things are worse because, as we learned in the previous articles, Christendom and all other false religions will soon be destroyed, as completely as was Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E.

Note: The Watchtower is continually lying about when Jerusalem was destroyed.

In 588 BC Zedekiah led a revolt against Chaldea, and two years later Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed Judah and razed Jerusalem. Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Volume 15, page 57.

 

Page 9: Judah and Jerusalem were to be desolated, without human inhabitant, for 70 years. However, Jehovah declared through Isaiah and Ezekiel that the city would be rebuilt and the land inhabited at the precise time that he had foretold!

Note: The Watchtower is lying about the human inhabitation of Judah during the capitivity.

All Judeans who were potential leaders of revolt were taken to Babylon. Another group fled to Egypt, taking with them, despite his protests, the prophet Jeremiah. Only the poorest Judean peasants were allowed to remain on their land. Funk & Wagnalls, Volume 15, page 57.

Correction: The captivity was spiritual in nature centering on the temple.

The Jews turned their attention to rebuilding, and in 516 BC the Second Temple was completed. The latter date is regarded, in the Jewish tradition, as the true end of the exile in Babylon, which thus endured 70 years (586-516 BC).

 

Page 12: Jehovah had "barred his holy arm" for them. He rolled up his sleeve, so to speak, to work at bringing them back to their beloved homeland. This was not some minor, inconspicuous incident in history. No, all people living then saw God's 'bared arm' exerting power in human affairs in order to bring about the astounding salvation of a nation.

Note: Jesus Christ is the "arm of Jehovah."

Isaiah 53:1-5 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

 

Page 12: The restoration prophecies he gave Isaiah and Ezekiel magnify his great love, undeserved kindness, and mercy toward his servants. Surely, Jehovah deserves all our praise for this! And we today should be especially thankful that he exposes false messengers. This is because there are many of them now on the world's scene. Their grandiose messages ignore Jehovah's announced purposes.

Note: The purpose of the Father is that everyone may be saved through the Son.

John 3:17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

 

Page 13: In contrast with this world are the 144,000 spiritual Israelites, an aging remnant of whom are still with us. Joining these today are "a great crowd . . . out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues," who now number more than five million, who also have insight.

Correction: Anyone who puts their faith in God are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7-8 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

 

Page 15: This foreshadowed Jehovah's judgment on rulers and clergy in Christendom today. For true peace to prevail, these instigators of badness and violence must be removed! They are certainly no messengers of peace.

Correction: Satan must be removed for true outward peace to occur.

Revelation 20:2-3 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

 

Page 15-16: Speaking of world problems, he went on to say: "As we face these enormous challenges, how can we fail to acknowledge the role of the United Nations Organization?" The UN, rather than God's Kingdom, is the pope's choice.

Correction: Jesus Christ is the world's only hope!

Matthew 25:31-34 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:"

 

Page 17: Shortly, "crazed" members of the UN will be maneuvered by Jehovah to turn on false religion, as described at Revelation 17:16: "These will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshly parts and will completely burn her with fire." This will mark the start of the great tribulation that is referred to at Matthew 24:21 and that will climax at Armageddon, the war of the great day of God the Almighty.

Correction: The bowl judgments of God must come first before false religion is destroyed.

Revelation 16:20-21 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

Revelation 17:1-2 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."

 

Page 19: Earlier in this century, there was powerful evidence that a Greater Cyrus was at work. Who was he? None other than Jesus Christ, enthroned since 1914 in the heavenly Kingdom.

Note: 1914 is based on a bogus date for the destruction of Jerusalem.

Page 20: In modern times the restoration of the Israel of God was evidence that Babylon the Great had experienced a fall at the hands of the Greater Cyrus. This fall was announced by the second angel of Revelation chapter 14, when he cried out: "Babylon the Great has fallen, she who made all the nations drink of the wine of the anger of her fornication!" (Revelation 14:8) What a reversal for Babylon the Great, especially for Christendom! And what a blessing for true Christians!

Correction: False religion will not fall until after an angel is seen preaching the good news.

Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth; to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people; saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

 

Page 20: Then, according to verse 19, Jehovah goes on to say: "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I shall put inside them; and I shall certainly remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh." In harmony with these words, in 1919, Jehovah united his anointed servants, gave them "one heart," so to speak, in order that they would serve him "shoulder to shoulder." (Zephaniah 3:9)

Correction: Spiritually speaking, Ezekiel 11:19 was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:1-5 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.

 

Page 20-21: The promise of Isaiah 35:10 was fulfilled upon them: "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." Such was the happiness of Jehovah's messengers of godly peace back in 1919 as they set out to preach the good news to all mankind.

Correction: The prophecy of Isaiah 35:10 is yet future since grief is still with us today.

Revelation 21:4-5 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

 

Page 23: Because we preach with endurance, people know who Jehovah's Witnesses are. They know our message. When the end comes, they will know that Jehovah's Witnesses tried to help them to enjoy godly peace.

Correction: True Christians preach about Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:22-24 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

 

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