Covering Chapter 6 Paragraphs 1-7 of God’s Kingdom Rules
Every so often a claim is made in a publication that is so ridiculous, so obviously false, that one has to bite one’s own tongue at the meeting to stop from standing up and shouting, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”
Such is the claim made in paragraph 2 of this week’s Bible study.
After he became King in 1914, Jesus was ready to fulfill a prophecy he had made some 1,900 years earlier. Shortly before he died, Jesus foretold: “This good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth.”
Jesus waited 1,900 years to fulfill Matthew 24:14? What about this fulfillment?
Indeed, you who were once alienated and enemies because your minds were on the works that were wicked, 22 he has now reconciled by means of that one’s fleshly body through his death, in order to present you holy and unblemished and open to no accusation before him— 23 provided, of course, that you continue in the faith, established on the foundation and steadfast, not being shifted away from the hope of that good news that you heard and that was preached in all creation under heaven. Of this good news I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:21-23)
What do they imagine Christians have been doing for the past 19 centuries? How did 2.2 billion Christians come into existence on the earth today? Are we to assume that these are totally unaware of the Good News of the Kingdom? The publications would have us believe that only Witnesses understand the Good News, while all other Christian religions fail to capture the truth that it constitutes a real government. The publications have long implied that Christendom views the kingdom as a mere condition of the heart.[ii]
Do a simple internet search for yourself—it will only take a few minutes—and you will see that this statement is totally false. Most Christian religions understand the Kingdom of God to be a real government which will rule over the earth. They may vary as to their understanding of it, but given that we preach a false understanding of the Other Sheep, we can hardly point fingers at the rest.
Additionally, we seem to be suffering from delusions of grandeur when stating that Jesus is only using the eight million Witnesses on earth today to fulfill Matthew 24:14. If Jesus’ work is restricted to the work of JW.org, then it would seem we have a long wait ahead of us before we can say that the Good News has been preached in all the inhabited earth. Are Jehovah’s Witnesses preaching to the 1.6 billion Muslims on earth today? Are the 1.3 billion Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Zoroastrians, and others in India learning about the Good News from the 40,000 Witnesses in the country? Does the 1 to 185,000 publisher-to-population ratio in Pakistan indicate the Good News is being preached by Jehovah’s Witnesses there?
Some years ago I went to see and hear Handel’s Messiah. When I read the program I was surprised to see that all the song lyrics are taken directly from the Bible. Handel had the entire kingdom theme worked out chronologically in verse and song. It is a remarkable experience, especially when the Hallelujah chorus rings out and the whole audience stands. This tradition dates back to the time when King George II stood at hearing this chorus. If the King stands, everyone stands. The tradition persists and it is widely viewed as an act of recognition that even the King stands to honor the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.[i] It is hardly the act of someone who views the Kingdom of God as an abstract idea, a condition of the heart.
Since Witnesses are preaching their version of the Good News in places where it has already been preached for centuries by other Christian denominations, there are simply no grounds for believing that only by means of the Organization is Jesus able to fulfill the prophecy of Matthew 24:14.
It is nearly impossible not to be facetious in the face of such a false and patently self-serving teaching.
Why would the Organization make such an outrageous claim? The reason comes in the next sentence.
The fulfillment of those words would be part of the sign of his presence in Kingdom power. – par. 2
If the good news has been preached since Jesus’ day, it can hardly serve as a sign of a presence we are taught began in 1914. The belief in the 1914 invisible start of Christ’s Kingdom rule requires us to find signs. Like the Pharisees and Jewish leaders of old, Witness leadership is always looking for a sign. (Mt 12:39; 1Co 1:22) To Witnesses, their preaching work constitutes such a sign. Only Jehovah’s Witnesses are preaching the good news in all the inhabited earth, and that when that preaching finishes, there will be a message of judgment, and then the end will come. In other words, the coming of God’s Kingdom depends, in no small measure, on the preaching work of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
However, none of the elements Jesus describes from Matthew 24:4 through to verse 28 are signs of his presence. Only verses 29 thru 31 represent those. In fact, with the exception of those verses dealing with the destruction of Jerusalem, all the so-called signs are really anti-signs. That is, Jesus is warning us not to be misled by false signs.
Paragraph 5 applies Psalm 110:1-3 to our day from 1914 forward; but really, the people who were offering themselves willingly in the service of King Jesus came forward in his day, and have been coming forward ever since. The historical evidence for this is abundant. To claim that this willingness only manifested itself since 1914 is to ignore mountains of proof available to anyone with a laptop and the willingness to use it.
Paragraph 7 makes the false claim that Jesus did an inspection and cleansing of the Bible Students from 1914 to 1919. It then makes the equally false claim that he appointed his faithful and discreet slave in 1919. If you disagree, then please use the comment section following this article to present the Scriptural and empirical proof to back up such claims. The publication we are studying certainly hasn’t bothered to do so.
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[i] Why people stand at the Hallelujah Chorus.
[ii] Antichrists have become particularly active during “the last days,” the time in which we now live. (2 Timothy 3:1) A key objective of these modern-day deceivers is to mislead people in regard to Jesus’ role as King of God’s Kingdom, a heavenly government that will soon rule over the entire earth.—Daniel 7:13, 14; Revelation 11:15.
For example, some religious leaders preach that God’s Kingdom is a condition in the heart of men, a view that finds no basis in the Scriptures.
(w06 12/1 p. 6 Antichrists Reject God’s Kingdom)
Consider also the distortion of the meaning of the word “kingdom.” The book The Kingdom of God in 20th-Century Interpretation states: “Origen [a third-century theologian] marks the change in Christian usage of ‘kingdom’ to the interior meaning of the rule of God in the heart.” On what did Origen base his teaching? Not on the Scriptures, but on “the framework of a philosophy and world view quite different from the thought world of Jesus and the earliest church.” In his work De Civitate Dei (The City of God), Augustine of Hippo (354-430 C.E.) stated that the church itself is the Kingdom of God. Such unscriptural thinking gave the churches of Christendom theological grounds to embrace political power.
(w05 1/15 pp. 18-19 par. 14 Foregleams of God’s Kingdom Become a Reality)
Rather than being an abstract condition of the heart, God’s Kingdom is a real government that has accomplished wonderful deeds since its inauguration in heaven in 1914.
(w04 8/1 p. 5 God’s Kingdom Government—A Reality Today)
[…] likely they were referring to the signs contained in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. This subject has been discussed many times on this site. Suffice to say that Matthew 24:23 warns us, “Then if anyone says to you, […]
It would seem too obvious a thing to say, but I’ll say it anyway, that all of our problems as a religion come as a result of our insistence that we alone are God’s people to-day and have been since 1919. As a result of that thinking, then the heirarchy are really free (so they think) to more or less do what they like – without question. Like many on this site it has taken me quite some years to come to understand the true nature of the situation. I’m in my 70s now and have had a life-time of… Read more »
Hello Christian, …enjoyed your post! Lots of similar feelings especially about us being the “only” ones. I’ve turned it around, …every chance I get I announce to the car group, at get-to-gethers, how sad it is that this/these people/person will be destroyed. Rescue workers, ER Doctors, groups that feed the homeless, hospice workers, etc, …etc, … etc, … you get the point. When my friends pushback on that statement I send them my research containing several Watchtower Library references on the subject, “Who will be destroyed” Select all, … copy, …paste to message/email. The info helps them to understand what… Read more »
Well said, Christian!
Hello Christian, Good point about the problem thinking that the JW’s are the only true religion. It also leads people to think that their conduct doesn’t really matter, as long as they remain part of the ‘truth’, as this will bring salvation by default. The parable of the wheat and weeds at Matthew 13 shows that there would be wheat like christians amongst the weed, and they will only be separated by the angels right at the conclusion of the system (not in 1919 as the WT arrogantly asserts). This supports the fact that there are true Christians in every… Read more »
Hi Christian,
I totally agree! I think it is ‘yeast of the Pharisees’ that can make people from all religions feel that they alone have ‘accurate truth’.
It does remind me of Jesus’ counsel at Matt 7:4 “How can you say to your brother, ‘Allow me to remove the straw from your eye,’ when look! a rafter is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the straw from your brother’s eye.”
Thanks for another great article Meleti! 🙂
Christian:
“How much we know is irrelevent, how ‘right’ we are is not the point. What is at issue is – How much we Love.”
What a beautiful sentiment. Thank you.
Andrew
I would agree with you wholeheartedly, Christian. Love is what is needed and what God is looking for. The only qualifier I would add to what you’ve written is that this love must also embrace a love for truth. This is different from the JW view that one must have the truth to be saved. Salvation doesn’t come from having the truth, but from loving it. Since, even by JW theology, no one has the whole truth, their view requires us to accept salvation on some sort of measurement scale. If I have 59% of the truth, am I lost?… Read more »
So many points, Meliti It was impossible to comment at the meeting without getting into trouble. And I had not read your review at that time.
Yes Meleti, paragraph 2, eye opening claims. They have no filter in what they write. I was hoping the yearbook for 2017 was available as promised it would be in October to check the figures. Normally there’s about 30-40 countries under ban. With approximately 30 to 40k of witnesses to a population of about 2 billion Muslim and communistic governments and people. So at least a quarter of the world receive little from the witnesses in these countries. You touched on that as well, it’s something to think about. I did read online the President of Syria did spend Xmas… Read more »
Well done again Meleti- I always try to Prestudy first and then read your review. I came to similar conclusions in Para 2 about 1914. As for Matthew 24 I am starting to understand those verses as back in Jesus’ day and the destruction of Jerusalem. As you said vs 29-31 applies to his presence. Vs 21-22 reassure that there won’t be such a disastrous Tribulation as the Organisation likes to portray. “Fear-monguering” , my husband would say. As for Para 7 if there was an inspection from 1914-1919 then why did the Bible Students /JWs still celebrate Christmas and… Read more »
As for the claim that JW’s are the only one’s doing the preaching work: It would be extremely unjust of our Heavenly Father to judge mankind to eternal destruction based on the way that the JW’s do the preaching work. In all the congregations I was in in our country, the preaching was done not to help people, but to count time. So the publishers would drag their feet from house to house, going out at times when most are not at home, and stop at any tree to chat. And then console themselves with the fact that their being… Read more »
Meleti, I highly doubt you will find anyone able to present scriptural proof of the WT’s 1919 claim. Sadly, the WT leadership- when presented with evidence contrary to their dogma- simply reacts the same way the Pharisees did toward Jesus. Heresy, apostasy, etc. ad nauseum, and no reasoning from the scriptures, just angry rhetoric. Thank you for yet another timely review that truly helps so many of our honest-hearted (to use a WT term) Christian brothers and sisters.