You will
Babylon
go
as
far
as
to
Sunday, October 16
I, Jehovah, am . . . guiding you in the way you should walk.—Isa.
48:17.
The Bible Students of the late 19th and early 20th centuries faced
many obstacles. Like the first-century Christians, they proclaimed a
largely unpopular message. They were few in number, and the world in
general did not consider them highly educated. Moreover, they would
in time face the “great anger” of Satan the Devil. (Rev. 12:12) And
their preaching work would take place during “the last days,” an era
characterized by “critical times hard to deal with.” (2 Tim. 3:1)
Jehovah
helped
the
Bible
Students
to
understand
fundamental
Scriptural truths that had long been obscured by Christendom’s
doctrines. He is now using his people to make the true knowledge
known throughout the earth. Today, we see the fulfillment of the
prophecy found at Daniel 12:4. Nearly 8,000,000 people have embraced
Bible truth and are now declaring it worldwide.
COMMENTARY
The blindness of the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses is
absolute.
Jehovah could easily remedy it, but he has chosen not to for
the time being. Instead, he is allowing the ignorance to
dominate until the time of the end. Then his judgments will
be revealed. Unfortunately, because of sheer stubbornness
and arrogance, God is obliged to use brute force to get his
message across.
Ironically, the 48th chapter of Isaiah, from where the
Watchtower cherry-picked the verse above to
imply that
everything the Governing Body does and teaches is guided by
the hand of God, foretells that God has guarded secrets that
are not revealed until such time as his stiff-necked people
are humbled in Babylon: “From now on I am announcing new
things to you, Guarded secrets that you have not known. Only
now are they being created, and not long ago, things that
you never heard before today, so that you cannot say, ‘Look!
I already know them.’ No, you have not heard, you have not
known, and in the past your ears were not opened. For I know
that you are very treacherous, and you have been called a
transgressor from birth.” —Isaiah 48:6-8
It is when the guarded secrets are made known that Jehovah’s
guiding hand will prevail. Those guarded secrets have to do
with the unveiling of Jesus Christ —a concept that is
completely alien to Jehovah’s Witnesses due to the invisible
parousia delusion cast by the Watchtower. That is why when
Christ comes he will not find anyone to receive him, as
Isaiah 50:2 says: “Why, then, was no one here when I came?
Why did no one answer when I called?”
But how is it possible for God’s people to be in Babylon in
modern times?
According to the Watchtower the original Bible Students got
out of Babylon the Great by having their names removed from
their respective church membership rosters. And then in 1919
Jehovah performed a mighty deliverance from Babylon the
Great (Why that was necessary is anyone’s guess, since the
Watchtower claims the Bible Students had already gotten out,
individually.) And of course, since 1919 individuals
continue to “get out of her” by converting to become
Jehovah’s Witnesses.
It is impossible for Jehovah’s Witnesses to conceive of any
type of future scenario whereby God’s people could be called
upon to get out of Babylon. That is because it is assumed
that the command has already been given and heeded.
But, first and foremost Babylon was an empire, an empire
that was dominated by religion. The same is true of the
eighth king of Revelation, which is why when the angel
introduced John to Babylon the Great he spoke more about the
mystery of the beast than the mother of harlots who sits
upon the beast.
Contrary to the absurd notion that the League of Nations was
the eighth kingdom, the scarlet-colored, seven-headed beast
has not come on the scene yet. That is because, also
contrary to the Watchtower’s incredible story about the
Anglo head of the beast receiving a mortal wound during the
First World War —a war in which the British and Americas
were victorious —the beast has not had a fatal wound
inflicted upon it.
But all indications are that the mighty American kingdom is
about to be pulled down. It can happen very suddenly with
perhaps a cyber attack taking down the financial system, or
any number of other scenarios, such as a terror attack with
weapons of mass destruction. The crash of the present
system, followed by a miraculous recovery, is what is
portrayed in the 13th chapter of Revelation by the
following: “Now the wild beast that I saw was like a
leopard, but its feet were like those of a bear, and its
mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to the
beast its power and its throne and great authority. I saw
that one of its heads seemed to have been fatally wounded,
but its mortal wound had been healed, and all the earth
followed the wild beast with admiration.”
The death and revival of the beast commences the rule of the
eighth king, which is why the scarlet-colored beast is
presented as a separate beast. And Babylon the Great will
still be in a dominate position in the post-crash world —at
least for a short while.
During that period Jehovah’s Witnesses will be conquered
—their
Watchtower silenced; their ministry completely
curtailed; their kingdom halls confiscated and burned.
“They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the
tabernacle bearing your name, casting it to the ground. They
and their offspring have said in their hearts: ‘All the
meeting places of God in the land must be burned.’ There are
no signs for us to see; there is no longer any prophet, and
no one among us knows how long this will last.” — Psalms 74
From that lowly place Jehovah will become the Repurchaser of
his people and issue the command to “get out of her, my
people!”
According to the 4th chapter of Micah, during the final part
of the days the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be
lifted up on high, in that very context Micah 10-11 states:
“Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman giving
birth, for now you will go from the city and reside in the
field. You will go as far as to Babylon, and there you will
be rescued; there Jehovah will buy you back from the hand of
your enemies. Now many nations will be gathered against you;
they will say, ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eyes see
this happen to Zion.’ But they do not know the thoughts of
Jehovah, they do not understand his purpose; for he will
gather them like a row of newly cut grain to the threshing
floor.”
For a fuller consideration of the prophecy of Micah