The Society's completely nonsensical and contradictory stance on when God's kingdom comes is really brought home in this Awake! The Dec 06 Awake ("Jesus - who was he") has as it's second article "The Life He Makes Possible" (referring to Jesus). In that article is the subheading "Evidence God's Kingdom is Near" which reads as follows: "How can we know when that Kingdom will come in answer to that prayer (the Lord's prayer)? Jesus' early followers were curious and asked: "What will be the sign of your presence [as ruling King] and of the conclusion of the system of things?" Jesus answered: "Nation will rise against nation...., and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress." Also, he warned: "Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off." - Matthew 24:3-12." Notice that in that paragraph they use Matthew 24:3-12 in relation to when the Kingdom COMES. Notice that they also add the words [as ruling King] to Jesus words. The Society officially teaches that all these events form a 'composite sign' that indicate the kingdom CAME in 1914 and that it has been ruling since that date (though only God knows over what). Next para: "Another Bible prophecy says that "in the last days critical times hard to deal with......but proving false to its power." - 2 Timothy 3:1-5." Next para: "You may agree that this description of "the last days" fits exactly the times in which we live. Evidence is abundant that now is the time for the fulfillment of the following Bible prophecy: "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdomitself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself wills tand to times indefinite." - Daniel 2:44 " Notice the ambigous wording: "...now is the time for the fulfillment of the following Bible prophecy:..". This could be taken to mean either 'now' as in presently the kingdom is ruling (the official belief taught by the WTS) or taken to mean that right now conditions are ripe on earth for the Kingdom to finally be set up and start to rule. But is God's kingdom yet to 'come' or has it already 'come', in 1914? (The Society, of course, teaches both.) The article makes no reference to 1914 at all and appears to have been written to give the reader the distinct impression that the coming of God's kingdom is entirely a future event. Taken purely at face value, this Awake article would be 'new light'. Final para: "The Kingdom rule exercised by the "Prince of Peace" will remove everything that that would interfere with the peace of those who survive this world's end. (Isaiah 9:6) Bible prophecy promises: "The world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever." (1 John 2:17) This world's end will make way for doers of God's will to enjoy what was lost for the human family when our original parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God." So God's purpose for mankind is to destroy 6 billion people because, somehow, they stand to 'interfere' with the peace of a few million active dubbies, who alone have the scriptural hope of surviving God's global day of massacre. So much for the 'life' Jesus alone makes possible - more like mass death.
"Evidence God's Kingdom is Near" - Dec 06 Awake
by yaddayadda 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Kudra
Uh, my head hurts...
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SirNose586
So God's purpose for mankind is to destroy 6 billion people because, somehow, they stand to 'interfere' with the peace of a few million active dubbies, who alone have the scriptural hope of surviving God's global day of massacre.
Doesn't sound very good when you put it so plainly.
Paragraphs are your friend!
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AK - Jeff
YaddaYadda - I reformatted your post for easier reading - hope you don't mind;
The Society's completely nonsensical and contradictory stance on when God's kingdom comes is really brought home in this Awake! The Dec 06 Awake ("Jesus - who was he") has as it's second article "The Life He Makes Possible" (referring to Jesus). In that article is the subheading "Evidence God's Kingdom is Near" which reads as follows:
"How can we know when that Kingdom will come in answer to that prayer (the Lord's prayer)? Jesus' early followers were curious and asked: "What will be the sign of your presence [as ruling King] and of the conclusion of the system of things?" Jesus answered: "Nation will rise against nation...., and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress." Also, he warned: "Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off." - Matthew 24:3-12."
Notice that in that paragraph they use Matthew 24:3-12 in relation to when the Kingdom COMES. Notice that they also add the words [as ruling King] to Jesus words. The Society officially teaches that all these events form a 'composite sign' that indicate the kingdom CAME in 1914 and that it has been ruling since that date (though only God knows over what). Next para: "Another Bible prophecy says that "in the last days critical times hard to deal with......but proving false to its power." - 2 Timothy 3:1-5." Next para:
"You may agree that this description of "the last days" fits exactly the times in which we live. Evidence is abundant that now is the time for the fulfillment of the following Bible prophecy: "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdomitself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself wills tand to times indefinite." - Daniel 2:44 "
Notice the ambigous wording: "...now is the time for the fulfillment of the following Bible prophecy:..". This could be taken to mean either 'now' as in presently the kingdom is ruling (the official belief taught by the WTS) or taken to mean that right now conditions are ripe on earth for the Kingdom to finally be set up and start to rule. But is God's kingdom yet to 'come' or has it already 'come', in 1914? (The Society, of course, teaches both.) The article makes no reference to 1914 at all and appears to have been written to give the reader the distinct impression that the coming of God's kingdom is entirely a future event. Taken purely at face value, this Awake article would be 'new light'. Final para:
"The Kingdom rule exercised by the "Prince of Peace" will remove everything that that would interfere with the peace of those who survive this world's end. (Isaiah 9:6) Bible prophecy promises: "The world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever." (1 John 2:17) This world's end will make way for doers of God's will to enjoy what was lost for the human family when our original parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God."
So God's purpose for mankind is to destroy 6 billion people because, somehow, they stand to 'interfere' with the peace of a few million active dubbies, who alone have the scriptural hope of surviving God's global day of massacre. So much for the 'life' Jesus alone makes possible - more like mass death.
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fullofdoubtnow
The article makes no reference to 1914 at all and appears to have been written to give the reader the distinct impression that the coming of God's kingdom is entirely a future event. Taken purely at face value, this Awake article would be 'new light'
Is this another attempt to further distance themselves from the "generation" teaching? The change they made in 1995 upset quite a few, and now here's an article about God's kingdom with no mention whatsoever of 1914! I wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of a move to remove 1914 from their teachings altogether? Whatever spin they put on it, they are eventually going to be in trouble with the 1914 doctrine, so maybe they are preparing their excuse in advance, so they can limit the damage when people inevitably start asking questions.
Does anyone else smell bull$hit here?
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Terry
The sign is for what purpose? Who is supposed to see and recognize the sign? What action are they supposed to take from being tipped off in advance?
Christians from the 1st Century onward have been utterly convinced by the signs they saw (interpreted) with their own eyes that THEY were/are living in the
time of the end.If the signs can be so easily misinterpreted; what good are they as signs?
Take a look at those so-called "signs" and see how utterly banal they are. How can I say that? Because there is no frame of measuring such signs against other events of a similar nature.
Name any time in history that those signs were not in evidence. You can't. They are illusory.
When you see clouds that look like rain you think it is going to rain, do you not? But, sometimes it doesn't rain! So, the clouds are only a GENERAL INDICATION of the POSSIBILITY of rain. Clouds are not proof positive of anything. So too with these signs of Jesus. They don't stand out as foolproof. They stand out as worthless folk wisdom.
Farmer: "It looks like it is going to rain".
2nd Farmer: "Maybe; maybe not"
There! You have the state of the art in interpreting signs.
Next day.....
2nd Farmer: "I thought you said it was going to rain?"
Farmer: "It did. But, the rain was invisible."
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yaddayadda
Good points Terry. Much thanks for the re-formatting Jeff. I use Mozilla Firefox and have attempted a couple of tricks to try and get around this problem but nothing works.
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GermanXJW
There is no such thing as a composite sign. The chapter says: don't be misled by wars, famines and stuff. Somewhere at the end it mentions the sign of the son of man. That's it. Not they believe anything of that stuff but it is what the chapter basically says.
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Justice-One
I think I remember hearing them say words to the effect of "Generation" could mean any number of years.
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yaddayadda
You are right GermanXJW. The so-called 'composite sign' is not a sign at all, they are just things to indicate when he is near at the doors. They are the budding leaves that indicate when summer is near (Matt 24:32,33). The sign of the son of man that appears in heaven is the 'sign' that he is finally 'present' (Matt 24:30)