I hope to have more installments but I don't know when I will finish them...;)
I apologize for the massive quoting which will make this post excessively long. I have highlighted the important parts.
If you ever talk to JWs and discuss reasons why they are or are not "God's Organization", "God's Earthly Representatives", "The Only True Religion", etc...etc... You will notice that if you logically disprove something they hold as a proof they will switch to a different "reason". Saying well "I do know we are the only ones that [insert reason]". This is usually after denying the monumental evidence against their 607-1914 chronology or the importantce of this doctrine. Having been a JW and technically still being one I know this for a fact. I have in fact done this to others and had it done to me. One difference with me is that if I state something is a fact and do so in a discussion without KNOWING it is and having legitimate proof to back it up, I feel compelled to research my "fact" and prove it to myself. I even find myself compelled to go back to the person I was discussing the issue with and admitting that I was w w w w wro wrong, OK there I said it, if in fact I find myself to be so. It is from this standpoint which I have analyzed several different "proofs". I will present them one at a time and try to explain as-best-I-can why they are false.
This one is titled Good News. The claim is by witnesses that they are the only ones fufilling the sign which said :
(Matthew 24:14) 14 And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.
It is true that JWs preach a lot and in many lands. This is a point which they are proud of and I do not dispute. However for this point to hold water more needs to be true of than just the fact that they preach in many lands. For the sake of this argument I will not argue this point and allow the claim that they "preach in all the inhabited earth", technically not true but I believe maybe as true as the statement in Matthew was intended.
So now what we have left to prove is if what JWs are preaching equal with what was meant in Matthew as "this good news of the kingdom". For those of you who might claim that I am quoting from old sources please be advised. I have searched to try to find a concise definition of just what is this "good news" which JWs preach. I have found many usages of the term but only a few which define what it actually is. They seem consistent with each other and I have found no later contridictary or retractatory (is that a word) statements, so at this moment these stand.
First is from the booklet "This Good News of the Kingdom" I believe it was published c.1954 by the
"Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. International Bible Students Association Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A."
It is well into the booklet before it makes a concise statement as to what this good news is.
Page 19 Paragraph 28 But before such blessings could come to humankind there would have to be great changes, would there not! For peace and righteousness to flourish here, wickedness, destruction, sickness and death must pass from the earth. When and how will that come about? The Bible shows that all this would come to pass following the second coming of Christ Jesus and the setting up of his kingdom in heaven. The good news today is that Christ Jesus has come again, that God's kingdom by him has been set up and is now ruling in heaven, and that shortly Satan, his wicked angels and his visible servants on earth will be destroyed at the battle of Armageddon. How do we know this?
This does not tell the full story because this statement is posed with a question to provide supposed proof. That proof is provided in the following paragraphs.
JESUS' PRESENCE IN KINGDOM POWER
29 When Jesus said he would come again he did not mean he would return in the flesh visible to men on earth. He has given up that earthly life as a ransom and therefore cannot take such life back again. When he came to earth the first time in human form, that was a humiliation for him. (Hebrews 2:9) However, in his second presence he does not come as a human "lower than the angels," but he comes as a spirit creature in all his glory. (Matthew 25: 31) As such, his return in Kingdom power is invisible to man on the earth. Before he left the earth he had said to his disciples: "A little while, and the world seeth me no more." (John 14:19) Jesus has now been made the "express image"
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of his Father and therefore dwells with his Father in a light which "no man hath seen, nor can see." (Hebrews 1:3; 1 Timothy 6:16) So Jesus' second coming or presence is not seen with the literal eyes, but with the eyes of understanding. -Ephesians 1:18.
30 As proof of his presence in Kingdom power Jesus foretold certain outstanding evidences that would make up a great "sign." By seeing these visible evidences making up the "sign" and by understanding what they mean, those living on earth would know that Jesus had taken up his Kingdom power in heaven and was therefore present as King of the long-promised Kingdom. What would make up this "sign"?
31 That question arose in the minds of Jesus' apostles, for they asked: "Tell us, when shall these things be! and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3) In answer Jesus said: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in [various] places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." -Verses 7 and 8.
32 According to this, then, the great sign would commence with a world war. In the years 1914 to 1918thirty nations were engaged in war with one another, and it was therefore called the First World War. It was accompanied by famines and pestilences in many places, and
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these things continued to bring woe and misery on earth after World War I ended. Indeed, more died from pestilence than were killed in the four years of the war. Also, since 1914 there have been reported more earthquakes than ever before in history, causing great destruction to both property and life. Yet Jesus said: "All these are the beginning of sorrows." And so, since World War I, the time of sorrows has continued and has included another world war even more terrible than the first. Today there is fear of yet another war using more terrible weapons of destruction. Famine still afflicts mankind, and earthquakes too. There is a feeling of insecurity on the part of all mankind as they wonder just what the future has in store for them. Jesus well described these conditions which are a part of the sign he prophesied. He said that there would be "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." -Luke 21: 25,26.
33 So, then, all the evidence shows that Jesus took up his Kingdom power and began his reign from heaven in the year 1914. But why should this wonderful event be accompanied by woes and sorrows on the earth? The book of Revelation, chapter 12, gives us the answer.
Here we see that the "Good News" which the witnesses preach is not the same as mentioned in Matthew, rather it is a message which is based on their 607-1914 time prophecies. This booklet was actually first appeared as an article in the Watchtower.
***w5410/15p.625"ThisGoodNewsoftheKingdom"***
Here is another article which discusses the "Good News of the Kingdom" it asks the question Just what is "the good news"? But it fails to give it a direct answer. It does however explicitly associate the "good news of the kingdom" with the Watchtower’s 607-1914 time prophecies.
***w6712/15pp.747-752pars.13-33"InAlltheNationstheGoodNewsHastoBePreachedFirst"***13 In spite of all this religious persecution against true, apostolic Christians amid international war, food shortages, earthquakes and pestilences, the "good news" has to be preached first in all the nations. Evidently the preaching of the good news was not to gain for the active true Christians general favor with the nations and peoples. But here it is time to ask,Just what is "the good news"? People in heathendom, in Jewry, in Islam and in Christendom have tried to overlook the key person and to leave him out as man’s last hope, but there can be no truly "good news" today with Jesus Christ not included in it. That is why the historian John Mark opens up the life account about him saying: "The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ."—Mark 1:1.
14 Jesus himself recognized his inseparable connection with the "good news," saying: "Whoever loses his soul for the sake of me and the good news will save it." "No one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundredfold now in this period of time, . . . and in the coming system of things everlasting life." "Wherever the good news is preached in all the world, what this woman did [to me] shall also be told as a remembrance of her."—Mark 8:35; 10:28-30; 14:9.
15 Rightly, then, Jesus Christ himself preached the "good news," for no one could preach it better than he could. (John 7:46) In confirmation of this, John Mark reports: "Now after John [the Baptist] was put under arrest Jesus went into Galilee, preaching the good news of God and saying: ‘The appointed time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Be repentant, you people, and have faith in the good news.’"—Mark 1:14, 15.
16 Ah, the good news back there was about the kingdom of God, and especially that it had drawn near. The kingdom of God is a good thing, in fact, the best and only thing for all mankind, and the news that it has drawn near would be good news of the most vital importance. It had drawn near nineteen centuries ago in that Jesus Christ, whom God had anointed to be the Messianic king in the heavenly government, had come to earth as a man in order to die a martyr’s death for preaching and teaching that kingdom of God and at the same time die as a ransom sacrifice for all sinful mankind. (John 18:36, 37; Matt. 20:28) But what kind of government will it be—this kingdom of God with Jesus Christ his Son as King over mankind?
"THEKINGDOM"17 That kingdom must be the one foretold by the prophet Daniel at Babylon in the seventh and sixth centuries before our Common Era, for Jesus Christ connected his own prophecy to his four apostles with the prophecy of Daniel, as he went on to say: "However, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing where it ought not (let the reader use discernment), then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. Keep praying that it may not occur in wintertime; for those days will be days of a tribulation such as has not occurred from the beginning of the creation which God created until that time, and will not occur again. In fact, unless Jehovah had cut short the days, no flesh would be saved. But on account of the chosen ones whom he has chosen he has cut short the days."—Mark 13:14-20.
18 The "disgusting thing that causes desolation" is the one foretold in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11. (See Matthew 24:15; Luke 21:20, 21.) After foretelling the setting up of this "disgusting thing that causes desolation," the prophet Daniel also foretells the outbreak of this unparalleled "tribulation" or "time of distress" that Jesus Christ foretold to his apostles. (Dan. 12:1) So the kingdom of God that Jesus said had to be preached as good news must be the same kingdom of God about which Daniel himself prophesied earlier. Daniel foretold that it must come along with an unprecedented time of trouble for the nations of the world. What else could Daniel have meant when he spoke of the last ones of the political rulers of this wicked world and said the following?
19 "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite."—Dan. 2:44.
20 "I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! with the clouds of the heavens someone like a son of man happened to be coming; and to the Ancient of Days he gained access, and they brought him up close even before that One. And to him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him. His rulership is an indefinitely lasting rulership that will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be brought to ruin. . . . As for the fourth beast, there is a fourth kingdom that will come to be on the earth, that will be different from all the other kingdoms; and it will devour all the earth and will trample it down and crush it. . . . And the Court itself proceeded to sit, and his own rulership they finally took away, in order to annihilate him and to destroy him totally. And the kingdom and the rulership and the grandeur of the kingdoms under all the heavens were given to the people who are the holy ones of the Supreme One. Their kingdom is an indefinitely lasting kingdom, and all the rulerships will serve and obey even them."—Dan. 7:13, 14, 23-27.
21 This is the kingdom of God, the establishment of which means the best news ever published to mankind. But that heavenly kingdom was not established in the year 70 of our Common Era. In that year Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and of its temple without leaving one stone upon another not thrown down. The Jewish Christians were not caught in that destruction, for they had followed Jesus’ advice and had fled to the mountains outside of Judea and Jerusalem. They kept on preaching elsewhere the coming of God’s kingdom, for they knew that it had not come there at Jerusalem’s destruction. Instead of God’s Messianic kingdom being established there at Jerusalem in the hands of the glorified Messiah, Jesus Christ, the conquering Romans set up a pagan city sixty-one years later (131 C.E.). They gave it the status of a Roman colony and called it Aelia Capitolina. That city, with some alterations, has stood down till this day.
22 That destruction of Jerusalem and desolation of the province of Judea, as foretold by Jesus Christ and as described by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, was a horrible affair. But it did not match Jesus’ description of "days of a tribulation such as has not occurred from the beginning of the creation which God created until that time, and will not occur again. In fact, unless Jehovah had cut short the days, no flesh would be saved." (Mark 13:19, 20) By way of comparison with the terrible destruction in the Middle East in the year 70 C.E., what about World War I in the years 1914-1918 C.E.? What about World War II in the years 1939-1945, which culminated with the explosion of two atomic bombs, the first ones used in war? What about the possibilities for tribulation, destruction and horror of another world war, with nuclear bombs carried to their targets by long-range missiles, accompanied by the world’s greatest famine and with a pestilence spread by scientifically made disease-germ spreaders and the atmosphere poisoned by radiological devices? Alongside such calamities, Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. fades away to nothing.
23 No, indeed, Gentile (non-Jewish) rule of the earth was not meant to end in the year 70 C.E. by the setting up of God’s Messianic kingdom in the heavens. Jesus Christ himself said so. In his very prophecy to his apostles, as reported by the historian Doctor Luke with some details not given by John Mark, he foretold earthly Jerusalem’s destruction and said: "There will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled."—Luke 21:23, 24.
24 The Gentile Times, or "the appointed times of the nations," which began back in 607 B.C.E. at the first destruction of Jerusalem and her temple by the Babylonians, were to continue on after the second destruction of Jerusalem and her temple in 70 C.E. Till when? Daniel’s prophecy again comes to our aid, and its chapter four shows that these appointed times of the Gentiles’ world domination without interruption by God’s Messianic kingdom were to run all together for 2,520 years, or down till 1914 C.E.THEGOODNEWSTOBEPREACHED—WHEN?
25 Note here, please, one prominent fact in support of this: The preaching of the good news about God’s kingdom "first" and "in all the nations" was not accomplished by the year 70 C.E. True, the preaching had spread throughout the Roman Empire’s domain. The apostle Paul carried it on in Rome, Italy, although held prisoner there for years. (Acts 28:16-31) And from his prison quarters in Rome he wrote to the Christian congregation in Colossae and said: "The telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you . . . you continue in the faith, . . . not being shifted away from the hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven." (Col. 1:5, 6, 23) The apostle Peter reached old Babylon in Mesopotamia, which was then outside the Roman Empire. (1 Pet. 5:13) This was years before Judea and Jerusalem were desolated in the year 70 C.E.
26 And yet, despite such spread of the "good news" even before 70 C.E., the apostle John in a vision that occurred possibly twenty-six years after the wrecking of Jerusalem and her temple was told: "You must prophesy again with regard to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings." (Rev. 10:11) In describing all the vision, the apostle John speaks of the "great tribulation" as being still future, also of the destruction of Babylon the Great and the fighting of the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" at the place called Armageddon as still future from his day. (Rev. 16:13 to 19:21) In no way, then, was Jesus’ prophecy about preaching the "good news" first in all the nations fulfilled in the first century C.E. So onward the preaching of God’s kingdom had to go. From the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century, there was a preaching of God’s kingdom as having been established because the emperor made the compromising form of Christianity of his day the State religion. The reign of Christ for a millennium (a thousand years) came to be understood as having begun and as being in progress.
27 Well, now, what about this preaching of God’s kingdom from even the days of the apostles and down to the end of the Gentile Times in the year 1914? Was this the fulfillment of Jesus’ words: "In all the nations the good news has to be preached first"? (Mark 13:10) It was thought so until early in this twentieth century. But note this: All such preaching of God’s kingdom was done before the ending of the Gentile Times in 1914 and it published God’s kingdom as coming, by world conversion, as many religionists of Christendom thought. Well, then, would such long-extended preaching, stretching out over almost nineteen centuries, be of itself any proof or indication that God’s kingdom had come? No! It is true that, in his prophecy foretelling the Kingdom preaching, Jesus said: "Truly I say to you that this generation [geneá] will by no means pass away until all these things happen. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." But what about that expression "this generation"?—Mark 13:30, 31.
28 By that expression Jesus was not referring to the entire church or congregation of his faithful disciples, from the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. until the glorification in heaven of the last member of Christ’s congregation. True, the apostle Peter wrote to the Christian congregation and said: "You are ‘a chosen race [génos].’" (1 Pet. 2:9) But that race or generation would by now be a race or generation over nineteen hundreds of years old. The life length of such a generation would not be a brief time, and so it would not be confined to a limited time of tremendous urgency. However, the expression "this generation" was used by Jesus to mark a very limited period of time, the life-span of members of a generation of people living during the time that certain epoch-making events occurred. According to Psalm 90:10, that life-span could be of seventy years or even of eighty years.
29 Into this comparatively short period of time must be crowded all the things that Jesus prophesied in answer to the request for a "sign when all these things are destined to come to a conclusion." (Mark 13:4) Because of its being a part of the "sign," the preaching of the "good news" first in all the nations must be a special preaching that is carried on to a finish during the lifetime of "this generation." It must, therefore, be an urgent work, which fact is one reason why it must be done "first."
30 To be part of the "sign" asked for in Mark 13:4, the particular preaching of the "good news" first in all the nations would have to come after the Gentile Times closed in the early autumn of 1914. It must come after the "beginning of pangs of distress" started in that year. How sorely the poor people of all nations would need good news then under those circumstances! The news would be "good news" about the same kingdom of God that Jesus and his apostles preached back there in the first century C.E. That kingdom is needed now, since 1914, more than ever before, for there is only the one kingdom of God for the lasting peace, security, happiness and salvation of the world of mankind. Yet to the preaching so much more would be added now in comparison with the "good news" preached by Jesus and his disciples nineteen centuries ago. The good news of the day would be richer. How so?
31 Well, think of all the fulfillments of prophecy that have taken place in our time. Why, for decades before 1914, Bible students associated with the magazine TheWatchTower and with the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society looked for God’s Messianic kingdom to come into full power in 1914. Why? Because the Gentile Times, "the appointed times of the nations," were to end in the fall of that year, as marked out by the Bible timetable. Just as the start of the Gentile Times in the fall of the year 607 B.C.E. marked the overturning of the typical, miniature kingdom of God in King David’s royal line among the natural Jews or Israelites, so the converse or opposite would take place at the ending of the Gentile Times 2,520 years later in 1914. What? The restoring, the reestablishing of God’s Messianic kingdom in the hands of the Permanent Heir to the throne of King David.
32 Who is that Permanent Heir in David’s royal line? All twenty-seven books of the inspired Christian Holy Scriptures (written in Greek) acclaim Jesus Christ as that Permanent Heir of King David. (Matt. 1:1-16; Rom. 1:1-3; Rev. 5:5; 22:16) Though he sacrificed his perfect fleshly body as a ransom for dying mankind nineteen centuries ago, he still retained his right to King David’s throne when Almighty God raised him from the dead as an immortal spirit person in heavenly glory and summoned him back to heaven. (Ps. 110:1, 2; Acts 2:34-36) He is now an invisible spirit person, too glorious for human eyes to see directly.—1 Tim. 6:14-16.
33 Hence his ruling over mankind must be invisibly, and not on a visible material throne in old Jerusalem in the Middle East, at the site where the ancient kings of the royal line of David used to sit. Those earthly kings sat there on what was called "Jehovah’s throne." (1 Chron. 29:23) But Jesus Christ now actually sits on Jehovah’s real throne, at Jehovah’s right hand, and from there in heaven he now reigns in the midst of his enemies and will reign for a thousand years after the war of Armageddon and the binding of Satan and his demons. (Heb. 1:1-4; 10:12, 13; Rev. 3:21, 7; 5:5) He is mightier than all previous kings of King David’s line.
Here is yet another article from a Watchtower which associates their "Good News" with the 607-1914 prophecies. This one not so directly but it mentions it being associated with the establishment of God’s kingdom in heaven during this generation which is a teaching directly associated with the time prophecies.
***w703/15p.174par.9KeeptheRightViewofKingdomPreaching***
9 The present-day "good news" concerning God’s kingdom is that it has been established in heaven in this very generation; yes, that Jesus Christ has been enthroned there and is ruling in the midst of his enemies. This means that Satan the Devil has been cast from heaven to the vicinity of the earth, and that he will soon be abyssed and his entire wicked system of things destroyed. What good news! (Ps. 110:1, 2; Rev. 12:7-12; 20:1-3) Included in the "good news" is also the fact that those who serve God will survive this system’s end and will enjoy eternal life and peace under the Kingdom rule. (1 John 2:17; Ps. 37:9-11, 29) Happily, we have reached the days of which the Bible prophecy speaks: "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. . . . It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite."—Dan. 2:44.
As I mentioned at the beginning these statements are taken from older publications which some may object to despite the fact that they are all found in the current Watchtower Library on CD. As we move forward in time it is more difficult to find similar concise statements regarding the "good news of the kingdom", additionally there are no contradictory statements that I have been able to find.
I have yet to meet a witness or anyone else present any solid argument that stands up to critical examination for 607-1914.
Conclusion, the defense for witnesses that their preaching the "good news" is proof that they are "God’s Organization" relies on their being able to prove that their time prophecies are correct otherwise their "good news" which they preach is not the "good news" which Jesus spoke of in the 24 chapter of Matthew. A fact that most witnesses do not know and will most likely treat as a bitter pill.
-rassillon