1874-1914-2014 (page 2)

I quit!

Are you listening GB? Keep tuning in and perhaps you will find some dirt and a shovel to fill in the hole you have dug yourselves into.

I wonder if the do come here for ideas. They certainly could use some help.

Olin Moyles Ghost

1914 is not going away in our lifetime. Since the 1995 generation change, it has been neutered, but this will allow it to last that much longer.

Think about this: the 7th Day Adventists still teach that Jesus began an invisible period of investigative judgment in 1844--that is 165 years ago! And the Adventists are still alive and kicking. So, I think 1914 still has plenty of "legs" so to speak.

Also, you have to put yourself in the mindset of a JW when you think about this stuff. To most of us, each day that passes without "The End" coming is one more nail in the coffin of Watchtower false prophecy. But for your average JW, each day that passes is one day closer to The End; and each day that passes contains more bad news that further affirms "the urgency of the times in which we live" and "the nearness of The End of this Wicked System of Things."

Nathan Natas

Who among us has not sinned?

Who among us does not deserve PUNISHMENT?

Accordingly, I submit the following summary of Watchtower "Jubilee theory."

Don't thank me; if you've been bad (and you know you have), you deserve it.

Now take it like whatever it is you are.

= = = = = = = = =

...Something else that was seen as a possible time indicator involved the arrangement that God instituted in ancient Israel for a Jubilee, a year of release, every 50th year. This came after a series of seven 7-year periods, each of which ended with a sabbath year. During the Jubilee year, Hebrew slaves were freed and hereditary land possessions that had been sold were restored. (Lev. 25:8-10) Calculations based on this cycle of years led to the conclusion that perhaps a greater Jubilee for all the earth had begun in the autumn of 1874, that evidently the Lord had returned in that year and was invisibly present, and that “the times of restitution of all things” had arrived.—Acts 3:19-21, KJ.

- Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), page 631

...In the lecture “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” delivered by J. F. Rutherford on March 21, 1920, at the Hippodrome in New York City, attention was directed to the year 1925. On what basis was it thought to be significant? In a booklet published in that same year, 1920, it was pointed out that if 70 full Jubilees were calculated from what was understood to be the date when Israel entered the Promised Land (instead of starting after the last typical Jubilee before the Babylonian exile and then counting to the beginning of the Jubilee year at the end of the 50th cycle), this could point to the year 1925. On the basis of what was said there, many hoped that perhaps the remaining ones of the little flock would receive their heavenly reward by 1925. This year also was associated with expectations for resurrection of faithful pre-Christian servants of God with a view to their serving on earth as princely representatives of the heavenly Kingdom. If that really occurred, it would mean that mankind had entered an era in which death would cease to be master, and millions then living could have the hope of never dying off the earth. What a happy prospect! Though mistaken, they eagerly shared it with others.

- Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), page 632
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...Starting the count of years with the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, their first Jubilee year began in Tishri of 1424 B.C.E. (Le 25:2-4, 8-10) Between the time of entering the Promised Land in 1473 B.C.E. and the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., the Israelites were obligated to celebrate 17 Jubilees. But it is a sad commentary on their history that they did not appreciate Jehovah as their King. They eventually violated his commands, including the Sabbath laws, and suffered the loss of the blessings he arranged for them. Their failure brought reproach on God before the nations of the world and hindered them from realizing the excellence of his theocratic government.—2Ch 36:20, 21.

Symbolic Meaning.

There are allusions to the Jubilee arrangement in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Jesus Christ said he came to “preach a release to the captives.” (Lu 4:16-18) He later said with regard to liberation from bondage to sin: “If the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.” (Joh 8:36) Because spirit-anointed Christians were declared righteous for life and were begotten as sons of God beginning with Pentecost of 33 C.E., the apostle Paul could thereafter write: “The law of that spirit which gives life in union with Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Ro 8:2) During Christ’s Thousand Year Reign, others, too, as indicated at Romans 8:19-21, “will be set free from enslavement to corruption” and, after proving their loyalty to Jehovah under test, will “have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” They will be liberated from inborn sin and from the death to which it leads. The custody of the earth itself will be returned to true worshipers, to be cared for in harmony with Jehovah’s original purpose for mankind.—Re 21:4; Ge 1:28; Isa 65:21-25.

- Insight On The Scriptures (1988), volume 2, page 123

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...9 Let me quote the original words and context according to a modern translation: “You must hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it is to be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his own possessions, and each of you shall return to his own family. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you, when you must not sow, nor reap any aftergrowth in it, nor gather grapes from the undressed vines in it; for, being a jubilee, it is to be sacred for you; you must eat its produce out of the field. In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own possessions.”—Lev. 25:9-13, AT.

13 Let us then briefly examine that ancient Jubilee law and see how it means the grandest of things for us today. For more than eighty years the people of Israel, to whom the prophet Moses belonged, had been slaves under cruel, exhausting labor in the land of Egypt. Backed by mighty military power, the oppressive government was trying to wipe out these Israelites. Then Almighty God, Jehovah, sent the prophet Moses to his people and, by means of marvelous miracles, delivered the Israelites from wicked Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai in the land of Arabia. Jehovah God promised to give them the land of Palestine, and now he was leading them there. But before bringing them into the Promised Land he gave them his laws, theocratic laws, for their government when they were finally established in the Promised Land. Among the laws was this one to celebrate the Jubilee every fifty years, and it is set out in detail in Leviticus, chapter 25.

15 God promised the Israelites that if they kept his law there would be no poor in the land. (Deut. 15:4) But God foresaw that because of sin, imperfection and selfishness in this world many Israelites would become poor, whereas some would become rich and would selfishly want to hold onto their riches at the expense of their fellow Israelites. So he added these words: “The poor will never cease to be in your land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your poor and needy fellow-countryman in your land.” (Deut. 15:7-11, AT) To meet their expenses some Israelites would become obliged to sell part of their ancestral land or even all of it and thus for the time become landless. Others would have to sell members of their families or sell even themselves to be slaves to their fellow Israelites or to foreigners in the Promised Land. If a relative was not able to buy back his land for him or to settle his debt and procure his release, or if meantime he did not acquire the means to secure these benefits for himself, then the Jubilee year held out bright hope for him.

16 The Jubilee year was one of release, of liberation. It took care of all these unfortunate developments, for in that year all such Israelite slaves were to be set free. All ancestral estates that had been sold were to be returned to the rightful owners, and families were to be reunited. As for the land itself, the Jubilee was a year of rest for it. Every seventh year was a sabbath year for the land, when it must lie fallow. The forty-ninth year was thus a sabbath year, but in addition to that the fiftieth year was also a sabbath year for the land, so that it got an extra year to revitalize itself. What grew of itself could be eaten, but it must not be harvested and stored up. Thus not only did the Israelites have a chance to recuperate materially and start out on a new basis, in possession of property and on a level with their fellows, but also the land had an opportunity to build up its productive strength again. By God’s blessing for their faithfulness the forty-eighth year would have yielded such a rich harvest that it would provide food for three successive years, till they reaped the crops they sowed the next year after the Jubilee.

17 Because of what this wise and loving provision foreshadowed for all mankind’s future, God took this sabbath-year and Jubilee-year arrangement seriously. For improperly keeping these sabbath years he punished the Israelites by exiling them that the God-given land might rest for seventy years while the disobedient Israelites were captives in the land of Babylon. They had sold themselves into this captivity by their sin against Jehovah’s law. But in the spirit of the sabbath-year benefits he acted mercifully as their Liberator. He broke the enemy oppressor’s power and restored them to their homeland. Here again Jehovah displayed himself as the God and Author of liberty.

18 By requiring slaveholders to free their Israelite servants and by requiring buyers to restore ancestral estates to their rightful owners God committed no unfairness with those who had made legal purchases. All purchases were required to be made based on the number of years that remained till the Jubilee. Furthermore, the land all belonged to earth’s Creator. That is why his law said: “The land must not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, since you are only resident aliens and serfs under me.” (Lev. 25:23, AT) They must all remember, too, that they were liberated slaves, once oppressed in Egypt and later on in Babylon. And just as Jehovah had had mercy upon them for his name’s sake and had delivered them from servitude in the enemies’ land, so they must show the divine quality of mercy and let their Israelite slaves go free on the Jubilee year in obedience to the great Liberator’s command. “For it is to me that the Israelites are slaves, being my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, I, the LORD, your God.” (Lev. 25:55, AT) Thus the entire arrangement was just and merciful. It was carried out without violent revolution and bloodshed. The Jubilee horn therefore sounded peace and joy throughout all the land.

19 This foretells a greater release from debt and slavery for mankind and a greater revitalization of the earth. And to think, it is just at our doors! That man has been enslaved by his fellow man there is no question. This is so, whether it has been done by military power, by usurpation of political power, by great monopolies, cartels and commercial and industrial systems, or by the trickery and hypocrisy of religious clergymen. Moreover, the land has been gobbled up by the selfish, the rulers and the aristocrats and the religious clergy. In recent years there has been some breaking up of the great landed estates and the distribution of these to the people. But this has been brought about with great reluctance on the part of the owners, and only by pressure from governments that favored such a policy. In Italy, the cradle of Roman Catholicism, there have been loud complaints and violent moves because of the slowness of the republican government in carrying out its election promise to distribute the land to the poverty-stricken people. One Oriental ruler has recently announced his purpose to have his large estates broken up and apportioned out to his subjects the people. But this is no part of the fulfillment of the promised Jubilee for mankind. It is only part of the desperate efforts of the rulers and systems of this world to perpetuate man’s rule of man or the people’s rule of themselves independent of Jehovah God. Even if all the workable lands of the earth were distributed among all the families of the earth, there would still remain a great liberation to be effected from mankind’s great oppressors.

THE ESSENTIALS OF TRUE FREEDOM

20 The chief oppressor of the human race is Jehovah God’s great adversary, Satan the Devil. His very name Satan means “opposer”, whereas his name “Devil” means “slanderer, false accuser”. Jehovah God stands for true liberty of all his creatures. Satan the Devil stands for their enslavement. He opposes the divine purpose to free them, because this means freeing them from the Devil’s power. For this reason he slanders and falsely accuses the true and living God and wants to have all creation believe that Jehovah is the one who is the tyrant. Satan the Devil has coveted the earth as his possession, and he has sought to wrest it from God’s universal sovereignty. Satan claims all mankind as his slaves. He has challenged God to put on earth a man who would assert his independence of Satan’s rule and swear his allegiance to God and keep it faithfully under the most extreme test. He saw the opportunity to enslave all mankind in man’s original home, the garden of Eden, which lay somewhere over in the Orient in the neighborhood of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. At that time he was a son of God and was a mighty angel whom Jehovah the Creator had stationed over the first man and his wife as their “covering cherub”. (Ezek. 28:13-18) By getting control of our first parents, Adam and Eve, he could make all their offspring his slaves from birth.

21 So the “covering cherub” rebelled against Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and transformed himself into Satan, or God’s opposer. Then to win over the man to join in the rebellion he now approached the man’s wife Eve. He made himself a Devil or slanderer by falsely accusing Jehovah God to her, telling her that God was keeping her in ignorance by his commandments and was holding back what would make her and Adam like gods, independent and able to decide for themselves what was right and wrong, good and bad. He said that God’s threat of death to rebels was beyond carrying out, because they certainly would not die for eating the forbidden fruit. So they should make a break for liberty and eat what they saw to be good for themselves. Thoroughly deceived by this fraudulent liberator, Eve broke God’s law and afterward gave some of the fruit to her responsible head, her husband Adam. Under inducement by his wife, Adam ate, and this act spelled his willful rebellion against his Maker and God, Jehovah.

22 In this way slavery began in God’s universe. Satan the Devil became the slave of his own selfish ambition. By their rebellion Adam and Eve lost their true liberty under God and became slaves of God’s opposer, Satan the Devil. For the sake of selfish appetite they sold us all into a slavery from which it is impossible for any of us to make ourselves free. Hence all of mankind, down to us today, have been born from slave ancestors.—Genesis, chapter 3.

23 Since then Satan the Devil has built up his organization all about the earth. He not only led mankind into rebellion against the Creator but also induced spirits of heaven, angels who were once sons of God and just as holy as man’s “covering cherub” had been, to desert God’s free organization and join that of Satan the Devil. They have become devils or demons and have flooded the earth with demon worship in one form or another. Deceivers that they are, they have led men under the pious idea of worshiping their ancestors into the worshiping of demons instead of worshiping the true God. So the invisible part of Satan’s organization is superhuman and it is utterly impossible for mankind, or any government of mankind, including the United Nations, to break the power of the invisible satanic control and set men free. Resent our saying it as much as they want to, men cannot rid human society and human governments of the dominating influence and interference of Satan the Devil. He has made himself what the sacred Scriptures call him, “the god of this system of things” who blinds men’s minds to the truth. This accounts for the corruption, the decline and the fall of every man-made government that has existed on the face of the earth.—2 Cor. 4:4, NW.

24 Men who lift themselves up and pose as the liberators of the people are deceiving themselves and also those who follow them as leaders. Democracies and people’s republics do not blaze the trail to freedom. It is THEOCRACY, God’s Government, his great Jubilee Kingdom, that is to deliver mankind. It will wrest this earth, God’s creation, from the grasp of the oppressive land baron, Satan the Devil, and will restore earth’s domain and its inhabitants to the sway of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, as free members of his universal family of intelligent creatures.

BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION

25 But there are other things besides Satan’s organization from which mankind needs to be emancipated. The son of God, “the man Christ Jesus,” plainly pointed out what these things are. He showed, too, how release from them will be brought about. He was not deceiving the people when he presented himself as the Apostle of liberty, but his heavenly Father Jehovah God sent him on this mission to give rest to mankind from all their troubles. He was anointed with his Father’s spirit. So he rightly took upon his lips the prophecy of Isaiah and applied to himself the commission there stated, “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” (Isa. 61:1, 2, AS) He was opposed, no, not specially by the political rulers Pontius Pilate and King Herod, but by the religious oppressors of the people, namely, the priests and their scribes and the religious sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees, clergymen, who, as Jesus said, “bind up heavy loads and put them upon the shoulders of mankind, but they themselves are not willing to budge them with their finger.”—Matt. 23:1-4, NW.

26 To prevent the people’s liberation, these religious opposers wanted to kill Jesus, and he said to them: “You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.”—John 8:44, NW.

27 On this same occasion Jesus showed in what way they were slaves who could not escape by their own efforts, and how he must loose them from all enslavers. Yes, they were in the power of Satan the Devil, but they were subject besides to something more personal than the Devil. Slaveholders use lies to get the people in their power. Hence Jesus the Son of God said: “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The Jews showed they felt hurt at this hint that they were slaves. And so Jesus exposed the servitude in which they were by saying: “Most truly I say to you, Every doer of sin is a slave of sin. Moreover, the slave does not remain in the household forever; the son remains forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.”—John 8:31-36, NW.

28 These words of the Son of God prove that all mankind are slaves of sin, because all are doers of sin. The Jews to whom Jesus spoke were descendants of the faithful patriarch Abraham and God had given them his law through Moses. Because of being descendants of Abraham by his free woman, his wife Sarah, the Jews thought themselves to be free, and not subject to the power of Satan the Devil. Also they tried to establish their own righteousness by keeping the law of Moses, and they had a priesthood under this law to offer animal sacrifices for their sins against the Law; and so they considered themselves righteous and not the slaves of sin. But that very law of Moses, instead of declaring the Jews to be righteous, condemned them as sinners and as being liable to God for punishment for sins. They were sinners like all the rest of the world and their mouths could not brag of self-righteousness. By that law of Moses and its ten great commandments we get the knowledge that we are, not self-righteous, but sinners unable to help ourselves. “Now we know,” says the apostle Paul, “that all the things the Law says it addresses to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become liable to God for punishment. Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin.”—Rom. 3:19, 20, NW.

29 How is it, then, that all the world are slaves of sin and in the bondage of corruption? It is not because all the visible, material creation is evil, corrupt, or bad in itself; it is not because the great Creator Jehovah God made man and woman evil at the start. That is an impossibility, for Jehovah God is not the source of sin, imperfection and corruption. Showing us that the fault lies with us and not with Jehovah God, we read: “His work is perfect; for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, it is their blemish.” The wise man King Solomon agrees with those words of Moses and says: “Only see this which I have found, that God made mankind upright, but they have sought out many contrivances.” (Deut. 32:4, 5, AS; Eccl. 7:29, AT) The inspired account of man’s creation informs us that God made Adam and Eve absolutely perfect, put them in the paradise of Eden, and commanded them to produce perfect children to fill this earth and to spread out their perfect paradise home to the ends of the earth. But before ever producing any children, Adam and Eve joined Satan the Devil in his rebellion and became sinners against their Creator and Lawgiver.

30 By this they became the slaves of sin, and were driven out of the paradise of Eden into the uncultivated, unsubdued earth. Themselves now slaves of sin, they could not bring forth perfect, righteous children. Hence all of us their descendants were born as slaves to sin. From our birth we were imperfect and subject to corruption. We were also born into the wicked world of Satan the Devil, “the god of this system of things.” Consequently we were born subject to his power.—Gen. 1:26-28; 2:7, 8.

31 Together with these circumstances another merciless king has been ruling over us and we have suffered as his subjects and been burdened down with sorrow and mourning. Who is that king who has filled our lives with such grief and heartaches? It is death, and the countless graves are a bitter testimony to his unrelenting rule. How did death become king over all mankind? It is because our first parents sinned against the great Lawgiver and Life-giver before any of us were born. God had warned the first man Adam that if he disobeyed God and sinned he would die. On the other hand, if Adam continued to obey God he would live on the paradise earth forever and would be the father of an earthful of perfect children. But Adam and his wife sold themselves into sin, and God rightfully sentenced them to death. He told the woman Eve that she would bring forth children with great pain and sorrow. Not perfect children, but imperfect, sinful children, condemned to death from their birth. For we read: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” (Job 14:4) So we were all subject to the cruel king death from our birth by being born from Adam, and not even the law of Moses proved to be a way of escape from his reign. This explains why everybody is sinful, imperfect, and dies.

THE COST OF LIBERATION

33 Now we can appreciate why Jesus Christ the Son of God said: “If the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.” We cannot, and no human government on earth can, free us from the slavery to sin, error, death and Satan the Devil. If the law of Moses failed to do it, then no earthly human government can make us righteous by law and give us a clean standing before God. How, then, can we be freed from the condemnation to death which rests upon us because of being born in sin? Only by what God’s undeserved kindness does for us through his Son Jesus Christ. Only through him can we gain a Jubilee rest from the slavery of sin and death under Satan the Devil. This was foreshadowed by the Jubilee-year arrangement. How?

34 Mark this important fact about that prophetic law: It was on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month, that is to say, “on the day of atonement,” that the Jubilee trumpet was to be blown, not before the sacrifice for the atonement of the people’s sin had been offered, but after. Thus the Jubilee year could not begin until first the sins of the entire people of Israel against the law of God had been atoned for by the sacrifices made at God’s temple by his priests. (Lev. 25:9, AT) Those atonement sacrifices on the atonement day all pictured the one sufficient sacrifice which the “man Christ Jesus” as High Priest would offer to God for the sins of all mankind. This sacrifice was not some lower animal like a bull or a sheep or a goat, but was his own human life; and he presented the value of this human sacrifice, not in the temple in Jerusalem on earth, but in heaven itself, in God’s very presence, for Jehovah God does not reside in man-made temples on earth. On this we read: “He entered, no, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting release for us. For Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.”—Heb. 9:12, 24, NW.

35 Jesus, who had been born perfect by God’s miraculous power, kept his sinlessness, and he died, not because of sinning, but as a sacrifice. He died at the hands of his religious enemies, because he bore witness to the truth and preached the coming kingdom of God to be the only rightful rule of the earth and the only hope of all mankind. In order that Jesus’ human sacrifice might not be taken back but might remain for mankind’s benefit, God raised his Son Jesus Christ from the dead as a glorified spirit Son, clothed upon with immortal life. Because he had died faithful to Jehovah God’s universal sovereignty, God resurrected him from the dead to be the heavenly King of the new world.—1 Pet. 3:18, 22.

36 From this we can see that the grand Jubilee release for mankind could not really begin until first after the atonement sacrifice that takes away sin had been laid down by God’s High Priest Jesus Christ on earth and had been presented to God in heaven.

37 It is interesting to note this fact: The Jubilee was the fiftieth year. Correspondingly, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead came the Jewish feast of weeks or Pentecost. (Pentecost means “fiftieth day”.) It was on this feast day of Pentecost that the faithful disciples had God’s holy spirit poured out upon them, and they began a great work of preaching and of spiritual liberation.

38 This pouring out of the spirit on them was a visible sign that Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven and entered into God’s presence and offered to him the value of his human sacrifice. It was proof that Jesus Christ was now sitting at God’s right hand in heaven as the great Priest and King like the ancient Melchizedek, who was “priest of the most high God”. (Acts 2:1-36; Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1-27) Thus those faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who began to receive the holy spirit on that Pentecostal or Fiftieth day were released from the condemnation of sin and were freed from bondage to Satan the Devil, who is “god of this system of things”. The Holy Scriptures inform us that these anointed disciples who prove faithful till death will finally number 144,000. They, too, are to experience a spiritual resurrection from death, a resurrection to immortal life in heaven, there to reign with their Leader Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom of the righteous new world.—Rev. 14:1, 3; 2:26-28; 3:21.

THE GOVERNMENT OF EMANCIPATION

39 Now, after nineteen hundred years in which humanity in general has suffered, groaned and died in servitude to sin, imperfection, selfishness, Satan’s world-wide organization, and death, NOW has come the time to sound out the good news of the great Jubilee of the new world as by a blast on a trumpet. At man’s beginning the great Liberator Jehovah permitted mankind to come under bondage to sin, death and Devil, but he never purposed that mankind should forever continue in such bondage. Away back there in the paradise of Eden immediately after sin had entered into the world through Adam and along with it death and the rule of Satan the deceitful Serpent, Jehovah God sounded out a prophecy of liberation for mankind by a Liberator, the Seed of God’s woman. This Seed of his woman, God prophesied, would bruise or crush the head of the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, the originator of what is evil and bad. (Gen. 3:15) That Seed of God’s woman is his Son Jesus Christ. God is the great Timekeeper, the One who fixes times and seasons and who runs things exactly according to his scheduled time. So he fixed a definite time for Satan’s rule to end. That meant he also fixed a set time for himself to rule over the earth by his promised kingdom. We are now in the “time of the end” of Satan’s rule. It began some thirty years ago, in 1914. That date can be determined by the time schedule in God’s Book, the Bible.

40 There the “appointed times of the nations” ran out, because those nations are subject to Satan the Devil and are oppressors of God’s people. The nations, subject to the devilish enslaver, have misruled the earth and failed to bring liberation to the oppressed people. As their “appointed times” of power expired in 1914, the time then arrived for God the Creator to resume his power over the earth, his creation, the same as over all the rest of the universe. (Luke 21:24, NW) This he did by installing his kingdom in the heavens for the government of the earth and its peoples from then on, and this government he put in the hands of his anointed King, Jesus Christ. There need be no uncertainty about this in any honest person’s mind. Shortly before his sacrificial death Jesus foretold the sign which was to give evidence that we were in the “time of the end”, in the “consummation of this system of things”, and that the accomplished end of this oppressive world of slavery was drawing near. We now see the sign. Every informed person knows the world’s history since 1914. It began with the first total war, whole nation ranged against whole nation, entire kingdom against entire kingdom.

41 This first world war was attended by the horrors of food shortages, pestilence, earthquakes, violent persecution of true Christians who are heirs of God’s kingdom, failure of all peace efforts and peace alliances, rising fears of the nations with no knowledge of the way out by human means. ALL these experiences of this generation were foretold by Jesus Christ as stamping our time the “time of the end” of Satan’s world and the time for God’s kingdom to rule in the midst of all its enemies seen and unseen. Jesus said: “When you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, This generation will by no means pass away until all things occur.”—Luke 21:31, 32, NW.

42 God’s kingdom by his Son Jesus Christ is the one and only government of liberation. The great atonement sacrifice of Christ Jesus the High Priest has been presented in heaven, and during the past nineteen centuries his faithful followers have received the benefits of it through faith. Now in addition Jehovah’s theocratic government with Christ as King has been established. As the people’s emancipator it must completely destroy the Devil’s world organization, visible and invisible, and bring it to a complete end. This it will do at the universal war of Armageddon, the final battle toward which all the nations are now being marched under the influence of Satan and his demons.—Rev. 16:14-16.

43 With the covering of mankind’s sins now possible through Christ’s sacrifice and with God’s kingdom now set up, NOW is the time for proclamation of the Jubilee for all mankind to be blasted forth. Who is to proclaim it? Christ’s anointed followers and all persons of good will who receive the message with faith and joy. Jesus said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”

44 Jesus included this preaching of the Kingdom to all nations among the many features of the sign which would mark the “time of the end” and the time of his presence in the Kingdom. In a notable way since 1919 this good news of God’s established kingdom has been preached by Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere on earth to all nations. Every year this Kingdom witness increases in spite of religious, political, judicial and military opposition and persecution. Here, then, we have another powerful visible proof that the Kingdom for mankind’s emancipation is in power, ruling now in the midst of its enemies before it destroys them at Armageddon.—Matt. 24:3-14, NW; Mark 13:4-9; Luke 21:7-28.

45 When the Kingdom witness, the modern-day sounding of the Jubilee trumpet, has been given everywhere to the extent that God has decreed, then at his own appointed day and hour the battle of Armageddon will come suddenly like a thief upon Satan’s world. Its enslaving control over this earth and its inhabitants will be smashed and forever removed. All who continue in willful slavery to it will be destroyed with it. For this reason it is that NOW the Jubilee trumpet must be sounded by giving the witness to God’s kingdom, the government of everlasting life in a free new world. By the power of the truth concerning God’s kingdom the people of good will who hear the Jubilee trumpet must make their break for liberty from Satan’s world of slavery. They must flee to God’s kingdom as the rightful government of all mankind, the one and only answer to the prayer Jesus taught us, “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10, NW) He also assured us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He said, too, that God’s Word in the Holy Bible is the truth. (John 17:17) So now in this short period before Armageddon listen to the Jubilee proclamation, learn the truth, and then act upon it without further delay, that you may gain your freedom. Then, as free men and women, join your forces world-wide to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof”. By that course you may live through Armageddon and never die!

46 The righteous war of God at Armageddon will free mankind of Satan’s domination. Then the new world will begin and will complete mankind’s liberation. King Death will reign no more, but all the sinful effects of our birth from Adam which brought death will be removed from all those who obey God’s kingdom. Yes, death will be forced to release those whom it holds lifeless in the graves, for Christ Jesus will utter his voice and all those in the graves will hear his voice and come out. All will be taught the righteous requirements and the truth of the Most High God, and all the obedient will be lifted out of their sinful, imperfect condition to perfect manhood and womanhood.

47 Forever it remains true, “The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Ps. 24:1, AS) No more will greedy land barons monopolize the land, or wars for territorial expansion and for natural resources rage and ruin the earth’s surface and reduce the people to homeless poverty. Nor will soil erosion and exhaustion lay the land desolate and uninhabitable. The King Christ Jesus will allot each faithful subject a place in the earth to cultivate and enjoy to Jehovah the great Landowner’s pleasure. Under divine blessing the earth will become most fertile and will yield plenty for all human needs. Paradise will become an earth-wide reality.

48 The benefits of his perfect human sacrifice Christ Jesus the King will bestow upon all his obedient subjects, to fulfill the prophecy, “His name shall be called . . . Everlasting Father.” (Isa. 9:6, AS) Those who then prove their allegiance to the universal sovereignty of Jehovah and to his King will be declared worthy of the right to everlasting life in the endless world of peace, health and happiness.

49 Here, then, the great heavenly Liberator, Jehovah God, will vindicate the word which he has given, “that the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:21, NW) Let the glorious good news of this liberty now at hand be loudly proclaimed throughout all the land to all of earth’s inhabitants. Do your part.

They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it. For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever.—Mic. 4:4, 5, AS.

- The WATCHTOWER, page “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land”

OnTheWayOut

They will lose members over 2014 being the absolute limit in some minds.
But they will lose members no matter what they do now. So many problems in WTS.
Dates, rules, control, doctrines, lack of love, etc. etc.

I could see them soon gearing everyone up for 2034. One big shot at making the
organization stand for something, gather up a bunch more money to pay for dismantling
the old dregs of the WTS and moving it all to some Caribbean Island before it all falls
apart.

They will do this soon because all the 60 and up members at the Borg will be over
80 when it falls apart. They will either be too dead or too old to hang by their thumbnails.
Besides, they will avoid extradition from tropical paradise.

I really see them uprooting WTS when the funds really start totally drying up and saying
the tribulation has started and "Your fearless leaders are going underground."

Mrs. Fiorini

The big unanswered question for me as we ponder these questions is, how much of their own dogma do those who run the WT actually believe? If they know their doctrine is failed and bankrupt, they are in a better position to evaluate where they want to take the organization and how they want to proceed. If they believe their own lies and think Armageddon is right around the corner, they are truly in a world of hurt, and will continue to make their situation worse.

Time will tell, I guess.

Desilusionnee

It's interesting this thread was written one year ago ie before the new generation teachings. We had our last DC and it was funny to see how the brother was struggling, trying to explain the new generation (with the now very famous Br. Franz and new anoited brother being in one overlapping generation).

I then asked my husbands if he thinks that they will give up 1914. We had an interesting discussion in the car and I could give him a good apostate witness. He his determined not to do too much in this cult also he said he is waiting on Jesus and Jehova...

Desi

TD

They've still got this ticking time bomb around their necks:

"Especially beginning in 1935, when the identity of the "great multitude," or "great crowd," was clearly understood, large numbers of these began to manifest themselves. At first there were hundreds, then thousands, later hundreds of thousands, and now there are millions spread around the globe. God’s infallible Word depicts this group as ‘coming out of the great tribulation,’ being survivors of it, living right on into God’s New Order without ever having to die. (Revelation 7:9, 10, 14; John 11:26) The early members of this group are now in their 60’s or 70’s or older. Jehovah did not allow the ingathering of this group to begin too soon. The "great crowd," including many of the earliest members thereof, will survive into the "new earth."

Nothing they have done so far even begins to address this problem.

1874-1914-2014