In the first post in this series I connected the Watchtower with the Beast out of the Earth, or the "World Empire of False Prophets." Then I showed that Babylon the Great is the composite city of Corrupt Mother Earth ruled by these false prophets. After that I revealed the purpose of the idol of the Beast out of the Earth which is to expose the holy ones of the planet in order to exterminate or neutralize them. This 4th post will deal with some specifics as to how this world wide search for these holy ones is being accomplished by the Watchtower Society and what is done with them when they are found.
In the beginning of my study of the Torah I found out that I had some very large misconceptions about the basics of the stories therein. Namely the story of Noah and the Great Flood. I was convinced that I would find in the account proof that Noah preached to his people about the impending doom of the flood. To my utter surprise I found no such concept in the account. Rather, I found that Noah was specically NOT a preacher of the flood. This started a whole research project to discover why I had this profound misconception about this simple story. Lets read Genesis 6:5
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
Logically, there would be no need to preach to this group of people. Since their minds were consumed with evil. The word translated "wickedness" comes from the root Hebrew word "ra" which simply means "adversity." So, what this is telling us is that the people of Noah's day were in adverse conditions. Since "adversity" was on their minds all the time, they lived in a state of it. What you could say about these people is that they all had "persecution complexes" which actually aid the tribal mentality and creates war. Wikipedia has this to say on the matter:
The formation of a tribe, in the sociological sense, relies on there being a common interest or goal strong enough that a group would in some way delimitate itself from the larger society. Persecution complexes are not inherent in all forms of tribalism, but they do lend themselves to the polarization of such groups. Communal reinforcement reassures group members that they are indeed correct; how could all of us be wrong? At extremes this leads to the groupthink that places continued membership of a group and conformity to its norms above rational and critical evaluation. Such a process is highly evident in fundamentalist religion, but is almost a given for any group expressing sufficiently extreme ideology. Nothing brings people together like having a common enemy.
What Genesis 6:5 is telling us is that the world of Noah was wrought with adversity that was created BY the people of that day. They were knee deep in their own filth as the story tells us. However, Noah was found to be completely different than his contemporaries. Vs 9 of chapter six reads:
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
We are told that Noah was blameless in comparison to his contemporaries. We are shown a dichotomy between the people of Noah's day, who were causing their own adversity within their minds, and Noah who had less adversity. Enough so that God hand selected him to be the beginning of a new world population. After God makes this call he simply asks Noah to build an ark to save his family and the animals of the world. He never tells him to try to convince others that the world was ending. Rather, the dimensions of the ark are given to house mostly animals, not humans because there would only be 8 of them.
The Watchtower uses 2 Peter 2:5 as a prooftext that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness":
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
The word translated "preacher" comes from the Greek word " kérux." Strong's concordance has this to say on that word:
Cognate: 2783k? ryks (from 2784 /kerýsso, "to herald, proclaim") – properly, a herald, a "town-crier" proclaiming critical news for the public (see also 1557 /ekdíkesis, "the town-gathering"); a preacher (a herald-communicator).
Now at first glance one may conclude that this means evangelism which it does, but only to a point. But what exactly would Noah be preaching about? There was not enough room in the ark for others as the animals needed to be housed. It was a COMMAND from God to get every kind of animal. Can you imagine Noah preaching to others as if they had a chance to live? What if people listened to the message? Would Noah then have to break God's commandment to make room for them? The whole idea of Noah being a preacher of the flood is an insane idea and completely ignores the Hebrew words used in the Torah. Such an explanation does a grave disservice to the story.
So what is Peter talking about? After reading the entire context of 2 Peter 2 you will see that it's all about salvation given by God against physical destruction. It speaks of angels who sinned being spared, Noah being saved from the flood and Lot being spared from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It says that if God can do this for them, then he can do it for anyone who meets the same qualifications. The question is, what do these people need salvation from? The first part of 2 Peter 2 gives the answer:
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
So, Peter is saying that it's false teachers who bring swift destruction upon themselves. And it's from THOSE false teachers that honest hearted people need salvation from. The Watchower, as a member of the empire of false prophets, engages in this act of secretly introducing destructive heresies into the mind of God's people. One of these heresies is the false teaching that Noah was a preacher of impending doom. When in reality he was just an outspoken individual who preached against the adversities that were all throughout the world he lived in. He was righteous and could see that the people were the actual cause of their own problems and they were not acknowledging it which required him to speak up. They had a tribal mindset and persecution complexes of which needed to be cleansed from their minds. He preached this to the people as a "herald" or a town crier. Once he was given the commission to build the ark, however, there would be no need to preach about the destruction of the world, for God had already made his decision of their fate as well that of Noah and his family.
However, the June 15th 2012 Watchtower Study Edition, paragraph 4, has this to say on the matter:
4 After being informed of God’s intentions and receiving his commission, Noah built an ark to preserve men and animals alive. (Gen. 6:13, 14, 22) Noah also proclaimed Jehovah’s impending judgment. The apostle Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness,” indicating that Noah strove to help his neighbors appreciate the gravity of their situation. (Read 2 Peter 2:5.) Do you think that it would have been reasonable for Noah and his family to focus their efforts on developing a business, getting ahead among their contemporaries, or establishing a comfortable lifestyle? Of course not! Knowing what lay ahead, they avoided such distractions.
So, the Watchtower is saying that building a small business is a distraction to God's commission of the World Wide Preaching Work. They demonize creating a "comfortable lifestyle" by saying that doing so would have been a needless distraction for Noah's evangelism whom they want all their members to act like. Yet, according to the account his preaching actually stopped when God gave him the commission to build the ark. His actions were redirected by God from preaching to building and collecting animals. It's no coincidence that this destructive heresy of the Watchtower uses 2 Peter 2 as a prooftext, which specifically mentions secret destructive heresies. It's a brazen attempt by them to mock the true God who does save people who find themselves caught up in these heretical teachings. Peter was clarifying the Torah for the people of his day in his book. He also battled against destructive heresies implanted into minds of his people. This battle has been going on for a very, very long time.
The Beast out of the Earth scowers the land searching for lovers of truth specifically to deceive them into heresy and idol worship. God will not allow this forever, their time has come.
-Sab
