I’ve been reading about the Seventh Day Adventists recently, as they have a free Android app that lets one download the books of Ellen G. White and other writings. (There’s also a JW app I’ve yet to check out, but I’ve downloaded it.) The nature of her visions is fascinating and she shares many doctrines with JWs as they relate to the trinity and the state of the dead. There also are some similarities in eschatology, though I find theirs substantially more imaginative than the JWs.
It’s amazing how exclusive these sects are to other religions, and White is emphatic in declaring that those who do not worship on the seventh day (Saturday) will be destroyed at Jesus’ coming. I’ve met many, many people in my life who are devout Christians and who genuinely love the Lord and who view his suffering and death on the cross as redemptive. I’ve also known many Jews who are devout in their religious views, and who are honorable, have virtue and integrity, but who have little or no knowledge of Jesus. But nothing can save them, in the end, because they don’t embrace a rejection of the trinity or who believe that the spirit of man is eternal.
The whole idea behind the actual Armageddon of the Bible isn’t that the Messiah is going to come and destroy the wicked, but that the Messiah is going to come and save his people. The great gentile force is going to come down on the holy city, only to be defeated by the Messiah. But when the remnant of Judah see the marks of the wounds in their Messiah’s hands and feet, the scriptures state that the nation will be converted in a day. Thus, in that day, they will be redeemed.
Keep in mind that this is the last great battle before the coming of the Lord. And while it involves the destruction of Israel’s enemies, its emphasis is on salvation of God’s wayward people. Its major points:
- The Lord will not let Israel pollute his holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that “I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.”
- The house of Israel shall know that “I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.” This means no more backsliding.
- The heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them.
- When the Lord has brought Judah again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that “I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen.” In 1947, the nation of Israel was brought back into existence, and the Jews, since that time, have been returning to the land of their inheritance.
- Neither will “I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel.”
This is an astounding prophecy. First Judah, because it rejected the Lord their God, was given over to their enemies and allowed to fall by the sword. Then they were dispersed into all nations throughout the earth and the Lord hid his face from them and allowed them to be scourged. After Hitler and the Nazis had tried to destroy them, the Lord brought them again into the lands he gave their fathers. The gentile nations of the earth would gather against them one more time in the battle of Armageddon, but the Lord would destroy them and, in doing so, would be seen as Israel’s protector and would be glorified in the eyes of the heathen.
It’s almost entirely impossible to misinterpret these verses, but dang if the Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t manage to do it!
My question then is why, if God’s purpose was to destroy all those who didn’t buy into all the doctrines of Adventism, did he come to save the Jews and to convert the heathen? True, he destroyed the Beast, Antichrist, Gog, whatever you wish to call him, but he had given him plenty of warnings through the various prophets.
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In other words, this event has been prophesied by many prophets. As Joel Richardson writes:
In contrast to the popular Christian position, the Jewish rabbinic view identifies Gog as the final enemy of God’s people. Further, he and his armies are the same invaders described by all the other prophets. In Ezekiel, a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources, we are told: “The final war when Gog will actually break into Jerusalem, is described in Zechariah 14. References to the wars of Gog and Magog abound in Scripture, overtly in the prophets … The longest, most detailed, and most specific accounts are contained in the books of Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel, and Daniel.”[129] While the Jews refer to the final evil dictator as Gog, the New Testament calls him by such titles as the Antichrist (1 John 2:22), the son of destruction (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:8), the Beast (Revelation 11:7), and other titles. Likewise, in the Talmud, we read:
... “At the end, the very end of days, Gog and Magog and their armies shall go up against Jerusalem, but they shall fall by the hand of the King Messiah.” (Samon H. Levey, The Messiah; An Aramaic Interpretation: The Messianic Exegesis of the Targum (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1974), 17–18.)
Richardson, Joel. Mideast Beast: The Scriptural Case for an Islamic Antichrist (p. 163). Joel Richardson. Kindle Edition.
The Lord stated that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; yet the Seventh Day Adventists believe anyone who keeps not the sabbath is doomed to destruction, even those who love and serve him clean in conscience. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe all members of an apostate Christendom will be destroyed. After all, that's why they labor so much to bring them around. But this exclusivity (the same exclusivity that has the Messiah rescuing the Jews in the last days), I believe, is repugnant to the Lord, who regards us as his children.
I believe the doctrine of the sleeping dead is very weak indeed. In the late 1940s, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi Christian library were discovered. Neither of these support the soul sleeping concept we should expect to see if it were, in fact, a viable doctrine. Also, Peter said, "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead...." How can one preach to those who are sleeping? So you may want to investigate that one, as well as the interpretations to the eschatological writings above before including it in a list.
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