According to both Christian and Jewish eschatology, the Messiah will come to Jerusalem, where he will deliver the Jews from hostile nations "round about."Since the Jehovah's Witnesses and other adventists don't believe his coming will be literally fulfilled, but figuratively fulfilled, they simply believe he will return to the earth, where he will slay the wicked and the righteous will be caught up to meet him in the air.
First we have a Christian declaration:
And when [Jesus] had spoken these things, while [the apostles] beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. And they said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. T hen returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey . (Acts 1)
Here Jesus is taken into a cloud, similar to the way Aaron, then later, Moses, were taken up. But the angels told the apostles that Jesus would appear "in like manner" as "ye have seen him go into heaven." And finally, he ascended from the Mount of Olives.
The Jews believe he will descend to the Mount of Olives from the clouds:
Then shallthe Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle . And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye [of Judah] shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and theLord my Godshall come, and all the saints with thee.
Note, too, that the ancient Jewish scriptures recognized Jehovah as being Christ, not Christ being Michael. This is backed up scripturally by John in the book of Revelation:
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood , and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
In both the ancient Jewish scriptures, it is Jehovah who will come to judge the nations. And it is Jehovah who will come with the clouds of heaven with the saints to mete out justice and to destroy the enemies of Judah. Both Jehovah and Jesus (being the same) are used in fulfillment of the Messiah's Second Coming. Neither one is the Father, for both Jehovah and Jesus are seen as the great Mediator between the Father and man.
The Christian scriptures reinforce the Jewish scriptures in that both Christians and Jews saw Jesus/Jehovah returning to save the Jews from certain destruction. The Christians saw Jesus as returning to save (and convert) Judah at the conclusion of Armageddon. The Jews saw Jehovah as being the Savior, but as Zechariah wrote, Yahweh would come to rescue Judah from a great military power who would otherwise destroy them. Likewise, the Christians saw Jesus as coming to rescue Judah from a great military power who would otherwise destroy them. Ezekiel called this great evil "Gog" and Isaiah called him "the Assyrian." John, in Revelation, calls him the "Beast."
The overwhelming number of Jehovah's Witnesses have no idea how their latter-day eschatology differs from that of the scriptures. But if they're to reject the Bible, just who do they expect to come, Jehovah or Jesus? And if not in Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives, as the Bible foretells, just where do they expect either Jesus or Jehovah to descend? Or will he suddenly appear at a weekly meeting of the Faithful and Discreet Slave?
The leadership of the Society has so rewritten what Armageddon is that virtually no JW I've ever met knows the biblical version. I've read a Watchtower that showed a destructive ball of fire and ARMAGEDDON! was printed across it. I read every word of the article, but nowhere in that article was the biblical take on Armageddon outlined or how, exactly, the Society had changed it. I thus take it that when someone wishes to learn about such topics, they go directly to the Society's magazines and skip the Bible. Back in the 70s, I found that many of the Jehovah's Witnesses read the Bible and could explain it from their point of view. Now, however, they don't seem to read it much.
So what are their expectations regarding the coming of Jesus nowadays? Do they believe he'll come with Jehovah or that only Jehovah will appear?
