You Know,
You said: “But, the King of the North is said to come into the Land of Decoration and eventually actually become a squatter in the domain of spiritual Israel. That of course provokes Michael to take care of business.”
When Michael steps in something has changed. Notice that Israel is now called a “mountain of Decoration” not a ‘land of Decoration,’ as when the King of the North first came through. You missed the point that he comes twice. (Daniel 11:41, 45) It’s the second time that he comes upon Israel’s soil that Jehovah takes action against him. That is, after he has disciplined his people (brought about when Jehovah sent the KON the first time) and poured out His blessing so that they can now be called a ‘mountain.’ Isaiah 2:2-4 describes their new condition and their new activity. Notice verse 2 uses the term ‘lifted up above.’ This indicates that true worship is now obvious to everyone and it will not take any ‘door-to-door’ activity to accomplish this. The ‘disturbing reports’ that this king hears have to do with this increased activity of a group of people that he thought he had silenced. (Revelation 13:7, 8) Ezekiel 38:11 also describes their changed condition as “those having no disturbance, dwelling in security without walls and they do not have even bar or doors.”
You said: “The tribulation will be a time of terror and anarchy as well as a time of totalitarian tyranny.”
You still seem to want to make the tribulation affect the entire world and it does not. It is strictly for God’s people. You are vacillating on this issue. It can’t be both. When the tribulation ends, the world will still be standing as it is, but a change will have occurred for God’s people. The rest of the world will have no problem acquiescing to the King of the North as they will willingly get the mark of the beast. That’s why it will be no tribulation for them. Jehovah’s people, though, have to fight against this or loose their standing with Him. One-third will fight, the rest will not. Therein lies the infighting within the organization. The two-thirds are the one who will say “ Who is like the wild beast and who can do battle with it?” - Revelation 13:4 They will get the mark! And they will try to induce the one-third to do so also.
Ezekiel 36:23 makes a potent point. It says: “‘And I shall certainly sanctify my great name, which was being profaned among the nations, which you profaned in the midst of them; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah’, is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘when I am sanctified among you before their eyes.’” You notice that it is ‘before their eyes’, that is the nations, that this is going to occur. They will be onlookers to this discipline and restoration. Ezekiel 39:27 makes a similar point. It says: “When I bring them back from the peoples and I actually collect them together out of the lands of their enemies, I will also sanctify myself among them (Israel) before the eyes of many nations.” The discipline is for Israel and the nations will be onlookers of this discipline.
You said: “I won’t go so far as to use the word “apostate.”
You have to because the portion of Daniel 11:32 that you did not quote indicates such. It says: “And those who are acting wickedly against the covenant, he will lead into apostasy by means of smooth words.” You see two distinct groups outlined in this verse, those who are acting wickedly against the covenant and those knowing their God. Now the covenant spoken of here is the New Covenant. Who have we been taught are the only ones in this covenant? The only ones who can act wickedly against this covenant then have to be those who are in the covenant, right? I absolutely don’t agree that this teaching that this covenant is for the anointed only, but it is what the WTS teaches. So, if we make application based on what they teach, who is the finger pointing to? Yes, the so-called ‘anointed.’ In these last days, for you to acknowledge that there are ‘anointed’ ones acting wickedly against the covenant is definitely a bitter pill to swallow.
Calling a ‘spade a spade’ it is the leadership that is being persuaded or polluted by the King of the North. He will be dealing with the leaders in order to get the rank and file in line. And they will succeed in getting two-thirds of their followers to fall in line.
You said: “They had some big problems, apostasy in the congregations was mentioned several times.”
True, but the emphasis is on the leaders or ‘angels’ correcting the problems immediately or Jesus would take action, which would not be a good thing for these ‘angels’ of the applicable congregations. The point is that the problems were not to be allowed to fester and infect all of the congregations as has occurred in the twentieth century. Today’s situation is akin to a ‘woman who hid leaven in three large measures of flour and everything became fermented.’ (Luke 13:21) Problems are not being taken care of because the leadership refuses to acknowledge that they exist, in fact, they are ‘hiding the leaven.’ They insist that they are in ‘a spiritual paradise,’ which is miles from the truth of the matter. Why are they not taking action to clear up the problem of pedophiles in the congregation? Are they waiting for Jesus to do their job for them? When you think about it, maybe the reason Jesus has not acted is that he is not taking the lead in this organization. The situation spoken of at Matthew 28: 20 does not apply today.
You said: “Wars seem to always serve as a pretext for the nations to persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Can’t be true as there were wars before there were Witnesses. Don’t confuse the next war with the great tribulation. The war is the catalyst to set up the situation that allows the tribulation to occur. You may have noticed that in Matthew chapter 24, events are pretty much in chronological order. The war definitely precedes the problems that occur within the congregations. Revelation chapter 13 also shed some light on this. Verse 3 speaks about one of the heads of the beast ‘as though slaughtered.’ This could only occur during a war. “But its deaths-stroke got healed and all the earth followed the wild beast with admiration.” This head of the beast would be healed when the war ended. But notice verse 5. The beast is given authority to act for forty-two months. Verses 6 and 7 show what action he took during this time period. One of them was to wage war with the holy ones, that is, the great tribulation begins. And he does silence them, as the verse shows, it was granted him to ‘conquer them.’ They remain in this deathlike state for ‘3 ½ days.’ These events occur after the war has ended.
You Know, what kind of issue can Jehovah have with Satan, one of his creation? Satan is simply a pawn being used by Jehovah. The fact that Jehovah has already told the end of Satan shows that He is in full control.
bjc