Armaggedon comes - at a set day and hour or as a result of circumstances?

by truthseeker 10 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  truthseeker

  I have been thinking about this question for some time. Considering the Society's past deceptions and false dates about Armaggedon, I never gave the timing of this "Day After Tomorrow" event too much thought.

  And then I got to thinking, well, maybe there isn't a set day or hour for the end of the world. Does there have to be?

  The few examples that Jehovah gave a specific time for a city to be destroyed was Nineveh (40 days) and Jerusalem (the 70 weeks of years)

  Although the disciples were not sure when Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, by reading the prophecy in Daniel concerning the "end of offering and sacrifice" one could at least be no more than a year out at best, concerning the timing of this destruction.

  Revelation gives no clues as to this "Great day of God the Almighty" - maybe because there actually isn't a day set. Jesus said to his disciples that, "no one know the day or the hour...not even the Son."

  As an alternative point of view, maybe Jehovah didn't have a set day or hour in mind. Maybe what he is waiting for are the right circumstances to happen.

  Consider this - the last time that Jehovah intervened on Earth, with NO connection to his people was at the Tower of Babel.

  The account reads like this:

  Genesis 11

  Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words. And it came about that in there journeying eastward they eventually discovered a valley plain in Shinar, and they took up dwelling there. And they began to say each one to the other, "Come on! Let us make bricks and bake them with a burning process." So brick served as stone for them, but bitumen served as mortar for them. They now said: "Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth."

  So already, Noah's family decide they don't want to be split apart and decide to make a tower - but not just any tower.

  This construction is so much a threat to Jehovah's purposes that he "comes down" to see what all the fuss is about...

  Genesis 11:5-9

  And Jehovah proceeded to go down to the city and the tower that the sons of men had built. After that Jehovah said: "Look! They are one people and there is one language for them all, and this is what they start to do. Why, now there is nothing that they may have in mind to do that is unattainable for them. Come now! Let us go down and confuse their language that they may not listen to one another's language. Accordingly, Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city. That is why its name is called Babel, because there Jehovah had confused the language of all the earth, and Jehovah had scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth.

  After determining the threat to his purpose, Jehovah confused the languages of all the builders. Destroying the tower would be a temporary solution - they would just build another one.

  But what happened here had a major affect. The progress of mankind, technologically, economically and in every other way you could think of, would all be delayed for thousands of years.

  Until the 21st century. Today, we live in a wired world, we use the Internet as much as our car, we can connect to anyone on the planet and we can email from cell phones. Babelfish.com can translate our web pages into other langauges. Even some of the US soldiers in Iraq are equiped with StarTrek style translators which can churn out English from Arabic.

  As the world really does become more and more of a global village, and technology progesses, will we once again be in the same boat as those tower builders were? Is Jehovah waiting for the right circumstances?

  If you think about it, how would Jehovah pick a day and an hour to bring Armaggedon? What criteria does he need? How could any deity thousands of years in advance, know the right time to bring Armaggedon, when millions of person who will live in that era have not even been born or the generations before them.

  It makes sense, that rather than looking for a day and hour as the Society and other end time religions have done, maybe we should look at the circumstances that, coming together all at once, would give God just cause to act.
• 

  ball.

  Jesus said "no one knows the day or the hour, nor the angels, etc".

  If there was a simple calculation by which the final date could be worked out, the Angels who have existed for all history would have been able to work it out.
• 

  truthseeker

  good point Ball. But Jesus never said there was a specific day or hour, he said as you quoted, "no one knows the day or the hour." Which means, maybe one was not yet set. Maybe one doesn't have to be.
• 

  truthseeker1

  Maybe the whole bible is Bull$hi+ and nothing in it should be calculated or worried about.

  Or maybe not...
• 

  NeonMadman

  If you accept the open theism of the JW's (God learns over time and does not know the future fully), then what you say makes a lot of sense. God would have to pick the optimum time for the end to come based upon the outcome of events he could not forsee. He might even have to adjust the time, depending on new developments that could arise. In such a case, it would have been correct for Jesus to say that 'no one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son, or, for that matter, the Father either.'

  The Bible makes it clear that God is Sovereign over all things and "knows the end from the beginning." There are no surprises for Him. So whatever He chooses as a date for the end to come, nothing will change it, and it will be fully known by Him in advance.
• 

  Crooked Lumpy Vessel

  I always thought that this was what the Great Tribulation was all about. The tribulations would come and be so bad that God has no choice but to step in and take care of business.

  Matthew 24:21 ...for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. 22 In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.

  Of course, I dunno much, but I always suspected a nuclear catastophe. Something that would threaten the existence of man all together. In my speculative mind it is a nuclear ticking time bomb. So in answer to your question, I imagine something like this would prompt God into action.
• 

  Erich

  Crooked Lumpy Vessel: "..Of course, I dunno much, but I always suspected a nuclear catastophe..."
  
  That presumption has been born 50 years ago. Further, it was the presumption of the WBTS all the years.
  
  If indeed a type of armageddon will happen, then in a completely different manner. Nobody knows it exactly, but maybe its a global outbreak of insane.

  E.
• 

  kls

  We have no idea if the Bible has been written exactly as the scrolls were found. There are so many wrighters ,parts left out, persons wrighting what they feel certain paragraphs should mean. ( NWT) for instance), All Bibles seem to be altered or changed in some way and that is also true for when they were first encripted from the scrolls. Do we really know for sure what the scrolls said? and that they were truly written exactly into our now Bibles?
  
  
  This is just my thoughts, the Bible is so messed with i take it's meaning with a grain of salt.
• 

  Carmel

  Consider that the big A may well be a "process" rather than an event! That being possible, perhaps we are in the process as we speak.

  food for thought

  carmel
• 

  gaiagirl

  I heard various JWs express conflicting opinions on this topic. An elder once told me privately "If you speak to one of the Governing Body, THEY now know when the end will take place". It was frequently repeated that Jehovah had set an appointed date, and that, while Jesus had not known that date during his life on Earth, he knew it NOW that he was reigning in heaven.

  However, others would sometimes say things like "The tribulation can't begin until the message has been preached to ALL the nations, so we better get out in service so as not to hold up Armageddon".

  So, either the date is set, or it is flexible and waiting for something else to be finished.....which was it???