Examining Watchtower Basic Teachings #9 - Are We in the "Last Days"?

What Does the Bible Really Teach? (according to Jehovah's Witnesses)
Are We in the "Last Days"?

The book says;

Jehovah knows the future and Jesus prophesied about it. Under the heading “A War in Heaven“, we learn that “Michael” is another name for Jesus. This Michael battled with the dragon [Satan] and threw him out of heaven, down to the earth, in 1914. That is why our world is so bad. We are then invited to “examine four features of the sign that Jesus said would mark the time in which we live”, when he spoke two thousand years ago. The Watchtower refers to Matthew Chapter 24. Read it now, in the Bible.

The four features discussed are war, food shortages, earthquakes and pestilences. For each of these, proofs are given and quotations from “one British historian”, “researchers say”, “one source states”, “one report says”. No precise references or bibliography is provided.

Under “People of the Last Days”, 2 Timothy 3;1-5 is offered as proof that “there are people everywhere who have bad traits. This shows that God will soon act” and an isolated verse from Psalms 92:7 is quoted.

Next, an isolated verse in Daniel is quoted and Matthew 24:14 which foretells a preaching of the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth. This is applied to Jehovah’s Witnesses who are active “in over 230 lands and in hundreds of languages. Millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses zealously preach the good news” and “conduct free home Bible studies with millions of people”.

We are asked, “Since so many Bible prophecies are being fulfilled today, do you not agree that we are living in the last days? After the good news is preached to Jehovah‘s satisfaction, “the end“ is certain to come ”

The student is encouraged to keep studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses, to “associate regularly with others who do Jehovah’s will” “and make necessary changes in your life, so that you may enjoy Jehovah‘s favour.”

Matthew 24:37-39 and Luke 21:34-36 are quoted to warn the student that the end will come suddenly, so one has to be on guard if one is to survive the coming destruction of “Satan’s system of things.”

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In the book’s appendix, the Watchtower teachers use “logic” to convince us that Michael the archangel is another name for Jesus, relegating him to an angel’s position, which is quite a step down from the creator mentioned in Colossians. Again, this requires skipping around the Bible, quoting isolated verses here and there. Read the Bible in context and decide for yourself.

It is accepted that the prophecies in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. This historical event occurred about 10-20 years after these gospels were written. However, only Jehovah’s Witnesses extrapolate Jesus’ prophecy about Jerusalem to the 20^th. Century.

If we allow for a moment, that Jesus was referring to our time, we need to examine the four features that the Watchtower uses for its argument. Were those events as bad as they say? Well again, by doing some research, you can look at world history, particularly regarding war and compare killing rates of the World Wars with previous worldwide wars such as the Napoleonic Wars, the American War of Independence, the American Civil War and so on.

As for pestilences and disaster, think about this; when did the world’s population first reach one billion? Why did it take so long? It is precisely because, throughout history, there have been millions of people slaughtered in wars, while millions of others have died of pestilence and disaster! Do your homework. Look at history.

The Watchtower leaders have a bad habit of quoting without references. Even worse, they make partial quotations and lazy students accept these without checking the context of the references. Quite often, the claims made by the Watchtower bear no relation to the actual point being made by scholars.

Their quoting of scholars is only exceeded by their random quoting of scripture. The Psalms were written about 4000 years ago and bear no relation to today’s events and Daniel too, was written in the same era.

As for the behaviour of people, it hasn’t changed much. Look at the plays of William Shakespeare or Sophocles and other Greeks and you will see the same themes of lust, jealousy, anger, love, hatred, murder, envy, being repeated again and again.

The Watchtower claims that only Jehovah’s Witnesses are preaching the good news of the kingdom. It is true that they are very active, but in recent years, they have been losing as many members as they gain in Western lands. Most of their growth is now internal, from their own offspring. The “millions of Bible studies” rarely come to fruition. A “Bible study” can be reported by the Witnesses and ended by the “interested person” after just a couple of visits. They certainly distribute a lot of books and hold the world record for publishing (see Guiness Book of Records), but the Bible still remains the most widely published book on earth and that distribution is done by Christian Bible Societies. So, who really is preaching God’s kingdom?

Notice another leading question about Bible prophecies being fulfilled.

By this stage, a student will be making the kind of dress and personality changes I describe in my article, “If You Study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses” and s/he may now be attending Watchtower meetings. The changes are fairly subtle and you may not be aware of them, but your family and friends will have noticed and they are concerned about you!


Further reading:
The Signs of the Last Days -- When? by Jonsson & Herbst

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