THE FALSE PROPHETS


One of the false claims that Jehovah's Witnesses make is that they are the
prophets of God. The Scriptures have a good test of whether a person is a
prophet or not. Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 21 to 22. Right
there you can read:

You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been
spoken by the Lord?"  If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD
does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.
That prophet has spoken presumptuously.  Do not be afraid of him.

This and all other quotations I make are from the New International Version
of the Holy Scriptures. So, we see that anybody that claims to be a prophet
of God must be 100% accurate in his prophecy else he is not speaking for God. 
What does that have to do with the Jehovah's Witnesses? The Society
specifically calls it's leadership a "prophet" or "prophet class", and they
also teach that JWs are a modern-day Ezekiel. So, is the Jehovah's Witness
leadership speaking God's word?  Let's see.  In 1897 in "Studies In The
Scriptures, vol 4, p 621" they wrote:

"Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874."

In 1899 in "The Time Is At Hand, pg 101 (1908 edition) they again wrote:

"...the 'battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Revelation 16: 14), which
will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present
rulership, is already commenced."

Please keep that date of 1914 in mind, as I will return to it again at the
end of this article. Now we move to 1916 again in "The Time Is At Hand, pg
ii, (forward):

"The Bible chronology herein presented show that the six great 1000 year days
beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of
Christ's Reign, began in 1873."

What sheer and utter nonsense! Is anybody with a rational mind to believe
that our Lord, Jesus Christ could set up His Reign on earth and nobody
noticed? Nothing changed in 1873 and onward except man became more
destructive. Let's see what they said in 1918 in "Millions Now Living Will
Never Die, pg 89.

"Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those
named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection."

Well, 64 years have gone by since then and nobody noticed any great change.
In fact, the JWs changed their tune and decided 1914 was the year after all.
Again, the leadership of the JW's was barking up the wrong tree.  However,
in 1922 in "The Watchtower 9/1/22, pg 262 one finds:

"The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures than
1914."

Don't bother running to your Concordance to look up those dates. One can only
find them in the imagination of the JW leadership.

In 1923 the suspense really builds when The Watchtower (4/1/23, pg 106)
states:

"Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures.  As to
Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah
had upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge."

Now we get to 1925 and here is what they wrote in "The Watchtower 1/1/25,
pg 3:

"The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward
to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of
Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during this year.  This may be
accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his
purposes concerning his people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned
about what may transpire this year."

Sure people have been expecting the return of the Lord in 1925! The JW
leadership had been talking and writing about it since 1918. With the
promise of the imminent return of our Lord they had been swelling their
membership rosters for eight years. Now, that 1925 has arrived, they begin
to prepare their membership for the inevitable let down.  Compare the
statements made in 1925 with those made in 1923 and you can see their
deliberate attempt to white wash their statements. In 1931, in their
Vindication publication on page 338 the leadership almost sounds as if they
had gotten some "religion" about fixing dates because they write:

"There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah's faithful ones
on earth concerning the years 1914, 1918, & 1925, which disappointment
lasted for a time... and they also learned to quit fixing dates."

I would venture to say that "a measure of disappointment" was the
understatement of the year. What they really meant so say was that the
membership roster was getting awful thin and so was the bank balance. 
Still, by 1941 all was forgotten and the Watchtower (9/15/41 pg 288) was
back in the prophecy business. Here is what they say:

"Receiving the gift, the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or
plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most
effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon."

Well, of course 1941 came and went and so have a lot of years since then. 
Again the Jehovah's Witnesses were wrong and again they have an explanation
as we can see in the October 1968 issue of Awake where they write:

"True, there have been those in times past who predicted an 'end to the
world', even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened.  The 'end'
did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why?  What was missing? 
...Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was
using and guiding them."

Neat little two-step that was. OK, twice now the JW's leaders say they ought
to quit setting dates. If they learned then why did they write in The
Watchtower (8/15/68, pg 494):

"Why are you looking forward to 1975?"

As you can see, the leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses never does learn. 
They go off half-cocked time and time again. I would even venture it fair to
state that it won't be long before they do it again.  Look what Jesus has to
say about people like this in Luke 21:8:

He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my
name, claiming, 'I am he' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them.

Do not follow them, because they are not of the Lord. They don't even admit
that Jesus is God Almighty. They claim our Lord was created by God.  That
Jesus is another creation of God, in fact an angel. The JWs claim that Jesus
is the Archangel Michael is totally blown apart by Paul in Colossians 2:18-
19. Where Paul states:

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels
disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about
what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.

I think the warning to the unwary is clear and unequivocal. Avoid them at all
cost. I have quoted prediction after prediction of the Lord's return right
out of the Jehovah's Witness Society's own publications. I have shown where
they make predictions, are proven wrong, state that one should not make any
predictions and then they go right ahead and make more predictions
concerning the imminent return of the Lord. In their book, "You Can Live
Forever in Paradise on Earth" dated 1982, page 154 they again state:

"Also, the Bible said that all these things would happen upon the generation
that was alive in 1914."

"These things" they are talking about here is the return of our Lord Jesus. 
Then they go on to say:

"Those persons yet remaining of that generation are now very old. However,
some of them will still be alive to see the end of this wicked system. So of
this we can be certain: Shortly now there will be a sudden end to all
wickedness and wicked people at Armageddon."

Old? I'll say. Since this is now 1989 a person born in 1914 would now be 75
years old. It's beginning to look like the JW leadership is going to have to
do another two-step pretty soon. Well, you say "ok, they make a lot of wrong
predictions, is that so bad?"

Yes it is, because all of their awful predictions that never come true point
out the fact that the JW leadership really can not accurately teach the word
of God. They simply go wrong when they read the Bible! You don't have to be
a mental giant to understand that if these people can be so terribly mistaken
about one Bible subject for so many years then all of their teachings must be
suspect.  As Paul warned the Colossians, avoid these people at all cost. Do
not trust them to bring you the word of God. With all the crazy predictions
the Jehovah's Witness Society has made, they kind of stuck with 1914 to
explain away their failures. They now say that Jesus did indeed come in 1914
but He set up His rule in the sky. How can anybody teach such blatant and
bald-faced heresy? It's just like it was back in 1873. Jesus is supposed to
have set up His Reign and nobody noticed!  Please, do not be led astray by
these false prophets. Study the word of God and if you have not already, join
a regular Christian church.


 Joe Grossinger
 The Prophecy Board
 (915) 855-1503  300-1200 Baud - 24 Hours
 Free access to all



--------------------------------------------
file: /pub/resources/text/apl/jw: jw-027.txt

.