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Gibraltar Chronicle Coronavirus is not the end of the world’By Manolo 20th April 2020 By Manolo Gatt Jehovah’s Witnesses all around the world have reacted quickly to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. Since the initial stages of this, now pandemic, rigorous measures have been taken including the suspension of all public religious activity including large assemblies as well as local meetings usually held in Kingdom Halls. Locally, working very closely with the Civilian Contingencies Committee, we have implemented all recommended measures as and when required including the suspension of our main activity of going from house to house and public witnessing with our recognisable trolleys. However, we have been using other means at our disposal such as video conferencing to continue to “meet together”, thus encouraging one another whilst also continuing, to the extent possible, to receive much needed spiritual instruction and comfort. We of course continue in our determination to fully collaborate with the health authorities, which we thank for their invaluable work, as we endure these challenging times. Please note that our website, JW.org, is open to everyone, where you can find encouraging and up building information for all age groups, including Bible-based movies which are very practical for our days. In the meantime, our younger members are helping out as volunteers and are offering themselves to help their neighbours and the elderly going to supermarkets, pharmacies and taking them to the hospital to the doctor when they have an appointment. We also very much take into consideration the needs of the deaf and the blind by providing them with programmes transmitted by video conference to their own homes in sign language by a team of translators and also Braille publications for those who need them. Finally, although some people may say that Jehovah’s Witnesses are saying that the coronavirus is a sign of the end of the world, the fact is that we would never make such an affirmation. What then? According to the Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition), Jesus, responding to a question asked by his inquisitive disciples: “Tell us […] what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” Jesus answered, and we are quoting only in part: “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences (epidemics)” (Luke 21:7, 11). So it would be wrong to say that the Coronavirus is the sign of the end of the world. The truth is that epidemics and diseases have plagued and continue to plague the human race. As we all know humanity has been plagued in recent times, like “the Spanish flu” (1918-1919), that killed more than 40 million persons, the ‘simple flu’, that every year causes the death of between 250,000 and 500,000. Or aids that has infected more than 76 million persons and caused the death of 35 million with deceases related to this ailment. Only in 2016 1.8 million died because of Aids. Therefore, what can certainly be said is that we are living in the time Jesus foretold when he answered his disciples question. However, anyone that aims to take advantage of such a tremendous situation as the one we are experiencing today, so sad and tragic with its many deaths and economic instability, to frighten or intimidate the people that are our neighbours, does a great disservice to the real message of hope that the Bible highlights and Jesus taught us to pray for, saying: “Let your Kingdom come”. That hope is the promise of a better world that everyone can aspire to where God Himself “will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things shall pass away.” And they will pass away. The Kingdom of God will accomplish this. (Matthew 6:9; Apocalypse 21:4; RSV Catholic Edition). That is why Jesus wanted everyone to know about this, so he told his disciples that: “this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). This is the true essence of real Christianity. Manolo Gatt is the Overseer Public Relations in the Gibraltar Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses Nice to have a balanced viewpoint. However, we have been using other means at our disposal such as video conferencing to continue to “meet together”, thus encouraging one another whilst also continuing, to the extent possible, to receive much needed spiritual instruction and comfort. We of course continue in our determination to fully collaborate with the health authorities, which we thank for their invaluable work, as we endure these challenging times. Please note that our website, JW.org, is open to everyone, where you can find encouraging and up building information for all age groups, including Bible-based movies which are very practical for our days. In the meantime, our younger members are helping out as volunteers and are offering themselves to help their neighbours and the elderly going to supermarkets, pharmacies and taking them to the hospital to the doctor when they have an appointment. We also very much take into consideration the needs of the deaf and the blind by providing them with programmes transmitted by video conference to their own homes in sign language by a team of translators and also Braille publications for those who need them. Finally, although some people may say that Jehovah’s Witnesses are saying that the coronavirus is a sign of the end of the world, the fact is that we would never make such an affirmation. What then? According to the Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition), Jesus, responding to a question asked by his inquisitive disciples: “Tell us […] what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” Jesus answered, and we are quoting only in part: “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences (epidemics)” (Luke 21:7, 11). So it would be wrong to say that the Coronavirus is the sign of the end of the world. The truth is that epidemics and diseases have plagued and continue to plague the human race. As we all know humanity has been plagued in recent times, like “the Spanish flu” (1918-1919), that killed more than 40 million persons, the ‘simple flu’, that every year causes the death of between 250,000 and 500,000. Or aids that has infected more than 76 million persons and caused the death of 35 million with deceases related to this ailment. Only in 2016 1.8 million died because of Aids. Therefore, what can certainly be said is that we are living in the time Jesus foretold when he answered his disciples question. However, anyone that aims to take advantage of such a tremendous situation as the one we are experiencing today, so sad and tragic with its many deaths and economic instability, to frighten or intimidate the people that are our neighbours, does a great disservice to the real message of hope that the Bible highlights and Jesus taught us to pray for, saying: “Let your Kingdom come”. That hope is the promise of a better world that everyone can aspire to where God Himself “will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things shall pass away.” And they will pass away. The Kingdom of God will accomplish this. (Matthew 6:9; Apocalypse 21:4; RSV Catholic Edition). That is why Jesus wanted everyone to know about this, so he told his disciples that: “this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). This is the true essence of real Christianity. Manolo Gatt is the Overseer Public Relations in the Gibraltar Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Short answer — no. But David Meade, a Christian and self-published author of end-of-the-world survival guides, predicts doomsday is near — very near, as in this Saturday. Meade’s ideology, laid out in his book “Planet X — The 2017 Arrival,” is described by the author as “a compendium of information from every sphere—astronomical, scientific, the Book of Revelation and geopolitics.” There’s some astrology in there, too. Meade is the latest in a very long line of American self-proclaimed prophets who claim they know when — sometimes to the hour — the biblically predicted “end times” will arrive. And while it’s fun to laugh at his belief that the “Planet Nibiru” will collide with the Earth this week, the failed prophesies of some of his predecessors have, at times, led to important religious movements or illuminating ways of thinking about faith. Let us explain: How common are predictions the end is at hand? Very common. Wikipedia lists over 170 different religiously motivated predictions of the end of the world. The first recorded one dates back to the year 66 and ancient Judea. Since then, doomsday predictions have jumped continents, cultures and religions, but they do seem to be a mostly Protestant pastime. The first American-born doomsday dude was Cotton Mather. This son of Puritans, teenage Harvard graduate and popular New England preacher publicly proclaimed the world would end three different times, in 1697, 1716 and 1736. If their predictions were wrong, why remember them? Because some of the people or groups who made these failed predictions led to other important things in American religious history. Consider the Millerites, a band of 19th-century Americans who left their fields unplanted and sold their worldly goods in anticipation of their expiration date — Oct. 22, 1844. After their “Great Disappointment,” they eventually became the Seventh-day Adventists. (Fun fact: The Millerites inspired HBO’s “The Leftovers” and even made an appearance in a couple of episodes.) Then there were the followers of Charles Taze Russell, a 19th-century preacher who looked for Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead (Christians only, please) in 1878 (and again in 1914). They became Jehovah’s Witnesses, who now ring doorbells around the world (and are persecuted for it in some places — looking at you, Russia). Even John Wesley, co-founder of Methodism, dabbled in predictions, once writing that Jesus would return between 1058 and 1836 (rather a large spread as predictions go). Some failed predictions bring unexpected insights into religion. In 1955, most people laughed when Dorothy Martin, a Chicago housewife, said aliens from Planet Clarion informed her the world would end for all but her and her small band of followers, who would be “lifted up.” No end, no lift. But social psychologist Leon Festinger developed his “theory of cognitive dissonance” from his firsthand study of Martin, and he went on to write a 1957 book that explained how rational people come to believe irrational things that is still used to explain everything from religious beliefs to real estate bubbles. And to flat-out ignore some predictions can be perilous. Florence Houteff, considered a prophetess by the Branch Davidians, predicted April 22, 1959, as the rollout date of the Book of Revelation’s fire and brimstone. Wrong, and her group splintered in the aftermath. One of the splinters wound up in a compound in Waco, Texas, surrounded by federal agents demanding their surrender on firearms charges. Their leader, David Koresh, was another self-proclaimed prophet who made doomsday predictions involving the deaths of his followers. Some critics felt the federal agents failed to fully understand Koresh as a religious leader, seeing him only as a con man and criminal. By the end of a 51-day siege, after a battery of gunshots and a fast-moving fire, 86 people were killed, including Koresh and several children. Why this prediction now? Wasn’t there another big “apocalypse now” prediction a few years ago? Scholars say doomsday predictions cluster around certain events — the Great Plague of the Middle Ages, or the “harmonic convergence” of the planets, or the year 2000. Meade has pointed to last month’s solar eclipse as a “sign” of what he says is to come. And yes, there has been a long string of predictions in the last two decades. Who can forget Harold Camping, the Christian radio media mogul who picked two dates in 2011, hit the airwaves, put up billboards, solicited money — and nada. He joined some rather famous names — Edgar Cayce, Sun Myung Moon, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (at least twice, but before he had access to the White House) and John Hagee among them — of failed futurists. Heck, Sir Isaac Newton himself, great astronomer and mathematician, bet that Jesus would return in the year 2000. Even the man who explained gravity was wrong. So relax. Make some weekend plans. See you Monday. http://www.9news.com/ext/news/nation-now/will-the-world-end-on-saturday/73/nationnow/7vXEKvfHbiam2mUMC2O8MQ

In 1889, the WT said " we present PROOFS that the setting up of the kingdom of God has already begun...and that 'the battle of the great day of God almighty' (Revelation16:14),which will end in AD1914 with the complete overthrow of the earth's present rulership, is already commenced.". The watchtower presented "proofs". These "proofs" were wrong, so what credibility do they have to "proclaim" anything?