If Armageddon happened how would we all be killed?
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By Witness
“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.” Joel 3:1,2
I wanted to get a physical picture in my mind of what the Bible’s “Valley of Jehoshaphat” really looked like. That is easier said than done, since some historians believe that its true location could be in a valley called Barachah (“blessing”), located eleven miles or more from Jerusalem. There it is believed that the Judean King Jehoshaphat sought God’s help to defeat the coalition of three enemy Gentile nations. (2 Chron 20:1) Then again, it is widely accepted that it refers to a valley within the Kidron Valley, which lies between the ancient Temple mount and the Mount of Olives. That too, is considered the possible site where Judah was delivered from the enemy nations.
Many today believe the Kidron Valley will be the focus of a literal judgment of all nations in the world, for their treatment of the physical nation of Israel. Its location is the site of Jewish tombs on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, and an incredible number of burial sites of professed Christians and Muslims within the valley. I was surprised to learn that people desire to be buried there, where supposedly the resurrection will occur when Jesus is said to walk through the “golden gate” of the temple ruins (based on Zech 14:4
Still, it is a correct belief by some scholars that Joel’s words refer solely to the time of final judgment, the decision making by God of the righteous and the unrighteous, during Armageddon. (Eccl 3:17; 1 Pet 3:12) “Jehoshaphat means “YHWH has judged”.
"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." Joel 3:14
(Some translations say, "Commotion, commotion"...)
But, what happened to the three raiding nations that came against Judah during King Jehoshaphat’s reign? God spoke to the king through the prophet Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah,
“Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says YHWH to you: ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed before this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 17 There will be no need for you to fight in this battle. Take your stand! Stand and see the deliverance of YHWH among you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out before them and YHWH will be with you.’” 2 Chron 20:15-17
God put it in the hearts of the enemy to turn on each other, without Judah lifting one sword. When the last nation stood alone, “each helped to destroy his comrade”. 2 Chron 20:22,23
I know it’s hard to imagine for most of us, but we are in the middle of Armageddon. Our own spiritual choices, affect God’s ultimate decision of our worthiness to receive eternal life, made in the symbolic “valley of decision”. (Dan 7:9,10; Zeph 3:8; John 12:48; Heb 3:7-11; Rev 20:12)
But, before this final judgment is completed by God, a spiritual war is in progress, raging within and outside the organization’s borders. (Rev 12:7; Eph 6:12; 5:11; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Rev 9:1-4;13:1,6,7;16:13-16; 20: 7-9)
It is a necessary war between truth spoken by the faithful kings of Christ, and lies pouring out of the mouth of those kings who have fallen from God’s grace. (Heb 3:12; 12:15; Acts 20:29-30; 1 Cor 11:19; Rev 8:10,11; 13:11,12; 16:13,14)
They are the “false prophets” of spiritual “Israel” who war against their brothers using lies and deceit. (Matt 7:15; 24:4,5, 24,25; 1 John 3:10; 1 Tim 4:1)
They have joined forces with a strong “Gentile” Wild Beast, beneficial for dominating, persecuting, and “killing” God’s holy people - the “prophets, sages and scribes” sent to them with the message of Christ’s truth. (Isa 66:5; Matt 23:34-36; 24:9-12,49; John 16:2; Heb 13:13; Rev 9:1; Dan 7:25; Rev 13:1,5-7,11,15; 11:3,7,8; 18:24)
Eventually, this massive army will form an alliance with those of “Israel” who still adhere to the organization. Single-mindedly, they will commit the very act already carried out upon others, the disfellowshipping/”killing” of both spiritual “Jews” and “Gentiles” who wake up to the organization’s lies and hypocrisy. In this case, ‘each will help to destroy his comrade’. God will put into their hearts to terminate the rulership of the corrupt, deceitful governing “kings”/Harlot. (Ezek 16:35-37; 38:21; Rev 17:12,13,15-17)
"For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on." 2 Chron 16:9
Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men,
Let all the men of war draw near,
Let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
11 Assemble and come, all you nations,
And gather together all around.
Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.”
“And when you hear about wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pains.” Mark 13:7,8
Christ is not the Destroyer. Christ conducts spiritual warfare, with the "sword of his mouth" (Rev 19:15; 1:16; Heb 4:12; Eph 6:17).
He is King of Truth, and the Battle is with the deceptions of death... the mouth of Satan (John 8:44; 2 Cor 4:4; Rev 12:15; 16:13,14; 20:7,8).
Those on the side of truth listen to Christ, and carry forward to completion, Christ's war against the darkness, along with their Lord (Rev 17:14; 119:11-14,8;6:9-11) (Luke 22:69; Matt 28:18; John 18:37; Ps 110:1,2; 1 Cor 15:25).
Satan's messengers resist, and work to subjugate Truth, and the work of Christ's Ambassadors (Rev 12:7; Eph 6:12; 5:11; 2 Cor 10:3-5).
God's interest regarding war, is limited to spiritual warfare (Gen 3:15; Rev 12:17,10,11). The obscene and futile warfare of Satan's world, has no place in the purposes of God. That world was abandoned at the beginning, by its own will. That will, and the abandonment which results, will remain undeterred. For good reason, the name of its god, is Destroyer.
Pearl Doxsey, “What Hope for Satan’s World”
There is a point in this war, where God will say, enough is enough. (Ezek 7:1-4)
"Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
Come, go down;
For the winepress is full,
The vats overflow—
For their wickedness is great.” Joel 3:12,13
“’For look, on the city that is called by My name I am beginning to inflict harm, and you indeed, will you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,’ declares YHWH of hosts. And you yourself shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them:
‘YHWH will roar from on high,
and from His holy dwelling place he will give His voice. (1 Pet 2:5; 1 Cor 3:16,17,19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21; Rev 11:1-3)
He will roar mightily against His settlement,
a jubilant shout like those who tread grapes,
He will answer against all the inhabitants of the earth.” Jer 25:29,30
“And another angel who had authority over the fire went out from the altar, and he called out with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Send out your sharp sickle and harvest the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are at their prime!” And the angel swung his sickle into the earth and harvested the vine of the earth, and threw the grapesinto the great winepress of the wrath of God.” Rev 14:18,19
Those faithful servants of “Israel” who ride with Christ in this war, remain attached to the vine of truth, spiritually living on the sap of that vine. (John 15:1,2,4-6,16;16:4,5; 1 Cor 6:17)
Yet, the Harlot’s weaponry used against the anointed and all in the organization is in the “wine” she offers, which results in spiritual drunkenness. (Jer 2:21; Deut 32:32,33; Matt 7:15,16; Rom 3:13)
Her acts of deceit, are well tolerated by the inebriated, who repeatedly excuse and forget her lies, while drinking down another cup of her poisoned wine. (Jer 51:7; 1 Thess 5:6,7; 1 Tim 4:1; Rev 14:8; 18:3,4)
I want to share a comment that Pearl made a few years ago, that gives definition to “evil” grapes at their prime:
The Bible portrays, that it is absorbed into their blood, so that their very soul (Lev 17:11) is the "venom of vipers" (Deut 32:32,33).
This is exactly why Christ treads the "winepress". It is to squeeze the falsehood from them. Those marked by “666” are false witnesses. The falsehood filling their souls (symbolized by their blood), will cause the lifeblood they have chosen, to kill them, because they will drown on their own blood. They drown on the lies within them, that Christ must crush at his return. This is such deep symbolism, but every detail of it, applies. Because their blood has become Satan's wine, they will lose their souls. God speaks of the Harlot who channels that "wine", when we read Isa.47:5-7 ...
5 “O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
6 For I was angry with my chosen people
and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
You oppressed even the elderly.
7 You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’
You did not reflect on your actions
or think about their consequences."
We will see her fall.
"30 A horrible and shocking thing
has happened in this land—
31 the prophets give false prophecies,
and the priests rule with an iron hand.
Worse yet, my people like it that way!
But what will you do when the end comes?" (Jer.5:30-31)
“And it will happen on that day;
the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk,
and all the channels of Judah will flow with water.
A spring from the house of YHWH will come forth,
and it will water the valley of Acacia Trees.
19 Egypt will become a desolation,
and Edom will become a desolate desert,
because of the violence they did against the children of Judah,
in whose land they have shed innocent blood.
20 But Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem for all generations.
21 I will cleanse their bloodguilt that I did not cleanse,
for YHWH is dwelling in Zion.” Joel 3:18-21
Pearl Doxsey – Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.
Labor Pains
A Hidden Famine, A Hidden Feast
Spiritual Virginity vs. The Harlot’s Cup/Two Covenants
666
The Great Winepress
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By the Sower of Seed
7:26 But the Court sat, and they took away his rulership, in order to annihilate him and to destroy him completely.
27 “‘And the kingdom and the rulership and the grandeur of the kingdoms under all the heavens were given to the people who are the holy ones of the Supreme One. Their kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all rulerships will serve and obey them.’
28 “This is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts alarmed me greatly, so that I turned pale; but I kept the matter in my own heart.”
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By Witness
Except for some time-consuming events, my husband and I have traveled across the heart of the state of Nevada, numerous times per year, for the last fifteen years. It can be a long, lonely jaunt, but with periods of peace. We know where to look for herds of sheep wandering freely without fences, taking their time in maneuvering to a fresh crop of grass on other side of the highway. We’ve witnessed rogue sheepdogs seemingly searching for their flock. We’ve got it down where the elk hang out, the pronghorn, as well as the long straight stretches that we wish would end sooner than they do. I know I’ve seen every sign along that highway; but their appearance doesn’t always register in the brain. During this last trip, one rather small sign took on a different meaning for me. Besides highway markers pointing to the major natural attractions, there are minor signs directing the way to areas such as Fish Creek, Robert’s Creek, Duckwater; and the one that caught my eye on this last journey, Blind Valley. What was someone’s reason for naming it such? Is it a valley hidden from the view of the highway? Was it a land purchase made sight unseen? Most likely, fish are found in Fish Creek, ducks are found at Duckwater. Robert might even be found at Robert’s Creek. Could it be that someone blind, lives in Blind Valley?
How well the name “Blind Valley” designates a symbolic valley where multitudes within it are found to be spiritually blind - the Bible’s “valley of decision”.
“Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
and assemble there.
Bring down your warriors, Lord!
12 “Let the nations be roused;
let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit
to judge all the nations on every side.
13 Swing the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
for the winepress is full
and the vats overflow—
so great is their wickedness!”
14 Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:11-14
During this war of Armageddon, the “abundant” or “great number” found in this valley of decision, have chosen to remain spiritually blind to the truth presented before them. God’s final judgment that they face, involves their choice of teachings derived from anointed ones who speak truth or lies; lasting, good “fruit”, or rotten fruit from bad “trees”; spiritually equipped either with God’s Spirit or that of Satan’s, to battle against their opponent. (Matt 7:20; Eph 6:12-17; Rev 16:13,14;17:14; 19:11)
The question is, why would someone desire to remain blind to God’s truth, resulting in permanent blindness? (Matt 13:14,15,16; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 Tim 4:1,2)
How does one’s heart become a “weed” during this final harvest? (Matt 13:24-29)
The following quote may help reveal why. It is taken from an interview with a JW last month, on the organization’s broadcasting channel. He states:
“The ambitions that I had before, that may have been obtainable, became second place. Now it was to have a simple life, to walk with the organization and to raise my children in the truth”.
Does this statement portray the general feeling of JWs? I think so, otherwise they would readily accept the choice to leave the organization and serve God without it, and without the repercussion of shunning. Yet, we know doing so, is not a simple decision to accept. (Dan 12:1; Matt 24:21; Rev 9:4-6) It has been made perfectly clear by its leaders, that without “moving ahead” with the organization, eternal life is not possible. (2 Cor 11:4; Col 2:8)
So, undoubtedly, it is perceived that ‘walking with the organization’ and bearing its brand on one’s mind and heart, equates with walking with God in truth. (Isa 42:8; Jer 2:8; Deut 11:18; Rev 13:4,16) Doing so, keeps the decisions as a faithful member of the organization, “simple”, no matter what fallacies may be taught throughout the years. (Jer 18:15; 2:13)
The weapon used by Satan in this war of truth against lies, is the organization; constructed with one purpose, to mislead and subsequently persecute the “remaining ones of the woman’s seed”. (Gen 3:15; Dan 11:10; 12:4; 8:15,17; Rev 1:1; 20:7-9)
A hunter uses camouflage to disguise himself from the prey. A bird hunter also uses decoys to attract the prey into believing he is joining in with his fellow birds. How naive it is, to believe Satan would not also utilize a bait of truth and the tactic of disguise, using elements at his fingertips. This allows him to build a decoy on the grandest scale possible in his realm. (Amos 3:5; Ps 140:4,5; Prov 22:5; Rev 9:3,10)
He has successfully created a delusion to sift each anointed heart as “wheat”, which our God of justice, allows to occur. (Amos 9:9; 2 Thess 2:10-12) His “ministers of light” call it, “the truth”. (2 Pet 2:2; Rev 13:5,6)
“sift”: “shake in a sieve”/”inward agitation to try one's faith to the verge of overthrow”
If we give in to “walking with the organization”, our faith in God has been overthrown – conquered.
Let’s compare the JWs’s testimony with scripture. To God’s authentic anointed “witnesses”, He declares,
I, I am YHVH,
and there is no other Savior but Me.
I ALONE declared, saved, and proclaimed—
and not some foreign god among you.
So you are My witnesses”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“and I am God.” Isa 43:11,12
Although he may speak of God, the man interviewed revealed what lies in the deep-seated intentions of his heart. (Matt 15:18,19; Luke 6:45) It is evident that it is idolatry toward an organization. He believes he cannot obtain eternal life without it.
Isa 43:11,12 speaks of a “foreign god”, with a footnote that refers to “foreigners”. There are “foreigners/foreign gods among God’s true “witnesses”, His Temple priesthood. (Jer 2:11) They have secured the priesthood from whom it rightly belongs. (Isa 51:23; Mark 13:14; Rev 11:1,2)
Their magnified presence signifies the very organization that JWs adhere to. (Exod 20:5; Rev 13:15) It is the elder body, the “Gentile” “man of lawlessness” that opposes “and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thess 2:4; 1 Pet 2:5,9; 1 Cor 3:16,17; Eph 2:20-22)
Left unchecked, Satan’s ruse would fully “devour Jacob”. (Jer 10:23-25)
Only a remnant is prophesied to survive. (Isa 10:19; Amos 7:1,2; Rev 9:3,4; 3:18;7:13-15)
The JW interviewed puts his faith in an organization built by spiritually unqualified men. (Num 18:7; 2 Chron 13:9; Ezek 44:7-9) He has allowed it to trap, rule over, and lead him into serving a “foreign god”.
“But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block (“to place a trap”) in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.” Rev 2:14
This is an act of blasphemy against YHVH and His decrees concerning His Temple. (Dan 11:31; 1 Cor 3:16,17) If we are to envision this idolatry, it must be our heart’s desire to love God and His decrees, over those of men. (Exod 34:14; 2 Tim 4:3; Tit 1:9)
As each prophet/"tree" bears "fruit"/teachings,
and this war of words escalates; God foresaw that the ruling wicked would persecute the faithful, on the basis of false doctrines (Matt 24:49; Ezek 38:21; 1 John 3:12; Rev 13:15; 11:3,7; 16:13,14; 17:14; 19:11,14; 6:9,11; John 16:2; Matt 5:11,12; 23:37; Acts 7:52; Rev 11:8; Dan 7:21,23,25; Dan 8:12)
The faithful retaliate with the sword of God's Word of Truth. (Dan 11:32,33; 2 Cor 10:4,5; 6:7; Heb 4:12; Eph 6:17; Rev 19:19,15,20; 11:5,3,4)
As this battle between truth and lies occurs, the final harvest/judgment of "fruit"/teachings/words occurs (Matt 12:36,37,34,35; Prov 18:21; Matt 7:17) in the symbolic "valley of decision" (Heb 4:13; Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10; Prov 16:4; Rev 22:12; Dan 7:22).
Pearl Doxsey – “What is Armageddon?”
Should anyone earnestly yearn to know Christ’s authentic truths, they would be granted that understanding. Those who choose to remain in darkness, close-minded to God’s decrees, are among the blind judged in the valley of decision.
Hades when translated, means "not perceiving". It is the consignment of all those born under sin, and means to be under a blanket of spiritual darkness, ignorance, and confusion. Only those granted light, truth, and understanding, are figuratively rescued from the realm of Hades.
When Jesus tells us that he has the keys to Hades/Abyss... this means that he has the power and authority to release whom he chooses, from spiritual darkness... and transfer them into his kingdom of light and life (Col 1:13; Luke 8:10) those who are repentant. Jesus also has the authority and power to lock up others... or to leave them there, in ignorance and spiritual darkness (Matt 13:10,11,13-16; Jude 1:13; John 12:35) those hard-hearted who are not repentant. Such ones remain under the authority and power of the Devil (2 Cor 4:4; John 3:18).
When Rev 20:1 tells us that the chain of restraint that Jesus possesses is "great"; this points to the ability of Jesus, to prevent understanding and perception among the blind, but proud (John 9:41). When Jesus wraps that symbolic chain around the Devil, and then casts the Devil into the Abyss/Hades... this depicts for us, Satan's blind inability to mislead those whom Jesus rescues from darkness... because it is now Satan who is overcome by the blind confusion of his own realm.
Jesus also shares his keys to release from the abyss (or bind in chains of ignorance) (Matt 16:19; 18:18), those whom his enlightened brothers judge as repentant (John 20:23) and worthy of the treasures of truth which they are empowered by Jesus, to impart (Matt 10:7,11-14; 7:6).
Rev 20:1
Pearl Doxsey
Idolatry among Israel happened continually. (2 Kings 17:9; Judges 10:13-16; Neh 9:26,28; Hos 1:1,2; Jer 2:28; Ps 78:35-37) Today’s spiritual “Israel” and companions in the organization have also blindly fallen into idolatry, by ‘walking with the organization’. It is a “god” possibly not previously known, before dedicating themselves at baptism and serving this god through their necessary, various activities laid out for them by a Harlot/false prophet. (Matt 24:11,12; Luke 21:8; 2 Thess 2:1-3; 2 Pet 2:1-3; Rev 13:11-14,16-18)
“If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a *sign or wonder to you, 2 and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let us follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us worship them,’ 3 do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. 4 You must follow the Lord your God and fear Him. You must keep His commands and listen to His voice; you must worship Him and remain faithful to Him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has urged *rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slavery, to turn you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to walk. You must purge the evil from you.” Deut 13:1-5
The organization appears as an apparent ‘simple’, wide open, welcoming door; yet, it if one chooses to remain blind to its true intention, it will lead to one’s downfall. (Luke 13:22-27; John 10:9,10 )
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the *rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of *false miracles, signs, and wonders, 10 and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved.” 2 Thess 2:3,9,10
“Mankind, He has told you what is good
and what it is the Lord requires of you:
to act justly,
to love faithfulness,
and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
WALKING WITH THE ORGANIZATION CANNOT EQUATE TO WALKING WITH GOD.
“Take delight in the Lord, and HE will give you your heart’s desires”. Ps 37:4
Pearl Doxsey, 4womaninthewilderness blogspot –
“Wheat and Weed Seeds Grow Up Together”
"Abomination of Desolation"
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By Guest
The Year 2038 problem is an issue for computing and data storage situations in which time values are stored or calculated as a signed 32-bit integer, and this number is interpreted as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970 (the epoch).[1] Such implementations cannot encode times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038, a problem similar to but not entirely analogous to the Y2K problem (also known as the Millennium Bug), in which 2-digit values representing the number of years since 1900 could not encode the year 2000 or later. Most 32-bit Unix-like systems store and manipulate time in this Unix time format, so the year 2038 problem is sometimes referred to as the Unix Millennium Bug by association.
Animation showing how the date would reset, represented as a signed 32-bit integer (at 03:14:08 UTC on 19 January 2038).
Technical cause
The latest time that can be represented in Unix's signed 32-bit integer time format is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038 (231-1 = 2,147,483,647 seconds after 1 January 1970).[2] Times beyond that will wrap around and be stored internally as a negative number, which these systems will interpret as having occurred on 13 December 1901 rather than 19 January 2038. This is caused by integer overflow. The counter runs out of usable digit bits, flips the sign bit instead, and reports a maximally negative number (continuing to count up, toward zero). Resulting erroneous calculations on such systems are likely to cause problems for users and other relying parties.
Programs that work with future dates will begin to run into problems sooner; for example a program that works with dates 20 years in the future will have to be fixed no later than 2018.
Early problems
In May 2006, reports surfaced of an early manifestation of the Y2038 problem in the AOLserver software. The software was designed with a kludge to handle a database request that should "never" time out. Rather than specifically handling this special case, the initial design simply specified an arbitrary time-out date in the future. The default configuration for the server specified that the request should time out after one billion seconds. One billion seconds (approximately thirty-two years) after 9:27.28 pm on 12 May 2006 is beyond the 2038 cutoff date. Thus, after this time, the time-out calculation overflowed and returned a date that was actually in the past, causing the software to crash. When the problem was discovered, AOLServer operators had to edit the configuration file and set the time-out to a lower value.[3][4]
Players of games or apps which are programmed to impose waiting periods[5] are running into this problem when they attempt to work around the waiting period on devices which harbor the coding, by manually setting their devices (such as the Nexus 7[6]) to a date past 19 January 2038, but are unable to do so, since a 32-bit Unix time format is being used.
Vulnerable systems
Embedded systems that use dates for either computation or diagnostic logging are most likely to be affected by the 2038 bug.
Many transportation systems from flight to automobiles use embedded systems extensively. In automotive systems, this may include anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC/ESP), traction control (TCS) and automatic four-wheel drive; aircraft may use inertial guidance systems and GPS receivers. However this does not imply that all these systems will suffer from the bug. Many such systems will not require access to dates. For those that do, those systems which only track the difference between times/dates and not absolute times/dates will, by the nature of the calculation, not experience a problem. This is the case for automotive diagnostics based on legislative standards such as CARB (California Air Resources Board).[7]
Another major use of embedded systems is in communications devices, including cell phones and Internet appliances (routers, wireless access points, etc.) which rely on storing an accurate time and date and are increasingly based on UNIX-like operating systems. For example, the bug makes some Android devices crash and not restart when the time is changed to that date.[8]
Despite the modern 18–24 month generational update in computer systems technology, embedded systems are designed to last the lifetime of the machine in which they are a component. It is conceivable that some of these systems may still be in use in 2038. It may be impractical or, in some cases, impossible to upgrade the software running these systems, ultimately requiring replacement if 32-bit time_t limitations are to be corrected.
MySQL database's built-in functions like UNIX_TIMESTAMP() will return 0 after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038,[9] though a bug-fix was contributed on 22 March 2017.[10]
Data structures with time problems
Many data structures in use today have 32-bit time representations embedded into their structure. A full list of these data structures is virtually impossible to derive but there are well-known data structures that have the Unix time problem:
file systems (many file systems use only 32 bits to represent times in inodes)
binary file formats (that use 32-bit time fields)
databases (that have 32-bit time fields)
database query languages, like SQL that have UNIX_TIMESTAMP() like commands
Examples of systems utilizing data structures that may contain 32-bit time representations include:
COBOL systems of 1970s–1990s vintage that have not been replaced by 2038-compliant systems[citation needed]
embedded factory, refinery control and monitoring subsystems
assorted medical devices
assorted military devices
Any system making use of data structures containing 32-bit time representations will present risk. The degree of risk is dependent on the mode of failure.
NTP timestamps
The Network Time Protocol has a related overflow issue, which manifests itself in 2036, rather than 2038. The 64-bit timestamps used by NTP consist of a 32-bit part for seconds and a 32-bit part for fractional second, giving NTP a time scale that rolls over every 232 seconds (136 years) and a theoretical resolution of 21321 seconds (233 picoseconds). NTP uses an epoch of 1 January 1900. The first rollover occurs in 2036, prior to the UNIX year 2038 problem.
Implementations should disambiguate NTP time using a knowledge of the approximate time from other sources. Since NTP only works with the differences between timestamps and never their absolute values, the wraparound is invisible as long as the timestamps are within 68 years of each other.
This means that for NTP the rollover will be invisible for most running systems, since they will have the correct time to within a very small tolerance. However, systems that are starting up need to know the date within no more than 68 years. Given the large allowed error, it is not expected that this is too onerous a requirement. One suggested method is to set the clock to no earlier than the system build date or the release date of the current version of the NTP software. Many systems use a battery-powered hardware clock to avoid this problem.
Even so, future versions of NTP may extend the time representation to 128 bits: 64 bits for the second and 64 bits for the fractional-second. The current NTP4 format has support for Era Number and Era Offset, that when used properly should aid fixing date rollover issues. According to Mills, "The 64 bit value for the fraction is enough to resolve the amount of time it takes a photon to pass an electron at the speed of light. The 64 bit second value is enough to provide unambiguous time representation until the universe goes dim."[11][note 1]
Solutions
There is no universal solution for the Year 2038 problem. Any change to the definition of the time_t data type would result in code compatibility problems in any application in which date and time representations are dependent on the nature of the signed 32-bit time_t integer. For example, changing time_t to an unsigned 32-bit integer, which would extend the range to the year 2106, would adversely affect programs that store, retrieve, or manipulate dates prior to 1970, as such dates are represented by negative numbers. Increasing the size of the time_t type to 64-bit in an existing system would cause incompatible changes to the layout of structures and the binary interface of functions.
There is also no universal solution for the issue with DVB and ATSC real time transmitted dates due to issues with legacy receivers. The issue has yet to be acknowledged or resolved by either organization. The only workaround would be to discontinue all time-related metadata services such as programming guides and automatic date synchronization after the affected dates. One possible option would be to create new table types for the affected part of the specifications and use ISO 8601 date strings rather than fixed integers—as are used in ISO 9660 and ISO 13346 filesystems.
Most operating systems designed to run on 64-bit hardware already use signed 64-bit time_t integers. Using a signed 64-bit value introduces a new wraparound date that is over twenty times greater than the estimated age of the universe: approximately 292 billion years from now, at 15:30:08 UTC on Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596. The ability to make computations on dates is limited by the fact that tm_year uses a signed 32 bit integer value starting at 1900 for the year. This limits the year to a maximum of 2,147,485,547 (2,147,483,647 + 1900).[12]
Starting with NetBSD version 6.0 (released in October 2012), the NetBSD operating system uses a 64-bit time_t for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Applications that were compiled for an older NetBSD release with 32-bit time_t are supported via a binary compatibility layer, but such older applications will still suffer from the Year 2038 problem.[13]
OpenBSD since version 5.5, released in May 2014, also uses a 64-bit time_t for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. In contrast to NetBSD, there is no binary compatibility layer. Therefore, applications expecting a 32-bit time_t and applications using anything different from time_t to store time values may break.[14]
Linux uses a 64-bit time_t for 64-bit architectures only; the pure 32-bit ABI is not changed due to backward compatibility.[15] There is ongoing work, mostly for embedded Linux systems, to support 64-bit time_t on 32-bit architectures, too.[16][17]
The x32 ABI for Linux (which defines an environment for programs with 32-bit addresses but running the processor in 64-bit mode) uses a 64-bit time_t. Since it was a new environment, there was no need for special compatibility precautions.[15]
Network File System version 4 has defined its time fields as struct nfstime4 {int64_t seconds; uint32_t nseconds;} since December, 2000.[18] Values greater than zero for the seconds field denote dates after the 0-hour, January 1, 1970. Values less than zero for the seconds field denote dates before the 0-hour, January 1, 1970. In both cases, the nseconds (nanoseconds) field is to be added to the seconds field for the final time representation.
Alternative proposals have been made (some of which are in use), such as storing either milliseconds or microseconds since an epoch (typically either 1 January 1970 or 1 January 2000) in a signed 64-bit integer, providing a minimum range of 300,000 years.[19][20] Other proposals for new time representations provide different precisions, ranges, and sizes (almost always wider than 32 bits), as well as solving other related problems, such as the handling of leap seconds. In particular, TAI64[21] is an implementation of the Temps Atomique International standard, the current international real-time standard for defining a second and frame of reference.
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By Jack Ryan
To all naysayers and apologists who say that Jehovah will look at hearts at armageddon and save billions, my own mother believes this.
This is the october 2019 study Watchtower page 11 paragraph 14. As you can see it makes it crystal clear that ONLY baptized witnesses will survive armageddon.
14 Read Matthew 28:19, 20. As we conduct Bible studies, we have to try our best to “make disciples . . . , teaching them to observe all the things [Jesus has] commanded.” We need to help people understand how important it is for them to take their stand for Jehovah and his Kingdom. This means trying to motivate people to make the truth their own by applying what they learn, dedicating their life to Jehovah, and getting baptized. Only then will they survive Jehovah’s day.—1 Pet. 3:21.
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By Witness
To get to the meaningful core of what Armageddon is about, which is the battle of truth against lies, we look at Israel’s sins of the past. Today’s spiritual “Israel” comprised of the anointed ones, is also steeped in sin, resulting from a testing delusion put upon them by Satan; a delusion that is passionately called “the truth”. Luke 22:31; 2 Thess 2:9-12; Rev 13:1,2,11
God does expect us to seek Truth. Ps 25:5; Matt 7:7,8; John 4:23,24; 8:31,32; 14:6
Yet, today’s “Israel” is feeding on the lies of their leaders/prophets. Matt 7:15; Acts 20:29; Rev 16:13,14
When reading Ezekiel chapter 13, notice that the term “whitewash” helps reveal what is behind the organization’s ‘new light’ label. Many translations use the phrase, “untempered mortar”, a few say “loose mud”, or “chalk”; all are descriptive of the organization’s attempt to cover over unstable teachings that do not last. John 15:16,5
“untempered mortar” is defined as “whitewash" used to patch a wall, creating the facade of beauty.
As an example:
Matt 23:37 – “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
Why were these teachers described by Jesus as whitewashed tombs?
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:44-47
By choosing to deny Christ’s words of truth which offer eternal life, they remained in spiritual darkness, alienated from God and life.
“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” John 6:63
“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” 1 John 1:6
The battle of truth against lies was evident then, and is now, as it reaches the end point in these last days. The “two witnesses” (“two “meaning truth – John 8:17) proclaim the revealing message from Christ, while false prophets battle against it, with their lies. Dan 12:9; Rev 1:11; 11:3; 1 John 4:6
Ezekiel chapter 13:
The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish (“wicked”) prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
4 Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. (Lam 5:17,18; Ps 44:19)
5 You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. ( Ezek 22:30)
6 Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect Him to fulfill their words. (Ps 50:21; Isa 57:11)
7 Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, “The Lord declares,” though I have not spoken? (Ezek 22:28; Rev 16:13,14)
8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord.9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. (Rev 13:8)
10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, (Jer 23:13,17; 1 Thess 5:3)
11 therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth.
12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”
13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. (Ps 18:12,13; Isa 30:30 [Heb 12:1] Ps 147:17,18; Matt 24:30; Rev 11:3,5; Rev 8:7; Matt 7:24,25}
14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. (Matt 7:26,27; 1 Cor 3:10,13) When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord.
15 So I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it,16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.”’
Pearl Doxsey:
I have come to appreciate, that "walls" stand for doctrines/teachings. Just as the city wall protects the city from their enemies, so do doctrines defend against threats to faith, but they also offer boundaries to keep a "flock" in an enclosure. My point, is that Ezekiel "dug" a hole in the wall. (Ezek 12:4-7) We know the meaning of "digging" (Prov 2:2-5; Matt 13:44), and when we combine these symbols (digging, wall) I take it as scrutiny of teachings (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess 5:21) which weakens a wall of false doctrine, just as digging holes in a literal wall would. We are told (according to this symbolism) that the "wall" of apostate Jerusalem will fall (see Ezekiel 13:10,11,12,14,15), no matter how much they "whitewash" their teachings.
I am certain of this connection and meaning of "wall", because the fall of Jericho’s wall is inextricably linked with the "end", and to Revelation (Heb 11:30; Luke 21:20; Josh 6:15,20,8; Rev 8:2,6).
The "wall" of false teachings will "fall", leaving all those within that city defenseless and conquered. The wall they trusted in will fail them.
(From “Wall/Christ’s Side” 4womaninthewilderness)
As a child, I was occasionally assigned to clean the chalk boards after school, using water and a large cloth. Most children rode the bus home to the far reaches of the farming community I lived in. I was one of the few who walked home from school, which gave me the opportunity to stay longer. I remember the satisfaction of washing away the day’s writings to reveal a clean board, ready for the new day’s teachings.
JWs, from the outset, the organization has added layers and layers of decaying interpretations to its doctrines, like smudged chalk accumulating on a dirty chalkboard. This is the reality behind the organization’s new light philosophy. In its history, it has never returned to the clean pure truth of Christ’s Word.
To understand why God allows his people to submit to this powerful delusion, please see:
“Who is to Blame?”
“Spreading Tribulation – Tainted or Tested?”
“Satan’s Fall”
4womaninthewilderness blogspot
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By Guest Kurt
Here's something you may not have seen, from the JW archives, a countdown to Armegeddon as we once believed would occur in oct 1914. Our brothers used this to help them keep track on their faith. Just a bit of JW history.
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By Anna
Something I thought might be relevant since we are studying the God's Kingdom book. Not long ago, in a WT article, it was mentioned in reference to the "Kingdom being preached in all the inhabited earth" that this will not mean that literally everyone on Earth would have heard about the Kingdom before Armageddon starts.
When one does a bit of mathematics (not my forte) and calculates the percentage of current Jehovah's Witnesses in comparison to the World's population we arrive at 0.1%. This is a very small percentage indeed. (8 million JW to 8 billion population)
If we were to assume some averages, and use the United States as a fair example, then we can assume the ratio of 1 publisher to roughly around 400. This seems a fair number since "only a few are the ones finding the road to life". However, as we know, there is practically a non existent ratio when it comes to India and China, two of the world's countries with a population of over 1billion each (the majority of whom have never heard of the Bible, never mind Jehovah's Witnesses). If we would assume the same ratio of 1:400, then this would immediately create over 3 million Witnesses in each of the two countries, i.e. over 6 million in India and China alone, bringing the total of JWs to over 14 million. If we were to also add 650 thousand in Indonesia, 485 thousand from Pakistan, and 402 thousand from Bangladesh that adds another 1.5 million bringing the total to over 15 million, almost doubling the Witnesses today.
If we go by the fact that all people are equal in Jehovah's eyes, and that no nation is above another when it comes to salvation, and that all people are basically the same, then we have to assume that there are people in those countries who, if given the chance, would embrace the truth and put themselves on Jehovah's side and create that ratio of 1:400.
With that in mind, it is evident that either there is going to have to be a lot of preaching done, verging on the miraculous, in order to bring in over 7 million new Witnesses within the allotted time of the "Generation", or, Jehovah will judge their hearts and allow nearly HALF of the people, (agnostics or believers in false Gods) entry into the new world without them even needing to know him.
Or, is "this Generation" a lot longer than we think.....
Any scriptural thoughts?
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By Brother Rando
Being a student of Prophecy and intently studying the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1914 is only the beginning of the end. “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. ?All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.” (Matthew 24:7-8)
In 1914 the world as we know it, has entered into its death throes.  God’s Kingdom would slowly begin crushing all kingdoms of the earth. (Daniel 2:44)  Those inhabiting the earth would enter into an ‘allotted amount of time of distress'. “During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book.” (Daniel 12:1)
What is causing this ‘time of distress’?  “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled ?but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven.” (Rev 12:7-8)  “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time.” (Rev 12:12)  Here’s an important teaching from Jesus Christ, he stated, “For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matthew 24:37)  Did you catch that?  So the presence of the Son of man will be.  Jesus Christ has been ruling from Heaven since 1914 and he compared his presence like the days of Noah!  Few people understand this, but the Days of Noah lasted 120 years. (Genesis 6:3)  Jesus continues, “For as they were in those days before the Flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, ?and they took no note until the Flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matthew 24:38-39)  Folks, the presence of the Son of man is now 103 years from 1914 and counting.  Yet, the World is taking no note.
The Last Days must reach their full time allotted, which is 120 years.  1914 + 120 = 2034.  Since the Great Tribulation is Spiritual, many will  fall away from the faith. But it’s during this time period that the one’s separated to the right hand of Christ, will come out of the Great Tribulation as Survivors.  In response one of the elders said to me: “These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” (Rev 7:13)
So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one who knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:14)  “Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)
Armageddon is an act of undeserved kindness of removing the wicked by means of the second death. Â Soon, those outside our interior rooms will be dying the second death in the same manner as Adam and Eve.Â
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For Answers to Your Biblical Questions go to the Jehovah Witness Q & A Forum. To request a free home Bible Study clickÂ
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By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
We are now very close to the great tribulation!
A brother of the betel was concluding his speech when he made the following comment: " Be intensely busy with the word of God," I would like listening very carefully. We who are in Betel we are privileged to work with the faithful and discreet slave and with the body of directors and I wish know you how he feels the body of directors about the time we live now in this system of things.
The faithful slave feels that it is already happened to the Matthew 24:14 prophecy: "quest for good news the kingdom's be preached in all the inhabited earth."
What does the party later this word? He says that ... then the end will come.
He knew you that there are only three countries in the world where there are no Jehovah's Witnesses?
ONLY 3 countries!
Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan ...
This does not mean that there does not reach the in our literature to but just that there are not Jehovah's Witnesses. I had mentioned earlier to some friends and they wanted to know why there are no Jehovah's Witnesses in these countries. I 'll tell you the reason.
Jehovah does not send his people to any place where he knows that van there! * (See footnote)
But in these three countries the good news have already been published (I guess it refers to the fact that literature is still available).
Matthew 14, Luke 21, Mark 13, as well as Revelation 6: these words are ending (?)
So what is the biblical prophecy that still has to fulfill?
You know what?
The read for you.
See Revelation 17: 15-17 - (read the prophecy)
The faithful slave is waiting for the day Jehovah will put this thought into their hearts.
This is the next prophecy that must be fulfilled. For those who know what it means, this will cause the great tribulation.
Once this is fulfilled , the door will be closed (in a spiritual sense).
Whatever thing you did, you can not go back.
"I could have done this or that if I had more time."
Now is the time!
How will you spend the time you stay?
For what are you working or are you committed ?
- in higher education?
- you are struggling to get more money and material goods?
- you are engaged in the distractions of the world?
Or are you undertake to favor the kingdom.?
We do things urgently, we try to be quick! (Story running on facebook between of various witnesses of Jehovah accounts)
 I want to point out that the aforementioned text is the translation of the translation of a translation and then of specific phrases may have been distorted sense. Apart from that, however, the general sense of the discourse is clear. Assuming that they are not the ravings of some overzealous brother (which still brings out what they believe, more or less openly, many Jehovah's Witnesses), the meaning is as follows. The prophecies have almost all been fulfilled. Â
The preaching was completed. Â
We are just waiting for the fall of Babylon the Great. Â
 Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Our expectations are really in harmony with God's Word?  That's it? Some brother more in later years and with a good memory will recall that statements like these (views from different angles) have already been made in the past. Without wishing to be too argumentative, beyond the past mistakes, it is clear that sooner or later you have to get to the point where it will begin the great tribulation, will fall Babylon the Great, and you will enter the Millennial Kingdom. The fact we were wrong in the past, more than once, this in itself does not prove that you're wrong again. Could it really be so and definitely not wrong to keep alive the sense of urgency - compare Matthew 24:42; Revelation 16:15 Beyond, however, the "hint" that each of us can have, the only thing we should do is search the scriptures to try to understand "what extent we are old" in reference to biblical prophecy. It is true: if we take the writing of Matthew 24:14 and we make an analysis of the presence of our brothers in the world, probably we would come to the same conclusion of the aforesaid brother in the introduction of this article (always assuming that the report is credible). The question, however, end here? Being such an important subject, it would be no need to also examine other scriptures to see if you dial a credible framework or if "something is not right"? Moreover, as the same "slave" has admitted, they are not inspired and therefore we would like to build on something more than a simple "I want you to know how you feel the governing body about the time we live in." The Bible is not "imperfect spiritual food", does not lend itself to corrections or rewards, does not change with time and definitely do not mind - John 17:17; Romans 3: 4; James 1:17; Titus 1: 2 Obviously you are not suggesting that the interpretations of this blog are infallible; far from it. You simply want to emphasize that the Bible is always to have the last word and so we must look for answers there, not in our desires or people that we value - Matthew 4: 4 Some do not even accept the possibility that even those who are taking the lead can go wrong (as if they were human beings). For some to question the statement "slave" is an indication of lack of respect and submission but this is a myopic view of the situation. We know that many times the people of God fed wrong expectations about the future and about the will of God - compares Isaiah 28: 14-19 They were the people of God but this, in itself, did not guarantee the protection and the priests themselves, more often, showed a complete ignorance of the Scriptures - John 3:10 This also happened with good intentions and the best people - compares 1 Samuel 16: 7 Considering the biblical past, trying to see what the Bible says to beyond the proclamation and to everyone who comes , is not it the best? - 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Romans 15: 4; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 The Lord Jesus Christ himself, the one who was the wisest of all men , and that he could speak of his own initiative, not perhaps did the same? - Matthew 4: 4-10 Questioning certain statements (not for bias, of course) is not a lack of respect towards the index "slave"; on the contrary, it shows profound respect for the one true authority of God's Word - Psalm 31: 5; Acts 17:11 Let us examine the claim that the prophecies would almost all be fulfilled, and we just have to wait the fall of Babylon the Great. The officer says that understanding God's Kingdom was established in heaven in 1914, by 1918 the heavens were purified, in 1919 the heavenly resurrection began (as well as the purification of the people of God) and so on. Perhaps there is some error in this generalization also because of the constant "adjustments" (adjustments that change the periods of a few months, ever the concepts) but roughly this is what you believe.
In this article you will see just how the logic and writing can corroborate or invalidate these ideas. The official explanation identifies the slaughtered head of death Revelation 13: 3 as the Anglo-American empire. It is true that the book that lists this explanation (the Revelation Its Grand Climax) has now been withdrawn but there is nothing new on the horizon that, until there is a different explanation, this is the ultimate understanding accepted. As we saw this explanation is problematic because the Anglo-American empire, according to official explanations, is the "king of the South" described in the Bible book of Daniel. However in Daniel is the king of the north to win the last war, and so it is obvious that something is not right - Daniel 11: 40-45 Of course we can not say that Daniel and Revelation contradict, does not it? To focus with Daniel Revelation there are only two possibilities. Or the Anglo-American empire is actually the king of the north ** (see note below) or head slaughtered to death that you see in Revelation can not be the Anglo-American empire. Does not it seem logical reasoning? How can the Anglo-American empire (and be the king of the south) if Daniele does understand that the last ruling king, or what will be defeated by Michele, is the king of the north? In Revelation we do not see another political power that defeats the beast that ascends from the sea. After the Great War (which can also have multiple stages), do not talk about other human wars in Revelation, right? - 1 Thessalonians 5: 3 The last war we are talking about and who participates in this beast is against the God Almighty - Revelation 16: 10-14, 16 The conclusion is logical. Apart from the fact that the end will come when the preaching has reached "all the inhabited earth" before this you will see the clash between the king of the north and the king of the south. And must win the king of the north, of course. In the last World War he has probably won the king of the north as well as to assert that "we just have to wait over the fall of Babylon the Great"? Absolutely no. The last king of the north was the Third Reich and, during the battle against the king of the south (the Anglo-American empire, in fact) it came out defeated. This is a prophecy that still has not been fulfilled and it is more than enough to establish that it is not enough that the preaching arrivals in these last three remaining countries. Among other things, the writing of Matthew 24:14 does not give any basis for determining how long the good news has to take place in a given country in order to receive adequate testimony. If tomorrow our brothers they come in those nations and begin to preach ... how much time would pass until God considered adequate and sufficiently complete that testimony? The answer is simple: we do not know . However, although that has yet to burst the war between the king of the north and king of the south, it is conceivable that in the meantime there are other prophecies that have to be fulfilled or are being fulfilled, is not it? As we have seen in several previous articles before the war should emerge a certain persecution of brothers (you have tribulation, but is not yet the great tribulation ) because the king of the north must start to suppress the daily sacrifice (the preaching work ) until you get to completely suppress it - see Daniel 8: 10-12, 24, 25 In our recent past, the preaching work was perhaps suppressed completely, which it did by means of the king of the north? According to the prophecy, and this must be done only during the last years of the scheme of things it must have a last impulse - compares Revelation 10:11; 14: 6, 7 E 'at this point that the preaching work will reach the ends of the earth, and this will happen very quickly - Zechariah 4: 6 The total suppression of preaching did not happen even during the Second World War and certainly did not happen in all countries; Also this leaves well understand that it is a prophecy to come. There is much more to say but the above should be sufficient, even for those who disagree with the explanations of this blog, to reflect that the Great, "you can not expect only the fall of" Babylon. Who has respect for the Bible itself to be shaped by it. Of course what has been said does not want to show that the end will come "who knows when." In contrast, recent international events suggest that we are far ahead in the end time All the events described above will occur in a very short time so when we can really begin to come to "raise high head" - Luke 21:28 Those who have lifted up their heads in 1914 all died with a stiff neck but when these things begin to take place (such as the war between the king of the north and king of the south) we can do it peacefully because of this incident until the actual fall of Babylon the Great (which will not be the world empire of false religion ) will spend a maximum of ten years. So us ensure that our expectations are in harmony with the Word of God not to be disappointed - Isaiah 28:16 Us ensure that our expectations are in harmony with the Word of God to be prepared for what's to come and not discouraged - 2 Peter 1:19; Proverbs 24:10 Us ensure that our expectations are in harmony with the Word of God, ultimately, for our lives - Matthew 7:24, 25   Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. The Bible traces the path. It will not lead to disappointment.  Footnote. * The translation was not very clear. ** From previous articles we saw that the Anglo-American empire is indeed the king of the south. -
By Jack Ryan
referring to CHAPTER 18 “My Great Rage Will Flare Up” in the new book:
and in the first picture? at top of study. Mom, Dad and daughter are at the table reading - praying while Gramps is keeping a watchful eye on the streets for recon angel forces ? Perhaps a few cherub paratroopers dropping behind the lines?
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By Jack Ryan
Panic and escape scene in Moncalieri, but it is the film of Jehovah's Witnesses
Stampa Newspaper:
La Stampa (meaning The Press in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy
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By Jack Ryan
The Bible clearly shows where it is written that he himself says he does not. Only the Father knows.
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By Jack Ryan
Watchtower, Study Edition, March 15th, 2015
Loyally Supporting Christ’s Brothers
Link: https://wol.jw.borg/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2015207
This article is a doozy. It has many points of interest that carefully play on words, and emotionally manipulate the reader. It really is something.
Pay special attention to paragraphs 6, 7, 9, 10, 17, and 18.
These paragraphs clearly highlight anyone who is not an active JW will be judged a goat and be killed. Also, spectacularly, those paragraphs point that if you want to be judged a sheep, meaning to not be killed by God imminently, you need to a)recognize the divine authority of the Governing Body, b) obey the organization unquestioningly, c) preach to recruit new members, and d) give financially to the organization.
This article sealed the deal for me. I'm sorry but only a cult would wield the fear of divine destruction to demand divinity status, loyalty, obedience, and money.
Some more source material:
Gods Kingdom Rules!
Chapter 21, Paragraph 17
Link: https://wol.jw.borg/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102014263#h=25
Here we are told that the goats, who are comprised of everyone from kings to slaves, will be sent to everlasting cutting off.
This material is great for discussing how a God of Love could murder billions:
Watchtower, December 1st, 2005
Armageddon - A Happy Beginning
Link: https://wol.jw.borg/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2005881?q=armageddon&p=par
This wonderful article is a real gem. It compares the murder of billions of human beings, including children, to a home owner exterminating pests. I kid you not. They use the word pest when describing the destruction of people. Real people.
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By Jesus.defender
Past tense since the watchtower predicted armageddon so many times?
1877 'The End Of This World; that is the end of the gospel and the beginning of the millennial age is nearer than most men suppose; indeed we have already entered the transition period, which is to be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation Dan. 12:3." (N.H. Barbour and C.T. Russell, Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World, p. 17).
1888 "In this chapter we present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the gentiles, i.e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A.D. 1914; and that the date will be the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men. And be it observed, that if this is shown to be a fact firmly established by the Scriptures, it will prove; Firstly, that at that date the Kingdom of God, for which our Lord taught us to pray, saying, Thy Kingdom come, will obtain full, universal control, and that it will then be set up, or firmly established, in the earth, on the ruins of present institutions." (The Time Is At Hand, 1888, p. 76, 77)
1889 "Be not surprised, then, when in subsequent chapters we present proofs that the setting up of the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed out in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D. 1878, and that the 'battle of the great day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14) which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced. The gathering of the armies is plainly visible from the standpoint of God's word." (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 2, The Time Is At Hand, 1889 Ed., p. 101. The 1915 Edition of this texts changed "A.D. 1914" to read 'A.D. 1915')
1894 "Seventeen years ago people said, concerning the time features presented in Millennial Dawn, They seem reasonable in many respects, but surely no such radical changes could occur between now and the close of 1914: if you had proved that they would come about in a century or two, it would seem much more probable. What changes have since occurred, and what velocity is gained daily? 'The old is quickly passing and the new is coming in.' Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They say that they do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain. We see no reason for changing the figures-nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." (Zion's Watchtower, Can It Be Delayed until 1914? C. T. Russell July 15, 1894, Also in Watchtower Reprints, l894 p. 1677)
1894 "A few more years will wind up the present order of things, and then the chastened world will stand face to face with the actual conditions of the established Kingdom of God. And yet the course of the Church is to be finished within the space of time that intervenes." (Watchtower p. 56, 1894)
1894 "We see no reason for changing the figures - nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." (Watchtower July 15, 1894, p 266; p 1677 reprints)
1917 'There will be no slip-up...Abraham should enter upon the actual possession of his promised inheritance in the year 1925' (Watchtower Oct. 15, 1917, p. 6157)
1918 "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." (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, p. 89)
1920 '...we may expect 1925 to witness the return of these faithful men of Israel from the condition of death, being resurrected' (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1920, p. 88)
1920 '...we may expect 1925 to witness the return of these faithful men of Israel from the condition of death, being resurrected' (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1920, p. 88)
1966 "According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man's creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E Six thousand years of man's existence on earth will soon be up, yea within this generation. The rein of Christ...to run parallel with the 7th millennium ..." (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966, p. 29-30)
1966 "Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. 'The new book compels us to realise that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed,' said a conventioneer." (Watchtower 15/10/1966, p 629)
1968 "Why Are You Looking Forward To 1975?" … "What about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam's creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion." (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1968, p. 494)
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By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
The 19th and 20th chapters of Revelation will reveal some significant details about the war of Armageddon, and what will happen next.
These details will include two major changes to the current understanding and, just as happened with the identity of Babylon the Great, this "vision of change" will be a real stumbling block for many Jehovah's Witnesses.
These chapters will be discussed in the next article, but, facing such a serious change of intent for two more subjects, it was decided to treat them separately in the light of all Scripture. First, we must realize that Revelation speaks of the resurrection at the end of the millennium, and not during the millennium . This will be discussed in detail in due course. For the moment ... you accept this opportunity just to make understandable the theme of this article is to answer the question, exactly, "what countries actually disappear at Armageddon?". It is clear that here we return to the usual "problem" if the book was written in chronological order or not but in the meantime we have seen that the 7 seals are sequential, the 7 trumpets must be sequential (the apostle Paul calls the seventh trumpet the "last trumpet ") and so are the seven bowls of the wrath of God. If all this is sequential ... it is consistent to think that just the last chapters they are not? Let's try to read the whole chapter 20 of Revelation and follow the order of events. Satan is loosed out of his prison, so misleads the nations which are in the corners of the earth, these surround the camp of the saints and then are killed by fire coming down from heaven. After this event, the death and hades return the dead that are in them - Revelation 20: 11-13 The writing of Revelation 20: 4 it says that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished. " As long as" means "up to the moment when" and not "during" and this would appear to suggest that these thousand years the elect would reign on the survivors of Armageddon and their families but not on any resurrected. The same term, "long" used in Matthew 1:25, we always used to prove that Joseph had no intercourse with his wife Maria until the baby is born . This should be enough to prove that the resurrection will occur after the end of the millennium , a concept that seems to be repeated in verses 12 and 13. These verses will deepen better but now let's focus on these "rebels" who attack God's people. Who are they and where did they come? Â 7 Â Now as soon as they finished the thousand years, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, 8 Â and will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. 9 Â And they advanced over the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 Â And the Devil who misled them was hurled into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [had already] the wild beast and the false prophet; They will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelation 20: 7-10) Â At the end of the thousand years Satan is loosed for "mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth" and gather them for war. It seems incredible that such a thing to happen! It is possible that in the new world people still organize into political nations, that create divisions and even attack the part of that remained faithful people? This is the first case and is roughly the current understanding. Before you think this is nonsense ... it is possible that during the war of Armageddon be spared some of the land also to allow the survival of the people of God? In most parts of the Bible we are told that during the time of judgment his faithful people survives by finding shelter to Edom, Moab and Ammon (which by the way are also the city spared from last World War described in the scripture) - Compare, for example, with Daniel 11:41 Isaiah 16: 4; Psalm 108: 8-10 with Jeremiah 40: 10, 11 These three nations (Edom, Moab and Ammon) were mountainous / hilly and this recalls the words Jesus said to his disciples - Matthew 24: 15, 16 Perhaps the Scripture warns all Christians around the world to flee to the nearest mountains just see the disgusting thing about Israel? In fact, if the destruction of Babylon the Great start should at Armageddon (as we saw) and not the great tribulation, "fleeing to the mountains" mean that Jehovah saves, inevitably, these mountains. In fact, these "mountains" might be a specific location on earth where Jehovah will lead his people just before Armageddon. This or these locations would then be "preserved from judgment." It would not be the first time that Jehovah, in His love and in His mercy, avoid destroy a people on account of his servants. According to the story of Genesis 19:21, 22, the angels of Jehovah avoid destroying Zoar for consideration for Lot yet, from what we understand by reading the whole story, the "small town" was part of Sodom and Gomorrah and had to be destroyed. The war of Armageddon in effect destroys the satanic system composed of the wild beast, the false prophet and his supporters. They fall also all those nations that are compact in the fight against the Lamb. The vast majority of people die in this war because it blinded and marked by the wild beast will die, but those who are not Christians? To the congregation in Philadelphia are told that " would have kept the evidence that has come upon the whole inhabited earth" and for this to happen it is at least conceivable that some Christians find shelter in a "free zone" - Revelation 3:10 If we assume this, then the nations that the end of the millennium they decide to attack the people of God, may arise from these strains survived. Why, in fact, it would make a distinction between them and "the camp of the saints"? There are saints all the inhabitants of the New World? In the new world there will be a "camp of the saints" and a "camp of the saints do not"? Another confirmation could come from the same protection of the Jerusalem above; it is said that "flights in the desert" away from the face of the serpent. When Satan tries to drown her "the land comes to your aid" and this means that at least until the last moment of divine judgment there is still a "stable" part of the world - Revelation 24:15 This could also explain why the resurrection takes place during this millennium; simply because it is still in this new world that we imagine even if it will be a new world, and you will already have many reasons to be happy . Perhaps we should make a distinction between "millennial reign" (which will bring to humanity so many faithful blessings) and "New World" which will begin after the resurrection, when Christ will return the kingdom to his God and Father. This period could simply be a transition period during which human beings can live in peace without the influence of Satan and under the divine teaching guide for those who wish to obey. In fact one of the issues that Satan raised in the garden of Eden, it was if the man was able to govern themselves but the man, with the interference of Satan, you never really ruled alone. Â Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. He can man to direct his steps without God and not Satan? Even this must be answered This is linked to the words of Revelation 20: 3; Satan is bound " lest mislead the nations" and that it is necessary to give definitively answer to the issue raised in Eden. However, if all nations were destroyed at Armageddon ... how could he mislead? It would make sense to say that Satan is not tied so misleads the nations that no longer exist? Any nations in the four ends of the earth, born from this strain spared, could prove whether the man is really able to govern themselves under favorable conditions, ie without the influence of Satan. After this human rebellion, which they will have demonstrated consciously prefer the government of Satan unto Jehovah, that Satan is disobedient humanity will be deleted forever. Only after the resurrection of the dead and after their judgment "death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire" and therefore we should assume that, during the whole millennium, despite favorable conditions, we will continue to age and die? It is unthinkable that the anointed rulers will comply to their priestly functions atoning for the sin of humanity and thus preventing the death of their subjects. Death, however, is still there and still not finally extinguished until the end of the millennium. It will be "the last enemy" to be eliminated in fact, if at the end of the millennium there will still be "enemies to be eliminated" (the nations surrounding the graveyard), this should show that the resurrection, and then the final elimination of death, will occur only after that incident - I Corinthians 15:26 In this regard the writing of I Corinthians 15:24, 25, if read carefully, it seems to specify the order of events, and that is Jesus Christ hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has brought to nothing "all government and all authority and power". Â Obviously if all government and all authority and power were reduced to nothing during the war of Armageddon, He (Jesus Christ) should hand in their government at that time and that just took over. Let us read these six lines and try to understand its meaning even if "this way" collides blatantly against our most deeply held convictions. Verse 25 says ... " For he must reign until [God] has not put all his enemies under his feet." This would seem to mean that during the millennial reign there will still be enemies. Thus the Kingdom under Christ will be a temporary measure to Jehovah's praise to restore humanity in perfect condition and this may also include the destruction of the last government, authority and power, which until the end will refuse to submit - Revelation 20: 8 Â Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Who is to surround the "Saints' Camp" ?
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In Ezekiel chapter 38 verses ranging from 8 onwards, it says that you will pay attention to Gog Magog after "many days" and then suggests that they had been left out that is not taken into account or saved during the trial. It seems a contradiction that Gog of Magog exists at the end of satanic system of things and there again in the New World at the end of the millennium ? It makes you think that this "coalition of nations" always has the same name and in fact, in the description of Ezekiel, the subject does not change at all? If Gog of Magog is a coalition of nations, it does not seem strange that nations exist under the reign of Christ? It 'a contradiction only if we take for granted that are destroyed at Armageddon really destroyed all governments and all people. Evidently Gog of Magog does not exist "again" but he exists "still" (that has never ceased to exist). If you pay attention to him after many days it means that they are always and "many days" are all the years of the millennial kingdom. Gog of Magog always has the same name because it is always the same subject. The people who "accumulates wealth and property" is of course the people of God (the "camp of the saints" according to Revelation) and this indicates the many blessings will God's people during the millennial reign and for contrast with other peoples (why specified that there is a people who accumulate wealth if all accumulate the same wealth?). Blessings that, evidently, will not Gog of Magog otherwise there would be this contrast and there would be no reason to feel envious - Ezekiel 38:12; compares Proverbs 10:22 Why, moreover, there would be this contrast with those who "do not even bar and doors" we are all in a new world of peace, no thieves or other criminals? - Ezekiel 38:11 If you simply read it for what it is, writing really seems to indicate that, during the millennial reign of Christ , there are still people who have bars and doors and they are, obviously, those who have never been interested in the will of God that they must put " bars and doors "and pay attention to their own brothers. The events related to Gog of Magog, described in chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel , they are full of interesting details, but one of the things that stands out to the eye is the distinction that exists between them and Israel. It seems, then, that Israel, or the holy people of God, will coexist for a thousand years with these other peoples - Ezekiel 39: 6, 7 At this point the writing of Isaiah 2: 2-4 acquires special significance. So far we have applied this scripture to the people who, accepting the truth today , change behavior and "make their swords plowshares" becoming peaceful people. We also applied to education that will give resurrected in the New World, but let us now reread accepting the possibility of what we have just described.  Isaiah 2: 2-4: " And it must occur in the final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and it must stream all nations. 3 And many peoples will certainly go and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths. " For out of Zion shall go forth [the] law, and Jehovah's word from Jerusalem. 4 And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have their swords plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. "  The mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established and raised. When? Evidently, when the system of Satan is eliminated and it will be clear that the way to govern Jehovah is the best ever. " For it must stream all the nations," in what sense and what nations? To the People of God are actually many nations flocked to recognizing that the performance could have to do with our days ; However it is possible that, at the end of Armageddon, people of the nations who escaped from the judgment of God (the nations at the four corners of the earth) decide to flow to the mountain of Jehovah . After the incredible events of Armageddon, now it should be clear who is the True God and what His people! Even so, Jehovah is sanctified among the nations. Many people flock and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths "then describes how their initiative and not as someone who has been persuaded through the preaching of the good news. Indeed, they themselves say, " he will instruct us about his ways." We can imagine that many survivors will stream to Jehovah once seen the great signs of Armageddon, abandoning their old nation and making the necessary changes to be accepted by God - Compare Revelation 11:13 and Joshua 9: 8-11 However it is quite easy to imagine that, despite these unmistakable signs of Jehovah's blessing on His people, not everyone will decide to join. So many people continue to stay in their countries, with their governments, refusing to rush to the mountain of Jehovah. Seen in this light, it is not so amazing to imagine that, at the end of the millennium, when the people of God will have accumulated wealth and blessings to no end, these nations organize themselves to "take many spoils" - Ezekiel 38: 10-12 Even the writing of Daniel 2:44 should give pause. The scripture says, " And the days of those kings the God of heaven set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not go to any other people. It will crush all these kingdoms and put an end, and it itself will stand to times indefinite " . Of such realms he is talking about Daniel? If we read the preceding verses we understand that you are talking of the kingdoms that make up the image of a man with the head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of copper, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay . We know very well that these kingdoms are respectively Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and according to the current understanding, the Anglo-American empire (but, as we saw in a previous article, the last ruling king must be the king of the north). The same powers, always in the book of Daniel, are described as the lion with the wings of an eagle (ie Babylon described in Daniel 7: 4), the hungry bear with three ribs between the teeth (Media- Persia described in Daniel 7: 5), the leopard with four heads and four wings (the Macedonian or Greek empire described in Daniel 7: 6) and the dreadful and terrible beast with iron teeth and ten horns (Rome and then the last power described in Daniel 7: 7, 8, 19). Because the same realms or domains are viewed in two different ways? This is interesting because the beast that John sees "ascend from the sea" has characteristics of all these beasts - Revelation 13: 1, 2 It is, in fact, like a leopard, has the feet of a bear, the mouth of the lion and the ten horns last seen beast of Daniel. These are the kings that are destroyed by Jesus Christ and his chosen ones at Armageddon, ie the kingdoms that join together in the final battle. It includes course his image (the UN) and the false prophet - Revelation 19:19, 20 It includes all those who have participated in the war, directly or indirectly, and all those who have persecuted or wronged the people of God - Revelation 19:21; Zechariah 2: 8 Surely most of humanity will be killed in this war because the ruler of the world will make sure to have people as possible from her, but this will mean that they will be destroyed all the kingdoms and all the people except the Christians? Even those petty kingdoms, small? Even those isolated from the rest of the world, such as islands or small ethnic groups, including those people who, living in restrictive countries towards religion and other religions, they never had the opportunity to know the wonderful truth of God's word? - See Ezekiel 39: 6 These are questions to ponder. It 'true that the "good news" was preached in all the inhabited earth before the end of satanic system ... but this one has really understood all the people and all they really had the same opportunities? Beyond all human cases the words that should make us think more are those given in Daniel 7:11, 12. The scripture says ... "I beheld then because of the sound of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld till the beast was slain and his body was destroyed and it was given to the burning fire. 12 But as for the rest of the beasts, their domains were removed, and was granted a prolongation of life for a time and a season. "  What does this mean and how long "a time and a season"? Meanwhile the context we see that horn that speaketh great things is referred to the "dreadful and terrible beast," that is, the last beast of Daniel's vision. We talk about the period in which "are places of thrones" and "the Ancient of days" sits to judge and therefore can only refer to the time when Jehovah and Christ took power - Revelation 11: 15-18 It is said that the beast is killed and his body is given to the burning fire - Compare Revelation 19:19, 20 It's clear that the writing is referring to the wild beast of Revelation at the time of his judgment yet, after specifying that the beast is given to the burning fire (that was destroyed), verse 12 says ... " But as for the rest of the beasts, their domains were removed, and was granted a prolongation of life for a time and a season " . This specifies very clearly that the other domains are not destroyed but it allows them to continue to exist for some time after the judgment of Armageddon . Let's stop for a moment and re-read carefully these last four lines comparing the cited scriptures. In fact if we carefully read Revelation 19: 19-21 we see that the wild beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gather to make war against Jesus Christ and his army is destroyed but who among all these? The scripture says that is taken the wild beast and the false prophet and cast into the lake of fire. Then, verse 21 says "the rest were killed with the long sword of him that sat on the horse, which [] sword came from his mouth." The remaining whom? The involved subjects are two: the kings of the earth and their armies . Saying "the remaining" the vision refers to kings, their armies or both? If he was referring to both the writing of Daniel specifies that the domains of these kings are simply removed , not destroyed. Surely those who die are in that position (armies, any general or king) in fact, the scripture says that "being killed" but they do not say which end up in the lake of fire. We know that the lake of fire means the second death, and that is a place where you do not back then we have the assurance that the wild beast is destroyed, never to return but the "other" are not uprooted from the earth. Not yet. They killed those who at this moment are making war with the Lamb, but apparently will remain something of their reigns, that the nations belonging to these "remaining" to which an extension for a time and a season was granted. These will have a thousand years of time to recover and at least part of them, fairly numerous in the words of Revelation 20: 8, will attack God's people at the end of the millennium. Gog of Magog existed before Armageddon and will exist after. Finally, as we have seen, after the destruction of these enemies there is still a "last enemy" to be eliminated: the death - See I Corinthians 15:26 This confirms the sequence of events of Revelation -
By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
In our path of study of the prophecies, as already seen in various previous articles, we will have come across something that we would not have believed possible. The understanding of Babylon the Great, as well as that concerning Armageddon, the Jerusalem above or the Heavenly Jerusalem, have indeed constituted great changes in the official understanding of Jehovah's Witnesses. We can not ignore the chain effects that these "changes of vision" have produced and continue to produce on many other more or less important doctrines. The author of this blog would like above all to clarify that all the theses presented so far have never been considered inspired or infallible and therefore each reader is invited to make their own evaluations (and maybe to contribute) by comparing and meditating on the Scriptures without any injury. At the same time, however, the author is equally convinced that the articles showed respect for the Bible and used it as a guide and supreme authority. Every affirmation, whenever it was possible, was accompanied or confirmed by one or more Scriptures and therefore, although certain arguments went against the official teaching, it was decided to do so in good conscience. The possible firm conviction of the author as well as certain categorical expressions used are exclusively due to this: the support of the Scriptures - John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Corinthians 10: 4, 5 The article that will be developed now, will also consist of a significant change of vision and we will see how, changing the conditions, real or possible scenarios become real that, until the day before yesterday, we would have considered really far-fetched - Job 42 :2; Mark 10:27 The wisest thing that each of us can do is to evaluate that every thesis presented is really in harmony with the Scripture, and nothing else, without closing up in shell or reshaping the power of God to what we think possible - Mark 12:24 ; Job 38: 4 Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. What do we know, with certainty, of the battle of Armageddon? Â What do we know about the Armageddon war? Speaking of the war of the great day of the Almighty God, what do we know for sure? - 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Well, we know that it is not total destruction due to a human war, a solar flare, a meteorite or other Hollywood nonsense - Isaiah 45:18; Psalm 78:69; Ecclesiastes 1: 4 We know it is the crucial war in which God takes revenge on his enemies and on the enemies of His people - Psalm 2: 3-6; Sofonia 1:18; Zechariah 2: 8 We also know that it is the occasion when Jehovah is magnified and makes himself known to the nations - Ezekiel 36:22, 23 It is the war that will free His people from oppression and slavery and will finally begin the Millennial Kingdom - Exodus 15: 11-13; Revelation 7:10 These are reliable informations. For the rest, when it will happen, what means it will use, which scenario will present itself just before the outbreak of this war, etc., only assumptions are made. One of these assumptions, which seems to have a strict logic, is that the place in Hebrew is called Har-Maghedon, is not a literal place but a situation. In practice it would be the situation in which all the enemies of God find themselves fighting against His People, wherever they are. This conclusion seems absolutely logical because how could a war of such proportions, which should encompass all of humanity and therefore billions of people, take place in such a small geographical area? It is absurd to even think about it. However, before closing our faculties of perception on any contrary subject we try to consider the following - James 1:19 First of all we have seen that the war between the king of the north and the king of the south, which is a prophecy to come, could greatly reduce the number of people present on earth including their armies - compare Revelation 6: 3, 7, 8 It's a raw topic we would not like to talk about but the prophecies seem clear. This topic has been dealt with in various previous articles, including the one entitled "Who is the horn that became very great?". Furthermore, as we saw in the article titled "Which nations disappear in Armageddon?" We know that the war of Armageddon will not destroy all nations and people on the planet. This war will indeed destroy the satanic system which includes the savage beast, the kings of the earth and their armies - 1 John 3: 8 Seen from this point of view, perhaps the fact that this war can be fought in a specific and relatively restricted place becomes a possibility? Furthermore it is necessary to make a couple of clarifications. Har-Magedon, which means "Mountain of Megiddo", is not a specific reference to that "tell" that you see in Volume 1 of the book "Insight" (page 953 in the edition in Italian). What you see in photography is what remains of ancient Megiddo, a small hill built on 26 layers of ruins of ancient cities. That is "Megiddo" but where's the mountain? Since there is no mountain called "Mount of Megiddo" we try to make assumptions without prematurely concluding that the whole argument is symbolic. Megiddo is located at the entrance of the pass through the chain of Mount Carmel, which overlooks the valley of Esdraelon from the south-west. So the Mount of Megiddo might be Mount Carmel (compare 1 Kings 18:19, 20, Jeremiah 46:18, Amos 1: 2; 9: 3; Naum 1: 3, 4) and could include all the hilly countryside that surrounds the valley of Megiddo, one hundred kilometers north of Jerusalem, including the valley of Esdraelon. Space is noticeable, but before assuming any calculation, we try to ask ourselves according to what logic or why the kings of the earth should / could be there. To a superficial judgment it would seem a stupid thing. The kings of the earth and their armies will not be able to fight against Christ and his elect (though they will try to - compare Revelation 19:19, 20) and so it is evident that they will take it upon His people. Why, then, to concentrate in one area of the earth (whatever it is) to try to destroy the people of God if it is found in all the inhabited earth?Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. we have seen that the earth chosen by God for His people is still the Promised Land and the gathering of Israel will be literal.
The article in part said, "When nations have run out of time, including both the trampling of Jerusalem and the persecution, Armageddon will begin to destroy this beast and all the compact peoples in the fight against the Lamb. At that moment Jerusalem will have been freed and the people of God, after the necessary period spent in the "inner rooms", will be able to go to that country which is still part of the promise and where in a short time it will begin to flow milk and honey - Isaiah 26: 20 " What have we seen so far? We have seen that Babylon the Great is modern apostate Israel but this has to do with the people who occupy it, certainly not with the geographical area which, in itself, can not have merit or guilt - Zechariah 5: 6-8 So, once Israel is liberated from Babylon the Great, Jehovah will bring His people back to that land that bears His name and will be inhabited from generation to generation - Joel 3:20 The crucial question is therefore: will this rallying and consequent exodus to the Promised Land begin after Armageddon or its approach? Some scriptures suggest that this happens just before the final battle. How can we say it? We have seen that during the last war between the king of the north and the king of the south, some nations are able to escape - see Daniel 11:41 The writing mentions Edom, Moab and Ammon and, coincidentally, these are the same nations in which a part of the people of Israel found shelter in the past - compare Psalm 60: 8, 9; Isaiah 16: 4; Jeremiah 40:11 The logical conclusion is that the people of God who survived the war, since they will have to live again Israel now liberated by the Great Whore, are in the vicinity of the Promised Land at least some time before the final battle. This situation would also be similar to what happened in the past but on a much larger scale. If the meeting takes place before Armageddon, then it becomes logical and plausible that the "kings of the earth" will gather in the place that in Hebrew is called Har-Maghedon. This is done to prevent the achievement of the Promised Land (and kill them all at once - compares Psalm 2: 1-6) or simply to kill them once they reach. This hypothesis makes reasonable not only the literal gathering of kings and armies but also the specific place of the gathering. Let's try, for a moment, to read Revelation as if it were the first time and as if they had not taught us anything. The writing says “And I saw three unclean inspired expressionsHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragonHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and they perform signs,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. and they go out to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the warHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. of the great day of God the Almighty ( ... ) And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Armageddon" – Revelation 16:13, 14, 16 Without doing any disquisition on what terms and what it means, the first image that would come to mind are the kings who are gathered together somewhere, is not it? In fact, the writing says that these frogs "gathered them", which makes one think that these kings are heading towards a specific place. After all we have never done any disquisitions on the idea that these frogs actually go to the kings of the earth; we have never hypothesized that their "going to" the kings of the earth was symbolic because it is evident that, if these kings live in different and distant nations, these frogs have to go or go towards them. But we have re-discussed that the kings go somewhere. So frogs go literally (they must reach these kings) while kings go in a symbolic sense. That is, they do not go anywhere. The question that would be spontaneous to those who did not know anything about the issues at stake would be ... "Why do the kings of the earth, at the approach of the war, go to the place called Har-Maghedon (whatever place it is)?" In a war scenario, the answer would become simple: because the object of contention is in that area or near that area. Any nation that would place its army on the borders of another nation would send a strong and clear message. He is preparing for the war. In this case, however, the question does not concern the conquest of the territory of Israel but the extermination of the people who intend to live there - Psalm 2: 1-4 Finally we must distinguish the kings of the earth from their armies. The writing of Revelation says that only the kings of the earth are gathered at Har-Maghedon. How many will be the kings of the earth, following their ministers, their officials in various capacities, their bodyguards, etc? A few thousand? A few tens of thousands? Is the entire hilly area of Carmel and the valley of Esdraelon it’s sufficient to accommodate a few tens of thousands of people? Obviously yes, even only the Carmel. Where will the armies be and for which aircraft will they be extended? We do not have a precise answer but we can make some reasoning based on what we know from the scriptures. The simple distinction, which perhaps few have noticed, between the kings of the earth and their armies, should make every hypothesis fall "of the impossibility of the event" because if the Bible does not specify the area of armies extension they could really be hundreds of millions and even billions of people. The final battle would take place "around the Mount of Megiddo" for an indefinite area (why could not they cover all of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq for example?) God's people would still be surrounded, the writing would not it would fail and Jehovah would rise above the nations. So, regardless of all the reasoning we have just made, if the Bible does not specify the extent of the armies deployed against the people of God, all the discourse on the secure symbolic nature of writing lapses or at least is not as reasonable as it initially seemed. We will try however to "build" the extension of this army only on the basis of what we know and keeping as close as possible so that all the talk will acquire heaviness and it is really the Bible to speak - Romans 3: 4 Regarding the last dominant king described in Daniel chapters 11 and 12 we know that he will place his tents "between the great sea and the holy Mount of the Adornment" - Daniel 11:45 After this event "he will have to come to his end, and there will not be a rescuer for him" and then it is understood that "pitching the tents" is the last action he performs before his final destruction. We have also seen that the destruction of Babylon the Great (or the nation of Israel) is the prelude to Armageddon and not to the great tribulation. As a result, the army of the last ruling king should already be present on the territory of Israel before the final battle * (see footnote). He simply has to wait for all the others to come (it is to be noted, in fact, that the writing which calls for the gathering of the kings of the earth at Har-Maghedon makes no mention of the wild beast. He is not mentioned because he is among the kings or simply because it is already there?). However, for the moment we do not know whether this immense army will stand as a shield to prevent Israel from entering or whether it will wait for "the people gathered from all the earth" to actually enter the country and then surround it - see for example Joel 3: 9- 12; Nehemiah 6:16; Psalm 44:13; 59: 5, 6; 76:11, 12; 97: 1-3; Jeremiah 1: 14-16; 6:25; 25: 9; Lamentations 1:17 For the moment we can imagine both situations since concepts do not change. So, to obstruct any access to the coming people, the armies will have to cover Israel at least for its entire length. Does this seem reasonable to you? So we have to hypothesize an extension that goes from the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) to the Mount of the Adornment west of Israel and an extension at least similar to the east side of Israel (in terms of width). So a length at least equal to that of Israel if not more. What area are we talking about? We can only make an estimate but a territory equal to twice the current Israel should cover an area of 45 / 50,000 square kilometers. With this in mind, let us now assume how powerful this army could be. A site makes a list of the ten most numerous armies (updated to 2015). This is the list with the respective numbers.  CHINA (number of staff: 2.285.000). UNITED STATES (1.458.000). INDIA (1.325.000) NORTH KOREA (1.106.000) RUSSIA (1.027.000) TURKEY (666,500) SOUTH KOREA (639,000). PAKISTAN (617,000) IRAN (523,000). EGYPT (468,000)  The total number of staff would be just over ten million people. We also consider that, as we saw at the beginning, the war between the kings of the north and the king of the south by then will have greatly reduced the numbers and at least a part of the nations listed above may not exist anymore. For the benefit of the numbers, however, it must be said that in case of conflict the "effective" would not be the only ones to go to war. The numbers could be greatly underestimated (it is doubtful, in fact, that the official numbers correspond to the real ones). Finally we must consider that this is the last move of Satan before being thrown into the abyss for a thousand years so he would have every interest in making the armies as numerous as possible. So we multiply by five these numbers and assume that the final attack includes 50 million armed soldiers to the teeth. The area we estimated could contain fifty million people? Yes and fairly well if we consider that these people are not there to live or stay but simply as soldiers waiting to launch a furious attack. Every soldier would have a living space of about one square meter. Do you remember the photographs in which Hitler had his huge troops? In those large gatherings there were probably three or four people every square meter. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  In Hitler's huge gatherings there were probably 3 or 4 people per square meter  It is evident that we are making assumptions and the estimates, both of the army and of the militarized area, could vary a lot, but the point we want to illustrate is simply one. Despite the ideas that we made about the war of Har-Magedon, and how they are rooted in us, we can not exclude that the final battle takes place in this geographical area and that it will prove to be the biggest fight in the history of humanity. Indeed, the scriptures mentioned in support of the argument suggest that this is not simply a possibility. Any new understanding, however, can make other scriptures harmonious or create forcing. Forcing should be an indicator that "something is wrong". What happens with the other scriptures, understanding that the place of the final battle will be a specific and relatively restricted place? Meanwhile, as we have mentioned, this situation would be very similar to several biblical episodes we know - see for example Exodus 14: 10-14; 2 Kings 18: 19-25 Jehovah would be exalted in the midst of the nations precisely because, not being really all destroyed, the distant peoples and nations would speak of this event with terror and for centuries - compare Joshua 2: 9-11; Deuteronomy 2:25; Psalm 112: 10 Isaiah 63: 1-6 describes Jehovah coming from Edom who, as we have seen, is one of the places where God's people find refuge, and from there he begins to "tread peoples into His wrath." Psalm 2: 2 describes all the peoples and national groups united "as one man" and this gives the idea that the rulers of the earth, and therefore their armies, are effectively gathered somewhere as one army, a single mass and compact. Finally (but not "finally" because you will find many other similarities if you want to look for them) suddenly becomes clear why the king of the north is troubled because of news from the east and the north - see Daniel 11:44 So far what have we been told? In other words ... we have been told that we do not know. In the book "Pay attention to the prophecies of Daniel" on page 283 (Italian edition) we speak of Gog of Magog (among other things in the understanding that it is Satan the Devil) and paragraph 26 concludes with the words "But what at the end they will contain the news from the east and from the north only God will establish it and time will tell it ". Instead, understanding the scenario that will be created shortly before the final battle we can guess why this king is so upset. He sees the people of God, who evidently believed he had eliminated, gathered and on their way to the Promised Land! Depict the scene. It is easy to imagine that he understands that there is God, the True God and not the farce built by the false prophet behind all this. Despite his immense power and his fury, he has not succeeded in eliminating the people of God who are now reaching the Promised Land in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It is not surprising that this causes great anger in him and comes out "with great fury to annihilate and to vote many to destruction", or the people of God gathered there - Daniel 11:43 And this explains why he "will pitch the tents of his palace between [the] great sea and the holy mount of the Adornment". Let's take a moment to imagine the scene and see us there, intent on reaching the promised land as the Israelites were in the time of Moses. Perhaps we may find ourselves imprisoned between the Great Sea and the army or we may be a few kilometers from the border and see "men of extraordinary stature" - Numbers 13:33 Perhaps some of us, seeing such a colossal army, might doubt Jehovah's power or his will to protect us - Isaiah 43:10, 11 Try to imagine how many situations described in the Bible would become the mirror of those last moments of the system of things. It is not difficult to see the harmony of the Word of God and to understand what will happen if we free ourselves from our conditioning and do not associate the word "impossible" with God. Is not it a wonderful prospect? One day, towards the end of the terrifying events that will occur on earth, someone will call us to lead us to the Promised Land, but the journey will be reserved only for those who will understand the prophecy and act accordingly. Next stop: Israel. Take the ticket. Make reservations now. The forecasts say that the area will be quite crowded.   Footnote. The article entitled "1290 and 1335 days" shows a difference of 45 days between trampling on God's people and achieving his "happiness" - see Daniel 12:12 These 45 days could include the time of the gathering of the people of God and the consequent exodus that will lead them to cross the boundaries of the Promised Land.  It is necessary to specify that even if the lowering of the waters of the Euphrates has to do with the destruction of these peoples and not simply with the loss of the defenses, this could refer to the peoples that surround Israel and not with Israel - compare Joel 3 : 4 This could mean that the payment of the sixth cup of the angel is not yet the actual destruction of Babylon the Great and therefore the people of Israel might still be alive and active when God's people approach it to "repopulate". As strange as this may seem, this seems to be in harmony with Revelation 16:19 which says that God would have remembered Babylon "to give it the cup of wine of the fury of his wrath" and by reading the context this happens during or near of the judgment of armageddon - compare Revelation 16:13 Other Bibles translate in a similar way and therefore it would seem evident that when nations gather in Armageddon, God still has to pour his wrath upon Babylon the Great. If this understanding is correct, when the king of the north "will come out with great fury to annihilate and vote many to destruction" it is possible that in his blinding fury he will strike first the nation that had always been their lover - compare Revelation 18 : 10, 15, 18 (see also Zechariah 14:13, 14) And obviously this will happen by God's will - Revelation 17:17 This possibility makes very probable the situation in which the people of God are effectively blocked between Israel (still populated) and all the armies of the world.  -
By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
Chapters 19 and 20 of Revelation will unveil some significant details about the war of Armageddon and what will happen next. These details will include two major changes to the current understanding and, just as happened with the identity of Babylon the Great, this "change of vision" will be a real stumbling block for many Jehovah's Witnesses. These chapters will be examined in the next article but, faced with such a serious change of understanding for two other subjects, it was decided to treat them separately in the light of the whole Scripture. First of all we must realize that the Revelation speaks of the resurrection at the end of the millennium, and not during the millennium. This will be dealt with in detail in due course. For the moment ... accept this possibility only to make the theme of this article comprehensible, which must answer the question, in fact, "which nations disappear in Armageddon?". It is clear that here we return to the usual "problem" if the book was written in chronological order or not but meanwhile we saw that the 7 seals are sequential, the 7 trumpets must be sequential (the apostle Paul calls the seventh trumpet "the last trumpet") and so also the seven cups of the wrath of God. If all this is sequential ... is it consistent to think that just the last chapters are not? Let's try to read the whole chapter 20 of Revelation and follow the order of events. Satan is dissolved from his prison, then misleads the nations that are at the corners of the earth, these surround the field of saints and then are killed by fire coming down from the sky. After this event, the death and hades return the dead that are in them - Revelation 20: 11-13 The writing of Revelation 20: 4 says that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. "Until" means "up to the moment" and not "during" and this would mean that in these thousand years the elect would rule on the survivors of Armageddon and their families, but not the resurrected ones. The same term, "until", used in Matthew 1:25, we have always used it to show that Joseph did not have relations with his wife Marie until the birth of the child. This should be sufficient to show that the resurrection will take place after the end of the millennium, a concept that seems to be reaffirmed in verses 12 and 13. We will go deeper into these verses but now let's focus on these "rebels" who attack the people of God. Who are they and where did they come from? Revelations 20:7-10 says... "Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison, Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Ma?gog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  And they advanced over the whole earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down out of heaven and consumed them.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulfur, where both the wild beastHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. and the false prophet already were;Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. and they will be tormentedHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. day and night forever and ever". At the end of a thousand years, Satan is dissolved to "mislead those nations that are in the four corners of the earth" and gathers them to war. It seems really incredible that something like that happens! Is it possible that in the new world people still organize themselves in political nations, that create divisions and that even attack the part of that people remained faithful? This is the first hypothesis and roughly represents the current intention. Before thinking that it is nonsense ... is it possible to hypothesize that during the Armageddon war a part of the earth is spared also to allow the survival of the people of God? In several parts of the Bible it is said that during the time of judgment his faithful people escapes finding shelter to Edom, Moab and Ammon (which by the way are also the cities spared from the world war) - Compare for example Daniel 11:41 with Isaiah 16: 4; Psalm 108: 8-10 with Jeremiah 40: 10, 11 These three nations (Edom, Moab and Ammon) were mountainous / hilly and this recalls the words Jesus spoke to his disciples - Matthew 24: 15, 16 Does Scripture warn all Christians in the world to flee to the nearest mountains as soon as they see the disgusting thing about Israel? Indeed, if the destruction of Babylon the Great gave rise to Armageddon (as we have seen) and not to the great tribulation, "fleeing the mountains" would mean that Jehovah would save these mountains by force of things. In fact these "mountains" could be a specific locality of the earth where Jehovah will lead his people just before Armageddon. This or these locations would then be "preserved by judgment". It would not be the first time that Jehovah, in his love and mercy, avoids destroying a certain people because of his servants. According to the account of Genesis 19:21, 22, the angels of Jehovah avoid destroying Zoar for consideration of Lot, and yet, from what is understood by reading the whole story, that "little city" was part of Sodom or Gomorrah and therefore had to be destroyed. The war of Armageddon actually destroys the satanic system composed of the wild beast, the false prophet and his supporters. All those nations that are compact in fighting against the Lamb also fall. The vast majority of people die in this war because blinded and branded by the wild beast but will die all those who are not Christians? The Philadelphia congregation is told that "it would be preserved by the test that must come on the entire inhabited earth" and that this can be done at least hypothesizes that some Christians find shelter in a "free zone" - Revelation 3:10 If we can hypothesize this, then the nations that at the end of the millennium decide to attack the people of God, could be born from these surviving strains. Why, in fact, would you make a distinction between them and "the field of saints"? Are not all the inhabitants of the new world "saints"? In the new world will there be a "field of saints" and a "field of non-saints"? Another confirmation could come from the very protection of Jerusalem above; it is said to "fly in the desert" far from the face of the serpent. When Satan tries to make her drown "the earth comes to her aid" and this means that at least until the last moment of divine judgment there is still a "stable" part of the world - Revelation 12:15 This could also explain why the resurrection does not take place during this millennium; simply because you are not yet in that new world that we imagine even if it will already be a new world and you will already have many reasons to be happy. We should probably make a distinction between "millennial reign" (which will bring many blessings to faithful humanity) and "new world" that will begin after the resurrection, at the moment when Christ returns the kingdom to his God and Father. This period could simply be a period of transition during which human beings can live in peace without the influence of Satan and under the guidance of divine teaching for all those who wish to obey. In fact, one of the questions Satan raised in the Garden of Eden was precisely if man was able to govern himself but man, with the interference of Satan, he never really ruled alone.  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.   Can man direct his steps without God and without Satan? Also to this we must answer  This is related to the words of Revelation 20: 3; Satan is bound "not so misleads the nations" and that it is necessary to give definitively answer to the issue raised in Eden. However, if all the nations were destroyed at Armageddon ... how could he mislead them? Would it make sense to say that Satan is bound to keep the nations that no longer exist? Possible nations in the four corners of the earth, born of this spared stock, could show if man is really able to govern himself in favorable conditions, that is without the influence of Satan. After this last human rebellion, which will have consciously shown that they prefer Satan's government to that of Jehovah, both Satan and disobedient humanity will be eliminated forever. Only after the resurrection of the dead and after their judgment "death and Ades will be thrown into the lake of fire" and therefore we should assume that, throughout the millennium, despite having favorable conditions, we will continue to age and die? It is unthinkable because the anointed rulers will fulfill their priestly functions by expiating the sin of humanity and thus preventing the death of their subjects. Death that, however, will always be lurking and not yet permanently eliminated until the end of the millennium. It will be "the last enemy" to be eliminated in fact, if at the end of the millennium there will still be "enemies to be eliminated" (the nations surrounding the holy field), this should demonstrate that the resurrection, and therefore the definitive elimination of death, it will happen only after that event - I Corinthians 15:26 In this regard the writing of I Corinthians 15:24, 25, if read carefully, seems to specify the order of events, that is, Jesus Christ will deliver the Kingdom to his God and Father when he has reduced to nothing "every government and every authority and power". Obviously if every government and every authority and power were reduced to nothing during the war of Armageddon, He (Jesus Christ) should deliver the government at that very moment, that is, when he had just taken power. Let's reread these last six lines and try to understand their meaning even if "this meaning" goes out blatantly against our most deeply rooted convictions. Verse 25 says ... "For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet". This would seem to mean that there will still be enemies during the millennial reign. So the Kingdom ruled by Christ will be a temporary provision to Jehovah's praise to bring humanity back to perfection and this can also include the destruction of the last governments, authorities and powers, which will ultimately refuse to submit - Revelation 20: 8  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Who will truly surround the "field of saints"?   In Ezekiel chapter 38 the verses from 8 on wards it is said that attention will be paid to Gog of Magog after "many days" and therefore suggests that these had been left out that is not taken into account or spared during of judgment. Does not it seem a contradiction that Gog of Magog exists at the end of the satanic system of things and exists again in the new world at the end of the millennium? Does it not reflect that this "coalition of nations" always has the same name and indeed, in the description of Ezekiel, does not the subject change at all? If Gog of Magog is a coalition of nations, does not it seem strange that nations are formed under the reign of Christ? It is a contradiction only if we take for granted that all governments and all people are really destroyed in Armageddon. Evidently Gog of Magog does not exist again but it still exists (ie it has never ceased to exist). If "pay attention to him" after many days it means that they are always theirs and the "many days" are all the years of the millennial reign. Gog of Magog always has the same name because it is always the same subject. The people who "accumulate wealth and property" are obviously the people of God (the "field of saints" according to Revelation) and this indicates the many blessings that God's people will have during the millennial reign and the contrast with other peoples (why specify that there is a people that accumulates wealth if all accumulate the same riches?). Blessings that, apparently, will not have Gog of Magog otherwise there would be no such contrast and there would be no reason to feel envy - Ezekiel 38:12; compare Proverbs 10:22 Why, moreover, would there be this contrast with those who "do not even bar and doors" if we are all in a new world of peace, without thieves or other criminals? - Ezekiel 38:11 If read simply for what it is, the scripture really seems to indicate that, during the millennial reign of Christ, there still exist peoples who have bars and doors and are evidently those who have never been interested in the will of God for whom they must put " bars and doors" and pay attention to their own brothers. The events related to Gog Magog, described in chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel, are full of interesting details but one of the things that stands out right now is the distinction between them and Israel. It therefore seems that Israel, or the holy people of God, will live together with these other peoples for a thousand years - Ezekiel 39: 6, 7 At this point the writing of Isaiah 2: 2-4 acquires a particular meaning. So far we have applied this writing to people who, by accepting the truth today, change their behavior and "make their swords into plowshares" by becoming peaceful people. We have also applied it to the instruction that will be given to the resurrected in the New World, but let us now try to reread it by accepting the possibility of what we have just described. Isaiah 2: 2-4: "In the final part of the days,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. The mountain of the house of Jehovah Will become firmly established above the top of the mountains,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. And it will be raised up above the hills,And to it all the nations will stream.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  And many peoples will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,To the house of the God of Jacob.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. He will instruct us about his ways,And we will walk in his paths.”Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. For lawHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. will go out of Zion,And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  He will render judgment among the nations And set matters straightHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. respecting many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning shears.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, Nor will they learn war anymore".  The mountain of Jehovah's house will be firmly established and raised. When? Evidently when the Satan system is eliminated, it will be clear that Jehovah's way of governing is the best ever. "All nations must flow to it", in what sense and which nations? Many nations have indeed flowed into the people of God, for whom it is recognized that fulfillment could have something to do with our days; nevertheless, it is possible that, at the end of Armageddon, people of the nations survived by the judgment of God (the peoples at the four corners of the earth) decide to flow to the mountain of Jehovah. After the incredible events of Armageddon, it should by now be clear who the True God is and what His people are. In this way, too, Jehovah is sanctified in the midst of the nations. Many people flow and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will certainly walk in his paths" so it's describes as their own initiative and not as someone who has been persuaded through the preaching of the good news. Indeed, they themselves are saying "he will instruct us around his ways". We can imagine that many survivors will flow to the mountain of Jehovah once they have seen the great signs of Armageddon, abandoning their old nation and making the necessary changes to be accepted by God - Compare Revelation 11:13 and Joshua 9: 8-11 Yet it is easy enough to imagine that, despite these unequivocal signs of Jehovah's blessing on His people, not everyone will decide to be part of it. So many people will continue to stay in their nations, with their governments, refusing to rush to Jehovah's mountain. Seen from this perspective, it is no longer so incredible to imagine that, at the end of the millennium, when God's people have accumulated riches and blessings to no end, these nations organize themselves to "take many spoils" - Ezekiel 38: 10-12 Even the writing of Daniel 2:44 should make us reflect. The writing says: "“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdomHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. that will never be destroyed.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. and it alone will stand forever". What realms is Daniel talking about? If we read the preceding verses we understand that we are talking about the kingdoms that make up the image of a man with a golden head, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of copper, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay . We know very well that these kingdoms are respectively Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome and, according to current understanding, the Anglo-American empire (but, as we saw in a previous article, the last dominant king must be the king of the north). The same powers, also in the book of Daniel, are described as the lion with the wings of an eagle (or Babylon described in Daniel 7: 4), the ravenous bear with three ribs between the teeth (Media- Persia described in Daniel 7: 5), the leopard with four heads and four wings (the Macedonian or Greek empire described in Daniel 7: 6) and the frightful and terrible beast with the iron teeth and the ten horns (Rome and therefore the last power described in Daniel 7: 7, 8, 19). Why are the same realms or domains seen in two different ways? This is interesting because the beast that John sees "ascending from the sea" has characteristics of all these beasts - Revelation 13: 1, 2 It is in fact similar to a leopard, has the feet of a bear, the mouth of the lion and the ten horns of the last beast seen by Daniel. These are the kings that are destroyed by Jesus Christ and his elect at Armageddon, that is, the kingdoms that will coalesce in the final battle. Obviously it includes his image (the UN) and the false prophet - Revelation 19:19, 20 It includes all those who participated in the war, directly or indirectly, and all those who have persecuted or unjustly treated God's people - Revelation 19:21; Zechariah 2: 8 Surely a good part of humanity will be killed in this war because the ruler of the world will make sure to have as many people as possible, but will this mean that all kingdoms and all people will be destroyed except for Christians? Even those insignificant, small realms? Even those isolated from the rest of the world, like islands or small ethnic groups, including those people who, living in countries that are restrictive of religion or other religions, have never had the opportunity to know the marvelous truths of God's word? - See Ezekiel 39: 6 These are questions to think about. It is true that the "good news" was preached in all the inhabited earth before the end of the satanic system ... but did this really understand all the people and everyone really had the same opportunities? Beyond any human hypothesis, the words that should make us reflect more are those reported in Daniel 7:11, 12. The writing says ... "I kept watching at that time because of the sound of the arrogantHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. words that the horn was speaking;Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. I watched until the beast was killed and its body was destroyed and it was given over to be burned in the fire. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  But as for the rest of the beasts,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. their rulerships were taken away, and their lives were prolonged for a time and a season". What does this mean and how long does it last "a time and a season"? Meanwhile, from the context we see that the horn that speaks great things is referred to the "terrible and terrible beast" that is the last beast of Daniel's vision. There is talk of the period in which "thrones are placed" and "the Ancient of days" sits to judge and therefore can only refer to the time when Jehovah and Christ take power - Revelation 11: 15-18 It is said that the beast is killed and his body is given to the burning fire - Compare Revelation 19:19, 20 It is evident that the scripture is referring to the wild beast of Revelation at the time of its judgment and yet, after specifying that the beast is given to the burning fire (therefore it has been destroyed), verse 12 says ... "But as for the rest of the beasts,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. their rulerships were taken away, and their lives were prolonged for a time and a season". This specifies very clearly that the other domains are not destroyed but allows them to continue to exist for some time after the judgment of Armageddon. We try to stop for a moment and reread the last four lines carefully comparing the cited writings. In fact, if we read Revelation 19: 19-21 carefully, we see that the wild beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gather to make war against Jesus Christ and his army, but who is destroyed among all these? The writing says that the wild beast and the false prophet is taken and thrown into the lake of fire. Then, verse 21 says "the rest were killed with the long sword of him who sat on the horse, which [sword] came out of his mouth." The remaining whom? There are two subjects involved: the kings of the earth and their armies. By saying "the rest" does the vision refer to kings, their armies or both? If he also referred to both of Daniel's writing, he specifies that the domains of these kings are simply removed, not destroyed. Surely die those who are in that position (armies, any generals or kings) in fact the writing says that "they are killed" but they are not said to end up in the lake of fire. We know that the lake of fire means the second death and that is a place from which we do not return so we have the assurance that the wild beast is destroyed so as not to return again but the "remaining" are not uprooted from the earth. Not yet. Those who are waging war against the Lamb are killed, but evidently there will remain something of their kingdoms, that is, the nations belonging to these "remaining" who have been granted an extension for a time and a season. These will have a thousand years to recover and at least a part of them, quite numerous according to the words of Revelation 20: 8, will attack the people of God at the end of the millennium. Gog of Magog existed before Armageddon and will exist even later. Finally, as we have seen, after the destruction of these enemies there is still "one last enemy" to be eliminated: the death - See 1 Corinthians 15:26 This confirms the sequence of events of Revelation.  Â
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By Witness
Wt 02/7/15 – “Could it be that the fire of hell is symbolic of all-consuming, or thorough, destruction? Separating fire from Hades, or hell, the Scriptures say: “Death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire.” “The lake” mentioned here is symbolic, since death and hell (Hades) that are thrown into it cannot literally be burned. “This [lake of fire] means the second death” —death from which there is no hope of coming back to life. —Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. .
Wt. 08/11/1 pp. 8,9 THOSE who teach that hell is a place of torment promote a gross misrepresentation of Jehovah God and his qualities. Granted, the Bible does say that God will destroy the wicked. (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ) But righteous anger is not God’s dominant quality.
(Actually, the "destroyer" is Satan Isa 33:1; 1 Cor 10:9,10; Heb 11:28)
God is not malicious or vindictive. He even asks: “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. , King James Version) If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, how could he for all eternity delight in watching these ones being tormented?
What about Armageddon? The Wt. continually depicts great slaughter, convincing JWs that it will be a time of torment with mutilated bodies everywhere. Anthony Morris willingly gives his colorful interpretation of the carnage resulting from the war’s aftermath.
YET, did you catch this, JWs?
Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. wp17 No. 6 p. 16 Armageddon is the symbolic place of “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” his war against the wicked. —Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. .
If hell is symbolic with no literal “fire”, should the Watchtower show such glaring pictorial atrocities of Armageddon, or stick with the little-known fact that they present you above? Who is playing games with your mind?
"At the root of this battle of Armageddon, is the struggle to win over the hearts of men, and what it is that they put their faith in and worship. Each side of this battle, has it's own overlord and King. It is what proceeds from the mouth of each of these King of kings, that fuels this decisive battle.
(Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ) (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. )
From the mouth of Satan (and those belonging to his "woman" -Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ), comes deception, spiritual darkness, false doctrines, and death (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ). From the mouth of Christ (and those belonging to his "woman" -Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ), comes insight, spiritual light, truth, and life (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. B; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. B; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ).
According to scripture, Armageddon is a battle between truth and lies, and the sources (fathers) and messengers ("angels"/"seed"), of each side (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ) (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ).
Nowhere in the Bible, is the interpretation of Armageddon described as a literal execution, instigated by God and carried out by the political governments of Satan's world by material warfare, as so many have assumed.
The Bible simply describes it as a battle that results from "demon inspired sayings" coming from the mouth of Satan and his messengers, and the resulting backlash of truth by means of Christ and his messengers. (Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. )(Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ; Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ).
Pearl Doxsey 4womaninthewilderness
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By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
Los capítulos 19 y 20 de Apocalipsis revelarán algunos detalles significativos sobre la guerra de Armagedón y lo que sucederá a continuación. Estos detalles incluirán dos cambios importantes en la comprensión actual y, tal como sucedió con la identidad de Babilonia la Grande, este "cambio de visión" será un verdadero obstáculo para muchos testigos de Jehová. Estos capÃtulos serán examinados en el próximo artÃculo pero, frente a un cambio de entendimiento tan serio para otros dos temas, se decidió tratarlos por separado a la luz de toda la Escritura. Antes que nada debemos darnos cuenta de que la Revelación habla de la resurrección al final del milenio, y no durante el milenio. Esto se tratará en detalle a su debido tiempo. Por el momento ... acepte esta posibilidad solo para que el tema de este artÃculo sea comprensible, lo que debe responder a la pregunta, de hecho, "¿qué paÃses realmente desaparecen en el Armagedón?". Está claro que aquà volvemos al "problema" usual si el libro fue escrito en orden cronológico o no, pero mientras tanto vimos que los 7 sellos son secuenciales, las 7 trompetas deben ser secuenciales (el apóstol Pablo llama a la séptima trompeta "la última trompeta") y también las siete copas de la ira de Dios. Si todo esto es secuencial ... ¿es consistente pensar que solo los últimos capÃtulos no lo son? Tratemos de leer todo el capÃtulo 20 de Apocalipsis y seguir el orden de los eventos. Satanás es disuelto de su prisión, luego engaña a las naciones que están en los rincones de la tierra, estos rodean el campamento de los santos y luego son matados por el fuego que desciende del cielo. Después de este evento, la muerte y el ades devuelven a los muertos que están en ellos - Apocalipsis 20: 11-13 Vamos a profundizar en estos versÃculos más adelante, pero ahora centrémonos en estos "rebeldes" que atacan al pueblo de Dios. ¿Quiénes son y de dónde vienen? Ahora bien, luego que hayan terminado los mil años, Satanás será soltado de su prisión, Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  y saldrá a extraviar a aquellas naciones que están en los cuatro ángulosHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. de la tierra, a Gog y a Magog, para reunirlos para la guerra. El número de estos es como la arena del mar.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Y avanzaron sobre la anchura de la tierra y rodearon el campamentoHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. de los santosHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y la ciudad amada.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Pero descendió fuego del cielo, y los devoró.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Y el DiabloHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. que los estaba extraviandoHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. fue arrojado al lago de fuego y azufre, donde [ya estaban] tanto la bestia salvajeHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. como el falso profeta;Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y serán atormentados dÃa y noche para siempre jamás – Apocalipsis 20:7-10  Al final de mil años, Satanás se disuelve para "confundir a las naciones que están en los cuatro rincones de la tierra" y los reúne para la guerra. ¡Parece realmente increÃble que algo asà suceda! ¿Es posible que en el nuevo mundo la gente todavÃa se organice en naciones polÃticas, que cree divisiones y que incluso ataque a esa parte de las personas que permanecieron fieles? Este es el primer caso y es más o menos la comprensión actual. Antes de pensar que es una tonterÃa ... ¿es posible hipotetizar que durante la guerra de Armageddon una parte de la tierra se salva también para permitir la supervivencia del pueblo de Dios? En varias partes de la Biblia se dice que durante el tiempo del juicio su pueblo fiel escapa a la búsqueda de refugio para Edom, Moab y Amón (que por cierto también son las ciudades salvadas de la guerra mundial) - Compare por ejemplo Daniel 11:41 con IsaÃas 16: 4; Salmos 108: 8-10 con JeremÃas 40: 10, 11 Estas tres naciones (Edom, Moab y Ammon) eran montañosas y esto recuerda las palabras que Jesús habló a sus discÃpulos: Mateo 24: 15, 16. ¿Puede ser que las Escrituras advierten a todos los cristianos en el mundo que huyan a las montañas más cercanas tan pronto como vean algo repugnante sobre Israel? De hecho, si la destrucción de Babilonia la Grande dio lugar al Armagedón (como hemos visto) y no a la gran tribulación, "huir de las montañas" significarÃa que Jehová salvarÃa estas montañas por la fuerza de las cosas. De hecho, estas "montañas" podrÃan ser una localidad especÃfica de la tierra donde Jehová conducirá a su pueblo justo antes del Armagedón Esta o estas ubicaciones serÃan "preservadas por juicio". No serÃa la primera vez que Jehová, en su amor y misericordia, evita destruir a ciertas personas a causa de sus siervos. Según el relato de Génesis 19:21, 22, los ángeles de Jehová evitan destruir a Zoar por considerar a Lot, y sin embargo, de lo que se entiende al leer toda la historia, esa "pequeña ciudad" era parte de Sodoma o Gomorra y por lo tanto tenÃa que ser destruida. La guerra de Armagedón en realidad destruye el sistema satánico compuesto por la bestia salvaje, el falso profeta y sus seguidores. Todas las naciones que son compactas en la lucha contra el Cordero también caen. La gran mayorÃa de las personas muere en esta guerra porque está cegada y marcada por la bestia salvaje, pero ¿morirán todos aquellos que no son cristianos? A la congregación de Filadelfia se le dice que "se preservará con la prueba que debe realizarse en toda la tierra habitada" y que esto se puede hacer al menos con la hipótesis de que algunos cristianos encuentran refugio en una "zona libre" - Apocalipsis 3:10 Si podemos hipotetizar esto, entonces las naciones que al final del milenio deciden atacar al pueblo de Dios podrÃan nacer de estas cepas sobrevivientes. ¿Por qué, de hecho, harÃas una distinción entre ellos y "el campo de los santos"? ¿No son sagrados todos los habitantes del nuevo mundo? En el nuevo mundo, ¿habrá un "campo de santos" y un "campo de no santos"? Otra confirmación podrÃa venir de la misma protección de Jerusalén arriba; se dice que "vuela en el desierto" lejos de la cara de la serpiente. Cuando Satanás intenta hacerla ahogar "la tierra viene en su ayuda" y esto significa que al menos hasta el último momento del juicio divino todavÃa hay una parte "estable" del mundo - Apocalipsis 12:15 Esto también podrÃa explicar por qué la resurrección no tiene lugar durante este milenio; simplemente porque todavÃa no es el nuevo mundo que imaginamos, incluso si ya será un mundo nuevo y ya tendrás muchas razones para ser feliz. Probablemente deberÃamos hacer una distinción entre el "reinado milenario" (que traerá muchas bendiciones a la humanidad fiel) y el "nuevo mundo" que comenzará después de la resurrección, en el momento en que Cristo devuelva el reino a su Dios y Padre. Este perÃodo podrÃa ser simplemente un perÃodo de transición durante el cual los seres humanos pueden vivir en paz sin la influencia de Satanás y bajo la guÃa de la enseñanza divina para todos aquellos que desean obedecer. De hecho, una de las preguntas que planteó Satanás en el JardÃn del Edén fue precisamente si el hombre era capaz de gobernarse a sà mismo, pero el hombre, con la interferencia de Satanás, nunca gobernó realmente solo - Juan 14:30 Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ¿Puede el hombre dirigir sus pasos sin Dios y sin Satanás? También a esto debemos responder  Esto está relacionado con las palabras de Apocalipsis 20: 3; Satanás es atado "no tan desorienta las naciones" y esto es necesario por dar definitivamente respuesta a la cuestión planteada en el Edén. Sin embargo, si todas las naciones fueron destruidas en Armagedón ... ¿cómo podrÃa desorientarlas? ¿TendrÃa sentido decir que Satanás está enlazado por no desviar las naciones que ya no existen? Las posibles naciones en las cuatro esquinas de la tierra, nacidas de estas personas, podrÃan mostrar si el hombre es realmente capaz de gobernarse a sà mismo en condiciones favorables, es decir, sin la influencia de Satanás. Después de esta última rebelión humana, que habrá demostrado conscientemente que prefieren el gobierno de Satanás al de Jehová, tanto Satanás como la humanidad desobediente serán eliminados para siempre. Solo después de la resurrección de los muertos y después de su juicio, "la muerte y Ades serán arrojados al lago de fuego" y, por lo tanto, debemos suponer que, a lo largo del milenio, a pesar de tener condiciones favorables, continuaremos envejeciendo y muriendo? Es impensable porque los gobernantes ungidos cumplirán sus funciones sacerdotales al expiar el pecado de la humanidad y asà evitar la muerte de sus súbditos. La muerte que, sin embargo, siempre estará al acecho y no será eliminada permanentemente hasta el final del milenio. Será "el último enemigo" que se eliminará de hecho, si al final del milenio todavÃa habrá "enemigos a eliminar" (las naciones que rodean el campo sagrado), esto deberÃa demostrar que la resurrección, y por lo tanto la eliminación definitiva de muerte, sucederá solo después de ese evento - I Corintios 15:26 En este sentido, la escritura de 1 Corintios 15:24, 25, si se lee con cuidado, parece especificar el orden de los eventos, es decir, Jesucristo entregará el Reino a su Dios y Padre cuando haya reducido a nada "todos los gobiernos y todas las autoridades y todos los poderes". Obviamente si cada gobierno y cada autoridad y poder se redujeron a nada durante la guerra de Armagedón, Él (Jesucristo) deberÃa liberar al gobierno en ese mismo momento, es decir, cuando acababa de tomar el poder. Volvamos a leer estas últimas seis lÃneas e intentemos entender su significado incluso si "este sentido" sale descaradamente contra nuestras convicciones más arraigadas. El versÃculo 25 dice ... "Porque él debe reinar hasta que [Dios] haya puesto a todos los enemigos debajo de sus pies". Esto parece significar que todavÃa habrá enemigos durante el reinado milenario. Asà que el Reino gobernado por Cristo será una provisión temporal para la alabanza de Jehová para devolver a la humanidad a la perfección y esto también puede incluir la destrucción de los últimos gobiernos, autoridades y poderes, que al final se negarán a someterse - Apocalipsis 20: 8  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. ¿Quién rodeará realmente el "campo de los santos"?  En Ezequiel capÃtulo 38 versos que van de 8 en adelante, se dice que van a prestar atención a Gog Magog después de "muchos dÃas" y luego sugiere que habÃan quedado fuera de que no se tiene en cuenta o se guardan durante el juicio. ¿No parece una contradicción que Gog of Magog exista al final del sistema satánico de las cosas y exista de nuevo en el nuevo mundo al final del milenio? Te hace pensar que esta "coalición de naciones" siempre tiene el mismo nombre y de hecho, en la descripción de Ezequiel, el sujeto no cambia en absoluto? Si Gog de Magog es una coalición de naciones, ¿no parece extraño que las naciones se formen bajo el reinado de Cristo? Es una contradicción solo si damos por sentado que todos los gobiernos y todas las personas están realmente destruidas en Armagedón. Evidentemente, Gog of Magog no existe de nuevo, pero existe aún (es decir, nunca ha dejado de existir). Si le prestas atención después de muchos dÃas significa que siempre son ellos y los "muchos dÃas" son todos los años del reinado milenario. Gog de Magog siempre tiene el mismo nombre porque siempre es el mismo sujeto. Las personas que "acumulan riquezas y propiedades" son obviamente el pueblo de Dios (el "campo de los santos" según Apocalipsis) y esto indica las muchas bendiciones que tendrá el pueblo de Dios durante el reinado milenario y el contraste con otros pueblos (por qué especificar que hay un pueblo que acumula riqueza si todos acumulan las mismas riquezas?). Las bendiciones que, aparentemente, no tendrán a Gog de Magog de lo contrario no existirÃan tales contrastes y no habrÃa razón para sentir envidia - Ezequiel 38:12; compárese con Proverbios 10:22 ¿Por qué, además, habrÃa este contraste con aquellos que "ni siquiera barren ni puertas" si todos estamos en un nuevo mundo de paz, sin ladrones u otros delincuentes? - Ezequiel 38:11 Si simplemente lees como lo que es, la escritura realmente parece indicar que, durante el reino milenario de Cristo, todavÃa hay personas que tienen puertas y cerrojo, y son obviamente aquellos que nunca han estado interesados en la voluntad de Dios asiqué deben poner " bares y puertas" y prestar atención a sus propios hermanos. Los eventos relacionados con Gog de Magog, que se describen en los capÃtulos 38 y 39 de Ezequiel, están llenos de detalles interesantes, pero una de las cosas que se destaca a la vista es la diferencia que existe entre ellos e Israel. Por lo tanto, parece que Israel, o el pueblo santo de Dios, vivirá junto con estos otros pueblos durante mil años - Ezequiel 39: 6, 7 En este punto, la escritura de IsaÃas 2: 2-4 adquiere un significado particular. Hasta ahora, hemos aplicado estas escrituras a personas que, al aceptar la verdad hoy, cambian su comportamiento y "convierten sus espadas en rejas de arado" al convertirse en personas pacÃficas. También lo hemos aplicado a las instrucciones que se darán a los resucitados en el Nuevo Mundo, pero tratemos de volver a leerlo aceptando la posibilidad de lo que acabamos de describir. IsaÃas 2: 2-4: “Y en la parte final de los dÃasHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. tiene que suceder [que] la montaña de la casaHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. de Jehová llegará a estar firmemente establecida por encima de la cumbre de las montañas,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y ciertamente será alzada por encima de las colinas;Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y a ella tendrán que afluir todas las naciones.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Y muchos pueblos ciertamente irán y dirán: “Vengan,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y subamos a la montaña de Jehová, a la casa del Dios de Jacob; y él nos instruirá acerca de sus caminos, y ciertamente andaremosHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. en sus sendas”.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Porque de Sión saldrá ley, y de Jerusalén la palabra de Jehová.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Y él ciertamente dictará el fallo entre las nacionesHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y enderezaráHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. los asuntos respecto a muchos pueblos.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Y tendrán que batir sus espadas en rejas de arado y sus lanzas en podaderas.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. No alzará espada nación contra nación, ni aprenderán más la guerra”.  La montaña de la casa de Jehová será firmemente establecida y levantada. ¿Cuándo? Evidentemente, cuando se elimine el sistema de Satanás, quedará claro que el modo de gobernar de Jehová es el mejor de todos. "Todas las naciones deben fluir hacia ella", ¿en qué sentido y qué naciones? Muchas naciones han fluÃdo en el pueblo de Dios, por lo que se reconoce que la realización podrÃa tener algo que ver con nuestros dÃas; sin embargo, es posible que, al final de Armagedón, las personas de las naciones que hayan sobrevivido por el juicio de Dios (los pueblos en las cuatro esquinas de la tierra) decidan fluir al monte de Jehová. Después de los increÃbles eventos de Armagedón, ya deberÃa estar claro quién es el verdadero Dios y cuál es su pueblo. De esta manera, también, Jehová es santificado en medio de las naciones. Mucha gente fluye y dice: "Vengan y subamos al monte de Jehová, a la casa del Dios de Jacob". y él nos instruirá sobre sus caminos, y ciertamente caminaremos en su camino ", por lo que se describe a sà mismo como su propia iniciativa y no como alguien que ha sido persuadido a través de la predicación de las buenas nuevas. De hecho, ellos mismos dicen "él nos instruirá sobre sus caminos". Podemos imaginar que muchos sobrevivientes fluirán a la montaña de Jehová una vez que hayan visto los grandes signos del Armagedón, abandonando su antigua nación y haciendo los cambios necesarios para ser aceptados por Dios - Compare Apocalipsis 11:13 y Josué 9: 8-11. Sin embargo, es bastante fácil imaginar que, a pesar de estos signos inequÃvocos de la bendición de Jehová sobre su pueblo, no todos van a decidir unirse. Mucha gente continuará quedándose en sus naciones, con sus gobiernos, negándose a apresurarse a la montaña de Jehová. Visto desde esta perspectiva, ya no es tan increÃble imaginar que, al final del milenio, cuando el pueblo de Dios ha acumulado riquezas y bendiciones sin fin, estas naciones se organizan para "tomar muchos despojos" - Ezequiel 38: 10-12 Incluso la escritura de Daniel 2:44 deberÃa hacernos reflexionar. La escritura dice: "”Y en los dÃas de aquellos reyesHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. el Dios del cieloHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. establecerá un reinoHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. que nunca será reducido a ruinas.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Y el reinoHello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. mismo no será pasado a ningún otro pueblo.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Triturará y pondrá fin a todos estos reinos,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. y él mismo subsistirá hasta tiempos indefinidos". ¿De qué reyes está hablando Daniel? Si leemos los versÃculos anteriores, entendemos que estamos hablando de los reinos que componen la imagen de un hombre con cabeza dorada, pecho y brazos de plata, vientre y muslos de cobre, piernas de hierro y pies de hierro y arcilla . Sabemos muy bien que estos reinos son, respectivamente, Babilonia, Media-Persia, Grecia, Roma y, según el entendimiento actual, el imperio angloamericano (pero, como vimos en un artÃculo anterior, el último rey dominante debe ser otro rey del norte). Los mismos poderes, también en el libro de Daniel, se describen como el león con las alas de un águila (o Babilonia, en Daniel 7: 4), el oso voraz con tres costillas entre los dientes (Media-Persia, en Daniel 7: 5), el leopardo con cuatro cabezas y cuatro alas (el imperio macedonio o griego, en Daniel 7: 6) y la bestia espantosa y terrible con los dientes de hierro y los diez cuernos (Roma y por lo tanto el último poder descrito en Daniel 7: 7, 8, 19). ¿Por qué se ven los mismos dominios en dos maneras diferentes? Esto es interesante porque la bestia que Juan ve "ascender desde el mar" tiene caracterÃsticas de todas estas bestias - Apocalipsis 13: 1, 2 De hecho, ella es similar a un leopardo, tiene los pies de un oso, la boca del león y los diez cuernos de la última bestia vista por Daniel. Estos son los reyes que son destruidos por Jesucristo y sus elegidos en Armagedón, es decir, los reinos que se unirán en la batalla final. Obviamente incluye su imagen (la ONU) y el falso profeta - Apocalipsis 19:19, 20 Incluye a todos los que participaron en la guerra, directa o indirectamente, y todos aquellos que han perseguido o tratado injustamente al pueblo de Dios - Apocalipsis 19:21; ZacarÃas 2: 8 Seguramente una buena parte de la humanidad será asesinada en esta guerra porque el gobernante del mundo se asegurará de tener tanta gente como sea posible, pero ¿significará esto que todos los reinos y todas las personas serán destruidas a excepción de los cristianos? ¿Incluso esos insignificantes y pequeños reinos? Incluso aquellos aislados del resto del mundo, como islas o pequeños grupos étnicos, incluidas aquellas personas que, viviendo en paÃses que restringen la religión u otras religiones, nunca tuvieron la oportunidad de conocer las verdades maravillosas de la palabra de Dios? - Ver Ezequiel 39: 6 Estas son preguntas para pensar. Es cierto que las "buenas nuevas" se predicaron en toda la tierra habitada antes del fin del sistema satánico ... pero, ¿esto realmente entendÃa a todas las personas y todos realmente tenÃan las mismas oportunidades? Más allá de cualquier hipótesis humana, las palabras que deberÃan hacernos reflexionar más son las que se informan en Daniel 7:11, 12. La escritura dice Â… “Seguà contemplando en aquel tiempo debido al sonido de las palabras grandiosas que el cuerno estaba hablando;Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. seguà contemplando hasta que la bestia fue muerta y su cuerpo fue destruido y fue dado al fuego ardiente.Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.  Pero en cuanto a las demás bestias,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. sus gobernaciones fueron quitadas, y hubo un alargamiento de vida que se les dio por un tiempo y sazón”. ¿Qué significa esto y cuánto dura "un tiempo y una sazòn"? Mientras tanto, desde el contexto vemos que el cuerno que habla de cosas grandiosas se refiere a la "espantosa y terrible bestia" que es la última bestia de la visión de Daniel. Se habla del perÃodo en el que se colocan los "tronos" y "el Anciano de los dÃas" se sienta para juzgar y, por lo tanto, solo puede referirse al tiempo en que Jehová y Cristo toman el poder - Apocalipsis 11: 15-18 Se dice que la bestia es asesinada y su cuerpo es entregado al fuego ardiente - Compárese con Apocalipsis 19:19, 20. Es evidente que la escritura se refiere a la bestia salvaje de Apocalipsis en el momento de su juicio y, sin embargo, después de especificar que la bestia se entrega al fuego ardiente (por lo tanto, se ha destruido), el versÃculo 12 dice Â… “Pero en cuanto a las demás bestias,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. sus gobernaciones fueron quitadas, y hubo un alargamiento de vida que se les dio por un tiempo y sazón”. Esto especifica muy claramente que los otros dominios no se destruyen, sino que les permite continuar existiendo durante un tiempo después del juicio de Armagedón. Intentamos detenernos por un momento y volvemos a leer las últimas cuatro lÃneas comparando cuidadosamente las escrituras citadas. De hecho, si leemos Apocalipsis 19: 19-21 cuidadosamente, vemos que la bestia salvaje, los reyes de la tierra y sus ejércitos se reúnen para hacer la guerra contra Jesucristo y su ejército, pero ¿quién es destruido entre todos estos? La escritura dice que la bestia salvaje y el falso profeta son tomados y arrojados al lago de fuego. Entonces, el versÃculo 21 dice: “Pero los demás fueron muertos con la espada larga del que iba sentado en el caballo,Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. la [espada] que salÃa de su boca”. Los demà s quién? Hay dos sujetos involucrados: los reyes de la tierra y sus ejércitos. Al decir "los demà s", ¿la visión se refiere a reyes, a sus ejércitos o a ambos? Si también se refirió a los dos, la escritura de Daniel, especifica que los dominios de estos reyes simplemente se quitan, no se destruyen. Seguramente morirán aquellos que están en esa posición (ejércitos, generales o reyes) de hecho la escritura dice que "los matan" pero no se dice que terminen en el lago de fuego. Sabemos que el lago de fuego significa la segunda muerte y que es un lugar del cual no regresamos, por lo que tenemos la seguridad de que la bestia salvaje es destruida para no volver otra vez, pero los "restantes" no son desarraigados de la tierra. TodavÃa no. Serà n matados todos aquellos que están librando una guerra contra el Cordero, pero evidentemente quedará algo de sus reinos, es decir, las naciones que pertenecen a estos "restantes" que fue concedido una prórroga de tiempo por un tiempo y una sazòn. Ellos tendrán mil años para recuperarse y al menos una parte de ellos, bastante numerosos según las palabras de Apocalipsis 20: 8, atacarán al pueblo de Dios al final del milenio. Gog de Magog existió antes de Armageddon y existirá incluso más tarde. En final, como hemos visto, después de la destrucción de estos enemigos todavÃa hay que "eliminar a un último enemigo": la muerte. Ver Corintios 15:26. Esto confirma la secuencia de eventos de Apocalipsis -
By Queen Esther
THE BIGÂ STORMÂ BYÂ ARMAGEDDON.......
Very interesting video !
May Jehovah's Kingdom coming soon  ? ? .•*¨`*•..¸???¸.•*¨`*•. ? ?
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By Anna
Has anyone wondered about this?
God’s Kingdom Rules! Page 230, par.19 & 20 says:
How to Prepare Ourselves
19 How can we prepare ourselves for the earthshaking
events that are to come? The Watchtower stated some years
ago: “Survival will depend on obedience.” Why is that so?
The answer is found in a warning from Jehovah to the captive
Jews living in ancient Babylon. Jehovah foretold that
Babylon would be conquered, but what were God’s people
to do to prepare themselves for that event? Jehovah stated:
“Go, my people, enter your inner rooms, and shut your
doors behind you. Hide yourself for a brief moment until
the wrath has passed by.” (Isa. 26:20) Note the verbs in this
verse: “go,” “enter,” “shut,” “hide”—all are in the imperative
mood; they are commands. The Jews who heeded those
commands would have stayed in their houses, away from
the conquering soldiers out in the streets. Hence, their survival
depended on obeying Jehovah’s instructions.[2]
20 What is the lesson for us? As in the case of those ancient
servants of God, our survival of coming events will
depend on our obedience to Jehovah’s instructions. (Isa.
30:21) Such instructions come to us through the congregation
arrangement. Therefore, we want to develop heartfelt
obedience to the guidance we are receiving. (1 John 5:3)
If we do so today, we will be more inclined to obey willingly
in the future and thus receive the protection of our Father,
Jehovah, and our King, Jesus. (Zeph. 2:3) That divine
protection will allow us to witness firsthand how God’s
Kingdom will completely remove its enemies. What an unforgettable
event that will be!
Prior to those paragraphs, and in harmony with Matthew 24, it was made clear that the sheep and the goats will have already been judged, the sheep being marked for survival. Why would there be further need to follow some other instructions in order to survive? Matthew 24 does not indicate anything about additional instructions as a criterion for survival. In fact it says “then two men will be in the field; one will be taken along and the other abandoned. Two women will be grinding at the hand mill; one will be taken along and the other abandoned.” This indicates that people will be in ordinary situations, when they are “saved”. The rest of the gospels focus on doing God’s will and following in Christ’s footsteps as the criterion for gaining salvation. "For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome" 1John 5:3. None of the Greek scriptures talk about any special instructions that will have to be obeyed during the great tribulation and Armageddon. It is only Isaiah that mentions this in relation to surviving the overthrow of Babylon, with similar references to the Passover in Egypt and perhaps also Noah entering the Ark.
I wonder why the Slave thinks that the same pattern will be followed when the ultimate destruction comes, as if Jehovah is not capable of saving individuals wherever they may be. Looking at it from a practical point of view, not everyone will be physically able to “go” or “shut” or “hide”. Think of the old and infirm. The scripture in Zepheniah 2:3 talks about doing specific things well before the day of Jehovah's anger. “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, Who observe his righteous decrees, seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you will be concealed on the day of Jehovah’s anger”.
The paragraph that follows, (Par. 20) talks about us learning to obey the Slave now, so that when the time comes we will “obey” the Slave then, because our salvation depends on it. But the scriptures clearly show our salvation depends on lots of other things, one of them being enduring faithfully to the end. This was the symposium at this year’s Do not Give up convention as well. This included practical steps to “Run With Endurance”
· Run to Win! (1 Corinthians 9:24)
· Train Diligently (1 Corinthians 9:25-27)
· Let Go of Unnecessary Burdens (Hebrews 12:1)
· Imitate Good Examples (Hebrews 12:2, 3)
· Eat Nutritious Food (Hebrews 5:12-14)
· Drink Plenty of Water (Revelation 22:17)
· Obey the Rules of the Contest (2 Timothy 2:5)
· Be Confident of Gaining the Prize (Romans 15:13)
That pertains to everything we do now. And those are the things we will be judged on. That’s how we prepare ourselves surely? Not by obeying some last minute instructions as if Jehovah is not capable of saving each individual Witness wherever they may be, since the whole performance is going to involve supernatural powers anyway....Plus, it has been speculated that some may die at Armageddon, not by Jehovah's hand, but by other extenuating circumstances, even by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I will do some more research on this....
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By Israeli Bar Avaddhon
Los capítulos 19 y 20 de la Revelación se revelan algunos detalles importantes sobre la guerra de Armagedón, y lo que sucederá después.
Estos datos incluirán dos cambios importantes en el all'intendimento actual y, al igual que ocurrió con la identidad de Babilonia la Grande, esta "visión de cambio" será un obstáculo real para los testigos de Jehová a muchos.
Estos capÃtulos se discutirán en el próximo artÃculo, pero, frente a un cambio tan grave de intención para dos sujetos más, se decidió tratarlos por separado a la luz de toda la Escritura. En primer lugar, debemos darnos cuenta de que la Revelación habla de la resurrección al final del milenio, y no durante el milenio . Esto se discutirá en detalle en su momento. Por el momento ... usted acepta esta oportunidad sólo para hacer comprensible el tema de este artÃculo es responder a la pregunta, exactamente, "lo que los paÃses realmente desaparece en el Armagedón?". Está claro que aquà volvemos al "problema" habitual si el libro fue escrito en orden cronológico o no, pero, mientras tanto, hemos visto que los 7 sellos son secuenciales, las 7 trompetas deben ser secuenciales (el Apostolo Paolo llama a la séptima trompeta "la última trompeta") y también lo son las siete copas de la ira de Dios. Si todo esto es secuencial ... es coherente pensar que sólo en los últimos capÃtulos que no son? Vamos a tratar de leer todo el capÃtulo 20 de Apocalipsis y seguir el orden de los acontecimientos. Satanás será suelto de su prisión, por lo que engaña a las naciones que están en los extremos de la tierra, éstos rodean el campamento de los santos y luego son asesinados por el fuego que baja del cielo. Después de este acontecimiento, la muerte y el Hades regresan los muertos que en ellos - Revelación 20: 11-13 La escritura de Apocalipsis 20: 4 dice que el resto de los muertos no volvieron a vivir hasta que se cumplieron mil años. " Mientras" significa "hasta el momento" y no "durante" y esto parece sugerir que estos mil años los elegidos reinarÃa sobre los sobrevivientes de Armageddon y sus familias, pero no en cualquier resucitados. El mismo término, "largo" usado en Mateo 1:25, que siempre se utiliza para demostrar que José no tuvo relaciones sexuales con su esposa MarÃa hasta que nazca el bebé . Esto deberÃa ser suficiente para demostrar que la resurrección ocurrirá después del final del milenio , un concepto que parece ser repetido en los versÃculos 12 y 13. Estos versos se profundizará mejor, pero ahora vamos a centrarnos en estos "rebeldes" que atacan al pueblo de Dios. Quiénes son y de dónde vienen?  7  Ahora, tan pronto como se cumplieron los mil años, Satanás será suelto de su prisión, 8  y saldrá a engañar a las naciones en los cuatro ángulos de la tierra, a Gog ya Magog, a fin de reunirlos para la guerra. El número de estos es como la arena del mar. 9  Y se hace avanzar sobre la tierra, y rodearon el campamento de los santos y la ciudad amada. Pero descendió fuego del cielo y los devoró. 10  Y el diablo que los engañados ellos fue arrojado al lago de fuego y azufre, donde [ya tenÃa] la bestia y el falso profeta; Y serán atormentados dÃa y noche por los siglos de los siglos (Apocalipsis 20: 7-10)  Al final de los mil años Satanás es soltado por "engañar a las naciones en los cuatro ángulos de la tierra" y reunirlos para la guerra. Parece increÃble que tal cosa suceda! Es posible que en los nuevos pueblos del mundo todavÃa organizarse en naciones polÃticas, que crean divisiones e incluso atacar a la parte de lo que quedaba pueblo fiel? Este es el primer caso y es más o menos la comprensión actual. Antes de pensar en esto no tiene sentido ... es posible que durante la guerra de Armagedón ahorrarse algo de la tierra también para permitir la supervivencia del pueblo de Dios? En la mayorÃa de las partes de la Biblia se nos dice que durante el tiempo de juicio su pueblo fiel sobrevive mediante la búsqueda de refugio a Edom, Moab y Amón (que por cierto son también la ciudad a salvo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial) - Comparar, por ejemplo, con Daniel once y cuarenta y uno IsaÃas 16: 4; Salmo 108: 8-10 con JeremÃas 40: 10, 11 Estas tres naciones (Edom, Moab y Amón) fueron montañosa / montañoso y esto recuerda las palabras que Jesús dijo a sus discÃpulos: - Mateo 24: 15, 16 Tal vez la Escritura advierte a todos los cristianos de todo el mundo a huir a las montañas más cercanas Sólo hay que ver la cosa repugnante de Israel? De hecho, si la destrucción de Babilonia la Grande inicio debe en Armageddon (como vimos) y no la gran tribulación, "huir a las montañas" significa que Jehová salva, inevitablemente, estas montañas. De hecho, estas "montañas" podrÃa ser una ubicación especÃfica en la tierra donde Jehová conducirá a su pueblo justo antes de Armageddon. Este o estos lugares serÃan entonces "preservados de juicio". No serÃa la primera vez que Jehová, en su amor y en su misericordia, evitar destruir a un pueblo a causa de sus servidores. De acuerdo con el relato de Génesis 19:21, 22, los ángeles de Jehová evitar la destrucción de Zoar para su consideración para el lote sin embargo, a partir de lo que entendemos por la lectura de toda la historia, la "pequeña ciudad" era parte de Sodoma y Gomorra y tuvo que ser destruida. La guerra de Armagedón, en efecto, destruye el sistema satánico compuesto de la bestia, el falso profeta y sus seguidores. Se caen también todas aquellas naciones que son compactos en la lucha contra el Cordero. La gran mayorÃa de personas mueren en esta guerra porque cegado y marcado por la fiera morirán, pero los que no son cristianos? A la congregación de Filadelfia dice que " habrÃa mantenido la evidencia que ha de venir sobre toda la tierra habitada" , y para que esto suceda es al menos concebible que algunos cristianos encuentran refugio en una "zona libre" - Apocalipsis 3:10 Si asumimos esto, entonces las naciones que el fin del milenio se deciden a atacar el pueblo de Dios, puede derivarse de estas cepas sobrevivieron. ¿Por qué, de hecho, serÃa hacer una distinción entre ellos y "el campo de los santos"? Hay santos todos los habitantes del Nuevo Mundo? En el nuevo mundo habrá un "campo de los santos" y un "campo de los santos no"? Otra confirmación podrÃa provenir de la misma protección de la Jerusalén de arriba; se dice que "los vuelos en el desierto" lejos de la presencia de la serpiente. Cuando Satanás trata de ahogarla "la tierra viene en su ayuda", y esto significa que, al menos, hasta el último momento del juicio divino todavÃa hay una parte "estable" del mundo - Apocalipsis 24:15 Esto también podrÃa explicar por qué la resurrección tiene lugar durante este milenio; simplemente porque se encuentra todavÃa en este nuevo mundo que nos imaginamos , incluso si va a ser un nuevo mundo, y ya tendrá muchas razones para ser feliz . Tal vez deberÃamos hacer una distinción entre "reino del milenio" (lo que traerá a la humanidad tantos fieles benidizioni) y "Nuevo Mundo", que comenzará después de la resurrección, cuando Cristo volverá el reino a su Dios y Padre. Este perÃodo podrÃa ser simplemente un periodo de transición durante el cual los seres humanos puedan vivir en paz sin la influencia de Satanás y bajo la guÃa divina enseñanza para aquellos que desean obedecer. De hecho uno de los temas que Satanás planteadas en el jardÃn del Edén, era si el hombre era capaz de gobernarse a sà mismos, pero el hombre, con la interferencia de Satanás, que en realidad nunca gobernado solo.  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Puede el hombre dirigir sus pasos sin Dios y sin a Satanás? Incluso esto se debe responder
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Esto está relacionado con las palabras de Revelación 20: 3; Satanás es atado " no sea extraviado las naciones" y que es necesario dar definitivamente responder a la cuestión planteada en el Edén. Sin embargo, si todas las naciones fueron destruidos en Armagedón ... como no podÃa sviarle? No tendrÃa sentido decir que Satanás no está ligado de modo engaña a las naciones que ya no existen? Cualquier naciones en los cuatro ángulos de la tierra, que nace de esta cepa ahorrado, podrÃan resultar si el hombre es realmente capaz de gobernarse a sà mismos en condiciones favorables, es decir, sin la influencia de Satanás. Después de esta rebelión humana, que se han demostrado preferir conscientemente el gobierno de Satanás a Jehová, que Satanás es la humanidad desobediente será borrada para siempre. Sólo después de la resurrección de los muertos y después de su juicio "la muerte y el Hades serán lanzados al lago de fuego" y por lo tanto deben asumir que, durante todo el milenio, a pesar de las condiciones favorables, continuaremos con la edad y morir? Es impensable que los gobernantes ungidos cumplan con sus funciones sacerdotales expiatorio por el pecado de la humanidad y evitando asà la muerte de sus temas. La muerte, sin embargo, todavÃa está allà y todavÃa no definitivamente extinguida hasta el final del milenio. Será "el último enemigo" a ser eliminado de hecho, si al final del milenio, todavÃa habrá "enemigos para ser eliminada" (las naciones que rodean el cementerio), esto deberÃa mostrar que la resurrección, y luego la eliminación definitiva de muerte, se producirá sólo después de ese incidente - I Corintios 15:26 En este sentido, la escritura de I Corintios 15:24, 25, si se lee con cuidado, parece que especificar el orden de los acontecimientos, y que es manos Jesucristo sobre el reino a su Dios y Padre, cuando haya reducido a nada "todo gobierno y toda autoridad y poder".  Obviamente, si todo gobierno y toda autoridad y poder se redujeron a la nada durante la guerra de Armagedón, Él (Jesucristo) debe entregar en su gobierno en ese momento osea al final de la guerra de Armaghedon. Leamos estas seis lÃneas y tratar de entender su significado, incluso si "de esta manera" choca abiertamente en contra de nuestras convicciones más profundas. El versÃculo 25 dice ... " Porque él tiene que reinar hasta que [Dios] no ha puesto a todos sus enemigos debajo de sus pies." Esto parece significar que durante el reino del milenio todavÃa habrá enemigos. Por lo tanto el Reino bajo Cristo será una medida temporal para alabanza de Jehová para restaurar a la humanidad en perfecto estado y esto también puede incluir la destrucción del último gobierno, autoridad y poder, que hasta el final va a negarse a someterse - Revelación 20: 8  Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Quien envolve, realmente, el "campo de los santos"? En Ezequiel capÃtulo 38 versos que van de 8 en adelante, dice que va a prestar atención a Gog Magog después de "muchos dÃas" y luego sugiere que habÃan sido excluidos de que no se tiene en cuenta o se guardan durante el juicio. Parece una contradicción que existe Gog de Magog al final del sistema satánico de las cosas y allà de nuevo en el Nuevo Mundo al final del milenio ? Te hace pensar que esta "coalición de naciones" siempre tiene el mismo nombre y de hecho, en la descripción de Ezequiel, el sujeto no cambia en absoluto? Si Gog de Magog es una coalición de naciones, no parece extraño que forman las naciones bajo el reino de Cristo? Es una contradicción sólo si damos por sentado que son destruidos en el Armagedón realmente todos los gobiernos y todas las personas. Evidentemente Gog de Magog allà de nuevo , pero no es todavÃa (que nunca ha dejado de existir). Si se presta atención a él después de muchos dÃas que significa que están siempre y "muchos dÃas" son todos los años del reino milenario. Gog de Magog siempre tiene el mismo nombre, ya que es siempre el mismo tema. Las personas que "se acumula riqueza y la propiedad" es, por supuesto, el pueblo de Dios (el "campo de los santos", de acuerdo a la revelación) y esto indica las muchas bendiciones al pueblo de Dios durante el reino del milenio y para el contraste con otros pueblos (como se especifica que hay un pueblo que se acumulan riqueza si se acumulan todos la misma riqueza?). Bendiciones que, al parecer, no Gog de Magog lo contrario no habrÃa este contraste y no habrÃa ninguna razón para sentir envidia - Ezequiel 38:12; compara los proverbios 10:22 ¿Por qué, por otra parte, no habrÃa este contraste con aquellos que "ni siquiera un bar y puertas" todos estamos en un nuevo mundo de paz, no hay ladrones y otros delincuentes? - Ezequiel 38:11 Si simplemente leer como lo que es, la escritura realmente parece indicar que, durante el reino milenario de Cristo , todavÃa hay personas que tienen puertas y cerrojo, y son obviamente aquellos que nunca han estado interesados en la voluntad de Dios que deben poner " bares y puertas "y prestar atención a sus propios hermanos. Los eventos relacionados con Gog de Magog, que se describen en los capÃtulos 38 y 39 de Ezequiel , que están llenos de detalles interesantes, pero una de las cosas que se destaca a la vista es la diferencia que existe entre ellos e Israel. Parece, pues, que Israel, o el pueblo santo de Dios, coexistirán durante mil años con estos otros pueblos - Ezequiel 39: 6, 7 En este punto la escritura de IsaÃas 2: 2-4 adquiere un significado especial. Hasta ahora hemos aplicado esta escritura para las personas que, aceptando la verdad hoy en dÃa , el cambio de comportamiento y "hacer sus rejas de arado espadas", convirtiéndose en un pueblo pacÃfico. También se aplica a la educación que le dan resucitado en el Nuevo Mundo, pero ahora vamos a releer aceptar la posibilidad de lo que acabamos de describir.  IsaÃas 2: 2-4: " Y tiene que ocurrir en la parte final de los dÃas [que] el monte de la casa de Jehová será establecido firmemente por encima de la parte superior de las montañas, y sin duda que ser levantado por encima de las colinas; y debe transmitir todas las naciones. 3 Y muchos pueblos ciertamente irán y dirán: "Venid y subamos al monte de Jehová, a la casa de Jacob; y él nos instruirá acerca de sus caminos, y caminaremos por sus sendas ". Porque de Sion saldrá la ley [la], y la palabra de Jehová de Jerusalén. 4 Y él ciertamente dictará el fallo entre las naciones y enderezará los asuntos respecto a muchos pueblos. Y tendrán sus rejas de arado espadas y sus lanzas en podaderas. No alzará espada nación contra nación, ni se adiestrarán más para la guerra. "  El monte de la casa de Jehová será establecido firmemente y criado. ¿Cuándo? Evidentemente, cuando el sistema de Satanás se elimina y estará claro que la forma de gobernar Jehová es el mejor de todos. " Para ello debe transmitir todas las naciones", en qué sentido y qué naciones? Para el pueblo de Dios son en realidad muchas naciones acudieron a reconocer que el rendimiento podrÃa tener que ver con nuestros dÃas ; Sin embargo, es posible que, al final de Armagedón, la gente de las naciones que escaparon del juicio de Dios (las naciones en las cuatro esquinas de la tierra) deciden a fluir a la montaña de Jehová . Después de los increÃbles acontecimientos de Armageddon, ahora debe quedar claro quién es el Dios verdadero y lo que su pueblo! O. Aun asÃ, Jehová es santificado entre las naciones. Muchas personas acuden y dicen: "Ven, y subamos al monte de Jehová, a la casa de Jacob; y él nos instruirá acerca de sus caminos, y caminaremos por sus sendas "a continuación se describe cómo su iniciativa y no como alguien que ha sido persuadido a través de la predicación de las buenas nuevas. De hecho, ellos mismos dicen, " él nos instruirá acerca de sus caminos". Podemos imaginar que muchos sobrevivientes correrán a Jehová una vez visto los grandes signos de Armageddon, abandonando su antigua nación y hacer los cambios necesarios para ser aceptado por Dios - Comparar Apocalipsis 11:13 y Joshua 9: 8-11 Sin embargo , es bastante fácil imaginar que, a pesar de estos signos inequÃvocos de la bendición de Jehová sobre su pueblo, no todos van a decidir a unirse. Asà que muchas personas siguen a permanecer en sus paÃses, con sus gobiernos, negándose a correr a la montaña de Jehová. Visto de esta manera, no es tan sorprendente imaginar que, al final del milenio, cuando el pueblo de Dios se han acumulado riquezas y bendiciones que no tiene fin, estas naciones se organizan para "tomar muchas botÃn" - Ezequiel 38: 10-12 Incluso la escritura de Daniel 2:44 deberÃa dar que pensar. La Escritura dice: " Y los dÃas de estos reyes el Dios del cielo levantará un reino que nunca será reducido a ruinas. Y el reino mismo no va a ir a ningún otro pueblo. Triturará todos estos reinos y poner fin, y él mismo subsistirá hasta tiempos indefinidos " . De estos reinos que está hablando Daniel? Si leemos los versÃculos anteriores entendemos que se está hablando de los reinos que componen la imagen de un hombre con la cabeza de oro, el pecho y los brazos de plata, el vientre y los muslos de cobre, las piernas de hierro y los pies de hierro y barro . Sabemos muy bien que estos reinos son, respectivamente, Babilonia, Medo Persia, Grecia, Roma, y de acuerdo con los conocimientos actuales, el imperio anglo-americano (pero, como vimos en un artÃculo anterior, el último rey dominante debe ser el rey del norte). Los mismos poderes, siempre en el libro de Daniel, se describen como el león con las alas de un águila (es decir, Babilonia se describe en Daniel 7: 4), el oso hambriento con tres costillas entre los dientes (Media-Persia se describe en Daniel 7: 5), el leopardo con cuatro cabezas y cuatro alas (el imperio macedonio o Greco describe en Daniel 7: 6) y la bestia espantosa y terrible, con dientes de hierro y diez cuernos (Roma y luego la última potencia se describe en Daniel 7: 7, 8, 19). Debido a que los mismos reinos o dominios son vistos de dos maneras diferentes? Esto es interesante porque la bestia que Juan ve "ascender desde el mar" tiene caracterÃsticas de todas estas bestias - Revelación 13: 1, 2 Es, de hecho, como un leopardo, tiene los pies de un oso, la boca del león y los diez cuernos que no se veÃan bestia de Daniel. Estos son los reyes que son destruidas por Jesucristo y sus escogidos en Armageddon, es decir, los reinos que se unen en la batalla final. Incluye curso de su imagen (la ONU) y el falso profeta - Revelación 19:19, 20 Incluye todos aquellos que han participado en la guerra, directa o indirectamente, y todos aquellos que han perseguido o perjudicado al pueblo de Dios - Apocalipsis 19:21; ZacarÃas 2: 8 Sin duda, la mayor parte de la humanidad morirán en esta guerra, porque el prÃncipe de este mundo se asegurará de tener personas como sea posible de ella, pero esto significa que van a ser destruidos todos los reinos y todo el pueblo, excepto los cristianos? Incluso esos pequeños reinos, pequeña? Incluso aquellos aislados del resto del mundo, tales como islas o pequeños grupos étnicos, incluyendo aquellas personas que, viviendo en paÃses restrictivas hacia la religión y otras religiones, que nunca tuvieron la oportunidad de conocer la maravillosa verdad de la palabra de Dios? - Véase Ezequiel 39: 6 Estas son preguntas para reflexionar. Es cierto que la 'buena noticia' fue predicado en toda la tierra habitada antes del final del sistema satánico ... pero éste realmente ha entendido todo el pueblo y todo lo que realmente tenÃa las mismas oportunidades? Más allá de todos los casos humanos de las palabras que nos deben hacer pensar más son los que dan en Daniel 7:11, 12. La escritura dice ... "Yo entonces miraba a causa del sonido de las grandes palabras que hablaba el cuerno; Yo estaba mirando hasta que mataron a la bestia, y su cuerpo fue destruido y se le dio a la quema. 12 Pero en cuanto al resto de los animales, se extrajeron sus dominios, y se le concedió una prolongación de la vida por un tiempo y una temporada ".  ¿Qué significa esto y cuánto tiempo es "un tiempo y una temporada"? Mientras tanto el contexto vemos que el cuerno que habla grandes cosas se refirió a la "bestia espantosa y terrible", es decir, la última bestia de la visión de Daniel. Hablamos de la época en la que "son lugares de tronos" y "el Anciano de dÃas" se sienta a juzgar por lo que sólo puede referirse al tiempo en que Jehová y Cristo tomó el poder - Revelación 11: 15-18 Se dice que la bestia es asesinada y su cuerpo se le da al fuego ardiente - Comparar Revelación 19:19, 20 Es claro que la escritura se refiere a la fiera de la Revelación en el momento de su juicio , sin embargo, después de especificar que la bestia se le da al fuego ardiente (que fue destruido), verso 12 dice ... " Pero en cuanto al resto de los animales, se extrajeron sus dominios, y se le concedió una prolongación de la vida por un tiempo y una temporada " . Esto especifica muy claramente que los otros dominios no se destruyen, sino que les permite seguir existiendo durante algún tiempo después de que el juicio de Armagedón . Vamos a parar por un momento y volver a leer detenidamente estas últimas cuatro lÃneas que comparan las escrituras citadas. De hecho, si leemos cuidadosamente Apocalipsis 19: 19-21 vemos que la bestia salvaje, los reyes de la tierra y sus ejércitos se reúnen para hacer la guerra contra Jesucristo y su ejército se destruye, sino que entre todos estos? La escritura dice que se toma la bestia y el falso profeta y lanzado al lago de fuego. Entonces, el verso 21 dice "los demás fueron muertos con la espada larga del que estaba sentado sobre el caballo, que [] espada salÃa de su boca." El restante quién? Los sujetos implicados son dos: los reyes de la tierra y sus ejércitos . Diciendo que "el resto" se refiere a la visión reyes, sus ejércitos o las dos cosas? Si se referÃa tanto a la escritura de Daniel especifica que los dominios de estos reyes, simplemente se retiran , no destruidos. Sin duda, los que mueren son en esa posición (ejércitos, cualquier generales o king), de hecho, la escritura dice que "está matando", pero no dicen que terminan en el lago de fuego. Sabemos que el lago de fuego significa la muerte segunda, y que es un lugar donde no se copia a continuación, tenemos la seguridad de que la fiera se destruye, para no volver, pero el "otro" no son arrancados de la tierra. TodavÃa no. Ellos mataron a los que en este momento están haciendo la guerra contra el Cordero, pero al parecer se mantendrá algo de sus reinados, que las naciones que pertenecen a estos "remanente" a la que se concedió una prórroga por un tiempo y una época. Estos tendrán un millar de años de tiempo para recuperarse y al menos parte de ellos, bastante numerosos en las palabras de Apocalipsis 20: 8, atacará al pueblo de Dios al final del milenio. Gog de Magog existÃa antes de Armageddon y existirá después. Por último, como ya hemos visto, después de la destrucción de estos enemigos todavÃa hay un "último enemigo" a ser eliminado: la muerte - Véase I Corintios 15:26 Esto confirma la secuencia de eventos de la Revelación   -
By The Librarian
(Har–Ma·ged′on) [from Heb., meaning “Mountain of Megiddo”].
This name is directly associated with “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” The term applies specifically to the condition, or situation, to which “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” are gathered in opposition to Jehovah and his Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. by Jesus Christ. In a number of versions it is rendered “Armageddon.” (Re 16:14, 16, AT; KJ; JB; RS; TEV) The name Har–Magedon, taken from Hebrew, means simply “Mountain of Megiddo.”
Har–Magedon is thus seen to be a fight, not merely among men, but one in which God’s invisible armies take part. Its coming is certain and it will take place at the time set by Jehovah God, who “is doing according to his own will among the army of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth.”—Da 4:35; see also Mt 24:36.
See also
Will Jehovah God allow the nations to use their arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in the final battle of Armageddon?
Does one have to be baptized in order to survive Armageddon?
Speculation as to the timing of Armageddon and the date of Eve's creation
The use of Antimatter
Related Audio
After Armageddon - God's New World - 1953
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Example Pictures of Armageddon from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society:
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By TrueTomHarley · Posted
Angel on the right shoulder: “Don’t say it, TrueTom. Just don’t. Everyone has heard it a million times. Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough?” Devil on the left shoulder: “Go for it, TrueTom. They’ll fall over themselves laughing and they’ll think you SO witty. Think of the great NAME you’ll be making for yourself!” Yes, but so far no one has answered the question: “What is H2O 4?” -
By JW Insider · Posted
OH! Some of what looks like water is actually "OH" not H2O, and this hydroxyl can be a real "OH-OH." The link you gave mentioned: But it was unclear whether that hydrogen was in the form of hydroxyl – the chemical that makes up drain cleaners – or in the form of H2O, or water. The NIH.gov site cites a biochemical journal about hydrogen peroxide (HOOH), which adds this: . . . to generate hydroxyl radicals (OH.) from H2O2 has been investigated . . . And all this, of c -
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/nasa-moon-announcement-today-news-water-lunar-surface-wet-b1346311.html looks like there's more water than we expected on the moon, and hopefully that'll be useful for future astronauts! -
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Another reason to suspect it was "designed":
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Que vos prières soit préparées comme une encens apaisante pour Jéhovah· 0 replies
Chez les Israélites, l’offrande d’encens était un symbole approprié pour désigner les prières que Dieu entend. C’est pourquoi le psalmiste David a chanté à Jéhovah :
“ Que ma prière soit préparée comme l’encens devant toi. ”
— Psaume 141 : 2
JÉHOVAH DIEU a chargé son prophète Moïse de préparer un encens sacré à l’usage du culte qui lui était rendu dans le tabernacle d’Israël. Il a donné lui-même la formule de ce mélange composé de quatre ingrédients aromatiques qui dégageaient une bonne odeur. — Exode 30:34-38.
L’alliance de la Loi dans laquelle la nation d’Israël avait été admise prévoyait de faire brûler quotidiennement de l’encens (Exode 30:7, 8). Ce geste avait-il une signification particulière ? Oui. En témoignent ces paroles du psalmiste : “ Que ma prière soit préparée comme l’encens devant toi [Jéhovah Dieu], l’élévation de mes paumes comme l’offrande de grain du soir. ” (Psaume 141:2). De plus, dans le livre de la Révélation, l’apôtre Jean dit de ceux qui se tiennent autour du trône céleste de Dieu qu’ils ont des bols d’or pleins d’encens. “ Et, précise le récit inspiré, l’encens représente les prières des saints. ” (Révélation 5:8). Il apparaît donc que la combustion d’encens odorant symbolise les prières agréées que les serviteurs de Jéhovah offrent jour et nuit. — 1 Thessaloniciens 3:10 ; Hébreux 5:7
Pour que Dieu agrée nos prières, nous devons le prier au nom de Jésus Christ (Jean 16:23, 24). Au demeurant, comment pouvons-nous améliorer la qualité de nos prières ? L’examen de quelques exemples pris dans les Écritures devrait nous aider à préparer nos prières comme l’encens devant Jéhovah. — Proverbes 15:8.
Prions avec foi
Si nous voulons que nos prières montent vers Dieu comme un encens de bonne odeur, il nous faut les lui offrir avec foi (Hébreux 11:6). Lorsque des anciens ont affaire à une personne spirituellement malade qui réagit bien à leurs conseils bibliques, ‘ leur prière de foi rétablit celui qui est souffrant ’. (Jacques 5:15.) Notre Père céleste prend plaisir à voir quelqu’un le prier avec foi et étudier consciencieusement sa Parole. Un psalmiste qui manifestait cet excellent état d’esprit a écrit : “ Je lèverai mes paumes vers tes commandements que j’ai aimés, et je veux m’intéresser à tes prescriptions. Enseigne-moi la bonté, le bon sens et la connaissance, car j’ai exercé la foi en tes commandements. ” (Psaume 119:48, 66). ‘ Étendons nos paumes ’ en priant avec humilité et exerçons la foi en observant les commandements de Dieu.
La prière un lien véritable à la sagesse divine
Supposons que nous manquions de sagesse pour surmonter une épreuve ; par exemple, nous pourrions ne pas être convaincus qu’une certaine prophétie soit déjà en train de se réaliser. Plutôt que de laisser cette incertitude nous déstabiliser spirituellement, prions pour recevoir de la sagesse (Galates 5:7, 8 ; Jacques 1:5-8). N’escomptons pas cependant que Dieu nous réponde d’une manière spectaculaire, mais démontrons la sincérité de nos prières en faisant ce qu’il attend de tous ses serviteurs : qu’ils bâtissent leur foi en étudiant les Écritures à l’aide des publications fournies par l’intermédiaire de “ l’esclave fidèle et avisé ”. (Matthieu 24:45-47 ; Josué 1:7, 8.) Nous avons besoin également d’augmenter notre connaissance en prenant part régulièrement aux réunions du peuple de Dieu. — Hébreux 10:24, 25.
Certains chrétiens semblent avoir perdu de vue que nous sommes à un stade avancé du “ temps de la fin ”. (Daniel 12:4.) C’est ce que révèlent l’orientation qu’ils donnent à leur vie et leurs centres d’intérêt. Il convient de prier pour que ces chrétiens ravivent ou affermissent leur foi dans les preuves que fournit la Bible que la présence du Christ a commencé en 1914 et que, ayant été intronisé au ciel par Jéhovah cette année-là, il règne depuis lors au milieu de ses ennemis (Psaume 110:1, 2 ; Matthieu 24:3). Nous devrions tous être bien conscients du fait que des événements annoncés, tels que la destruction de la fausse religion (“ Babylone la Grande ”), l’attaque satanique de Gog de Magog contre les serviteurs de Jéhovah et l’intervention salvatrice de Dieu le Tout-Puissant lors de la guerre d’Har-Maguédôn, peuvent survenir avec une rapidité saisissante et s’enchaîner sur une période relativement courte (Révélation 16:14, 16 ; 18:1-5 ; Ézékiel 38:18-23). Aussi, prions Dieu de nous aider à rester spirituellement éveillés. Puissions-nous tous prier avec conviction pour que le nom de Jéhovah soit sanctifié, pour que son Royaume vienne et pour que sa volonté se fasse sur la terre comme elle est faite au ciel ! Puissions-nous aussi continuer à exercer la foi et à démontrer par des actes la sincérité de nos prières (Matthieu 6:9, 10) ! Que tous ceux qui aiment Jéhovah puissent vraiment chercher d’abord le Royaume et Sa justice, et participer le plus possible à la prédication de la bonne nouvelle avant que vienne la fin ! — Matthieu 6:33 ; 24:14.
Louons et remercions Jéhovah
Une manière importante de ‘ préparer nos prières comme l’encens ’ consiste à louer et à remercier Dieu du fond de notre cœur. Le roi David a prononcé une prière de ce genre quand lui et le peuple d’Israël ont fait des contributions pour la construction du temple de Jéhovah. Il s’est exprimé ainsi : “ Béni sois-tu, ô Jéhovah le Dieu d’Israël notre père, depuis des temps indéfinis et pour des temps indéfinis. À toi, ô Jéhovah, sont la grandeur, la puissance, la beauté, la supériorité et la dignité ; car tout, dans les cieux et sur la terre, est à toi. À toi est le royaume, ô Jéhovah, Celui qui t’élève aussi en chef au-dessus de tout. La richesse et la gloire sont grâce à toi, et tu domines tout ; dans ta main il y a force et puissance, et dans ta main est le pouvoir de rendre grand et de donner de la vigueur à tous. Et maintenant, ô notre Dieu, nous te remercions et nous louons ton nom magnifique. ” — 1 Chroniques 29:10-13.
Quelles splendides expressions de louange et de reconnaissance ! Même si nos prières ne sont pas aussi éloquentes, elles peuvent témoigner de la même sincérité. Les actions de grâces et les louanges abondent dans le livre des Psaumes. Les Psaumes 148, 149 et 150, en particulier, louent Dieu en des termes particulièrement choisis. La gratitude envers Dieu imprègne également de nombreux psaumes. “ J’ai demandé une chose à Jéhovah, a chanté David, — c’est ce que je chercherai : Que j’habite dans la maison de Jéhovah tous les jours de ma vie, pour contempler le charme de Jéhovah et pour regarder avec admiration son temple. ” (Psaume 27:4). Agissons en harmonie avec de telles prières en participant avec zèle à toutes les activités des “ foules rassemblées ” par Jéhovah (Psaume 26:12). Ajoutons à cela la méditation quotidienne de sa Parole, et nous aurons quantité de raisons de louer et de remercier sincèrement Jéhovah.
Recherchons humblement l’aide de Jéhovah
Nous avons l’assurance que Jéhovah entend les appels à l’aide de ses Témoins qui le servent d’un cœur entier (Isaïe 43:10-12). C’est ce qu’illustre un épisode de la vie d’Asa, qui a été roi de Juda pendant 41 ans (977-937 av. n. è.). Après dix premières années de règne marquées par la paix, le pays a été envahi par une armée de un million d’hommes conduite par Zérah l’Éthiopien. Bien qu’infiniment moins nombreux, Asa et ses hommes sont sortis à la rencontre de l’ennemi. Cependant, avant de livrer bataille, Asa a prononcé une prière fervente, dans laquelle il a exprimé sa confiance dans le pouvoir salvateur de Jéhovah. Implorant son aide, il a dit : “ Sur toi nous nous appuyons et c’est en ton nom que nous sommes venus contre cette foule. Ô Jéhovah, tu es notre Dieu. Que le mortel ne conserve pas de vigueur contre toi. ” En conséquence, Jéhovah a sauvé Juda à cause de son grand nom ; il a donné aux Israélites une victoire totale (2 Chroniques 14:1-15). Qu’il nous délivre de l’épreuve ou qu’il nous donne la force de l’endurer, il est hors de doute que Dieu entend nos appels à l’aide.
Soyons certains que Jéhovah entend tout autant nos requêtes lorsque nous ne savons pas comment agir dans une certaine situation critique. C’est ce qu’a pu vérifier le roi de Juda Yehoshaphat, dont les 25 ans de règne ont commencé en 936 avant notre ère. Quand Juda s’est trouvé menacé par les armées coalisées de Moab, d’Ammôn et de la région montagneuse de Séïr, Yehoshaphat a fait cette supplication : “ Ô notre Dieu, n’exécuteras-tu pas le jugement sur eux ? Car en nous il n’y a pas de force devant cette foule nombreuse qui vient contre nous ; et nous, nous ne savons que faire, mais nos yeux sont tournés vers toi. ” Jéhovah a répondu à cette prière humble : il a combattu en faveur de Juda en semant la confusion dans les rangs des ennemis de sorte que ceux-ci se sont entretués. À la suite de cela, la crainte a saisi les nations d’alentour, et Juda a connu la paix (2 Chroniques 20:1-30). Lorsque nous manquons de la sagesse nécessaire pour résoudre une grave difficulté, reconnaissons, comme Yehoshaphat : ‘ Nous ne savons que faire, mais nos yeux sont tournés vers toi, Jéhovah. ’ L’esprit saint peut nous rappeler alors à la mémoire des pensées bibliques qui nous donneront la solution, à moins que l’aide divine ne revête une forme qui dépasse l’entendement humain. — Romains 8:26, 27.
Avant de recevoir l’aide de Dieu, peut-être nous faudra-t-il persévérer dans la prière. Nehémia a mené deuil, a pleuré, jeûné et prié pendant des jours à propos de la muraille en ruine de Jérusalem et de la situation pitoyable des habitants de Juda (Nehémia 1:1-11). Ses prières sont manifestement montées vers Dieu comme un encens de bonne odeur. Devant la mine abattue de Nehémia, le roi perse Artaxerxès lui a un jour demandé : “ Que cherches-tu donc à obtenir ? ” “ Aussitôt, raconte Nehémia, je priai le Dieu des cieux. ” Cette requête courte et silencieuse a été exaucée : Nehémia a reçu l’autorisation d’accomplir ce qui lui tenait à cœur : se rendre à Jérusalem pour y rebâtir la muraille. — Nehémia 2:1-8.
Jésus nous apprend à prier
De toutes les prières qui ont été conservées dans les Écritures, il en est une particulièrement instructive ; c’est la prière modèle, que Jésus Christ a présentée comme un encens de bonne odeur. Voici ce que nous lisons dans l’Évangile de Luc : “ Un [des] disciples [de Jésus] lui dit : ‘ Seigneur, apprends-nous à prier, comme Jean aussi l’a appris à ses disciples. ’ Alors il leur dit : ‘ Quand vous priez, dites : “ Père, que ton nom soit sanctifié. Que ton royaume vienne. Donne-nous notre pain pour le jour selon les besoins du jour. Et pardonne-nous nos péchés, car nous-mêmes aussi nous pardonnons à tous ceux qui nous doivent ; et ne nous fais pas entrer en tentation. ” ’ ” (Luc 11:1-4 ; Matthieu 6:9-13). Cette prière n’était pas destinée à être récitée, mais plutôt à donner une indication de ce pour quoi il faut prier.
“ Père, que ton nom soit sanctifié. ” Jéhovah accorde à ceux qui le servent et lui sont voués le privilège spécial de l’appeler Père. Comme des enfants qui confient tout à un père qu’ils savent miséricordieux, nous devrions prendre régulièrement le temps d’adresser à Dieu des prières empreintes de dignité et de vénération (Psaume 103:13, 14). Nos prières devraient traduire l’intérêt que nous portons à la sanctification de son nom, que nous aspirons à voir lavé de tout l’opprobre dont il a été couvert. Oui, nous voulons que le nom de Jéhovah soit mis à part et tenu pour saint, ou sacré. — Psaumes 5:11 ; 63:3, 4 ; 148:12, 13 ; Ézékiel 38:23.
“ Que ton royaume vienne. ”
“ Que ton royaume vienne. ” Le Royaume représente la domination que Jéhovah exerce par l’intermédiaire du gouvernement céleste messianique qu’il a confié à son Fils, Jésus, et aux “ saints ” qui lui sont associés (Daniel 7:13, 14, 18, 27 ; Révélation 20:6). Bientôt, ce Royaume ‘ viendra ’ contre tous ceux sur la terre qui s’opposent à la souveraineté divine et il les fera disparaître (Daniel 2:44). Après cela, la volonté de Jéhovah sera faite sur la terre, comme elle l’est au ciel (Matthieu 6:10). Quelle joie ce sera pour toutes les créatures qui servent fidèlement le Souverain de l’univers !
“ Donne-nous notre pain pour le jour selon les besoins du jour. ” En demandant à Jéhovah la nourriture “ pour le jour ”, nous montrons que nous ne cherchons pas à avoir abondance de biens, mais seulement de quoi satisfaire nos besoins quotidiens. Tout en comptant sur Dieu, nous travaillons et mettons à profit les moyens à notre disposition pour nous procurer la nourriture et les autres choses nécessaires à la vie (2 Thessaloniciens 3:7-10). Nous devrions évidemment remercier notre Bienfaiteur céleste, car c’est grâce à son amour, à sa sagesse et à sa puissance que nous avons tout cela. — Actes 14:15-17
“ Pardonne-nous nos péchés, car nous-mêmes aussi nous pardonnons à tous ceux qui nous doivent. ” Étant donné que nous sommes imparfaits et pécheurs, il nous est impossible de nous conformer absolument aux normes parfaites de Jéhovah. Nous avons donc besoin de le prier de nous accorder son pardon en vertu du sacrifice rédempteur de Jésus. Mais pour que ‘ Celui qui entend la prière ’ applique le mérite de ce sacrifice à nos péchés, il nous faut également nous repentir et accepter toute discipline qu’il juge bon de nous administrer (Psaume 65:2 ; Romains 5:8 ; 6:23 ; Hébreux 12:4-11). Enfin, nous ne pouvons nous attendre à ce que Dieu nous pardonne que si nous “ avons remis à nos débiteurs ”, c’est-à-dire à ceux qui ont péché contre nous. — Matthieu 6:12, 14, 15.
“ Ne nous fais pas entrer en tentation. ” Quand la Bible dit que Jéhovah fait telle ou telle chose, c’est parfois simplement pour dire qu’il permet qu’elle se produise (Ruth 1:20, 21). Ce n’est pas lui qui nous tente pour nous faire pécher (Jacques 1:13). Les tentations de commettre le mal viennent du Diable, de notre chair imparfaite et du monde. Satan est le Tentateur qui essaie par ses manœuvres de nous faire pécher contre Dieu (Matthieu 4:3 ; 1 Thessaloniciens 3:5). Lorsque nous prions Dieu de ‘ ne pas nous faire entrer en tentation ’, nous lui demandons en fait de ne pas permettre que nous cédions si nous sommes tentés de lui désobéir. Il peut nous indiquer la voie à suivre pour ne pas succomber ni nous laisser vaincre par Satan, le “ méchant ”. — Matthieu 6:13 ; 1 Corinthiens 10:13.
Agissons en harmonie avec nos prières
Comment pouvons-nous agir en harmonie avec les prières dans lesquelles nous demandons à être heureux en mariage et dans notre vie de famille?
La prière modèle de Jésus aborde les points principaux, mais il y a toutes sortes de choses qui peuvent faire l’objet de nos prières. Ce peut être, par exemple, le désir d’être heureux en mariage ; ou bien celui de rester pur jusqu’au jour des noces. Dans ce cas, prions pour avoir de la maîtrise de soi. Mais soyons également conséquents avec nos prières en rejetant les lectures et les divertissements impurs. Soyons déterminés aussi à ‘ nous marier seulement dans le Seigneur ’. (1 Corinthiens 7:39 ; Deutéronome 7:3, 4.) Une fois mariés, ne nous contentons pas de prier pour être heureux : appliquons les conseils venant de Dieu. Si nous avons des enfants, aspirons-nous à les voir devenir de fidèles serviteurs de Jéhovah ? Alors, tout en priant dans ce sens, faisons tout notre possible pour leur inculquer les vérités divines en étudiant la Bible avec eux et en les emmenant régulièrement aux réunions chrétiennes. — Deutéronome 6:5-9 ; 31:12 ; Proverbes 22:6.
Prions-nous pour que Dieu bénisse notre ministère ? Agissons en harmonie avec ces prières en participant de façon significative à la prédication du Royaume. Si nous prions pour avoir des occasions d’aider les autres à emprunter le chemin de la vie éternelle, ayons soin de bien prendre note des personnes qui manifestent de l’intérêt et soyons prêts à adapter notre programme pour y inclure des études bibliques. Enfin, si nous poursuivons l’objectif de devenir pionniers afin de prendre part à l’œuvre d’évangélisation à plein temps, allons dans le sens de nos prières en augmentant notre participation au ministère et en prêchant avec des pionniers. Nous montrerons ainsi que nous agissons en harmonie avec nos prières.
Si nous servons Jéhovah fidèlement, nous pouvons être certains qu’il répondra aux prières conformes à sa volonté que nous lui adresserons (1 Jean 5:14, 15).. Faisant une comparaison avec l’odeur agréable de l’encens que les prêtres offraient dans le temple, la Parole de Dieu nous donne cette assurance : “ La prière des hommes droits est pour lui un plaisir. ” — Proverbes 15:8.
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Hello Eric, as tu déjà préparé le sujet des joyaux du 10 novembre concernant le but des sacrifices et offrandes, sachant que nous devons d'abord présenter le livre du Lévitique. Comment être concis?· 1 reply
Le but des sacrifices et des offrandes.dot la Mer Morte.pps
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HI TWYLA...DEE GORDON HERE. WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE MY EMAIL ADDRESS YOU SEND MY MEETING WORKBOOK TO. I DON'T USE FACEBOOK BUT WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE TO RECEIVE THE WORKBOOK INFO AND WATCHTOWER NOTES PLEASE . THIS ONE STILL RUNNING YOU HAVE ME SIGNED UP FOR...JUST THAT IT WOULD BE MORE CONVENIENT AT THIS TIME.· 3 replies
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Apprenons à craindre Jéhovah· 3 replies
“ La crainte de Jéhovah est le début de la sagesse. ” — PROVERBES 9:10.
IL FUT un temps où dire de quelqu’un craignait Dieu était un compliment. Beaucoup jugent aujourd’hui désuète et illogique l’idée de craindre Dieu. " Pourquoi craindre Dieu s’il est amour?" s’étonnent-ils. C’est que la crainte est à leurs yeux un sentiment forcément négatif, voire paralysant. Or, la crainte de Dieu, la vraie, est bien autre chose que de la peur et, comme nous allons le voir, elle ne se résume pas à un sentiment.
La Bible présente la crainte de Dieu sous un jour positif (Isaïe 11:3). Craindre Dieu, c’est éprouver envers lui un profond respect et désirer vivement ne pas lui déplaire (Psaume 115:11). C’est aussi accepter ses normes morales et s’y conformer strictement, appliquer dans notre vie ses critères du bien et du mal. Un ouvrage de référence indique que cette crainte salutaire exprime “ un rapport à Dieu, une disposition d’esprit dominante, qui incite à se conduire avec sagesse et à rejeter le mal sous toutes ses formes ”. La Bible dit d’ailleurs que “ la crainte de Jéhovah est le début de la sagesse ”. — Proverbes 9:10.
La crainte de Dieu influe sur de nombreux domaines de l’existence. Outre la sagesse, elle favorise la joie, la paix, la prospérité, la longévité, l’espoir, la confiance (Psaume 2:11 ; Proverbes 1:7 ; 10:27 ; 14:26 ; 22:4 ; 23:17, 18 ; Actes 9:31). Elle est étroitement liée à la foi et à l’amour. Pour tout dire, elle touche tous les aspects de nos relations avec Dieu et avec les humains (Deutéronome 10:12 ; Job 6:14 ; Hébreux 11:7). Craindre Dieu, enfin, c’est avoir la ferme conviction que notre Père céleste se soucie de nous personnellement et qu’il est disposé à pardonner nos transgressions (Psaume 130:4). Il n’y a donc qu’aux pécheurs non repentants que Dieu devrait inspirer de la terreur. — Hébreux 10:26-31.
APPRENONS À CRAINDRE DIEU
Puisqu’il est indispensable de le craindre pour prendre de sages décisions et recevoir ses bénédictions, comment "apprendre à craindre Jéhovah"
dans le bon sens du terme (Deutéronome 17:19) ? De nombreux exemples d’hommes et de femmes qui craignaient Dieu ont été consignés dans les Écritures “ pour notre instruction ”. (Romains 15:4.) Intéressons-nous à la vie de l’un de ces personnages, le roi David.
Saül, le premier roi d’Israël, avait la crainte du peuple, mais pas la crainte de Dieu. Cela lui a valu d’être rejeté par Jéhovah (1 Samuel 15:24-26). David, lui, était un homme qui craignait vraiment Dieu ; sa vie et son intimité avec Jéhovah en témoignent. Les nombreuses nuits à la belle étoile qu’il avait passées dans sa jeunesse à faire paître les moutons de son père l’avaient certainement aidé à comprendre ce qu’est la crainte de Jéhovah (1 Samuel 16:11). De l’immense univers, il n’avait contemplé qu’une infime partie, mais cela lui avait suffi pour saisir l’essentiel : Dieu mérite respect et adoration. “ Quand je vois tes cieux, les œuvres de tes doigts, la lune et les étoiles que tu as préparées, écrira-t-il plus tard, qu’est-ce que le mortel pour que tu penses à lui, et le fils de l’homme tiré du sol pour que tu t’occupes de lui ? ” — Psaume 8:3, 4.
Il était normal que David soit impressionné quand il comparait sa petitesse à l’immensité des cieux étoilés. Mais, loin de l’effrayer, cette connaissance le portait à louer Jéhovah. “ Les cieux proclament la gloire de Dieu, a-t-il écrit ; et l’œuvre de ses mains, l’étendue l’annonce. ” (Psaume 19:1). Ce profond respect le rapprochait de Jéhovah ; il lui donnait envie d’apprendre ses voies parfaites et de les suivre. Percevez-vous les sentiments qui l’habitaient quand il chantait ce psaume : “ Tu es grand et tu fais des choses prodigieuses ; tu es Dieu, toi seul. Instruis-moi de ta voie, ô Jéhovah ! Je marcherai dans ta vérité. Unifie mon cœur pour craindre ton nom. ” — Psaume 86:10, 11.
Quand les Philistins ont envahi le pays d’Israël, leur champion, Goliath, a provoqué les Israélites du haut de ses trois mètres. " Envoyez donc quelqu’un m’affronter en combat singulier ! les narguait-il. S’il me bat, nous serons vos serviteurs. " (1 Samuel 17:4-10). Saül et toute son armée étaient terrifiés. Mais pas David. S’il devait craindre quelqu’un, c’était Jéhovah, et non un homme, si fort soit-il. “ Je viens vers toi avec le nom de Jéhovah des armées, a-t-il lancé à Goliath. [...] Et toute cette assemblée saura que ce n’est ni par l’épée ni par la lance que Jéhovah sauve réellement, car à Jéhovah appartient la bataille. ” Grâce à Jéhovah, une fronde et une pierre ont suffi à David pour abattre le géant. — 1 Samuel 17:45-47.
Il peut arriver que nous nous trouvions devant des obstacles ou des ennemis aussi intimidants que ceux qu’a dû affronter David. Que faire alors ? Imiter David et d’autres fidèles du passé en s’armant de la crainte de Dieu. La crainte de Dieu l’emporte sur la crainte de l’homme. À ses compatriotes en butte à l’opposition, le fidèle Nehémia a adressé cette exhortation : “ N’ayez pas peur à cause d’eux. Souvenez-vous de Jéhovah le Grand et le Redoutable. ” (Nehémia 4:14). C’est parce qu’ils avaient son soutien que David, Nehémia et d’autres ont réussi à faire ce que Jéhovah attendait d’eux. Nous le pourrons également si nous craignons Dieu.
Après celle sur Goliath, Jéhovah a accordé d’autres victoires à David. Jaloux, Saül a tenté de tuer le jeune homme, d’abord dans un geste de colère, puis par des moyens détournés, enfin en mobilisant toute une armée contre lui. Même si David avait reçu l’assurance qu’il serait roi, pendant des années il a dû fuir, se battre, et attendre le moment fixé par Jéhovah. Dans toutes ces situations, il ne s’est jamais départi de sa crainte du vrai Dieu. — 1 Samuel 18:9, 11, 17 ; 24:2.
À un moment donné, David s’est réfugié auprès d’Akish, le roi de Gath, ville philistine d’où était originaire Goliath (1 Samuel 21:10-15). Les serviteurs d’Akish l’ont dénoncé comme ennemi. Comment a-t-il réagi à cette situation périlleuse ? Il s’est confié à Jéhovah de tout son cœur (Psaume 56:1-4, 11-13). Il s’est finalement sorti du guêpier en simulant la démence, mais il était bien conscient de devoir son salut à Jéhovah, qui avait béni son stratagème. David a prouvé qu’il craignait vraiment Dieu en plaçant toute sa confiance en lui. — Psaume 34:4-6, 9-11.
À l’exemple de David, nous montrerons que nous craignons Dieu en ayant confiance en sa promesse de nous aider dans les épreuves. “ Roule ta voie sur Jéhovah, compte sur lui, et c’est lui qui agira ”, a affirmé David (Psaume 37:5). Cela ne veut pas dire qu’il faut mettre nos problèmes entre les mains de Jéhovah sans rien faire d’autre qu’attendre son intervention. David ne s’est pas contenté de prier et de voir venir. Il a cherché une solution à son problème en utilisant les capacités physiques et intellectuelles dont Jéhovah l’avait doté. Pour autant, il ne pensait pas que ses efforts d’humain suffiraient. Cette façon de voir devrait aussi être la nôtre. Faisons tout ce qui est en notre pouvoir, puis laissons Jéhovah se charger du reste. Cela étant, il est fréquent que nous ne puissions rien faire d’autre que compter sur Jéhovah. C’est là que la crainte de Dieu revêt un caractère très personnel. Combien est réconfortante cette réflexion de David : “ L’intimité avec Jéhovah appartient à ceux qui le craignent. ” — Psaume 25:14.
Il s’agit donc de ne pas banaliser nos prières et nos relations avec Dieu. Lorsque nous nous ‘ avançons ’ vers Jéhovah, nous devons “ croire qu’il est, et qu’il devient celui qui récompense ceux qui le cherchent réellement ”. (Hébreux 11:6 ; Jacques 1:5-8.) Et quand il vient à notre aide, il nous faut, conformément au conseil de l’apôtre Paul, ‘ nous montrer reconnaissants ’. (Colossiens 3:15, 17.) Ne ressemblons jamais à ceux dont un chrétien oint expérimenté a dit : “ Ils prennent Dieu pour une sorte de garçon de café. Ils aimeraient qu’il réponde à un claquement de doigts dès qu’ils ont besoin de quelque chose, et qu’il disparaisse dès qu’ils ont eu ce qu’ils voulaient. ” Où est leur crainte de Dieu ?
Le fait que Jéhovah l’ait secouru a augmenté la confiance et la crainte que David éprouvait envers lui (Psaume 31:22-24). Trois fois, cependant, David a mis notablement sa crainte de Dieu entre parenthèses, ce qui a eu des conséquences tragiques. La première fois, c’est quand il a décidé de faire transporter l’arche de l’alliance à Jérusalem sur un chariot, et non sur les épaules des Lévites comme le prescrivait la Loi. Ouzza, qui conduisait le chariot, a saisi l’Arche pour l’empêcher de tomber. Dieu l’a fait mourir sur le champ pour cet “ acte d’irrévérence ”. Certes, Ouzza avait commis un péché grave, mais c’est bien David qui, pour n’avoir pas respecté la Loi divine, était responsable de ce drame. Craindre Dieu suppose que l’on fasse les choses comme lui l’entend. — 2 Samuel 6:2-9 ; Nombres 4:15 ; 7:9.
Une autre fois, sous l’impulsion de Satan, David a procédé au dénombrement des hommes de guerre en Israël (1 Chroniques 21:1). Là encore, il a cessé momentanément de craindre Dieu, ce qui a coûté la vie à 70 000 de ses compatriotes. Bien qu’il se soit repenti devant Jéhovah, lui et le peuple ont beaucoup souffert en la circonstance. — 2 Samuel 24:1-16
C’est aussi parce qu’il avait oublié sa crainte de Dieu que David a couché avec Bath-Shéba, la femme d’Ouriya. David savait qu’il était mal, non seulement de commettre l’adultère, mais aussi de désirer la femme d’un autre (Exode 20:14, 17). Tout a commencé quand il a aperçu Bath-Shéba qui se baignait. La crainte de Dieu lui commandait de détourner son regard immédiatement et de maîtriser ses pensées. Mais il a manifestement ‘ continué à regarder ’, si bien que la passion l’a emporté sur sa crainte de Dieu (Matthieu 5:28 ; 2 Samuel 11:1-4). David a oublié que Jéhovah devait être présent dans tous les domaines de sa vie. — Psaume 139:1-7.
De son adultère avec Bath-Shéba est né un fils. Peu après, Jéhovah a envoyé le prophète Nathân dénoncer le péché de David. Retrouvant la crainte de Dieu en même temps que la raison, celui-ci s’est repenti. Il a supplié Jéhovah de ne pas le rejeter et de ne pas lui retirer son esprit saint (Psaume 51:7, 11). Jéhovah lui a pardonné et a atténué le châtiment, mais il ne lui a pas épargné toutes les conséquences de ses actes. Le fils de David est mort ; les malheurs se sont succédé dans sa famille. Quel prix à payer pour avoir momentanément fait abstraction de la crainte de Dieu ! — 2 Samuel 12:10-14 ; 13:10-14 ; 15:14.
Aujourd’hui de même, ne pas craindre Dieu dans le domaine de la moralité peut avoir des conséquences graves et durables. Imaginez la douleur de cette jeune femme qui découvre que son mari chrétien l’a trompée lors d’un déplacement professionnel à l’étranger. Choquée, anéantie par le chagrin, elle enfouit son visage dans ses mains et pleure toutes les larmes de son corps. Combien de temps faudra-t-il au mari infidèle pour regagner la confiance et le respect de sa femme ? Des situations aussi pénibles peuvent être évitées grâce à la crainte de Dieu. — 1 Corinthiens 6:18.
Satan détruit les valeurs morales de la société humaine les unes après les autres, et il cherche particulièrement à corrompre les vrais chrétiens. Pour ce faire, il exploite le chemin le plus direct vers le cœur et l’esprit : nos sens, avec une prédilection pour l’ouïe et la vue (Éphésiens 4:17-19). Comment réagissez-vous quand, involontairement, vous vous trouvez exposé à des images ou à des paroles obscènes, ou encore en présence d’individus immoraux ?
Voyez le cas d’André. Cet ancien et père de famille est médecin dans un pays d’Europe. Quand il était de garde de nuit à l’hôpital, des collègues féminines avaient pris l’habitude d’épingler sur son oreiller des mots doux ornés de petits cœurs pour l’inviter à coucher avec elles. André s’interdisait résolument d’accorder la moindre pensée à ces avances. Mieux, pour se soustraire à cet environnement malsain, il a changé d’établissement. Sa crainte de Dieu s’est révélée sage et lui a valu des bénédictions, puisqu’il effectue aujourd’hui une partie de ses activités au siège des Témoins de Jéhovah de son pays.
Troquer nos précieuses relations avec Jéhovah contre quelque chose auquel nous n’avons pas droit : voilà où nous risquons d’en arriver en cultivant de mauvaises pensées (Jacques 1:14, 15). Si nous craignons Jéhovah, en revanche, nous nous tiendrons éloignés — et même nous nous écarterons délibérément — des gens, des lieux, des activités ou des divertissements qui pourraient nous faire baisser notre garde (Proverbes 22:3). Quel que soit l’inconvénient ou le sacrifice que cela implique, il n’est rien à côté de la perte de la faveur divine (Matthieu 5:29, 30). La crainte de Dieu nous commande de ne jamais nous exposer intentionnellement à quoi que ce soit d’immoral — à commencer par la pornographie sous toutes ses formes —, mais aussi de faire en sorte que nos yeux “ passent sans s’arrêter à la vue de ce qui n’est que néant ”. Soyons convaincus que Jéhovah, alors, nous ‘ gardera en vie ’ et nous donnera tout ce dont nous avons réellement besoin. — Psaume 84:11 ; 119:37.
Assurément, c’est toujours faire preuve de sagesse que de laisser la crainte de Dieu dicter nos actions. C’est aussi la source du vrai bonheur (Psaume 34:9)
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