March
2007
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness
and reverence - 1 Peter 3:15
1935
Perhaps no religious group in the world has made
more predictions giving specific dates than the Jehovah's Witnesses.
They are especially good at dates concerning things that have happened
invisibily and to no one else.
In 1914 the Lord Jesus returned invisibly. In
1935 God decreed that now no new believers would enter into heaven.
No other organization heard these invisible instructions. 1935 was
the cutoff date for the 144,000 anointed ones who would go to heaven.
This select group of people would come primarily from modern day
Jehovah's Witnesses. Faithful witnesses today will NOT go to heaven,
but have the hope of life forever on a paradise earth.
The September 15, 1997 Watchtower page 14 and
15 gives this information about the 1935 generation:
" And for over 60 years now, God has been
using these anointed ones to spearhead the work of making disciples
of people to whom he has given the wonderful hope of life eternal
on a paradise earth. The Watchtower's anointed class is preaching
its last message to a generation which is quickly coming to a close.
No wonder Jehovah's Witnesses who have longed for the end for so
long have accepted this message with a renewed excitement. This
is the end of a long line of predictions from the Society and the
last chance for the 1935 generation of Watchtower survivors to enter
into paradise alive."
The following month complimented this indicating
that following 1935 witnesses now were refraining from taking the
"memorial" (Lord's Supper), which was for the anointed
only. Their hope was an earthly hope because the Watchtower said
so. From the Watchtower October 1, 1997 page 23 they say:
In 1935 we came to understand that the "great
crowd" was not a secondary heavenly class. We learned that
it instead represents a class that survives the great tribulation
and has the opportunity of living forever in Paradise on earth.
(Revelation 7:9-14) With this new understanding, some who had partaken
of the Memorial emblems realized that theirs was an earthly hope,
and they discontinued partaking.
At the turn of the millennium, the Watchtower
admitted this remnant class is very old but they won't all die before
the great tribulation:
Most of the remnant are quite elderly, and
over the years the number of those who are truly anointed has been
getting smaller. Yet, referring to the great tribulation, Jesus
stated: "Unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be
saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut
short." (Mathew 24:21,22) Evidently, then, some of Christ's
"chosen ones" will still be on Earth when the great tribulation
begins. (The Watchtower Jan 15, 2000 pg 13)
It is hard to imagine, that an organization can
claim to be a faithful spokesman for God, and develop and modify
dates that are no where seen in the Bible. Furthermore, given this
insight concerning 1935 and those that lived in that day, the anointed
from that date are almost entirely dead by now. Where is the predicted
return.
This seems like a close parallel to those scribes
and Pharisees that Jesus criticized:
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither
go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go
in. (Matt 23:13)
All that experience the new birth will enter into
heaven and spend eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ. Witnesses
are told they don't have to be born again since this only applies
to the 144,000. Jesus however said "unless one is born again
he can not see the kingdom of God."
In I John 5:1 salvation comes to "Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." No restrictions.
John 1:12 says "But to as many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become the Children of God."
What a blessed hope that all who are children
of God by Faith in the Gospel, we will see Him and dwell with our
Lord for all eternity.
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