God's Sacred Secret -- Its Glorious Climax!

“The sacred secret comes to its happy climax! Gloriously, magnificently, it is brought to a triumphant finish in 1914 when the Lord Jehovah enthrones his Christ as associate King…. When the sounding of the seven trumpets got under way in 1922, the Bible Students’ convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, featured a talk by J. F. Rutherford based on the scripture ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’… The trumpet blast of the seventh angel was reflected in highlights of the Bible Students’ convention in Detroit, Michigan, July 30-August 6, 1928… Here, then, is the third woe. It comes quickly! It is Jehovah’s means of bringing ruination to those who desecrate his ‘footstool,’ this lovely earth on which we live. It is set in motion by the Messianic Kingdom—the sacred secret of God. God’s enemies, and Christendom’s leaders in particular, have been tormented by the first two woes—resulting principally from the locust plague and the armies of cavalry; but the third woe, which Jehovah’s Kingdom itself administers, brings more than torment. It provides the death stroke in ousting a ruinous human society and its rulers. This will come as the climax of Jehovah’s judging at Armageddon…” Revelation, Its Grand Climax is at Hand

According to the Grand Climax commentary the awesome angelic trumpeters long ago sounded notice that Jehovah’s glorious purpose had been accomplished back in 1914. The seventh and final trumpet was supposedly sounded 80 years ago, in 1928, and was reflected in a long-since forgotten public address by Joseph Rutherford. According to the Watchtower God's glorious purpose has already been concluded!

Reasonably, thoguh, the symbolic trumpet blasts heralding the revelation of Jehovah’s judgments are sounded as an immediate prelude, before such judgments are carried out. Obviously that has not been the case with the seventh trumpet, which is intended to serve notice of the finale; when God brings ruination upon the ruiners of the earth.

This is simply another evidence that the Watchtower Society’s 1914 parousia doctrine is nothing more than an artfully contrived false story.

THE TWO WITNESSES ARE KILLED

Below is an excerpt from the Revelation chapter in the book Jehovah Himself Has Become King:

Concerning the great earthquake that kills “seven thousand persons,” the Grand Climax commentary claims that the revival of the Bible Students resulted in “great convulsions in the realm of religion,” and that “the ground seemed to move under the leaders of the established churches as this body of revivified Christians got to work.” Oddly, again, Christendom seemingly has no recollection of that cataclysmic earth-moving experience of nearly a century ago. Even more absurd, the Society claims that the seven thousand killed by the quake were individuals who were formerly churchgoers before 1918, but who merely requested to have their names removed from their respective church membership rosters; and were thus only symbolically killed from Christendom’s standpoint. Specifically, the Grand Climax book states:

“The “seven thousand” and the “tenth of the city” in Revelation 11:13 are those who respond to the restored two witnesses and abandon the sinful great city. They die, as it were, to Christendom. Their names are taken off her membership roles. They no longer exist as far as she is concerned.”

As for the significance of how “the rest became frightened and gave glory to God” the Grand Climax offers the following highly inventive explanation:

“But how did ‘the rest [of Christendom] give glory to the God of heaven’? Certainly not by abandoning their apostate religion and becoming servants of God…To her chagrin, Christendom had to acknowledge that the God of the Bible Students had performed a great act in restoring them to Christian activity. It may be that the clergy gave this acknowledgment only mentally, or to themselves. Certainly, none of them went on record as publicly acknowledging the God of the two witnesses. But Jehovah’s prophecy through John helps us to discern what was in their hearts and realize the humiliating shock that they experienced in 1919.”

It should be evident to thinking persons that the Watchtower’s 1914 teaching is entirely artificial and contrived and does not pass the test of being an authentic and reliable interpretation of the grand apocalyptic vision. In view of the Watchtower’ unsatisfactory teachings, how might the second woe actually unfold in the future? What is the meaning of the seven thousand who are killed in a great earthquake that causes a tenth of the city to fall?

THE TWO WITNESSES

The Watchtower teaches that the two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, which are depicted in Revelation preaching for 42 months, was fulfilled by the International Bible students during the First World War.

The 12th paragraph of this week’s lesson states: "The John class had to preach this message for a definitely stated time: 1,260 days, or 42 months, the same length of time that the holy city was to be trampled underfoot. This period seems to be literal, since it is expressed in two different ways, first in months and then in days. Additionally, at the beginning of the Lord’s day, there was a marked period of three and a half years when the hard experiences of God’s people matched the events prophesied here—starting in December 1914 and continuing to June 1918. They preached a “sackcloth” message concerning Jehovah’s judgment of Christendom and the world."

Just how it is that the Bible Students may have preached in sackcloth is not clearly explained. In reality, the activity of the Bible Students during the period from 1914 through 1917 does not appear to have been very much different then during the period prior to that time. In fact, the Watchtower even admits as much. For instance the Kingdom Proclaimers book states on page 423: “During the early years of the war, there was little hindrance except in Germany and France. Tracts were freely distributed in many places, and there was continued use of the “Photo-Drama,” though on a much more limited scale after 1914.”

The release of the Photo-Drama of Creation in 1914 was really the pinnacle of the Watchtower Society’s efforts to educate the public. And as the Proclaimers book acknowledges, the Photo-Drama was presented to audiences in America and Europe, with two notable exceptions, all during the period of the First World War. So, if the Society was the embodiment of the symbolic “two witnesses” there is simply no evidence that they were made to preach in a mournful and lowly state, as is symbolized by the sackcloth.

The truth is, the Society’s 1914 teaching and the interpretation of the two witnesses of Revelation are merely artfully contrived false stories. (See commentary: Do you believe the Lie?)

For a fuller discussion of the two witnesses see the article The Revelation of Christ and the Two Witnesses.