ROFL!!! This is soooo FUN and sooooo FUNNY at the same time! I checked the PDF and the only paragraph I saw that was to be totally deleted and thus skipped was this one: Chapter 18, Paragraph 17:
As John goes on to show, the great earthquake is accompanied by terrifying events that involve even the heavens. He says: "And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the entire moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as when a fig tree shaken by a high wind casts its unripe figs." (Revelation 6:12b, 13) What a striking phenomenon! It represents the culmination of the catastrophic situation that Jesus had earlier prophesied about at Matthew 24:29. Can you imagine the frightening darkness that would result if the prophecy were fulfilled literally? No more warm, comforting sunlight by day! No more friendly, silvery moonlight by night! And the myriad stars would no longer twinkle against the velvety backdrop of the sky. Instead, there would be cold, relentless blackness.
FREELANCE GUESS AND ANALYSIS: My best guess why this paragraph is skipped is because the WTS has had two interpretations of Matthew 24:29. This is connected with when the "sign of the son of man appears" and those who see it beating themselves in lamentation. First it's the wicked who see Christ coming about to destroy them, so they are freaking out. But then someone figured out this was "sympathetic" recognition of the messiah and these are some actual last-minute converts. It's also possible this paragraph seems to interpret the "darkness" literally rather than figuratively. I don't think they are really sure about how this prophecy is fulfilled so they decided just to skip it entirely for now.
But I'll tell you what it really referes to. It refers to spiritual darkness of the temple organization, who is represented as the fig tree. This is paralleled by the ten virgins who all "nod" and their lamps dim just before the messiah arrives. This is when Christ comes to separate the wheat from the weeds, the sheep from the goats and harvest the grapes. But it is also the time when he treads the great winepress of the unfaithful anointed. It's a time when the messiah, as Lazarus, torments the "Rich Man". The reference to the moon turning into blood is a simple reference to an eclipse as well, generally meaning spiritual insight would be withheld from the WTS and they would be thrown into spiritual darkness when the messiah arrives and identifies them as the "evil slave," "false prophet," and "man of lawlessness."
In the next verse it mentions that a scroll will be rolled up:
the heaven departed as a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and every island were removed from their places.""And
This represents books of the Bible that had been long considered to be part of the official Bible canon that would now be removed from the Bible as inspired. Those scrolls "rolled up" that would thus be dismissed by the messiah as non-inspired are the three books not cross-referenced by the NT Bible writers which are: ECCLESIASTES, ESTHER and SONG OF SOLOMON. Note this reference in the "Insight" volume about identifying apocryphal writings, one of my favorite quotes:
ancient testimony. One of the chief external evidences against the canonicity of the Apocrypha is the fact that none of the Christian Bible writers quoted from these books. While this of itself is not conclusive, inasmuch as their writings are also lacking in quotations from a few books recognized as canonical, such as Esther, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Solomon, yet the fact that not one of the writings of the Apocrypha is quoted even once is certainly significant. (Insight, "Apocrypha" page 121 (Vol 1))Additional
HELLLOOO? !!!! Hint, hint! Esther, Ecclesiastes and SOS are NOT inspired. Esther is historically inaccurate and SOS is clearly a pagan book. Sooo.
Anyway, as prophesied, at this point the WTS is totally DARK. No spiritual food coming from them now. And they are totally confused about what is going on spiritually. They have the wrong date for the 2nd coming, they think the messiah's second coming is invisible when he appears in the flesh as the Bible says, they think they are the FDS when they are the failed FDS and the "evil slave" and Jehovah is not giving them any light. In fact, he is going out of his way to EMBARRASS them! Case in point, the WTS chronology by the time of Solomon is some 67 years earlier than the pagan chronology, which itself is 54 years earlier than the Biblical timeline. We now have scientific confirmation for the year of Shishak's invasion based upon RC14 dating! Archaeologists are already criticizing the Bible for events that occur just 54 years too early, like David and Solomon which are not supported archaeologically for the earlier secular-based dates. So it is a TOTAL JOKE that JWs are dating these events even earlier. They add 20 years during the NB Period and then stubbornly decided among themselves that there were no overlapping co-rulerships when the secular chronologists include some 47-49 years of co-rulerships. That results in the WTS' dates being 67 years earlier than the secular dates. All the archaeology in place now, though, points to later times, completely consistent with and confirmatory of the Biblical timeline.
http://www.geocities.com/ed_maruyama/rehov872.html
This was FUN!! Thanks.
JCanon