When I picked up this copy of the WT, I couldn't believe what I saw in the two study articles. The first one is entitled "Our Watchfulness Takes On Greater Urgency" and the second article is "Prove Yourselves Ready for Jehovah's Day".
I'm not going to go into these articles in depth, as that is Blondies job! but I will elaborate on a few points.
Before I begin, let's consider a recent comment at the Annual General Meeting by Bro Barr, a GB member to put things into perspective:
Our 2004 year text, Matt. 24:42, is very timely indeed. As Brother Barr pointed out in his talk, even among us there is NOT A SENSE OF READINESS, as we are always sidetracked by the lures of this system of things. At the annual meeting yesterday Bro. Barr gave a wonderful talk on the new year text which is: Matthew 24:42, (this part only) "Keep on the watch,.....Prove yourselves ready," He spoke about no one knowing the day or hour, only the Father. Therefore the admonition to be ready at anytime or any day. He emphasized that in Noah's day they took no note. They said that even among Jehovah's people there is not a sense of readiness. We are getting side-tracked due to the fact that the end has not come yet. We need to strengthen one another.
The fist article, "Our Watchfulness Takes On Greater Urgency" starts off with a quick review by Bill Emmott of the 20th century in paragraph 1. Paragraph 2 tells us about the composite sign of Jesus' presence and paragraph 3 makes the following comment:
How do you view the worsening trend in human affairs? Many are indifferent, even callous, to distressing events of the day. The world's influential and intellectual men do not discern the meaning of "the signs of the times"; neither have religious leaders given proper guidance in this matter." Jesus admonished his followers to "keep on the watch". To keep on the watch we must be vigilant. This requires more than simply acknowledging that we are living in the last days, more than recognizing that times are hard....Only then will our watchfulness take on a sense of urgency. Hence, the question that we must reflect on is: 'What will help us to strengthen our conviction that the end is near?'
My take is on this, is the Society believe that they are the only ones who think we live in the time of the end. While it's true that the average man in the street doesn't talk about or know about the end times, there are hundreds of websites out there that are about the end times prophecy, and these are not witness sites. the Society seems to think that being intellectual is a liability for some reason. Is it good to be dumb?
Then in paragraphs 4 and 5 you have the Noachian account, how they were all eating and drinking and took no note till the flood came and swept them all away. Another cut and paste artwork shows Noah building his ark on page 15.
Paragraph 7 says the following
"After being given divine warning of things not yet beheld," says the apostle Paul, "Noah showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household." What about us? Some 90 years have passed since the last days of this system of things began in 1914. We are certainly in "the time of the end." How should we respond to the warnings we have been given?...Now is the time to do Jehovah's will with a keen sense of urgency.
Can anyone spot the delibarate mistake?! Not only are we living in the last days, we are also living in the time of the end. How can we be living in two time periods at the same time? When will they get it, that the last days were for the Jewish people living at the time, or just before the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Not only that, but they actually acknowledge that we are now 90 years from the date that Christ supposedly came invisibly and set up his kingdom. 10 years ago, they were still spouting the 1914 generation doctrine, now they are blaming us for the kingdom delay. How much more hypocritical can you get than that?
paragraph 8 continues...
In modern times, sincere students of the Bible have learned from the inspired Scriptures that this system is doomed to destruction. Do we believe this?
It is obvious that many witnesses do not believe this the GB would see no need to write this. Witnesses are just not bothering to reach out and pioneer, as is eveidenced by the slow decline of fulltime regular pioneers.
Paragraph 9 states the following...
Jehovah has kept these warnings in front of his people by means of timely reminders through the spiritual food provided by the faithful and discreet slave class.
Once again, Jehovah = faithful and discreet slave
Jehovah's timely reminders = faithful and discreet slave watchtowers
Some timely spiritual reminders are as follows...
Millions now living will never die.
Why can you look forward to 1975?
The generation of 1914 that will see the conclusion of the system of things.
Towards the end of the article, they talk about how widespread the preaching work is, how 25,000,000 mags are printed even though the population of earth is over 6 billion and 6.5 million JW's have 6.5 million of those 25 million magazines as personal copies. Yet again, those surviving out of earth's billions will be few.
Paragraph 22 is unbelieveable
Today, Jesus Christ is directing a tremendous spiritual buidling work. For the security and survival of true worshippers, an ark-like spiritual paradise exists. To be preserved thorugh the great tribulation, we must remain in that paradise.
I won't even bother with the 2nd article, it's more of the "keep on the watch stuff".
