Star Fallen from Heaven ... Christ? Revelation 9:1 Study this Week

by jgnat 26 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  jgnat

  Heck, if hubby asks me to study, you guys get to study along with me, too. This week we are studying the first paragraphs of Chapter 22, "The First Woe - Locusts" from the study book, "Revelation, It's Grand Climax at Hand". I can't pass paragraph six without commenting.

  First of all, here's the paragraph in its entirety. Weep for me, I type this by hand. Colored highlighting mine.

  6 Revelation, written some 26 years after Jerusalem’s destruction, also describes that plague. What does it add to Joel's description? Let us take up the record, as reported by John "And the fifth angel blew his trumpet. And I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the pit of the abyss was given him." (Revelation 9:1)

  This "star" is different from that at Revelation 8:10 that John saw in the act of falling. He sees "a star that had fallen from heaven" and that now has an assignment with respect to this earth. Is this a spirit or fleshly person? The holder of his "key of the pit of the abyss" is later described as hurling Satan into "the abyss." (Revelation 20:1-3) So he must be a mighty spirit person. At Revelation 9:11, John tells us that the locusts have "a king, the angel of the abyss" Both verses must refer to the same individua l, since the angel holding the key of the abyss would logically be the angel of the abyss. And the star must symbolize Jehovah's appointed King, since anointed Christians acknowledge only one angelic King, Jesus Christ - Colossians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:25.

  Note how vehement the Watchtower language becomes, the more shaky the conclusion. I’ve highlighted the series of assumptions that lead to Jesus Christ. I am surprised that current literature continues to assert that Jesus is an angel.

  By comparison, here is another commentary on the same verse. Note the careful use of language. No "musts" or "logical" here. A prophetic vision, by it’s nature, will have a cautious interpretation. Unless you are Daniel, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, or JCanon of course.

  http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/comm_read.pl?book=Rev&chapter=9&verse=1&Comm=Comm%2Fmhc%2FRev%2FRev009.html%231%26Matthew%26Henry&Select.x=18&Select.y=11

  It is not complimentary to put Jesus in charge of a great, dark cloud. As the linked commentary points out so well, darkness is the opposite of light.

  Heck, it’s not complimentary to compare the great crowd of Witnesses, swarming from door to door with their message, as locusts. Locusts destroy all that is in their path. They are a dreaded plague on the earth.
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  carla

  I have no comment biblically, how do you do it week after week? You study with him or help him prepare every week? How does that work out when you put in your two cents? or does he have you help out so one day you will finally see the light? Hope he's not holding his breath!
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  jgnat

  I don't do it every week any more. I've got my reasons, I'm sending you a PM.
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  fresia

  jgnat I think you have been so very supportive of you're husband, I hope that he appreciates it. All the best.
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  Doubting Bro

  I've been questioning/researching all the WTS teachings and had forgotten about this little gem. Just a quick reading of the verse would seem to indicate that the fallen angel is referring to Satan not Jesus. It was kind of funny to watch the mental gymnastics at the CBS trying to explain this one. And, then the blah blah blah about how the "locust class" (how many classes can the same group of people belong to?) torments those who don't have the mark of God to the point they want to kill themselves. I'm sure "Christendom"'s clergy were just jumping off bridges after the "hard hitting" False Religion's End is Near campaign last year. I'm suprised there are any clergy left. Most people don't know anything about these "stinging messages" just that JWs don't take blood, celebrate holidays and annoy them from time to time at their door.

  Also, how are the locust Gods servants when there is specific instruction to not harm Gods servants only the "unrighteous"? Even locust don't go after their own. Wouldn't they be ordered to nail everyone? The WTS explaination is that the unrighteous are only the clergy because they should know better. Yet, the WTS will also tell you that everyone not a "true servant" or baptized JW will likely not survive the big A because they're unrighteous. So, which is it??

  Sorry, but I was really annoyed after the BS last night. The Rev book shows me just how crazy the WTS prophetic i nterpretations really are.

  Jnat, interesting link to the Blue Letter Bible. I'm saving that one.
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  Honesty

  Poor dubs.

  They don't have a clue.

  The star is satan and he is their king.
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  changeling

  What a great wife you are!

  changeling
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  Leolaia

  The notion of falling stars representing sinful fallen angels goes back to the Jewish apocalypse 1 Enoch:

  1 Enoch 18:14-16: "This place is the ultimate end of heaven and earth: it is the prison house for the stars and the powers of heaven. And the stars which roll over upon the fire, they are the ones which have transgressed the commandments of God from the beginning of their rising because they did not arrive punctually. And he was wroth with them and bound them until the time of the completion of their sin."

  1 Enoch 21:6: "These are among the stars of heaven which have transgressed the commandments of God and are bound in this place until the completion of ten million years, according to the number of their sins."

  1 Enoch 88:1-3: "He seized that first star that had fallen from heaven, and he bound it by its hands and feet and threw it into an abyss, and that abyss was narrow and deep and desolate and dark...One of those four who had come forth hurled stones from heaven and gathered and took all the great stars, whose organs were like the organs of horses, and bound all of them by their hands and their feet, and threw them into an abyss of the earth".

  Compare Jude 6, 13: "And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day....wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever".
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  jgnat

  NOW THAT makes much more sense, Leolaia. I was wondering what a convention in 1919, a Golden Age proclamation, and a few men languishing in jail had to do with clouds of locusts and falling stars.
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  Guest with Questions

  jgnat: When I first heard about this a few years I really thought it was just a rumour because it seemed too absurd even for the witnesses but when I looked into it I found it to be true. I asked my mother for the magazine and suprisingly she gave it to me. I still have the scans on my computer. I post them here for anyone that is interested. I just noticed that page 9 is missing. If anyone wants it I will scan it and post it here.