Quote: "Only this organization functions for Jehovah's purpose and to his praise. To it alone God's Sacred Word, the Bible, is not a sealed book." The Watchtower; July 1, 1973, pp. 402.
What does the WT mean that the bible is not a sealed book?
question about 'sealed book"
by bite me 15 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Homerovah the Almighty
What I get out of that statement, it is only their organization that the bible is not sealed to understanding of its complete words and meaning.
What that is, is just self promotional propaganda, (were're it the others are not.)
This publishing house does have its own marketing strategy that is more than obvious.
This also is in part how they mentally regulate people to their control.
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VoidEater
No one else can understand the Bible correctly.
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blondie
In the book of Daniel, we read: "Go, Daniel, because the words are made secret and sealed up until the time of the end."
Because the WTS now feels that the time of the end began in 1914, the Bible is no longer sealed in their opinion.
*** w73 7/1 p. 402 par. 4 Praise Jehovah with His People ***
Consider, too, the fact that Jehovah’s organization alone, in all the earth, is directed by God’s holy spirit or active force. (Zech. 4:6) Only this organization functions for Jehovah’s purpose and to his praise. To it alone God’s Sacred Word, the Bible, is not a sealed book. Many persons of the world are very intelligent, capable of understanding complex matters. They can read the Holy Scriptures, but they cannot understand their deep meaning. Yet God’s people can comprehend such spiritual things. Why? Not because of special intelligence on their part, but as the apostle Paul declared: "For it is to us God has revealed them through his spirit, for the spirit searches into all things, even the deep things of God." (1 Cor. 2:10) Jesus Christ praised his heavenly Father for ‘hiding such things from the wise and intellectual ones but revealing them to babes.’ (Matt. 11:25) How very much true Christians appreciate associating with the only organization on earth that understands the "deep things of God"!
By God's people, they mean only the anointed men in New York. Many jws would be surprised to know that non-anointed jws, men and women, write most of the material in the WT publications today. Note again how the WTS says it is the only source or channel and that the Bible can only be understood through the use of WT publications.
*** w61 11/1 p. 668 The Bible Spread by Jehovah’s Witnesses ***
How does one show appreciation of this choice treasure? Merely by using it himself? Of course not! He shows appreciation of it by spreading copies of it among the people. But that is not all. For most persons it is a sealed book, as noted by Isaiah 29:11 and Revelation 22:10, which is our text for the month. It reads: "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, for the appointed time is near." Not that one literally seals the Bible but that he could become responsible for its continuing as a sealed book if he did not offer people Bible-study aids and call back and help them to gain understanding.
Blondie
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bobld
Blondie makes a good point.If God revealed things to Paul 1Cor 2:10 and Paul preached in the 1st Century, why did it take 1900 years to understand what he was preaching?ie 1914
PS Only God reveals sacred secrets to GB/FDS but when Father Time proves them wrong.They get behind the "light gets brighter" only to be proved wrong by F.T.
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JCanon
Yes, but only now, because the WTS has proven to be the unfaithful slave, as prophecied, when Christ comes in the night while they are asleep, he steals their outer garment and casts them out and everybody looks upon their nakedness. That is, the glorious garments of being a wise prophet are gone. Like the "Rich Man" they are in torment when Christ, the Lazarus comes, who has been granted the advanced knowledge and does not give even a cool drop of water to wet the parched tongue of the Rich Man who has only been left outdated and erroneous information to preach.
But this is a prime example of who they have promoted themselves among the witnesses as having divine knowledge and understanding. This trips them up later because once someone, like me or others provide better truth, then it seems as though Jehovah has granted us the correct understanding before he has provided it to them and thus it is a snub. It is especially a snub if after this advanced public knowledge is understood that they themselves do not correct these false teachings. But when they don't, it verifies who they have truly become, an organization more focussed on keeping the numbers and members in line than focussing on advanced spiritual things. And it confirms they are no different than any other false religion out there which has their own motives.
But also, part of the torment of the Rich Man, who actually represents the GB of JW, is the fact that while the masses of witnesses who are long put to sleep spiritually by the Watchtower, can see the truth that Lazarus has, and that torments them as well. Their high position has become low, and the low position of Lazarus has become high; just as the Bible prophesied. They want Lazarus to help them. They at one point recognize his superiority and blessed position by Jehovah. They are willing to step aside and let Lazarus take over; however, that is not Jehovah's arrangement. They want Lazarus to rise up and preach to the "five brothers" which represent the "five foolish virgins" of the house of anointed Jehovah's witnesses. But Lazarus is not sent to them. They are told to go to the Bible itself, to "Moses and Abraham and the prophets" on their own, just as the wise virgins told the foolish virgins, "Take a hike! I'm not giving you one drop of my oil I lugged all this way when you had plenty of time and money to get extra oil. So go buy oil from those who sell it if you want it. But you sure in the Hades ain't getting any of mine!" (Some of that got lost in translation I think though....)
In Revelation, you see the seals of the scroll can only be opened by Jesus, the Lamb, who arrives at the second coming to break the seals. The understanding it not given to the GB who has made itself a "god" in god's temple and become the "man of lawlessness." (2 Thess 2)
And they are the MAN OF LAWLNESSNESS. The Bible specifically says that Christians are not to be concerned with anything dietary, to accept everything with thanksgiving, and that there are to be no rules made about foods. Yet the WTS ignores this mandate and makes tobacco and blood disfellowshipping offenses. Even though we can read in the Bible where although in one place it says "abstain from blood" in another it says if you're at the house of an unbeliever eat everything making no concern about your conscience. So clearly, abstaining from blood was contingent on the weak consciences of the Jewish brothers so that rule only applied while you were in that setting. If you were at a relative's house who was an unbeliever you didn't have to abide by that conditional rule.
Or there's the issue of marriage. The Bible says whatever God has yoked together, let no man rip apart. So even if one is disfellowshipped for something other than sexual immorality the marital tie is not broken! Problem is, God recognizes polygamous marriages. It has always been an accepted custom in that culture. Thus the reference in scripture about only having one wife is purely the rules relating to accepting positions of oversight in the congregation! I meant brothers with two wives had their hands full already and they were not to take on the additional responsibility of the congregational management. That's an understandable consideration, certainly. Yet the WTS uses this to condemn brothers with more than one wife in countries where this is legal and customary, breaking up those marriages which God considers to be holy. They are not living in fornication. There is simply no rule in the Bible condemning polygamy. It is not unholy. So you see, they break the law twice. First they make up a rule that's not in the Bible and make it a sin, a disfellowshipping offense, and they break God's rule about breaking up marriage except on the grounds of fornication. Further, they become blood guilty since if you divorce someone except on the grounds of fornication it subjects them more to adultery. Not to mention all the pain caused for those families, inflicted on them without cause though they give a Biblical basis based on their own misinterpretation.
Finally, another thing many have pointed out is the strict Biblical mandate that nothing in the scriptures was to be changed. Yet what do they do? In numerous places in the NT where "Lord" or "God" is perceived to be a reference to Jehovah, they replace those terms and insert Jehovah. But since it is not always clear if "Lord" is a reference to Jesus or Jehovah, it becomes a judgment call that they make at the time of translation, which could end up being an open issue or just the opposite on further examination. Thus they actually corrupt God's pure word thinking they are doing something positive. "Obedience is better than sacrifice!" This so very much hurts those who love God's word and she this as a violation of something holy.
When you add up all the pain of those broken up marriages, the outcry of those focussed on the blood issue of those who die needlessly because of this non-Biblical rule to "abstain from blood" in all circumstances though the Bible allows it when the custom changes as in the case of an unbeliever, then their sins amass up to the heavens. They become the oppressive "man of lawlessness" the Bible prophesied they would be. And as punishment, God takes away that fine robe of being a true prophet and casts them outside naked as the false prophet. That is what is happening now. They no longer have the advanced truth, but continue to promote lies.
Unfortunately for them, in order to correct their false teachings, they'd have to admit they are the evil slave and are in spiritual darkness. That would mean the end of the religion. They are not noble enough to do that and who knows where those contributions are really going to?
So sorry, they aspire to be able to explain what is "sealed" but they are clueless. I'll give some examples in another post.
JC
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JCanon
The GB aspires to be the one who understands everything, but they don't. Here are some blatant examples of what others who have light observe with respect to WTS "insight."
The Woman in Revelation: In Revelation a woman is seen giving birth to a child who would "strike the nations with an iron rod" which is a specific reference to what Jesus would do at the second coming. Who does the WTS say this woman is? They claim she's God's heavenly organization and wife. Now does that make sense?
Just before Satan is kicked out of Heaven, Christ and his angels are the ones who conquer Satan and casts Satan to the earth who no longer has access to heaven, obviously. So how is it, after Satan is kicked out by the good angels who would make up Jehovah's wife, are now so afraid of Satan, they must flee from Satan to the "wilderness"? How it is that heaven is now considered the "wilderness"? How does Satan even have access to them now since he's kicked down to the earth? It makes no sense. Satan is also said to try to drown this woman with a river he disgorges, presumably a reference to very strong anti-Biblical propaganda. Now how is that going to affect the faithful two-thirds of the angels in heaven? Who already know everything and opposed Satan? It makes no sense.
Further note the context of what is supposed to be going on in heaven when Satan is kicked out compared to the earth: "Rejoice you heavens, but woe to the earth."!! How can the heavens rejoice if Satan is now threatening them and they have to flee? It doesn't work! Instead, the woman who flees is represented by the earth! It is the earth that comes to her aid when Satan disgorges this river of propaganda. Thus this woman must be on the earth. It is she who needs to be hidden in the "wilderness" which is where the vision of Babylon the Great is seen, also in the "wilderness." Thus the "wilderness" represents an underground place, secret societies, etc. which is what makes up Babylon the Great (i.e. the Illuminati, Freemasons and other secret socities, etc.). This thus only means that some of Christ's followers would not worship him openly but in secret societies.
But can we all see why the WTS is clueless here? They don't understand this reference. The angels in heaven aren't running from Satan who is cast out and doesn't have access to heaven any more in the first place. They are up there having a party because Satan is gone and not afaid of Satan because they just kicked his Satan ass along with the demon angels out of heaven. But Satan is not abyssed but let loose on the earth, so now Christ's followers need to be concerned.
This is just one example out of many, that if you actually stop to analyze the scriptures and consider what is being directly presented, it is clear the WTS does not understand many things. This woman does not represent Jehovah's heavenly wife, but the secret societies following Christ at the time of the second coming. The woman has the wings of an "eagle" and thus are associated with the eagles that surround the Christ: "Where the carcass is, so the eagles will be gathered together."
Now the average witness is not aware of these secret societies, but the WTS is! Some of these "eagles" who make up some of the anointed within the organization, for instance, understood Christ's second coming would be in the flesh and they identified him with the prodigal son messiah and made aware that the "sign of the son of man" appeared to them. Which was the image in the clouds of a dead messiah, a dead child. That's why they "beat themselves in lamentation" when they see this image. But that very image appears in the Revelation Book in the hand of the messiah, the image of a sleeping black child.
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/facenhand.gif
So the WTS knows there are sub-cult anointed ones who have basically established their own understanding apart from the WTS GB. These alternative secret society issues are handled in subliminal art in the Watchtower publications. Now this is not understood generally by the average witnesses, but to anointed witnesses who know what these things mean, they recognize these images, like the black sleeping face, or even a dog in the side of an impaled Jesus representing Jesus "impaled in Sodom," a dog and Sodom both being associated with homosexuality.
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/bilde8db3.jpg
It's not that hard to figure out. But you know, witnesses and even XJWs are in such DENIAL, they don't want to face all this secret stuff is going on. They even see Russell buried under a pyramid and him thinking an Egyptian pyramid had something to do with the Bible but they ignore that! They ignore the pyramidology AND the fact that the pyrmamid is not just some secular mistake made by Russell in connecting that with the Bible, but the pyramid is the very center of Freemasonry and the Mysteries. Case in point, the pyramid on the dollar bill! But try to convince a witness the WTS was founded on paganism?
The Illuminati way is like that. If you study Satanism it clearly shows that there is one goal and it plays both sides against the middle. So you have Catholics and Protestants serving the same goals. So while the WTS condemns Easter and Christmas as pagan holidays, and point to the candles and Mary as a false mother goddess based upon ancient Babylonian religion, insiders within the organization create occult symbolisms of Satan, the mother goddess, in other ways, only more subtle. They WTS dropped the cross and crown, the pyramids and the winged sun disk which was part of their imagery in the beginning, but have substituted it for the watchtower, specifically a tower with battlements, which is likewise a symbolism of the Artemis as well! They just substituted a well-known pagan symbolism for the goddess for more esoteric references to the goddess.
http://www.geocities.com/newlight_2/TowerGoddess.html
So the WTS is just as much a part of BTG as Catholicism at some level. Christendom in the Bible is represented by the 666 Beast, Christendom that believes the trinity. But the sister beast, the one that looks gentle like a lamb but speaks subtle lies like Satan, the dragon, is the WTS. Note the 666 Beast comes out of the SEA, whereas the WTS lamb-dragon beast comes out of the EARTH. That's significant. What is on the earth is associated with the Bible and Jehovah's official arrangement. Thus like the "man of lawlessness" who specifically rises up in the "temple of THE God", meaning God's own temple of anointed ones and thus Jehovah's organization, likewise this lamb-dragon beast is seen coming out of Jehovah's organization represented as the earth. But both are controlled and influenced by Satan who manipulates both.
Case in point chronology. JWs fiercely defend 607 BCE for the fall of Jerusalem, while others fiercely defend 587 BCE. But both are based on 539 BCE for the fall of Babylon, which we know is a wrong date! So the arguments just distract from the truth of the Bible, which is that Cyrus fulfills the 70 weeks prophecy and thus the 1st of Cyrus occurs in 455 BCE. We can prove that now with the VAT4956, or exposing Xenophon's 58-year addition to the Greek period, paid off by the Persians. Since this is all public knowledge now, it becomes merely a stubborn farce on the part of the WTS to make people think nothing has changed and that 607 BCE is still a viable and Biblical date, when it is not and has never been.
Ultimately, those in darkness though, LOVE the darkness. So Jehovah allows them to stay there. In fact, he makes it even darker so they can't ever find their way out, even if the door is right in front of them. But for others who move toward the light and the truth, the "truth shall set you free" is their motto. They have been FREED from the lies and now can more than adequately defend the Bible's true chronology and coordinate it with secular and scientific references from astronomy and archaeology. The wise virgins just leave the foolish virgins in the dust. They don't share their knowledge with them. Thus the WTS as the "Rich Man" overly concerned with numbers and building new kingdom halls is set for destruction and are now in spiritual torment for having clearly false teachings. They have lost that nice reputation now of being the first to understand the secret things of scripture. Instead, the "Lazarus class" are the ones with the secret knowledge and understanding now. They are happy. The Rich Man is in torment. And they cannot cross over to help the Rich Man. There is a distinct "chasm" between these groups. That's the way it is and it will remain that way until the WTS is destroyed along with the rest of Christendom. The stage is already set for that.
JC
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JCanon
Here are some of the joyous highlights Bible believers now have based upon recent research from the last ten years:
1. For sure, the RC14 dating for Shishak's invasion in 871 BCE which confirms the 455 BCE 1st of Cyrus chronology!
2. Obviously, the double-dating in the VAT4956 to 511 BCE which first the Bible's reference for that same year for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar.
3. Akhenaten becoming the king that followed the Exodus and his conversion to monotheism, clearly in response to the ten plagues. He dismisses the other gods as "worthless"! Naysayers about the Exodus always challenge there was no great impact ever seen in Egypt for the mass exodus of people, but they are silent when it comes to the religious impact that would have been expected from the ten plagues. In this case, all of Egypt at the time made Yahweh the new official god in the form of Aten, and the Bible not only references this but says that the Egyptians would be inspired to build a new altar to him in the "middle of Egypt, near its boundary", which is precisely where the new city for Aten was built by Akhenaten. This gives us direct reassurance that the ten plagues actually happened and precisely when it should have historically, in 1386 BCE, which the specific dating for the Exodus when 455 BCE is the 1st of Cyrus.
4. We're delighted to note confirmation that Plato was an adult at the time the PPW began via "The Delian Problem." For some reason that reference is in encyclopedias that he was consulted to try to solve a math problem at the beginning of the war in 431-430 BCE, just as plain as day. But Plato wasn't born until 428 BCE BCE!!! When the chronology is corrected and the war reset to 403 BCE, then Plato is 25! So that's been fun. Of course, Xenophon clearly was the revisionist for this period, being connected with editing Thucydides and also putting out his own version of the history of Cyrus. So obviously he was well versed in Persian history and had a focus. The focus, of cousre, was just to provide more Persian propaganda to hide the fact that Xerxes and Artaxerxes were the same king.
5. The change in hand position for Xerxes is certainly a highlight. Per the Bible, Xerxes and Artaxerxes are the same king. The first thing we'd want to do since both are represented in pictures at Persepolis is compare them. But their faces have been hammered off! Interestingly, Artaxerxes became known as "Longimanus" because of the anomaly of a longer right hand which became his trademark. If Xerxes were Artaxerxes it is thought possibly there might be some reference to this longer right hand. Well there is! In one pose, Xerxes, who is co-ruler with Darius is holding onto the back of the throne where Darius is seated. Obviously suggesting he's sharing the throne with Darius. That's pretty fundamental. But that is in a scene over a door jamb. In a scene seen at eye level below a staircase, we find he changes that hand position and turns his hand vertically. This scene is depicted from both his palm side and the back side of his hand! Obviously, this hand was already famous and preserving it for posterity was considered more relevant in this scene than Xerxes merely holding onto the back of the throne. But the single hand position changes goes a very long way in establishing that Xerxes actually was Artaxerxes!! Of course, Artaxers is buried between Darius I and Darius II, another proof Xerxes was the same king as Artaxerxes, but the hand connection is most fun because the faces were destroyed to try to hide the connection. It's hard to explain the change in hand position if Xerxes was not Artaxerxes with the longer right hand. So the evidence is RIGHT THERE, if someone wants to see it.
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/xerxeshand.html (Xerxes hand position)
6. Also fun, obviously, is the anguish of Greek historians who have to deal with the corrected timeline and our discovery that the homosexual relationship (mentor/protogé) between Socrates and Aristotle survives in some writings. But some of this is rather obvious too once you know the facts. The character of "Phaedo" was used to substitute for Aristotle in that relationship with Socrates, for instance. That's because Socrates was moved back in time along with his connection to the Pelopponesian War. This means instead of Socrates dying around the time Phaedo/Aristotle was 18 years old, he dies 14 years before he is born (i.e. 399 BCE vs 366 BCE). Here's a favorite quote about Aristotle in relation to "Phaedo":
Aristotle was an intellectual but not devoid of passion. A story is told of Plato giving a reading of his Phaedo, a purported record of Socrates' last day. The dialogue is moving and solemn. As Plato was reading, however, his audience gradually melted away. In the end, Aristotle alone was left. Probably fictitious, the anecdote was invented to express a truth:
Aristotle was, in fact, spellbound by the Socratic doctrine of immortality as expounded by Plato. It not only interested him intellectually but also absorbed him emotionally.Meaning that as we know, Xenophon employed Plato to help make these revisions and as well Aristotle, who had to harmonize these revisions. It was their brilliant idea to create the character of Phaedo in place of Aristotle. But here we see they couldn't resist making this loose connection between Phaedo and Aristotle and how focussed Aristotle was on the story of Phaedo. Of course, he IS Phado so that's why he is depicted as remaining spellbound to this story. It's Plato's way of hinting they were the same person without fully giving it away. But once you know Phaedo and Aristotle are the same person, this little "anecdote" about his focus on this story becomes quite transparent. Of course, in the meantime, Aristotle actually references Socrates 80 times in his writings and even quotes from him!! Here's one of my favorites:
Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics book 7, section 1235a
Others hold that only what is useful is a friend, the proof being that all men actually do pursue the useful, and discard what is useless even in their own persons (as the old Socrates used to say, instancing spittle, hair and nails), and that we throw away even parts of the body that are of no use, and finally the body itself, when it dies, as a corpse is useless—but people that have a use for it keep it, as in Egypt. (2.74)Now doesn't this sound like a direct quote? Aristotle indeed would have known Socrates during his last years and so Socrates would have been old to him. If Socrates was just a character who died 14 years before Aristotle was born, his reference would have been more generic. Once we know Aristotle must have known Socrates and, indeed, intimately well, then this simply becomes a minor slip up in hiding the fact that Aristotle knew Socrates in his old age and here is simply quoting from him directly, and authoritatively. This authorative familiarity with what Socrates believed and said shows up in the other quotes and is a bit too strong if we presume this was all taught to Aristotle based upon Socrates' writings!
Or how about this really detailed understanding of Socrates specifics:
And when [b]Socrates[/b], disregarding the physical universe and confining his study to moral questions, sought in this sphere for the universal and was the first to concentrate upon definition, Plato followed him and assumed that the problem of definition is concerned not with any sensible thing but with entities of another kind; for the reason that there can be no general definition of sensible things which are always changing. (1.36)
Doesn't this seem a bit too specific for someone Aristotle allegedly never met? On the other hand, this is perfectly understandable if he actually knew Socrates.
Well, needless to say, these are improved times for the believers as far as being falsely challenged by the academic world.
JC
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Qcmbr
1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. -
OBVES
It is important as we have plenty of christian groups - each claiming it is right in God's sight .Once the timeline is established we can see clearly God's salvation plan for our times.
8 BC - 7 BC - 3 BC - 2 BC - 29 AD - 33 AD - 36 AD has its reflection in 1878 AD-1879 AD-1883 AD-1884 AD-1914 AD-1918 AD-1921 AD.
Only one christian group fits this timeline : the International Bible Students . And then we look for which next christian organization is its legitimate extension .Jehovah's Witnesses ! They hold on to the name Watchtower that is linked to the year 1879 AD.
