Jehovah's Organization: Is It the KINGDOM of Daniel 2?

by Cold Steel 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Leolaia

  I would like to know more about Rutherford's claims and the lightnings.

  In his "Birth of the Nation" article from 1925, Rutherford interpretation the "lightnings" in the temple in Revelation 11:19 as new understandings of truth given to God's organization after Jesus came into his temple in 1918. So when Rutherford introduced a new teaching or understanding, he often described it as revealed by Jehovah's "lightnings".

  "Since the Lord came to his temple there have been flashes of lightning; that is to say, intermittent illuminations of the Word of God, giving further glimpses of truth in his great plan. These flashes of light do not emanate from any member of the temple class, but from the Lord. It is Jehovah who is sending out his light and his truth, and at the critical time for the church" (1928 Yearbook, p. 201).

  "JEHOVAH's lightnings now make it plain that the periods of time mentioned in tile Scriptures as "the day of his preparation" and the time of "preparing the way before the Lord" are not the same. In his own due time God sends his beloved Messenger to prepare the way before him. (Mal. 3:1) That period of time began about 1878 and continued until 1918, and there ended" (Watchtower, 1 November 1929, p. 323).

  "Former things concerning God’s purposes that did come to pass were understood after the Lord came to his temple and the lightnings of Jehovah illuminated his Word. This same class then see new things which God has declared. In the light of prophecy in the course of fulfilment, and of the further illumination thereof by Jehovah, the remnant class is permitted to see other things that are shortly to follow, concerning which the Lord says: 'Before they spring forth I tell you of them.' Jehovah takes the remnant into his confidence in a measure by revealing to them the precious things that are in his keeping. These have a better understanding than ever before of what the great battle of God Almighty will mean and how Jehovah will vindicate his name" (Watchtower, 1 January 1930, p. 7).
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  Cold Steel

  Rutherford’s Revelations?

  Thank you for your references on Rutherford’s “lightnings”. He appears to be associating flashes of insight with revelation, but it’s still a far cry from an investiture of authority from On High. Insight is one thing, but the Lord grants insight to people of all religions and backgrounds. To your knowledge, did he go so far as to see it as an investiture of authority? He seems to have been struggling to that end when he referred to the class of those “permitted to see other things that are shortly to follow,” and then he quotes Jehovah as saying “Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” This clearly has reference to Amos 3:7, which states, “For surely the Lord God will do nothing, save he reveal it to his servants the prophets.” If so, he is certainly placing that “class” into the prophetic status. He never says he received this message directly, but is correlating his insights with divine revelation.

  Daniel's Four World Empires

  As divided as the scholars may be, prophetic exegesis, to me, makes it difficult to argue. First, how did the fourth kingdom break into pieces and subdue all things? And when did God set up his “kingdom” which would “never be destroyed”? This kingdom of God's would be “the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.”
  
  As I understand it, your view (and that of those you cited) is that the Macedonian kingdom was torn asunder into the Seleucid kingdom to the north and the Lagid kingdom to the south. But in light of Daniel’s prophecy, these two later kingdoms (symbolized as the legs of the figure) simply don’t live up to the prophecy. As I said, these kingdoms did not break into pieces and subdue all things. Before Rome, I suspect the Greek divisions were the easiest and most convenient candidates for fulfillment. But they certainly did not live up to what Rome became. Part of the reason the Maccabees were so successful in defeating Antiochus’ armies was that the encroaching Romans were dividing his resources.
  
  The Jewish scholars found the Greek divisions to be more palatable because they were more entrenched and rabbinical exegesis is even worse than JW exegesis, though neither is apt to changing. But I shall cling to the more recent Christian view which is not just held mainly by “Adventist and confessional circles.” Evangelical churches also hold to the later “Roman” view.
  
  To me it’s more than apparent that Rome and Constantinople are the prime candidates for the division of the kingdom of iron. For one thing, the Seleucids and Ptolemaics were part of the Macedonian kingdom and they were the results of political entropy, no more or less significant than the other kingdoms that Alexander left behind. The Seleucid kingdom was admittedly the largest, but there also was Cassander’s kingdom in Greece and Lysimachus’ kingdom in Turkey, and Epirus’ kingdom. The reason the Seleucids were made to fit the Daniel 2 prophecy, in my own opinion, is because, until Rome, they were the only round pegs that could possibly be jammed into the square holes! The Romans, in fact, were associated with iron throughout the world, and it broke down all of Alexander’s kingdoms and dominated them all.
  
  Just as Charles T. Russell and Joseph F. Rutherford were never able to grasp the Old and New Testament prophecies of the gathering of Judah back to its ancestral homelands — because it didn’t happen until May 1948, and Russell died in 1916 and Rutherford died in 1942 — the Jews and many of the scholars who based their work on rabbinical exegesis, were unable to see Rome and Constantinople as the two parts of the Roman Empire, a kingdom without equal.