Have you had this response from dubs when you try to reason that no loving God could ever slaughter your neighbour (and her family) who are just decent ordinary people.
"Aha! they say, that is only as it is right now..Before the final end, Satan will have whipped things up so that these nice decent people turn into homicidal maniacs and then God will have to kill them, to keep us alive"
That is the justification that they can adopt, as decent folk themselves, for believing in and advocating the genocide of the better part of seven billion innocent people (just because they chose the wrong religion)
This is , of course total speculation but seems to be based on the WTS explanation of Ezekiel chapters 38/39, and embellished by a good many Public Speakers whose rhetoric has made a lasting impression. As recently as 2009 they printed
WT 2009 3/15 p18
"14 We understand that some time after false religion has been destroyed, there will be an attack on Jehovah’s servants, who have been proclaiming his judgment messages. (Ezek. 38:14-16) When that attack begins, the attackers will have to confront Jehovah, who promises to protect his faithful people. Jehovah declares: “In my ardor, in the fire of my fury, I shall have to speak. . . . And they will have to know that I am Jehovah.” (Read Ezekiel 38:18-23.) God states in his Word: “He that is touching you [his faithful servants] is touching my eyeball.” (Zech. 2:8) So when his enemies begin their global assault on his servants, Jehovah will respond. He will move into action, which will lead to the final phase of the great tribulation—its Armageddon climax. Under Christ’s command, powerful angelic forces will execute Jehovah’s judgments against Satan’s world."
This has been the thought for a long time :Note this ref and I would guess that earlier ones may exist .
WT 1952 6/1 p349
25 Also remember that Bible prophecies indicate that men and nations will intensify their assaults against Jehovah’s people and the work they are doing. Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 speak of demon-inspired forces coming against Jehovah’s restored theocratic organization: “You shall advance like a storm, you shall come like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many a people with you. . . . It shall come to pass in the end of the days that I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me.” When this vicious assault occurs, Jehovah says: “My fury shall rise in my nostrils.” His indignation and fiery wrath is so awesome and terrible that every living thing will tremble, mountains topple down and cliffs tumble to the ground. Peoples are thrown into confused self-slaughter and Jehovah adds his destructive forces to annihilate this wicked world. (AT) Intense persecutions and conspiracies will doubtless come against Jehovah’s witnesses before Jehovah’s fury rises to the point of launching his Armageddon destruction."I could not resist this bit of gory black humour on their part, on the same page as the above quote
"The slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” These vast numbers slain by Jehovah and likened to dung strewn over the earth could hardly be considered as being “in the memorial tombs” for Christ to remember and call forth during the Millennium. He does not remember dung."I recall being assured that "The world will have gone mad, turned into an armed camp against Jehovah's Witnesses" "So what will nice Mrs Neighbour and her family do then, they will be baying for your blood, you will be glad to see them dead!" Absolute twaddle! ..of course, but that is how many of otherwise decent J W's rationalise the teaching of an Armageddon conflagration coming on this world. They also have a take on "community responsibility" which is, today condemned as a war crime i e to punish all passive onlookers for the crimes of the few. They said, in that same 1952 Wt
"Whether actively or passively or indifferently going along with the world in its assaults against Jehovah’s witnesses, individuals come under either personal or community responsibility therefor.—Zech. 4:6."More recently : Bearing Thorough Witness to the Good News 2009 p26 par 13
"Of course, most of Peter’s listeners were not personally present when Jesus was put to death on the torture stake. Yet, as a nation they bore community responsibility for this act. "The Geneva Convention has outlawed Collective Punishment as a "War Crime" and even the Catholic Church has dropped the charge of "Deicide" against the Jewish nation, but it seems that this organization "based on love" is unwilling to do so... So I guess that a determined Witness has got a "get out clause" when challenged on the moral wrongness of the Armageddon doctrine, even if it is total nonsense