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The Three Magi and their modern antitype
Everyone knows the story of the three Magi who travelled a long way to pay homage to baby Jesus two thousand years ago. But this is not only a nice story. No, like many things in the Bible, this event was a prophetic preview of a greater fulfillment that should happen in our day.
In Germany the three Magi are called “Holy Three Kings” though they actually were neither holy nor three nor kings. They came “from eastern parts.” (Matthew 2:1) At the very east of the United States is New York City, and again in the east of this city is Brooklyn. There too lives a group of men who consider themselves “the holy ones of the Supreme One” and future kings.
They say of themselves: “The anointed are already sanctified in a very special way, being declared righteous and holy. … The prophet Daniel speaks of them as ‘the holy ones of the Supreme One,’ who receive the Kingdom under the ‘son of man,’ Christ Jesus.” – The Watchtower, February 1, 2002, page 21.
Also in the book Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy they write about themselves, under the headline “Who Will Rule the World?”: “’The holy ones of the Supreme One will receive the kingdom,’ said the angel. … The other ‘holy ones’ having a share in the rulership are the 144,000 faithful spirit-anointed Christians.” – page 146.
Cooperation with Politics
When King Herod sent for the “Holy Three Kings,” they gladly accepted the call. They set forth their journey to Jerusalem with his support. Likewise the “holy ones” from Brooklyn did not refuse to cooperate with political organizations. In a letter dated 4 March 2004, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) stated: “The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York … applied for association with DPI in 1991 and was granted association in 1992. By accepting association with DPI, the organization agreed to meet criteria for association, including support and respect of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
No Genuine Kings
But in actual fact, the “Holy Three Kings” were no kings at all but astrologers. Astrologers are characterized by making many predictions with only few or none of them coming true. For example, German astrologer Kurt Allgeier foretold that seven million people in Stuttgart area (in Germany) would be killed by a nuclear blast in 2002. His Romanian colleague Radu Moisoiu predicted that George W. Bush would die at August 19, 2004. Antonio Vazquez Alba predicted the suicide of Britney Spears for 2008. Not even the prophecy of Nikki Pezaro that a giant rabbit would be discovered in England in 2008 has come true.
The same feature – unfulfilled prophecies – characterizes the “anointed Christians” from Brooklyn as the antitypical astrologers. They even considered “it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of A. D. 1914.” (Millennial Dawn, volume II, The Time is at Hand, 1889 edition, page 99) Based on Bible verse constellations, they predicted: “With the end of A. D. 1914, what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom, will be passed away.” – Millennial Dawn, volume III, Thy Kingdom Come, 1891 edition, page 153.
Like real astrologers, unfulfilled predictions did not keep them from making new ones. Hence they wrote some years later: “We should, therefore, expect shortly after 1925 to see the awakening of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Melchisedec, Job, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, John the Baptist, and others mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. These will form a nucleus of the new kingdom on earth. One of the first things necessary will be to put Jerusalem in condition to be the capital of the world.” (The Way to Paradise, 1925 edition, page 224) Supposedly “the year 1925 … [was] a date definitely and clearly marked in Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914.” – The Watchtower, July 15, 1924, page 211.
Decades later, they asked if “the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then” and added: “It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years.” (The Watchtower, August 15, 1968, page 499) But while the year 1975 was described as an established fact in public talks, it was rather described as a probability in the magazines.
But the “Holy Kings” from Brooklyn employed a similar strategy as astrologers to save their reputation: woolly predictions. Rather than stating an exact year, they wrote: “Within our twentieth century, the ‘battle in the day of Jehovah’ will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom.” (“The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah” – How?, page 217) Some years earlier, in the February 22, 1961 Awake! issue, they stated: “The kingdom of God … will, within the twentieth century, cleanse the entire earth of wickedness” and even added: “Armageddon … will come in the twentieth century.” (pages 7, 8) Even the January 1, 1989 Watchtower still said that the preaching work “would be completed in our 20th century.” – page 12.*
But that didn’t help; these prophecies too have definitely failed. But as the people do not stop trusting literal astrologers, as do millions of people continue to trust the antitypical astrologers from Brooklyn.
Oxen
One reason for that is related to the kind of people that these self-proclaimed kings draw to their organization. According to traditional descriptions, the original three Magi came to a shed where, besides baby Jesus, there were ox, donkey and sheep. Likewise the Watchtower Society looks for antitypical oxen, donkeys and sheep.
The German edition of Encyclopaedia Wikipedia says: “The ox is indulgent and can be used as a draft and work animal in agriculture.” In a similar way, the “kings” from Brooklyn look for people who – like oxen – put up with everything and are not about any work. With regard to themselves and their oxenlike followers, they wrote in the July 15, 1990 Watchtower: “The anointed know they must eventually finish their earthly course in death as Jesus did, but they have companions to share with them the glorious treasure of service, to help them by doing the bulk of the work of the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom.” – page 20.
Actually the oxenlike “publishers” sacrificed more than 1,500,000,000 hours for the purposes of the “holy ones” from Brooklyn during the past year. They relinquished any pay and bore any arising cost by themselves! Not for nothing, the word “horn-ox” is a German “swearword for a stupid human.” – Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Dictionary, volume X.
Donkeys
Which feature characterizes donkeys? The German edition of Encyclopaedia Wikipedia says: “Horses tend to flee in stress situations. … Donkeys often stop dead in their tracks. Additional stress, e. g. by beating or yelling, rather adds to the stiffness, what is the cause for the donkey’s reputation as an especially stubborn or stupid animal.” For Jehovah’s Witnesses, “stress situations” arise when doctrines are changed, such as 1995 the one regarding the “generation.” The increasing number of “anointed” which contradicts the doctrine of the 144,000 can also lead to stress situations.
While horselike people “flee” – that is, leave the Watchtower organization – in such situations, donkeylike people “stop dead in their tracks.” The “holy ones” from Brooklyn increase the stress by ‘beating’ the publishers with additional tasks or higher requirements. (Matthew 24:49) Instead of running away, donkeylike publishers stubbornly stick to the organization, saying: “But after all it is the truth!” They follow the instruction from an old Kingdom Song: “Keep to the way, and there ever stay.” – Sing Praises to Jehovah, Song 111.
Sheep
Finally, the wannabe kings are also looking for “sheeplike people [who] are willing to sacrifice time, energy, and material resources.” (The Watchtower, May 1, 1989, page 19) Why? The German edition ofEncyclopaedia Wikipedia says: “In common parlance the sheep is usually considered as epitome of … stupidity, and scholars often follow this evaluation.” Jehovah’s Witnesses look for stupid people as publishers. That’s why they advise youths: “If you pursue secular education beyond what is required by law, wisely examine your reason for doing so.” (The Watchtower, December 1, 1996, page 19) They even tell their followers: “Something useful that can become a valueless thing is secular education.” – The Watchtower, April 15, 2008, page 4.
Uneducated and stupid people can easily be manipulated and used as plodders like oxen. They’re afraid of running away even when they notice that they have been cheated. And even if they want to run away, they don’t know where. Hence the self-assumed “holy ones” from Brooklyn resemble the astrologers who visited baby Jesus in the first century.
Presents
The astrologers offered presents to baby Jesus – gold, myrrh and incense. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses – which was foreshadowed by them – sacrifices gold too. “The truths in the Bible may be likened to gold.” – The Watchtower, September 15, 1990, page 3.
They sacrificed these Bible truths by adhering to false doctrines out of a desire to retain their power, such as the doctrine of the year 1914 or of a “Governing Body” in the first century. Instead of Bible truths, they tout “the gradual developments involving God’s earthly organizational arrangement” as “gold” to their followers, as explained in the June 1, 2001 Watchtower issue under the title “Moving Ahead to Final Victory!”
Another gift of the astrologers was myrrh. According to the German edition of Encyclopaedia Wikipedia, myrrh was “used as aphrodisiac” in ancient times, and “beds had been sprinkled with it before sexual intercourse.” But this is not the purpose for which the Watchtower Society uses myrrh, of course. They explain it themselves: “Myrrh … had a narcotic and stupefying effect.” – The Watchtower, March 15, 1978, page 32.
In a similar way, the Watchtower Society keeps their followers busy with meetings, assemblies, field ministry and with a never-ending spate of “literature” which must be read, studied and distributed. The monotonous voice of many speakers and the repeating topics together have “a narcotic and stupefying effect” on the publishers, so that they do not notice at all how they are cheated and exploited.
As a third present, the ancient astrologers offered frankincense. In a transferred sense, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses – allegedly representing the “faithful and discreet slave” – too provides incense to their followers with statements like: “We have sound reasons to be grateful for ‘the faithful and discreet slave.’” – The Watchtower, July 15, 2006, page 20.
An earlier issue said: “We should be thankful for the abundant spiritual food we are receiving through the ‘faithful and discreet slave.’” (The Watchtower, August 1, 1980, page 20) And the February 1, 2007 issue said: “What a contrast we see between the spiritual prosperity of God’s people and the religious confusion of Babylon the Great!” (page 23) Such statements make the publishers adulate or cense the “faithful and discreet slave.”
Though the astrologers promised Herod to tell him where the child could be found, they finally “withdrew to their country by another way,” and Herod noticed that “he had been outwitted by the astrologers.” (Matthew 2:12, 16) Likewise the Watchtower Society declared itself ready to comply with the United Nations’ goals for the sake of benefits. But in actual fact its leaders wouldn’t dream of it.
Rather they wrote in the December 15, 1929 Watchtower issue: “The whole tendency of the League of Nations is to turn the people away from God and from Christ, and it is therefore a desolating thing, the product of Satan, and an abomination in the sight of God.” (page 374) The May 1, 1999 issue quoted the above statement and added: “In time, the League gave way to the United Nations. Jehovah’s Witnesses have long exposed these human peace organizations as disgusting in God’s sight.” – page 15.
Who is behind it?
Who is actually behind the Watchtower Society? Is it really God, as they claim? The church father Jerome wrote that the three Magi were “instructed by demons.” Regarding the star that led them to Jesus, theWatchtower wrote: “That star was actually a scheme of Satan the Devil.” – December 15, 1982, page 9.
Hence we can conclude that the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses too is “instructed by demons” and that not God, but “Satan the Devil” is behind it.
* In the Watchtower Library on CD-ROM, the expression „in our 20th century“ has been changed to „in our day.“ In the German edition, it still reads „in the 20th century.“
