Micah – Advocate of Truth
Reprint from The Witchtower, 8/2009
“Therefore you will come to have no one … in the congregation.” (Micah 2:5)
The prophet Micah lived in the eighth century B.C.E. in Israel. According to the book Insight on the Scriptures, he “prophesied during very turbulent times when false worship and moral corruption flourished in Israel and Judah, also when King Hezekiah instituted religious reforms.” His words can also be applied to our time when false worship flourishes among Jehovah’s organization, and when the Watchtower Society institutes religious reforms.
Like Jehovah, Micah is “telling from the beginning the finale,” revealing right at the outset what the future holds for the Watchtower Society. (Isaiah 46:10) “God’s organization of intelligent persons is likened to a woman,” and likewise the Watchtower Society is depicted as a woman in Micah’s prophecy. (1981 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 3) Micah says about the Bethel buildings in Brooklyn, Patterson, and elsewhere: “I will pour down into the valley her stones, and her foundations I shall lay bare.” (Micah 1:6) In the end, nothing will remain of these buildings which are blasphemously called “Bethel” or “House of God.”
Also their “graven images will all be crushed to pieces.” (Micah 1:7) In Micah’s day, images were not printed but graven. The Watchtower Society has truly flooded the world with its ‘printed images’ which awaken illusionary hope for a future paradise in gulliblepeople.
But Micah also foretold: “All the gifts made to her as her hire will be burned in the fire.” (Micah 1:7) The fact that the Watchtower Society is adopting cost cuts everywhere indicates that part of it assets “burned in the fire” of the worldwide financial crisis. Its leaders may expect to get off cheaply because their followers will surely continue to make donations. But “the stroke upon her is unhealable.” – Micah 1:9.
Field service
Micah says regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses: “Woe to those who are scheming what is harmful, and to those practicing what is bad! … By the light of the morning they proceed to do it.” (Micah 2:1) In fact, most Jehovah’s Witnesses go to field service “by the light of the morning.” And they do not proceed randomly, rather they are “scheming” or “planning” their “harmful” work: “To share effectively in field service, good planning is necessary” – Our Kingdom Ministry, 11/1975, page 3.
Of course, many people in the field service territories have more beautiful houses than the publishers. That is why it is an open secret that many Jehovah’s Witnesses privately anticipate the annihilation of all worldlings, so that they can inherit their houses after Armageddon. This attitude is actually in harmony with Watchtower literature. The book Insight on the Scriptures says: “The possessions of the wicked will go to the righteous, as the proverb states: ‘The wealth of the sinner is something treasured up for the righteous one.’ – Pr 13:22; 21:18.” But Micah exposed this selfish attitude already 2800 years ago: “They have desired fields and … houses, and have taken them.” – Micah 2:2.
Micah further says that Jehovah’s Witnesses “have defrauded an able-bodied man and his household, a man and his hereditary possession.” (Micah 2:2) Indeed, the 1995 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnessesadmits that “entire families often share together in Jehovah’s service.” (page 228) With regard to a family which accepted the so-called “truth” together, the prophecy says: “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am thinking up against this family a calamity.’” (Micah 2:3) Of course Jehovah does not cause the calamity, but he allows his alleged witnesses to bring it upon this family.
Apostasy begins
But some families do not allow themselves to be taken for fools forever. At some point they notice that they had fallen for a dangerous cult and notice: “It is a time of calamity.” (Micah 2:3) Truly, “in that day one will … certainly lament a lamentation, even a lamentation. One will have to say: ‘We have positively been despoiled!’” (Micah 2:4) In many cases, information provided by apostates through the Internet contributes to this development.
The elders do not like that, of course. They lament: “The very portion of my people he alters. How he removes it from me! To the unfaithful one he apportions out our own fields.” (Micah 2:4) They wonder why Jehovah permits that some of ‘their people’ turn away from the allegedly only true religion. They view their field service territory as ‘their own fields’ and are appalled by “unfaithful” apostates reaching the people there through the Internet.
Downfall begins
Micah says to them: “Therefore you will come to have no one … in the congregation.” (Micah 2:5) The elders are concerned about this development, but they do not want to talk about it. “They let words drop. They will not let words drop concerning these things.” (Micah 2:6) Indeed, at people’s doors, “they let” many “words drop.” But “concerning these things” – the ideas of the apostates and their influence – they make no words. This subject is taboo for them. Even in the congregation, sometimes voices are being raised saying that there might be some truth in the ideas of the apostates. But the elders advise such persons:“Don’t say such things!” – Micah 2:6, NLT.
On behalf of Jehovah, Micah says to the elders and to the Governing Body: “The women of my people you drive out from the house in which a woman has exquisite delight.” (Micah 2:9) How do they do that? On the one hand by regularly lowering the pioneer hour goal. 1977 it was changed from 100 to 90 hours, 1999 to 70 hours. Rumors say that a reduction to 50 hours might be imminent.
Hence the shoes of the pioneers and their preaching companions do not wear out so fast, so that they spend less time at the shoe store – “the house in which a woman has exquisite delight.” On the other hand, many sisters do not even have money for new shoes because they heeded the Watchtower counsel, so that theirhusbands learned only a simple profession and they themselves none at all.
Jehovah continues to accuse the Watchtower organization: “You make victims of the children.” (Micah 2:9, MSG) In fact, most children of Jehovah’s Witnesses are doomed to become social outcasts. Others must move with their family to another area because of the “kingdom interests,” or their parents send them to Bethel. Also, many Jehovah’s Witnesses withhold a good education from their children.
Micah further declares: “The only prophet you want is a liar.” (Micah 2:11, CEV) True, even if former false teachings were called “present truth” back then, they actually were lies. That the annihilation of all human governments and the churches would be completed in 1914, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be raised in 1925 and take over the rule over Palestine, that Armageddon would come in 1975 – all that were lies, no “present truth.” No single one of these prophecies has fulfilled, though there had supposedly been “clear evidence” back then. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses do not even know of these doctrines.
The End
No wonder that Jehovah urges all Jehovah’s Witnesses through his prophet Micah: “Get up and go!” (Micah 2:10) He says: “Get up, go away! … One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out.” (Micah 2:10, 13, NIV) Hence, everyone should leave the Watchtower organization – the sooner the better. The one “who breaks open the way” in the first place was Raymond Franz, whose book Crisis of Conscience has opened many Jehovah’s Witnesses’ eyes for the first time. In the meantime there are numerous other books and websites that belong to the open-breaker class. They all helped many Jehovah’s Witnesses to “break through the gate” of mind control and “go out” into freedom.
Severe judgment awaits the elders. Jehovah says to them: “You are supposed to know right from wrong, but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones. Yes, you eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot. Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!” (Micah 3:1-4, NLT)Instead of lovingly caring for their fellow Christians, they sting them into accomplishing more field service hours and talk them into feelings of guilt. Whoever does not perform as expected is abandoned. Granted, this is not true of all elders. Some of them have retained their humanity, as there were some sincere men among the Pharisees. (John 3:1) But as a group, these elders have fully deserved God’s judgment.
“You lying prophets promise security for anyone who gives you food, but disaster for anyone who refuses to feed you.” (Micah 3:5, CEV) The Watchtower leaders are “lying prophets” who keep their followers busy with studying their so-called “literature.” But how do they ‘promise security for anyone who gives them food?’
Jesus also said: “You gave me food.” (Matthew 25:35, MSG) The February 1, 2002 Watchtower explains what Jesus meant with these words: “Christ’s anointed brothers on earth in this time of the end have particularly received the active support of the other sheep in carrying out the God-given commission to ‘preach this good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.’” (page 22) Hence those who ‘give food’ to the elders are publishers who give sufficient contributions and have enough hours on their field service report slip. “They look forward to living forever in peace and security on a paradise earth.” – The Watchtower, December 1, 2007, page 29.
They ‘promise disaster for anyone who refuses to feed them.’ Accordingly the August 1, 1988 Watchtowersays: “Very soon now, all those who profane God’s holy name will be destroyed.” (page 7) And by this they mean all who do not belong to their organization anddo not comply to its rules. (compare You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 255) But they think that Jehovah’s Witnesses with too little field service hours also belong to the ones who will be annihilated. According to the brochure From Kurukshetra to Armageddon – and Your Survival“there will be wholesale slaughter. … ‘Those slain by Jehovah will certainly come to be in that day from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth.’” – page 7.
No more “brighter light”
Jehovah announces to these false prophets: “Therefore you men will have night, so that there will be no vision; and darkness you will have, so as not to practice divination.” (Micah 3:6) There will be no more “brighter light” but rather “darkness.” So “there will be no [fallacious] vision” for the Watchtower prophets, allowing them to publish new dates for Armageddon as they did in the past. Though “they’ll hide behind their reputations and make lame excuses to cover up their God-ignorance,” God explains to them: “You seers will be put to shame, and you fortune-tellers will be disgraced. And you will cover your faces.” – Micah 3:7, MSG, NLT.
Luckily many have already left the Watchtower organization, and others will follow. But a large number of their supporters will follow them into destruction:“Upon Jehovah they keep supporting themselves, saying: ‘Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? There will come upon us no calamity.’” (Micah 3:11) They really think that “there will be only one organization – God’s visible organization [the Watchtower organization] – that will survive the fast-approaching ‘great tribulation.’” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 255) According to their imagination, “only lovers of God and of his family, his organization, will survive.” – The Watchtower, December 15, 1982, page 27.
Through his Prophet Micah, Jehovah further announces: “Therefore on account of you men Zion will be plowed up as a mere field, and Jerusalem herself will become mere heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house will be as the high places of a forest.” (Micah 3:12) According to the March 15, 1972Watchtower it is “the visible earthly [Watchtower] organization that represents Zion.” (page 183; compareIsaiah’s Prophecy – Light for All Mankind, vol. I, page 364) The Watchtower Society, the connected organizations, and their headquarter in Brooklyn “will be plowed up as a mere field,” so that after some time nothing will remain of it.
According to the January 1, 1984 Watchtower Jehovah’s Witnesses are “the earthly representatives of ‘Jerusalem above.’” (page 26) Their kingdom halls “will become mere heaps of ruins.” No one will want to purchase a building that belonged to Jehovah’s Witnesses before, so that demolition will be the only option.
“The mountain of the house” represents the many mountains at which the Watchtower Society has their facilities, such as the Cranberry Mountain in Patterson, New York, USA, where the Watchtower Educational Center is located, or the Steinfels in Selters, Germany, with its large Bethel complex. All these mountains and the nearby Watchtower facilities “will be as the high places of a forest.” Likely the Watchtower buildings will have to make way for a forest that is used as a recreation area for cult victims. Some inconvincible ones “will certainly go and say: ‘Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,’” but they will only find “high places of a forest.” – Micah 4:2.
Peace for mankind
Jehovah will “set matters straight … They will not lift up sword … neither will they learn war anymore.” (Micah 4:3) What is the “sword” that Jehovah’s Witnesses “will not lift up” anymore? “When N. H. Knorr spoke … back in 1942 at the New World Theocratic Assembly … he identified the Bible as the greatest offensive weapon, the ‘sword of the spirit.’ … In essence, he expressed the thoughts of Jehovah’s servants in general: ‘If we could only find the text we want, we could hold off our opponents.’” – 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 218.
So no one will bother his fellow men anymore with the Bible in his hand. “The warfare Jehovah’s Witnesses wage is strictly spiritual,” says the October 1, 1999Watchtower. (page 11) They will not learn this kind of “war anymore.” They also will no more try to proselytize other people. The people “will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making them tremble,”not even on Saturday morning. – Micah 4:4.
Jehovah announced long time ago: “I will bring together those who were sent away, those whom I caused to have trouble.” (Micah 4:6, NCV)Jehovah’s Witnesses “were sent away” many times when they tried to talk to people about God’s kingdom. Now, Jehovah will ‘cause them to have trouble’ by bringing them to the brink of ruin.
Messages of woe
The bothersome messages of woe in the Watchtower are jarring Jehovah on the nerves even today: “O watch-tower … why do you cry out in a loud voice? … Has your wise man died?” (Micah 4:8, 9, NLB)The times when interesting articles – mostly written by Fred W. Franz, the “wise man” – could be read in theWatchtower are long gone. And back then, the “brighter light” was interesting but yet wrong. The Watchtowerwriters “have not come to know the thoughts of Jehovah, and they have not come to understand his counsel.” – Micah 4:12.
Jehovah’s judgment is already fixed: “Be in severe pains … You will have to come as far as to Babylon.” (Micah 4:11) Indeed, the Watchtower Society has made itself a part of Babylon the Great by its cooperation with the UN and the OSCE and its involvement in World War I. Hence they must “be in severe pains” before their final destruction. Jehovah will only let this organization exist “until the time that she who is giving birth actually gives birth.” (Micah 5:3) Since the birth of a child happens about three times every second, it can be only a short time.
Current situation
Now Micah is transferred back to the near future. Though the judgment for the Watchtower Society will have begun, there will still be many Jehovah’s Witnesses. With regard to them Micah says: “Those who are left … will be among the nations, among many people, like a lion among the animals in the woods, like a young lion among flocks of sheep. When he passes through, he crushes them and tears them to pieces.” (Micah 5:8, NLB) Jehovah’s Witnesses really behave like a lion. They say: “Many will not listen, but we do not get upset. We are looking for sheeplike ones.” (Our Kingdom Ministry, September 1979, page 4) When they found someone who shows interest in their message, they ‘crush him and tear him to pieces’ by imposing a totally new way of life on him. In many cases, only ruins of his former life, friends, and family remain.
In the meantime they pray to God: “Raise your fist in victory over your enemies, and all your enemies will be destroyed!” (Micah 5:9, NCV) Even in the October 1, 1952 Watchtower Jehovah’s Witnesses declared: “We pray with intensity and cry out this prayer for Jehovah to delay no longer, and plead that his anger be made manifest. Bring forth your arm and let the enemies see it, and use it for their hurt and destruction.” (page 600) But they have no clue that Jehovah will answer their prayer by bringing destruction upon Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves. Micah said to Jehovah: “All enemies of yours will be cut off,” and he warned his alleged witnesses: “It must occur in that day … that I will cut off your horses from the midst of you and destroy your chariots.” (Micah 5:9, 10) Regardless of their horsepower, Jehovah will defang the cars of the remaining Jehovah’s Witnesses, so that they will not be able to drive to their field service assignments. Indeed, “Jehovah has a legal case with his people.” – Micah 6:2.
Many Jehovah’s Witnesses realize that the tightly organized “sacred service” does not bring them closer to God. They notice like Micah: “With what shall I bow myself to God on high? Shall I confront him with whole burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams? … Shall I give my firstborn son for my revolt?” (Micah 6:6, 7) They quasi say: “Shall I confront him with home bible studies lasting a year? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of field service hours? Shall I send my firstborn son to Bethel?”
They understand what suffering has been caused by articles like “Should Children Be Spanked?” or“Disciplining Children for Life.” They heed Micah’s advice: “Hear the rod and who it was that designated it.” (Micah 6:9) Actually it was not Jehovah who ‘designated the rod’ as a method of education but the self-proclaimed “faithful and discreet slave.”
Bethel’s future
As Jehovah explains through the prophet “do there yet exist in the house of a wicked one the treasures of wickedness.” (Micah 6:10) The “house of a wicked one” is the Bethel home that also accommodates the writing department. Jehovah’s Witnesses view their doctrine “as a precious treasure.” During the years many “treasures of wickedness” have been brought forth in the writing department’s buildings. (compare The Watchtower, August 1, 1995, page 23) Bethel’s “own inhabitants have spoken falsehood, and their tongue is tricky in their mouth.” (Micah 6:12) In fact, all prophecies uttered by the Watchtower have turned out wrong. Among the members of the writing department “there is no upright one.” – Micah 7:2.
The prophet Micah says to the publishers: “You, for your part, will sow seed, but you will not reap.” (Micah 6:15) There is no doubt about what is meant with this “seed.” The April 1970 issue of Our Kingdom Ministry explained to the reader: “You have opportunity to sow seeds of truth by leaving the magazines for them to read.” (page 3) And according to the June 15, 1992 Watchtower, Jehovah’s Witnesses yield a “rich harvest of souls.” (page 15) Thus Micah’s prophecy means that Jehovah’s Witnesses will print and place many magazines but not gather men.
No one will want to listen to them. Rather they will become “an object of astonishment and … something to be whistled at.” (Micah 6:16) Even today Jehovah’s Witnesses are now and again whistled at; in 1937 Francisco Zortea and other publishers “were greeted by laughter, catcalls and derision” in Italy. (1982 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 148) Before long no one will take them seriously anymore.
Good company
When someone refuses to continue the meaningless life course of a Jehovah’s Witness, he is disfellowshipped. He is then shunned even by his relatives. The September 15, 1981 Watchtower issue says: “Christians related to such a disfellowshiped person living outside the home should strive to avoid needless association, even keeping business dealings to a minimum.” (page 29) This development was foretold by the prophet Micah: “A son is despising a father; a daughter is rising up against her mother; a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his household.” – Micah 7:6.
It happens sometimes that relatives do not completely shun an expelled person, though they would be obliged to according to Watchtower doctrine. But anyway Jehovah gives to all disfellowshipped persons the following advice: “Do not put your faith in a companion. Do not put your trust in a confidential friend” if he is still a Jehovah’s Witness. – Micah 7:5.
Jehovah promises a sincere person to bring him out of the congregation and “forth to the light.” (Micah 7:9) Regarding the remaining Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jehovah promises him: “They will be afraid of you.” (Micah 7:17) Indeed, apostates have no need to be afraid of Jehovah’s Witnesses – rather these have fear of apostates. Finally the prophet prays to Jehovah: “You will throw into the depths of the sea all their sins.” (Micah 7:19) The “sins” of the Watchtower Society are mainly their false teachings and treacherous prophecies which are printed in their countless publications. Jehovah will “throw into the depths of the sea” all the Watchtower publications, so that they will never again harm innocent readers.