GOD SEARCH - A PROPHET WITHOUT CREDENTIALS [Part 2]
Updated: Jan 15, 2022
The Divine Plan Of The Ages
Back in the late '1800s, Charles Taze Russell saw the fallacy of the churches, the hypocrisy and, the perversion of God's word through them, and he began a movement that later became this new schism known as Jehovah's Witnesses; an organization that he knew only as The International Bible Students Association.
Known as "Pastor Russell," despite being self-studied and self-ordained as such, his outspoken and apparent truths about the fallacies of church teaching began gathering momentum and amassing followers. Speaking from experience, please note however that Jehovah's Witnesses are no more a cult that is the Catholic Church or any other religious organization.
According to 'Brittanica' online:
"By the time he was 20 (years old), Russell had left both Presbyterianism and Congregationalism because he could not reconcile the idea of an eternal hell with God’s mercy. He had drifted into skepticism when a chance encounter with some followers of the Adventist movement begun by William Miller introduced him to the idea that the Bible could be used to predict God’s plan of salvation, especially as the plan related to the end of the world."
Although never claiming to be a prophet, Russell was quickly painted as a prophet by his sycophants, all of whom became attached to his foot-in-the-door preaching style. Was he ordained by God or simply the purveyor of a new schism of a former belief system?
Russell never claimed to receive "divine revelations" from God, but his bravery and willingness to put himself forward to challenge the fallacies of the churches won him an instant following. Was God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit involved? A question only God, Jehovah, i.e. YHWH or Yahweh, can answer.
Regardless, like every other human-based organization that involves a following of sycophants and zealots, it did not take long for superstition, misunderstanding, and the greed of men to derail the movement.
INSPIRATION
"inspiration is a simple notion by which those who have had an epiphany or seemingly miraculous revelation of thinking, in turn, may claim or feel that God moved them to do so."
(A claim which, of course, I DO NOT make, and yet, if I did claim such a claim, could anyone refute it? Not unless you have an exclusive communication channel.)
Unlike most religions claiming Heaven to be their common goal, this ersatz theocracy, created by the organization that came behind and long after Russell's death, claims to be preparing those who will repopulate a" "New Earth" under Christ Jesus' rulership and in doing so, claim exclusivity by means of their proselytizing so that "others might be saved," and among whom are those that will rule with Christ in Heaven.
For the past one hundred years, they have added to, morphed, and adjusted claims that humankind is facing imminent destruction and that only those who become one of Jehovah's Witnesses can expect protection and salvation at its end.
Jehovah's Witnesses have established a Theocracy that rules over the lives of those baptized in subjection to it, and as such, the members are consequently subjected to the rigors of attaining perfection to the best of their ability, which is, in this day and age, an utterly impossible task.
No, They Are Not A Cult!
As previously stated, cultism can be said of any religious clubhouse where members vie for a position in God's Kingdom. As for Jehovah's Witnesses, you would better understand had you lived within their collective conscience! Certain members are held up as examples to be followed, and failure to do so, in the eyes of the congregations, makes one spiritually ''weak" and in need of help. Once involved, if you are paying close enough attention, you will learn that it becomes quite unclear as to who is following what.
As I mentioned earlier, a severe psychological condition predicated my advent into the organization. Consequently, with a wife and two children to care for, my illness became my impetus to run to God for healing.
So then, as were so many others, I was there seeking to escape the vagaries and torments of this world in which we live. SomethingJehovah'ss Witnesses obtusely imply during their Bible studies during recruitment. "Death will be no more, neither will mourning, nor outcry, nor pain be anymore, the former things have passed away." Revelation 21.
Turning to what I felt most likely to be accurate and valid at the time, in my desperation, I freely accepted everything I was taught by one of the Witnesses, hoping to be healed. Consequently, on November 16 of 1975, I was baptized and joined the throng of happy people. Assuming my "sins" would be washed away, sadly, nothing changed, no healing took place, I was still as corrupt as ever, and for many, many years, happiness evaded me.
The self-loathing and internal torment continued, and I realized I was mistaken in my hope and sank deeper into self-doubt, guilt, and overwhelming depression. (Ironically, I have to compare it somewhat to King Nebuchadnezzar, who, in his madness, ate grass in a field with the bulls until reality began returned to him.) Daniel 4:33
It wasn't until the late '1990s, after reading a particular scripture, one I had read many times before but overlooked, that a sudden epiphany broke the cycle of my torment.
One evening as I was reading the Bible, I again came across this description by Jesus Christ:
According to John9:1-5 NWT
... As he was passing along, he (Jesus) saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be made manifest in his case. 4 We must do the works of the One who sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s light.” (bold italic is mine)
After forty (40) years of observing the behaviors of those within the congregations, and especially the senior members called elders and servants, as well as witnessing the often false or misleading predictions of events-and-times (a constant shift in projections, usually referred to as "the light getting brighter").
The behaviors of those within the congregations, and the expectations of "service" laid upon the congregations as the organization grew monetarily fat, made it apparent that something was amiss with "God's people,"
The expectations laid upon the congregations can, essentially, be viewed as a new Law Covenant wherein everyone is expected to live by a code of conduct that is impossible to comply with today, just as it was impossible to do so before Christ's advent and ascension.
Jehovah's Witnesses have a prescribed daily regimen of a nearly monastic lifestyle that when one is not walking from house to house preaching, if strictly adhered to, would consistently keep one on their knees in prayer.
All of this despite the apostle Paul's letter to the Roman Congregation, stating:
" 20 Therefore, no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin. 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."
"To all who believe," and not "To all who are Jehovah's Witnesses." Is it not true that the very reason Christ had to die was to compensate for our inability to live by the law? Ergo, we cannot live without sin? One source describes thirty-six (36) Biblical references that indicate "God wants obedience, not sacrifice." Such obedience, according to Jesus, identifies with "Love." Even as the scripture says:
Matthew 22:37-40
"37 Jesus declared the greatest commandment to be; “‘Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
As I prayed and cried and tortured myself over my inability to be joyful and love preaching door-to-door as so many appeared to be doing, I began recognizing the hypocrisies, especially those of my 'friend' who introduced me to Jehovah's Witnesses and has since disavowed any knowledge of me because I do not agree with his beliefs.
His display of the same pretentious air of righteousness of those who preached one thing and did the opposite made me realize that they were as much a cause of the pain as anything else. I was torturing myself to live up to a standard that was appearance only.
"There are none righteous, no not one." Roman 3:10-20
Like Charles Taze Russell, I and many others recognized that religion is a scam and a falsehood. Unfortunately, by stating such he unwittingly established yet another belief system that is as misled and as every bit misleading as any other: nothing more than another schism, a concoction of men who sets themselves up as prophets without credentials.
All of this, and so much more, helped me realize how badly they are deceiving themselves and how they have interpreted yet another "time of the end!"
THE END IS NEAR - Is something that is predicted and chanted through every period of history that experiences difficult times.
Whereas, living our lives daily in expectation of it we should understand:
THE DAY AND THE HOUR NOBODY KNOWS... Matt 22:37
That's a fact.
Jehovah's Witnesses are building an ark that will never float. They fail to see that we began living in the time of the end when Christ left Earth two thousand years ago when the LIGHT left the world. We have lived in the DARK AGES ever since the Antichrist stood up.
As stated previously, Jesus said to his disciples: "as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:4)
The Romans murdered Jesus in 33 CE and subsequently all of his anointed followers like him in the years to follow. True Christianity ceased to exist.
To quell the so-called Christian uprisings in Rome, in 325CE, Roman emperor Constantine established his Roman religion, which we today know as Catholicism, that now reigns as the Antichrist and corrupted every form of relgion on the planet!
THE CHURCH stole and corrupted true Christianity, perverting and twisting it into an unrecognizable wrangle of falsehood and misconception that became the beast (the churches and religions) that rules over the hearts and minds of humanity today; profaning Christ with its pagan teachings of saints, Mary worship, pagan holidays, idolatries like the cross and the saints, i.e., the elevation of men to the status of Jesus Christ to intervene between God and humanity.
The overlord of Satan's world, "the church" extends Rome's rule over the globe, and riding on the backs of political leaders and big business, false religion induces and incites chaos among the people of the world. By simply participating in their practices, the "mark of the beast" is upon us.
16 And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:16,17)
Religion has become so overwhelmingly corrupt that every believer in Christ on Earth today carries pieces and bits of those falsehoods taught by the Roman Church, such as an immortal soul and a fiery pit of eternal torment, despite none of these teachings being Biblically based.
These false trappings are arranged neatly around so many other lies that the masses accept them without question, and thereby provide a mockery of God's Kingdom. Theirs is not the same Kingdom you pray for in what is called "The Our Father Prayer" Jesus taught us to pray for the true Kingdom that will one-day return Truth and Godliness to Earth.
Our Bible is nothing more than what it claims to be: "A tutor to bring us to the Christ" i.e., to make us recognize our sinful state and recognize Christ Jesus, whose salvation is now all that we have to count upon to escape the madness of this world.
So, then, don't be so prideful of your religion, your country, your race, or your nationality! Because, living in Satan's world, you and I, like all of humanity, are not righteous. We are all at God's mercy, and subject to death.
The churches are a falsehood, yes, but Christ is the reality. His history and teaching are sufficient for us to know what is right and to know that it is our responsibility to show love toward one another. We need to live by those things to the best of our ability until such time—i.e., until that 'unknown' time—has come for His renewal of things through God's Kingdom.
No earthly organization, in particular, represents that truth because "All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God."