Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you if you would
turn your Bibles, please, to. Daniel chapter #4 Daniel chapter
#4 We're in the middle of our series, World Religions and
Cults. We look for several weeks at the
issues surrounding Islam, and we're actually moving to our
first biblical cult, and that is the Jehovah Witness.
Now remember, the difference between world religion and a
cult really is that a cult has some similarities to
Christianity, but yet takes a lot of the names, the
characters, the entities that we are familiar with in
Christianity use the same names, same terminology oftentimes, but
completely changed it and twists into something that is
completely different. And so we want to talk today
about the Jehovah Witnesses and give you a little bit of an
introduction to them. All right, now we're going to
start this way. Are you ready?
Knock, knock. Jehovah Witness.
That's it. That's the end of the story.
That's it. So that's all I got.
All right, so that's how we're familiar with the Jehovah
Witnesses, aren't we? Because they go around our
neighborhoods. We see them in all types of
other places. If you were driving around
Brockton, you will see people that are in downtown Brockton.
You'll see over at Mansfield Commuter Rail Station, you'll
see at the heaviest times of the day that there will be those who
are Jehovah Witnesses that are there really, if you go to about
any T station in Boston at any given time, I know South Station
is certainly this way. You're going to see several
people that are dressed up to the nines with a smile on their
face next to a rack of literature and they are just
waiting for someone to come by and to talk to them about their
booklets and pamphlets that are there.
And certainly there are some very, very nice people.
If you just take people for who they are, that they can be some
very friendly people, some very kind people in many ways.
But I do want you to understand that what you see in the
Watchtower materials, that what you see when it comes to the
teaching the Jehovah Witness is exactly opposite of what the
Bible teaches is true Christianity.
And that what they have there on those racks of literature are
ways and methods of teaching that are so very opposite of
what the Bible teaches about who Jesus Christ is.
In fact, I would put it this way, They've made so many
predictions over the years about predictions.
And we'll look at this in just a moment about the world coming to
an end, prediction about Armageddon, predictions about
David and Abraham walking the earth, that they've made so many
predictions that if having a false religion was an Olympic
sport, they would receive a gold medal because they have.
I've been so wrong so many times.
It actually is unbelievable that there would be people that would
still follow their teachings. However, they have found ways
over the years to cover up many of the errors that they have
made in these false predictions. And because of that, there are
still people who follow in lockstep.
Now, I want to remind you, as I remind you every time we look at
one of these false religions that we are not attacking the
people that are involved in those false religions.
That is not our desire. We want to love these people to
Jesus Christ, and maybe I put it this way, we want to love these
people to the true Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ, the Bible.
What we attack is the articles of faith.
What we attack is the authorities, those that are
leading those people astray. That's what we are looking at,
not those people who out of a heart that are trying to find
God have been turned to a false direction and turned to a false
gospel. That is not our desire here
today. And even mentioning those key
doctrines were not key doctrines rather, but those key dates
where they were mistaken. Just look at some of these
predictions and the outcome. In 1878, the Jehovah Witnesses,
or at least what was starting to form as the Watchtower Society
then called the Jehovah Witness. Well, if you look around, well,
we're still here, right? So that didn't happen and that
had to be reinterpreted. 1918, destruction of churches and the
death of millions, which did not occur.
The resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and other patriarchs,
1825 or 1925, that did not happen. 1975, the suggested
start of Christ's millennial reign.
And then that led to disappointment and membership
decline. That over and over and over
again, the Jehovah Witnesses have made predictions about
future events and over and over and over again, they have been
wrong. They've changed their positions
on blood transfusions over and over again for many, many years.
If you were a Jehovah Witness, you could not have a blood
transfusion of any kind. But according to the records
that I have, and these have been reviewed by others, and so this
is not something that I've just pulled out of a hat, they've
changed their positions on blood transfusions at least 18
different times since 1940. 18 different times, the doctrine of
whether you can receive a blood transfusion or whether you can
receive part of a blood transfusion or who can or who
can't. 18 different times since 1940, that has changed.
So over and over again we find that the doctrines of the
Jehovah Witnesses have changed. Now I know this from the Word of
God. The Bible says Jesus Christ is
saying yesterday, today, and forever.
Amen. Now, aren't you glad that when
it comes to the Word of God, that the doctrines of the Word
of God, when we talk about biblical Christianity, do not
change? Could you imagine coming to
church and one Sunday morning I say this, listen, I've had some
new light. I've received a word.
And remember what I told you about a couple months ago?
It's not true anymore. God has revealed to me that that
is no longer true. Could you imagine over and over,
that being the case, at some point you'd say, well, who's
really in charge here? Because it doesn't seem like God
is in charge. The Bible says this, that God is
not the author of confusion. Well, if God's not the author of
confusion, then who is? Well, Satan.
And if there is all of these different dates and there's all
these different times and there's all these different
doctrines that get changed over and over and over again, and
what do we find? None of it comes to pass.
What are we to say? Just as we're doing a very
topical inspection right now, we're not even diving deep into
the doctrine. We're just giving you the
introduction today. We look at that and say
something's not right here. And what's not right is the fact
that the Word of God has been pushed to the side by the
Jehovah Witnesses using their own version of the Bible called
the New World Translation, which we'll look at a little bit
later. That takes the long held
doctrines of the Word of God and removes them.
They're inconvenient and they're removed from their version of
the Bible. I really hesitate to call it a
Bible because it is not a Bible. It's been so radically changed,
but they've taken these things and removed them.
Just you don't like something in the Bible, cross it out.
You don't like that doctrine, cut it out, remove it.
And that's what they have done with their New World
Translation. So how does this group grow?
How are they able to grow with what seems to be such blatant
disregard for the truth? How could they possibly grow?
Well, the answer is because of the fact that they are out there
in the communities and they are talking with people.
By the statistics that I saw, on average almost nine and a half
million individual personalized Bible studies are held by
Jehovah Witnesses in people's homes every year. 9.5 somewhere,
give or take million every year. And so because of that, there
ranks of around 20 million worldwide can grow because they
are so very adamant about being in people's homes and being able
to talk to them. Now the way to be able to do
that is this with Bible closed because if the Bible, I mean the
true word of God was opened, the things that they're teaching
just could not be true. But when you try to take away
the word of God and give them a a word of God, that's not the
word of God, and then you really tell people, well, instead of
really worrying about the Bible, you really should read our
materials. You really should read our watch
that you read the Watchtower materials and it'll explain
everything you need to know. Why is it so important?
I don't want to go on a tangent here this morning, but why is it
so important that we bring our Bibles to church?
Why is it so important that I say open your Bibles?
Why is it so important that we turn from one scripture to
another Tonight? You're going to get dizzy and
all the scriptures we're going to look at because I think we've
got about 10 different passages we need to look at to be able to
properly cover the subject that we're going to be looking at
this evening. Why do we do that?
Is it because pastors are stalling for time and he doesn't
have anything to say and he just wants to keep going through your
Bible? So that means it's less time
that I talk. Well, listen, you all know me
well enough. I'm just going to keep talking
no matter what, all right? You can't make me stall.
But the idea is this. I want you to see in the Word of
God for yourself. Don't take my word for it.
What does the Bible say? Because that's really what true
religion is all about. Not not what religion says or
not what the higher up say, but what does the word of God say?
There's really only one higher up that we need to be concerned
about, if you will. That's the Lord, what His word
says, is it? And if I contradict the word of
the Lord, then I'm an error. I cannot say, well, this is what
I believe, and so I'm going to change the Bible to fit what I
believe. Listen, that's rank heresy.
So how do they do this? Well, what I want to do is
actually take you into the living room of someone.
This is a staged event here, but of what it would be like if
someone is giving a Bible study, a Jehovah Witness to someone who
is searching and meeting in one of those 9.5 million Bible
studies a year. Now, the video I'm about to show
you does not come from YouTube. It does not come from someone
who is a denier, the Jehovah Witnesses.
This video that I have has been downloaded from jw.org.
I found it myself all right. And So what you're going to
watch is not something from a plant.
It's not something from someone who is trying to debunk the
Jehovah Witness. This comes from their very own
organization. So I want you to watch this.
And then what we're we're going to do is from that introduction
to their Bible studies, actually go through the word of God and
see why they are so wrong. And so we'll just go ahead and
do that now and then we'll give you some comments.
So let's take a watch. And I thought what we could do
is just go right to the Bible account that deals with that.
Your Kingdom will be yours again after you come to know that the
heavens are ruling. So that is the dream that King
Nebuchadnezzar had. But as we discussed last week,
that dream is actually a prophecy.
Now it's important to remember that similar to other prophecies
in the book of Daniel, this prophecy points forward to God's
Kingdom with Jesus Christ as ruler.
So what I thought we could do today is look at some specific
points of this prophecy and to see the relationship between the
God's Kingdom and the year 1914. And this article has a fantastic
chart here that provides some great visuals that we can go
over. And I also made a few notes for
myself additionally. So if you don't mind, maybe we
could just spend the next few minutes and consider this?
Sure, sure, that sounds good. I always enjoy talking about the
Bible. Great.
Well, let's get started. What do you see in that first
box there? An enormous tree.
Is this the tree that we just read about in the prophecy?
That's exactly it. And in the second box, you'll
notice that there's a picture of an axe, and that indicates that
the tree was chopped down. But what happens next?
It says let 7 times pass. Yeah.
And so a period of time went by, and then eventually the tree
grew again. So those are the basic pieces to
the puzzle. We've got this enormous tree, it
gets chopped down 7 times, pass, and then eventually the tree
grows again. Well, that's the prophecy.
But what we want to know is what does that actually mean?
Well, the chart helps us out there as well.
Notice underneath it mentions rulership.
So the tree signifies rulership. Now, logically, if that's the
case, if it's spoken of as being chopped down, then that
rulership would be interrupted, someone's rulership, then
there'd be an interval of time that would pass, and then
eventually that rulership would be restored again.
So does that explanation seem reasonable?
I think so. Good.
Well then, let's consider the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Now, as we can see from our chart, there's both an initial
fulfillment and a larger one. Let's just spend a few minutes
considering the first one. So who is pictured by that tree?
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Excellent.
And the tree would be an apartment depiction of
Nebuchadnezzar, because like that tree, he was very prominent
and very powerful as the king of Babylon.
But also like that tree, he was chopped down, so to speak, when
he lost his sanity and can no longer continue ruling now,
according to the chart. How long did that last?
It says 7 literal years. That's it.
So after those seven years, Nebuchadnezzar regained his
sanity and began ruling again. So let's just recap kind of what
we've considered so far. Who was pictured in his first
fulfillment by the tree. Nebuchadnezzar.
Good. And how is he chopped down?
He loses his sanity. That's it.
And for how long? Seven years.
True. And after that seven years, he
regained his sanity and then began ruling again.
Now does that make sense? Yes, but what does this have to
do with God's Kingdom in 1914? That's a great question.
Well, we know there's a larger fulfillment of this prophecy
because Jesus himself spoke about it.
See later in the chart here refers to Luke 21 and verse 24.
Notice what Jesus said, Jerusalem will be trampled on
until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.
Well, what did he mean by that? Well notice here in the first
box down at the bottom it says Israelite kings who represent
God's rulership. Well those kings are also
represented by that tree. So that line of kings is is
really the larger fulfillment of that.
Now you might remember the Bible referred to these kings as
sitting on Jehovah's throne. That's because God appointed
them to rule over his chosen people at the time, the
Israelites. Unfortunately, as years went by,
most of those kings became disobedient to God, and in turn
their subjects did the same. So eventually Jehovah saw fit to
destroy Jerusalem in six O 7 BCE.
After that point, no more earthly kings figuratively sat
on Jehovah's throne, so it's as though God's rulership was
interrupted. Now, according to the chart, how
long did that interruption last? The chart says 2520 years.
Exactly. So if we calculate 2520 years
from the time Jerusalem was destroyed in six O 7, that
brings us all the way to 1914 and that is when Jesus began
ruling in heaven as King of God's Kingdom.
I know it's a lot to take in, but does that explanation make
sense? I think so, but I still have
some questions. Where do you get this 2520
years? How do you know that that's the
period of time? And how do you know for sure
that this prophecy is about God's Kingdom?
Is it possible that the kingship would be restored right here on
Earth, in Jerusalem? Those are all excellent
questions and we've taken in a lot of information here, but the
best thing for us to do to really get the answer is to look
at it in light of the complete Bible because that will assure
us that this is definitely a heavenly Kingdom and we can find
scriptural texts that point to this number 2520.
So what if the next time I come, we consider those specific
scriptures and also the remainder of this article, and I
think you're going to find it answers the rest of your
questions. Sure, that sounds good.
Is there some way that I could download this electronically?
I'd like to take a look at this chart some more.
Absolutely. Let me show you how to get on
our website, thesiteisjw.org. So when you go to the site, you
just go up to publications and then from there you choose
magazines. Chart and so we have that here
on the screen for you just a moment.
How many of you would say this? You just watch it say why on
earth are they talking so much about 1914?
Does anybody have any concern? Like, it seems like they are
fixated on 1914. Why would they have a Bible
study in a guy's house talking only about 1914?
And here's the answer. If you remember the chart that I
just showed you previously, they believe that in 1914, and it
taught for somewhere around 40 years that 1914 that Armageddon
would take place, all of the world kingdoms would dissolve,
and that Jesus would set up his rightful throne here on earth.
Now, the problem was, and in 1914, that didn't happen.
You know, I know that we're still here.
There was no Armageddon, there was no type of world kingdoms
dissolving and Jesus rightful throne.
In fact, does anybody remember what happened in the beginning
of 1914? Anyone have any kind of
historical context that it was the beginning of World War One?
So not only did Jesus not set up his Kingdom, but World War One
continued for the next four years.
In fact, it was exactly the opposite.
So what has the Jehovah Witnesses had to do for the last
100 plus years? Explain why Jesus did not come
and start an earthly Kingdom, but instead he started his
heavenly Kingdom in 1914. Now you say, wow, that is that's
that's a lot of things going on there.
And the answer is that's exactly right.
Because when you get away from the word of God, you have to
start pulling into all of these other different things.
And there's a lot of things that are going on now.
There's a lot of problems with what we just saw.
Maybe the first thing that you noticed was this the Bible.
And when I say the Bible, I mean the New World translation was
read from for one verse. And then what happened?
The Bible was closed. What was the next thing that was
opened the Watchtower materials, those magazines, were they
reading from the Bible? No, not really.
And it's funny because at the end he says we need to really
understand this in context of the whole Bible.
But the problem is, is that Jehovah Witnesses aren't going
to guide you to self-directed Bible study.
They're going to direct you to you need to read the Watchtower
and you're going to hear the term Watchtower a lot.
But they are the ones that put together all the publications
like what you just saw right here.
And so the Bible is put away and the Watchtower public.
Locations are pulled out. You're going to see that over
and over again as we look at the Jehovah Witnesses.
A lot of time and energy was placed on that.
But the real problem from what we saw was even beyond that, and
that's this purposeful, sloppy Bible interpretation, purposeful
sloppy Bible interpretation, meaning taking a little bit of
this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this, a little bit
of that, throwing it all together and then creating a
doctrine, whether that's what those verses said or not.
Listen, you can say a verse or part of a verse and make it mean
whatever you want it to mean if you're not careful.
And even Baptist can do that if we're not careful.
I remember one time I was in Bible college and there was a
visiting pastor who preached the love of money is the root, and
that's all he preached. But you understand that the
Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.
You can't just take the beginning and just preach on the
beginning of that verse and not explain what the whole verse
means. And so all of us, not just in
reference to Jehovah Witness, but any of us, when we deal with
the Bible, we always have to look at the Bible in context.
So why do I have US turn to Daniel chapter 4?
Well, I'm not in Daniel chapter 4 for some reason.
I'm in Psalm 144. But why are we in Daniel chapter
4? Well, that's where they
referenced what took place in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
So why don't we take a look at that for ourselves?
Because they said that there was a fulfillment at first when
Nebuchadnezzar went mad, and then there was another larger
fulfillment where it says the Israelite kings who represent
God's rulership, gruesome is destroyed, destroyed,
interrupting that line of Israelite kings.
And that this is told to us in Luke 2124 that these two
passages are connected. So why don't we read Daniel 4
for ourselves and Luke 2124 for ourselves and see if there's
actually a connection or not? Daniel Chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar,
the king unto all people, nations, languages that dwell in
all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.
I thought it good to show you the signs and wonders that the
high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs, How
mighty are his wonders. His Kingdom is an everlasting
Kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
I Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in
my palace. I saw a dream which made me
afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head
troubled me. Therefore made I decree to bring
in all the wise men in Babylon before me, that they might make
known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
Then came in the magician, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the
soothsayers, and I told the dream before them, and they did
not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was
Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom the
spirit of the holy gods. And before him I told the dream,
saying, Oh, Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know
that the spirit of the holy gods is in the and no secret trouble
of thee. Tell me the visions of my dream
that I've seen, and the interpretation thereof.
Thus were the visions of my head and my bed.
I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the
height thereof was great. So does that track so far with
what we saw on here? Yes, it does.
There was a tree now moving on, it says, And the tree grew, was
strong. The height thereof reached unto
heaven, the sight thereof to the ends of all the earth, and the
leaves thereof were fair, the fruit thereof much, and in it
was meat for all. The beasts of the field had
shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the
boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.
I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, A
watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.
He cried aloud, and said Thus hew down the tree, cut off his
branches, shake off his leaves, scatter his fruit, let the beast
get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.
Nevertheless leaves the stump of his roots in the earth, even
with a band of iron and brass. And the tender grass of the
field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his
portion be with the beasts of the grass of the earth.
Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart
be given unto him. And let 7 times Passover this
matter is, that the decree of the watchers, and the demand by
the word of the holy ones to the intent, that the living may know
that the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men, and give it to
whomsoever he will, and set up over it the basis of men.
This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen.
Now thou belt to Shazzer, declare the interpretation
thereof. For as much as all the wise men
of my Kingdom are not able to make known unto me the
interpretation, but thou art able, for the spirit of the holy
Gods is in thee. Well let me ask you this.
Did what we just read here in the first in Daniel chapter 4
track with those first three boxes?
It does, doesn't it? Here's why.
Understand that when it comes to error, truth is always found in
it. But just a little bit.
Just like a hook has to have a worm in it for people.
Not people to get it, but for a fish to get it, error has to
have a little bit of truth in it to get people to be interested.
And so was there a tree? Yes.
Was they told to chop down the tree in the vision?
Yes. Were several times to pass?
Yes. In fact, even represented were
the bands there around the tree stump.
And so yes, that is true. Well, we can go on.
And for the sake of time, we're not going to read the whole
chapter. But I would say, unlike our
Jehovah Witness friends, I would encourage you to read the entire
chapter. There's nothing here that's
hidden that I think you should not be able to read.
No sleight of hand, no nothing up my sleeve.
You know, nothing like that. It's all about being able to
read the word of God for yourself.
But in summary, we find that there is nothing in the
interpretation of the the vision that we're going to find next
that says that there is going to be this initial fulfillment.
But then also this larger fulfillment and will you know
what this vision was about Nebuchadnezzar and that was it,
that Nebuchadnezzar was for seven years going to be a madman
because he did not honor God. And after those seven years he
would be restored to the Kingdom.
Again. There was nowhere else where it
says or even hinted that there was going to be a larger
fulfillment. You say, well, pastor, hold on.
They said that really that is to be found in Luke 2124.
And so maybe if we look at Luke 2124, that will make the
connection so well, let's go do that.
All right, so turn to Luke 2124. For the sake of argument, let's
follow their logic, Luke 2124, because we want the word of God
to have it say Luke 2124. I hear a cricket right now while
I'm talking. Usually while I'm talking, I
hear crickets. That's not a good thing, you
know. And so Luke 2124.
And this is talking about the end of days.
And so let's start not in 2124, but let's get a little bit more
context here by going up just a little bit.
And it says in verse #21 Then let them which are in Judea flee
to the mountains, and let them which in the midst of it depart
out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there
into. For these be the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
But woe unto them, they're with child, and to give them suck in
those days. For there shall be great
distress in the land, and wrath upon this people, and they shall
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be LED away captive
into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down at the
Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Now it says here. And this is where they want to
focus, that in 1914, the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled,
which is why Jesus Christ came back and set up his heavenly
Kingdom. But I have to ask you this
question. What does Daniel chapter #4 and
what we just read here in Luke chapter 21 have anything to do
with one another? And the answer is they have
nothing to do with one another, nothing at all that this is
talking about the end times and the issues that will take place
during the end times and yet that has not taken place yet.
Remember, it's so bad during those times.
It says if you have a child, it's going to be hard for you
because you have a child because of how difficulty, the great
difficulty during those times. And so we find that what we find
in this whole issue here at the bottom is faulty from beginning
to end. There are many other faults that
can be found here as well. Sixteen O 7, they say is the
time that Jerusalem fell. There are there are no reliable
historians that say that Jerusalem fell in six O 7 BC.
Rather it's somewhere around 587588-BC, not BCE.
By the way, they use these because they want to take out
any reference to Christ in the years here.
But six O 7, there's no one that says that it was six O 7.
So why did they pick six O 7? Because somewhere they have to
come out with 2520 years. Now you say, why is it 2520
years now? Oh man, my head hurts from all
this. I hope that somehow that it's
coming across to you, what's coming through on the pages and
through their own doctrine here. But they chose 2520 years
because they said seven times will pass.
Remember, 7 times. And that was seven years for
Nebuchadnezzar. But in the larger fulfilment,
they go to Revelation chapter #12 where there's a whole
different prophecy that's taking place.
And there they talk about that there is going to be in the
Tribulation period. Well, we know the Tribulation
period, seven years. And they take the days that are
there, they calculate it out, and they say that the Bible says
that it says in prophecy a day really counts as a year.
And they misinterpret Numbers, the book of Numbers, chapter 14,
verse 34, because nowhere in the Bible does it say in prophecy a
day is always a year. There's nowhere it says that.
But they take a little bit of here, a little bit of there, a
little bit of here, a little bit of there, a little bit of there
of texts that have nothing to do with one another.
And they hope that you don't read your Bible and that you
just look at that little magazine and by the time you're
done, you say 02520. That makes perfect sense when
none of this has anything to do with the Bible and the only
reason they're teaching this in the 1st place is because they
had failed prophecies that Armageddon was supposed to
happen in 1914 and everything was supposed to be destroyed and
it didn't happen. So they have to find a way to re
explain it. Listen, this is a mess.
This is an absolute mess and it has nothing to do with the
Bible, but what they hope to do when they talk to you on a
corner, what they hope to do when they knock on your door.
What they hope to do when you come to a Bible study is that
you do not know anything about the Word of God or that you take
just the veneer of the Word of God that they're using.
Just just that little covering, that little coating of the word
of God on the outside. They're hoping that you take
that look at this. Wow, doesn't this look nice?
Doesn't this look sharp? Boy, this makes a lot of sense
when nothing here from here on down, well really from here this
is all true, but from this section here has anything to do
with the Word of God. So there is truth, but the error
is what gets you. And I say, well listen, we never
said, we never said that the world was going to end in 1914.
And the fact of the matter is, not only did they say it, they
said it over and over and over and over again.
For instance, it says in Source and Studies in the Scriptures,
1889. Be not surprised then, when in
subsequent chapters we present proofs that the setting up of
the Kingdom of God has already begun, that is pointed out in
prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in AD 1878.
And at the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty, which will
end in AD 1914 with a complete overthrow of earth's present
rulership is already commenced. Does that sound like something
that's figurative or something that's literal?
Sounds literal to me. But going on in the upcoming 26
years, all present governments will be overthrown and
dissolved. CT Russell, Studies of the
Scriptures. Remember that the 40 years
Jewish harvest ended in October AD 69 was followed by the
complete overthrow of that nation, and that likewise the 40
years of the Gospel age harvest will end in October 1914, and
that likewise the overthrow of Christendom, so-called, must be
expected to immediately follow. Continuing on, in the view of
this strong Bible evidence concerning the times of the
Gentiles, we consider 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 AD
1914. I wish I was done.
I'm not done. True, it is expecting great
things to claim as we do, that within the coming 26 years all
present governments will be overthrown and dissolved.
I'm still not done. We see no reason for changing
the figures, nor could we change them if we would.
They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours.
But bear in mind, at the end of 1914 is not the date for the
beginning, but the end of time of trouble.
Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy,
our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in
the 1914 date. They did not see how present
conditions can hold out so long under the strain.
We see no reason for changing the figures, nor could we change
them if we would. They are, we believe, God's
dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of
1914 is not the date for the beginning, but the date of the
end of the time of trouble. I believe that's the last one
that I have. No, I'm not done yet.
Oh, there's still more. True, it is expecting great
things to claim, as we do, that within the next coming 26 years
all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved.
But we are living in a special and peculiar time, the day of
Jehovah. In view of the strong Bible
evidence concerning the times of the Gentiles, we consider an
established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this
world and the full establishment of the kingdoms of God will be
accomplished by the end of AD 1914.
And then it goes on and on and on.
Does it sound like it's something that was just a
spiritual or metaphorical Kingdom, or did they really
believe that the world was going to end in 1914?
They really believed that the world would end in 1914.
And spoiler alert, we're still here.
We're still here and they're still here.
So what do you have to do? Well, you have to find a way to
cover up the mistake. And to do that, they had to
reverse engineer a prophecy of taking a little bit from Daniel,
a little bit from Luke, a little bit from Revelation, and a
little bit from the book of Numbers.
And they cooked it together. And what they ended up was a
toxic soup, a false doctrine. You know, it's amazing to me
that you can take truth and truth and truth and truth. 4
Bible passages. All true, but put them together
in a way that absolutely destroys them.
Why? Because the Bible tells us this,
that the word of God is not for private interpretation, meaning
this. I can't make it say what I want
it to say. I can't take the doctrine of the
Word of God and make it what I want it to be.
Why is it so important I believe to be not just a Christian and
one who knows Jesus Christ their Savior, but to be a Baptist?
What is one of the things that people ask us about being
Baptists all the time we say this, it's because we want to
believe the Bible from beginning to end.
We need no other book. We need nothing else.
What we say is it's the Bible and the Bible alone that saves
you. It's the Bible and the Bible
alone that will teach you. It's the Bible and the Bible
alone that will guide you in every area of your life.
And so here's what I want us to understand today, and we'll
actually finish in just a moment.
As a little bit of an aside, you say how on earth could we reach
a Jehovah Witness? How on earth could we reach
them? And it seems hard.
And the reason why it's hard is for several different things.
One, you can't use your Bible with them because they do not
accept this as the word of God. They will only accept the New
World Translation. You can't talk to them about
things that you found online. Listen, they will not research
and they are forbidden to research anything about Jehovah
Witnesses online. They have been told on high.
We'll look at the hierarchy the next time we look at this
lesson. But basically the hierarchy are
8 men who meet in New York and those eight men tell everybody
what they believe, how they believe it.
And when the end times come, in their minds, they will have to
do whatever those eight men tell them to do That's it.
So how do you reach people that are even told by those eight
men? Don't even Google the words
Jehovah Witnesses. Don't Google it because whatever
you see on there will be propaganda and it will be false.
The only website that they really can legitimately go to
isjw.org, where you saw videos like the one we just watched a
few minutes ago that are false. If you're like me, you think,
how on earth can you reach someone like that?
How on earth, when you don't even have something in common,
how could you talk to them while at the same time we share common
words and phrases and terms, but yet when they talk about them,
they mean something totally different than what we mean.
How do we reach these people? And we reach these people by
using their own literature. What I just showed you right
there shows that in their own literature they were false.
By showing them places in the Watchtower that teach their
wrong, by showing them place in the New World Translation, we're
still Jesus Christ is uplifted. For whatever reason, they remain
in the New World Translation. They're few and far between.
In fact, the by the New World Translation won't even call that
a cross. It's called a stake because they
refuse to acknowledge the cross. How do you deal with someone
like that? You have to understand what they
believe and you understand where they believe it from so that
when you have a conversation with them, you were able to
lovingly bring up these issues. Because I will tell you this,
from all that I've seen and I've watched several videos and a lot
of research this week in preparation for the next several
weeks on this on top of my normal reading for this series.
But what I found is this. Jehovah Witnesses are afraid.
They are so afraid. Say afraid of what?
They are afraid that they won't make it to heaven because it's a
works based salvation. If they do not go and knock on
people's doors once a week. And if they do not go or rather
once a month and they do not stand at one of those stands
once a month, they have no hope of heaven, period.
That's been an edict. One hour.
You have to do it. And on top of that, they have
this idea that the end times will come.
And if they're not ready, some of the biggest preppers, if you
will, or actually Jehovah Witnesses, because they are so
afraid of what will happen next. Where is the life that were
promised in the word of God and life more abundantly, it's not
found there. It's fear, anxiety.
In fact, watching one video this week, I saw that that these
public, they're called publishers.
If you go out and you share the good word, if you will, of the
Jehovah Witnesses, you're called a publisher.
And they talked about the publishers walk.
Because if you've ever watched a Jehovah Witness, and I, and I
realize this now, once I saw, if you ever see them walking down
the street, they walk like this. They're in no hurry to get
anywhere. You know why?
They're just trying to fulfill their hour.
That's it. They're not really worried about
souls. They're not really worried about
who knows about their Jesus. They just want to make sure the
hour is done. I'm thankful yesterday we were
making visits to people and talking to people about Jesus
and we're and, and the idea I have is just, we got time for
one more. Can we, can we see one more
person? Can we talk to someone else
about Jesus? You know why?
Because I want people to know about Jesus.
I wanted many people. You know why?
Because he's done so much for me.
That's the difference between false religion and pure
religion. That's the difference between
falsehood and the truth of the word of God.
So I hope this has been a little bit of a wedding of your
appetite. You said, boy pastor, that was
so convoluted, right? And it's going to get even more
detailed as we go along. And I know you may not capture
all that we're talking about, and that's OK.
But if nothing else, to help you understand the confusion that
these people live with, the fear that they live with, but that we
want to show them the hope of the gospel.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.