I have embarked on a project to explain the entire scroll many know as “The Book of Revelation.” (More accurately, it should be entitled “A Revelation From Jesus Christ That God Gave Him.”)
I will explain it verse-by-verse.
No one explains it in the manner that I will explain it. I truly believe it is the best explanation to be found anywhere.
For those of you are Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is not a cut and paste of the Watch Tower “Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand” book that I studied many times in book studies when I was a Jehovah’s Witness. No, it is a far cry from the explanation in that book as I believe it in error because of the premise of the foundation of 1914 teaching (upon which that book was written) which I also believe is in gross error. Below are articles I wrote on the topic of the 1914 teaching. I recommend that you read them:
- 1914: A Hope Deferred
- Where Did The 1914 Date Really Come From?
- The Strain On 1914
- The 1914 Avoidance Factor
I know (as a former JWs) that the reason why many who are Jehovah’s Witnesses will not consider what I write is that they are told not to. This is how it works within the Watch Tower Organization:
When one leaves the organization – whether by disfellowshipment or disassociation – they are not to be associated with. I was not disfellowshipped, I voluntarily and quietly left on my own because Watchtower leadership, the organization, and books (including the Bible) became far more lofty, revered, and important than God and Christ and what “they” say.
Once outside of “the Watchtower organization” one is unfairly labeled “an apostate” if they write or say anything contrary to Watchtower teaching. If any Jehovah’s Witness is caught reading Apostate material or talking with an apostate, they risk restrictions in the congregation or expulsion (disfellowshipment).
Any Jehovah’s Witness with knowledge of another Jehovah’s Witness reading Apostate material or associating with one the Watchtower labels as an Apostate and does not report it to the Elders, risk restrictions or expulsion.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard Elders announce from the podium in the Kingdom Hall that someone was disfellowshipped. The reasons are never given to the congregation. I have heard the names of people who were fulltime pioneers, persons I knew were of high moral character and persons I would least believe would be disfellowshipped or disassociated. Why they leave or why disfellowshipped is never announced to the rest of the congregation. Thus, the congregation is conditioned to believe that those disfellowshiped or disassociated did something bad. I know that this is not always the case.
I for one left quietly under my own stream after more than twenty years and it came as a shock to many who knew me.
Yet, labeling one an Apostate and being forbidden to associate with disfellowshiped and disassociated ones is a clever and effective censorship mechanism. If what the Watchtower is teaching is the truth, why prevent its membership from reading or even speaking to people like me? Answer: Because I might be telling the truth and people will think for themselves and not have an organization tell them how to think.
I know for a fact that the Watchtower organization has many fine people in it. They are many good and sincere people. However, that does not equate to correctness.
My issue is not with the “children” (members in the congregations) but with the “parent” (the organization) that is feeding them. Children usually obey their parents right or wrong. Loyalty to the “parent” will turn many away from what I write.
I do not believe in engaging in personal attacks with persons of any religious organization. That is not the way of Christ and Christ (my Master) did not teach rudeness.
I have engaged in conversations with many Jehovah’s Witnesses and they almost always end up with them getting angry or agitated when I either have them back into a corner or when I do not allow them to change the subject (something they are trained to do). Experienced Witnesses are very good at turning the conversation around to where the discussion is on their terms and in their comfort zone. Many can careless about what you have to say as you are already “in the wrong” the moment they knock on your door and engage you in a conversation. Many are pretentious in listening to you. This is a part of the training/indoctrination received in the Kingdom Halls.
One more point on that anger thing I mentioned earlier. I had two Witnesses gang up on me thinking that they were going to show me something. When I mentioned to them that I had been a devout Jehovah’s Witness for nearly 25 years, they took a different attitude. The smiles vanished. They went into attack mode.
I actually could navigate the Bible and explain ‘scripture” better than they could and I asked them some questions that I knew they could not answer. I even show them things Jesus himself said (at Matthew 24:36, Matthew 24:42, and Acts 1:7) and asked them to explain it and reconcile it with the 1914 teaching where the Watchtower claims were the year Jesus returned invisibly and now reigns as king. Those scriptures show that no one – not even Jesus – knows of his return, so how can the Watchtower know what Jesus himself does not know? They hemmed and hawed and danced completely around the things Jesus said in those verses and tried to change the subject and even tried to take a “personal” jab at me. I saw through what they were trying to do and politely brought them back on the subject. They could not answer. They literally stared at their Bibles! They had to think!
They had to think! That is partly what it is all about. I am NOT trying to convert anyone. If one thinks about it, what is there to convert to? I do not belong to any religious organization and never will again. Religious organizations are dictatorships of the mind. One is made fearful to even dare think outside the confines they place you in.
Thus, I belong exclusively to Christ (Messiah). If what he teaches is the truth, then there are no confines. He said at John 8:31-32 when speaking to the Jews at that time who believed what he was teaching them:
If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
This is the freedom I know. Jesus said “his teaching” NOT the teachings emanating out of all sorts of religious organizations that claim to speak in his voice or even use his name.
In good conscience, I could no longer accept and teach others what I had come to learn was in gross error. I decided to obey God’s command at Luke 9:35.
So this verse-by-verse explanation of “The Revelation From Jesus Christ That God Gave Him” is provided to prompt one to think for themselves and to see that what has been presented within a religious organization, lectures, sermons, the many articles and books, and videos on YouTube and elsewhere are in error.
They all proceed from the notion that fulfillment of the revelation is happening now rather than fulfillment far in the future.
Nothing in the revelation has had a start of fulfillment as many would have you believe. That is a part of the great deception.
It is my hope that by the completion of the entire discussion you will see this and you will never read “The Revelation From Jesus Christ That God Gave Him” the same again. – Revelation 1:1
The discussion begins HERE.
