Text For Tuesday, 15 May 2007

[barry]

I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.—Gen. 3:15.

As enmity between the two ‘seeds’ continues, those faithfully serving Jehovah can expect to be persecuted. (2 Tim. 3:12) Are you aware of the underlying reason for such satanic persecution? The Devil has raised the issue of universal sovereignty. Related to it, he has called into question the integrity of humans to their Creator. The Devil persecutes Witnesses of Jehovah today in an effort to break their integrity and prove his challenge true. Knowing that the Devil brings persecution upon us because he desperately wants to break our integrity to God can actually help us to be courageous and strong. (Deut. 31:6) Our God is the Universal Sovereign, and he will help us to maintain our integrity. May we always seek to make Jehovah’s heart rejoice by being integrity keepers, giving him a reply to the great taunter, Satan the Devil.—Prov. 27:11. w 1/15/06 8-10a

[eyes&ears]

Hi everyone,

For me, this is the main point of it all:

"Our God is the Universal Sovereign, and he will help us to maintain our integrity. May we always seek to make Jehovah’s heart rejoice by being integrity keepers, giving him a reply to the great taunter, Satan the Devil.—Prov. 27:11."

Sisterly love as we all HOLD ON TIGHT

E & E

[Molly]

Thank you Barry for posting the text every day.

This war between Jehovah's seed and Satan's seed brought Rev. 12: 13-17 to my mind because it is really how we will know when the GT has begun, since it is the first thing that Satan does after being hurled to the earth.

13-"Now when the dragon saw that it was hurled down to the earth, it persecuted the woman that gave birth to the male child. 14-But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent.
15-And the serpent disgorged water like a river from its moutn after the woman, to cause her to be drowned by the river. 16-But the earth came to the woman's help, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon disgorged from its mouth. 17-And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus."

This will result in major tribulation for Jehovah's Witnesses! If Chapters 5 & 6 of Ezekial are prophetic of what it will be like in our time, then only a very few of Jehovah's Witnesses ( Chapter 6: 8 refers to them as a remnant) will be left over after the attack.

Because we have allowed the WT to let us believe that the persecution was a period of incarceration in Atlanta by a handful of men some 90 years ago, the severity of this attack by Satan has pretty much been disregarded. Remember that Satan will be furious, and his primary target is anyone who claims to belong to Jehovah. The 8th power will no doubt be the smashing instrument that he uses.

Very sobering information.

Molly

[Gabriel]

This will result in major tribulation for Jehovah's Witnesses! If Chapters 5 & 6 of Ezekial are prophetic of what it will be like in our time, then only a very few of Jehovah's Witnesses ( Chapter 6: 8 refers to them as a remnant) will be left over after the attack.[/b]

I've always thought that this was refering to the anointed who are destined to be killed off, Not the great crowd. Although we will suffer much,yes, even loose our lives, Jehovah will still preserve many of his sheep to be eye witnesses of this awesome showdown.

[Molly]

<div class='quotemain'>This will result in major tribulation for Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses! If Chapters 5 & 6 of Ezekial are prophetic of what it will be like in our time, then only a very few of Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses ( Chapter 6: 8 refers to them as a remnant) will be left over after the attack.[/b]

I&#39;ve always thought that this was refering to the anointed who are destined to be killed off, Not the great crowd. Although we will suffer much,yes, even loose our lives, Jehovah will still preserve many of his sheep to be eye witnesses of this awesome showdown.
[/b][/quote]


Hi Gabriel-

Like you, I had always minimized this attack but recently what I&#39;ve been reading leads me to believe that the scale will be much larger. All of Jerusalem and all of the people there were attacked and destroyed during Babylon&#39;s onslaught, not just the priests and the prophets. Only a few were either taken captive or left to tend the vines. I just think that the persecution will be much more severe than we have been led to believe. Believe me, I&#39;d prefer to think that it was the way you see it, but this a punishment that is being brought upon Jehovah&#39;s people for their sins and by tolerating these sins all the people share in the guilt.

Molly

[Gabriel]

All of Jerusalem and all of the people there were attacked and destroyed during Babylon&#39;s onslaught, not just the priests and the prophets. Only a few were either taken captive or left to tend the vines.
Molly[/b]


Good Point. Very Good point. So if this is the case What sence would it make for Jehovah to punish is people by devoting the majority of them to the sword and then turn back around and resurect them in the new system. Or is this destruction perminate? (So frustrating) one minute we&#39;re filled with hope then the next utter horror.

One more thing, If this is the case Molly, how are we to explain the "Great Crowd" that comes out of the G.T......That no man is able to number? Should Jehovah show more leaniancy with the nations than what he does his own people?

[Shibboleth]

The thing with the mentality and elitist viewpoint that JW&#39;s and only JW&#39;s will survive is that scripture debunks that theory. Right now we can number how many JW&#39;s there are. If we truely go by the scripture that it will be a number no man can number then that means (to me) that more then just JW&#39;s will survive.

A great mixed crowd went out of Egypt with the Israelites.

Also we know that many who do submit at first to Jehovah will then go against Him when Satan is released again and makes his final attack on God&#39;s people.

The Israelites and the great mixed crowd at first submitted to Jehovah, but then later went against Him.

The times of those Israelites when they were rescued from Egypt and our times today are similar. Jesus did say that the time of the end would also be like Noah&#39;s day, but he did not say that there would be a small majority, like Noah&#39;s small family unit, that would survive. The scriptures plainly say a great crowd. A number no man can number. Most people today would submit to God if He came and offered them salvation. People would be stupid not to. But alas there will be &#39;stupid&#39; people in the time of the end.

The scriptures are pointed. Jehovah is going to destroy all those who look to man for salvation and the cure for the world instead of His son and government as the ones whom will bring salvation.

[stayawake]

IMHO
the way I see it, the nation of Isreal were all born into a covenant relationship with Jehovah. One would be born right into that Mosaic covenet without choice.
It was thru that Nation that Jah held out the beautiful prospect of becoming a Royal preisthood, to rule with the promised Messiah that was to also come thru that nation.

Gen 3:15 is the whole theme of the Bible,which is Gods Kingdom

Christ of course fufilled the old Mosaic Law covenant which was done away with at Jesus death. Because Jesus died in the middle of the week 33AD, the extention for the Jews to still be the Royal Pristhood went on to 36 AD to the end of that week

That is when the pagan nations were intoduced to Christ Kingdom Covenent. and the Jewish branches were looped off that didn&#39;t accept Christ )and the pagan nation were grafted in.

Jah is still dealing with His Household,His adopted Sons, (Christ brothers.) These are the ones who are under that New Kingdom Covenent, those that will make up that promised Royal priesthood

These make up the secondary seed of Gods woman with Christ being THE SEED
It is the attack on the remaining ones of the seed Rev 12:17 that brings on Armegedden. These are Gods sons
They must die in order for the Messianic Kingdom to be complete,

but that Great crowd will come out of the GT will be under Devine protection, along with those who were part of that Kingdom preaching ,helping the annointed. (Christ brothers).

Again IMHO
This is the way i read it, but I only speak for my self
All other thoughts ,welcome
love stayawake

[Jeshurun]

Maybe from the standpoint of John, before there were calculators, computers, etc., having a vision of the great crowd and trying to number them would be an impossible task. On the other hand, 144,000 is a workable number to count, although it would take a while, and I think the scripture was trying to make a comparison that this would be a really huge crowd compared to the anointed ones. Another possibility is that maybe only Jehovah can know the number, as it is not for man to count.

The other thing is, as hard as this is for me to even say, the scriptures say that as much as two-thirds of God&#39;s house won&#39;t make it through the refinement period. I think this refers to anointed as well as the GC. A scenario that I can see is a great gathering of Jehovah&#39;s people in the eleventh hour, after the dispersement and ensuing captivity, maybe the majority coming from JW&#39;s but including many more who were either disfellowshipped, became inactive for good reasons, or were never involved with Jehovah&#39;s Witnesses at all. I think it will be a time full of some pleasant surprises. I think it&#39;s Ezekiel the 16th chapter where Jehovah says that his adulterous wife would have to be humiliated by Jehovah&#39;s acceptance of her many sisters. These are represented in prophecy as Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon.

Agape

Lou

[Molly]

With regard to the destruction of Jerusalem, what happened to the alien resident during the siege? The other sheep have always been likened to the alien resident. Were the alien residents destroyed along with the Israelites during Nebuchadnezzar&#39;s attack?

This could be important dialogue.

As for whether Jehovah will resurrect those destroyed by the 8th king after Armaggedon, I would think so since this is a punishment but there is a repurchase as well, even if that means from the grave. Ezekial 6: 10 says "And they will have to know that I am Jehovah; not in vain did I speak about doing to them this calamitous thing." The warnings have been continuous, so there is no excuse for failing to heed the command.

As for the Great Crowd, I don&#39;t believe that they exist yet. The other sheep exist but the Great Crowd comes as a result of the call to get out of Babylon the Great. Those who refuse the mark of the beast are the ones that are part of the Great Crowd and they could come from a variety of religions.

Molly

[stayawake]

[quote]


Molly Thats the way I see it.
In fact I think this is what watchman brought out in one of his essays

The WT has already gathered the GC, all are JWs
They seem to feel they have a patton on whom Jehovah will accept, failing to realize that Christs ransom sacrifice was universal.

John 3:16 God loved the whole world (mankind ) so much He gave His only begotton son.
Being that Jesus bought back what Adam lost,
One must keep in mind that Adam had in his loins the genes for the whole human family

stayawake