Warning and Contention: A Biblical Examination of Prophets and Prophecies

1. Thrive Discipleship & Apologetics Proverbs 11 28 Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. Jude 3Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jehovah’s Witness And Bible Track Society A True Prophet Of God?

2. The Jehovah Witness and Bible Track Society claims to be a Prophet of God. “‘They Shall Know that a Prophet Was Among Them’ A third way of coming to know Jehovah God is through his representatives. In ancient times he sent prophets as his special messengers. While these men foretold things to come, they also served the people by telling them of God’s will for them at that time, often also warning them of dangers and calamities. People today can view the creative works. They have at hand the Bible, but it is little read or understood. So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come?

3. However, Jehovah did not let the people of Christendom, as led by the clergy, go without being warned that the League was a counterfeit substitute for the real kingdom of God. He had a “prophet” to warn them. This “prophet” was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. They are still proclaiming a warning, and have been joined and assisted in their commissioned work by hundreds of thousands of persons who have listened to their message with belief. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1972241 (Retrieved 10/02/2019)

4. Hebrews 1  1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,  2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;  3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

5. Deuteronomy 18 17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good.  18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.  20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’  21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—  22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

6. Please note, that the following are prophesies which the Jehovah Witness organization has given or it’s founder Charles Russel or Judge Rutherford Russell's successor.

7. "The careful student will have observed that the period designated 'The Time of the End' is very appropriately named, since not only does the Gospel age close in it, but in it, also, all prophesies relating to the close of this age terminate, reaching their fulfillments. The same class of readers will have noticed, too, the special importance of the last 40 of these 115 years (1874-1914), called 'The End' or 'Harvest.'" Studies in the Scriptures Series III - Thy Kingdom Come p.121

8. In 1912 Russell explained that he did not know how to account for the year 0 between B.C. and A.D. and that the end could be in either 1914 or 1915. The 2520 years of Daniels seven times prophecy extends from 606 to 1915 once the year zero between B.C. and A.D. is removed. Whichever of these ways we undertake to calculate the matter the difference between the results is one year. The seventy years of Jewish captivity ended October, 536 B.C., and if there were 536-1/4 years B.C., then to complete the 2,520 years' cycle of the Times of the Gentiles would require 1913-3/4 years of A.D., or to October, 1914. But if the other way of reckoning were used, then there were but 535-1/4 years of the period B.C., and the remainder of the 2,520 years would reach to A.D., 1914-3/4 years, otherwise October, 1915. https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1800s.php

9. "It is with sincere joy that we are privileged to report that amongst the activities of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY for 1917 the Seventh Volume of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES has been published and is now going forth. We count this as another one of the strong proofs that the harvest is nearing the end, and that in all probability the Spring of 1918 will mark the beginning of the closing up of all activities of the kingdom class on this side the veil." Watch Tower Dec 15 1917 pp.373-374

10. 1925 was a date set by Rutherford for the commencement of the earthly paradise and the resurrection onto earth of people such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. See 1925 for a full discussion on Watchtower expectations for this date. "What, then, should we expect to take place? The chief thing to be restored is the human race to life; and since other Scriptures definitely fix the fact that there will be a resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful ones of old, and that these will have the first favour, we may expect 1925 to witness the return of these faithful men of Israel from the condition of death , being resurrected and fully restored to perfect humanity and made the visible, legal representatives of the new order of things on earth." Millions Now Living Will Never Die! p.88

11. It was implied that the end would occur in 1975, since this was 6,000 years from the creation of Adam. See 1975 for a full discussion of this date. "The date 1980, mentioned on pages 61, 62, [of The Finished Mystery] probably marks the regathering of all of Fleshly Israel from their captivity in death." The Parable of the Penny p.6 https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1800s.php (Retrieved 10/03/2019)

12. Deuteronomy 18 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. The Jehovah Witness and Bible Track Society has clamed the end of the world on at least 8 occasions. They have failed at everyone of their predictions. They have spoken presumptuously, you don’t need to listen to them.