Sermon

Week 11: Introducing the Jehovah's Witnesses | August 17, 2025 Sunday School

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you if you would

  7. turn your Bibles, please, to. Daniel chapter #4 Daniel chapter

  8. #4 We're in the middle of our series, World Religions and

  9. Cults. We look for several weeks at the

  10. issues surrounding Islam, and we're actually moving to our

  11. first biblical cult, and that is the Jehovah Witness.

  12. Now remember, the difference between world religion and a

  13. cult really is that a cult has some similarities to

  14. Christianity, but yet takes a lot of the names, the

  15. characters, the entities that we are familiar with in

  16. Christianity use the same names, same terminology oftentimes, but

  17. completely changed it and twists into something that is

  18. completely different. And so we want to talk today

  19. about the Jehovah Witnesses and give you a little bit of an

  20. introduction to them. All right, now we're going to

  21. start this way. Are you ready?

  22. Knock, knock. Jehovah Witness.

  23. That's it. That's the end of the story.

  24. That's it. So that's all I got.

  25. All right, so that's how we're familiar with the Jehovah

  26. Witnesses, aren't we? Because they go around our

  27. neighborhoods. We see them in all types of

  28. other places. If you were driving around

  29. Brockton, you will see people that are in downtown Brockton.

  30. You'll see over at Mansfield Commuter Rail Station, you'll

  31. see at the heaviest times of the day that there will be those who

  32. are Jehovah Witnesses that are there really, if you go to about

  33. any T station in Boston at any given time, I know South Station

  34. is certainly this way. You're going to see several

  35. people that are dressed up to the nines with a smile on their

  36. face next to a rack of literature and they are just

  37. waiting for someone to come by and to talk to them about their

  38. booklets and pamphlets that are there.

  39. And certainly there are some very, very nice people.

  40. If you just take people for who they are, that they can be some

  41. very friendly people, some very kind people in many ways.

  42. But I do want you to understand that what you see in the

  43. Watchtower materials, that what you see when it comes to the

  44. teaching the Jehovah Witness is exactly opposite of what the

  45. Bible teaches is true Christianity.

  46. And that what they have there on those racks of literature are

  47. ways and methods of teaching that are so very opposite of

  48. what the Bible teaches about who Jesus Christ is.

  49. In fact, I would put it this way, They've made so many

  50. predictions over the years about predictions.

  51. And we'll look at this in just a moment about the world coming to

  52. an end, prediction about Armageddon, predictions about

  53. David and Abraham walking the earth, that they've made so many

  54. predictions that if having a false religion was an Olympic

  55. sport, they would receive a gold medal because they have.

  56. I've been so wrong so many times.

  57. It actually is unbelievable that there would be people that would

  58. still follow their teachings. However, they have found ways

  59. over the years to cover up many of the errors that they have

  60. made in these false predictions. And because of that, there are

  61. still people who follow in lockstep.

  62. Now, I want to remind you, as I remind you every time we look at

  63. one of these false religions that we are not attacking the

  64. people that are involved in those false religions.

  65. That is not our desire. We want to love these people to

  66. Jesus Christ, and maybe I put it this way, we want to love these

  67. people to the true Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ, the Bible.

  68. What we attack is the articles of faith.

  69. What we attack is the authorities, those that are

  70. leading those people astray. That's what we are looking at,

  71. not those people who out of a heart that are trying to find

  72. God have been turned to a false direction and turned to a false

  73. gospel. That is not our desire here

  74. today. And even mentioning those key

  75. doctrines were not key doctrines rather, but those key dates

  76. where they were mistaken. Just look at some of these

  77. predictions and the outcome. In 1878, the Jehovah Witnesses,

  78. or at least what was starting to form as the Watchtower Society

  79. then called the Jehovah Witness. Well, if you look around, well,

  80. we're still here, right? So that didn't happen and that

  81. had to be reinterpreted. 1918, destruction of churches and the

  82. death of millions, which did not occur.

  83. The resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and other patriarchs,

  84. 1825 or 1925, that did not happen. 1975, the suggested

  85. start of Christ's millennial reign.

  86. And then that led to disappointment and membership

  87. decline. That over and over and over

  88. again, the Jehovah Witnesses have made predictions about

  89. future events and over and over and over again, they have been

  90. wrong. They've changed their positions

  91. on blood transfusions over and over again for many, many years.

  92. If you were a Jehovah Witness, you could not have a blood

  93. transfusion of any kind. But according to the records

  94. that I have, and these have been reviewed by others, and so this

  95. is not something that I've just pulled out of a hat, they've

  96. changed their positions on blood transfusions at least 18

  97. different times since 1940. 18 different times, the doctrine of

  98. whether you can receive a blood transfusion or whether you can

  99. receive part of a blood transfusion or who can or who

  100. can't. 18 different times since 1940, that has changed.

  101. So over and over again we find that the doctrines of the

  102. Jehovah Witnesses have changed. Now I know this from the Word of

  103. God. The Bible says Jesus Christ is

  104. saying yesterday, today, and forever.

  105. Amen. Now, aren't you glad that when

  106. it comes to the Word of God, that the doctrines of the Word

  107. of God, when we talk about biblical Christianity, do not

  108. change? Could you imagine coming to

  109. church and one Sunday morning I say this, listen, I've had some

  110. new light. I've received a word.

  111. And remember what I told you about a couple months ago?

  112. It's not true anymore. God has revealed to me that that

  113. is no longer true. Could you imagine over and over,

  114. that being the case, at some point you'd say, well, who's

  115. really in charge here? Because it doesn't seem like God

  116. is in charge. The Bible says this, that God is

  117. not the author of confusion. Well, if God's not the author of

  118. confusion, then who is? Well, Satan.

  119. And if there is all of these different dates and there's all

  120. these different times and there's all these different

  121. doctrines that get changed over and over and over again, and

  122. what do we find? None of it comes to pass.

  123. What are we to say? Just as we're doing a very

  124. topical inspection right now, we're not even diving deep into

  125. the doctrine. We're just giving you the

  126. introduction today. We look at that and say

  127. something's not right here. And what's not right is the fact

  128. that the Word of God has been pushed to the side by the

  129. Jehovah Witnesses using their own version of the Bible called

  130. the New World Translation, which we'll look at a little bit

  131. later. That takes the long held

  132. doctrines of the Word of God and removes them.

  133. They're inconvenient and they're removed from their version of

  134. the Bible. I really hesitate to call it a

  135. Bible because it is not a Bible. It's been so radically changed,

  136. but they've taken these things and removed them.

  137. Just you don't like something in the Bible, cross it out.

  138. You don't like that doctrine, cut it out, remove it.

  139. And that's what they have done with their New World

  140. Translation. So how does this group grow?

  141. How are they able to grow with what seems to be such blatant

  142. disregard for the truth? How could they possibly grow?

  143. Well, the answer is because of the fact that they are out there

  144. in the communities and they are talking with people.

  145. By the statistics that I saw, on average almost nine and a half

  146. million individual personalized Bible studies are held by

  147. Jehovah Witnesses in people's homes every year. 9.5 somewhere,

  148. give or take million every year. And so because of that, there

  149. ranks of around 20 million worldwide can grow because they

  150. are so very adamant about being in people's homes and being able

  151. to talk to them. Now the way to be able to do

  152. that is this with Bible closed because if the Bible, I mean the

  153. true word of God was opened, the things that they're teaching

  154. just could not be true. But when you try to take away

  155. the word of God and give them a a word of God, that's not the

  156. word of God, and then you really tell people, well, instead of

  157. really worrying about the Bible, you really should read our

  158. materials. You really should read our watch

  159. that you read the Watchtower materials and it'll explain

  160. everything you need to know. Why is it so important?

  161. I don't want to go on a tangent here this morning, but why is it

  162. so important that we bring our Bibles to church?

  163. Why is it so important that I say open your Bibles?

  164. Why is it so important that we turn from one scripture to

  165. another Tonight? You're going to get dizzy and

  166. all the scriptures we're going to look at because I think we've

  167. got about 10 different passages we need to look at to be able to

  168. properly cover the subject that we're going to be looking at

  169. this evening. Why do we do that?

  170. Is it because pastors are stalling for time and he doesn't

  171. have anything to say and he just wants to keep going through your

  172. Bible? So that means it's less time

  173. that I talk. Well, listen, you all know me

  174. well enough. I'm just going to keep talking

  175. no matter what, all right? You can't make me stall.

  176. But the idea is this. I want you to see in the Word of

  177. God for yourself. Don't take my word for it.

  178. What does the Bible say? Because that's really what true

  179. religion is all about. Not not what religion says or

  180. not what the higher up say, but what does the word of God say?

  181. There's really only one higher up that we need to be concerned

  182. about, if you will. That's the Lord, what His word

  183. says, is it? And if I contradict the word of

  184. the Lord, then I'm an error. I cannot say, well, this is what

  185. I believe, and so I'm going to change the Bible to fit what I

  186. believe. Listen, that's rank heresy.

  187. So how do they do this? Well, what I want to do is

  188. actually take you into the living room of someone.

  189. This is a staged event here, but of what it would be like if

  190. someone is giving a Bible study, a Jehovah Witness to someone who

  191. is searching and meeting in one of those 9.5 million Bible

  192. studies a year. Now, the video I'm about to show

  193. you does not come from YouTube. It does not come from someone

  194. who is a denier, the Jehovah Witnesses.

  195. This video that I have has been downloaded from jw.org.

  196. I found it myself all right. And So what you're going to

  197. watch is not something from a plant.

  198. It's not something from someone who is trying to debunk the

  199. Jehovah Witness. This comes from their very own

  200. organization. So I want you to watch this.

  201. And then what we're we're going to do is from that introduction

  202. to their Bible studies, actually go through the word of God and

  203. see why they are so wrong. And so we'll just go ahead and

  204. do that now and then we'll give you some comments.

  205. So let's take a watch. And I thought what we could do

  206. is just go right to the Bible account that deals with that.

  207. Your Kingdom will be yours again after you come to know that the

  208. heavens are ruling. So that is the dream that King

  209. Nebuchadnezzar had. But as we discussed last week,

  210. that dream is actually a prophecy.

  211. Now it's important to remember that similar to other prophecies

  212. in the book of Daniel, this prophecy points forward to God's

  213. Kingdom with Jesus Christ as ruler.

  214. So what I thought we could do today is look at some specific

  215. points of this prophecy and to see the relationship between the

  216. God's Kingdom and the year 1914. And this article has a fantastic

  217. chart here that provides some great visuals that we can go

  218. over. And I also made a few notes for

  219. myself additionally. So if you don't mind, maybe we

  220. could just spend the next few minutes and consider this?

  221. Sure, sure, that sounds good. I always enjoy talking about the

  222. Bible. Great.

  223. Well, let's get started. What do you see in that first

  224. box there? An enormous tree.

  225. Is this the tree that we just read about in the prophecy?

  226. That's exactly it. And in the second box, you'll

  227. notice that there's a picture of an axe, and that indicates that

  228. the tree was chopped down. But what happens next?

  229. It says let 7 times pass. Yeah.

  230. And so a period of time went by, and then eventually the tree

  231. grew again. So those are the basic pieces to

  232. the puzzle. We've got this enormous tree, it

  233. gets chopped down 7 times, pass, and then eventually the tree

  234. grows again. Well, that's the prophecy.

  235. But what we want to know is what does that actually mean?

  236. Well, the chart helps us out there as well.

  237. Notice underneath it mentions rulership.

  238. So the tree signifies rulership. Now, logically, if that's the

  239. case, if it's spoken of as being chopped down, then that

  240. rulership would be interrupted, someone's rulership, then

  241. there'd be an interval of time that would pass, and then

  242. eventually that rulership would be restored again.

  243. So does that explanation seem reasonable?

  244. I think so. Good.

  245. Well then, let's consider the fulfillment of the prophecy.

  246. Now, as we can see from our chart, there's both an initial

  247. fulfillment and a larger one. Let's just spend a few minutes

  248. considering the first one. So who is pictured by that tree?

  249. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Excellent.

  250. And the tree would be an apartment depiction of

  251. Nebuchadnezzar, because like that tree, he was very prominent

  252. and very powerful as the king of Babylon.

  253. But also like that tree, he was chopped down, so to speak, when

  254. he lost his sanity and can no longer continue ruling now,

  255. according to the chart. How long did that last?

  256. It says 7 literal years. That's it.

  257. So after those seven years, Nebuchadnezzar regained his

  258. sanity and began ruling again. So let's just recap kind of what

  259. we've considered so far. Who was pictured in his first

  260. fulfillment by the tree. Nebuchadnezzar.

  261. Good. And how is he chopped down?

  262. He loses his sanity. That's it.

  263. And for how long? Seven years.

  264. True. And after that seven years, he

  265. regained his sanity and then began ruling again.

  266. Now does that make sense? Yes, but what does this have to

  267. do with God's Kingdom in 1914? That's a great question.

  268. Well, we know there's a larger fulfillment of this prophecy

  269. because Jesus himself spoke about it.

  270. See later in the chart here refers to Luke 21 and verse 24.

  271. Notice what Jesus said, Jerusalem will be trampled on

  272. until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.

  273. Well, what did he mean by that? Well notice here in the first

  274. box down at the bottom it says Israelite kings who represent

  275. God's rulership. Well those kings are also

  276. represented by that tree. So that line of kings is is

  277. really the larger fulfillment of that.

  278. Now you might remember the Bible referred to these kings as

  279. sitting on Jehovah's throne. That's because God appointed

  280. them to rule over his chosen people at the time, the

  281. Israelites. Unfortunately, as years went by,

  282. most of those kings became disobedient to God, and in turn

  283. their subjects did the same. So eventually Jehovah saw fit to

  284. destroy Jerusalem in six O 7 BCE.

  285. After that point, no more earthly kings figuratively sat

  286. on Jehovah's throne, so it's as though God's rulership was

  287. interrupted. Now, according to the chart, how

  288. long did that interruption last? The chart says 2520 years.

  289. Exactly. So if we calculate 2520 years

  290. from the time Jerusalem was destroyed in six O 7, that

  291. brings us all the way to 1914 and that is when Jesus began

  292. ruling in heaven as King of God's Kingdom.

  293. I know it's a lot to take in, but does that explanation make

  294. sense? I think so, but I still have

  295. some questions. Where do you get this 2520

  296. years? How do you know that that's the

  297. period of time? And how do you know for sure

  298. that this prophecy is about God's Kingdom?

  299. Is it possible that the kingship would be restored right here on

  300. Earth, in Jerusalem? Those are all excellent

  301. questions and we've taken in a lot of information here, but the

  302. best thing for us to do to really get the answer is to look

  303. at it in light of the complete Bible because that will assure

  304. us that this is definitely a heavenly Kingdom and we can find

  305. scriptural texts that point to this number 2520.

  306. So what if the next time I come, we consider those specific

  307. scriptures and also the remainder of this article, and I

  308. think you're going to find it answers the rest of your

  309. questions. Sure, that sounds good.

  310. Is there some way that I could download this electronically?

  311. I'd like to take a look at this chart some more.

  312. Absolutely. Let me show you how to get on

  313. our website, thesiteisjw.org. So when you go to the site, you

  314. just go up to publications and then from there you choose

  315. magazines. Chart and so we have that here

  316. on the screen for you just a moment.

  317. How many of you would say this? You just watch it say why on

  318. earth are they talking so much about 1914?

  319. Does anybody have any concern? Like, it seems like they are

  320. fixated on 1914. Why would they have a Bible

  321. study in a guy's house talking only about 1914?

  322. And here's the answer. If you remember the chart that I

  323. just showed you previously, they believe that in 1914, and it

  324. taught for somewhere around 40 years that 1914 that Armageddon

  325. would take place, all of the world kingdoms would dissolve,

  326. and that Jesus would set up his rightful throne here on earth.

  327. Now, the problem was, and in 1914, that didn't happen.

  328. You know, I know that we're still here.

  329. There was no Armageddon, there was no type of world kingdoms

  330. dissolving and Jesus rightful throne.

  331. In fact, does anybody remember what happened in the beginning

  332. of 1914? Anyone have any kind of

  333. historical context that it was the beginning of World War One?

  334. So not only did Jesus not set up his Kingdom, but World War One

  335. continued for the next four years.

  336. In fact, it was exactly the opposite.

  337. So what has the Jehovah Witnesses had to do for the last

  338. 100 plus years? Explain why Jesus did not come

  339. and start an earthly Kingdom, but instead he started his

  340. heavenly Kingdom in 1914. Now you say, wow, that is that's

  341. that's a lot of things going on there.

  342. And the answer is that's exactly right.

  343. Because when you get away from the word of God, you have to

  344. start pulling into all of these other different things.

  345. And there's a lot of things that are going on now.

  346. There's a lot of problems with what we just saw.

  347. Maybe the first thing that you noticed was this the Bible.

  348. And when I say the Bible, I mean the New World translation was

  349. read from for one verse. And then what happened?

  350. The Bible was closed. What was the next thing that was

  351. opened the Watchtower materials, those magazines, were they

  352. reading from the Bible? No, not really.

  353. And it's funny because at the end he says we need to really

  354. understand this in context of the whole Bible.

  355. But the problem is, is that Jehovah Witnesses aren't going

  356. to guide you to self-directed Bible study.

  357. They're going to direct you to you need to read the Watchtower

  358. and you're going to hear the term Watchtower a lot.

  359. But they are the ones that put together all the publications

  360. like what you just saw right here.

  361. And so the Bible is put away and the Watchtower public.

  362. Locations are pulled out. You're going to see that over

  363. and over again as we look at the Jehovah Witnesses.

  364. A lot of time and energy was placed on that.

  365. But the real problem from what we saw was even beyond that, and

  366. that's this purposeful, sloppy Bible interpretation, purposeful

  367. sloppy Bible interpretation, meaning taking a little bit of

  368. this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this, a little bit

  369. of that, throwing it all together and then creating a

  370. doctrine, whether that's what those verses said or not.

  371. Listen, you can say a verse or part of a verse and make it mean

  372. whatever you want it to mean if you're not careful.

  373. And even Baptist can do that if we're not careful.

  374. I remember one time I was in Bible college and there was a

  375. visiting pastor who preached the love of money is the root, and

  376. that's all he preached. But you understand that the

  377. Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.

  378. You can't just take the beginning and just preach on the

  379. beginning of that verse and not explain what the whole verse

  380. means. And so all of us, not just in

  381. reference to Jehovah Witness, but any of us, when we deal with

  382. the Bible, we always have to look at the Bible in context.

  383. So why do I have US turn to Daniel chapter 4?

    Daniel 4 chapter mention

  384. Well, I'm not in Daniel chapter 4 for some reason.

    Daniel 4 chapter mention

  385. I'm in Psalm 144. But why are we in Daniel chapter

    Daniel 4 chapter mention

  386. 4? Well, that's where they

  387. referenced what took place in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

  388. So why don't we take a look at that for ourselves?

  389. Because they said that there was a fulfillment at first when

  390. Nebuchadnezzar went mad, and then there was another larger

  391. fulfillment where it says the Israelite kings who represent

  392. God's rulership, gruesome is destroyed, destroyed,

  393. interrupting that line of Israelite kings.

  394. And that this is told to us in Luke 2124 that these two

  395. passages are connected. So why don't we read Daniel 4

  396. for ourselves and Luke 2124 for ourselves and see if there's

  397. actually a connection or not? Daniel Chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar,

    Daniel 4 chapter mention

  398. the king unto all people, nations, languages that dwell in

  399. all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.

  400. I thought it good to show you the signs and wonders that the

  401. high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs, How

  402. mighty are his wonders. His Kingdom is an everlasting

  403. Kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

  404. I Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in

  405. my palace. I saw a dream which made me

  406. afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head

  407. troubled me. Therefore made I decree to bring

  408. in all the wise men in Babylon before me, that they might make

  409. known unto me the interpretation of the dream.

  410. Then came in the magician, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the

  411. soothsayers, and I told the dream before them, and they did

  412. not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.

  413. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was

  414. Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom the

  415. spirit of the holy gods. And before him I told the dream,

  416. saying, Oh, Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know

  417. that the spirit of the holy gods is in the and no secret trouble

  418. of thee. Tell me the visions of my dream

  419. that I've seen, and the interpretation thereof.

  420. Thus were the visions of my head and my bed.

  421. I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the

  422. height thereof was great. So does that track so far with

  423. what we saw on here? Yes, it does.

  424. There was a tree now moving on, it says, And the tree grew, was

  425. strong. The height thereof reached unto

  426. heaven, the sight thereof to the ends of all the earth, and the

  427. leaves thereof were fair, the fruit thereof much, and in it

  428. was meat for all. The beasts of the field had

  429. shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the

  430. boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.

  431. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, A

  432. watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.

  433. He cried aloud, and said Thus hew down the tree, cut off his

  434. branches, shake off his leaves, scatter his fruit, let the beast

  435. get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.

  436. Nevertheless leaves the stump of his roots in the earth, even

  437. with a band of iron and brass. And the tender grass of the

  438. field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his

  439. portion be with the beasts of the grass of the earth.

  440. Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart

  441. be given unto him. And let 7 times Passover this

  442. matter is, that the decree of the watchers, and the demand by

  443. the word of the holy ones to the intent, that the living may know

  444. that the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men, and give it to

  445. whomsoever he will, and set up over it the basis of men.

  446. This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen.

  447. Now thou belt to Shazzer, declare the interpretation

  448. thereof. For as much as all the wise men

  449. of my Kingdom are not able to make known unto me the

  450. interpretation, but thou art able, for the spirit of the holy

  451. Gods is in thee. Well let me ask you this.

  452. Did what we just read here in the first in Daniel chapter 4

    Daniel 4 chapter mention

  453. track with those first three boxes?

  454. It does, doesn't it? Here's why.

  455. Understand that when it comes to error, truth is always found in

  456. it. But just a little bit.

  457. Just like a hook has to have a worm in it for people.

  458. Not people to get it, but for a fish to get it, error has to

  459. have a little bit of truth in it to get people to be interested.

  460. And so was there a tree? Yes.

  461. Was they told to chop down the tree in the vision?

  462. Yes. Were several times to pass?

  463. Yes. In fact, even represented were

  464. the bands there around the tree stump.

  465. And so yes, that is true. Well, we can go on.

  466. And for the sake of time, we're not going to read the whole

  467. chapter. But I would say, unlike our

  468. Jehovah Witness friends, I would encourage you to read the entire

  469. chapter. There's nothing here that's

  470. hidden that I think you should not be able to read.

  471. No sleight of hand, no nothing up my sleeve.

  472. You know, nothing like that. It's all about being able to

  473. read the word of God for yourself.

  474. But in summary, we find that there is nothing in the

  475. interpretation of the the vision that we're going to find next

  476. that says that there is going to be this initial fulfillment.

  477. But then also this larger fulfillment and will you know

  478. what this vision was about Nebuchadnezzar and that was it,

  479. that Nebuchadnezzar was for seven years going to be a madman

  480. because he did not honor God. And after those seven years he

  481. would be restored to the Kingdom.

  482. Again. There was nowhere else where it

  483. says or even hinted that there was going to be a larger

  484. fulfillment. You say, well, pastor, hold on.

  485. They said that really that is to be found in Luke 2124.

  486. And so maybe if we look at Luke 2124, that will make the

  487. connection so well, let's go do that.

  488. All right, so turn to Luke 2124. For the sake of argument, let's

  489. follow their logic, Luke 2124, because we want the word of God

  490. to have it say Luke 2124. I hear a cricket right now while

  491. I'm talking. Usually while I'm talking, I

  492. hear crickets. That's not a good thing, you

  493. know. And so Luke 2124.

  494. And this is talking about the end of days.

  495. And so let's start not in 2124, but let's get a little bit more

  496. context here by going up just a little bit.

  497. And it says in verse #21 Then let them which are in Judea flee

  498. to the mountains, and let them which in the midst of it depart

  499. out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there

  500. into. For these be the days of

  501. vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

  502. But woe unto them, they're with child, and to give them suck in

  503. those days. For there shall be great

  504. distress in the land, and wrath upon this people, and they shall

  505. fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be LED away captive

  506. into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down at the

  507. Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

  508. Now it says here. And this is where they want to

  509. focus, that in 1914, the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled,

  510. which is why Jesus Christ came back and set up his heavenly

  511. Kingdom. But I have to ask you this

  512. question. What does Daniel chapter #4 and

  513. what we just read here in Luke chapter 21 have anything to do

    Luke 21 chapter mention

  514. with one another? And the answer is they have

  515. nothing to do with one another, nothing at all that this is

  516. talking about the end times and the issues that will take place

  517. during the end times and yet that has not taken place yet.

  518. Remember, it's so bad during those times.

  519. It says if you have a child, it's going to be hard for you

  520. because you have a child because of how difficulty, the great

  521. difficulty during those times. And so we find that what we find

  522. in this whole issue here at the bottom is faulty from beginning

  523. to end. There are many other faults that

  524. can be found here as well. Sixteen O 7, they say is the

  525. time that Jerusalem fell. There are there are no reliable

  526. historians that say that Jerusalem fell in six O 7 BC.

  527. Rather it's somewhere around 587588-BC, not BCE.

  528. By the way, they use these because they want to take out

  529. any reference to Christ in the years here.

  530. But six O 7, there's no one that says that it was six O 7.

  531. So why did they pick six O 7? Because somewhere they have to

  532. come out with 2520 years. Now you say, why is it 2520

  533. years now? Oh man, my head hurts from all

  534. this. I hope that somehow that it's

  535. coming across to you, what's coming through on the pages and

  536. through their own doctrine here. But they chose 2520 years

  537. because they said seven times will pass.

  538. Remember, 7 times. And that was seven years for

  539. Nebuchadnezzar. But in the larger fulfilment,

  540. they go to Revelation chapter #12 where there's a whole

  541. different prophecy that's taking place.

  542. And there they talk about that there is going to be in the

  543. Tribulation period. Well, we know the Tribulation

  544. period, seven years. And they take the days that are

  545. there, they calculate it out, and they say that the Bible says

  546. that it says in prophecy a day really counts as a year.

  547. And they misinterpret Numbers, the book of Numbers, chapter 14,

    Numbers 14:34

  548. verse 34, because nowhere in the Bible does it say in prophecy a

  549. day is always a year. There's nowhere it says that.

  550. But they take a little bit of here, a little bit of there, a

  551. little bit of here, a little bit of there, a little bit of there

  552. of texts that have nothing to do with one another.

  553. And they hope that you don't read your Bible and that you

  554. just look at that little magazine and by the time you're

  555. done, you say 02520. That makes perfect sense when

  556. none of this has anything to do with the Bible and the only

  557. reason they're teaching this in the 1st place is because they

  558. had failed prophecies that Armageddon was supposed to

  559. happen in 1914 and everything was supposed to be destroyed and

  560. it didn't happen. So they have to find a way to re

  561. explain it. Listen, this is a mess.

  562. This is an absolute mess and it has nothing to do with the

  563. Bible, but what they hope to do when they talk to you on a

  564. corner, what they hope to do when they knock on your door.

  565. What they hope to do when you come to a Bible study is that

  566. you do not know anything about the Word of God or that you take

  567. just the veneer of the Word of God that they're using.

  568. Just just that little covering, that little coating of the word

  569. of God on the outside. They're hoping that you take

  570. that look at this. Wow, doesn't this look nice?

  571. Doesn't this look sharp? Boy, this makes a lot of sense

  572. when nothing here from here on down, well really from here this

  573. is all true, but from this section here has anything to do

  574. with the Word of God. So there is truth, but the error

  575. is what gets you. And I say, well listen, we never

  576. said, we never said that the world was going to end in 1914.

  577. And the fact of the matter is, not only did they say it, they

  578. said it over and over and over and over again.

  579. For instance, it says in Source and Studies in the Scriptures,

  580. 1889. Be not surprised then, when in

  581. subsequent chapters we present proofs that the setting up of

  582. the Kingdom of God has already begun, that is pointed out in

  583. prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in AD 1878.

  584. And at the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty, which will

  585. end in AD 1914 with a complete overthrow of earth's present

  586. rulership is already commenced. Does that sound like something

  587. that's figurative or something that's literal?

  588. Sounds literal to me. But going on in the upcoming 26

  589. years, all present governments will be overthrown and

  590. dissolved. CT Russell, Studies of the

  591. Scriptures. Remember that the 40 years

  592. Jewish harvest ended in October AD 69 was followed by the

  593. complete overthrow of that nation, and that likewise the 40

  594. years of the Gospel age harvest will end in October 1914, and

  595. that likewise the overthrow of Christendom, so-called, must be

  596. expected to immediately follow. Continuing on, in the view of

  597. this strong Bible evidence concerning the times of the

  598. Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final

  599. end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment

  600. of the Kingdom of God will be accomplished by the end of AD

  601. 1914. I wish I was done.

  602. I'm not done. True, it is expecting great

  603. things to claim as we do, that within the coming 26 years all

  604. present governments will be overthrown and dissolved.

  605. I'm still not done. We see no reason for changing

  606. the figures, nor could we change them if we would.

  607. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours.

  608. But bear in mind, at the end of 1914 is not the date for the

  609. beginning, but the end of time of trouble.

  610. Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy,

  611. our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in

  612. the 1914 date. They did not see how present

  613. conditions can hold out so long under the strain.

  614. We see no reason for changing the figures, nor could we change

  615. them if we would. They are, we believe, God's

  616. dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of

  617. 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but the date of the

  618. end of the time of trouble. I believe that's the last one

  619. that I have. No, I'm not done yet.

  620. Oh, there's still more. True, it is expecting great

  621. things to claim, as we do, that within the next coming 26 years

  622. all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved.

  623. But we are living in a special and peculiar time, the day of

  624. Jehovah. In view of the strong Bible

  625. evidence concerning the times of the Gentiles, we consider an

  626. established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this

  627. world and the full establishment of the kingdoms of God will be

  628. accomplished by the end of AD 1914.

  629. And then it goes on and on and on.

  630. Does it sound like it's something that was just a

  631. spiritual or metaphorical Kingdom, or did they really

  632. believe that the world was going to end in 1914?

  633. They really believed that the world would end in 1914.

  634. And spoiler alert, we're still here.

  635. We're still here and they're still here.

  636. So what do you have to do? Well, you have to find a way to

  637. cover up the mistake. And to do that, they had to

  638. reverse engineer a prophecy of taking a little bit from Daniel,

  639. a little bit from Luke, a little bit from Revelation, and a

  640. little bit from the book of Numbers.

  641. And they cooked it together. And what they ended up was a

  642. toxic soup, a false doctrine. You know, it's amazing to me

  643. that you can take truth and truth and truth and truth. 4

  644. Bible passages. All true, but put them together

  645. in a way that absolutely destroys them.

  646. Why? Because the Bible tells us this,

  647. that the word of God is not for private interpretation, meaning

  648. this. I can't make it say what I want

  649. it to say. I can't take the doctrine of the

  650. Word of God and make it what I want it to be.

  651. Why is it so important I believe to be not just a Christian and

  652. one who knows Jesus Christ their Savior, but to be a Baptist?

  653. What is one of the things that people ask us about being

  654. Baptists all the time we say this, it's because we want to

  655. believe the Bible from beginning to end.

  656. We need no other book. We need nothing else.

  657. What we say is it's the Bible and the Bible alone that saves

  658. you. It's the Bible and the Bible

  659. alone that will teach you. It's the Bible and the Bible

  660. alone that will guide you in every area of your life.

  661. And so here's what I want us to understand today, and we'll

  662. actually finish in just a moment.

  663. As a little bit of an aside, you say how on earth could we reach

  664. a Jehovah Witness? How on earth could we reach

  665. them? And it seems hard.

  666. And the reason why it's hard is for several different things.

  667. One, you can't use your Bible with them because they do not

  668. accept this as the word of God. They will only accept the New

  669. World Translation. You can't talk to them about

  670. things that you found online. Listen, they will not research

  671. and they are forbidden to research anything about Jehovah

  672. Witnesses online. They have been told on high.

  673. We'll look at the hierarchy the next time we look at this

  674. lesson. But basically the hierarchy are

  675. 8 men who meet in New York and those eight men tell everybody

  676. what they believe, how they believe it.

  677. And when the end times come, in their minds, they will have to

  678. do whatever those eight men tell them to do That's it.

  679. So how do you reach people that are even told by those eight

  680. men? Don't even Google the words

  681. Jehovah Witnesses. Don't Google it because whatever

  682. you see on there will be propaganda and it will be false.

  683. The only website that they really can legitimately go to

  684. isjw.org, where you saw videos like the one we just watched a

  685. few minutes ago that are false. If you're like me, you think,

  686. how on earth can you reach someone like that?

  687. How on earth, when you don't even have something in common,

  688. how could you talk to them while at the same time we share common

  689. words and phrases and terms, but yet when they talk about them,

  690. they mean something totally different than what we mean.

  691. How do we reach these people? And we reach these people by

  692. using their own literature. What I just showed you right

  693. there shows that in their own literature they were false.

  694. By showing them places in the Watchtower that teach their

  695. wrong, by showing them place in the New World Translation, we're

  696. still Jesus Christ is uplifted. For whatever reason, they remain

  697. in the New World Translation. They're few and far between.

  698. In fact, the by the New World Translation won't even call that

  699. a cross. It's called a stake because they

  700. refuse to acknowledge the cross. How do you deal with someone

  701. like that? You have to understand what they

  702. believe and you understand where they believe it from so that

  703. when you have a conversation with them, you were able to

  704. lovingly bring up these issues. Because I will tell you this,

  705. from all that I've seen and I've watched several videos and a lot

  706. of research this week in preparation for the next several

  707. weeks on this on top of my normal reading for this series.

  708. But what I found is this. Jehovah Witnesses are afraid.

  709. They are so afraid. Say afraid of what?

  710. They are afraid that they won't make it to heaven because it's a

  711. works based salvation. If they do not go and knock on

  712. people's doors once a week. And if they do not go or rather

  713. once a month and they do not stand at one of those stands

  714. once a month, they have no hope of heaven, period.

  715. That's been an edict. One hour.

  716. You have to do it. And on top of that, they have

  717. this idea that the end times will come.

  718. And if they're not ready, some of the biggest preppers, if you

  719. will, or actually Jehovah Witnesses, because they are so

  720. afraid of what will happen next. Where is the life that were

  721. promised in the word of God and life more abundantly, it's not

  722. found there. It's fear, anxiety.

  723. In fact, watching one video this week, I saw that that these

  724. public, they're called publishers.

  725. If you go out and you share the good word, if you will, of the

  726. Jehovah Witnesses, you're called a publisher.

  727. And they talked about the publishers walk.

  728. Because if you've ever watched a Jehovah Witness, and I, and I

  729. realize this now, once I saw, if you ever see them walking down

  730. the street, they walk like this. They're in no hurry to get

  731. anywhere. You know why?

  732. They're just trying to fulfill their hour.

  733. That's it. They're not really worried about

  734. souls. They're not really worried about

  735. who knows about their Jesus. They just want to make sure the

  736. hour is done. I'm thankful yesterday we were

  737. making visits to people and talking to people about Jesus

  738. and we're and, and the idea I have is just, we got time for

  739. one more. Can we, can we see one more

  740. person? Can we talk to someone else

  741. about Jesus? You know why?

  742. Because I want people to know about Jesus.

  743. I wanted many people. You know why?

  744. Because he's done so much for me.

  745. That's the difference between false religion and pure

  746. religion. That's the difference between

  747. falsehood and the truth of the word of God.

  748. So I hope this has been a little bit of a wedding of your

  749. appetite. You said, boy pastor, that was

  750. so convoluted, right? And it's going to get even more

  751. detailed as we go along. And I know you may not capture

  752. all that we're talking about, and that's OK.

  753. But if nothing else, to help you understand the confusion that

  754. these people live with, the fear that they live with, but that we

  755. want to show them the hope of the gospel.

  756. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  757. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  758. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  759. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  760. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  761. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  762. grow in His Word.