Christendom's Bleak Future

In modern times, there exists an organization with a record like that of Edom.  What organization? Well, who in modern times has taken the lead in reviling and persecuting Jehovah's servants?  Has it not been Christendom, through its clergy class?  Yes!  Christendom has elevated herself to mountain like heights in the affairs of this world. She claims a lofty position in mankind's system of things, and her religions form the dominant part of Babylon the Great.  But Jehovah has decreed "a year of retributions"  against this modern-day Edom for outrageous misconduct toward his people, His Witnesses.  (note. His people are not just witnesses, but people who follow the Bible-His Words, which are his commandments and statutes;  loving  God with your heart, mind, soul and all that is in you; having faith in him, learning to know him and trusting him to do what is right for you, getting baptized etc.) Doing all this makes you Jehovah's servant-people.

Therefore, as we consider the rest of this part of Isaiah's prophecy, we think not only of ancient Edom but also of Christendom:  "Her torrents must be changed into pitch, and her dust into sulphur; and her land must become as burning pitch.  By night or by day it will not be extinguished; to time indefinite its smoke will keep ascending."  (Isaiah 34:9, 10a)  The land of Edom becomes so parched that it is as if the dust were sulphur and the torrent valleys were filled, not with water, but with pitch. Then these highly combustible substances are set afire! -Compare Revelation 17:16.

Some have viewed the mention of fire, pitch, and sulphur as evidence of the existence of a burning hell. But Edom is not hurled into some mythical hellfire to burn forever.  Rather, it is destroyed, disappearing from the world scene  as if totally consumed with the fire and sulphur.  As the prophecy goes on to show, the final result is, not everlasting torment, but "emptiness . .  .wasteness . . .nothing."  (Isaiah 34:11, 12)  The smoke 'ascending to time indefinite' vividly illustrates this.  When a house burns down, smoke keeps coming from the ashes for some time after the flames have died down, providing onlookers with evidence that there has been a conflagration.  Since Christians today are learning lessons from the destruction of Edom, the smoke of Edom's burning is still, in a sense, ascending.

Isaiah's prophecy continues, foretelling that Edom's human population will be replaced by wild animals, implying a coming desolation:  "From generation to generation she will be parched; forever and ever  no one will be passing across her.  And the pelican and the porcupine must take possession of her, and long-eared owls and ravens themselves will reside in her; and he must stretch out over her the measuring line of emptiness and the stones of wasteness.  Her nobles-there are none there whom they will call to the kingship itself, and her very princes will all become nothing.  On her dwelling towers thorns must come up, nettles and thorny weeds in her fortified places; and she must become an abiding place of jackals, the courtyard for the ostriches. And haunters of waterless regions must meet up with howling animals, and even the goat-shaped demon will call to its companion.  Yes, there the nightjar will certainly take its ease and find for itself a resting-place.  There the arrow snake has made its nest and lays eggs." -Isaiah 34:10b-15.

Yes, Edom will become an empty land.  It will become a wasteland with only wild beasts, birds, and snakes in it.  This parched state of the land will continue, as verse 10 says, "forever and ever."  There will be no restoration. -Obadiah 18.

Next time: Sure Fulfillment of Jehovah's Word

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000