Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Harvest of the Earth - Conclusion

 Although he is a King and a Judge, Jesus waits for word from Jehovah his God before beginning to reap. That word comes from "the temple sanctuary" by means of an angel. Immediate, Jesus obeys. First, from 1919 on, he  has his angels complete the harvesting of the 144,000. (Matthew 13:39, 43) Next, the harvest ingathering of the great crowd takes place. (Matthew 25:31-33; John 10:16; Revelation 7:9) History shows that between 1931 and 1935 a goodly number of these other sheep began to appear in 1935 Jehovah opened to the understanding of the John class the real identity of the great crowd. By the year 1988, its number has far exceeded the three million mark, and it is still increasing. Surely, the one like the Son of man has reaped a bountiful joyous harvest during the time of the end.  - Compare EXODUS 23:16; 34:22. 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen" - Harvest of the Earth

 Others are also to benefit in this day of judgment, as John goes on to tell us: "And I saw, and, look! a white cloud, and upon the white cloud some seated like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head and sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel [the fourth] emerged from the temple sanctuary, crying with a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud: 'Put your sickle in and reap, because the hour has come to reap, for the harvest of the earth is thoroughly ripe.' And the one seated on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped." -REVELATION 14:14-16.

The identity of the one seated on the white cloud is not in doubt. Seated on a white cloud, resembling son of man and with a golden crown, his is clearly Jesus, the Messianic King that Daniel saw in his vision. (Daniel 7:13, 14; Mark 14:61, 62) But what is the harvest prophesied? While on earth, Jesus likened the discipling work to the harvesting of the world field of humanity. (Matthew 9:37, 38; John 4:35, 36) The climax of this harvesting comes into the Lord's day, when Jesus is crowned as King and executes judgment on behalf of his Father. Thus, his time of ruling, since 1914, is also the joyful time for bringing in the harvest. - Compare DEUTERONOMY 16:13-15. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Harvest of the Earth - Conclusion 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance for the Holy Ones - Conclusion

 This promise harmonizes well with Paul's prophecy concerning Jesus' presence: "Those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterward we the living who are surviving [those of the anointed ones who survive into the Lord's day] will, together with together, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17) After Satan's ouster from heaven, those who were dead in union with Christ rose first. (Compare Revelation 6:9-11.) Afterward, those of the anointed ones who die during the Lord's day are promised a special privilege. Their resurrection to spirit life in heaven is instantaneous, "in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Corinthians 15:52) How marvelous this is! And their works of righteousness continue right on in the heaven realm. 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance For the Holy Ones - Continue

 Who deliver the tormenting message today? Remember, the symbolic locusts have authority to torment the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (Revelation 9:5) Evidently, these ones under angelic direction are the tormentors. Such is the persistence of the symbolic locusts that "day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." And finally, after their destruction of Jehovah's sovereignty, "the smoke of their torment," will ascend forever and ever. May the John class endure until that vindication: "Here is where it means endurance for the holy ones, those who observe the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." - REVELATION 14:12.

Yes, "endurance for the holy ones" means their worshiping Jehovah in exclusive devotion through Jesus Christ. Their message is not popular. It leads to opposition, persecution, even martyrdom. But they are strengthened by what John next reports: "And I heard a voice out of heaven say:' Write Happy are the dead who die in union with the Lord from this time onward. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their labors, for the things they did go right with them.' " - REVELATION 14:13.

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance for the Holy Ones - Continue

 Was Edom hurled into some mythical hellfire to burn forever? Of course not. Rather, the nation completely disappeared from the world scene as if she had been totally consumed with fire and sulphur. The final result from the punishment was not everlasting torment but "emptiness . . . wasteness . . . nothing." (Isaiah 34:11. 12) The smoke ascending to time indefinity' vividly illustrates this. When a house burns down, smoke comes from the ashes for some times after the flames have died down, providing onlookers with evidence that has been destructive conflageration. Even today God's people remember the lesson to be learned from the destruction of Edom. In this way 'the smoke of her burning' is still ascending in a symbolic way. 

Those who have the mark of the wild beast will also be destroyed completely, as if by fire.  As the prophecy later reveals, their dead bodies will be left unburied for animals and birds to eat. (Revelation 19:17, 18) So, clearly, they are not being literally tortured forever! How are they "tormented with fire and sulphur"? In that the proclamation of truth exposes thema and warns them of God's coming judgment. Therefore they vilify God's people and, where possible, slyly persuade the political wild beast to persecute and even kill Jehovah's Witnesses. as a climax, these opposers will be destroyed as with fire and brimstone. Then "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever" in that God's judgment of them will serve as a touchtstone if ever again Jehovah's rightful sovereignty is challenged. That issue will have been settled for all eternity. 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" -Endurance for the Holy Ones - Continue

 Even before that happens, however, those with the mark of the beast have to undergo the tormenting effects of Jehovah's disapproval. Speaking of the worshiper of the wild beast and its image, the angel informs John: "And he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and day and night have they no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. - REVELATION14:10b, 11. 

Some have viewed the mention here of fire and sulphur ("fire and brimstone," King James version) as a proof of the existence of a hellfire. But a brief look at a similar prophecy shows the real import of these words in this context. Back in the days of Isaiah, Jehovah warned the nation of Edom that they would punished because of their enmity toward Israel. He said: "Her torments must be changed into pitch, and her dust into sulphur, and her land must become as a burning pitch. By night or by day it will not be extinguished to time indefinite its smoke will keep ascending. From generation to generation she will be parched; forever and ever no one will be passing across her." - ISAIAH 34:9, 10. 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - Endurance for the Holy Ones

 Now the third angel speaks. Listen! And another angel, a third, followed them, saying in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the wild beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehe3ad or upon his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the anger of God that is poured out undiluted in the cup of his wrath.' " - (Revelation 14:9, 10a) At Revelation 13:16, 17, It was revealed that during the Lord's day those who do not worship the image of the wild beast would suffer-even to be killed. Now we learn that Jehovah has determined to judgment those "having the mark of the name of the wild beast or the number of its name." They will be forced to drink a bitter 'cup of wrath' of Jehovah's anger. What will this mean for them? In 607 B.C.E., when Jehovah forced Jerusalem to drink his "cup of rage," the city experienced "despoiling and breakdown, and hunger and sword" at the hands of the Babylonians. (Isaiah 51:17, 19) Similarly, when idolizers of earth's political powers and their image, the United Nations got to drink the cup of Jehovah's wrath, the result will be calamity for them. (Jeremiah 25:17, 32, 33) They will be utterly destroyed.

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - The Wheat and the Weeds - Conclusion

 In our century the cry that Babylon the Great has fallen has also been heard! Babylonish Christendom's temporary success in 1918 was sharply reversed in 1919 when the remnant of anointed ones of the John class, was restored by a spiritual resurrection. Babylon the Great had fallen as far as having any captive hold on God's people was concerned. Like locusts, Christ's anointed brothers swarmed out of the abyss, ready for action. (Revelation9:1-3; 11:11, 12) They were the modern" faithful and discreet slave," and the Master appointed them over all his belongings on earth. (Matthew2:45-47) Their used in this way proved that Jehovah had utterly rejected Christendom despite her claim to be his representative on earth. Pure worship was reestablished, and the way was open complete the work of sealing the remnant of the 144,000-the remaining ones of the seed of the woman, the age-old enemy of Babylon the Great. All of this signaled a crushing defeat for that satanic religious organization. 

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - The Wheat and the Weeds - Continue

 In the 1870's anointed Christians began to make determined efforts to disassociate themselves from the whorish ways of Babylon the Great. They abandoned false doctrines that Christendom had brought in from paganism and boldly used the Bible in preaching that the times of the Gentiles would end in 1914. The chief instrument of Babylon the Great, the clergy of Christendom, opposed these stirrings of restoration of true worship. During the first world war, they took advantage of wartime hysteria to try to stamp out that small group of faithful Christians. In 1918, when their activities were almost completely suppressed, it appeared that Babylon the Great succeeded. She seemed to have triumphed over them. 

As we previously noted, the proud city of Babylon experienced a disastrous fall from power in 539 C.E. Then the cry was heard: "She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen!" The great seat of the world empire had fallen to the armies of Medo-Persia under Cyrus the Great. Although the city itself survived the conquest, her fall from power was real, and it resulted in the release of her Jewish captives. They returned to Jerusalem to reestablish pure worship there. - ISAIAH 2:19; 2 CORINTHIANS 36:22, 23; JEREMIAH 51:7, 8. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - The Wheat and the Weeds - Conclusion

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Chapter Thirty/"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" - The Wheat and the Weeds

 In his parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus spoke of a man who sowed fine seed in a field. But "while men were sleeping." an enemy came and oversowed weeds. Hence, the wheat came up top obscured by weeds. Jesus explained his parable in these words: "The sower  of the fine seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, as for the fine seed, these are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil." He then showed that the wheat and the weeds would be allowed to grow together until "the conclusion of the system of things," when the angels would "collect out" the symbolic weeds. -MATTHEW 13:24-30, 36-43.

What Jesus and the apostle Paul and Peter warned about happened. "While men were sleeping," either after the apostle fell asleep in death or when Christian overseers became drowsy in guarding the flock of God. Babylonish apostasy sprouted right inside the congregation. (Acts 20:31) Soon the weeds greatly outnumbered the wheat and hid it from view. For a number of centuries, it might have appeared that the seed of the woman had been engulfed by the voluminous skits of Babylon the Great. 

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