"Only Forty More Days Before God Brings Destruction Upon You"

He wore the modest robes of a prophet, a foreign one whom the people did not know. He was a stranger and spoke a strange tongue. Yet he had come all this way, from his land far away, and now in this bustling metropolis he was walking down the street, and throughout the entire city, seemingly like a mad-man proclaiming in a loud and bold voice a message no one understood. He spoke Hebrew, they did not.

The king of that great city heard about this stranger who appeared to be a prophet walking the streets and speaking in a foreign language. He was keen on knowing what the message was so he sent for a translator and told him to follow the foreigner, not to do him any harm, and report back what it was he was proclaiming.

The man was a prophet sent by Jehovah and he spoke Hebrew. This was his message:

(Jonah 3:4) . . .“Only forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah at first. It was a long way away from his homeland. Not only that there was a reason that Jonah was sent to declare that God was going to bring that ancient city to ruin. It was full of violence and bloodshed. The people were unusually cruel and evil. To them, who did not know the true God, violence was a way of life, second nature, they knew nothing else.

The true God was not going to tolerate it any longer, and he sent his prophet to warn them.

What did the king do? Did he scoff at and scorn the prophet of Jehovah? Did he rebuke him, mock him, scorn him, chastise him? Interestingly enough the king did not. He did something quite extraordinary. Taking the lead he put faith in the prophet's word and declared a fast for all the people, the great and the small. He dressed himself in sackcloth and sat in the ashes. This was a custom of a person in mourning. Then this extraordinary king made this decree:

(Jonah 3:7-9) . . .Furthermore, he had the cry made, and he had it said in Nin′e·veh, by the decree of the king and his great ones, saying: “No man and no domestic animal, no herd and no flock, should taste anything at all. None should take food. Even water they should not drink. 8 And let them cover themselves with sackcloth, man and domestic animal; and let them call out to God with strength and come back, each one from his bad way and from the violence that was in their hands. 9 Who is there knowing whether the [true] God may turn back and actually feel regret and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish?”

What a miraculous act of faith. What is even more curious was the reaction of the people of that ancient city. They obeyed the decree of the king and did as was told. The people showed genuine heartfelt shame over their bad conduct and repented over their bad deeds.

Jonah walked outside the city and waited for its destruction but it never happened. Was he a false prophet? No. Jehovah saw that the people were cut to the heart and had repented, and thus he stayed his hand from destroying the city.

Jonah got upset at this and Jehovah gave him a lesson that both humbled the man and taught him compassion.

Many people claim that the "God of the old testament is a vengeful God." But that is far from telling the whole picture of who he really is. Jehovah knew that the people of Nineveh "did not know their right hand from their left." They knew no better. So he sent his prophet to warn them. And he felt compassion for them, something his prophet did not:

(Jonah 4:10, 11) . . .Jehovah said: “You, for your part, felt sorry for the bottle-gourd plant, which you did not toil upon or make get big, which proved to be a mere growth of a night and perished as a mere growth of a night. 11 And, for my part, ought I not to feel sorry for Nin′e·veh the great city, in which there exist more than one hundred and twenty thousand men who do not at all know the difference between their right hand and their left, besides many domestic animals?”

Yes, the lesson is a good one for all to learn, both God's servants and those who do not know him. He is not a vindictive evil God as some claim. Rather he is a patient, loving, and understanding God. In fact he says this about the wicked:

(Ezekiel 33:11) . . .“As I am alive,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “I take delight, not in the death of the wicked one, but in that someone wicked turns back from his way and actually keeps living. . . .

He would prefer that wicked men turn back from their bad ways and come to serve him.

Thus in our day Jehovah has raised up witnesses for himself. And just as he did in ancient times, he has sent them to declare a day of vengeance upon the wicked:

(Isaiah 61:2) . . .to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God. . .

How do you react to the message? Are you like those in the days of Noah, when he witnessed for Jehovah to the people, who laughed and scorned and mocked him?:

(2 Peter 3:3, 4) . . .For YOU know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires 4 and saying: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep [in death], all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.”

In our day, we do not know the day or the hour, but we do know the "times and the seasons." And we have entered into the time of the end.


Everyone is Blood-guilty Before Jehovah God

Have you ever taken someone's life? Most likely not. So you may be asking how can I be guilty before God of bloodshed? And that is a good question. To understand it one must understand God's view of justice.

For example, why was Jehovah going to initially destroy the city of Nineveh, and later did not act upon it? Is it because he is wishy-washy? No. Can he change his mind? Yes. Does that mean his justice changes? NO. Jehovah does not change. He is the same and always will be the same:

(James 1:17) . . .and with him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow.

(Malachi 3:6) 6 “For I am Jehovah; I have not changed. . .

That scripture in James gives the allusion to the sun at midday. As it moves across the sky the shadow's begin to prolong. But with God "there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow." That is his principles and his justice never changes ever. He is always the same.

So how is it that he is able to change his mind upon how he deals with people? Well, it is quite simple: He applies his justice to a person according to the actions of the person. If a person is acting wickedly he will die. If he is righteous he get life. But if THE PERSON changes then Jehovah's dealings with that person can change. So it is not God at all who changes, rather it is how the person behaves that will dictate how God responds to that person, or group of people. In the example above Jehovah was not the one who changed, it was the people of Nineveh who repented of their bad ways.

cont....

If a person was once righteous and turns to wickedness Jehovah will not treat that person according to what he did, but will treat him as to how he is behaving now:

(Ezekiel 3:20) . . .And when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice and I must put a stumbling block before him, he himself will die because you did not warn him. For his sin he will die, and his righteous acts that he did will not be remembered, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.

Another thing to note is that God holds people accountable as groups and as communities for their actions. For example in Israel when one person, Achan, sinned and stole what belonged to Jehovah the whole nation of Israel suffered for it, until they got rid of the sinner.

So today God warns people who are in Babylon the Great to get out of her if they do not want to share in her sins:

(Revelation 18:4) And I heard another voice out of heaven say: “Get out of her, my people, if YOU do not want to share with her in her sins, and if YOU do not want to receive part of her plagues.

Everyone alive is blood-guilty before Jehovah, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Babylon the Great, for example is false religion. It is Catholisim, it is Protestantism, it is Judaism, it is Buddisam, Hinduism etc. It is all religion on earth who do not serve Jehovah God.

All these religions have blood guilt on their hands. They have participated in, and encouraged mass bloodshed of mankind throughout human history and even in our own day. And especially have the leaders of Christendom in this our day taken the lead in persecuting and putting Jehovah's holy people to death.

You are blood-guilty before Jehovah. If you are involved in any religion that has taken sides in war, that has particapted in war, and is involved in political movements, you are guilty. And you will die when he comes to judge this wicked system of things if you remain in her.

Just as Jehovah sent Jonah to Nineveh to get the people to repent, today he has sent his witnesses to warn the people of the consequences. They must preach because if they do not they too are blood-guilty. For they know the people are going to die:

(Ezekiel 3:18, 19) . . .When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will positively die,’ and you do not actually warn him and speak in order to warn the wicked one from his wicked way to preserve him alive, he being wicked, in his error he will die, but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand. 19 But as for you, in case you have warned someone wicked and he does not actually turn back from his wickedness and from his wicked way, he himself for his error will die; but as for you, you will have delivered your own soul.


You see the preaching work is a matter of life and death. Both to the righteous who proclaim the message of God's kingdom, and to those who hear it, whether they react to it or not.

But if you are blood-guilty what must you do? Well that scripture quoted above in Revelation 18:4 says to "flee from her."

In ancient Israel Jehovah provided "cities of refuge" where the unintentional man slayer could run to for protection. There if he was found that he did not put a person to death on purpose, but it was an accident, then he could continue to live as long as he remained in the "city of refuge." But if he were to leave its boundaries, before the high priest died, then the "avenger of death", usually the closet of kin, could exact vengeance upon the manslayer. What a loving provision of Jehovah.

Thus we see in Ezekiel the six men with weapons of destruction readying to enter into the city to bring it to ruin and kill all wicked men and women and children. But before they were sent, a secretary with an inkhorn was sent into the city:

(Ezekiel 9:3, 4) . . .and he began calling out to the man that was clothed with the linen, at whose hips there was the secretary’s inkhorn. 4 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and you must put a mark on the foreheads of the men that are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done in the midst of it.”

This secratary put a mark upon the forehead on all the people who were sighing and groaning over all the detestable things being done in the city.

Today Jehovah's witnesses represent the secretary with the ink-horn, and it is how each and every person reacts to their life-saving message as to how they will be marked. Now is the time to flee from false religion to God's anti-typical city of refuge. He has set up a clean organization that is united world-wide with the pure teaching of truth. They do not participate in politics, and are not guilty of bloodshed, nor do they participate in carnal warfare.

They have cleansed themselves of all false worship:

(2 Corinthians 6:17, 18) . . .‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take YOU in.’” 18 “‘And I shall be a father to YOU, and YOU will be sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah the Almighty.”

(Acts 15:17) . . .in order that those who remain of the men may earnestly seek Jehovah, together with people of all the nations, people who are called by my name, says Jehovah, who is doing these things,

(Isaiah 43:10) “YOU are my witnesses,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that YOU may know and have faith in me, and that YOU may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none.

Only forty more days to wait God...... I'll bet you're all excited to finally kick some Human butt aye?

Beats Xbox any day....... nothing like real blood and gore huh?

Knock yourself out mate

Am i worried, no i am not, why because god does not exist.

God's going to be pretty bummed though cause the Mayan guy in the other thread said were all gonna die on the 31st. God will show up at the end of next month and be all, "what the he'll happened??!"

What is the current Jehovah's Witness expectation of the time of the end?
It was going to be "within a generation of 1914" was it not?
Obviously this slogan is now wearing a little thin- is it currently being interpreted as "within 100 years of 1914"? Is there a desperate, last-resort, expectation of something happening in 2014?

Originally posted by DISRAELI
What is the current Jehovah's Witness expectation of the time of the end?

Here it is:

Clearly, our not knowing the exact day or hour when this system will end has been a blessing for us. Rather than being frustrated or disappointed, we find ourselves drawn ever closer to Jehovah, our loving Father, as we immerse ourselves in doing his will. Keeping our hand to the plow, so to speak, and avoiding distractions has led to abundant joy in our Master’s service.—Luke 9:62 You Know Neither The Day Nor the Hour.

Great post and a very relevant story in these times.

Originally posted by bhaal
Am i worried, no i am not, why because god does not exist.

(Psalm 10:4) -English Standard Version (©2001 from bible.cc
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

reply to post by SubAce

Everyone is Blood-guilty Before Jehovah God . . .
That is his principles and his justice never changes ever. He is always the same.

Maybe God does not change but our perception of God has changed over the millennia.
For one thing, we don't call God Jehovah or any other variant of that quaint little word the Jews made up in order to think they knew God's name. We just call God, "God".
In Galatians, Paul gives believers encouragement to hold onto that faith in the face of resistance from the Jews who did things like say Jesus was accursed because of the nature of his death by saying it is written, 'cursed is a man who is hung on a tree'.
Jesus became a curse for us, meaning by taking the form of a person who was accursed according to "it is written", he frees us from those things in order to live a new life according to the proper understanding of the nature of God, the one Jesus represented.

So your god is going to destroy while the other 99 gods gonna watch? who made him the boss?

In the world of religion, i think your god is just a recruit.

Originally posted by jmdewey60
reply to post by SubAce

 

Everyone is Blood-guilty Before Jehovah God . . .
That is his principles and his justice never changes ever. He is always the same.

Maybe God does not change but our perception of God has changed over the millennia.
For one thing, we don't call God Jehovah or any other variant of that quaint little word the Jews made up in order to think they knew God's name. We just call God, "God".
In Galatians, Paul gives believers encouragement to hold onto that faith in the face of resistance from the Jews who did things like say Jesus was accursed because of the nature of his death by saying it is written, 'cursed is a man who is hung on a tree'.
Jesus became a curse for us, meaning by taking the form of a person who was accursed according to "it is written", he frees us from those things in order to live a new life according to the proper understanding of the nature of God, the one Jesus represented.

You have a point in that our understanding of God has changed, even though he does not. I always try to be in agreement with those whom respond to me, and I find that we can agree upon that. As far as who named Jehovah? Humans did not. God chose that name for himself:

(Exodus 3:15) . . .“This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘Jehovah the God of YOUR forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to YOU.’ This is my name to time indefinite, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation.

The name comes from a Hebrew verb, hawah, which means to be, and the name literally means: He causes to become. It is an appropriate name for the true God, for only Jehovah can do whatever his will desires in order to fulfill his purposes.

There in Exodus, many Bibles mistakenly translate Jehovah as saying, "I am that I am." But his statement about his name was not about self existence, it was the expression of the meaning of his name and thus this is more accurately translated:

(Exodus 3:14, 15) . . .At this God said to Moses: “I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE.” And he added: “This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to YOU.’” 15 Then God said once more to Moses:. . .


Jehovah, he who causes to become, was going to "prove to be" what he needed to become. Thus he was going to reveal to the nation of Israel more fully what his name meant as he was to become their Savior from the hands of the king of Egypt.


As far as our knowledge of Jehovah? It is stated nicely here:

(Job 26:14) . . .Look! These are the fringes of his ways, And what a whisper of a matter has been heard of him! But of his mighty thunder who can show an understanding?”

I get that people are cheerleaders for their own faiths ...
but I'm pretty sure that we aren't supposed to be out fishing for recruits.
This thread seems to be doing that. IMHO.

Originally posted by luciddream
So your god is going to destroy while the other 99 gods gonna watch? who made him the boss?

In the world of religion, i think your god is just a recruit.

edit on 3/20/2013 by luciddream because: (no reason given)

Jehovah can destroy, but he can also create. But he has also made this challenge to all the other gods:

(Isaiah 43:9) . . .Let the nations all be collected together at one place, and let national groups be gathered together. Who is there among them that can tell this? Or can they cause us to hear even the first things? Let them furnish their witnesses, that they may be declared righteous, or let them hear and say, ‘It is the truth!’”

Yes, if there are other gods who are real, may they furnish their own witnesses. For Jehovah it is an easy thing to not only furnish his witnesses, but foretell thousands of years in advance he is going to do so and then do it:

(Isaiah 43:10, 11) . . .“YOU are my witnesses,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that YOU may know and have faith in me, and that YOU may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none. 11 I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.”


Also take the example of Elijah when he rounded up the prophets of Baal and told them to call to their god to answer them. They wailed and flogged themselves and did their pagan rituals and yet their god did not answer them. Yet Jehovah did answer and proved to be the true God:

(1 Kings 18:27) . . .And it came about at noon that E·li′jah began to mock them and say: “Call at the top of YOUR voice, for he is a god; for he must be concerned with a matter, and he has excrement and has to go to the privy. Or maybe he is asleep and ought to wake up!”


(1 Kings 18:36-38) . . .And it came about at the time that the grain offering goes up that E·li′jah the prophet began to approach and say: “O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant and it is by your word that I have done all these things. 37 Answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that you, Jehovah, are the [true] God and you yourself have turned their heart back.” 38 At that the fire of Jehovah came falling and went eating up the burnt offering and the pieces of wood and the stones and the dust, and the water that was in the trench it licked up.

reply to post by SubAce

Thank you for acknowledging that the "within a generation of 1914" teaching given by your predecessors was erroneous.
Or perhaps the memory of that has been brushed under the carpet.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
I get that people are cheerleaders for their own faiths ...
but I'm pretty sure that we aren't supposed to be out fishing for recruits.
This thread seems to be doing that. IMHO.

Thank you for taking the time to at least read enough to realize what is being discussed. And I agree with you, most people who have their faiths, or who do not, usually stick up for them.

The thread was created though to help people see the difference between the living God of the Bible and who he really is, one of compassion and justice, not compared to the one that many, even on this board, claim him to be, one who is vindictive and evil. Just recently I had one atheist post that he would rather "spit in God's face" than listen to anything he had to say.

I really think this person is misinformed about who the God of the Bible is. If it is okay to defame his name, then surely there can be his witnesses who will defend it do you not agree?

Originally posted by DISRAELI
reply to post by SubAce

 

Thank you for acknowledging that the "within a generation of 1914" teaching given by your predecessors was erroneous.
Or perhaps the memory of that has been brushed under the carpet.

You're welcome. Many things were understood or believed in were wrong. I remember a time with we used to celebrate birthdays and use the cross, and even celebrate Christmas as well, that was around the time they thought the end was coming in 1914.

You do have to realize that we were coming out of Christendom, and the changes were gradual.

I kind of liken it to the apostles in Jesus' days who thought the kingdom was going to be established then and there in Jerusalem:

(Acts 1:6) . . .When, now, they had assembled, they went asking him: “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?. . .

If it isn't Jehovah's time for understanding something, you will not be able to, even if you think you do:

(Acts 1:7) . . .He said to them: “It does not belong to YOU to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction;


So obviously that would not be a good indicator of whether the apostles had the truth or not. Because they did:

(John 6:67-69) . . .Therefore Jesus said to the twelve: “YOU do not want to go also, do YOU?” 68 Simon Peter answered him: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; 69 and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

reply to post by luciddream


Yeah, if gods do exist, God Jesus' dad, is the Meg Griffin of Gods.

Originally posted by Village Idiot
Only forty more days to wait God...... I'll bet you're all excited to finally kick some Human butt aye?

Beats Xbox any day....... nothing like real blood and gore huh?

Knock yourself out mate

He is not making the point that 'we' have 40 days left. He is showing you the significance of the sign of Jonah. It's the only sign you will get.

Just a hint. No Offense to your OP but replying with quotes will do the opposite of what you think your are doing.