Jehovah’s Witnesses - Part VI

In this week’s article attention is turned to the return of Jesus in Watchtower teaching. Why is Jesus returning? To set up His kingdom according to Watchtower doctrine. What about the kingdom established on the first Pentecost following His resurrection? Here is the Watchtower explanation:

Some people say that the Kingdom began its rule in the year that Jesus returned to heaven. They say that Christ began ruling when he outpoured the holy spirit on his followers on the day of the Jewish festival of Pentecost in the year 33 C. E. (Acts 2:1-4). But the Kingdom government that Jehovah arranged to end all the problems created by Satan’s rebellion did not begin its rule then. . . Well, did Jesus in any way have a kingdom in the year 33 C. E.? (italics in original).

Note that Watchtower teaching clearly says Jesus did not begin the promised kingdom on that first Pentecost following Jesus resurrection. But He did start something, but what? The Watchtower answer is,

Jesus then began to rule over his congregation of followers who, in time, were to join him in the heavens. Thus the Bible speaks of them, while they are on earth, as being taken into "the kingdom of the Son of [God’s] love." (Colossians 1:13) But this rule, or "kingdom," over Christians with the hope of heavenly life is not the Kingdom government for which Jesus taught his followers to pray. It is a kingdom over only the 144,000 persons who will rule with him heaven. Down through the centuries they have been its only subjects. Thus this rule, or "kingdom of the Son of God’s love," will end when the last one of these subjects with a heavenly hope dies and joins Christ in heaven.

A discussion of the 144,000 will not take place in this article. But take note that according to Watchtower teaching, Jesus is reigning only over the 144,000 who are the totality of those translated into the kingdom of God’s Son spoken of by Paul in Colossians 1:13. Who does Paul indicate are the members of this kingdom? Note the following from Colossians 1:9-14:

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

The context indicates Paul and his readers in Colossi were the ones in this kingdom. Peter writes about the inheritance as reserved for all children of God, I Peter 1:3-5.

The idea of Jesus’ reign must also be examined in light of Watchtower doctrine. They say He now reigns over a special group of 144,000, and none else. The kingdom of God is a future event. If this is true we need to examine Daniel 2:44. Daniel 2 contains a dream of the Babylonian king and Daniel’s divinely inspired interpretation of the dream. God revealed the rise and fall of several nations. Babylon would be followed by the Medes and Persians, who would be replaced by the Greeks of Alexander the Great, followed by Rome. During the rule of Rome, Daniel said, "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Daniel 2:44). If God is God, and has told the truth through Daniel, then the promised kingdom has been established, for Rome has long since past as the ruling power of the world.

We will examine this kingdom further next week, Lord willing.