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878A.
WHO ARE THE "LOCUSTS" THAT WILL DESOLATE
THE "LAND"?
AND WHY WILL THEY DESOLATE IT?
(Joel 1:1 to 2:32 and Rev 9:1-11).
When Jehovah said, "For there is a
nation that has come up into My land, mighty and without number"
(Joel 1:6), a "locust"-like people cutting off "grain
offering and drink offering… from the house of Jehovah" (1:9), was He
referring to people professing to be Christians in sects such as the Catholic,
Orthodox or Protestant religions, military officers, or the League of Nations,
as claimed in the JW book:
'Then is Finished the Mystery of God'?
Certainly not! Jehovah Himself tells "ministers of the altar" to
"spend the night in sackcloth", "for from the house of your God
grain offering and drink offering have been withheld." (1:13). They are
also told to: "Sanctify a time of fasting. Call together a solemn assembly.
Gather together the older men, all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of
Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah for aid." (1:14). Have the sect of
JWs done this? No. Instead they publish books denouncing Christendom. Do
their 'ministers' howl over the "grain offering
and drink offering" being withheld by Jehovah? No. Instead
they publish false predictions. (1:13). With this in mind,
read Joel 1:1 to 2:32 again and you will realize that Jehovah is
describing a desolate condition within His spiritual "land" for
the "time of the end", a "locust"-like army that will consume and
"despoil" their "ground". (1:10). The many
unfulfilled predictions of the sect of JWs will assist these "locusts"
to identify and consume them.
SO WHAT
SPIRITISTIC WORKS
WILL THESE "LOCUSTS" CONSUME?
From the Lord's advanced
description, let us identify and glean their kind of work and source of power:
The "locusts" cause those doing apostate cultivating in the
"land" to experience shame, those tending an apostate "vine"
to howl, for their "harvest" of apostates will perish. (1:11).
The "grain" of their apostate teachings will be despoiled and the
"wine" of their new teachings dried up. (1:10). By the
Spirit of Jehovah His anointed "locusts" are likened to a
consuming "fire", creating behind them a "desolate
wilderness" in which nothing (and no one) will survive. (2:3).
These "locusts" are like warriors that cannot be stopped, going in
through windows of houses like a thief. (2:9). "And Jehovah Himself
will certainly give forth His voice before His military force, for His camp is
very numerous (He instructs us). For he who is carrying out His
Word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear inspiring,
and who can hold up under it?" (2:11). Now you know! It is The
Christ's anointed servants, of His camp, that are the "locusts" in
the spiritual "land" of God! And He Himself gives the order!
But, "Who is there
knowing whether He will turn back and actually feel regret and let remain after
it a blessing, a grain offering and a drink offering for Jehovah your God?"
(2:14). That is why Jehovah says we must: "Call together a solemn
assembly... Sanctify a congregation." (2:15,16). Has the sect of JWs
done this? No. Instead they exalt themselves by publicizing the
hypocrisy of Christendom rather than root out their own apostasy and spirit of
uncleanness in the "land"! The membership of the
United Nations continues to grow, and the membership of Christendom is much the
same. So whose "land" is to be "despoiled", and why?
THE FULFILMENT OF THE "LOCUSTS"
OF JOEL 1:1 to 2:32 AND REVELATION 9:1-11.
Not only do these anointed "locusts" despoil the spiritual
"land", but they are told to torment within it "those men who do
not have the seal of God on their foreheads." (Rev 9:4,5). Why? Because
of the spiritually unclean and desolating aspect of these men. For
"certain men have slipped in" (Jude V.4), men claiming to be carrying
out the duties of the anointed priesthood of God, but who have not received any such
calling from God by Holy Spirit. (2 Cor 1:21,22). Instead, these apostates have
made spiritistic predictions, "lofty thing(s) raised up against the
knowledge of God", publicly declaring apostate teachings to give glory
to themselves in the spiritual "land" of God's people. (2 Cor
10:5). They are certainly not called and sealed ones of God. They are men acting
as spiritual "Jews" but are the "liars" of
Revelation 3:9, whose demonic power derives from resorting to divination, for
God did not empower them with visionary inspiration. (Ezek 21:21-23). We the
"locusts" are told to "harm no vegetation of the earth nor any
green thing nor any tree, but only those men (with their divinations)
who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads" those
not having Spirit authority from God. (Rev 9:4-6. See Rev 7:4).
(Cont. on Page 878B).
5/1/82.
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