Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 16, 1999 at 01:58:00 {pRztWiaeuk7mY4XD8K2cFMFBt36Xyc}:
One thought that started to trouble me after reading the nightmarish post New Systen Logistics(witnet) - Sargon [SARGON] 11:27:43 11/14/99 was thinking about the present state of affairs in the organization. We're trying to reform it because the organization, in large part as a result of an aging Governing Body who have lost their spiritual moorings more than we'd like to admit, has drifted so far off course. It's become so totalitarian in its quasi-theocratic underpinnings, as if Jehovah were testing it to see if it has the true integrity to stand or fall.
Armageddon is supposed to arrive as a thief in the night, without warning, according to God's written Word. Obviously this implies that Armageddon could arrive when the Governing Body are least prepared, in its present all-controlling state of affairs.
What concerns me is, if this were to happen, how the Governing Body would accept survivors who didn't fit their pre-qualifications of those worthy to live in the new system of things? I cannot fathom except in my wildest nightmare a post-Armageddon Governing Body run amok in the ruins of a highly technological civilization destroyed by God, taking it upon themselves to govern the masses similarly to the manner in which the Catholic Church mercilessly governed populations throughout Europe during the Dark Ages.
God allows his people to get tested to great lengths, and it's fully possible that God will spare those whom the Governing Body loathes. You might see entire congregations throughout Christendom surviving, and prolific anti-Watchtower "apostates" such as Kent Steinhaug and others, and who knows who else God might decide to spare? Afterall, it's not the Governing Body's bidding that the angels of heaven are rendering service, but it is exclusively the will of Jehovah God that will determine who lives and dies. The ones that some figured would their beautiful estates for entering and removing art and other valuables might be still living in those multi-million dollar homes after Armageddon is over! Who is going to question God's decision as to who lives and who dies? The Governing Body?
My concern is that, in their present state of mind, might they possibly believe Jehovah God is testing them to see if they will exercise their power as "Princes over the earth" (as they teach in their late-1980's published book Prince of Peace), in attempt to finish what God started? Did not the Catholic Church execute heretics by the tens of thousands during the Dark Ages believing that this was God's divine vengeance cleansing the earth of evildoers? Will the Governing Body accept the outcome of God's judgment in a post-Armageddon world, no matter how shocked they are to see survivors they were certain would sure die -- will they humbly accept that if someone is still alive it means God spared them (and not rationalize that God expected them to somehow finish executing the wicked as some sort of divine "test"?).
That is why my prayers are that the organization is first reformed before we enter the Great Tribulation, although I appreciate that for a very good reason the Bible forewarns it will come like "a thief in the night."
To those who are going to chide that "it (Armageddon) ain't gonna happen so why worry?" I say to you all, that I think deep down you know it's coming and it scares the living daylights out of you.
Putting those with doubts aside for just a moment, I'm wondering what concerns others who have faith in what God has foretold is in store for mankind have in this regard?
Rick