“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you [Abram] and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” Gen 17:7-8.

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew” Romans 11:1,2.

“If those ordinances (the sun, moon and stars) depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” Jeremiah 31:36.

In the 1980’s my wife and I made friends with a couple in Augusta, GA who were former Jehovah’s Witnesses. The wife had been raised in the Watchtower Society while the husband was a convert. The husband was also Jewish. The wife had doubts and tried to leave the organization twice but became fearful each time and came back. However, she finally left over the discovery of what the Bible said about the Jews and Israel and how it conflicted with Watchtower teaching. She focused on Romans 11 quoted above. The Society says today that ‘Israel’ is the 144,000 and not ethnic Jews or national Israel. However, the problem comes further in this same chapter when Paul says that the Jews are “blinded” (verse 25), and “enemies” of the gospel (verse 28).  With these statements she realized that Paul could not be talking about the 144,000 when he calls them blinded and enemies.  They must be ethnic and national Israel.

A week later my wife and I met with another couple, Jeff and Laura. The wife was an ex-JW but now a Christian. The husband was still a Witness. The meeting was arranged to talk about the Society in the hopes of convincing the husband to leave the Society. As Carole and I drove to their home we stopped a block away and prayed that God would open the door for our witness and give us the words to say. I had no agenda of things to talk about. I left it to God. Most of the evening was spent on small talk until the JW husband asked what I had to say about the Jehovah’s Witnesses. At that moment the Lord gave me the thought of sharing our conversation with the ex-JW couple in Augusta. After describing how this couple came out of the Watchtower Society over the question of Romans 11 Jeff got up to get his Index of Watchtower Publications to see where he could find information to give me back. The next morning this man’s wife said her husband was up most of the night researching that topic. He later left the Society and became a Christian.

A Very Brief History

Did God choose the Jews as His people because they were the best of humanity? I think not. In fact I think He chose them because He knew they would be the most obstinate, stubborn, and rebellious people group on earth. If God can work with such people then He can work with anyone, including you and me.  He also placed them in the middle of the earth, so to speak, because the Promised Land is the intersection through which Asian, European, and African armies must march to fight each other. In other words God chose center-stage for His plan to play out.

In 70 AD the Romans under Titus destroyed Jerusalem and killed over 1 million Jews. Jesus prophesied this thirty-eight years earlier in Matthew 24 when He said the Temple would not be left with one stone standing upon another.

The Jews again revolted in 135 AD. It is known as the Bar Kochba revolt. This time the Roman Emperor Hadrian drove the Jews out of the land and renamed Jerusalem Aeolia Capitolina and renamed the land Palestina after the Philistines, Israel’s enemy. This is where we get the name Palestinian. This last revolt began what is known as the Diaspora, or dispersion of the Jews around the world.

The Assyrians had dispersed the northern ten tribes of Israel much earlier in the 8th century BC. This dispersion led to what became known as the “lost tribes.” They were never lost to God and really not to man either because those devout Jews in the northern tribes moved south to Judah. But, among those dispersed we are today hearing from some of them making “Aliyah” or the return to Israel. One element of the tribe of Manasseh has lived in India for millennia. They call themselves the Menashe. The Israeli government is testing the DNA of these people, and many others, to verify a Jewish ancestry. God said He would bring His people back to their land from the four corners of the earth and we can observe that happening today. Prophecy is being fulfilled in real time (Ezekiel 37:21).

“The Watchtower Originally Agreed…

In the early years of the Watchtower they were on record as supporting the return of the Jews to their homeland.

Russell said, “There are now in the world more than ten million Jews, about three-quarters of whom are in Russia, Poland, the Balkan States, and Turkey. If the movement toward Palestine should get the impulse that the Hirsch committee is able to give it, an imaginative person can conceive of the country’s doubling or trebling its Jewish population before the close of our century, and of its having a larger Jewish population fifty years hence than it had in ancient times, when its census ran up to three millions. Should the restoration be accomplished, all hail to the New Jerusalem!” Watchtower (1892) November 1, p. 329.

Russell also said, “That the re-establishment of Israel in the land of Palestine is one of the events to be expected in this Day of the Lord, we are fully assured by the above expression of the Prophet. Notice, particularly, that the prophecy cannot be interpreted in any symbolic sense.” Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 3 – Thy Kingdom Come p. 244.
Judge Rutherford, the Watchtower’s second President, was on both sides of the Watchtower’s history regarding the prophetic role of Israel. During the 1920’s the Watchtower continued to support Zionism. In the early years of Judge Rutherford’s Presidency the Society made these statements;

“(The) regathering of Israel to Palestine would be one of the most conclusive proofs of his presence.” The Harp of God (1921) p. 256

In Rutherford’s book, Comfort for the Jews p. 55, he said, “The promise, time and again repeated, that the Lord would regather them and bless them in the land and keep them there and bless them for ever is conclusive proof that the promise must be fulfilled … Behold, that time is now at hand!”

…Before They Disagreed”

Even while the Society was saying that Israel would be restored to their land the Society was also publishing anti-Semitic statements. Finally, in 1934 Rutherford renounced the Zionist view. Afterward, his writings, and the Watchtower Society since then, have been hostile to the view that God has something prophesied in store for Israel. The replacement of the ethnic Jews and national Israel with Jehovah’s Witnesses requires them to hold a view that denies God’s prophesied activity in that land. Some of the Society’s views include the following statements.

“Jews [are] no longer important to God. … the Balfour Declaration, sponsored by the heathen governments of Satan’s organization, came forth, recognized the Jews, and bestowed upon them great favors. The Jews have received more attention at their hands than they really deserved.” Vindication – Book II, (1932) pages 257 to 258.

“Nothing in the modern return of Jews to Palestine and the setting up of the Israeli republic corresponds with the Bible prophecies concerning the restoration of Jehovah’s name- people to his favor and organization … The remnant of spiritual Israelites, as Jehovah’s Witnesses, have proclaimed world-wide the establishment of God’s kingdom in 1914” Let God Be True second edition. (1946) p. 217.

There is a question that should be answered by any who deny that God re-established the Jews in their ancient homeland and brought about their national restoration. Is God sovereign over the kings of the earth? Does God raise them up and take them down? Can any nation rise that God has NOT ordained? God said through Daniel, “And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” Daniel 2:21. So, if God sets up kings or nations and also takes them down, then who set up Israel in 1948?

Another question that needs to be answered by Jehovah’s Witnesses is this; Are the gifts and calling of God with, or without, repentance? In the same context of Paul saying God had not cast off Israel permanently he says, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Notice that Paul said Israel was blinded “until” the fullness of the Gentiles come in. Jesus also said this in Matthew 23: 38-39, “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'”

Conclusion

It is typical of the Watchtower to hold a position for years and require all Witnesses, on pain of spiritual death through disfellowshiping, to affirm and teach it. Then, they change that doctrine to something completely opposite, and again require all Witnesses to affirm and teach it on pain of spiritual death of they do not. But all the while they claim that Jehovah guides the Society through His angels in all its teachings. If the Watchtower is going to require absolute obedience then they must have a message that is inspired like that of a prophet. Otherwise, they should let everyone be guided by their own conscience. But no, they try to have it both ways.

The Watchtower has never made a prophecy that has come true. For half their history they had one prophecy right, the re-establishment of Israel in their land. And they blew it!

By David Henke