Oldal:W22.1935 Samson 2.djvu/13 forrásának megtekintése

<noinclude><pagequality level="1" user="" /></noinclude>November 15,1935
WATCHTOWER.
349
beast therefore fitly describes the world powers under
the dominion of the wicked one.
There are three elements that go to make up these
world powers or “beast”, to wit, the commercial, the
political and the ecclesiastical. Satan has always had
the money powers as the great bulwark of his organi¬
zation ; and he uses the religious element as a camou¬
flage, to keep the people in ignorance of his wicked
course. When the Lord designates anything under
a symbol, that designation, name or symbol implies
much. The Lord designates these world powers as
“beasts”, and such they are.
The term “false prophet” means nations claiming
to speak with divine authority, to wit, Britain and
America, as an Anglo-American empire system. A
true prophet is one who speaks by divine authority
and in the name of the Lord. Those who speak in
the name of the Lord without authority, and who
speak lies, are false prophets. For example, the proph¬
et Jeremiah (14:14) writes this: “Then the Lord
said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name;
I sent them not, neither have I commanded them,
neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a
false vision and divination, and a thing of nought,
and the deceit of their heart.” “How long shall this
be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies?
yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own
heart; which think to cause my people to forget my
name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name
for Baal.” (Jer. 23:26,27) The same false prophet
class forms a part of the symbolic “beast”, because
of being allied with the world powers under the super¬
vision of Satan the Devil.
The term “false prophet”, therefore, within the
meaning of the text in Revelation (16:13), may be
properly defined as the Anglo-American Empire, be¬
cause America and the British Empire together do
most of the talking today for the Devil’s organization.
This Anglo-American Empire “false prophet” is a
part of Satan’s visible organization and is the chief
spokesman of the symbolic “beast”, and hence is its
mouthpiece and mouths great swelling words and puts
forth boasting claims, especially regarding world peace
and prosperity. Although it uses religion, using it
really as a cloak, it is in fact a political prophet. It
is claimed, and doubtless in all truth, that its states¬
men are the most astute diplomats on earth.—Light,
Book Two, pages 44-51.
Spirits are invisible and intangible; hence the ex¬
pression “unclean spirits like frogs” symbolizes mes¬
sages, declarations or proclamations, rather than tan¬
gible things. A frog is a kind of animal that has a
big mouth, assumes much wisdom, looks wise, bluffs
a great deal, swells up, and makes much noise. It is
noticed that the apostle John, in the Revelation, saw
three unclean spirits like frogs. This therefore would
signify a trio of declarations, principles, rules or
proclamations which are boastful, arrogant and claim
much. These messages come out of the mouths of the
dragon, the beast and the false prophet. They assume
to be messages of wisdom. They are boastful and are
proclaimed with much braggadocio and great noise.
The “dragon”, that is, the Devil and his organiza¬
tion, by its efforts to destroy the foretold “seed” of
the divine promise (Gal. 3:29), boastfully says: ‘God
is a liar, and his Word unreliable. Ignore him, and
away with those who advocate his cause!’
The “beast”, that is, the Devil’s organization visi¬
ble, made up of the commercial, political and ecclesi¬
astical factors, is saying: ‘The earth is for man, and
man for the earth. We have the only established forms
of government that are proper, and we make the earth
a fit place in which to live. Who is Jehovah, that we
should heed him? Our wealth and our power are
our god.’
All of their declarations are false, hence unclean.
It is Satan the enemy and his organization that pro¬
claim these false messages. Satan is responsible for
them all. These false teachings are the real reasons
why the nations of the world are being gathered to
the great battle of Armageddon. And why is this so ?
The answer is that each one of these messages and
their messengers defame God’s holy name, and their
purpose is to turn the minds of the people away from
God. They are driving the people and their rulers
into infidelity. And now Jehovah, according to his
Word, will make a demonstration of his power so
clearly and unequivocally that the people may be con¬
vinced of their ungodly course and may understand
that Jehovah is God. That is the reason why God
brought the great flood in the days of Noah, why he
threw down the tower of Babel, why he destroyed the
army of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, when he be¬
sieged Jerusalem and reproached its God, and why
he swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red sea when
they relentlessly pursued the escaping Hebrews to
drag them back into the house of bondage; and it
is also the reason why he is now going to bring an¬
other great trouble upon the world. The former ca¬
lamities were but shadows of the one now impending.
The gathering of the nations is to the great day of
God Almighty. According to Joel’s prophecy (2:31),
it is “the great and the terrible day of the Lord”;
when God will make for himself a name. In this great
and final conflict the peoples of every nation, kindred
and tongue will learn that Jehovah is the all-powerful,
all-wise and just God.
BEHOLD, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together tn unity! It is like the dew of Hermon, that
cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: for there Jehovah
commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.—David.
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