“Behold, I am coming soon!”

Ah, you gotta love ‘em: paper trails.  Especially when it comes to cults and their false predictions.  Take Jehovah’s Witnesses for example.  They have perhaps the most extensive paper trail of false predictions regarding Armageddon of any cultic group on the planet. But let’s review it briefly as a backdrop.  Charles Taze Russell got his JWs really going by advancing his ideas, especially about Armageddon, in a magazine he started entitled, Zion’s Watchtower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879, now known as The Watchtower.  By emphasizing Christ’s second coming and related destruction of unbelievers, many joined him.  Since he allegedly had “the inside track” on such things, he said that only members of his group would be spared.  To intensify allegiance and accelerate membership even more, he began to predict dates of future events.  He even made statements that appear to retroactively affect past events.  But for simplicity, let’s stick with Armageddon.  Check out the following JW predictions:

1889: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1914 (The Time Is at Hand, p. 101).

1904: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1914 (The New Creation, p. 579).

1914: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1914 (Watchtower Reprints, VI, p. 5450 May 1, 1914).

1915: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1915 (Watchtower Reprints, VI, p. 5659, April 1, 1915).

1915: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1915 (Pastor Russell’s Sermons, p. 676).

1918: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1925 (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, pp. 97, 105).

1931 [Not a prediction!]: “Jehovah’s faithful ones … learned to quit fixing dates” (Vindication, p. 338).

1966: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1975 (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, p. 29).

1968: Armageddon predicted to occur in 1975 (The Watchtower, p. 494, 8/15/68).

I have photographed copies of much of the above, which should be shocking for JWs to see.  Most of them just brush it aside, since they’re already in denial.  These days, of course, one can find this pathetic track record on the Internet.  The problem with JWs, Mormons, even David Koresh, deceased leader of the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX, is that they all miss the purpose of biblical prophecy.  They simply focus on the wrong thing.  Revelation 19:10 says it is “the testimony of Jesus,” or the gospel message.

The closing chapter of John’s “revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1) concurs.  Let’s begin in verse 6, which says that certain “things…must soon take place.”  Those things were what he chronicled in earlier chapters. Then Jesus proclaims (v. 7), “Behold, I am coming soon!”  Second mention of this word “soon.”  Should be a head’s up.  Then an angel tells John (v. 10), “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.”  Well, indeed, after almost 2,000 years, it has to be more “near” than when it was written!  So how can it be near when that much time has elapsed?  Pretty simple.  (Older readers will relate to this.)  My one daughter is looking to finish up her undergrad degree in 2 years.  She said recently, “In 2 years I’ll be done.  Wow, I can’t even imagine being 22!”  How about being 60 or 80?  No way.  She has no reference point.  But ask an 80-year-old if they remember being 20.  They’ll usually say something like, “Oh, yes.  And where did all that time go?  It passes by so quickly.”  The longer you live, the shorter time seems to be because your reference point grows.  So how long has God lived?  After all, he’s the one that says things are near.  They are ever near to the one who lives in the eternal present.

In verse 12 Jesus elaborates: “Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”  Let that grab you.  He comes to reward them that trust and obey.  Heaven itself is not enough: there will be more in store than just getting there.  So much more!

So what is the conclusion?  “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’  And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’  Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (v. 17).  In other words, come while there’s still time; come before it’s too late.  Verses 10-11 says those that are “vile” and “do wrong” and those that are “holy” and “do right” are to stay that way.  The context suggests that when the Lord comes soon, when he springs into action, there will be no more time left to change.  And only the faithful will receive their reward.  That is why the admonition to come to him, now, before he comes.  Are you ready?  Can you say with John (v. 20), “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”?