Chapter 29 – THE END

“The end is now upon you, and I will unleash my anger against you, and I will judge you according to your ways”

– Ezekiel 7:3

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SIDE NOTES

No doubt most of Jehovah’s Witnesses are unaware that the Watchtower used to teach that the time of the end began in 1799. Here is what Google’s search AI fetched when asked about it: 

Yes, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society historically taught that “the time of the end” began in 1799, not 1914. This teaching was maintained in their publications from the late 19th century until well into the 1920s and 1930s, alongside the belief that Christ’s invisible presence began in 1874 and that 1914 marked the end of that period.

At no time has the WT ever taught that the time of the end or the parousia will begin in the future. Now the Governing Body has taken to saying that we are living in the last days of the last days and soon will come the last day of the last days. 

It is inconceivable to millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses that the time of the end has not begun. In actual matters of fact, the time of the end is a relatively short period of time, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that the end is about to begin. 

What did Jesus mean when he said: “This good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come”? Did he mean the end of Satan’s world?

The Watchtower has made a distinction between two Greek words telos and syntelia, the former meaning the absolute end and the latter meaning an ending period, otherwise known as the time of the end. But contrary to a 2025 answer to a question from readers, it is unreasonable to expect that the good news will be preached during the great tribulation and after. So, the end that will come cannot be the world-ending war at Armageddon. What then did Jesus mean would end? In a word: Christianity. 

Did not Jesus assure his disciples that he would be with them all the days until the conclusion, or time of the end? Then what? The time of the end is the relatively short period of time after the preaching and teaching end, after the disciple-making work ends, and after the calling and choosing end.

Speaking of this sudden end, Isaiah wrote: “In the day you carefully fence in your plantation, in the morning you make your seed sprout, but the harvest will vanish in the day of disease and incurable pain. Listen! There is a commotion of many peoples, who are as boisterous as the seas! There is an uproar of nations, whose sound is like the roar of mighty waters!” (17:11-12)

Especially keen Bible students will surely take note of the similarity to Christ’s prophecy concerning the nations being in anguish and faint with fear due to the roaring of the sea and its agitation. 

Ezekiel was in exile in Babylon when he beheld an astounding vision. Standing by the river Chebar, Ezekiel watched as a tempestuous storm approached. This was no ordinary weather phenomenon, though. Within the storm, the prophet beheld flashing fire and what he described as the bright glow of an electrum. And something else, inside the tempest was something no man has ever seen—something not of this world.

Ezekiel described the supernatural vehicle as being supported by four strange-looking living creatures, each with four wings and four faces, and they looked like glowing, burnished copper. They were standing next to four immense wheels within wheels that glowed like chrysolite, with eyes all around their rims. When the creatures moved, the wheels moved. When the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped. And no, contrary to the imaginations of a generation steeped in scifi, this was no alien spacecraft. What Ezekiel envisioned was a representation of a royal “chariot” bringing earth’s new king into proximity to inspect his domain.

In the midst of the four glowing creatures supporting the structure above them, bright burning torches moved between them, perhaps symbolizing the holy spirit. When the creatures moved, it appeared as lightning and fire. In a subsequent vision, Ezekiel learned that the living creatures represented cherubs—a special kind of angel.

Ezekiel then described a platform ‘over the heads of the living creatures that was the likeness of an expanse that sparkled like awesome ice, stretched out above their heads.’

Above the sparkling ice was a sapphire stone that resembled a throne. Seated on the radiant throne is what Ezekiel described as “someone whose appearance resembled that of a human.” (1:26b)

Describing the one seated on the sapphire throne, Ezekiel wrote the following: “I saw something glowing like electrum that was like a fire radiating from what appeared to be his waist and upward; and from his waist down, I saw something that resembled fire. There was a brilliance all around him like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. That was how the surrounding brilliant light appeared. It was like the appearance of the glory of Jehovah. When I saw it, I fell facedown and began to hear the voice of someone speaking.” – Ez 1:27-28

Commenting on the significance of the majestic throne, the Watchtower refers to it as Jehovah’s heavenly organization. And somehow, Jehovah’s Witnesses are expected to keep pace with the symbolic chariot as it moves this way and that, up and down, and hovers high over the earth in the invisible realm.

But is that what the awesome vision represents—Jehovah’s heavenly organization? And does the so-called earthly organization mirror the movements of the fantastical movable throne, as is supposed? Notice, please, that Ezekiel did not say that Jehovah himself was seated on the sapphire throne. He said, “It was like the appearance of the glory of Jehovah.”

The fact that the one enthroned appears as a human ought to reveal to us that the person seated upon the throne represents none other than Jesus Christ, also known as the Son of man. The vision recorded in the seventh chapter of Daniel similarly depicts someone like a son of man gaining access to Jehovah’s presence and being granted a throne and great authority.

Unlike Jehovah the Great Spirit, Jesus once was a mere man—a flesh and blood human. And it was when he was a man that he inherited the throne of David and became born again, the firstborn of many brothers to come. That is why the apostle posed the question: “To which one of the angels did God ever say: ‘You are my son; today I have become your father”? The answer, of course, is none. God spoke those words to a human, to Jesus, when he was baptized and anointed as a spirit son of God. It is therefore appropriate that even as a mighty spirit, even the mighty archangel, Jesus is still called the Son of man because of his intimate connection to mankind through his earthly mother, Mary.

The fact that Ezekiel described the over-awing appearance as the glory of Jehovah, accompanied by the sound of the Almighty, harmonizes with the fact that Jesus is the exact representation of Jehovah God, and Christ will surely come with the full glory and power of his Father. Although Christ does not take the title of Almighty, just as he is not called the Creator even though he created all things, if Jesus has been given all power and authority, does that not make him Almighty? The only distinction between the Son and the Father is that God has always been the Almighty, whereas Jesus is given all power and authority by his Father.

Rather than symbolizing a generic heavenly organization that presumably existed long before God created the physical world, the glorious throne supported by the cherubs represents Christ’s Kingdom—something that did not exist in Ezekiel’s day. It is a vision for the final part of the days.

What is the reason for this immense extraterrestrial chariot coming to earth? It is for the purpose of judging the nations, starting with the house of God, the sanctuary. (See Ezekiel 9:6)

At the time Ezekiel experienced this otherworldly visitation, the city of Jerusalem was the place where Jehovah had caused his name to reside. David’s throne still existed then, and the kings of David’s lineage were said to sit on the throne of Jehovah. And Solomon’s temple was the center of pure worship—except it was no longer pure. The very temple of Jehovah had been defiled by the priests and was full of idols and disgusting things. Ezekiel reported what he saw in the inner sanctuary when he was empowered to remotely peer into the temple as if boring through the stone walls. It was an intolerable condition, and God was done putting up with it.

Despite the appalling spiritual corruption, the Jews were confident that God would never allow Jerusalem to be conquered. After all, more than a century before Ezekiel’s day, Jehovah’s angel wiped out the entire Assyrian army as it encamped in preparation to lay siege to Jerusalem. The Jews had their own prophets who contradicted Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and they assured the people that God would never allow Babylon to lay waste to the holy city. They were wrong.

After the initial vision of the fiery throne, Ezekiel is teleported to Jerusalem, where he again peers into the invisible and beholds the fiery chariot hovering ominously over the doomed city. Ezekiel describes what he saw next: “As I was watching, I saw above the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubs something like a sapphire stone appearing above them, and its appearance resembled a throne. Then he said to the man clothed in linen: “Enter between the wheelwork, under the cherubs, and fill both your hands with burning coals from between the cherubs and toss them over the city.” – Ez 10:1,2

In reality, Jerusalem was not destroyed from the invisible. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, brought his army and razed the city to the ground. Most remarkably, though, in Ezekiel’s vision, the temple was not destroyed. On the contrary. It experienced a divine visitation, not unlike when Solomon originally inaugurated it, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke. Ezekiel explains what he saw: “The cherubs were standing to the right of the house when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard. And the glory of Jehovah rose up from the cherubs to the threshold of the doorway of the house, and the house gradually became filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was full of the brightness of the glory of Jehovah.” – Ez 10:3-4

Jehovah most certainly did not manifest himself in the midst of the defiled temple prior to Babylon’s invasion. “The brightness of the glory of Jehovah” ought to put us in mind of the meaning of the Greek word “epiphaneia,” translated as the manifestation of Christ when he comes to cleanse the spiritual temple and dispel the man of lawlessness seated within it, worded in The Emphasized Bible thusly: “And then shall be revealed the lawless one,—Whom the Lord [Jesus] will slay with the Spirit of his mouth, and paralyse with the forthshining of his Presence.” – 2 Thess. 2:8

Next, the Almighty gives the order, and Ezekiel watches as the cherubs scoop up hot coals from the midst of the Wheelwork with their human-like hands and pass them to the man dressed in linen who had previously gone through the doomed city and placed a mark on the forehead of those who were distressed over the city’s spiritually ruined state. What does he do with the burning coals? Ezekiel does not say. It is a mystery. Is he tossing more fiery coals over the city? We do not know. Ezekiel does not say. Or, does the man in linen go into the temple, bringing the purifying heat with him? More logically, it is the latter, which harmonizes with Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the flaming end of the apostates in Jehovah’s organization: “The sinners in Zion are in dread; trembling has seized the apostates: ‘Who of us can live where there is a consuming fire? Who of us can live with unquenchable flames?’” – Is. 33:14

Jehovah informed Ezekiel that his people “have eyes to see, but they do not see, and ears to hear, but they do not hear.” (Ez 12:1)

How true that is of Jehovah’s Witnesses—especially the leadership. They are a rebellious house, as Jehovah called them.

That the prophecy of Ezekiel pertains to the coming of Christ to the spiritual temple, resulting in the removal of the faithless and sluggish slaves and the repurchase of the chosen, is evident by what is stated at Ezekiel 11:19-20: “And I will give them a unified heart, and I will put a new spirit in them; and I will remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, in order that they may walk in my statutes and observe my judgments and obey them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.”’

Most assuredly, the Jews who were repatronized from Babylon did not become Jehovah’s people for the simple reason that they already were Jehovah’s people, at least nominally. The expression “they will be my people, and I will be their God” is something different. It means the complete redemption and restoration of the real Israel—the Christian Israel of God.

This is verified by God’s statement recorded in Jeremiah regarding the consummation of the new covenant Christ has mediated with anointed Christians, which says: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I will write it. And I will become their God, and they will become my people. And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Jehovah!’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” declares Jehovah. “For I will forgive their error, and I will no longer remember their sin.” (31:33,34)

Presently, there is a global publishing organization devoted to teaching our neighbors and brothers to know Jehovah. The worldwide ministry of Jehovah’s Witnesses is accomplishing this very thing—teaching people to know Jehovah. And that work must end.

The end has been a long time coming. Jehovah has been very patient with us. We know, though, that God’s patience has its limits. There is a set day. It is called the day of Jehovah and the Lord’s day. True, nobody knows the day or hour, but surely the global system upon which we all depend is nearing a violent end. You don’t have to be a Bible believer to see it.

“THE END IS COMING…LOOK! IT IS COMING”

No, the coming end is not Armageddon; rather, it is the time of the end, the beginning of Satan’s “short peiod of time” also known as the conclusion of the system, the end of the age, and the final part of the days, beginning with the sudden crash of the longstanding, seemingly permanent, now morally, socially, and financially bankrupt Anglo-American alliance—now fracturing and coming apart. The collapse of the presently ruling head of the beast is imminent. Leviathan is already thrashing about in its death throes. What will you do when the bastion of freedom and liberty is thrown down, and the tyrants come to power? It will be a unique calamity.

We have God’s word that whenever it is they are saying “peace and security,” sudden destruction will befall them. And out of nowhere, Donald Trump’s Board of Peace appears ready to replace the impotent United Nations. While the brash American president has ignited wars here and there, it is seemingly for the purpose of ending the British Empire’s perpetual war policy, drug-running, and stranglehold over the financial system. There is no question that the globalist system in place is being dismantled piece by piece.

Do you still believe that the sign of the conclusion cannot appear more convincingly in the immediate future? The sword, famine, and pestilence are no longer just the talk of doomsayers. While peace and security are ostensibly the goal, there are undercurrents of a third world war, and even increasing chatter about the use of nuclear weapons.

Oil shortages, gas shortages—think supply chain breakdown. And oil-derived fertilizer may be too expensive for farmers to use—think food shortages. And what about the impending collapse of the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency? And there are those dozens of bio-weapons labs in Ukraine and many other places. It is all coming together like a slow-motion train wreck. War, food shortages and pandemics are being prepared. War and peace, then more war. And then there are those sleeper cells awaiting orders. Think civil war. The appointed time is near. Or, as it says in Habakkuk: “For the vision is yet for its appointed time, and it is rushing toward its end, and it will not lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it! For it will without fail come true. It will not be late!”

How is it that Jehovah’s Witnesses have become so blind and deluded that they cannot imagine the horsemen of the Apocalypse being unleashed now? Will you be standing on the street corner preaching about 1914 when the hypersonic missiles are streaking overhead, and people are faint with fright?

Between the visions Ezekiel experienced, before the frightening movable throne took its position over Jehovah’s city, God told his prophet: “Look! A calamity, a unique calamity, is coming. An end is coming; the end will arrive; it will rise up against you. Look! It is coming. Your turn has come, you who dwell in the land. The time is near, the day is close. There is confusion and not joyful shouting on the mountains.” (7:5-6)

Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses consider it to be impossible that God might have issues with the organization that bears his name? Why continue to believe the fiction that Christ came to the spiritual temple in 1918? What about all the children who have been sexually abused with no resolution or support from those charged by Heaven to defend the defenseless? And shall Jehovah allow himself to be robbed by mere men who have confiscated hundreds of Kingdom Halls and sold them as common real estate? And then there are the thousands of Christians who have died or suffered injury because of faithfully following the quack medical advice of the Governing Body. And should there not be an accounting for the Watchtower’s treachery and deception over their secret partnership with the United Nations?

War, famine, and pestilence are the means by which God will commence the judgment. Are you ready to meet your God? Read on: “They have blown the trumpet, and everyone is ready, but no one is going to the battle, because my wrath is against the whole multitude. The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine are inside. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume those in the city. Their survivors who manage to escape will go to the mountains, and like the doves of the valleys, each one will moan over his error.” – Ez 7:14-16

Into the streets they will throw their gold and silver. Money will not protect anyone from the coming judgment by the one seated on the fiery throne. What shall the prophet class residing at 1 King’s Drive have to say when it becomes overwhelmingly undeniable that 1914 was a fraud? The closing words of the seventh chapter of Ezekiel provide the answer:

“There will come disaster upon disaster, and one report after another, and people will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will perish from a priest and advice from the elders. The king will go into mourning, and the chieftain will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble in terror. I will treat them according to their ways, and I will judge them as they have judged. And they will have to know that I am Jehovah.”