#29 - The Fallacy of the Impersonal Active Force

The Watchtower’s belief--that the Holy Spirit is not God but God's impersonal active force, which He uses to accomplish His will--is a fallacy.

Let’s begin with the premise that what is eternal has no beginning and no end. As would be viewed on a coordinate graph, infinity spans the entire x-coordinate, from negative infinity through the zero point and into positive infinity. The term used to describe this span of infinity is Eternity. Eternity spans across time and encompasses the entire past, the present and the entire future.

Let’s add the premise that time began at the moment of creation, because time is merely the measurement of the rate of change of created matter and energy. Before the creation of matter, there was no time.

Let’s add the premise that only God is eternal, for He existed before creation, when nothing else existed but God. God will continue to exist after creation is gone. He existed before the beginning of time, and He will continue to exist past the end of time, when time and creation no longer exist. God is timeless and therefore eternal. The Bible confirms that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

If only God existed before time and before creation, then nothing else existed with Him. No creation existed before God began creating all things. All things that are not God did not exist before God created them. All things that are not a part of God did not exist until God created them.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the Watchtower’s doctrine is true. Let's assume that the Holy Spirit is indeed merely God's impersonal active force. It is not God, but the energy God uses to accomplish His will. Since the Holy Spirit is not God, and since only God has no beginning, then there was a time when this impersonal active force did not exist. This impersonal active force did not always exist, but came into existence through God. If God did not possess this impersonal active force, He would not be able to accomplish His will. And if God could not accomplish His will, He would not be God.

If this impersonal active force was not created, but always existed in God's possession, then the Holy Spirit must be God, for only God has no beginning. If ever there was a time when the Holy Spirit did not exist, then God would not have had an impersonal active force in His possession in order to create this impersonal active force and bring it into existence. How would God be able to create the universe without first creating His impersonal active force, and how would He create this impersonal active force if He did not have the impersonal active force to create it? This is illogical.

A Jehovah’s Witness has two choices. Either he admits that this impersonal active force always existed, and is therefore uncreated and is truly God, or he admits that it is not God, and therefore did not always exist, which would mean that at some moment, God had no power, and had no power to create anything. To avoid the fallacy, the Jehovah’s Witness is forced to admit that the Holy Spirit is uncreated, has always existed, and is therefore God.

#28 - A Half Hour of Silence

Where are we along the timeline of Revelation? It's difficult to say, and the time of Christ's Second Coming is not for anyone to know, not even the angels (Mark 13:32-33, Acts 1:7). But just as we know the trees by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20), and the weather and the season by their telltale signs (Mark 13:28-29, Luke 12:54-56), and we can discern the signs of the time (I John 2:18) so we can only guess. Of course the important thing is to always be prepared to meet our Maker, because chances are great that our time on earth will end much sooner than the Second Coming, but we may make an educated guess about where we stand by the information we've been given in the book of the Apocalypse.

It may be correct, or it may very well be wrong, but an educated guess is that we are somewhere past the opening of the seventh seal in Revelation 8:1, “When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (NKJV). This statement assumes that before the silence there was a lack of silence--a noise or commotion. And the fact that the silence is limited to about half an hour concludes that the previous noise or commotion continues on, that the silence was merely a break or a breather in an ongoing cacophony. The question is this: how long is this symbolic half hour to the eyes of mankind, and when did it occur?

“For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” (Psalms 90:4, KJV) “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (II Peter 3:8, KJV) This is the key to the time conversion. If 1 Godly day is equal to 1,000 human years, then 24 Godly hours is equal to 1,000 human years. Therefore 1 Godly hour is equal to 41.66667 human years, and 1/2 Godly hour is equal to 20.8333 human years. This turns out to be 7,604.16667 days, or 20 years and 10 months.

So what time in history was marked by a great noise heard unto the heavens that was paused for 20 years and 10 months, which then resumed again? Though there may be several time periods of this length, the one that seems to stand out immediately is the time of peace between the end of World War I (November 11, 1918) and the beginning of World War II (September 1, 1939), which many historians consider to be a mere breather in one long, single world war. The actual time of peace between the wars is 7,599 days or 20.819178 years. That amounts to 20 years and 9.830 months. The difference between the calculated Bible time and the actual historical time is a mere 5 days. But does this discrepancy invalidate the possibility that the half hour of silence is the pause between the two great wars? Hardly. After all, the Bible doesn't say that the silence would last exactly half an hour. It says "there was a silence in heaven of about a half hour." (Emphasis mine) This is an approximation. And an error margin of 0.0679% is negligible for all practical purposes.

So what does this all mean for us? If this educated guess is correct then we are living in the end times. It means that we should expect to witness very many great things in this world, awesome and terrible things. It means we may see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our generation or in the next generation, or we may not. Of course, what really matters is that we focus on our own salvation because we may not live to see tomorrow, and what’s written in Revelation may not be relevant to us, except for the Resurrection.

#27 - We’re all gods, right?

In a dimly lit apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a bespectacled man with a long grey ponytail escorted a small group of followers to the door. He handed each one a bag of crystals and wished them a blessed evening. “Our next group meditation is Saturday evening. Don’t forget to wear something loose-fitting and comfortable, okay? And make sure the colors are bright and positive. We want to create positive energy. Remember, we’re all gods, all of us; and together we can change the world. See you all next week.”

With that said, the man closed the door behind them and began to tidy up the apartment a bit. He rolled up the meditation mats and propped them up against the far wall. He collected all the little pyramids that were strewn around the room and placed them side by side on the kitchen table. Suddenly, the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hello John,” a deep male voice said through the speaker.

The man the voice called John paused, taken aback by the revelation of this personal tidbit of information.

“Uh,” the man began slowly. “Who is this? No one has called me John in thirty years. Do I know you?”

“No, John. You know of me, but you don’t know me. How was the group meditation meeting tonight? Were all the gods and goddesses fulfilled tonight?”

“Ah, well of course. We chanted our sacred mantras in harmony and the positive energy simply flowed all around us. It was great. We’re all achieving the great realization of godliness.”

There was silence on the other end. The man felt nervous. “Um,” he began, “you should come next week and join us. You will realize your divinity too, I promise.”

“Really.”

“Sure. Do you realize that you’re a god?”

“I do.”

“Great. So, would you like to come and see what we do?”

“I’ve already seen it.”

“Uh, when? And what’s your name, by the way?”

“Jah.”

“Jah. Ah, so you’re Jamaican? No?”

“No.”

“Sounds Jewish then. Are you Jewish?”

“Yes and no.”

“Ah, okay. Undecided, I see. At least you’re aware that you’re a god.”

“I AM.”

“Good. You’re on your way to true enlightenment then. So—Jah…you’ve seen us, eh? What did you see?”

“I saw mere mortals pretending to be gods.”

The man paused, stunned again. “Uh, sir, I thought you said you believed in man’s divinity. Are you being rude?”

“You are not gods, but I AM.”

“Please explain then.”

“You are bold, John, bold enough to lift up your heart and say you’re a god. You must be sitting in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, aren’t you, John? After all, you are a god?”

John looked around the apartment. It was not quite the sea, and not exactly a godly throne. “No, I’m not.”

“Since you’re a god, you must be wiser than the Prophet Daniel. Isn’t that right? There is no secret that anyone can hide from you because you are all-knowing. Your great wisdom and unsurpassed understanding have gotten you great riches, and have filled your treasures with gold and silver. Isn’t that so?”

John looked around again at the cramped apartment and remembered that the rent wasn’t paid yet.

“By your great wisdom and by your trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your great riches, isn’t it John?”

John’s mouth had gone dry by now and couldn’t answer.

“You are a mere man, and not God. Yet, because you’ve set your heart like the heart of a God, I will bring strangers upon you, the vilest kind. What will your wisdom do against their weapons? Will it keep your godly brightness and splendor from being defiled? They will drag your mortal body into the Pit and you will die like those who die in the middle of the ocean—alone. What will you say while they’re slaying you? ‘I am God?’ You may believe you’re a god, but you’ll be nothing more than a weak, mortal man in the hand of your killer. You will die like an unrepentant unbeliever, without knowing the true GOD, alone by the hand of strangers.”

John, the man known as Bhodi for the last thirty years since he turned away from Jesus Christ and towards the occultist New Age beliefs, now trembled. “Why are you saying these things? And how do I know these things you say will really come true?”

“Because I have spoken it.”

“Who are you?” John screamed into the phone, at the voice coming from the phone.

“I AM, the Lord GOD,” answered the voice from no definite place, yet seemingly from everywhere all at once, every place in the apartment and every place in John’s head. An annoying busy signal suddenly buzzed from the phone’s speaker into John’s ear, as if the phone had been left off the hook too long.

John placed the phone down with a trembling hand. Who on earth was that person, he thought? It must’ve been some crazy person, but…he knew my real name. He was either a crazy person or a god like me…or a god like…God. God? “The Biblical GOD?” John muttered aloud. “No way, that’s crazy.”

Suddenly, every book in his apartment flew off the shelves, all of them, except for one. As John looked at the floor, he noticed that all his New Age and occult books were on the floor, and every book was splayed open to specific pages. Every book was opened to either page 6, or page 66 or page 666, depending on the size of the book. The only book that remained on the shelf was a copy of the Authorized King James Holy Bible. And the Bible was opened to Deuteronomy 6:4, and John read, “The LORD our God is one LORD.” As soon as John touched the page with his fingertip, the pages mysteriously flipped and stopped at another page where the verse at Isaiah 43:11, stood out, “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” He touched the page again and the pages flipped once more. Another verse stood out, “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”

And this continued on for hours, until the glow of the dawn bathed John’s room. All night long, every touch of the Bible’s pages turned the pages to another message from God. The verses that stood out were enlightening. John discovered, as if for the very first time, what a real God is and Who God really is. Verse after verse showed God as being the Creator of the heavens, the earth, the entire universe and all things within it. God was all knowing, all-powerful, ever-present at all times and in all places. God made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the crippled and lame to stand and walk. God raised the dead, raised one nation against another, created life and destroyed it. John realized he was not a god, nowhere near being even a hint of a divine being. John was a mortal. John was dust.

By the time the morning sunlight overpowered the sixty-watt light bulb of his bedroom lamp, John was on his knees, his forehead bowed down to the carpet, sobbing uncontrollably, begging and pleading with the One True God for forgiveness, and thanking the LORD for even considering this unworthy mortal for a lesson in Truth.

This is fiction, of course. It is what could transpire if God deemed a New-Ager worthy of a verbal warning and a miracle. The conversation between God and John is merely a reiteration of God's warning to idolaters in Ezekiel 28:1-10, set in a modern day setting.

#24 - The First and the Last.

Biblically, the Greek language has been twice blessed. First, being the international language of the world at the time, it became the language of the New Testament. Second, its alphabet has been used in this holy book to define and further express a Divine quality. The Greek letters Alpha and Omega, the first and the last letters of this alphabet, are used as symbols of an infinite nature—the nature of the Almighty God.

Who is the First and the Last?

The answer can be stated no more clearly than it is in Isaiah 44:6, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” The LORD, Who is the King of Israel, is the first and the last; and his redeemer, Who is the LORD of hosts, is the first and the last. Since it is clearly God Himself Who is declaring this, it is GOD Himself Who is the First and the Last.

It must be understood, that since God is the First and the Last, and since there is no other God beside Him, there can be no other First and Last. No one but God can be the First and the Last.

Who is the Alpha and the Omega?

The Greek letters Alpha and Omega are the very first and very last letters of the alphabet; and as such, are the very beginning and the very end of the alphabet. Since there can be no letter before the Alpha and no letter after the Omega, these letters are the best symbols of opposite infinities. So, saying From Alpha to Omega, is like saying, From infinity to infinity. And these beginning and ending letters encompass eternity. These are perfect symbols of the eternal God.

The Bible expresses this thought exactly: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” (Revelation 22:13) In other words, He Who is the Alpha and the Omega is also the Beginning and the End, and the First and the Last. But who exactly is mentioned here?

In verse 7 of this chapter we hear the words, “Behold, I come quickly”. Who is coming? In verse 12 we hear it again, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Who is coming to reward every man (good and bad) according to his works? “I Jesus…” answers verse 16. Yes, Jesus is the One who is coming, to judge the world, and to give every man according to his works. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

Who is the Redeemer?

But how can this be? If only God can be the First and the Last, then how can this also apply to Jesus? It cannot—unless Jesus Christ is God. Isaiah 44:6 mentioned the Redeemer. Who is the Redeemer? To redeem is to repurchase, to buy back, and the one who bought back humanity from the clutches of Death was Jesus Christ. “God sent forth his Son…to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” (Galatians 4:5)

Titus was “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (v.2:13-14) It is the Son of God who redeemed us. The one who redeems is called the Redeemer. Isaiah 44:6 says the Redeemer is the LORD of Hosts. Therefore, Jesus Christ who redeemed us is the LORD of Hosts. Jesus Christ is God. God the Father will not appear to man because no man may see Him and live, therefore Titus was calling Jesus Christ the great God and our Saviour.

The Redeemer is the King of Israel

The chief priests, together with the scribes and elders believed Christ to be the “King of Israel” (Matthew 27:41-42). They said “Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15:32) Even Nathaniel said to Jesus, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” (John 1:49) The people at the feast, who went forth to meet Jesus, cried out, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (John 12:13) The fact that Jesus did not hold any political position is proof that the title, “King of Israel” was not a political, but a spiritual and Divine title—the same title attributed to the LORD God.

God said, “I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” (Isaiah 41:4) Therefore, being God, Jesus can be the First and the Last. This is clearly obvious in Revelation 2:8. “These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive”. Who, but Jesus Christ, was crucified and resurrected? Revelation 1 describes “a great voice as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” (vv.10-11), this voice coming from “one like unto the son of man” (v.13). And this voice spoke, saying, “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (v.18)

As we saw in Revelation 22, it is Jesus Christ who is coming to judge the world and to give every man according to his works. The connection is also made in chapter 1, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him….I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (vv.7-8) When the verses are read in context, it is apparent that the speaker is John, and the subject is Jesus Christ. Verse 8 reveals Jesus as God; the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the Lord, the Almighty, and the One which is to come.

The First and the Last is the Creator

The prophet Isaiah has revealed this: “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.” (Isaiah 48:12-13) Who laid the foundations of the earth? Whose hand created the heavens? God the Father told us it was His Son: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands” (Hebrews 1:10). We know that the Father was speaking of His Son because verse 8 says so: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever”. God the Father calls His Son Jesus, Lord, and God. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) This is the first lesson taught by the Bible.

The First and the Last is Jesus Christ

We know the Son to be the Creator, because Jesus is the Word, and “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

The Creator is eternal and is everywhere present at all times, and in all time; and this One who made the souls is the high and lofty One, and He inhabits eternity: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place….For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.” (Isaiah 57:15-16) Whose name is holy? The “name which is above every name…the name of Jesus” (Philippians 2:9-10).

In the world of shelved books, the bookends are the beginning of books and the end of books; all books exist between these bookends and beyond these bookends no book exists. Likewise, He Who is the Alpha and the Omega is the Beginning of all things and the End of all things; nothing exists beyond Him. By virtue of His eternal existence, nothing existed before God, and when all things perish only God will remain existent.

By gathering what is written in the Bible, the logical connections can be made. The First and the Last is the Alpha and the Omega, and the Beginning and the End, and the King of Israel, and the LORD of Hosts, and the Redeemer, and the Creator, and the Eternal, the One Who is coming, the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.