Identifying Ezekiel Today

Posted by COMF on May 26, 1999 at 19:44:51

The following quotes are from chapter 4 of 'The Nations Shall Know That I am Jehovah' -- How? The discussion focuses on qualifications of various groups who might make up the composite modern-day "Ezekiel". Note what the determining criterion is, as each of these groups is considered.

"Who is Ezekiel's present-day counterpart, whose message and conduct correspond with that of that ancient prophet of Jehovah? [...] We do not look among the natural circumcised Jews, for they had actively taken part in World War I [...] But what about religious Christendom? Her appearance before Jehovah was also gruesomely bloodstained, for World War I was mainly her war [...] the bloodstained churches of Christendom who had actively backed the war [...] there were none among the war-guilty religious elements of Jewry and Christendom who qualified to be commissioned as the modern-day counterpart or antitype of Ezekiel [...]"

Now, note the distinction as the true Ezekiel is discovered:

"Ah, there was a group whose members had suffered religious persecution during World War I at the hands of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, and whose members had, in fact, come out from the religious organizations of Babylon the Great. In fact, they had refused to be a party with Christendom and with all the rest of Babylon the Great in actively taking part in carnal warfare during World War I. Who were they?"

Good question. Can you guess the answer?

Well, below is a section quoted from chapter 14 of Jehovah's Witnesses -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom. Note what it says about the stance of the International Bible Students toward wartime involvement during World War I.

"What did the Bible Students do?

Although they endeavored to do what they felt was pleasing to God, their position was not always one of strict neutrality. What they did was influenced by the belief, shared in common with other professed Christians, that "the higher powers" were "ordained of God," according to the wording of the King James Version. (Rom. 13:1) Thus, in accord with a proclamation of the president of the United States, The Watch Tower urged the Bible Students to join in observing May 30, 1918, as a day of prayer and supplication in connection with the outcome of the world war.

During the war years, the circumstances into which individual Bible Students were thrust varied. The way they dealt with these situations also varied. Feeling obligated to obey "the powers that be," as they referred to the secular rulers, some went into the trenches at the front with guns and bayonets."

The book then goes on to state that those Bible Students in the trenches "would fire their weapons into the air or try simply to knock the weapon from the hands of an opponent." (smile)

So, back to the tantalizing question raised by the Nations Shall Know book: who really was that sterling group who "had refused to be a party with Christendom and with all the rest of Babylon the Great in actively taking part in carnal warfare during World War I?"

Sorry, folks, we're still waiting for the answer. It certainly was not the Bible Students, known today as Jehovah's Witnesses, as the Proclaimers book makes clear.