The "Keep on the Watch!" are front page articles that appear on jw.org every now and then and they are the Watchtower's attempt to deal with current developments around the world that seem to fulfill Bible Prophesy. They should really be called "Asleep at the Wheel" as they tend to be so myopic and based on old rehashed information from yester years Watchtower articles. So the very latest article has the picture of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount under the title "Will Armagedon begin in Israel? What does the Bible say?"
Now the Watchtower doesn't believe that any of the end time events have to do with the current State of Israel since they believe that the physical nation was replaced in 33 AD at the Pentecost with the "spiritual Israel" of God the Christian Church. Now this is true and is Bible based.Where they get it wrong though is that they believe that physical Israel is totally irrelevant to End Time events. This is not true. Not only that but they don't believe that the battle of Armageddon is connected with any physical location ,especially one in today's Palestine.Let's see their reasoning as is presented in this latest edition of the "Keep on the Watch!"
"The Bible describes Armageddon, not as a regional conflict, but as a global war fought between all human governments and God.
“Expressions inspired by demons . . . go out to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. . . . They gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Armageddon.”—Revelation 16:14, 16.
The word “Armageddon” comes from the Hebrew word Har Meghid·dohnʹ, meaning “Mountain of Megiddo.” Megiddo was a city in the territory of ancient Israel. For that reason, some people believe that Armageddon will be fought in Israel. However, neither the region of Megiddo nor any other area in the Middle East is big enough to hold “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” and their armies.
The book of Revelation was written “in signs,” or in symbolic language. (Revelation 1:1) Armageddon refers, not to a literal location, but to the worldwide situation in which the nations assemble in their last stand against rule by God.—Revelation 19:11-16, 19-21."
What is the problem with this explanation? You can't use just one verse to make your case, this verse needs to be in agreement with every other verse in the Bible relating to this subject.
Is the word Armageddon describing a specific location? No! Where there decisive battles founght in the Plain of Megiddo or plain of Jehosaphat in the ancient times? Yes!
Does this disqualify the current State of Israel from becoming the stage for the final battle of Armageddon? Absolutely not!
Every passing day, it feels more and more that events taking place in Israel are affecting everyone on the planet.Look at all the demonstrations around the globe relating to the atrocities taking place in that tiny space of land and they are getting louder by the day!
There are many verses in the Bible that show that the State of Israel will be the stage of end time events but it will take days to go through all of them. I will for this occasion concentrate on just one chapter from the book of Zechariah and chapter 14 that clearly show Arnageddon like events are clearly connected with the physical location of Israel:
14 “Look! The day is coming, a day belonging to Jehovah, when the spoil from you(=physical Jerusalem) * will be divided in your midst. 2 I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for the war(=what war? The war of Armageddon); and the city will be captured and the houses plundered and the women raped. And half of the city will go into exile, but the remaining ones of the people will not be cut off from the city.(=city, houses, these are all physical locations right?)
3 “Jehovah will go out and war against those nations as when he fights in the day of a battle. 4 In that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,c which faces Jerusalem on the east;(=again a physical location in the area of Jerusalem) and the Mount of Olives will be split in half, from east* to west,* forming a very great valley; and half of the mountain will move to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 You(=this recuring word YOU are non other than physical Israelites fleeing that specific physical location in Israel) will flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains will extend all the way to Aʹzel. You will have to flee, just as you fled because of the earthquake in the days of King Uz·ziʹah of Judah. And Jehovah my God will come, and all the holy ones will be with him.
12 “And this is the scourge with which Jehovah will scourge all the peoples who wage war against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot away while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will rot away in their mouths.
13 “In that day confusion from Jehovah will be widespread among them; and each one will grab hold of the hand of his companion, and his hand will come against the hand of his companion.* 14 Judah will also be involved in the war at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in vast quantity.(= these are verses the Watchtower has used many times in the past to describe the battle of Armageddon)
This is just one of many Biblical references that connects the physical location of Jerusalem and Israel with the battle of Armageddon. So, instead of using the same old tired myopic explanation of Armageddon as a word being symbolic when describing location I wish the writers of the Watchtower for once did their homework and present fresh material on this critical for our times topic
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