JEREMIAH

"My heart is boisterous within me. I cannot keep silent,
for the sound of the horn is what my soul has heard, the alarm signal of war.
Crash upon crash is what has been called out, for the whole land has been despoiled."

A great crash is bearing down from the land of the north—and Jehovah himself has set it into motion. The ruthless army of Babylon is like a terrible juggernaut crushing everything in its path. Blow the horn! Sound the alarm! "Look! A people is coming from the land of the north, and there is a great nation that will be awakened from the remotest parts of the earth. The bow and the javelin they will grab hold of. It is a cruel one, and they will have no pity. Their very voice will resound just like the sea, and upon horses they will ride. It is drawn up in battle order like a man of war against you, O daughter of Zion." (Jeremiah 6:22-23)

Will Jehovah permit the pagan hordes from the land of the north to destroy his city? The prophets and priests were confident that no such calamity would befall them. Why, the very temple of Jehovah was located in Jerusalem. Likely the Judeans felt secure in the knowledge that Jehovah's angel had previously destroyed Sennacherib's mighty Assyrian army when it threatened Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah. Surely, God would intervene this time too?

As a consequence, competing prophets issued contradictory messages. Jeremiah, on the one hand, insisted that a calamitous crash was what Jehovah had decreed and God had even commissioned Nebuchadnezzar as his servant to carry out that work. Other prophets, though, writing with what God described as a "false stylus," assured the people that all was well with Jehovah; that there was peace. According to them, Jehovah would break the Babylonian yoke from off Judah. Consequently, Jehovah advised the Judeans, urging them through Jeremiah, not to put their trust in the seeming permanence of the temple, nor in the utterances of the false prophets. Jeremiah 7:4 reads: "Do not put your trust in fallacious words, saying, 'The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah they are!'"

Jeremiah, of course, was vindicated as the true prophet. Jerusalem and its temple fell in a great crash

There are numerous reasons to believe that the prophecy of Jeremiah establishes a prophetic pattern for the future judgment of the house of God. The Watchtower Society, however, misinterprets the book of Jeremiah; applying its denunciation to Christendom. Commenting on Jeremiah 7:4, the September 15th, 1982, Watchtower states:

Christendom is supposedly "the modern-day apostate Jerusalem" by reason of the fact that the Society claims that Christendom merely "purports to be in covenant relationship with God." But did the Jews of Jeremiah's day merely claim to be in a covenant relationship with God? No, Jehovah God held the Israelites and Judeans accountable, not merely because they might have presumed to be in a covenant, but because they actually were in a binding covenant arrangement with God. At Jeremiah 11:10 Jehovah very simply states: "The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I concluded with their forefathers."

Besides being in a covenant agreement with Jehovah, the Jews were also intimately associated with the distinguished name of God. That is why Jeremiah pleaded with God for mercy on the basis of the fact that God's name was called upon them. Jeremiah 14:9 says in part: "Yet you yourself are in the midst of us, O Jehovah, and upon us it is that your own name has been called. Do not let us down."

Due to the fact that the Jews were also the custodians of Jehovah's earthly temple, Jehovah denounced them for disrespecting his sacred domain, saying to them: "You come and stand before me in this house upon which my name has been called, and must you say, 'We shall certainly be delivered,' in the face of doing all these detestable things? Has this house upon which my name has been called become a mere cave of robbers in your eyes? Here I myself also have seen it," is the utterance of Jehovah." (Jeremiah 7:10-11)

As all of Jehovah's Witnesses know, Christendom has gone to great lengths to erase the name of Jehovah from the minds of men. So, how can the modern parallel of the people and house associated with the name of Jehovah possibly be Christendom? Just as there was only one temple where Jehovah placed his name in ancient times, there is only one "house" associated with the name of Jehovah now. It is the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower Society. For instance, every issue of the Watchtower magazine bears the very name of God on its cover—"Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom." Some Bethel facilities even bear signage displaying the name of Jehovah. Quite literally the name of Jehovah is called upon Jehovah's Witnesses.

Furthermore, Jeremiah drew a contrast between the Jews who called upon the personal name of God and the people of the nations who did not call on the name of Jehovah. At Jeremiah 10:25 the prophet supplicated Jehovah to "pour out your rage upon the nations who have ignored you, and upon the families who have not called even upon your name." An obvious parallel exists, in that, Jehovah's Witnesses are not only literally called by God's name, but they also call on the name of Jehovah—publicly and privately—in contrast with the various other religious persons who do not formally use God's personal name in worship.