Watchtower 1988 December 15. Beautiful Pictures.

[Sweet Tooth]

[Saffron]

This is one thing that I have always loved about our publications. Such amazing artwork! Thank you for sharing. 😊

[Doug]

We've had discussion about the anointed in their heavenly assignments always depicted as white males with beards.

 

Here, we see illustration 12, the bride of Christ depicted as a beautiful young woman!

 

I have to say it would look very strange if Christ were extending his bridegroom-hand to a bearded white male    

[Hinata]

This fits well with the upcoming Watchtower articles regarding Revelations. Many of the artworks in here are from the old Grand Climax book.

 

[Dages]

4 hours ago, Doug said:

We've had discussion about the anointed in their heavenly assignments always depicted as white males with beards.

 

Here, we see illustration 12, the bride of Christ depicted as a beautiful young woman!

 

I have to say it would look very strange if Christ were extending his bridegroom-hand to a bearded white male    

This is hilarious 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Dages

[Thomas Walker]

Did the book come before the WT, or vice versus?

[NW2020]

Thank you for sharing! Having come into the truth fairly recently those WTs/books I am not familiar with.  Indeed amazing artwork.  Pictures I have set aside for meditating on. 

Edited March 14, 2022 by NW2020

[Dages]

8 minutes ago, Thomas Walker said:

Did the book come before the WT, or vice versus?

The first edition of the book was in 88 too, wasn't it?

[James the Less]

1 hour ago, Thomas Walker said:

Did the book come before the WT, or vice versus?

The book was released at the summer conventions of 1988, so a few months before these articles were studied in the congregation. These articles are part of a series from 1988 and 1989 that were adapted from the talks at that convention about Revelation which culminated in the release of the Revelation Climax book.

 

*** 1988 Divine Justice 1988-1989 Program ***

 

SATURDAY

 

Afternoon

4:30 Symposium: “The Appointed

          Time Is Near”

                 “Hear What the Spirit Says

                   to the Congregations”

                 ‘The Hour of God’s

                   Judgment Has Arrived’

                 The Infamous “Harlot”—

                   Her Fall and Destruction

 

                   [release #2: Revelation—

                    Its Grand Climax at Hand!]

 

5:55 Song No. 112 and Closing Prayer

[teide_violet]

Wow, love seeing these illustrations about the activity in heaven. So comforting and humbling to recognize all this happening above our heads! 

[Sweet Tooth]

Would there be a new revision for the study book of Revelation? 

[trottigy]

12 hours ago, Niel said:

Would there be a new revision for the study book of Revelation? 

Since there aren't any real changes in the latest magazine about Revelation in comparison to the Revelation Climax book - I don't see why or what they'd update.

[Sweet Tooth]

@trottigythank you for the wonderful quotation below from the Watchtower. A timely reminder. 🙏

[Jay D]

55 minutes ago, trottigy said:

Since there aren't any real changes in the latest magazine about Revelation in comparison to the Revelation Climax book - I don't see why or what they'd update.

Actually there are subtle ones. The trumpet blasts were skimmed over in paragraph 18:

 

The good news of the Kingdom is not the only message that God’s people are to declare. They also need to support the work of the angels who are described in Revelation chapters 8 through 10.

These angels announce a series of woes for those who reject God’s Kingdom. Thus, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been declaring a judgment message, likened to “hail and fire,” revealing God’s judgments on the various elements of Satan’s wicked world. (Rev. 8:7, 13)

 

The trumpet blasts used to refer to convention resolutions

 

W90 4/1

 

In Revelation chapters 8, 9, and Re 11, we read of seven angels who blew seven trumpets, heralding plagues of great intensity on portions of mankind. These represent proclamations of Jehovah’s judgments that have been publicized by Jehovah’s people throughout the time of the end starting notably with the Cedar Point convention of 1922.—See Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!, chapters 21 to 23 and chapter 26.

 

From the Revelation Climax book:

Highlights of Jehovah’s Trumpetlike Judgment Proclamations

 

1. 1922 Cedar Point, Ohio: A challenge to Christendom’s leaders in religion, politics, and big business to justify their failure to bring peace, prosperity, and happiness. Messiah’s Kingdom is the panacea.

 

2. 1923 Los Angeles, California: The public talk, “All Nations Now Marching to Armageddon, but Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” called on peace-loving “sheep” to abandon the death-dealing sea of humanity.

 

3. 1924 Columbus, Ohio: Ecclesiastics indicted for self-exaltation and refusal to preach Messiah’s Kingdom. True Christians must preach God’s vengeance and comfort mourning humanity.

 

4. 1925 Indianapolis, Indiana: A message of hope contrasting the spiritual darkness in Christendom with the bright Kingdom promise of peace, prosperity, health, life, liberty, and eternal happiness.

 

5. 1926 London, England: A locustlike plaguing of Christendom and its clergy, exposing their rejection of God’s Kingdom, and hailing the birth of that heavenly government.

 

6. 1927 Toronto, Canada: An invitation, carried as by armies of cavalry, calling on people to forsake ‘organized Christianity’ and give heart allegiance to Jehovah God and to his King and Kingdom.

 

7. 1928 Detroit, Michigan: A declaration against Satan and for Jehovah, making plain that God’s anointed King, enthroned in 1914, will destroy Satan’s evil organization and emancipate mankind.

 

I've always been puzzled by this interpretation, but the recent Watchtower makes more sense and clarified to me that the 3 chapters in Revelation dealing with the trumpet blast probably aren't limited simply to these convention resolutions. This recent Watchtower made more sense to me and no doubt more clarification will come at a later date.

 

[James the Less]

There have been several refinements to our understanding of Revelation since that book was published. Additionally, though, I think we would all benefit from a treatment of Revelation done in a similar style to our Pure Worship book. While the Pure Worship book did contain numerous clarifications, there were also several things that stayed the same, such as our understanding of the chariot and the prophecies of judgment against the nations surrounding Israel. But these topics were covered again in this book so that we could draw practical lessons from Ezekiel.

 

The Revelation Climax book uses parallelisms to try and show how most of Revelation’s prophecies have been fulfilled in the modern-day history of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it offers few practical lessons that affect our lives as Christians today. A lot of it is just history. But as these upcoming Watchtower articles show, there are many practical lessons to be learned from Revelation. I would love a book dealing with every vision of Revelation in the same practical manner these Watchtower articles have. 
 

The writing style and artwork from the Revelation Climax book is also very dated. In recent years, we have seen some great depictions of the four horsemen, the fearsome beasts, and New Jerusalem that would look great compiled into one book.

[carlos]

2 hours ago, Jay D said:

The trumpet blasts used to refer to convention resolutions

The Revelation Climax book explained those trumpet blasts were messages of judgment we preached against every element of Satan's world. It was explained that each of them started with a convention resolution and went on sounding. The brief explanation in the WT omits the part about the conventions. That may mean we no longer teach that, but it may be that simply they don't want to enter into too many details.