Breaking News - Venezuela under US rule

[Qapla]

We need to make sure that, when it comes to being neutral, we are actually in neutral, not just sitting with our foot on the clutch - it is just too easy to let our foot slip off the metaphorical clutch and compromise out neutrality in man's affairs

[Pink Butterflies]

4 hours ago, Shawnster said:

 

That's not what is happening in Venezuela, however.  To this point all governments that have been destroyed have been replaced by other human governments. 

 

We all look forward to when Jehovah takes decisive action at Armageddon. 

We’re all watching bible prophecy take place in real time. Though the pushing between the KOTN and KOTS creates a hardship for the friends we all have full confidence in Jehovah’s ability to care for our Christian family. I look forward to the when all the nations will have to acknowledge Jehovah 

[Shawnster]

How would the U.S. "run" Venezuela?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after Trump's Saturday announcement,

 

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/nation-world/how-will-the-us-run-venezuela-what-we-know/507-e8944293-e23f-4bd0-bd3c-aebc761ad1fa?fbclid=IwdGRjcAPIBf5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6-czXWf4KcAIbELLq737BHgkcU9QiFVG7egcPhTiEkxgPea5iV14aWaa2cYQ_aem_aGenV-QYmIpXCfzTaAHY4g

 

So much for running the country. 

[New World Explorer]

16 hours ago, Jim Jam said:

 

Paul said to pray Jehovah with the hope that political leaders take decisions that benefit the brothers (1 Timothy 2:1–2) 

To pray for someone is different than making statements.

When we pray we do not take sides but we urge Jehovah to support our brothers. 

 

Something to think about: What Jehovah is teaching us below? 

 

Injustice often inflames political passions. 

Jesus’ enemies tried to trap Jesus by getting him to take sides on a taxation issue. The tax in question was the “head tax,” a tax of one denarius levied on Roman subjects. (Read Matthew 22:16-18.) The Jews especially resented this tax. It represented their subjection to Rome. The “party followers of Herod” who raised this issue hoped that if Jesus denounced the tax, he might be accused of sedition. If Jesus said that taxation was a necessary burden, he could lose the support of his followers.
10 Jesus was careful to remain neutral on the taxation issue. “Pay back . . . Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God,” he said. (Matt. 22:21) Of course, Jesus knew that corruption was common among tax collectors. But Jesus did not want to get sidetracked, diverted from the much more important issue. That was God’s Kingdom, which would be the real solution. He thereby set the example for all his followers. They should avoid becoming involved in political issues, no matter how right or just a certain cause might seem. Christians seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. They do that instead of forming strong opinions about, or speaking out against, certain unjust practices.—Matt. 6:33.
W18 June 

[New World Explorer]

2 hours ago, Shawnster said:

How would the U.S. "run" Venezuela?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after Trump's Saturday announcement,

 

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/nation-world/how-will-the-us-run-venezuela-what-we-know/507-e8944293-e23f-4bd0-bd3c-aebc761ad1fa?fbclid=IwdGRjcAPIBf5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6-czXWf4KcAIbELLq737BHgkcU9QiFVG7egcPhTiEkxgPea5iV14aWaa2cYQ_aem_aGenV-QYmIpXCfzTaAHY4g

 

So much for running the country. 

Expect even more conflicting reports and confusion about the matter 

[Ishaya]

Do we have any brother or sister here in the forum who lives in Venezuela? It will be interesting to know what's happening there now.

 

Trump said the US will be controlling the country in the interim,I wonder how he hopes to do that since the VP and the parliament may likely be Maduro's sympathizers.

[Barbllm]

15 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

Expect even more conflicting reports and confusion about the matter 

Exactly.

 

By what mechanism is the US going to take control of Venezuela? Negotiation? Threats? More military action?  What is Rubio saying in his talks with Rodriguez? Threats and sanctions have been going on for decades; it seems that the only move left is military action (again) or just leaving the nation alone.

 

[Dustparticle]

The KOTN is mad. If I’m right, China get most of the oil from Venezuela.

[Pink Butterflies]

On 1/4/2026 at 9:49 PM, Shawnster said:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela

Wondering if the KOTN did some behind the scenes pushing of their own 🤔. That may account for the change in plan. Venezuela’s new president did some back peddling as well. 

[Dustparticle]

 

 Might add that Venezuela is the richest country in South America.

[Shawnster]

2 hours ago, Pink Butterflies said:

Wondering if the KOTN did some behind the scenes pushing of their own 🤔. 

 

You assume this was a change in plan. 

[dljbsp]

It helps to slow things down and keep our footing on what’s actually confirmed. There’s a difference between sharing verified facts and filling in gaps with assumptions about motives or outcomes. Neutrality means we don’t hand out praise or blame, and we don’t try to predict where events are heading.

 

And really, we only have one assignment. Watching, analyzing, or commenting on the actions of nations isn’t part of it. Jehovah never asked His people to track political moves or guess outcomes — He asked them to trust Him. The assignment hasn’t changed: “Stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah.” That calls for restraint, patience, and faith, not commentary.

[Barbllm]

Our brothers and sisters need our prayers: Militias take to the streets of Caracas.

 

[Ishaya]

1 hour ago, dljbsp said:

And really, we only have one assignment. Watching, analyzing, or commenting on the actions of nations isn’t part of it.

 

 

The way I see it,I don't really think analyzing world political events is wrong.we need to do that to understand how they're fulfilling Bible prophecies.

 

I don't also think it's wrong to predict,we need to understand how political events will affect us so that we can plan beforehand, don't you think so too.

[ChrisC]

Da 4:30 The king was saying: “Is this not Babylon the Great that I myself have built for the royal house by my own strength and might and for the glory of my majesty?”

 

(BBC News app)

 

Careful now.

[Shawnster]

35 minutes ago, Ishaya said:

The way I see it,I don't really think analyzing world political events is wrong.we need to do that to understand how they're fulfilling Bible prophecies.

 

Why? What would happen if we don't? 

[Qapla]

Many JW's were keeping track of world events. Seeing changes in what each of the governments were doing and how an imminent confrontation could be at hand. As they analyzed the political and societal changes, they could see clearly what needed to be done. Conclusions were arrived at and adjustments in their daily lives began to take shape. It was all so clear ... change could not be stopped and only by paying constant attention to the political and military events around them could they actually come to understand how Bible prophesy was being fulfilled. This allowed them to predict exactly what would happen next. Some put more effort into tracking these world changing events than they did to the preaching work - after all, they had to be ready.

 

 

 

 

The year was 1975 - and we all know how that worked out!

 

 

 

Many were so wrapped up in analyzing world events that, when things didn't happen as they had predicted they left the Truth.

 

 

Bear in mind - many have read about this time and, in retrospect, can see the folly in what many read into the "sings" that seemed so obvious. How they over analyzed world events and came to the wrong conclusion. We need to be careful we don't lose our prospective with recent world events and we need to follow the FDS and their direction - now what we think is going to happen next because we analyzed world events. We don't want to have the same downfall as so many did at that time.

 

BTW - I am not speaking from what I have read about that time - I lived during that period and saw firsthand as many brothers and sisters I knew well and worked shoulder-to-shoulder in the ministry with get sidetracked, and allowed their own analysis of world events slow them down to the point they became burdened down and sidetracked with how they viewed world events. Many of them never did return to Jehovah.

Edited 2 hours ago by Qapla

[dljbsp]

3 hours ago, Ishaya said:

we need to do that to understand how they're fulfilling Bible prophecies.

That is not our instructions, my brother:

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=2013533&srcid=share

 

I’d frame it this way: it isn’t our responsibility to determine how world events fulfill Bible prophecy. That responsibility belongs to the faithful and discreet slave, whom Jesus said is appointed “to give them their food at the proper time” — not ahead of it (Matthew 24:45). Our role is to pay attention to the direction they provide and respond accordingly, not to assign prophetic meaning to unfolding events on our own.

 

When we start interpreting developments as fulfillments before the slave has spoken, we quietly take on a responsibility that isn’t ours. The Scriptures caution us “not to go beyond the things that are written” (1 Corinthians 4:6), and they remind us that “it does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction” (Acts 1:7).

 

Jehovah has already defined our assignment. “Fear the true God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole obligation of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). And when events unfold beyond our understanding, we are told not to decode them, but to “stand firm, and see the salvation of Jehovah” (Exodus 14:13).

 

Staying within that arrangement protects our unity, our neutrality, and our focus on the work Jehovah has already given us to do.

“Keeping on the watch” was never meant to turn us into analysts of world events. It is a call to action, not speculation. What we see around us is meant to move us to stay spiritually alert and busy in the assignment Jehovah has already given us — preaching, endurance, and faith — while we watch, not the nations, but Jehovah’s salvation.

Edited 47 minutes ago by dljbsp