Obviously, this was done because the Society is now forced to make concessions to Bible truth. And so they decided that the visible coming of Jesus would take place after all, and it would be before Armageddon (or as part of it), when all the nations on earth would "weep" when they saw the clear sign of His coming, and there would be a division into "sheep and goats."

Interestingly, the Watch Tower Society's researchers did not pay attention to this because they managed to confuse not only their adherents but everyone else. And I have the impression that they themselves are completely confused about this issue.

"The Great Crowd"

Now about the "great crowd". This teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is that there are two castes among Christians – "heavenly" and "earthly". This contradicts the entire teaching of Jesus Christ, the entire New Testament, the entire centuries-old Christian faith, as well as common sense, in which, according to them, Jehovah's Witnesses believe so much. First of all, because the New Testament is written for those who have a heavenly hope, there is no other hope.

In 1935, however, Jehovah's Witnesses brought about a "revolution" in all Christian teaching on salvation and the heavenly hope. On the basis of completely unfounded types and some "hints" that they saw in the Scriptures (especially in the Old Testament), they came to the conclusion that Jehovah God would bless millions, even billions, of people with eternal life on earth in a perfect physical body. This became a "new revolutionary word", I am not afraid of such expressions, because, indeed, it turned everything upside down. For this purpose, completely incomprehensible analogies were used with ancient Israel in the person of King Jehu and the pagan Jonadab, and on this basis it was concluded that in the 1930s there were such "Jonadab" living on earth who would live forever on earth. Further - more! It was announced that these "Jonadava" were the "sheep" of Jesus' parable of the "sheep and the goats," and then the most amazing things were that if they were "sheep," they were "other sheep" in John 10:16: "I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and these I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd." And if so, then they are also a great crowd," at the same time, from Revelation 7:9: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd, which no one could number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb in white robes and palm branches in their hands." All this was done completely unreasonably. But how serious this can be judged by the results: now 6.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses hope to live forever on earth, and only 8.5 thousand Jehovah's Witnesses (mainly world leaders and elderly believers) are forever in heaven.

 So, verse 16 of John chapter 10 is now being used especially diligently to prove this theory. Let us quote this verse again, given its importance: "I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and these I must bring: and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd." You know, it gives me special pleasure to talk about this verse because, when discussing its meaning, you can see especially clearly the absurdity of what was established, so to speak, by the "faithful slave" 70 years ago. So, this verse says that Jesus Christ, besides the people of Israel, has other sheep – these are the Gentiles. And that's it, Jesus said nothing more. Only this truth. He did not even hint at any hope of going to heaven or living on earth, nor of any "anointed ones" or "having hope of eternal life on earth." All this is contrived by the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses to justify their immeasurable domination over fellow believers, to create a caste, class, or some other structure of this domination. If someone needs more solid evidence, read the Bible, reflect on the context, and don't look anywhere else, and you'll understand. You will no longer be confused by all these "insights" of the "faithful and prudent", "great and wise Goodwin", pardon the "slave".

 Speaking of Revelation 7:9, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb in white robes and palm branches in their hands." Here we see even more clearly the inconsistency of what Jehovah's Witnesses want to prove. Because it is said here that the "great crowd" is in heaven, first, because they are "before the throne" and not on earth (John is in heaven in this vision and describes what is happening there), and second, because they are ministering, as Revelation 7:15 says, in the temple of God. The Greek word naos, which is used here, does not mean the whole temple, with all possible courts, but specifically, a sanctuary into which only priests could enter. And, if so, then only heaven serves as a prototype of this, and not as not earth.

Conclusion: a great crowd is in the sky! Thus, we see that neither John 10:16 nor Revelation 7:9-17 say that people have the hope of "everlasting life on earth."  But don't be discouraged! They have a great hope – eternal life in heaven. This is wonderful, this is really the "good news" that our Lord Jesus Christ preached! And here we come to another teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses, which causes them themselves, I am talking about ordinary believers, misunderstanding and often simply bewilderment.

Michael the Archangel

This is the teaching that Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel. Speaking seriously, and discarding all other irrelevant arguments, the only Scripture that Jehovah's Witnesses can cite to prove their rightness is 1 Thessalonians 4:16: "The Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God." In the New World translation, this verse reads as follows: "The lord himself will descend from heaven with a call, with the voice of an archangel." A new study book, What Does the Bible Really Teach?, published by the Watch Tower Bible in 2005, states on page 219: "As this verse shows, Jesus has the voice of an archangel. Therefore, Jesus is the archangel Michael." I want to say to my brothers and sisters in faith: "Tell me, please, only honestly, did you believe in this on the basis of this statement?" I doubt it very much! It is simply proper to believe unquestioningly everything that the "faithful slave" has said, but in this case he is simply deceiving you, he cannot prove anything in this matter, and therefore he resorts to such an unworthy form of proof as an unsubstantiated statement: "This is the truth! And that's it!" After all, if you read verse 16 further, it says: "and with the trumpet of God" (NM). From this it follows that "Jesus has the trumpet of God. So Jesus is God." This conclusion is modeled on the conclusion from the book The Bible Teaches. Why does the Watch Tower Society not come to this conclusion? He just doesn't need it. A different conclusion is needed, and it is being drawn, no matter what. In fact, the literal translation from the Greek is as follows: "for the Lord Himself, commanding in the voice of the Archangel in the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven." Here we see that the preposition "in" is used, which explains everything, namely: it is seen that the Lord will be in the command, and in the voice of the Archangel, and in the trumpet of God, but this does not mean that he will be in the command itself, or in the voice or in the trumpet, all this will accompany or accompany his descent from heaven. Therefore, this does not prove that it is he who has the voice of the Archangel (it is the voice of the Archangel, who gives it at the Lord's descent from heaven), or that He is God (the trumpet of God does not necessarily sound only under the influence of God Himself, this is a figurative expression). Therefore, I think it is not possible to conclude from this verse that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, nor that he is God. Evidence for these claims must be found elsewhere in Scripture. However, in the case of the Archangel-Christ, there are no more such places. This means that our Lord Jesus Christ and Michael the Archangel are different personalities.