Ex JW here. This is depicting one of the steps in their equivalent to the Rapture. It goes something like this:
The UN activates as a full world government, and decides to destroy all religion (if you know the slightest bit about the UN, you can see how absurd this is before we get to anything else)
After clearing out everything else, the UN suddenly realizes that Jehovah’s Witnesses are still around
They attack JWs (what OP’s picture depicts), but God intervenes to protect them supernaturally
Jehovah wins and tosses Satan in a deep pit
Earth is transformed over 1000 years into a paradise. Nobody dies, and previous righteous people are resurrected.
At the end of that, Satan is let out again for a final judgment of humanity
Satan is killed off for good. Any human survivors live forever on a paradise Earth.
Gog of Magog comes from Ezekiel 38. From the New World Translation: "The word of Jehovah again came to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Maʹgog, the head chieftain of Meʹshech and Tuʹbal, and prophesy against him. 3 Say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Here I am against you, O Gog, head chieftain of Meʹshech and Tuʹbal. "
Then, the term pops up again in Revelation 20: “7 Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Maʹgog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea.”
So Gog is basically another term for Satan in this reading. Though Ezekiel seems to be talking about a people from a specific place.
As a side note, “But we can take comfort in knowing…” is a common phrase in their writing, and I get a little twitch every time I read it.
Yes 100%. Born and raised. You grow up your entire life thinking the world is going to end in a few years. Why goto college if the world will end and it won’t serve you in the new system? We grow up in terror, see a storm out the window… Is it Armageddon? Constant fear.
Not to mention the fear of being exiled from your friends and family if you “sin”. My childhood was lost because I didn’t get to celebrate Christmas or Halloween, or goto my friends house from school, or watch Harry Potter or play Pokemon. Instead we went to church twice a week, went knocking door to door at least once a week in the heat and humidity, and did book study once a week where we read their literature and answer simple minded questions about it. Sundays were non-existent because we spent the entire day partaking in those activities.
Shit, I had no idea. That sounds like a fairly anxiety-inducing way to live.
Around the Cretaceous period when I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who was in the JW and their life did sort of seem pretty drab compared to the rest of us, at least based on what they talked about, but I guess it’s no surprise that they didn’t much venture into the whole Armageddon thing for example, being 7–9yo at the time.
It is anxiety inducing, it’s hard to even realize it because they always keep you busy. And they discourage you from having friends outside the religion and teach you that people outside have miserable lives, they only do drugs, drink alcohol and have sex. Anyone outside is only nice to you because they want to take advantage of you.
Youre taught to be scared of the outside world so you never explore it and realize that normal people really are just normal and most people are actually very friendly and want to help each other, and are a million times less judgemental than other JWs.
It’s like the “anti drug education” a lot of us had to sit through as a kid. WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE FREE DRUGS I WAS PROMISED DEALERS WERE HANDING OUT???
Yup, that’s their whole outline of the end days. Supposed to happen in the lifetime of people alive in 1914, and there’s a whole thing about how they’ve managed to extend that deadline.
Ex JW here. This is depicting one of the steps in their equivalent to the Rapture. It goes something like this:
Gog of Magog comes from Ezekiel 38. From the New World Translation: "The word of Jehovah again came to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Maʹgog, the head chieftain of Meʹshech and Tuʹbal, and prophesy against him. 3 Say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Here I am against you, O Gog, head chieftain of Meʹshech and Tuʹbal. "
Then, the term pops up again in Revelation 20: “7 Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Maʹgog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea.”
So Gog is basically another term for Satan in this reading. Though Ezekiel seems to be talking about a people from a specific place.
As a side note, “But we can take comfort in knowing…” is a common phrase in their writing, and I get a little twitch every time I read it.
Wait, wait, wait: is this seriously what JWs believe? I honestly don’t know much about them except that they’re somehow weird.
Also fun (???) tidbit, that “But we can take comfort in knowing” phrase.
Yes 100%. Born and raised. You grow up your entire life thinking the world is going to end in a few years. Why goto college if the world will end and it won’t serve you in the new system? We grow up in terror, see a storm out the window… Is it Armageddon? Constant fear.
Not to mention the fear of being exiled from your friends and family if you “sin”. My childhood was lost because I didn’t get to celebrate Christmas or Halloween, or goto my friends house from school, or watch Harry Potter or play Pokemon. Instead we went to church twice a week, went knocking door to door at least once a week in the heat and humidity, and did book study once a week where we read their literature and answer simple minded questions about it. Sundays were non-existent because we spent the entire day partaking in those activities.
Shit, I had no idea. That sounds like a fairly anxiety-inducing way to live.
Around the Cretaceous period when I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who was in the JW and their life did sort of seem pretty drab compared to the rest of us, at least based on what they talked about, but I guess it’s no surprise that they didn’t much venture into the whole Armageddon thing for example, being 7–9yo at the time.
It is anxiety inducing, it’s hard to even realize it because they always keep you busy. And they discourage you from having friends outside the religion and teach you that people outside have miserable lives, they only do drugs, drink alcohol and have sex. Anyone outside is only nice to you because they want to take advantage of you.
Youre taught to be scared of the outside world so you never explore it and realize that normal people really are just normal and most people are actually very friendly and want to help each other, and are a million times less judgemental than other JWs.
In other words, it’s a cult.
I’m still disappointed in the relative lack of orgies since getting out. I WAS PROMISED ORGIES, DAMMIT!
It’s like the “anti drug education” a lot of us had to sit through as a kid. WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE FREE DRUGS I WAS PROMISED DEALERS WERE HANDING OUT???
Yup, that’s their whole outline of the end days. Supposed to happen in the lifetime of people alive in 1914, and there’s a whole thing about how they’ve managed to extend that deadline.
Well, the oldest person currently alive was born in 1907, so there’s still time!
Good job on getting out of the JW. I heard it is damned difficult.