Habakkuk 2:14
Habakkuk 2:1414For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
— "the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea" — is used by the Watchtower as a future-paradise promise. Only after Armageddon, under Kingdom rule, will the earth actually be filled with accurate knowledge of Jehovah. The present religious landscape (Christendom teaching false doctrine, secularism advancing) is cited as evidence that the prophecy cannot apply now.
The imagery is of a progressive filling — waters covering the sea is a process, not a sudden event. The tide comes in gradually. Jesus's Great Commission () and Paul's witness that the gospel "is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world" () and has been "preached in all creation under heaven" () place the apostolic mission as the active fulfilment of . In AD 33 there were perhaps 120 believers (); by the mid-60s Paul speaks of global gospel-spread; today more than two billion people confess Jesus as Lord, and Scripture has been translated into over 700 languages. The trajectory matches the prophecy. The already-not-yet framework captures the nuance: the knowledge is spreading, the consummation still awaits Christ's return, but there is no zero-fulfilment intermediate period the Watchtower's model requires.