SEeWATCHTOWER..

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TRACT SOCIETY

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

Pre8went

ITS MISSION

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall he ta.u~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall he the peace of thy children." Isaian 54:.rJ.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to

everlasting, and is the ~Iaker of heuven and earth and Giver of

Ilfe to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active a&ent in creating all other things;
and that the creature LucIfer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and wlIIfully dlsobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act alI men
are born sinners and wIthout the right to Ilfe:
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptI,e prIce for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed hIm with alI
power and authorIty as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightful KIng of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization. and are His witnesses whose duty and privUege It
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare hIs purposes
toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindIcate His name and establlsh the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's orgaDization and establlsh
righteousness completely In the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-WIll surviving Armageddon wlll carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves wlll be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the

people to know Jehovnh God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and ali people of good-Will
It arranges ~'stematlc Bible study for its readers and the Society
supplles other Ilterature to aid in such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other menns
of public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is wholiy and without reservatloa
for the kIngdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical exa.mlnatl1>n
of Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
In colltroversy, and Its columns nre not open to personalities.

NotlclI to &tbacriW.; Remlttancu Ibould be .ent to olllce In your

country In compliance wrth -te/l1IIations to g1Jar&ntee safe dell very of
money. nemittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
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different countries are stated below tn local currenc,. NotIce 0/ er"lratloa
(with renewal blank) III sent at leaSt two lsauetl before lIubBcript!oa
expi~ Change 0/ addre" when .nt to our office mllY be e'ected
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Please addresa the Watch Tower 800letJ In everJ case.

01llC1!8
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ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason et In1Inuity. po\'erty or ad,'erl<lty are unable to pay the subscription price m~
ha"s The Watchtower tree upon written application to the publ"he....
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Entered

a.

Printed In the Untted State.! of America

aeconkla.. matter at the "o.t oJ/lce at Orookllln, N. Y
and... the Act 0/ March 3. 1879.

"SONG OF PRAISE" TESTIMONY PERIOD

1948 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAn'S WITNESSES

The 1948 Service Calendar designates February as "Song of

Praise" Testimony Period. Psalm 18: 49, upon which the designation rests, sets as the motif for this period the singing of praises
to God's name among the nations. This we will do by intensifying
our efforts in the second month of the 1948 Watchtower campaign
for getting subscriptions for this magazine. All house-to-house
workers will present the special offer of a year's subscription
together with a premium of eight booklets publli.hed by the Watch
Tower Society, all at the regular subscription rate of just $1.00,
American money. The peak of the northern winter has never
halted the forward push of these annual campaigns, and publishers of God's praises are determined it will not thlS year either.
Come along with us, all you readers of The Watchtower. Your
co-operation is appreciated, your service is valued, your joy will
be enhaDJ;led by singing praises to the Most High. Weare always
ready to supply information and references for you to work with
organized, trained campaigners. Take part and be able to hand
in your report at the month's end on what you have accomplished
in this "song of praise".

Now you can enjoy the new Yearbook issued by the Watch
Tower Society, covering the activities of the 1947 service year
by Jehovah's witnesses who co-operate with the Society in the
eastern, western, northern and southern hemispheres of our globe.
You will rejoice at the totals registered for the varied service
activities nationally and world-wide. A fine introduction by the
president starts the reader off into consideration of in terestmg
reports from all the scores of Sociel;y Branches. The president'b
extensive comment on the yeartext for 1948 is followed by tel:tb
and co=ents drawn from the past year's issues of The Watchtower for each and every day of the new calendar year. Order no\\',
remitting therefor at 50c a copy.

"WATCBTOWER" STUDIES

Week of February 1: ''Why They Are So Different in 1948,"

11-25 inclusive, The Watchtower January 1, 1948.
Week of February 8: "Why They Are So Different in 1948,"
,. 26-46 inclusive, The Watchtower January 1, 1948.

1948 CALENDAR

During the year 1948 keep up to date with the Society's new
service calendar, now available. One of the handsomest we have
yet turned out, its beautiful three-eolor art picture reflects the
yeartext overhead: "1 will sing praises unto thee among the
nations;" (Pll. 57: 9, A.S.V.) The date-pad at the base points u:p
the months Gd aays with naming the bimonthly special testimony
periods for 1948, and the speciaI-service-themes for the off-months.
If in a company or group, send in your order at 25c a copy, or
$1.00 for 5 copies sent to one address.

~ceWAlCIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

JANUARY

1, 1948

No.1

WHY THEY ARE SO DIFFERENT IN 1948

"Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed."-Rom. 12: 2, Moffatt.
EROVAH God is far different from this world.
His thoughts are not its thoughts, and his ways
are not its ways. (Isa. 55: 8,9) He is the great
Life-giver, and his purpose to give everlasting life to
men of good-will differs far from the religious ideas
of this world. For this reason it is only by His grace
that we exist in this year 1948 and are able to
move about in the earth and make expression of our
thoughts to others and to do the work that we do.
Man owes appreciation toward God for what God has
done for him without man's deserving it; but, unfortunately, the majority of men of this world do not
know Jehovah God and little do they try to find out
anything about him. They are self-satisfied.
2 However, there are some who are different in this
respect, and those who are now acting before the
eyes of the world as Jehovah's witnesses give evidence of an appreciation of Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth. They know he created man
from the ground and placed him upon the earth and
instructed him to subdue it and bring it to a perfect,
beautiful state as well as to multiply and fill it with
his kind. (Gen. 1: 28) These servants of Jehovah
h"lloW that he gave man life and that in His due time
men of good-will are to receive power and authority
to do this grand work of beautifying the earth and
populating it under the established kingdom of God.
Furthermore, Jehovah's witnesses recognize that to
maintain this gift of life and the privileges that go
with it, they must always honor Him as their Creator
and bring praise to Him. They differ from men of
this wicked world who choose to be fools by ignoring
God and his wisdom, works and almighty power.
-Ps. 14: 1.
a The apostle Paul had mankind pretty well sized
up in his day, and since Paul's day man has not
improved in knowledge of the Supreme One, but,
down to the present time, man continues on in his
selfish way and continues to try to suppress the
truth. In his epistle to the Romans Paul set forth
the following (1: 18-23) :
'''For God's anger is breaking forth from heaven

against all the impiety and wickedness of the men

who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth.
For all that can be known of God is clearly before
them; God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible [person]-his eternal
power and divine [being]-have been clearly perceptible through what he has made. So they have no
excuse, for, though they knew God, they have not
honored him as God or- given thanks to him, but they
have indulged in futile speculations, until their
stupid minds have become dark. They called themselves wise, but they have turned into fools, and for
the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds,
animals, and reptiles."-.A.n.Amer. Trans.
G Today men generally are of the same mind as the
people that lived under the Roman rule in Paul's day.
The rulers have not changed, neither have the people.
in this respect. The rulers of the ancient Roman
Empire pushed God out of the picture for their concept of "one world" and forgot that God created the
earth; they forgot that even the little life they had,
the short existence being then enjoyed by men, was
only by God's grace. At that time the big idea was
the Roman Empire under Caesar. Today it is the
"one world" under the United Nations; but today as
then the selfishness, greed and idol-worship remain
the same, if not worsened. In the days of the Lord
Jesus Christ it was an all-out support for the sprawling Roman Empire that was demanded. Jesus was
willing to render to Caesar of Rome the things that
were Caesar's, but that could go to only a certain
extent. There was something else in the Holy Scriptures upon this issue for the people to consider,
namely: "And [render] unto God the things that are
God's." (Matt. 22: 21) Rendering to Caesar the
things that were his was all right, as far as it went;
but the doing of this could not rightly interfere with
the proper worship, the true worship of Jehovah
God the Life-giver. They killed Jesus because he did
not go all-out for the Roman government and because
he held t~ preaching God's kingdom as the only hope
for humankind and because he held to giving praise

1. How 18 Jehol'llh God far dllrerent from thIs world?

2. Who also show themselves to be dllrerent. and how?
3. 4. How does Panl size np mankind at Romans 1: 1823'

IS. For what

3

reaMlIA

or theil'll did they kill Jesos'

~eWATCHTOWER.

to God, which praise rightly belonged to his Father

in heaven. So they killed Jesus because he was different from this world.
S What, now, will you do, Mr. Reader! Will you be
like the men Paul described and 'indulge in futile
speculations' as the delegates to the United Nations
do, putting your trust in men, politics, militarism,
religion and images T or will you be different and
follow Jesus' counsel and keep God in mind and serve
him T Will you also render to God that which is
God'sT Jehovah's witnesses choose to be different.
They recognize Jehovah as the only true Sovereign
worthy of praise and render to him all that is due
to him as their Father in heaven. They fully appreciate that Satan the Devil is the "god of this world"
and that this one is determined to try holding on to
his power which has given him the opportunity, for
a time, to be the mighty invisible ruler of this world.
(2 Cor. 4:4; John 14:30) But, different from this
world, Jehovah's witnesses do not serve and worship Satan the Devil as God.
1 It was back in the garden of Eden that Satan
turned man from God through deceptive promises
that Satan made to man, saying man would be like
God, knowing good and evil, if only he ate the forbidden fruit. Adam was selfish, and he rebelled
against God. He disobeyed God's plain commandment that would have led to eternal life, and became
the worshiper of a demon, such as the Scriptures
say the Devil is. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." If, by disobedience to Jehovah God, Adam
became a god, it was by setting himself up to be worshiped by himself. He no longer looked to his Father
in heaven as the great Life-giver, to whom he o\ved
everything. Because he was still alive after sinning
against Jehovah, he may have thought he would be
able to maintain his life. He idolized himself or worshiped himself. This is indicated by the stubborn
course of action he took in disobeying God, for God's
Word sets forth th(> principle, "Stubbornness is as
iniquity and idolatry."-l Sam. 15: 23.
8 From that time on stubborn man has substituted
images in the form of mortal men, birds, animals and
reptiles, to which to give his worship. Man thinks a
lot of himself, and he thinks he is able to do something that God alone says He will do. Men think they
can set up a human organization, the United Nations,
as the only hope for world peace and prosperity, and
by so doing they ignore God's kingdom, for which
Christians have been taught to pray, "Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Man, under the rule of Satan the Devil, "the god of
this world," has indeed become a stubborn creature,
so that now the heads of the governments of this
~at way do Jehovah's witnesses choose to be different!
i. How did Adam set up demon-worship and self-worehlp7
8. How do men today Indulge In tutlle speculations?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

world, of all the nations and their peoples, come to

worship a United Nations, a form of world government. They want all the commercial organizations,
all the political organizations, all the religious organizations, everything in society, labor, culture, science,
yes, all of such, to support and become part of this
international creation of theirs, a United Nations
organization. So man goes on indulging in futile
speculations, until his stupid mind has become grossly dark. Indeed, "they called themselves wise, but
they have turned into fools." The wise men of this
world do not see the need of God: "The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God." (Ps. 14: 1) Such
wise men no longer recognize him as the great Lifegiver.
THE PECULIAR PEOPLE

'Still, there remains a people that are different,

Jehovah's witnesses. This small group are looked at
by the governments of the earth as an obstinate
people, a people that just will not fall in line and
that will not accept this man-made thing as their
savior. The world, through its judges and its rulers,
demands that these witnesses render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar's, and more, too; for they
forget the rest of the command: 'Render to God the
things that are God's.' These witnesses, no matter
under what nationality or form of government they
happen to be born, always comply with the rules and
regulations of that nation. They pay their taxes;
they speak the language of the nation; they accept
the education of the nation through its schools. They
support all the laws of the land that are in full accord
with God's principles of truth and righ teousness.
They follow most of the customs and habits of the
people. But one thing Jehovah's witnesses cannot do,
and that is, violate their conscience. Their conscience
has been trained according to God's Word, which
says: "Give God what belongs to God."-Matt. 22: 21,
MOffatt.
10 Because they do not violate their consciences or
disobey God's law, the governments of the earth
have cast them off as a peculiar people, not orthodox,
hard to deal with. Yet, all in all, they observe that
they are an honest, upright people, persons of good
habits and easy for their neighbors to get along with.
However, this being honest, upright, and loving one's
neighbors as oneself does not suit the rabble-rousers
of the world. Preaching peace and prosperity under
God's kin~dom is not supporting or being part of a
political or religious organization. 'If these people
are left alone,' they say, 'the whole world will be
following after them.' The rulers of the nations then
say, 'Stop their talk!'
11 In 1933, when Hitler came into power in Ger9. To what extent do we render to Capsar his things?
10. Why do the nations' rulers say, "Stop their talk 1"'1
11,12. How did Hitler trame mlschlet against them? and why?

JANUARY

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

many, Jehovah's witnesses were doing much preaching in all parts of that land, advertising the Kingdom as the only hope of the world. They had to be
stopped! So propaganda was sent forth through the
government agencies that 'Jehovah's witnesses are
Communists; they are Jews; they have to be silenced!' They would not heil Hitler; they would not
support the new "master race" idea. They clung to
their simple beliefs and the truths they had gained
from God's Word, the Bible. As time went on, Hitler
with his supporters and idolizers moved forward to
rule the earth. Then the following notice was issued
to all the superior officers throughout Germany:
"The teaching of the Bible Researchers [Jehovah's
witnesses] represents a disguised form of Communism. The destruction of the nations of the world
in the battle of Armageddon, the lifting of all national distinctions, the inauguration of Jewish legislation and Jewish dictatorship, the lifting of all racial
distinctions: these are the objectives of Jewish
world Bolshevism, and have absolutely nothing to do
with religion! Setting up the Jewish world rule
under the cloak of religious activity, that is the way
the goal of the International Bible Students may
best be described."
12 Hitler and his government could find no cause
against Jehovah's witnesses. So they made mischief
by framing laws. (Ps. 94: 20) By this means thousands were put in concentration camps. More than a
thousand died in these camps, and hundreds of
others were tortured and killed, because they were
serving God rather than men.
13 In the democratic countries, while the second
world war was on, Jehovah's witnesses were accused
of being Nazis. In still other countries, as in Germany, they were accused of being Communists. The
religionists joined in in the loud cry against Jehovah's witnesses, and an expression typical of them is
found in the religious magazine Catholic Mind,
namely: ""\Vhatever may be the professions of J ehovah's witnesses, there is no room for doubt that the
practical effect of the Watch Tower activities is to
stimulate Communism, not to say anarchy, and to
undermine all feeling of reverence for authority."
From other countries, like Greece, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, the cry comes forth that the work of
Jehovah's witnesses is a promulgation of Jewish
propaganda, and so the Greek Orthodox religious
organization has recently distributed pamphlets
stating that Jehovah's witnesses are financed by
Jews. On the other hand, the Jewish organization in
Greece protested to the head of the Greek Catholic
religious system, saying that their statement is false
and that the Jews have nothing to do with Jehovah's
witnesses, nor Jehovah's witnesses with the Jews.

14 While there are several thousand of Jehovah's

witnesses in Russia, hundreds of them have been sent
to Siberia and put into work camps, because they
prefer to serve God rather than men and to proclaim
a kingdom of righteousness, a new world that will be
governed by a righteous overlord, Christ Jesus, and
not by Communist rulers. Why should Russia treat
Jehovah's witnesses that way if they are "Communists" T They are not such, but in every nation
Jehovah's witnesses are juggled around to suit their
oppressors. The point in common is: Annihilate
Jehovah's witnesses; get rid of them!
15 Let us then, briefly, look at Jehovah's witnesses
of the present day and see how they view conditions
in the world, and let us get their viewpoint. Who are
they TWhere did they get their instructions Tand why
do they appear to be a different and unwanted
people!

14 These servants, who worship the Supreme One

of all the universe, believe that Jehovah God alone is
the Sovereign God and that all worship, honor and
glory are due to him. They believe he is the great
Source of life and is able to save all who come to him
with humble hearts. Those who have come to the
Lord God and accepted his Word and who abide by
it are blessed of God, and they become his witnesses.
And to these the Lord God says, at Isaiah 43: 10, 11 :
"Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant
whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe
me, and understand that I am he: before me there
was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
I, even I, am Jehovah; and besides me there is no
saviour."-Am. Stan. Ver.
n Men and women from all parts of the earth, from
all nations, kindreds and tongues, have come to the
Lord God because of a study of his Word, and they
have accepted his Word as truthful and right and
are abiding by it. They appreciate that in Isaiah
61: 13 a commission is set out for those who consecrate themselves to serve God as followers of his
Son. They know that this message which they are
commissioned to preach offers comfort and hope to
all nations of the earth. They know, too, that J ehovah's chief witness, Christ Jesus, who was born a
Jew and under the Mosaic law, did not compromise
with the nations of the world, but stood firm for the
preaching of Jehovah's Word and of His government
of righteousness that He promised to set up over
earth. At the time that Jesus was on earth a call
went forth for many of the Jews to enter into a new
covenant with God j but when that Jewish nation did
not respond, the call was extended to go on out to
the ends of the earth, to the Gentiles, and God select-

13, H. How are they falsely accused 1D "democratic" land.' and what
proves they are not "Communists'"

15, 16. How have they become wltn_ of the Sovereign God,
17, 18. How did persona from all nationa ~ome such wl1Deaees?

A CLOSE-UP SCRUTINY

~eWATCHTOWER.

ed a people that would have the law of God written

in their hearts, and whom nothing could turn away
from the service of the Most High God.
u It is therefore stated, at 1 Peter 2: 9, 10: ''But
ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession, that ye may show
forth the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvellous light: who in time past
were no people, but now are the people of God: who
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained
mercy."-Am.Stan. Yer.
18 These people of God's mercy have become different and peculiar in the eyes of the world because
they are determined, by his grace, to serve the only
living and true God. They have become his chosen
people. They have heralded forth his message of
righteousness; and thousands upon thousands of
others have heard in these last days of the Devil's
organization and have sought refuge within God's
organization. These have taken up the same call and
are saying to all nations, kindreds and tongues:
'Come, and drink of the water of life freely.' So
today, from one end of the earth to the other, there
are thousands of persons that say: "1 will sing
praises unto thee among the nations," (Ps. 57: 9,
Am. Stan. Ver.) They cannot sing the praises of the
worldly nations, single or as United Nations, nor of
any sect or religion, because all these are exposed
by God's Word as being idolatrous. They have the
Lord's Word and in it they find God's instruction to
praise him and thus gain life everlasting. By faithfully preaching they save themselves as well as
others who hear them. (1 Tim. 4: 16) They receive
from God his holy spirit or active force, and they go
forth speaking the truth, a "pure language", as it
were.-Zeph. 3: 9.
10 The witnesses of Jehovah, who have been called
from all nations, kindreds and tongues, being all of
one mind, have cut through all boundaries. Language has been no barrier to their unity. Religions,
politics, the ideas that men have tried to instill in
the hearts of individuals, have all been cast to the
winds. There is no divisive force that can stand in
the way of Jehovah's witnesses' having one mind,
which mind is the mind of Christ. Regardless of the
country in which any witness of Jehovah lives, he is
all out for supporting God's kingdom and preaching
it. He is an ambas8ador for Christ in this respect.
Being an ambassador in this old world and being at
the same time no part of it, he certainly is not
opposed to the present governments of the earth;
nor will Jehovah's witnesses ever try to fight against
them. Nor should they fight against such governments. They have no reason to do so, for Jehovah
God allows the governments to remain until he shows
19. Wbose pral8e8 do they sing? and how, Ilnd wh71
20. Despite what are the7 united, but not fighting gO'i'ernmentB?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

forth his power; and this he will do at the battle

of Armageddon.
NONPOLITICAL

When Jesus Christ was upon the earth, he was

not opposed to the Roman rule which existed over
Palestine. He lived under it in that land. He complied with the regulations that existed, and he paid
his taxes, too. But he was not devoted to the Roman
government, nor would he defend it. He was a minister of the kingdom of God. His saying is well known,
namely, 'If my kingdom were of this world, then
would my servants fight; but my kingdom is no part
of this world.' (John 18: 36) The same evil, selfish
organization, only operating through different -governmental authorities as far as human creatures are
concerned, still exists today. It is under the same
management that the Roman Empire was under,
namely, Satan the Devil, this world's god. It follows.
then, that the invisible evil ruler has not changed.
-1 John 5: 19, Am. Stan. Ver.
21 Now, then, Jehovah's witnesses not being for
this old wicked rule that exists in all the nations of
the earth, but being for the kingdom of God, which
will rule in righteousness, it can easily be seen why
they are not divided as are the Roman Catholics, the
Protestant organizations, the Jewish organizations,
and all other religious bodies throughout the world.
The people of all the different religions in the various lands, being of different nationalities and political connections, are divided against one another.
This state will not be found among those consecrated
to Jehovah as God. They are one organization, no
matter where they reside. Difference of speech does
not hold them apart. Customs do not divide them.
Even the governments over them do not matter. It
makes no difference what form of government may
rule over them, democratic, Nazi, Communistic,
Jewish, totalitarian, or autocratic, such form of government is not allowed to stand as a barrier to Jehovah's witnesses in unitedly serving the Almighty
God. They are not of this old world, but are for God's
kingdom by his Christ. In this way they are different, not conformed to this world.-Rom. 12: 2.
la In the days of the early church the apostles and
their fellow Christians of that time followed the command of Christ Jesus: 'Go ye therefore, and disciple
all nations.' (Matt. 28: 19, Am. Stan. Ver.) So they
went into Greece, Italy, Egypt, Babylon, and Asia
Minor, even though in those places there were people
with different habits, customs, and forms of government, most of them under Roman imperialism. But
people who loved righteousness there learned the
truth and became Christians. They left all their
t1

21. Wh7 did JesU5 not OPP08e, yet not defend Rome's empire?
22. How do we dUfer from rellgioUB 878tems of thu world?
23. What did JesUB command to go and do? and what has resulted?

JANUAltY

1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER.

In many parts of the world that have come under

the power of great religious influence the authorities
in power do not like to recognize Jehovah's witnesses
as ordained ministers, although they are commissioned of God as such. The authorities object because
these ministers are different. They do not realize
that one man cannot make another man a minister of
God. Being a minister of God is by reason of His
pouring upon His servant the holy spirit or active
force from on high; and this outpouring the Most
High God said he would perform upon those who
love him in truth. God has poured out his spirit
"upon all flesh": men and women, young and old,
bond and free. He did this to the faithful remnant
at the ..time._of Pentecost A.D. 33, and he is doing it
to a like remnant at the present time. (Joel 2: 28, 29;
A.cts 2: 17, 18) His spirit motivates those who have
made a consecration to serve him to preach the
gospel, and it makes no difference whether those
individuals be young or old. If the heart of each one
is right and seeking righteousness and is fully

devoted to the Lord God, he will be favored of J ehovah God with his spirit through Christ.
IT The objection is made by many rulers and judges
that young people are not qualified to preach the
g-ospel. They think that a person has to become old
and hoary of head before being able to have wisdom
and understanding. They forget to take into account
the activities of the person in making their decision
as to whether that person is an ordained minister or
not. Christ Jesus was busy about his Father's courts
when at the age of twelve. (Luke 2: 42-49, The
Emphatic Diaglott; An Amer. Trans.) The apostle
Paul's companion, Timothy, was a young man when
he was called and anointed of the Lord to preach the
gospel, and the churches as well as Timothy himself
were advised not to despise his youth. (1 Tim. 4: 12)
The Bible presents, in fact, a long record of young
persons that have stood for the Lord God and fought
valiantly in their youth as well as in their older age
for the preaching of the message of God's Word.
Jeremiah, Samuel, and others, were recorded as
excellent examples of youth's taking up the ministry
of God as preachers.
28 Coming down to later secular history, let us take
John Calvin, the sixteenth century reformer and student of the Bible and minister of religion. Was he
not recognized as a chaplain at the age of twelve
yearsf Yes; and if this John Calvin could be recognized and put in office as a minister of religion,
certainly young men and women of today who are as
devoted to God as John Calvin ever was can also be
acknowledged by worldly authorities as ministers of
God. Not only was John Calvin a preacher in the
Roman Catholic religious organization at the age of
twelve, but his revenue from preaching was sufficient
to assist him in going through school in his later
years. It is recorded in the EncyclopfEdia Britannica,
Volume 4, edition of 1892, that John Calvin, who was
born in 1509, was made a chaplain as described: "In
his thirteenth year his father, whose circumstances
were not affluent, procured for him from the bisbop
the office of chaplain in the ChapeUe de N6tre Dame
de la Gesine. A few days after his appointment he
received the tonsure and on the 29th of May 1521, he
was installed in his office." Centuries earlier, Benedict IX was installed as pope at the age of 12 and
continued in office from 1033 to 1056.
29 Certainly if John Calvin qualified as a minister
or chaplain in the Roman Catholic religious system,
and if Benedict IX qualified as pope of Rome, both
at the age of twelve years, then hundreds of Jehovah's witnesses, who have made a careful study of
the Bible along unsectarian lines, can qualify for
ministerial status, while yet in their teens) before
governing bodies in the world today. There are hun-

24, 211. Among whom have eonditioDll bettered, essentially?

20. Who makell mInIsters. and of whom? and bow?

27. Wb;r 1.1 ebieet:lng to youth sa ministers uDlIerlptnral?

28, 29. How <fo Calvin's and Benedict a's cue estop objeetloJll1

former religious idol-worship and their political

organizations, and followed the teachings of Christ.
A complete change took place in their lives. It did
not take them long to see that it was better to obey
God rather than men; for the only way to receive life
would be by being faithful to the great Life-giver in
heaven. As God said, he himself is the Saviour, and
it is he alone that can give everlasting life and blessings in the new world.
24 The political systems and nations of the world
have, for centuries, yes, for thousands of years, tried
to give the people better government. But will anyone today say that conditions are better in Europe,
in Asia, in Africa, and in America, than they were
twenty years ago Ta hundred years ago 1 or a thousand years ago T Some will argue that living conditions are now better j but who say so, and where1
In only a few countries. The point is, Is man more
unselfish TDoes he love his neighbor more Tor is he
the same stubborn idol-worshiper that he was in all
times pastT
2D It is true that among the ranks of the witnesses
of the Lord God one can find persons from every
walk of life, from every nation, from every kindred,
and from every language. Yet, different from this
world, they have all the same spirit of love and peace
toward their neighbor, and a desire to praise the one
God, Jehovah, and to sing his praises unto aU the
nations. Their indefeatable zeal is a thing that, even
though the worldly governmental authorities try to
do so, they are unsuccessful in breaking.
MINISTERS OVER OBJECTIONS
28

~eWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

dreds of young men and women from sixteen to

twenty-two years of age that have gone out into the
missionary field work, many to foreign lands, learning tongues not their own, in order that they may
there preach the gospel. Youth is no barrier to one's
becoming a minister. One who does become a minister ~or the Lord will daily preach the good news. It
has always been recognized that ministers would take
a neutral position as to world affairs and that they
would be indifferent to the controversies of the world,
because they are not of this world nor a part of it,
although they are in it. (1 John 2: 15-17) In the same
way Christ Jesus was not of this world. He was in
it, but this was for the sole purpose of preaching the
gospel and vindicating his Father's name.
10 Christ Jesus, in a prayer to his Father in heaven,
requested him that the same spirit that was poured
upon him be poured upon all his followers, and he
asked his Father not to take them out of the world
but to leave them there that they might preach the
good news of the Kingdom and thus some could be
saved. (John 17: 14, 15; 14: 16, 17) This makes it
plain that age is not the determining factor with
God's ministers, neither is sex; but the thing that
qualifies one as a minister is his knowledge of the
Lord's Word and his zeal and devotion to the Most
High Sovereign, Jehovah God, and, most importantly, the spirit of the Lord God upon him.

organizations, or societies within the countries in

which they reside, so as to further the interests of
their ministerial activity there. Such societies are
just as necessary locally as the Watch Tower Bible
& Tract Society in America. And just because a
society is formed in one particular country, it would
be no reason to say that Jehovah's witnesses of that
respective country are French or German or Brazilian. Jehovah's witnesses world-wide have one aim
in life, and that is to magnify the name of their
heavenly Father, Jehovah, and to share with Christ
Jesus in the vindication of his name and Word. They
realize that he has gathered together the persons of
good-will who love him into one organization, and
that is, a Theocratic organization. Theocratic, yes,
but not nationalistic are these witnesses of Jehovah.
Because governments of men have set up boundaries
and have adopted certain languages for certain
territories, and because some of God's consecrated
people live in those particular lands, these are no
reasons for believing that they are separate and
distinct from all the other witnesses of the Most
High God throughout the earth. They are not. They
are one body in the Lord, one organization, with one
God Jehovah and one Lord Jesus Christ and one law.
That is the law God has given them, namely, to
minister to him and to preach the gospel of the Kingdom in all the world for a witness to all nations.

NONNATIONALISTIC ORGANIZATION WORLDWIDE

NONPARTISANSBIP

11 From time to time government officials in various parts of the earth make claims that Jehovah's
witnesses are controlled by an American organization and that Jehovah's witnesses are spreading
American propaganda. However, it will readily be
understood by all persons reading any of the publications of Jehovah's witnesses as printed and distributed through the Watch Tower Bible & Tract
Society, a Pennsylvania corporation in America, that
none of their teachings are nationalistic. They set
forth the belief in God's kingdom as the only hope
of humankind. That kingdom is what the witnesses
serve, and they look to Christ Jesus as their Commander and Leader, who is above all nations and
political parties. Just because the Watch Tower
Bible & Tract Society happens to be formed in the
United States and is used by Jehovah's witnesses of
that coantry and of many other countries to carry
on their ministerial activities is no reason for men
to say that the organization of Jehovah's witnesses
all over the earth is an American organization.
32 In different countries of Latin America and
throughout Europe and on the other continents of
the earth Jehovah's witnesses have formed local

I I There you have the reason why Jehovah's witnesses, scattered in scores of lands, will not engage
in carnal warfare one against another, because they
will not violently fight their brethren. At the same
time the Lord's faithful servants will not interfere
in a violent combat between nations. They are neutral as to the political affairs and military operations
of nations; and they look to Jehovah God as the One
that gives life and has the right to take it away, and
the One who can also preserve them into the new
world of uprightness where they will enjoy peace,
prosperity and everlasting life. They fully appreciate that God's Word says that his servants will come
from every nation, tribe and tongue but that, because
of having his spirit, they will be one people to him,
a chosen generation, devoted to peace. Knowing that
they are his chosen people under the one Theocratic
law, they serve him with undivided attention. They
have the proper fear of God, for they hate the evil,
the arrogance, the pride and Godlessness of this
world. There is no room for partisanship among
them. All are for the one ideal, the New World
government by Christ Jesus.
I f Logically, in obedience to the divine commands
for this day, such persons as these are putting forth

30. What qualifies one tor the mlnl.tr1~

31. Why IS this not an American or~nlzatlon and propagandAl
32. Why do not local societies make them natlonall.t1c~

33. Why 18 there no room tor violent partisanship among them?

34. What would reading the Ye4rbool: show regarding them?

JANUARY

1, 1948

every effort to push forward the principles of truth

and righteousness and to turn the minds of the
people toward the one true Deity and his gracious
Word, the Bible. This they will continue to do right
on down to the final war, the long-predicted Armageddon. Come opposition, trials, persecution and
other troubles from the governmental agents or the
governments themselves, they will move ahead fearlessly and courageously, standing for Jehovah's
"King of kings, and Lord of lords", Christ Jesus.
This has been wonderfully demonstrated during the
year of 1947 just gone. An unbiased person has just
to read the Yearbook covering this past year's activities throughout the earth by Jehovah's witnesses to
grasp with ease that these are one people and one
organization, a Theocratic organization; and that
they look to Jehovah God and his Son, Jesus Christ,
as "The Higher Powers" who are guiding and directing their activities. The reader of such Yearbook,
after considering the reports from 92 lands, should
be helped to realize that the witnesses are not serving any man or any worldly organization, and that
the organization which the witnesses have is not
American, French, German, Communistic or Jewish,
but is a God-directed organization, or Theocratic,
and that its members are interested solely in the
lasting peace and good-will of the peoples everywhere.
85 What time do they have for dabbling in political
campaigns and battles, or in trying to influence the
secular governments as to what course of action they
should take in the present-day struggle for world
domination T Their commission to preach takes the
best of their time, and their devotion to the principles
of truth and integrity and uncorruptedness grips
them all their time. They fully know and are persuaded that the only way for peace and perfect happiness
to be brought to the human family is by man's accepting .J ehovah God as the Supreme One of the universe
and also accepting his Son, his chief witness, as the
Ransomer of mankind and as the rightful King of
the new world. This One, before his own death on the
tree of torture, said in prayer to his heavenly Father:
"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." (John 17: 3) Ah, yes, Jehovah God has made
the provisions for man to get life through his Son.
Jehovah is the real Life-giver, and all human creatures that hope-to have life in the beautified peaceful "world without end" will have to abide by his
provisions and accept him as God and his Son as the
Redeemer and King. Jehovah's witnesses are different from this old world because they conform to
these divine requirements for life. Thousands upon
thousands of persons of good-will who love truth and
:J~._

~e WATCHTOWER..

\Vhy do they not hsve time for polltlcal actlVitlee?

who have turned a hearing ear to the Kingdom

message have sought the Lord God and have associated themselves with the Theocratic organization of
Jehovah's witnesses and have joyfully joined them
in proclaiming the message of the Kingdom.
PROOF OF THEIR MINISTRY

Speaking one language, the "pure language" of

the truth, from one end of the earth to the other,
Jehovah's witnesses in the service year ending
August 31, 1947, piled up a mighty 'heap of witness'
to the honor and glory of Jehovah's name. (Zeph.
3: 9) Again they have proved themselves to be a
society of ministers. They have faithfully preached
the good news of God's kingdom to millions of persons and have shown what the 'joy of all the people'
really is. Throughout the year 181,071 witnesses of
Jehovah co-operated with the Watch Tower Bible &
Tract Society with monthly regularity and preached
the gospel in 92 different lands, including the principal nations, the isles of the sea, and the colonies of
the great powers. They were found working in the
states and provinces of all such countries, the cities,
the towns, and the rural countryside. The world is
their field, and they are trying to reach the people
in this wide field.-Matt. 13: 38.
IT During the said 1947 service year these hardworking servants of the Most High God devoted
43,842,305 hours to preaching. Their devotion to the
truth and to the ministerial work resulted in the
associating by many persons with Jehovah's witnesses, and these persons undertook to faithfully
follow Christ Jesus and became publishers of the
Kingdom, too. Consequently, a newall-time record
was reached, namely, 207,552 ministers participating
in the field-service work sometime during the twelvemonth period. It is sincerely hoped that all these
persons will be regular Kingdom publishers in 1948,
so that the command of Jesus, "Go ye therefore, and
make disciples of all the nations," may be accomplished on an ever-greater scale in the years ahead
before the final battle of Armageddon.-Matt. 28: 19,
Am. Stan. Ver.
as These new publishers of the Kingdom, along
with those who have been in the way for many years,
realize that it pays to be different from this old
world. The broad way down which the world is traveling fast leads to destruction; the new way, God's
way, into which they have entered, leads to eternal
life. This narrow way will bring reproach, suffering
and persecution from the world upon these servants
of God, but they appreciate that their faithful continuance and endurance in God's service will bring
eternal life and contentment. They have come to
bow the only true God, Jehovah, and his Son Christ
Ie

36, 3T. How did they prove them8elves a .oclety of miDI.tere?

38. How do th.". know It
to be ditrerent from tbl8 world?

pa,.

~eWATCHTOWERw

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

J esns, whom to know means life eternal. (John 17 : 3)

They have learned of God's kingdom and the blessings it holds, and it is their keen desire to share in
these blessings and bring praise to the Lord God
forever. All over the earth it is said by them: "I will
sing praises unto thee among the nations" (Ps. 57: 9,
Am. Stan. Ver.); which is the yeartext of Jehovah's
witnesses for 1948.
18 It is of real interest to consider, if only thus
briefly, the work done by Jehovah's witnesses during
the past twelve months. They distributed 20,472,739
books and booklets, in scores of languages, in 88
countries, provinces and isles of the sea. In addition
to this they placed 12,049,344 individual copies of
the magazines The Watchtower and Awake! and
these in many languages. Not only that, but they
interested readers of these magazines to subscribe
for them, and the number of subscriptions obtained
by the Kingdom publishers was 563,101. In a fourmonth campaign (January-April) for Watchtower
and Awake! subscriptions they obtained 313,786 such
subscriptions. Jehovah's witnesses are grateful to
God for the opportunity of placing with the people
something that they could read and study in their
own homes, especially the Bible and books to help
one understand the Bible. Since the year 1920 they
have placed 513,186,451 books, Bibles and booklets
with the people, but they know this placement is not
all that is necessary. If people are going to come to
a knowledge of the truth, they need personal help,
and to this end Jehovah's witnesses make millions
of calls upon them. Invited into their homes, they sit
down with the people and answer their questions and
look up scriptures in the Bible to prove their teaching; and thus they truly bring comfort to those who
mourn in all the earth.
'" Not only do Jehovah's witnesses preach the
gospel from house to house and publicly, but they
spend much time in giving private instruction, as a
minister of God should. World-wide, Jehovah's witnesses made 11,710,832 return visits upon the homes
of persons already interested. In fact, every week
there are conducted all through the earth 113,035
book studies in homes of those taking literature. In
these little private home meetings there are usually
from two to eight persons that study regularly every
week some publication of the Society, along with the
Bible, under the private instruction of a minister,
one of Jehovah's witnesses.
41 'Wbile much attention is given to the private
study with individuals, Jehovah's witnesses make
public proclamation also. Thousands of auditoriums,
public parks and other open-air meeting-places have
been used by Jehovah's ordained ministers for public

meetings. In all nations and languages these meetings have been carried on during the service year
here reported on, to the extent of 101,632 different
meetings. The attendance at these meetings runs into
millions. On one Sunday alone, when a check was
made of attendances, 252,582 persons in all parts of
the world listened to the good news.
41 J ehovab's witnesses today are like the apostle
Paul in that they do not need a letter written in ink
by someone to prove they are ministers of the gospel,
Paul said: "For I am no peddler of God's message,
like most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned by God and in his presence, in union with
Christ I utter his message... Do I, like some people,
need letters of recommendation to you or from you'
You are my recommendations, written on my heart,
for everybody to read and understand. You show
that you are a letter from Christ delivered by me,
written not in ink, but in the spirit of the living God,
and not on tablets of stone, but on the human heart."
(2 Cor. 2:17; 3:1-3, An Amer. Trans.) The 158,034
witnesses of Jehovah who were out in the field during the 1946 service year now have a letter of commendation which is a real recommendation of their
faithful ministry, for in the following year, 1947,
many more publishers were associated regularly
with them to raise the number to 181,071 regular
publishers of the Kingdom, or an increase of 23,037.
And there are many more now that are showing zeal
for the only righteous cause, which will succeed.
'3 Do Jehovah's witnesses need letters written by
men' or do the facts prove that they have recommendations written in the hearts of those who love
the Kingdom' All the world knows that J ehovab's
witnesses have proof of their ministry, but it is
not what Christendom calls "orthodox". However,
whether orthodox or unorthodox, they do their work
like the Master, Jesus. They are not 'peddlers of
God's message, like most men'. Jehovah's witnesses
are devoting their time, their mone-y, their strength,
their all, in the service of God. During the past service year the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society sent
from the Brooklyn office alone to foreign Branches
and missionary homes $256,661.77 in cash to help the
expansion work, this in addition to supplying the
Branches with literature valued at $388,606.44.
'" Neither do Jehovah's witnesses neglect the association of themselves together, for throughout the
world there were 10,782 companies organized. At the
meetings of such companies J ehovab's witnesses
come together to further :fit themselves for the ministry. At the company meetings every week they study
the magazine The Watchtower for an hour, which
contains spiritual food. Additionally, for another

39. 40. (a) How much literature did they place? (b) How many retura
calls and book studies did they aceompliah In 1947. and why?
41. What publle proeJamation did they aeeompll~h In 1&47?

42, 43. (a) Why do they. like Paul, not need letten In IIIIt to commend
their mlnlltry? (b) What moDle.a were lent to Branchee?
H. How man3' eompallies are organised. ClOnduetinJ[ what meetlngs7

JANUARY

1, 1948
Tot. A v.
Total
Pubs.
Literature

U. S. ot America
Alaska
Bahamas
Bermuda
Cyprus

~etherlanda

~f,:if; t:1~~~n

Au~~f:pore
Bell.'lum
Luxembourg
Bolivia
Brazil
British Guiana
BrItish Honduras
Br.tlsh Isles
Eire

~F~~lvador

Finland
France
Germany

Greece
Turkey
auatemala
Haiti
Hawaii
Honduras
Hungary
India
Burma
Ceylon
Pe1"'la
Italy
Jamaica
Mexico
l'etherlanas

Back

cans

Studies

&ole

Peak
Pubs.

7,092.651
5,529
664
178
3,562

4,622,064
4,054
2,710
1,285
2,241

49,608
24
67
35
23

73,512
28
41
7

2,87~

1
1

4,110
280
5,978
424
94

7,439
6,246
2,455
708
612

43
7
220
4

1,831
233
956
8

2,397
257
443
206
79

21
1
7
4

24
18

28
8
22
99
17

13,373
4,734
10,623
10,448
8,672

9,207
3,952
13,951
22,409
4,531

1138
7
422
274
766

11,579
200
1,019
9,459
1,043

3,~~
2,683

32
1
8li
39

42
111
30
1111

17

1
2
7
1

679
3,284
9

11
21

125,719
312,292
6,665
472
17,441

184,925
746,501
2,039
406
11,003

1,841
10,987
101

M.238
188,337
621
129
1,771

416
1,762
6
1

443

36,618
358,263
720
171
1,876

23

790
3,516
12
13
31

39
201
1
1
2

6
751
876
47
16

2,299
173,301
189,013
3,911
7,571

1,988
162,383
238,506
14,430
14,078

62
11,373
1,198
38
338

217
38,762
49,072
9,609
1,422

631
69,407
44,005
4,023
4,877

13
432
415
56
63

15
941
1,038
59
26

96
29
3
1

648
134
38
12,149
37

440,865
40,013
5,222
2,237.380
14,328

313,820
67,059
17,566
3,489,000
28,706

6,144
386
139
77,232
342

43,690
15,715
2,786
77,067
42

62,661
18,040
5,767
1,099,510
8,237

1108
260
82
7,015
31

786
185
110
13,670
113

41
8
5
601
3

&9,070
728,517
43,152
7,034
23,903

223,423
2,129,473
55,201
6,1192
26,033

1,864
38,392
1,039
28
713

94,241
817,542
10,212
661
4,363

118,666
445,891
111,238
488
8,647

764
4,611
197
II
88

9011
12,093
175
14
34

31
1121
11
1
4

449
3,199
1,257
2,724
119

31,333
214,691
296,451
313,427
23,951

116,263
774,8711
228.172
389,657
41,851

720
4,040
2,205
6,328
272

20,O:!7
81.341
62,433
253,789
6,487

27,4011
164,944
69,040
112,144
17,303

427
2,276
478
862
293

1176
3,682
1,412
2,977
84

1116

68
80
2,281
2,184
111,8116

8,040
18,207
525.325
187,102
42,553

16,449
35.796
507,983
361,866
3,589,030

92
422
12,444
3,298

1,453
7.135
270,862
51,748

3.345
12,861
97,166
109,778
1,9117,525

113

717
1,028
7,394

79
136
2,696
2,380
20,811

II
2
383
104
1,441

1,891

77,799
117
24,809
11,900
56,657

225,783
767
48,108
13,834
49,750

6,028

168,146

2,367

212

783
42
3,430

13,034
3,622
13,117

116,968
110
16.076
4,1137
13,428

384

711
16
129

244
48
174

112
26
163

4
1
1

45
989
198
19
12

10,097
126,059
36,039
7,508
3,505

24,707
184,089
75,380
7,085
11,048

196
991
2,413
728
319

3,291
11,R68
12,300
984
1,579

7,352
88,806
13,938
2,036
1,321

116
740
223
21
III

70
1,253
2211
24

704
M,693
119,761
234,694

5,204
68,193
145,433
169,191

68
1,182
2,228
1,204

1,411
4,887
4,247

178

35
132
245
102

17,386,001 308,618
12,075
286
6,910
345
2,600
23
13,296
82

No.
Com
panles

Individual
Magazine.

14
13
3
3
6

British West Indl..a

Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Czechoslovalda
Denmark
Domlllican Republic

New
Subs.

10,166,529
4,840
5,245
878
12,650

W. Indll'8

Argentina
australia
FIJI
Java [N.E.Ll
Siam

Total
Hours

67,680
17
17
4
37

Ecuador
Guadeloupe
Iceland
LIberia
Malta
Palestine
Peru

11

3heWATCHTOWER..

22

5,232
3,803

176

68

1
1

3
3
6

22
1

11
91

1115
2

147
26
1
1

1112
1,185
4,125
3,764

117,943
98,915
405,091
349,798

22,275
306,173
910,134
951,844

1
315
833
4,513
4,115

M
678
36
799
175

16,695
131.246
9,748
317,996
45,995

21.183
171.642
18,598
175,697
67,591

1,091
6,012
271
4,972
1,249

6.063
96,327
4.000
131.535
34,225

6,965
41,138
6,767
41,501
26,334

45
384
83
366

388

90
179
611
972
215

10
48
2
78
9

Paraguay
~~:~ggme Islands
Russia
Puerto Rico

34
2,471
6,334
3,498
87

8,820
419,8\)0
291,081
17,780
40,285

17.774
821.659
941.743
152.069
43,951

260
992
9,148
2,452
1,420

5,151
107,723
233,547
24,0117
11,039

5,i31
60.249
349,593
41.!58
16,216

69
654
3,642
1,220
183

47
2,ll02
7,703
3,917
119

5
178
470
124
4

Rumania
South Africa
Northern Rhodesia
Nyasaland
Portuguese East Africa

1,990
3,843
6,114
3,M2
214

450.940
369,935
1,134
1,303

303,668
1,235,017
1,982.983
1,077,894
66,197

8,428
6

87.170
211,858

511,140
251,091
199.847
289,810
18,688

2,419
2,995
3,869
4,740
293

2,6811
4,163
8,007
4,lM
381

389
228
252
374
28

22
33,843

18
2,613

Surinam
French Guiana

17
2,572
198
55
1

4
1,630
108
105
14

17
3,044
237
76
1

82
8
2

Sweden
Switzerland
Uruj:uay
Venezuela
West Atrlca [Nigeria)

Newfoundland

Ne\v Zealand
~lcnragua

Norway
Panama

208

15,452
465

750,568
41,781
22,202
646

92
4

4,179
63

61
122,205
7,145
6,~g

2,894
1,512
175
29
3,710

323,284
189,735
38,904
13.065
78,1133

551.933
238,086
80,358
23,684
1,039,520

9,274
3,137
825
151
248

537.598
445.902
16,858
4,576
4,637

122.800
113,355
27,613
5.646
43,641

843
1159
379
61

3,092
1,6411
211
47
4,111

367
84
8

360
22
120

8,519
2,376
1,327

70,077
4,208
7,847

38

832
12

3,813
357
1,0911

118
10

G711

24
1

TOTAL
181,071
1947 Service Year

20.472,739

43,842,305 1163,101

12,049,344

11.110,832

113,035

207,5112

10,782

St. Helena
South8l"n Rhodesia

Tangan~ Ika

Gold Coast
Sierra Leone

~ugoslavia

620

768

38
120

201

hour they have their

service meetings,
where they learn
ways and means of
better presenting the
gospel to the people.
Generally, after the
weekly service meeting, they have a
course In Theocratic
ministry, which uses
textbook material
provided by the Society and which
equips them all to
make better expression of the Lord's
Word to others.
Truly they are ministers'of God, equipping
themselves for every
good work. To all
these study meetings
people of good-will
are cordially invited.
U Jehovah's
witnesses have an unusual privilege and responsibility. They accept it and are proud
that they are servants
of the Most High God.
They are diligently
putting forth every
effort to turn the
minds of all honest
men and women, no
matter of what
nation, kindred or
tongue, to Jehovah
God in true worship.
It is their desire to
see all righteously
disposed persuns
singing the praises of
Jehovah, in order that
they may gain life
eternal and live in the
New World of righteousness, where peace
and prosperity will
be the heritage of the
nations. Yes, they are
determined, by God's
grace, to give proof
45. What Is their pride, and
their desire and determination?

12

ZlieWATCHTOWER..

of their ministry to many thousands more, who, on

that account, will join with them in the grand song
of praise to Jehovah among the nations.
48 In order that the readers of this magazine may
have some idea of what is being accomplished in
the many nations and lands of the earth, a table
on page 11 is set out giving some of the details. Let
each reader consult this tabulation for the figures
covering the land in which he resides, and also lands
where he has friends and relatives, and take note of
what has been done there during the service year
46. What does the table show regarding Jeho\"ah's witnesses?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

under review. For a report from each respective

land we shall have to refer our readers to the 19-18
YearbOOK of Jehovah's witnesses. But what has been
briefly said in the foregoing paragraphs is sufficient
to show that Jehovah's witnesses are different from
this materialistic, pleasure-bent, self-seeking, divided
old world, because they are taking an uncompromising stand for God's kingdom and all of them everywhere are singing praises to Jehovah God and his
Christ among the nations. (Ps. 57: 9, Am. Stan. Ver.)
What a joy is theirs I And they are glad to have
others share in it with them.

"THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK"

HE reason for quoting the above words from Moses'

song, at Deuteronomy 32: 31, is an article by the New
York Daily News, of October 10, 1947, page 41. In an
editorial of double-column width it features the heading
"Russia's War on the Pope", and right under it the article
quotes a Bible verse, which is why it interests us and makes
it perfectly proper for us to comment on the article. The
verse reads: "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it."-Matthew 16: 18, Douay.
Having thus linked the pope with Peter and "this rock",
the editorial proceeds to say: "Red Czar Josef Stalin of
Russia has done some fairly dumb things in his time, but
when he takes on Pope Pius XII as an antagonist we begin
to wonder whether Joe is getting senile." At this point the
newspaper reader is confronted with an insert picture of
the pope, while just separated from this editorial by a
column is a large cartoon showing a building styled "The
Vatican" and, in front, a dark figure labeled "Red presS"
slinging mud at the Vatican, and the cartoonist inserts a
little diagram with the words of comment, "The Eternal
Can Endure the Transient." Apparently, the cartoonist
means that the Vatican is eternal, and the Red press not so,
just "transient". Thus the editor and his co-operative
cartoonist launch off onto things religious.
The editor wonders "whether Joe is getting senile", and
for good reason; because, if the Communist leader is
acquainted with history, he should know that other big politicians of the past have tried a private war with the Vatican
and have failed. The editor glories in that fact, somewhat
thereby betraying his religion, for in paragraph five he
says: "Stalin studied for the priesthood in his youth; but
maybe he never ran across the rather famous Biblical verse
quoted above. Or maybe he has never pondered the fact that
the gates of hell and all other attackers have not been able
to overthrow the Roman Catholic Church in almost 2,000
years of trying."
The editor evidently slipped up here, because Stalin
studied for the Russian Orthodox church's priesthood and,
if as a student he did read Matthew 16: 18, he did not apply
it to the pope of Rome, Vatican City not having existed
back in Stalin's student days. The editor should remember
that Pius XII issued an encyclical on "The Mystical Body
of Christ" in 1943, and in paragraphs 42 and 43 of it the
pope exalted himself to say: "Christ ... After His glorious

ascension into heaven this Church rested not on Him alone,

but on Peter, too, its visible foundation stone. . . . They,
therefore, walk the path of dangerous error, who believe
that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church,
while they reject genuine loyalty to His Vicar on earth.
They have taken away the visible head," &c.
Did the patriarchal head of the Russian Orthodox church,
with whom Stalin entered relations, accept that claim of
Pius XII which applied Matthew 16: 18 to Peter and to
Pius XII as Peter's claimed successor? Flatly no. Stalin's
patriarchal friend, and also the archbishop of Canterbury,
head of the Anglican Church, came out with widely published protests against the pope's blatant claim and denied
it. Hence Stalin, with any residue of Russian Orthodox
religion in him, had no reason to fear he was attacking the
true Rock upon whom the true Church of Christ is built.
In line with the foregoing, we have before us a dispatch
received over the International News Service wire on
Sunday, November 2, 1947, and which reads, in part:
Attacks on the Vatican lessened, and a significant day in Soviet
co=nnist history was Aug. 21, 1941. On this day, when Nazi
forces were nearing Moscow, the Soviet radio urged in a broadcast
that "all God-loving inhabitants of the occupied countries" rise
to defend their religious freedom against the Nazis whom it
accused of "menacing the very existence of Christianity," and
trying to overthrow "Christ, the King." On Nov. 9, 1942, Sergius,
acting Patriarch of the Orthodox Russian Church, conferred the
church's official blessing on Premier Stalin for the first time, calling him "the divinely anointed leader of our armed and eultural
forces." On Sept. 3, 1943, Stalin reciprocated by re-establishing
all the early rights and privileges of the Orthodox Church and the
new Patriarch of all Russia, Metropolitan Sergius, was installed
officially in the office. Attacks on the Vatican by the Russians
were not resumed during the war until Feb. 1, 1944, when Hitler's
star was setting. IefJelltia, the official Soviet Government newspaper, then called the Vatican's policy pro-Fascist and declared
it had "earned the hatred and contempt of the Italian masses"
and disillusioned Catholics throughout the world.

No informed student of the Holy Scriptures would think

link up the Communist party and its leader with the
"gates of hell". Why no11 Because the Bible hell is not the
Roman Catholic kind, but is simply the grave. Satan and
his wicked demons were never in hell. But Jesus Christ went
there, to stay there, not forever and ever, but for part of
three days. And at Pentecost, fifty days from the resurrec
tion of Christ, the apostle Peter said concerning David's
t~

JANUARY

1, 1948

SffieWATCHTOWER..

prophecy at Psalm 16: 10: "Foreseeing this, he spoke of

the resurrection of Christ. For neither was he left in hell,
neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God
raised again, whereof all we are witnesses." (Acts 2: 27, 31,
32, Douay) At this end of the world on the battlefield of
the universal war of Armageddon, the man-made political
states of all kinds will descend into hell, the Bible hell, to
remain; and then the Vatican, which insists on union of
church and state and which unites herself with political
states by concordats and other means, will descend into that
hell with her political paramours, never again to rise up.
Then the "gates of hell" will close over her and prevail over
her forever, and she will prove to be no more eternal than
the "transient" political-party press that 'bad the courage
to expose her.
That finish of the Vatican will prove it is not founded
upon "this rock". Moses said concerning God: "I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. The Rock, his work is perfect; ... For their rock is not
as our nock." (Deut. 32: 3, 4, 31, Am. Stan. Ver.) The
Vatican's rock is a man, an Italian aristocrat, but not the
Rock of ages, Jehovah. (Isa. 26: 4, Am. Stan. Ver., margin)
Christ Jesus is the only begotten Son of this Jehovah God,

13

the everlasting Rock. Hence, when speaking to 1>eter, Christ

Jesus likened himself to a rock; and Christ Jesus builds the
true church upon himself as the Rock. He, the Rock, died
for our sins and went down into hell, the grave; but its
gates did not prevail against him, because the third day
Aimighty God, Jehovah, the great Rock of ages, raised his
Son from the dead. Then the apostle Peter said to the
Jewish court: "Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man
stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was
set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of
the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other."-Acts
4: 10-12.
Thus Peter disclaimed being the Rock on which the
church is built. He agreed with our Savior that Christ Jesus
builds his church upon himself as the foundation Rock.
Therefore the members of the true church will not have the
gates of hell shut them in forever at death, but in due time,
at the establishment of God's kingdom, Christ Jesus raises
these faithful members of the church from the death condition in hell. Thus the true church in heaven will be eternal
and reign with her foundation Rock Christ Jesus forever.

JOEL FORESEES JEHOVAH'S AVENGING

HEN will Jehovah alone dwell in Zion and Judah

know Jehovah is our God? So mused the prophet
Joel as from the darkened Kidron valley he
watched the lengthening shadows of the western hills creep
up the towering temple porch that rose from the sacred hill.
Now only its crown was illuminated. Soon that too would be
in darkness. Within his heart he thought: J ehoram has been
reigning less than a year, but, already, ho\v dark the land
has got. Though the hills are .still forested, and the valleys
and plains give an abundance of fruit and grain; though the
cattle are sleek and the flocks are increased, and the pastures
are wide and green; though the brooks are not dry, and the
oil and wine are not lacking, and our land looks like an
Eden paradise; all is not right. That demon-worshiping
foreigner, Athaliah, who infests our holy city, has ensnared
her husband the king, and he, the nation. Baals appear in
every town, polluting the land. Though good Jehoshaphat
still lives, Jehoram has murdered faithful princes who in
every town used to teach us the law of our God. 'Kow the
dwellers in the land forget their teaching and prefer the
drunken revelries of Baal, which the new king sponsors.
When I remind them that Jehovah is our God, they only
scoff.-2 Chron. 17: 7.9; 21: 2-4, 6, 1I.
As Joel wondered when Jehovah would avenge his name
and faithful worshipers, he felt God's spirit clothe him.
He hears a zooming sound in the north. He sees the northern sky is dark. The zoom increases as the darkness extends
overhead. The smoke-like cloud descends; it is locusts. "They
look like horses, they run like war-horses, as chariots rattle,
they leap on the hill-tops, like flames that crackle, consuming the straw, like a vast army in battle array. They
rush on the city, run over the walls, climb into the houses
and enter the windows like thieves."-Joe12: 4,5,9, Moffatt.
Joel feels an urge to speak. The first words God's spirit

moves him to utter call attention to the unusualness of the

locust plague. One swarm after another brings about a complete desolation of the land, sparing neither man nor beast.
No more wine for the Baalist topers; the vines are all ruined.
The whole land is doomed.-1: 2-6.
Famine results. The locusts consume even the bark from
the trees, leaving only the bare, bleached branches. The
prophet can hear the unfaithful priests howl and lament;
for lack of grain, wine and oil they cannot continue their
functions. Crop failures distress the farmers, and all men
forget their mirth. He warns the priests to turn to Jehovah.
Not even a prospect of crops remains; the barns are permitted to go to ruin. The herds dwindle, the flocks perish;
prairie fires consume the pastures, the flames scorch all the
trees. The water-courses are all dry. But Joel rejoices to
hear one here and one 'there who heeds the warning and
cries out to J ehovah.-1 : 7-20.
Next, a command from Jehovah to blow a bugle-blast on
his sacred hill of Zion to warn them of the great and terrible
day of Jehovah. All the while, the locust pest and drought
increase in their intensity. The skies grow blacker; the heat,
more unbearable. The anguish of the Baal-worshipers
mounts. Joel can see the flush of anxiety upon their faces.
Nothing stops the orderly, tireless locusts. Jehovah's thundering voice heard above the locust crackle leaves no doubt
that he is their leader. Joel, realizing how great and terrible
Jehovah's day of avenging is, trembling cries out: "Who
can abide iU"-2: 1-11.
The prophet hears from Jehovah what His devoted ones
can do to stand in the day of Jehovah: "Return to me with
your whole heart, and with fasting, and weeping, and
mourning." (2: 12, An Amer. Trans.) Jehovah calls all
repentant ones, young and old, male and female, to assemble
and the priests to plead for His people. In contrite expect-

14

~eWATCHTOWER

ancy Joel almost holds his. breath. "Then was Jehovah

jealous for his land, and had pity on his people."-2: 12-18,

Am. Stan. Ver.

.AB Jehovah promises to prosper his repentant people,
Joel sees him break up the cloud of locusts, driving its van
into the Dead sea, its rear into the Mediterranean, and the
bulk of it into the southern desert, there to perish and rot.
He can even smell their stench. The din is gone; the light
is come. Joel gives a sigh of relief. Jehovah's comforting
assurance makes his joy complete: "Do not fear, 0 land!
joy and rejoice, for Jehovah hath exerted Himself to work.
. .And ye have !mown that in the midst of Israel am I,
and I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else."
-2: 19-27, Young.
His joy overflows when he hears Jehovah promise yet
another blessing for His repentant ones: "It shall come to
pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men
shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
Furthermore, upon the male and female slaves, in those
days I will pour out my spirit." Then wonders in heaven
and earth: blood, fire and smoke for the false worshipers,
but deliverance in Zion for all who call upon the name of
Jehovah.-2: 28-32, An Amer. Trans.
Joel's joy at the prosperity, abundance and blessing of
Jehovah's repentant, reinstated people is interrupted: He
suddenly sees the land is empty, Jerusalem and Judah without inhabitants. Where are they1 In captivity, scattered
among the nations! Far beyond the borders of Judah Joel
sees a man bartering a Judean boy to "pay for a harlot and
another selling a Judean girl for wine, and then he sees him
drink it. On the south he sees Egyptians and Edomites do
violence to the children of Judah. (3: 19) On the west he
hears the Phoenicians and Philistines say, as they sell the
Judeans to the Greeks: "They said our gods are no gods.
Let this be their recompense." What is that the enemy are
earrying into the houses of their demon gods1 Why, it is
the treasure from the house of our God Jehovah! Joel's
heart is filled with sadness and indignation. He cries unto
the Lord in his anguish. Then God's further message brings
him comfort: 'When I bring back the captivity of Judah
and Jerusalem, then I will gather all the nations, and bring
them down into the valley of Jehovah's judgment, where
I will enter into judgment with them for their treatment
of my people and of Israel my heritage, whom they scattered
among the nations.' Then he hears J ehovah addre~s the
scatterers: 'Will you render me a recompense? .And if you
recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your
recompense on your own head.' (3: 1-6, An Amer. Trans.,
Moffatt, Am. Stan. Ver.) But what about the scattered
people of God? wondered Joel. Jehovah continues addressing the scatterers: "I stir them up from the lands where
you sold them; I will avenge your action on your own
heads by selling your sons and daughters into the hands of
the Judreans, and they shall sell them as slaves to the

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Sabreans, a remote nation." Joel remembered hearing that

the Sabean slavers were very cruel, and he thought, A
fitting recompense!-3 : 7, 8, Moffatt.
Impelled by a desire to do something, Joel gladly accepts
Jehovah's command: "Proclaim this among the nations:
Hallow war! Arouse the warriors! Let the fighting men
approach and ascend! Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into lances! Let the weakling say,
'I am a warrior.' Haste and oome, all you nations, and
gather yourselves there from every side." (3: 9-11, An
Amer. Trans.) In his heart Joel can already see the hosts
of the nations assembled in the valley of Judgment, and,
anxious for their execution, he breaks in with a prayer to
God: "Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, 0
Jehovah." (3: 11, 12, Am. Stan. Ver.) Jehovah continues:
"Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the valley
of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations
from every side." Then he hears what he has been waiting
for', Jehovah says to his heavenly hosts: "Put in the sickle,
.
for the harvest is ripe! Go in, tread; for the wine-press IS
full! The vats overflowI For their wickedness is great."
-3 : 12, 13, An Amer. Trans.
Joel sees the valley of decision filled and, while the din
of the hordes is in his ears, he hears Jehovah roar from Zion.
Heaven and earth shake, but Joel feels safe, remembering
that Jehovah is his refuge and stronghold. Then, above the
shrieks of the wicked nations as Jehovah's hosts execute
them, he hears Jehovah's comforting words: "E?ypt shall
be lying desolate, Edom a desert stretch, for theIr outrage
to the men of Judah, for innocent blood shed within their
land, blood that I avenge at last;. but Judah shall for ever
be inhabited, Jerusalem from age to age, and evermore the
Eternal [Jehovah] dwells in Sion."-3: 19-21, Moffatt.
At last Jehovah and his worshipers would be avenged!
All along Joel had believed it; now he had God's reassurance. Refreshed and encouraged, as he made his way home,
he looked to the morrow when he wo.uld publish the message
that God had given him. What was his surprise on reaching
home to hear the news that King Jehoram had received a
letter from the faithful prophet Elijah telling him that,
because of his unfaithfulness to Jehovah, He would strike
down the people and land with a plague. (2 Chron.
21: 11-15) Quickly Joel went to his room, lit a lamp, and
sat down to record the word of Jehovah that had come to
him that day.-JoeI1: 1.
Joel, in harmony with the meaning of his name, "Jehovah
is God," prophetically represented the witnesses of Jehovah
on earth today, who proclaim that He is God and who
declare against false worship, eating away, by the message
they publish, the false teachings concerning God and his
Word, just as the locusts Joel saw in his vision ate away
everything pertaining to the false worshipers in Jerusalem
and Judah. Just as Joel, they too look to Jehovah's aveng
ing his name and his people.

SAVE
your personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower.
Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer
or on library shelves. At the end of eaeh year, in its Deeember 15 issne, The Watcht01Der contains an index of subjeets and an
index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in

all the leading articles throughout the year. By saving your copies
and keeping them in date order you will have an iIl;valuable re!erenee library for CODSultation in your study of the BIble. O~ized
companies should preserve copies in the library of thelr loeal
Theocratic ministry conrse sehool.

SI-IEEPLlKE AND GOATLIKE PEOPLE

HE Lord Jesus in a parable revealed how people

would react to the preaching of God's kingdom by his
faithful followers. This parable, recorded in the
twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew,
shows that some people would react like sheep, meek and
teachable, confiding in those who have their interest at
heart, while others would be like goats, stubborn, self-willed,
opposers. The facts today exactly fit that parable.
For example, in the northern part of the United States
some of Jesus' faithful followers, Jehovah's witnesses,
sought to help any sheeplike ones that might be found in a
certain little town, by giving a series of four public lectures
setting forth Jehovah God's purposes and his promised
blessings for such sheeplike ones. While looking for a suit.
able place in which to give the series of lectures, Jehovah's
witnesses learned that the city hall was used regularly for
meeting purposes by various organizations; so Jehovah's
witnesses asked the mayor for the use of it, but the mayor
baldly replied that no organization was permitted to use the
hall for meeting purposes. Other halls in town were also
refused. Finally Jehovah's witnesses found an empty store
building. At first the owner refused to let Jehovah's witnesses use it, but then, because his wife had read some of
the Watchtower literature and enjoyed it, he agreed to let
those faithful Christians use the building for the series of
four talks. Jehovah's witnesses paid the rent in advance
and started to invite everyone to attend, in order not to
miss any sheeplike ones that might be thereabouts.
When the mayor and the American Legion learned about
it they tried hard to intimidate the owner into denying
Jehovah's witnesses the use of his building for the four
lectures. The mayor told him that he didn't want Jehovah's
witnesses holding meetings in that town, and that, if he
knew what was good for him, he would refuse them access
to his property. He was coerced into refusing the use of
his building for all except the first lecture. Another meeting
place had to be found for the remaining three lectures. A
small park there, run by the D.A.R., was also refused.
Finally the last three lectures were given in the home of
some sheeplike Christians. The stubborn goatlike opposition
did not succeed in keeping Jesus' faithful followers from
proclaiming the same message that Jesus spoke while he
was on earth.
In the southern part of the United States, too, both the
goatlike and the sheeplike characteristics show up clearly
in reaction to the proclamation of the truths that Jesus
uttered. In the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, a group of faithful Christians carries on
Jesus' preaching amidst the stubborn opposition of the
Roman Catholic Church (St. Augustine being a regional
headquarters for the Roman Catholic cult). Jehovah's witnesses of St. Augustine and near-by towns met together in
St. Augustine for the discussion and proclamation of the
heavenly kingdom that Jesus preached. They proclaimed it
in the apostolic manner, from house to house and publicly,
on the streets with the Watchtower magazine, and by public
lecture. (Acts 20: 20) By such preaching they found many
sheeplike people and now they are feeding them on spiritual p~ovender. Man~ cit~zens on noticing the Christian
behaVIor of Jehovah s WItnesses were heard to remark:
15

''What well-behaved people I" ''What clean-looking people!"

''What a happy peoplel"
Sometimes the sheeplike reaction is weak at first, but that
does not turn away the Good Shepherd's faithful followers;
but, rather, they patiently and kindly minister to such. For
example, in the western part of the United States, a sheeplike person, because of a misunderstanding of what the
Scriptures said, was discouraged in her misguided efforts
to live up to such misconceptions. She seemed glad when
one of Jehovah's witnesses set her right on such Biblical
questions, but did not accept further feeding. Six months
later one of Jehovah's witnesses visited her again and she
was glad to learn more about God's kingdom for about three
or four weeks, but then again she lost her appetite for
spiritual food. Eight months later her appetite returned
and she and her family showed a strong sheeplike attitude
and began to feed voraciously in the Lord's pasture, tenderly looked after by the Good Shepherd's followers.
But the fulfillment of Jesus' parable about the sheep and
the goats is not limited to the United States or anyone
country, but is taking place throughout the earth. On the
other side of the globe, in the island continent of Australia,
in an inland town in Queensland there lived only one witness of Jehovah, faithfully proclaiming God's kingdom from
house to house. Another faithful Christian minister came to
town to proclaim it by means of a public lecture. These two
faithful followers of Jesus began to invite everyone to come
to hear the lecture. While doing so, one of them approached
the occupants of a car parked by the sidewalk and extended
to them the usual cordial invitation. The man in the car, a
clergyman, expressed his surprise at finding Jehovah's witnesses in that town and stated that their work infuriated
him. He voiced his desire to stop their activity and said he
was going to see that they did not give lectures there and
was going to have them run out of town. Finally he started
up his car and drove off in the heat of his temper, assuring
Jehovah's witnesses of his determination to carry out his
threats. That meant a bigger effort than ever on the part
of Jehovah's witnesses to reach the sheeplike ones. Consequently they worked mornings, afternoons and evenings,
preaching from house to house and distributing invitations
to the lecture at every house, shop, and office, and on the
streets, having confidence in the Lord's blessing upon them
and that any effort to stop that work would come to naught.
They did receive God's blessing on their efforts. Five sheeplike ones subscribed for The Watchtower and twenty heard
the public lecture. The sheeplike and the goatlike reaction
to the preaching of God's kingdom was clearly manifested
there.
In Maryborough, Victoria, Australia, while one of Jehovah's witnesses was calling back on people who had acquired
some of the Watchtower literature, he met a woman who
inquired about Christ's coming in 1914. After a long discussion she said she could not see that 1914 was the date
of His return. About six weeks later he met her in town.
She invited him and another minister of Jehovah's witnesses
out for a week-end. Jehovah's witnesses accepted the invitation and played the lecture "Government and Peace" to six
of her family. The next week these two of Jehovah's witnesses moved to another town to preach God's kingdom to
the people there. Before long they received a letter from the

16

gfieWATCHTOWER..

sheeplike one. In that letter she said she had reread the
booklet "Be Glad, Ye Nations" and could see it was the Bible
truth, and, also, that she could now clearly see that Christ's
coming did take place in 1914. A few weeks later she went
on holidays, and, unable to keep the precious truth of GOO's
Word to herself, she spoke it to her landlady and her husband. The husband said he followed up British Israel. The
sheeplike one said, "I too believed Britain was Israel, but
the scripture says, 'Out of Israel only a remnant will be
saved.''' He showed interest at this and she lent him two

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Watchtower books to read. Commenting on this experience,

she said in her letter to Jehovah's witnesses: "The more I
talk to others the :6rmer in belief I become that I am on
the right side and that the Watchtower Society is God's
visible agent. But Satan has truly blinded the people, and
I think it is a privilege to have a small part in the vindication of God's holy name." When the sheeplike ones feed
upon the provender provided by the Great Shepherd, Jehovah, they delight in sharing it with others of similar sheeplike qualities.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
PLACING PAMPHLETS IN MONTREAL, QUEBEC

"In business I have placed many pamphlets over a period

of some four years, since I have been in the truth. About
two years ago there was a young man there who talked
'\"ery intelligently on different subjects, but on Bible subjects he told me he thought I was crazy. He was an ardent
French Catholic. I explained to him that I, too, had been
a Roman Catholic and that since I had studied I could
see where I had been fooled. I was new in the truth at that
time and unable to handle God's Word expertly. Lately I
had occasion to telephone him, and he mentioned he had
received one of our pamphlets, Quebec's Burning Hate. I
was amazed to hear him say, 'It's all truth, the real truth.
That's what I like to hear. I'm glad to see all this brought
to light.' I mentioned that he had changed, and he said:
'Yes, I have changed. I don't go to church any more.' He
asked me to give him as many French copies of Quebec's
Burning Hate as I could, that he wanted to give them out.
So, from two years ago, when he was fighting mad because
I spoke against the teachings of the Catholic church, to
now, when he wants to take action against her himself, it
seem.s a short time but a long hop."
"On my first Saturday in the street-corner work in
Montreal a well-dressed man came up to me and, on handing me $1.00, said: 'This is to help you fight Duplessis.'
Another noon hour while in street-corner service I was
asked for seven magazines within twenty minutes, and all
were duly contributed for."
BLASTING THE FALSE "NO SOUL" REPORT (JAMAICA)

"I am a pioneer working in a territory where Jehovah's

witnesses are called 'No soul', with great ridicule and
opposition. On entering a home a week ago I had the chance
of addressing a man and his wife together. As I introduced
my mission they listened attentively but with marked
indifference. The wi fe was the first to speak, asking if
I was one of 'them no-soul people' j and went on to tell me
of her conviction.s and hopes as taught by her religion. I
then told her- that her arguments proved she has love for
God and righteousness, and I was sure she would heed His
admonition to reason. I then turned to the fifth chapter of
'Let God Be True', namely, 'What Is ManT' and started to
read from the caption 'Man the Soul', explaining as I read,
showing them in their own Bible the marginal readings of
Genesis 1: 20, 30. When I reached the third paragraph I
saw smiles of approval. The husband admitted not knowing
the use of the margin before, and that ~ could see clearly

that man as well as other living creatures are souls or have

soull The wife said it was never explained to her like that
before. The husband .contributed for one of the books 'Let
God Be True' and they are looking forward to my calling
back. I had a similar experience with a woman the same
day. Also there is a meek 'Friends minister' on whom I have
been calling. He took the book 'The Kingdom Is at Hand'
and we studied it together. As soon as 'Let God Be True'
came along, I introduced it to him. He obtained a copy,
and we are now studying that book. He has admitted learning many things. For example, some time ago he delivered
a sermon on the subject 'What Is ManT' but he now has
much greater light on the subject. He also is convinced that
man is a soul. Truly this is the time for all nations to
praise Jehovah."
FOR FREE WORSHIP IN QUEBEC (SASKATCHEWAN)

"While engaged in doing house-to-house work in my

territory in the city I had an interesting experience,
which I thought would be of interest to your office, as it
concerns the Quebec issue. I called on Mr. - - , M.P.,
C.C.F., for this constituency. He was very cordial, inviting me in, and opened the conversation himself on the
Quebec situation, discUBRing it at some length. He said he
was quite aware of the rotten state of affairs in Quebec,
that we have no real democracy, and also that the situation
was dynamite, politically. Mr. - - informed me that
the C.C.F. were preparing a bill guaranteeing freedom of
worship, which will be introduced at the next session of
Parliament. He admitted that Jehovah's witnesses were
carrying on vital educational work in Quebec, and that all
Canada would benefit by our taking the issue to the courts.
He also expressed his hope that we would carry our fight
to the limit, and that they would be right behind us. This
opened an excellent opportunity for a further witness. I
presented the literature, with the result that he accepted
'The Prince 0/ Peace' booklet and the leaflet Quebec's
Burning Hate, and after looking through the copy of
Awake! he expressed his desire to subscribe for one year.
He said he could not understand why we don't vote, that
he thought we had a lot in common, however, but use
different methods. Much interest has been aroused here as
elsewhere through distribution of the leaflet and publicity
through the press. Many express their indignation and
disgust with Quebec."

VOL. LXIX

SEMIMONTHLY

No.2

JANUARY 15, 1948

CONTENTS
19
21
22
23
24
25
26
................_ 28

THE SIGNAL TO THE PEOPLES __..

What Lifted Up, and Where

To Whom Addressed, and When
The Fixed Sign Identified
Behold, He Has Come!
"Lift Up"
_
_
Forcing an Abominable Substitute
RESOLU'I'ION

"SONG OF PRAISE" ASSEMBLY

29
18
"THE JOY OF ALL THE PEOPLE" ........... 18
1948 MEMORIAL DA.TE _ ....._ . 18
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES ................. 18
AT PHILADELPHU .....................

DISTRICT ASSEMBLY IN A'l'LANTA. _ ....

~eWATCHTOWER
PUBLISIlED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE {) TRACT SOCIETY

117 Ad.a.ms Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR, Pre8idenf

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taujht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall be the peace of thy children." - baiah 5 #: I3.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHQV AH is the only true God, from e.erlastlng to
everlasting, and is the ~Iaker of heaven and earth and Oh'er of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent in cn ating alI other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sO"ereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth tor mall, made perfect mUD for
the earth and placed bim upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
LUCifer, or Satan, and willfully disobesed God's luw and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made hUlliun as the man Jesus and suffered dell t.h in order to produce the ransom or reuemptlve price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ 'Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANiZATION is a Theocrac)' called
Zion, and thut Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightfUl King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, anu are His witnesses whose duty and prl\'llege it
Is to testify to Jeho,'ah's supremac)' and declare his purposes
toward manltind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establlsh the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessin~s of the peoples can cOlne only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Ch1'lst, which has begun; that HIS
next great act is to de~troy Satan's or~anb:ation and establish
rif~hteousness completel;' in the earth; and that under the KingLlom
the people of good-Will surviving Arlllagedllon will carry out the
di,ine manclnte to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.
DISTRICT ASSE:'>1BLY IN ATLANTA

As announced at the Los Angeles assembly last August, the first

of the 1948 district assemblies in America will be held 1D Atlanta,
G!!orgia. The time of thiS 3-day assembly has been moved up to
:Uarch 12-14. The contract for the use of the MUDlcipal Auditorium, 30 Courtland Street, Atlanta, Georgia, has now been signcd,
making possible thiS definite announcement. The preSident of the
Society and other representatives are expected to serve on the
program. All persons of good-will included within the boundaries
of this district are cordially invited to attend.
"THE JOY OF ALL THE PEOPLE"

The title of this new booklet brings to mind the announcement

of the angel at Jesus' birth. The booklet presents the speech delivercd by the president of the Watchtower Society to audiences
on five continents and the islands of the sea during the course
of his round-the-world tour. It was released to the public at the
close of the president's address to an audience of 28,000 at the
recent Philadelphia assembly. The booklet comprises 32 pages and
has a cheerful cover. Copies are now at your disposal on a contribution of five cents each.
1948 MEMORIAL DATE
The date for celebrating the annual Memorial of Christ's death
in which his faithful body members participate is Nisan 14, that
is to say, the 14th day of the first Jewish lunar month, as instituted

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is published tor the purpo~ of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-Will.
It arranges s)'stematic Bible study for its readel'S and the Society
suppiles other literature to aid In such stutlles. It pUblishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is wholly and Without reservation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beio.ed King.
It is not dogmatic, but invites careful Ilnd critical examination
of its contents In the light of the Scriptures. It does not IndUlge
in controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

Notice to Subscnben: Bemlttances should be sent to office In your

country In compllance with regUlations to gualantee safe delI"ery of
money, RemIttances are nccepted at Brooklyn from countries ""here no
office is located, by internntional money order only. Subscriphon rates in
dll!erent countries are stated below in local currency, II"ohco Of e.rplratlon
(with renewai blank) is sent at least two issues before subscriptIOn
e;<plres. CMn"e of address when sent to our office may be expected
etlectlVe within one month. Send your old as well as new address.
Please address the WatCh Tower Society in every case,
Offices
Yearly 8ubscrlptlon Rate
Amenca (D. B.), 117 Adams St., Brooklyn 1, N. Y.
$1.00
Australia, 7 BereFford Rd., Stratllfleld, N. S. W.
Gs
Bnl;"h West IndIes, 21 Ta)'!or St., Port of Spain, Trinidad
$1.25
Canada, 40 Irwin Ave., Toronto 5, Ontario
$1.00
England, 34 Crnven Terrnce, London, W. 2
5s
India, 167 Love Lane. Bombay 27
Rs. 3/8
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5s
NelL! Zealand, G. P. O. Box 30, Wellington, C. 1
69
Phillp"'ne Islands, 2621 Int. 2 Herran, Santa Ana, Manila
2 pesos
Bouth A/rlc4, 623 Boston House, Cape Towll
fis
Translations of this journal appear In many languages.
ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason o! intlmllty, poyerty or ad"er9lty are unable to pay tbe sUbscl'1ption Pl'ICC may
ha,e The Tratchtotcer free uPon ",ritten appllcation to the puul1,hers,
made once each year, stnting the reason [or 80 reque'ting it. We are
glad to thus aId the needy, but the written applicatIOn once each year
is reqUired by the postal regulations.
Printed In the United Stntes of America

Entered as second-class matter at the post Office at Brooklyn, N. Y.,

under the Act of March 3, 1879.

by Jehovah God. (Exodus 12: 1-8) The Watch Tower Society

calculates this according to the first new moon that falls nearest
to the spring equinox, whether before it or aft!!r it. We do not
follow strictly the fixed Jewish schedule of 7 intercalary months
for e.ery 19-year period. According to due reckoDlng, then,
Klsan 14 begins at sundown of Thursday, March 25, 1948. All
organized companies and groups of Jehovah's Christian 'wltncsscs
throughout the earth should assemble that day after 6 p,m. Standard Time and observe the Memorial, providing the unleavened
bread and red wine for any persons attending that profess to be
of the remnant of the members of Chnst's body.
A.fter opening song, prayer, and an explanatory talk on the
meanmg of the Memorial, and then a single prayer over both tbe
bread and wine together, these emblems should be served togethcr
to any and all present that judge themselves worthy to partake
of them. After suitable field-service announcements and a final
song, the meeting should be closed with prayer.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of February 15: "The Signal to the Peoples,"

1f 1-13 inclusive, The Watchtower January 15, 1948.
Week of February 22: "The Signal to the Peoples,"
1f 14-30 inclusive, The Watchtower January 15, 1948.
Week of February 29: "The Signal to the Peoples,"
11 31-41 inclusive, also "Resolution",
~ 1-11 inclusive, The Watclltower January 15, 1948,

~eWAICIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

JANUARY

No.2

15, 1948

THE SIGNAL TO THE PEOPLES

"Pass through, pass through the gates, prepate the way of the people; grade up, grade up the highway,
clear it of stones; raise a signal over the peoples. See! the LORD has made proclamation to the end of the
earth."-Isa. 62: 10,11, An Amer. Trans.; Moffatt.
EHOVAH God has issued the command in this
marvelous century to raise up a signal to the
peoples of all nations. :More than seven centuries
before the beginning of our common era his prophet
Isaiah foretold the lifting up of this signal of such
world-wide importance, and today the signal has
been set up. It is becoming visible to more and more
of the peoples. The signal is stood up on a high place
and given the greatest prominence in order that it
may become the assembly place, the rendezvous, to
which the people seeking a divine government may
gather and render their presence as loyal subjects
and supporters. In this "atomic age" marked by the
setting up of the organization of the United Nations
the people everywhere are being urged to rally to
this international organization as the sole remaining
hope for mankind. The spokesmen thereof warn us
that it is a case of either this United Nations or
chaos and the destruction of civilization. Does the
prophecy of Isaiah back up that warning? Is this
international organization that to which Isaiah
pointed as the signal to which the peoples must
assemble for preservation and salvation 1 and are the
builders of the United Nations the ones that have
raised up the foretold signal, thus making themselves
the ones that have fulfilled the prophecy1 These
questions demand an honest scrutiny of facts and
Scriptures for an answer.
2 The prophecy of the signal as translated from the
Hebrew into English in the most popular English
edition of the Bible, the King James Version, reads:
"Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the
way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway;
gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the
people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the
end of the world," etc. (Isa. 62: 10, 11) Other translations of more recent date also speak of it as a
"standard for the people", or even an "ensign". By
the expression "standard" we are not to understand
anything like a flag or banner in a modern sense to

which homage and salutes and religious ceremonies

are rendered. It is Jehovah God who through his
prophet commands this so-called "standard" to be
set up for the peoples; and he would not command
the setting up of that which violates his own holy
command: "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven
image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down
thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon
the fourth generation of them that hate me, and
showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that
love me and keep my commandments."-Ex. 20: 4-6,
Am. Stan. Ver.
a Neither by the expression standard are we to
understand anything like standards of the ancient
nations such as Egypt, Assyria and Rome. Such
standards had idolatrous practices connected with
them. One cyclopedia tells us: "The invention of
standards is attributed by ancient authors to the
Egyptians, and this with great probability, as they
had the earliest organized military force of which
we have any knowledge.... Diodorus informs us that
the Egyptian standards consisted of the figure of an
animal at the end of a spear. Among the Egyptian
sculptures and paintings there also appear other
standards, ... Among the ancient Assyrians standards were in regular use, chiefly of two kinds-one
a pole with a ball and a flag at the top; the other
having the figure of a person, probably a divinity,
standing over one or two bulls and drawing a bow.
The former kind are more likely to have been connected with religious than with military purposes,
as they are found standing in front of an altar....
The early Greeks employed for a standard a piece of
armor at the end of a spear; ... Greek nations also
displayed the effigies of their tutelary gods, or their

1 In this day of the signal and United Nations. what questions demand
answer?
2. What must we not understand thIS "signal" to be?

"Standard".

-- McClintock

&

Strong's

Oyclopa;dia,

volume

9,

under

3, 4. With what did standards of ancient nations have a connection?

19

20

Sh.eWATCHTOWER..

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

particular symbols, at the end of a spear. Some of

them had simply the initial letter of their national
name."
As to the Romans, the Encyclopcedia Britannica
the eleventh edition, of uno, volume 10, under "Flag'"
tells us: "The Roman standards were guarded with
religious veneration in the temples at Rome; and the
reverence of this people for their ensigns was in
proportion to their superiority to other nations in
all that tends to success in war. It was not unusual
for a general to order a standard to be cast into the
ranks of the enemy, to add zeal to the onset of his
soldiers by exciting them to recover what to them
was perhaps the most sacred thing the earth possessed. The Roman soldier swore by his ensign."
"Early flags were almost purely of a religious character. In Bede's description of the interview between
the heathen king lEtbelberht and the Roman missionary Augustine, the followers of the latter [Augustine] are said to have borne banners on which silver
crosses were displayed. The national banner of England for centuries-the red cross of S1. George-was
a religious one; in fact the aid of religion seems ever
to have been sought to give sanctity to national flags,
and the origin of many can be traced to a sacred
banner, as is notably the case with the oriflamme of
France and the Dannebrog of Denmark. . . . The
banner of William the Conqueror was sent to him by
the pope, and the early English kings fought under
the banners of Edward the Confessor and S1. Edmund; while the blended crosses of S1. George, S1.
Andrew and S1. Patrick still form the national ensign.
of the united kingdoms of England, Scotland and
Ireland, whose patron saints they severally were."
6 On the subject of Roman idolatry before their
military standards we quote the religious writer of
the second century, Tertullian, of Carthage, North
Africa. In his Apologetiws addressed to the pagan
Homan magistracy in a defense against false charges
hurled at Christianity he says, in chapter 16, page
162: "The entire religion of the Roman camp almost
consisted in worshiping the ensigns; in swearing by
the ensigns; and in preferring the ensigns before all
the other gods." As a specific instance of the religious worship that the Roman soldiers tendered to
their standards, thereby idolizing them, the famous
Jewish historian Josephus tells of an incident that
took place after the temple of Jerusalem had been
set anre by the Roman soldiers on the tenth day of
the month Ab (the fifth month) of A.D. 70, contrary
to the wishes and orders of their commander Titus.
In Book 6 of "Wars of the Jews", chapter 6, Josephus
writes: "Now the Romans, upon the fligh t of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy
house itself, and of all the buildings round about it,

"And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man
by his oIVn camp, and every man by his own standard l degrl] ,
according to their hosts. And Jehovah spake unto ~Ioscs and unto
Anron, saymg, The children of Israel shall encamp e\'ery man
by his own standard [dege!], with the ens.gns (oilth] of their
fathers' houses: over against the tent of medmg shall they encamp
round about. And those that encamp on the east side toward the
sunz-lsing shall be they of the standard [degel] of the camp of
JUDAH, according to their hosts: ... And tiJose tiJat cncamp next
unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar: . . . And the tribe of
Zebulun.... On the south SIde shall be the standard [degel] of
the camp of REUBEN accordlDg to their hosts: ... And those that
encamp next unto him shall be the tribe of Sllncon: ... And the
tribe of Gad: .. , Then the tent of meeting shnll set forward,
with the camp of the Lentes III the midst of the cnmps: as they
encamp, so shall they sct forward, every man III his place, by their
standards [drgel). On the west SIde shall be the standard [drgel)
of the camp of EPHRAIM according to thcir hosts: ... And next
unto him shall be the tribe of Manassch: . . . And the tribe of
Benjamin: .. On the north SIde shall be the standard [degel] of
the camp of DAN according to their hosts: ... And those that
encamp next unto him shall be the tribe of Asher: ... And the
tribe of Naphtali: . . . The~' shall set forth hindmost by their
standards [degel). Thus did the children of Israel; accoldmg
to all that Jehovah commanded Moses, so they enl:aUlped by the.r
standards (degel], and so they sct forward, every one by their
families, according to their fathers' houscs [each tribal house
with its ohth or ensIgn] ."-Num. 1: 52 and 2: 1-3, 5, 1, 10, 12,
14,11,18,20,22,25,21,29,31,34, .Am. Stan. Ver.

II. What llcts of the Romans show the origin of llag-.alutlng?

6, 7. What standard. did Israel have? and tor what purpose?

brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them

over against its eastern gate [which would be near
the altar]. And there did they offer sacrifices to
them; and there did they make Titus imperator, with
the greatest acclamations of joy." Thus we see what
was the origin of flag-saluting.
Well, then, did the Jews or Israelites of Bihle
times have standards for use in their camp and military organization f The Bible tells us they had what
they called a degel, which word has been translated
into English by standard; and also what they
called ohth, which word has been translated as sign
or ensign. In the wilderness through which they
marched away from Egypt and to the Promised
Land the twelve tribes of Israel encamped in four
large divisions about the sacred tabernacle, each
division made up of three tribes. Each tribe descended from one common father or head of the tribe. Each
three-tribe division had its own degel (or standard),
which must have been quite large in order to be seen
by the people of all the three tribes who followed it.
And then each tribe had its ohth (or ensign), which
was doubtless smaller because of not serving such a
large number of persons. For the whole Israelite
camp there were thus four degel (or standards), and
twelve ohth (or ensigns). All these helped to keep
the camp together in an orderly arrangement and
to march in an orderly manner, the members of each
division and of each tribe keeping together and
knowing their respective places in the camp and in
the line of march.
T From the account at Numbers 1: 52 and 2: 1-34we see that in the four divisions grouped around

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15, 1948

SheWATCHTOWER

the tabernacle the four degel (or standards) were

assigned to the leading tribes of Judah, Reuben,
Ephraim, and Dan. (See also Numbers 10: 14,17,22,
25.) Just what the degel or divisional standards
were, just what their shape and size were, we do not
know. The ancient Jewish rabbis expressed some
ideas about them, but these are mere suppositions
and wholly unreliable. In time of battle the tribes
marched under and rallied around their standards.
They used them also for the sake of organization,
order and unity; but they absolutely paid no religious respects or idolatrous worship or salutes to
them. To have done so would have been a breaking
of the second of Jehovah's Ten Commandments.
WHAT LIFTED UP, AND WHERE

At Isaiah 62: 10 the so-called "standard" which

is prophetically commanded to be raised up is something different from the degel or standard of the
camp of Israel. The prophet gives it a different name
(nehs), which name denotes something that is lifted
up. That it was something set up upon an eminent
place and outstandingly alone, so that it was seen
distinctly and from afar, is shown at Isaiah 30: 17. In
that verse Jehovah God tells the unfaithful Israelites who forsook him and went down to Egypt for
help that they would easily be put to flight by their
enemies: "Let but five threaten, you shall fly, till few
are left of you, lonely like any pole upon the hills,
like a lone signal [nehs] on a mountain-top."-Moffatt's translation; also An American Translation.
9 This signal (or nehs) could have been just a plain
pole or stake, with something attached to its top or
hung from it to flap and flutter in the wind, and thus
to convey some meaning or telegraphic message to
those beholding it from afar. For example: In the
fortieth and last year of their journey through the
wilderness the Israelites fell to complaining because
of privations and hardships. To make a prophetic
picture of instruction to us today God sent stinging
serpents among them, and many Israelites died from
serpent bites. When the people appealed to him for
deliverance, then, as we read, "The LORD said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a
pole [nehs]: and it shall come to pass, that every
one that is bitten, when he looketll upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon
a pole [nehs], and it came to pass, that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived."-Num. 21: 5-9.
10 That
serpent upon the pole symbolized the
heavenly One who was made to be a sin-offering for
us, namely, Jesus Christ as a man. He himself said
:';0, telling us in his private talk with Nicodemus:
ll, 9 \....ilat facts should we notice about a "slgDal" or "nebs"?
10. What did MOseH' hftlng up the serpent on a pole slgnl!y?

21

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

even so must the Son of man be lifted Up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
eternal life." (John 3: 14, 15) Christ Jesus was thus
symbolically associated with a signal pole, to picture
how he would be made conspicuous as the Savior of
mankind. All those dying from sin and condemnation
must look to him with faith and acceptance of him in
order for Jehovah God to free them from sin, condemnation and death. If we turn our faces and hearts
away from him in complaining, disobedience and
unfaithfulness, then no other means of salvation
remains for us; only destruction. The apostle Paul
warns us against this with these words: "Neither let
us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and
were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as
some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of
the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto
them for ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come."-1 Cor. 10: 9-11.
11 That the signal (or nehs) was something raised
or set up and that it was stationary to serve as a
point of assembly is shown in connection with the
battle of Rephidim in the wilderness journey. The
Israelites were attacked by the wicked Amalekites.
Under Joshua as field commander the Israelites went
out to the fight against the aggressors. The prophet
Moses watched from atop a hill, and because he held
up his hands in sign of triumph to the end of the
battle, the Lord God gave the Israelites victory and
the Amalekites a total defeat. The record, as given
in An American Translation, reads: "Then the LORD
said to Moses, "Write this as a memorandum in a
book, and recite it to Joshua; for I will blot out the
very memory of Amalek from under the heavens.'
Then Moses built an altar, and called its name
Yahweh-nissi [the LORD is my standard]. 'Because
a hand has been raised against the throne of the
LORD,' he said, 'the LORD will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation.' "-Ex. 17: 14-16.
12 There An American Translation reads the word
"nissi" to mean "my standard", as though the wo rd
were made up of the Hebrew word nehs together
with the personal pronoun ending for my. However,
the Latin Vulgate translation and the Roman Catholic Douay Version of the Bible read differently
here, as follows: "And .Moses built an altar: and
called the name thereof, The Lord my exaltation."t
(Ex. 17 : 15) However, the Greek Septuagint Version,
which is the oldest translation of the Hebrew Scrip This English word being drawn froln the Teutonic word
standan, meaning "to stand", and referring to the fixed pole to
which an object or another pole was attached.
t Understanding the Hebrew to be from nallssas = "to hOlst,
lift up"
11, 12. What did the aitar "Jehovah-nlssl" show as to a signal'

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mieWATCHTOWER..

tures, looks upon the word "nissi" as meaning something to which to flee, and hence translates this verse
still differently, namely: "And Moses built an altar
to the Lord, and called the name of it, The Lord my
Refuge: For with a secret hand the Lord wages war
upon Amalec to all generations." (Ex. 17 : 15, 16, LXX
according to Bagster's translation; also Thomson)
Whether Moses built the altar upon the top of the
hill from which he viewed the battle is not stated,
but is likely. It was something raised up or exalted,
and fixed, stationary; and it bore the name of J ehovah the Exalted One, to whom the sacrifice of deliverance is brought. While not symbolizing Jehovah himself, the altar was distinguished by his name and
called attention to him as the Exalted' One, the Most
High God, and our Refuge from the deadly enemies
that attack Jehovah's consecrated people in an unwarranted manner.
13 In view of the foregoing facts, then, \vhen J ehovall God at Isaiah 62: 10 commands a highway to be
cast up, and the stones of stumbling to be gathered
out, and a signal (or nehs) to be lifted up for the
people, we should not draw a wrong picture in our
minds. We should not think of something like a flag,
banner, standard or ensign of today being carried by
a standard-bearer or color-bearer at the head of a
marching column, and all of these marching people
tramping along over the banked-up, stone-free highwav to wherever the standard-bearer leads them.
Th~ signal (or nehs) was not carried about by some
person, but was fixed and stationary. It was not set
up in the middle of a highway, but upon a lofty
height it was set up; and rather than the people's
following along after it to some destination to which
the signal was carried, the stationary signal on the
hill was the thing to which the people assembled
themselves from all directions. The highway was
really cast up to lead to it.
TO WHOM ADDRESSED. AND WHEN
H Jehovah's
stirring command is evidently an
assembly call; but to whom is it addressed, and at
what time ~ The answers to these questions appear
when we consider that this is part of a prophecy of
restoration and reconstruction of Jehovah's people
who are in a covenant with him to do his will. The
prophecy, therefore, had a preliminary, miniature,
pictorial fulfillment upon God's ancient chosen
nation, the Israelites, after the land of Judah and
Jerusalem had lain desolate seventy years while they
lingered in exile and captivity in the foreign land of
Babylonia. It has its major and final fulfillment upon
God's devoted people in covenant relationship with

As if derived from the Hebrew verb "nuhs", meaning "to flee".

13. What wrong picture should we not draw regarding Isaiah 62: 10?
14. Upon whom Is the tul1lllment of Isaiah 62: 10. and when?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

him in these days, particularly since A.D. 1919.

Hence the prophetic command is a divine promise
that after His people have experienced deserved disfavor from the Lord by their captivity in Babylonia
they would be restored to their God-given land and
would again delight themselves in his favor. For
this reason the Moffatt translation, with the thought
of the home-coming of the Israelites from exile in
mind, renders Jehovah's command in these words:
"Pass through the gates, pass out to make a path for
the returning exiles, bank up a causeway, clear out
the stones; signal to the nations ... To the very ends
of earth the Eternal has proclaimed this: 'Tell the
citizens of Sion, their deliverer is coming, bringing
his reward with him, bringing his recompense.'''
-Isa. 62: 10, 11.
H Addressing himself to Jerusalem which was to
be rebuilt and to become a praise to Jehovah God in
all the earth, the Lord God tells of the prosperity
that his restored people would taste, fully enjoying
the products of their labor, when he says: "Jehovah
hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his
strength, Surely I will no more give thy grain to be
food for thine enemies; and foreigners shall not
drink thy new wine, for which thou [Jerusalem] hast
labored: but they that have garnered it shall eat it,
and praise Jehovah; and they that have gathered it
shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary." (lsa.
62: 8, 9, Am. Stan. Ver.) This denotes that JehoYah's
sanctuary or temple would be restored, and his worship would be re-established in the land. Then he
would come to his temple by means of his representative Messenger, the Messiah, and would cleanse his
people of all Babylonish impurities of worship. For
their faithfulness in his worship he would not let
their enemies interfere with their prosperity or rob
them of the fruits of their efforts in Jehovah's
service.-Mal. 3: 1-5, 10-12.
16 Hence the command to go through the gates and
prepare the way of the people is directed to the
captives of God's people in Babylon, at the end of
the seventy years of desolation and depopulation of
the land of Judah and Jerusalem. They are commanded to go through Babylon's gates and get out
of her, for, according to the prophecies of both Isaiah
and Jeremiah, Babylon is doomed to destruction and
she should be forsaken by those who seek God's favor
and his protection and preservation.-Isaiah, chapters 13,46,47; Jeremiah, chapters 50,51.
17 No
literal highway was specially built up,
-It is true that the ancient Greek Septuagint Version says "my
gates", reading: "Go through my gates, and make a way for mv
people; and cast the stones out of the way; lift up [a fi.x;d Sign o"r
signal] for the Gentiles." (LXX, Bagster, Thomson) Eut here "my
gates" can be understood only to signify God's proVlsion for escape
from Babylon, namely, by means of His truth and worship.
15. What do the two !lrecedln~ verses (lsll. 62: 8. 9) show?
16. 17. Wby go through the gates? and how prepare the highway?

JANUARY

15, 1948

1ffieWATCHTOWER.

23

banked, graded and cleared of stones for the Israel- footsteps were persecuted, imprisoned, killed, and
ite captives to travel conveniently from Babylon and put in a general condition of fear and restraint, and
back over the four-month-Iong journey to the site of their witness work was desolated by raids, seizures,
Jerusalem in the land of Judah. However, the way confiscations, and prohibitions. This corresponded
was opened and made freer and easier for them by with the desolating of the land of Judah and J eruthe decree of Babylon's conqueror, King Cyrus. salem and the bringing of the Israelites into capGod's spirit or active force worked upon Cyrus and tivity in Babylon.
20 After the close of World War 1, in November,
led him to decree freedom for the Israelite captives
of Babylon to return to Jerusalem's old site and 1918, Jehovah God had mercy upon his faithfulrebuild the temple of Jehovah. For that purpose he hearted witnesses in their captive state. The next
restored all the temple vessels and implements that year, in the spring of 1919, he began reviving his
Babylon had stolen, and he permitted and encour- Theocratic organization in the earth. Through it he
aged contributions to be made to the work of recon- sent the command to his captive witnesses to abanstruction of Jehovah's worship there. The leaders of don their state of bondage in great Babylon, the
the Israelites, like Zerubbabel their governor and Devil's organization of religion, commerce and poliJoshua their high priest, co-operated with King tics, into captivity to which the fear of men and the
Cyrus, and the people made contributions to those obedience to traditions of men had brought them.
returning to the work of temple-building. This all They must forsake Babylon and return as free
helped to make the way back easier for the Israelites, Christians to the Theocratic organization and resume
and the king's decree cleared the way back of hin- Jehovah's worship according to His organized way
drances and interferences which enemies along the and His instructions. They must do so with boldness
way might have offered to block them in their good and freedom from the restraints of fear of men and
purposes and endeavors.
of servility to this world.
21 Thus through his visible Theocratic organizaTHE FIXED SIGN IDENTIFIED
tion, and through the organized efforts and co-opera18 What, then, was the fixed sign or signal that was
tion of his people under Christ, the way was prehoisted or lifted up for the peoples, and which pared for them to return to their proper place of
became the goal toward which the Israelites and the relationship with God and to their proper freedom in
people of good-will with them could aim and bend God's worship and service at his spiritual temple.
their efforts? It was Jerusalem restored on her own The stones, that is, the stumblingblocks to progress
hilltop as the city of the great King Jehovah and due to false doctrines, religious traditions, un-Theowith his visible representative governing in her cratic methods, etc., were cleared from the pathway
midst and with his official high priest serving at the to make easier and quicker their advance. Then J ehoaltar of her reconstructed temple. For this reason vah's witnesses, just an anointed remnant of them
the verses just preceding this command to lift up the to begin with in 1919, went through the broken-open
fixed sign that it might be a signal to the peoples gates of modern Babylon. Out they marched to Godsaid: "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, 0 J eru- given freedom, and started marching over the way
salem; they shall never hold their peace day nor which was gradually banked up and cleared of
night: ye that are Jehovah's remembrancers, take ye obstacles ahead of them.
22 However, where were Jehovah's witnesses from
no rest, and give him no rest, till he establish, and
till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."-Isa. and after A.D. 1919 headed' Were they destined to
wander aimlessly around, frustrated at every turn,
62: 6, 7, Am. Stan. Ver.
and getting nowhere, like Christendom's religious,
IV That ancient miniature-fulfillment took place
from and after the spring of 537 B.C. It gave good commercial and political leaders? Would they, too,
assurance that the grander and complete fulfillment prove to be unreliable guides with whom it would be
would take place down here in our time and it helps foolish and unsafe to associate and go along' No, not
us to perceive and understand this final fulfillment of by any means I Jehovah's witnesses know their destithe prophecy. The prophecy was fulfilled, in a small- nation, for it is marked out for them by Jehovah
scale way, first upon the Israelite people to whom God. They have clearly in view their blessed goal.
God said through Isaiah: "Ye are my witnesses, It is the fixed sign or signal that Jehovah long ago
saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen." prophetically commanded to be lifted up for the
(Isa. 43: 10, Am. Stan. Vet".) And the prophecy is peoples in these momentous days. And what is that
completely fulfilled upon Jehovah's witnesses of our signal which must be lifted up for all peoples that
day. During World War I, of the years 1914-1918, seek freedom from this Babylonish world and that
Jehovah's consecrated witnesses who follow in Jesus' seek prosperity, peace, unity, and the pure worship
18, 19. (a) What was the signal In miniature fulfillment? (b) Toward
whom and after what Is the prophecy's major fulfillment?

20, 21. Out of what did they march? and how was the way prepared?
22. What and where Is the signal to which they were headed?

24

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BROOKLYN, N. Y.

of the living and true God 1 Tllat great upstanding living again is vested in Jesus Christ, who will in
signal of such prominence is JEHOVAH'S REIGNING due time raise Jesse and also David from the dead.
KING, CHRIST JESUS! He is the exalted sign or signal In accordance with this, the glorified Jesus speaks
[nehs] around which all of Jehovah's witnesses, of himself as the life-giving "root", saying: "I Jesus
delivered from Babylon, assemble in earth-wide have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things
unity. Around him as Jehovah's "high priest after in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of
the order of Melchizedek" we engage in the unifying David, and the bright and morning star." (Rev.
worship of the Most High God, Jehovah. Christ 22: 16) He is "the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the
Jesus, the glorious Signal, stands upon the lofty Root of David".-Rev. 5: 5.
height of Mount Zion, the established kingdom of
BEHOLD, HE HAS COMEI
God. There he now reigns in the midst of his enemies
in order to vindicate Jehovah's right to universal
Z5 The identity of the signal with Jehovah's anointsovereignty and in order to bless good-wiI1 persons ed, reigning King, the Messiah, is shown by the
out of all families and nations of the earth. (Rev. next verses following the command to signal to the
14: 1) Let us all join in exalting him with praise! peoples. It reads: "Behold, J ehovllh hath proclaimed
2S This is "that day" of which Jehovah by his
unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of
prophet Isaiah furthe~ spoke, saying: "It shall"come Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his
to pass ON THAT DAY that the root of Jesse, who will reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
be standing as a signal [nehs] to the pe9ples-to HIM And they shall call them The holy people, The rewill the nations resort, and his resting-place will be deemed of Jehovah: and thou [Zion or Jerusalem]
glorious. On that day will the LORD [Jehovah-] once shalt be called Sought out, A city not forsaken," a
more raise his hand to recover the remnant that new name or designatIon for Jehovah's Theocratic
remains of his people, from Assyria and from Egypt, organization. (Isa. 62: 11, 12, Am. Stan. Fer.) This
from Pathros and from Ethiopia, from Elaru and scripture is definitely applied for us under the unfrom Shinar [Babylon], from Hamath and from the erring spirit of God, and it is applied to no other
coastlands of the sea. He willl'aise a sig'nal [nehs] to than Jehovah's great Messenger who comes to the
the nations, and will gather the outcasts of Israel; and temple where coronations of Israel's kings took place,
the scattered daughters of Judah will he assemble namely, to Christ Jesus. In this case where the Bible
from the four corners of the earth. Then all jealousy applies prophecy for us the miniature or preliminary
against Ephraim will cease, and those wllO are hostile fulfillment of the prophecy is brought to view. It was
to Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous at the time when Jesus rode the untamed colt of an
of Judah, and Judah will not be hostile to Ephraim. ass into Jerusalem in the spring of 33 and the accomBut they will swoop down" on their common enemies. panying multitudes were hosannaillg him as "the
-Isn. 11: 10-14, An Amer. Trans.; Moffatt.
Son of David" and were blessing 'the kingdom of our
father David, that cometh in the name of J ehova!J'.
U This prophecy firmly establishes it that Christ
Jesus the King is the great SIgnal that is lifted up -:Mark 11: 7-11; Luke 19: 35-38.
28 The inspired apostolic writer Matthew tells us
for the peoples, for he IS the Son of David and the
grandson of Jesse, accordin3' to the flesh. He was that it was then that Isaiah's prophecy had a fulfilleven foreshadowed by King David himself, who was ment. Telling of the preparations for Jesus to ride
the direct son of Jesse. But Christ Jesus is more in the ancient style of Israel's kings into the holy
than a grandson or descendant of David's father city on Ole way to its temple, Matthew comments:
Jesse according to the flesh. He is the root of Jesse, "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which
because the main reason for that God-fearing Illan was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the
Jesse and his son David to come into existence was daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee,
rooted in the divine promise to produce Messiah or meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of
Christ. Thus Jesse and David served as ancestral an ass." (Matt. 21: 1-5) The apostle John also tells
forerunners of this :Messiah or Christ; and because us it was a fulfillment of prophecy, for lIe says; "And
David was directly the son of Jesse he was used as Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon;
a prophetic type of Jesus Christ. However, Jesus as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold,
Christ is the "root of Jesse" also in a far more vital thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. These
sense, in that he died for Jesse and all other God- things understood not his disciples at the first: but
fearing faithful men. Therefore Jesse's hope of when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that
According to 18 old Hebrew manuscripts this is one of the 134 these things were written of him, and that they had
places where the Jewish copyists or Sophef'im changed the text done these things unto him." (John 12: 14-16) Here
from "Jehovah" of the earlier reading to the substitute "Adonai".
23. "'hat does Isaiah 11: 1014 foretell concerning a signal ~
24. Who Is the signal there Identified as being!

25. Bow does Vl'rse 11 followlnK Isaiah 62: 10 Identify the sll't1a\?
26. Bow do Matthew and John poInt to a fulfillment of thIs prophecyl

JANUARY

15, 1948

25

~e WATCHTOWER.

the apostles Matthew and John combine the prophecies of Isaiah with that of Zechariah 9: 9, which is
also a Kingdom prophecy and which reads: "Rejoice
greatly, 0 daughter of Zion; shout, 0 daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he
is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon
an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." This
occurred three and a half years after Jesus was baptized and anointed with God's spirit to be King and
became the royal Heir of the covenant for the kingdom made with his forefather David. After riding
into the holy city Jesus went into the temple and
thereafter cleansed it.
21 On the basis of these recorded fulfillments of
prophecy, the King Christ Jesus is the foretold One
respecting whom Jehovah has had proclaimed to the
end of the earth, for the benefit of the daughter of
Zion, "Behold, thy salvation cometh j behold, his
reward is with him, and his work before him." He
is the One bringing salvation from Jehovah for all
those giving faith and loyalty to him j and he is
Jehovah's appointed Judge and Executioner. He is
the Signal lifted up for the peoples, and on this
account Jehovah God has the proclamation made to
the very ends of the earth that all peoples may hear
and all meek, believing ones may gather to the Signal
which stands up on top of Zion, the established kingdom of God. He is the Signal for all such to draw
near and unitedly take their stand on the side of the
kingdom of Jehovah God by Christ Jesus. The raising of the fixed Sign or Signal marks the beginning
of a great gathering of people from all over the earth
to the support of the long-awaited Kingdom.
28 In the final fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in
our day Jehovah is the great Sovereign who raises
up the Signal. Jehovah makes him to stand up in
power on top of the lofty kingdom or capital organization symbolized by Mount Zion of ancient times.
His setting up of the Signal took place A.D. 1914 at
his bringing of Christ Jesus forth as acting King
and enthroning him in heaven; and this was symbolically foretold to us at Revelation 12: 1-5, where
we read: "And a great sign was seen in heaven: a
woman [picturing the mother organization Zion]
arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she
was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in
birth, and in pain to be delivered.... And she was
delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the
nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught
up unto God, and unto his throne." (.Am. Stan. Ver.)
Such birth of the man-child by the symbolic woman
Zion pictures the production of Jesus Christ as
reigning King, which divine act results in the birth
of the kingdom of God by Christ.
27. What does Jehovah bave proclaimed rejtardlng blm, and wby?
28. Wbo set up tbe Signal? when? and with willit sign in beaven?

Z8 The political nations and governments of earth

are filled with the spirit of the Dragon, that old
Serpent, Satan the Devil, and like him they do not
rejoice at the birth of the Kingdom, but are eager to
destroy it. That glorious sign in the heavens means
the end of the old world for them, and it is accompanied by the beginning of sorrows upon Satan's
organization and its nations and kingdoms. On this
account they mourn and wail, and they persecute
Jehovah's witnesses who call attention to the sign
and its import. The grief and anger of the nations
at this sign in the heavens, and also the gathering
together of his faithful remnant of followers from
the ends of the earth after the appearing of this sign,
Jesus foretold in his prophecy on the end of the
world, saying: "And the powers of the heavens
[Satan's powers] shall be shaken: and then shall
appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory. And he shall
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other."-l1att.
24: 29-31.
so The proclamation that Jehovah causes to be
made to the end of the earth concerning this sign is
like a tremendous trumpet-blast to get the people's
attention and to signal to them to gather to the Fixed
Sign. The association of a trumpet with the great
Signal is further shown to us by Isaiah in his prophecy concerning the same events j where he says: "All
you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on
earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
when a trumpet is blown, hark! At that time shall a
gift of homage be brought to the LORD of hosts from
a people ... to Mount Zion, the place where is the
name of the LORD of hosts."-Isa. 18: 3, 7, .An .Amer.
Trans.; Moffatt; and LXX, Bagster and Thomson.

"LIFT UP"
11 All kingdom appointments come from Jehovah
(Matt. 20: 21-23), and it is Jehovah that made the
great royal Signal to stand up on Mount Zion
A.D. 1914. But first from and after 1919 the remnant
of Christ's anointed followers heard the divine command and went out of worldly Babylon through the
gates and entered upon the highway. They walked in
it according to the Lord's way for his people and
gathered to the great Signal on Mount Zion, Jehovah's enthroned King, who, three and a half years
after the autumn of 1914, had come to the spiritual
temple, that ''holy place", for the judging and cleansing of his faithful remnant. (Mal. 3: 1) This cleansed

29. How does Satan's organization react toward that sign?

30. Wbat Is sbown to be allsoclated with tbe Fixed Sign?
31. Since wben do Jehovab's witnesses 11ft up the signal? and how?

26

~eWATCHTOWER..

and anointed remnant are therefore the ones who are

also commanded to 'lift up a signal to the peoples'.
Inasmuch as Jehovah God installed the Signal,
Christ Jesus the King, upon Mount Zion, how can
they lift up or raise the Signal' They can do it by
exalting the King with praise and giving him prominence above all earthly human rulers. This they have
been doing since 1919, and are continuing to do it
before all the peoples of all nationalities by preaching the good news of God's kingdom as established
in 1914 with Christ Jesus in the throne. By the gospel
message they make Jehovah's royal Signal conspicuous and call the attention of all the peoples to it. In
doing so they fulfill the King's own prophecy: "This
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall
the end come."-Matt. 24: 14.
82 In the time of the miniature fulfillment of the
prophecy in the first century A.D. the apostle Paul
was one who zealously took part with his fellow
disciples in lifting up and making Jehovah's great
royal Signal prominent and conspicuous to the ends
of the then known world. In harmony with Christ's
wishes he specialized upon the Gentile nations, the
non-Jewish peoples. In giving us his Scriptural
grounds for thus concentrating upon the uncircumcised Gentile nations, Paul also identified the glorified Christ Jesus as the Signal to the peoples. In
what way? In that, among his scripture proofs, he
quoted Isaiah 11: 10 to the effect that Christ Jesus,
the "root of Jesse", will be "standing as a signal to
the peoples" and "to him will the nations resort".
Paul, however, quoted the verse word for word the
way it read in the ancient Greek Septuagint Version
of Isaiah's prophecy. In arguing for the welcoming
of converts from the Gentile nations to the midst
of the Christian congregation, Paul quoted the
prophecies and said: "That the nations for mercy
should glorify God: even as it is written, For this
cause willI openLy confess unto thee among nations}
and 1tnto thy name will I strike the strings; and
again he saith, Be glad} ye nations, with his people;
and again, Be giving praise} aU ye nations} unto the
Lord, and let all the peoples repeat his praise; and
again Isaiah [11: 10] saith, There shall be the root of
Jesse} and he that ariseth to ruLe nations, upon him
shall nations hope."-Rom. 15: 9-12, Rotherham,'
Am. Stan. Ver., margin.
83 The prophecy served both as a divine command
to the apostle Paul and as a guide to his course of
action. In thus taking part in the fulfillment of
prophecy he tells us that he preached the gospel
"publicly, and from house to house, testifying both
to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord J esns
32. Row does also Paul identify the Signal as the Root of ;resse?
33. Row did Paul, how do we, share In fUlfilling the prophecy?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Christ". (A.cts 20: 20) We likewise today, in taking

part in the final and complete fulfillment of the
prophecy commanding us to 'raise the Signal to the
peoples', do so by preaching the Kingdom gospel in
all the habitable earth for a witness to all peoples,
"publicly, and from house to house," in imitation of
the apostle Paul and of his great Leader, Christ
Jesus.
S. Christ's being raised up on the throne to rule
now in the midst of his enemies is the divine signal
for us to preach. We know it is the right time to do
it and that this is the only right thing to do! Since
A..D. 1919 the anointed remnant have, with their comparatively few numbers, obeyed the command and
lifted up the Signal to world-wide conspicuousness
by preaching the Kingdom gospel. Multitudes from
among the peoples of earth have seen the signal.
They have come from the ends of the earth and con
verged upon the King Christ Jesus, the Signal on
Mount Zion, and have united in pledging him their
allegiance as Jehovah's anointed Commander to the
peoples. All jealousy between the members of the
anointed remnant has been laid aside, and also all
jealousy between the remnant and this great multitude of persons of good-will. With self-denial and
with loving devotion to Jehovah's kingdom, they
unite in exalting his King and making him known to
all peoples to the end of the earth. We want the
Signal of salvation to be beheld by all, in order that
all those desiring eternal salvation and deliverance
may gather to it now before the outbreak of A.rmageddon's fight.
FORCING .AN ABOMINABLE SUBSTITUTE

Right after foretelling that this gospel of the

Kingdom would be preached at this end of the world
Jesus Christ said: "When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let
him understand:) then let them which be in J udrea
flee into the mountains." (Matt. 24: 15, 16) From
such close connection of Kingdom preaching with the
abomination we conclude that the desolating abomination would stand in opposition to the King, who is
Jehovah's upraised Signal. Already (in 1'[ 4) we have
called attention to the Roman standards or insignia.
One cyclopedic authority, McClintock & Strong's
Cyclop(J!,dia, under the title "Standard", says this:
('The Roman standard is in the New Testament
mentioned distinctly as 'the abomination of desolation'." (Volume 9, page 983, column 2) Such standard, however, was only a side-feature of the "abomination" in the miniature fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy and Daniel's prophecy, upon the city of J erusalem in the first century.
U

34. Why hs.s there been a gathering laying aside all jealousy?
35-37. In a miniature fulfillment, wluit did standards ha\e to do with
the H a bomlnatlon of dellOlation"?

JANUARY

15, 1948

SffieWATCHTOWER

38 We have already remarked (in 11" 5) how the Roman armies under Titus in the year 70 broke into J erusalem and into its holy temple precincts, and while
the sanctuary of the temple was set afire by fanatical soldiers the Romans brought their standards or
ensigns into the temple court and set them up in
front of the temple altar. There in the "holy place"
of the temple they idolized the standards by offering
sacrifices to them as if they were gods, most sacred.
3T Up till the Roman hordes broke in, the city of
Jerusalem was surrounded by their armies carrying
such standards, as Jesus predicted, saying: ''\-Vhen
ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then
know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let
them which are in Judrea flee." (Luke 21: 20, 21)
Those idolatrous standards or ensigns were abominable to Jehovah God, who forbids idolatry. But
they also represented God's opponent, the Roman
Empire and its Caesar or emperor. It was this Caesar
that the Jewish religious leaders picked instead of
the Messiah, Jesus Christ, when they rejected him
with the words: "vVe have no king but the emperor!"
And shortly thereafter Caesar's representative, Governor Pontius Pilate, joined ''lith the faithless religionists in putting Jesus to death. (Acts 4: 27) This
course was abominable in God's sight. It set up an
abomination that could only bring desolation upon
the wicked anti-Christ forces. In place of the "root
of Jesse", namely, Christ Jesus, who stood as a
Signal to the peoples, these conspirators, religious,
commercial and political, chose Caesar and his empire, as symbolized by the Roman standards borne
by the soldiery. This was truly the making of a governmental "abomination of desolation" stand in the
holy place which should be occupied by Jehovah's
royal Signal, his King. Logically this abominable
act was consummated in a very literal way when
those Roman hosts, after a long siege, invaded the
temple's "holy place" on Zion and there desecrated it
by idolizing and sacrificing to their standards in
praise of Rome and its Caesar, Jehovah's rival for
world domination.
3S Our century, and since the year 1914, is the time
of final fulfillment of the prophecy by Daniel and
Jesus regarding the abomination of desolation. It
may be read in the facts of our day. In 1914, marked
as it was by World War I for world domination,
Jehovah God showed his actual domination of earth
and all the universe by raising up his great royal
Signal of his universal domination, namely, Christ
Jesus, in the Kingdom. In 1918 Jehovah sent him to
the temple, the "holy place", for judgment work, and
he is now in this holy place, in the sanctuary, as
Jehovah's Representative. (Hab. 2: 20) The following year, in 1919, Jehovah's faithful remnant of

38. How was the Sign of unil"ersal sOl"ereignty raised, lUted up?

27

anointed witnesses began to lift up and exalt this

Signal to the peoples. They began a proclamation of
God's established kingdom on such a scale that it has
arrested the attention of the whole world. They proclaim Christ Jesus the enthroned King to be the
rightful Ruler of this earth. Unavoidably the question
has arisen, Who will rally to the heavenly Signal in
allegiance to Jehovah's King'
3V In defiance the political, commercial and religious rulers of Christendom set up the League of
Nations, beginning with 1920, and it has been revived
and renovated since 1945 under the form of the
United Nations. These rulers of this world have set
it up as their standard. They choose and worship it
instead of Jehovah's enthroned King. They glorify
their symbol of world domination, their Caesar,
instead of Jehovah's Signal of universal sovereignty,
Jesus Christ. Therefore their standard, to which
they strive to rally all peoples and nations with their
backs toward earth's rightful Ruler Christ Jesus, is
an abomination to God. It will bring on all who
worship this anti-Christ standard of rulersllip desolation from the hand of Jehovah God. It stands in
the "holy place", because it commands the reverence
and worship of the peoples, which signifies a denial
of Jehovah's royal Signal, Christ Jesus, concerning
whom Jehovah now says: ''Worship him, all ye
gods." (Ps. 97: 7) "Let all the angels of God worship
lllm."-Heb. 1: 6.
40 The day of decision is certainly upon us and
speedily draws near to its close. The decision lies
between Jehovah's kingly Signal upon :Mount Zion
and the world's standard of the United Nations and
its related organizations and supporters. Whom will
you choose1 The abomination of desolation is now
seen more clearly than ever to be 'standing in the
holy place, where it ought not', and it is high time to
flee. Not flee to the standard of the abomination of
desolation, but flee to Jehovah's glorious Signal, his
King Christ Jesus, on the holy mountain of Zion, the
Kingdom capital. To this the people must gather for
security and deliverance from the divine wrath in
this "day of Jehovah" which comes to its decisive
final hour at the battle of Armageddon.
41 Up, then, with Jehovah's "Signal to the peoples"!
Lift it up by songs of praise to the very height of
conspicuousness! Be not afraid, for it is our God's
command that we lift it up. Make it possible for all
the lovers of peace and godliness to behold it in its
glory and attractive beauty and power, that they may
assemble to it from the very ends of the earth and
may enter into the joy and everlasting blessings of
Jehovah's new world of righteousness.
39. What dld Christendom then make sland In the "holy place"?
40. This being seen now, what must be done?
41. What are we commanded to do?

RESOLUTION

FTER delivering the foregoing as a speech to

the Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses Saturday, 7: 30 p.m., November 22,1947,
in Philadelphia, Pa., the president of the Watch
Tower Society, N. H. Knorr, presented the following
resolution to his audience of 20,649:
2 "WHEREAS the Holy Scriptures plainly teach and
show that the 'seven times' of uninterrupted Gentile
domination of the earth would end in the year 1914
and that at such expiration dute the due time would
have arrived for the Universal Sovereign, Jehovah
God, to take his great power and reign as such, with
Christ Jesus as his anointed King to represent him
in the throne and to rule in the midst of the enemies
in heaven and in earth (Rev. 11: 15-18) ; and
a "WHEREAS the world events from and after 1914,
beginning with the first World War, fulfill the prophecies concerning the end of this world and thereby
disclose themselves as the visible sign of the establishment of Jehovah's kingdom by his Christ in that
notable year (:Matthew 24: 3-15 j Mark 13: 3-14 j Luke
21: 7-26) j and
4 ",VHEREAS the evidence continues to grow with the
passing of time that Jehovah God has 'set his King
upon his holy hill of Zion' and has thus set up his
reigning Son as the royal Signal for the peoples of
all nations, that they may assemble to the promised
kingdom of God as mankind's only means for New
World unity, prosperity, abolition of war, justice for
all, abundance of food, perfect health and life (Isa.
11: 10); and therefore the kings, rulers and judges
of the earth have good and sufficient reason for fearing Jehovah and kissing or doing homage to His
reigning King and yielding over to him their world
power lest their continued resistance should result
in their destruction (Ps. 2: 6-12) ; but,
~ "WHEREAS prior to the close of World War II the
allied nations drew up the Charter of an international organization known as 'United Nations', and
successor to the former League of Nations; and on
October 24, 1945, which \vas 31 years after the end
of the Gentile Times, this United Nations worldsecurity organization came into existence by the
sufficient number of ratifications and its Charter
became thereby a part of the law of the nations of
this world, and to date the United Nations organization has grown to include 57 member nations, with
a population of 1,613,802,000 inhabitants, with hun1. When and to whom did the Society's presldellt presellt the followlllg
Resolution?
2. What do the Scriptures show regarding A.D. 1914?
3. What vlslhle silln do we have of the Kinl:dorn that year?
4. Why do rulers and Jud/:es of the earth have good rea.on for tearing
J eho\ ah and ~ leldln.l: up power to his King'l
r; Howeler. 'II hat course have the ailled natlolls alld the religious
clerl!:y taken and followed?

dreds of religions, and embracing 35,562,000 square

mIles of earth's surface; and the religious clergy of
Christendom put their trust in this political organization for world stability and peace and hold church
masses for it and keep on praying for Almighty God
to bless it, and the pope believes there should
be church participation in the deliberations of the
United Nations by having a religious spokesman who
would receive a sort of honorary non-voting membership in the U.N. to take part in debates of the General
Assembly; and the chief executive of the United
States, possessor of the first atomic bomb, declares
the United Nations to be not a 'temporary expedient'
but a 'permanent partnership'; and
e "WHEREAS this continued conduct of political, commercial and religious rulers is a defiant repudiation
of Jehovah's universal sovereignty and an attempt
to turn the peoples of the nations away from gathering around Jehovah's royal Signal to the peoples,
Christ Jesus the King;
T "THEREFORE WE, Jehovah's witnesses assembled in
the 'Song of Praise' convention at Philadelphia, Pa.,
u.S.A., this night of Saturday, November 22, 1947,
do resolve and declare:
8 "THAT we have gathered unitedly, regardless of
race, nationality, language, color, or previous religious affiliation, to Jehovah's enthroned King of the
new world, Christ Jesus, who now stands on Mount
Zion as a Signal to the peoples;
9 "THAT we repudiate the United Nations as 'mankind's only hope' and regard it as a manifestation
of the foretold 'abomination of desolation' which
Christendom has caused to stand in the 'holy place'
as a man-made standard to substitute for Jehovah's
exalted Signal (Matt. 24: 15); and
10 "THAT we will fearlessly and faithfully continue
to lift up as the only hope Jehovah's royal 'Signal
to the peoples' by singing its praises and by pr('aching, both publicly and from house to house, the rightful rule of His kingdom, thereby making it conspicuously known to all peoples of all nationalities that
they too may gather to the great Signal and take
their stand on the side of God's kingdom of enduring
peace, endless happiness and everlasting life."
11 The president's motion to have the above resolution adopted was seconded by Percy Chapman of
the Society's Branch office in Canada, with the final
result that the resolution was unanimously adopted by
the assembled throng with tremendous enthusiasm.
6. What does such conduct constitute In fact?
7 8. What, therefore, did the ARsembly of J eho\'ah's witnesses lIrst of
a j I resolve and declare?
9. mJat did they resol\'e concernlnl!: the United Nations?
10 Whst did they resol'e concerning the Sll:nal to the peoples?
11. What action WB8 taken toward thla resolution?

Ascn'be unto Jehovah the glory due unto his namej worship
Jehovah in holy array. Jehovah will give strength unto his peoplej
Jehovah will bless his people with peace.-Psalm 29: 2,11, A.S.V.
28

"SONG OF PRAISE" ASSEMBLY AT PHILADELPHIA

HOUGH trailing it by more than three months, the

"Song of Praise" Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses at
Philadelphia, Pa., last November, was no after-climax
to the Los Angeles assembly which we reported on in these
columns two issues ago. The Philadelphia assembly was first
announced in our May 15 issue as the Eastern Seaboard
Convention; and, incidentally, it acted as a satisfactory
counterbalance for all persons of good-will in the eastern
half of the North American continent that were not privi.
leged to enjoy the Los Angeles assembly to attend a conven
tion of size during 1947. The three-day assembly at the "City
of Brotherly Love" was outstanding on its own merit. It
was a noteworthy event accentuating the first quarter of the
new service year of 1947-1948, inasmuch as the service year
starts with September 1. It was an excellent precursor of
the series of district assemblies which are scheduled to be
held throughout the earth in 1948, from March forward.
Nothing of greater, nor even of equal, importance was taking place at the time at the United Nations General Assem
bly or elsewhere on earth, and our readers just have to
review the program of events at the Philadelphia gathering
of November 21-23, 1!J47, to appreciate this. It was no
occasion for making a report on the recent past, but one for
marking out the way for a momentous future.
The world need of housing, the United Nations, relief
measures with food and clothing, financial support to men
and women engaged in a most vital educational work, and
the spreading of the message of good-will and good cheer
more widely among distressed humanity, all this came in
for due attention at Philadelphia. The official pronouncements made regarding these important matters, and the
bold position taken with regard to them, were soul-stirring
and were certain to be of profound effect in years to come.
At the sudden moving in of more than 20,000 visitors into
the city to lodge there for the length of the Assembly it
would seem as if the housing shortage would be made more
acute in this metropolis of around two million inhabitants.
But Philadelphia proved herself able to absorb all these
ambassadors of good-will without discomfort or undue hardship, proving herself a good hostess. How was this done? In
a unique way, which somewhat harks back to Bible times
up till the first century of our common era.
Back there, the city of Jerusalem, of sacred history,
played host to about 3,000,000 visitors at passover time in
the spring of each year. We recall that before the last passover celebrated by Jesus of Nazareth with his disciples in
Jerusalem he sent two of them into the city to procure a
room inside her walls in which the thirteen of them might
celebrate. At the same time Jesus and his disciples were
being entertained in private homes in the city suburbs,
within easy walking distance. (:Mark 14: 1-3, 12-17 and
11: 12, 19) Such was the case at Philadelphia during the
Assembly. Of all those attending, 15,677 had mailed in
requests to the Convention Committee for rooms in private
homes, whel'ea~ only 2,100 stayed at the city hotels. To
arrange for these rooms in the private homes of citizens of
good-will and of total strangers, 105 full-time Kingdom
publi~ hers ("pioneers") were called to work. These together
with the members of Philadelphia's eight units of the greater
Philadelphia company of Jehovah's witnesses and many
others from near-by companies were sent out. From house
to house they trudged, booking rooms and simultaneously
announcing God's kingdom and leaving the printed message
in the hands of as many as chose to accept it. After the
more than 4,000 cancellations that householders made, there
remained a net total of 18,240 accommodations booked in
the homes.
29

This pre-convention activity was really started off by a

gathering of about a thousand such workers at the Town
Hall Friday night, September 26, to be addressed by the
president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society,
Nathan H. Knorr. Hence the above accomplishment repre
sented about two months of hard, persistent work by doorto-door workers; and some territories were covered as much
as three times. Actually 50,400 hours were thus spent, running up an average of 5.4 hours daily for each worker, and
there was a total of 125,650 booklets on the Kingdom
message placed in the homes of the people, among which the
booklet Religion Reaps the Whirlwind figured prominently.
All this resulted in cultivating good-will toward Jehovah
God and his kingdom among Philadelphians, and it made
for the comfort and convenience of the conventioners during
their stay in town. Even if unwittingly, the Philadelphians
by their hospitality were making friends with the "mammon
of unrighteousness", which was a good start in paving their
way into everlasting habitations for themselves.-Luke 16: 9.
At Philadelphia's great Convention Hall we found that
here in our midst were missionaries and representatives
from Panama, Trinidad, Cuba, Mexico, Finland, Scandinavia, Alaska, Guatemala and India. But present in spirit
were also brethren from Bogota (Colombia), Panama, Silo
Paulo (Brazil), Bombay (India), Manila (P. I.), Sydney
(Australia), St. John's (Newfoundland), Santiago de Chile,
Lima (Peru), Port Limon (Costa Rica), the island of
Malta, Mexico city, Honolulu, Berne (Switzerland), Vaernamo (Sweden), Alexandria (Egypt), Guatemala, London
(England), Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Gold Coast), Sydney
(Nova Scotia), EI Salvador, Sierra Leone (West Africa),
Brussels (Belgium), six other provinces of Canada, and
many states of the Union. This was evidenced by the 82
telegrams and special messages that were read and acknowledged from the rostrum.
Present in person at the Assembly were delegates from all
states of the Union except Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon,
Utah, Washington and Wyoming, to judge from the room
requests that were received. In fact, only 1.7 percent of the
total requests were from states west of the Mississippi river,
whereas 59.8 percent of them were from states on the
Atlantic seaboard. Canada had a gratifying representation
with 10.4 percent of the requests. There was no arrangement
for a trailer and tent encampment here at 'Philadelphia, and
yet 7,945 of those asking for rooms came by private car,
1,864 cars being accounted for on the files. Also, 2,GGO
traveled b) bu~, 4,256 by train, and 85 by airplane, and
52 hitchhiked. Th~ registration shows that the largest
number of arrivals took place on Friday.
THE PROGRAM GETS UNDER WAY

On the opening day, Friday, November 21, all sessions

were accommodated in the Convention Hall itself, with
some overfiow into the basement where the cafeteria tables
were located and also the various departments for servicing
the Assembly, such as territory, literature, sign-painting,
etc. Thousands were present when L. E. Reusch, from the
Society's headquarters at Brooklyn, New York, called the
"assembly for field service" to order at 9: 30 a.m. Besides
a song to accompaniment of the Hall's great theatrical
organ, and the day's Bible text and comment, there were
two practical demonstrations on how the field publishers
might approach the people in house-to-house work with the
WATCH TOWER publications. These were given by C. E. Sillaway, also from Brooklyn headquarters. His first demonstration was on how to meet the rebuff, "Oh, I have my
own church," and the second on "Oh, I'm a Catholic". These

30

~eWATCHTOWER.

demonstrations were very fitting, seeing that the publishers

would be operating in the bishopric of the fat dean of the
American Roman Catholic cardinals.
The Assembly program provided for just two mornings
of field activity, this day and Saturday. In view of the many
arrivals taking place both mornings, upward of 8,407 this
day and 1,338 on Saturday, there was, notwithstanding, a
good participation by the conventioners in the field privileges. During the three days of assembly there was a participation by 6,997 publishers, accounting for 16,310 hours in
276 territories, and 1,699 books and 3,180 booklets and 5,549
individual magazines placed, 13 magazine subscriptions
taken, and 281 calls back on interested persons and 13 home
Bible studies conducted. This included also the distribution
of one million handbills advertising the public lecture of
Sunday, November 23, by the president of the Society on
the subject "Permanent Governor of All Nations". The
same public event was also announced on the 7,500 placards,
5,000 paper signs, and 16,000 car-bumper signs that were
brought into plaJT, and also the mammoth banner-sign suspended over the fa<;ade of the Convention HalL Taking a
leading part in these ministerial activities out among the
people were upward of 1,596 full-time pioneers, district
servants and servants to the brethren, and otber representatives of the Watch Tower Society.
Official opening of the Assembly came Friday afternoon,
and for this the big auditorium was well filled with about
13,000. A well-trained orchestra of musicians, conducted by
Karl Klein, supplied the accompaniment to the first fifteen
minutes of Kingdom songs. The songs were called off by
J. Fergusson, a Scotch graduate of the Watch Tower Bible
School of Gilead, who was soon to leave these shores for
missionary work in South Africa. At 2: 15 p.m. came the
address of welcome by the convention chairman, F. W.
Franz, vice-president of the Watch Tower Society. This
being designated "Song of Praise" Assembly, the theme of
singing praise to God and his kingdom began especially
now to be emphasized by the speaker. It was sustained as
the dominant tone throughout the entire Assembly.
J. C. Booth, the servant of Kingdom Farms where the
School of Gilead is located in upstate New York, followed
the address of welcome and spoke on "Song to the King".
lIe showed the modern-day fulfillment of Psalm 45, which
was a prophetic song overflowing with praise to Jeho'-ah's
royal Monarch, Christ Jesus our Savior.
Quite appropriately T. J. Sullivan next came on to
explain what the singers in the United States of America
had done during the 1947 service year and what we planned
and aimed at during 1948. Brother Sullivan, from the
Society's headquarters, is an active district servant and
member of the Society's board of directors, and he gave a
gooJ discussion of "Field Service for 1947 and 1948". He
pointed to the evidence that God's favor was still with the
publishers in America in that, during the crucial war years,
the number of them had risen noticeablY, because 10,000
more publishers were out monthly during 1947 than were
out in 19H when America was plunged into World War II.
This compares well with like increase in other belligerent
countries. In the United States there are 144 servants to
the brethren each with a circuit under his care, a circuit
embracing 20 or 21 companies or group-units of Jehovah's
witnesses By semiannual visits to all such companies and
units the servants to the brethren in 1947 served a combined
total of 280,470, or 140,235 brethren each half year. They
ministered not to just the regular company publishers but
to the appointed servants in such companies and to pioneers,
and traveled a total of over 1,200,000 miles to do so. During

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

1948, in addition to the semiannual assemblies in each circuit, there are to be six district assemblies in America.
These ought to be 24 times as good as the circuit assemblies
in the proportion that a district embraces 24 circuits and
will have a representation from them all at each district
assembly.
One special recommendation that Brother Sullivan made
was that in 1948 each publisher sallying forth into the field
with the Kingdom song should make an effort to take along
with him an irregular, inactive or new publisher. That way
we shall increase the song of praise and shall reach new
peaks in the number of Kingdom singers. The need of each
of us to sing the song of praise to God's name and Theocratic Government was forcefully discussed by the final
speaker of the afternoon, L. A. Swingle. This veteran in
God's service is a member of the Society's board of directors
and serves at its American Branch in Brooklyn, N. Y. His
speech, entitled "Confession by Song", urged us to use our
tongues in such a way as to guarantee our salvation.
In the intermission that followed, the brethren, for the
most part, took evening meal or refreshment in the C~n
vention cafeteria or at the refreshment counters. The hst
given us of large food items shows that they were served
with palatable nourishment in the way of groceries and
vegetables, fruit, meats, bakery goods, dairy products, ~nd
light refreshments. The Lord God, the gr.eat ConventlO.n
Organizer, spread a good, wholesome materIal table for hIS
hungry conventioners. During the three days a total of
49 031 meals were served in the cafeteria, this cafeteria
being staffed and serviced by brethren, fellow singers. At
6 45 p.m. thtJ conventioners, now 16,000 in number, were
in their seats for more of the grand spiritual repast that
Jehovah God was here providing for all. A.. H. Macmillan,
a district servant, led off by making a comparison between
the 475 present at an advertised public meeting years ago
in Philadelphia and the many thousands of brethren now
here on this occasion. A.fter him, the audience enjoyed hearing from three missionaries on visit from the fields in
Panama, all three of these girls being graduates of the
Watch Tower Bible School of Gilead.
At 7 p.m. came a half-hour speech, delivered with much
fervor, on the subject "Love for One's Neighbor". This was
by H. H. Riemer, assistant treasurer and member of the
Society's board of directors. Brother Riemer made a fine
application of Jesus' parable of the "good Samaritan" to the
bruised, wounded human race today. He exhorted Jehovah's
witnesses to render neighborly help to them with the healing, reviving message of God's kingdom. Not less heartwarming and appealing to neighbor love was the next
speech, by the Society's president, Brother Knorr, on a
strikingly different theme, "Gaining Entrance into Permanent Dwellings." The conventioners were most grateful to
get at last this thorough explanation of Jesns' parable of
the "unjust steward", telling of how he used the unrighteous mammon of thIS world to gain a welcome into the
dwellings of those to whom he did a good turn. Readers of
The Watchtower will have the pleasure of hearing a convention echo through reading the speech in full in these
columns next month.
Proceeding, without a break, from the parable, Brother
Knorr welLt on to tell how Jehovah's witnesses are actually
making friends of Jehovab God and Christ Jesus by theIr
practical neighborliness to their needy brethren in European lands. During the months of August and September
they surpassed thE: suggested goal of $100,000 by actually
contributing to the food relief fund more than $310,000.
Of this amount our Canadian brethren generously gave

JANUARY

15, 1948

~e WATCHTOWER

more than $39,000. With this, more than a half million

pounds of substantial foods were to be bought and shipped
to various land~ in Europe by the agency of the CARE
organization. By December 1 all this was to be loaded
aboard ship and on it" way to the brethren. Already 500
packages had been delivered to Rumania; and 1,000 pack.
ages were to go to Austria, 1,000 to Hungary, 200 to Italy,
500 to Poland, 1,000 to English pioneers, besides a pro
portionate number of packages to pioneers in France, Bel
gium, Holland, Finland, Czechoslovakia and Greece, and
20,000 package!:> to Germany. Also the Lord God had opened
up the way for bulk supplies of used clothing to be shipped
to these needy brethren to help them further to endure the
oncoming winter; and a letter had already been dispatched
to all companies in the Unitcd States and Canada telling
how the collecting of such clothing would be effected.
Our security, Brother Knorr reminded us, depends upon
Jehovah God, and to His cause we best render our alms.
The Watch Tower Society has been greatly comforted by
our deeds of practical brotherly helps as afore-mentioned.
After a brief financial report, Brother Knorr took the con
vention by surprise by an~ol1nc~ng the 1948 Yearbook .of
Jehovah's witnesses and dlsplaymg a copy; 20,000 copIes
were on hand for the conventioners to avail themselves of
at once. A supply on hand of the Society's 1948 calendar
,,,as also announced, its J'eartext being "I will sing praises
unto thee among the nations". (Ps. 57: 9, Am. Stan. Ver.)
Never before at a convention had such releases happened,
but it was all so appropriate after what Brother Knorr had
said. His final expression was that 'we know the New. World
is at hand with permanent dwellings for all of God's faithful'. That night the conventioners went to their temporary
dwelling-pldces round about Philadelphia with a new perspective toward their present material riches and the wisest
me of them. Their free-will money gifts dropped in the contribution boxes toward Convention expenses showed it.
SATURDAY, NOVE:lIBER 22,

at 8: 30 a.m., the baptismal talk was delivered by J. R.

Cooke, a Gilead graduate, who was due to fly to the Iberian
peninsula in December for ministerial service in Portugal,
Spain and France. There were 321 immersed in water. At
9: 20 the morning's assembly for field service was conducted
by H. W. Arnott, also a graduate of Gilead, who, together
,~ith Brother Fergusson, was assigned to foreign service
in South Africa. Within a half-hour of this they had to
leave the convention by car for New York, there to catch
a "victory ship" scheduled to sail at 2 p.m. With strong
applause the convention commissioned Brother Arnott to
convey their love to the brethren in South Africa. A morning feature not programed was Brother Knorr's meeting
at 10: 30 o'clock for all pioneers and servants to the brethren that wanted to apply for admission into Gilead. Less
than 100 felt qualified to fill out application blanks.
The afternoon's period for songs and experiences brought
to the platform, among others, a representative from Finland, who had just recently arrived in America to attend
Gilead, and also a representative from the island of Trini.
dad, off South America. At 2: 15 p.m. a quartet of powerful
speeches took up. The Society's secretary-treasurer, Grant
Suiter. spoke on "Endurance to the End", and he used
Jehovah's endurance of the wicked for yet a little season
as an argument for our determining to endure likewise
with Him until Jehovah destroys all the wicked at Armageddon. Toward the end Brother Suiter read from the
minutes of the meeting of October 9 of the Society's board
of directors, at which the officers of the Society were voted
in. He read the last three paragraphs of a statement which

31

was drawn up and approved by six of the seven directors

expressing appreciation and approval of Brother Knorr's
management of the corporate affairs of the Society, because
his record showed ''he is th~ man to be put back on the job".
The conventioners were able to read this statement in full
in the 1948 Yearbook 0/ Jehovah's witnesses, pages 223, 224.
"Pioneering as a Life Career," by F. E. Skinner, was
much appreciated by the convention. Brother Skinner had
spent hventy years in pioneer service in India, ,vhose depths
of living conditions of the common people cannot be exceeded by any other country. Having completed his term
of training at the School of Gilead and special field service
in the Western States, this servant of the Watch Tower
Branch office in Bombay was now due to leave America
within a few days on his way back to India. The entire convention with loud applause expressed its desire for him to
bear the Assembly's love along to all the brethren in India.
A representative from the Society's radio station,
WBBR, on Staten Island, N. Y., followed, namely, M:. A.
Howlett. His talk on "Reporting the Matter" he pointed
up with a number of incidents from recent history, showing
both the opposition to and the good.will toward Jehovah's
witnesses. But, whether through evil report or through
good report among the common people, Jehovah's witnesses
were determined to report at last to the Lord God, "1 have
done as thou hast commanded me." (Ezek. 9: 11) Next and
fourth to occupy the platform was another director of the
'Watch Tower Society, M. G. Henschel, to discourse on
"Promoting the True Worship". As proof that Christ Jesus
was now actively reigning amidst his enemies, Brother
Henschel offered the fact that the King was using Jehovah's
witnesses to push the advance of His pure, unadulterated
worship to the ends of the earth. By boldly preaching God's
'Word they overcame the great obstacle posed by all the
world propaganda now rampant.
This night the convention attendance counted up to
20,649. The North Museum building, adjoining the Convention Hall, had been engaged as an overflow hall, and it was
thrown open for today's sessions. The 11,000 chairs rented
for it were none too many. During the first quarter-hour
period the conventioners were pleased to hear missionaries
from Panama and Alar:.ka, also a sister from the Branch in
Finland and a brother from the Branch in Mexico, these
last two being now in the country to prepare for entrance
into the School of Gilead. M. H. Larson, servant of the
Society's Branch at Brooklyn, publicly interviewed all four
of these. It was very interesting to listen in. Quite nicely,
next came along on the program the registrar of the School
of Gilead, A. D. Schroeder, who is also one of the instructors
there on several subjects. His halfhour talk on "Christian
Tolerance" was very instructive. By illustrations, he showed
how tolerance could be profitably exercised toward outsiders
and toward brethren in our street work with magazines,
and in the matter of food diets, and in conducting book
studies in the homes of persons we have interested.
The closing hour and a half of the program was a time
that made it a night which some said they will never forget.
Brother Knorr occupied the rostrum to deliver his speech
on "The Signal to the Peoples". The audience was deeply
stirred with the content of it, which was indeed new and
startling. When he led his audience to the point of announcing that Christ Jesus the installed King is Jehovah's
"Signal" who stands upon the elevation O'f Mount Zion, the
Kingdom, they broke out in delighted applause. Read the
speech for yourself in this issue of The Watchtower. Having
described the foretold "abomination of desolation" from a
new angle of vision, Brother Knorr then proposed the Reso-

32

~eWATCHTOWER

lution which is also published in this issue. Each of the three

closing paragraphs setting forth the resolves of the Convention drew applause as he read them. When he had finished,
Percy Chapman, the Canadian Branch servant, who was
acting as the day's chairman, bolted to the microphone and
seconded Brother Knorr's motion to adopt this Resolution.
He could hardly be heard for the mighty applause that was
rocking the Convention Hall. It was a foregone conclusion
that this Resolution would pass; and when Brother Knorr
put the question, a unanimous Aye! was shouted back from
all present, following by further handclapping.
Meeting here in convention eight months before the
American political conventions were due to meet in l!J48
in this same Hall to nominate presidential candidates for
America, Jehovah's witnesses openly went on record as
declaring themselves unequivocalIy for God's uplifted
Signal, Christ Jesus, let political conventions and all the
rest of mankind worship and serve, if they will, the "abomination of desolation" in its latest manifestation, the United
Nations organization. After a few extemporaneous remarks
by Brother Knorr about singing the song in all nations in
praise of Jehovah God and his Signal to the peoples, the
com'ention joined in the song "Hail the Reigning King!"
And how they did sing that song, with an enlightened
understanding and appreciation and a wholehearted fervor
as never before put in it by a convention! The same fervor
and appreciation exprel'sed themselves in the prayer of
dismissal by Brother Schroeder. All felt the significance of
the occasion.
OF INTEREST TO PUBLIC AND PIONEERS

Almost before we were aware, the third and final day of

the Assembly, Sunday, November 23, was upon us. It was
a full day at the Convention Hall, with a half hour of
opening exercises and experiences beginning at 9: 30 a.m.,
conducted by E. A. Dunlap, one of the instructors at the
School of Gilead. At 10 a.m. Percy Chapman, from Toronto,
Ontario, was introduced to give his speech "Singing Amid
Tribulation". To back up his argument that we must sing
amid tribulation, he narrated a number of experiences of
Jehovah's servants in recent months in Quebec, that province of "burning hate for God and Christ and freedom".
In the province there have been persistently at work 36
general pioneers and 79 special pioneers. Their singing amid
tribulation has defeated the objectives of the persecution
they must endure. lIenee, whereas once in the city of
Quebec there were just 3 witnesses of the Lord God, there
are now 55, who meet in a Kingdom Hall. By not quitting
under tribulation, the pioneers in just the two months last
reported on have accomplished 9,2G1 back-calls upon interested persons in the province and have conducted 541 book
studies in their homes. This has contributed its own share
to the grand result for all provinces of Canada, namely,
about 12,000 publishers out in the field monthly, singing
the grand song.
A good follow-up talk. "Jehovah's Ministers of Good
News," was now presented by the Society's legal counsel,
H. C. Covington. It explained anew, as if before the bar
in court, why our placing of literature on contributions is
not selling, why we use books as printed sermons, why we
are ordained although not graduated from religious seminaries, why children not yet come to their teens can be
active ministers, and why we keep on in our work despite
the persecution. It gave new emphasis to the fact that all
of us consecrated to God through Christ are ordained ministers of the gospel. Brother Covington, who has appeared
many times before the United States Supreme Court, likely
did not realize during his speech that the very next day,

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Monday, November 24, that august body of justices would

hand down a 5-tCl-4 decision denying to three of Jehovah's
witnesses the ministerial status, together with the exemptions that this included. But now the morning sessions were
concluded by the convention chairman, Brother Franz, who
spoke on "Organized for Theocratic Song". This drew into
sharp relief the fact that for us all to sing one and the same
Kingdom song harmoniously and in unison among all
nations Jehovah, the great Musical Director, through his
Theocratic organization must provide us with a visible
central governing body, like the "chief musician" mentioned
in 53 of the Psalms. Jehovah God has manifestly done so.
At 3 o'clock, notwithstanding the overcast skies, came
the record attendance of the Assembly, that is, 28,000.
Before this audience the speech "Permanent Governor of
All Nations" had its thIrd presentation by Brother Knorr;
but this time he excelled his deliveries in London, England,
and in Los Angele!>, Calif. Again he warmed up his listening thousands to many applauses. Topping off his speech
was hIS announcement of the Society's publishing of a new
32-page booklet containing his round-the-world-tour speech
"The Joy of All the People", and that each one present was
entitled to a free copy. In behalf of the great audience the
chairman thanked him for both his speech and this gift
CClpy of the newly released booklet.
In less than an hour after this the Assembly came to
order again to sing songs of praise and then to hear the closing presentations of the three-day Assembly. They were
glad to get the facts and figures that the Convention servant, J. O. Groh, presented in his half-hour report, and they
joined with him in expressing appreciation to whom
appreciation was due in connection with the Assembly. Then
came the final feature, as Brother Knorr talked on the
announced subject, "Why We Are So Different." Quietly
delivered, it made a deep impression, and especially when
at the end he got onto the subject of the pioneer work. In
view of the general distress and hard economic times a way
had to be prepared for the general pioneers to remain in
this chief vocation and for increasing the number of such
pioneers throughout all the earth. So, beginning with
January 1, 1948, the Society would institute a new policy
toward general pioneers, requiring of them a reduced number of hours In the field, namely, 120 hours on an average
monthly, or 1,400 yearly. This would allow them to work
part-time at secular occupations, seasonal or weekly, thereby to make some financial provision for their needs without
burdening relatives, friends or companies. Many others, too,
would now find it possible for them to enter the ranks and
make pioneering their life's vocation.
These disclosures awakened round after round of applause. The hearts of many or of all general pioneers there
were set singing with joy, and many were the eyes that
were moist with tears of gratitude to the great Provider,
Jehovah God. Shortly after 7 p.m. the final disclosure came,
when Brother Knorr apprised the brethren of his thenarranged trip with his secretary, Milton Henschel, to
Portugal, Spain, West Africa, and South Africa. They
rejoiced so much that their brethren in those parts were
now to enjoy the presence and ministration of the Society's
president, and they voted, by way of handclapping, for
him to extend their love to all the brethren encountered in
the course of this trip. Finally, the Assembly joined in song
No. 21, "Praise the Lord," closing with the words of exhortation, "The ~ignal for all peoples raise, and fill the earth
with joyful praISe." Then Brother Knorr terminated the
glorious program with prayer.

VOL. LXIX

SEMIMONTHLY

No.3

FEBRUARY I, 1948

UONTENTS
MEMORIAL OF FOUNDING THE NEW WORLD

The Slaying of the Lamb

"Between the Two Evenings"
Introducing the Remembrancer
WHEN AND

35

36
_...... 37
38

How TO CELEBkATE MEMORIAL 39

Doing It in Remembrance _ ...._..._ 40

Determining the Time
_ _.__._ 41
Theocratic Method ................................... 42
Meaning of Emblems ._
_
43
Drnm PROHmITION OF DEMONISM .... 44
JEHOAHAZ, POSSESSED BY A FOREIGNER .. 47
SHOWING FORTH JEHOVAH'S PRAISES
PUBLICLY ..............._ 48
"SONG OF PRAISE" TESTIMONY PERIOD _ 34
1948 MEMORIAL DATE _ .._ 34
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES ._ _ 34
DISTRICT ASSEMBLY IN ATLANTA .... 34

OWT.B.

& T.5.

~eWATCHTOWER..
PuBLISHED

SE~n:M:ONTHLY

ITS MISSION

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE fJ TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1. N.Y. U.SA

OFFICE:&S

N. H. KNOr.B, President

GlUNT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." IUliah 54:r3.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the onl~' true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the ::.'IIaker of heaven and earth and Giyer of
lIfe to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginnIng
of hIs creation and his active abent in creatIng aU other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled agaInst Jeho'l"ah and I'aised
the issue of His universal soYereigntr;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaIthful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disolle~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that b3' reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven abo\'e eYer~' other creature and clothed him with all
power and authol'ity as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of JehoYah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty anu prh'i!e<Te it
Is to testify to Jehoyah's supremacy and dec'lare hIs pur;oses
tO~'ard mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Sutan's unintenupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has onsted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate HIs name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and hlessinp;s of the peoples can come only
b)' ,TehoYall's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that HIs
next great act is to ue~troy Satan's orp;anization and establish
righteousness cOllJpletel~' 11l the earth; and that under the Kingdom
thll people of good-Will surviving Armagel1l1on will carr~' out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" \\ Ith ri;;1lteons offsprmg, and
that the human dead in the graves w!ll be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.
"SO~G

OF PRAISE" TESTIMO;:';Y PERIOD

The 1948 Service Calendar designates February as "Song of

Praise" Testimony Period. Psalm 18: 49, upon which the deSignation rests, bets as the motif for this period the smging of praises
to God's name among the nations. This we Will do by lUtensifying
our cfforts in the second month of the 1948 Watchtower campaign
for getting subscriptions for this magazine. All house-to-house
workers will present the special offer of a year's subscription
together with a premium of eight booklets published by the Watch
Tower Society, all at the regular subscription rate of just $1.00,
Amcrican money. The peak of the northern winter has never
halted the forward push of these annual campaIgns, and publishers of God's praises are determined it will not this year either.
Corne along with us, all you readers of The Watchtower. Your
co-operation is appreciated. your sen-ice is valued, your joy will
be enhanced by singing praISes to the }'Iost High. Weare always
ready to supply information and references for you to work with
ol'!;ullized, trained campaigners. Take part and be ablc to hand
in your report at the month's end on what you have accomplished
lD this "song of praise"_
1948 MEMORIAL DATE
The date for celebrating the annual ~Iemorial of Christ's death
in which his faithful body members participate is Nisan 14, that
is to say, the 14th day of the first Jewish lunar month, as instituted
by Jehovah God. (Exodus 12: 1-8) The Watch Tower Society
calculates this according to the first new moon that falls nearest

HIS journal Is publIshed for the purpose of enablIng the

people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expresseU
in the BIble. It publlshes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good,wilL
It arranges systematic Bible study for its readers and the SocIety
supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the BIble as authority for Its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all rellgIon, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reSeryatlOn
for the kingdom of Jehovah God undel' Christ hIs beloYed KIng.
It is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical e:mmination
of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not indulge
in controversy, and its colnmns are not open to personalities.

Notice to Svbscribel"8: Remittances should be seut to office In your

country In compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of
mouey. Remittances are accepted at nrooklyn from countries where no
office Is located, by International money order only. Subscription rate. in
different countries are stated below in local currency. },'ot,ce Of crplratloll
(With renewal blank) Is sent at least two Issues before subscrlptlon
expires. Change oj add"ess when sent to our office may be expeeted
effective within one month. Send your old as well as new addre
Ple1lBe address the Watch Tower Society In every cnse.
Offices
Yearly ~ub.criptlon Rate
America (U. B.), 117 A.dams St., Brooklyn 1, N. Y.
$1.00
Australia, 7 Beresford Rd., Strathfie1<l, N. S. W.
6s
Bntillh West Indiel, 21 Taylor St., Part of Spain, Trlnlt.lad
$125
Canada, 40 Irwin A.ve., Toronto 5, Ontario
$100
Englana, 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2
5.
India, 167 Love Lane, Bombay 21
as 31M
Jama'Ca, 151 King St., Kingston
58
l;e,o Zealand, G. P. O. Box 30, WeJllngton, C. 1
6s
Ph.lippi"e Islands, 2621 Int. 2 Herran, Santa Ana, Manlla
2 p<!Sos
Bouth Africa, 623 Boston House, Cape Town
lis
Translations of this journal appear In many languageJl.
ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason of infinnity, poverty or adversity are unable to pay the subscrIption pnce rna"
ha\'e The Watchtower free upon "rltten apphcatlon to the pub1J<her<,
made oore each )enr, stating the reason fot' so leQuesung It. \Ye are
ilIad to thus nld the needy, but the "ritten application once each year
IS reqUired by the postal regulations.
Printed In the United State. of America
Entered ao oecondclaos matter at the post office at Brooklyn, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.

to the sprwg equinox, whether before it or after it. \\;e rlo not
follow 5tnctly the fixed Jewish schedule of 7 intercalary month~
for every 19-year period. According to due reckoning, then.
Nisan 14 begins at sundown of Thursday, ~Iarch 25, 19-13. All
organized companies and groups of Jehovah's Chrlshan Witnesses
throughout the earth should assemble that day after 6 p.m. Standard Time and obsen-e the Memorial, prOViding the unlea\'ened
bread and red wine for any persons attending that profess to be
of the remnant of the members of Christ's body.
"WATCnTOWER" STUDIES

Week of March 7: "Memorial of Founding the New W orId,"

11 1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower February 1, 1948.
Week of March 14: "When and How to Celebrate },Iemorial,"
11 1-23 inclusive, The tVatchtower February 1, 1948.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLY IN ATLANTA

announced at the Los Angeles assembly last August, the first

of the 1948 district assemblies in America will be held in Atlanta,
Georgia. The time of this 3-day assembly has been moved up to
March 12-14. The contract for the use of the Municipal Auditorium, 30 Courtland Street, Atlanta, Georgia, has now been Signed,
making possible this definite announcement. Address necessary
correspondence to Watehtower Convenhon Comnuttee, 203 Sprmg
Street N.W., Atlanta 3, Georgia. The preSIdent of the Society
and other representatives are expected to serve on the program.
All persons of good-will included within the boundanes of tlns
district are cordially invited to attend.
A1;

%eWAlC1H110

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

"VOL.

LXIX

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

No.3

MEMORIAL OF FOUNDING THE NEW WORLD

"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.n -Rev. 13: B.
EROVAR God laid the foundation for a new
world of enduring peace and righteousness nineteen centuries ago. Hence none of the political
rulers and religious clergymen of Christendom today
can possibly lay the foundations of a "better world
of tomorrow", as they call it. The lives of the millions of persons that were slaughtered in the two
world wars since A.D. 1914 provide no true foundation for a "new and finer world" of enduring peace.
They cannot compare or compete with the "sure
foundation" that Jehovah God laid almost two thousand years ago. That sure foundation ,vas laid
through the death of his Son, the Messiah.
2 John, the son of the Jewish priest Zacharias,
pointed to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and
spoke of him as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world". (John 1: 29) Hundreds of
years before John, the prophet Isaiah had compared
the coming Messiah to a lamb. His very lil~eness to a
lamb signified that he would be slaughtered and put
to death violently. Isaiah prophesied: "Re was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from
judgment: ... He was cut off out of the land of the
living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death; because [like a lamb
or sheep] he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in his mouth. . . . thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin." (Isa. 53: 7-10) Because the soul
of this innocent one was poured out in death for the
good of all mankind, the foundation of a righteous
new world was laid in him.
e For sueh reason the Apocalypse, or Revelation,
when foretelling the political arrangements of today
for world domination, speaks of Messiah as "the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". (Rev.
13: 8) Persons on earth who fail to worship him in
this time of judgment upon the nations have noth-

ing in the Bible to indicate that they will live clear

through the "great tribulation" in which this world
will end. Rather, their consignment to destruction
is foretold. On the opposite side of the matter, those
who do worship him as the slain Lamb of God whose
death provided a sin-offering are the only ones entitled to any hope of surviving the great tribulation
and of passing alive into the new world of righteousness.
Before ever the Lamb, Jesus of Nazareth, was
cruelly slain upon our earth Jehovah God the Great
Shepherd foretold that he would have a company or
body of faithful followers who would be conformed
to his image. There is a small remnant of such faithful body-members on earth now. Renee the words
of the apostle written at Ephesians '1: 3,4 apply to
this remnant of today, namely: "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world [at Christ's
death], that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." :Moreover, today, and particularly
from and after A.D. 1918 there is a multitude of persons who are sheeplike and who do good to that
faithful remnant; and when the great tribulation is
over, the Lamb of God in his Kingdom glory will
say to this earthly class of sheep: "Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25: 34)
The Kingdom's blessings were prepared for them
from the world's foundation because the Lamb of
God died not only for "his body, which is the church",
but also for all others of mankind that should believe
on his sacrifice as a sin-offering and devote themselves to God through him. In harmony with this
John wrote to the church which is the body of Christ:
"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world."-l John 2: 1,2.

1. Why cannot men of today found a new world of lasting peace?

4. (a) When did God choose the church In Christ' (b) When were the
Kingdom's blessings preplU'ed tor the "other sbeep" ot today?

:!, 3. To what was !llesslah likened, and by whom? and why?

35

36

SEeWATCHTOWER..
THE SLAYING OF THE LAMB

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

The slaying of the Lamb was the time when the

foundation of the righteous new world was laid. This
was not just at the time that Jesus of Nazareth
presented himself to John the Baptist, about October 1 of the year 29, and was baptized in water.
True, his baptism was to symbolize his dying to
himself as a man in order that he might thenceforth live to God in fulfillment of all the prophecies
that \\Tere written beforehand. At that time was when
there took place what the apostle Paul describes at
Hebrews 10: 4-7, saying: "It is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
'Vherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering th01b w01ddest not [of bulls,
goats and lambs], but a body hast thou prepared me:
in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had
no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume
of the boole it is 1critten of me,) to do thy will, 0
God." From then on Jesus began to be baptized into
death. But this baptizing into death was not finished
at his water baptism in Jordan river, as is shown by
his words to his disciples James and John just a
few months before he was killed: "With the baptism
that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized."
(Mark 10: 39) A little earlier that same year he said
to all his disciples: "I have a baptism to be baptized
with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." (Luke 12:.50) This baptism into death was
not all accomplished, and hence his being slain as a
Lamb was not all completed, until he was brought to
the slaughterers at Calvary and died on the torture
stake Friday, April 3, of the year 33.
6 At that time, then, the foundation of the new
world of God's promise was laid. Therefore Christ
Jesus can be spoken of as "the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world". He had to die in order that
all those gaining life in the new world might receive
cleansing from sin in his blood and be forgiven their
transgressions against God. However, Jesus must
be a living foundation for the everlasting new world.
For this reason Almighty God resurrected him from
the dead to immortal life in heaven. He thus became
a "living stone", and, as such, he could ascend up to
heaven into the presence of God his Father and
could be laid as the "sure foundation" of the heavenly organization called "Zion". In order for the church
to be-built upon him, it is the privilege of the members of his body to come to him: "To whom coming,
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the

scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone,

elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not
be confounded." (1 Pet. 2: 4-6) Peter wrote thus to
the church, built on Christ Jesus the sure foundation.
7 But to the Jewish rulers and elders in the courtroom Peter said a short time after the resurrection
and ascension of Jesus Christ: "This is the stone
which was set at nought of you builders, which is
become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." (Acts 4: 8-12) True to Bible prophecy, the
religious rulers and political elders of Christendom
today follow the course of those Jews. They set at
nought the true foundation of God's new world and
lay a blood-stained, man-made foundation for their
own "new and better world of tomorrow".
8 By God's providence, the One rightly spoken of
as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world"
was slain in the flesh on the very same day that the
Israelites slew their passover lamb and ate it together with unleavened bread A.D. 33. The "Lamb
of God" had to die that same day of the passover
sacrifice in order that he might act the part of the
true passover Lamb whose blood has value enough
to cancel the sin of all those of mankind who believe
and accept him as their sin-offering. After the J ewish passover the feast of unleavened bread followed
for a week, or seven days, from the fifteenth day to
the twenty-first day of their first month. In view of
the foregoing facts the apostle Paul wrote: "Purge
out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven
of malice and \vickedness; but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5: 7, 8) The
very fact that Paul would call him "Christ our passover" required that Christ Jesus should be sacrificed
on the identical day upon which the Jews slew and
ate their passover lamb, namely, the fourteenth day
of Nisan. By God's arrangement Nisan was the first
month of their year. It is important to understand
and recognize that fact in order to know each year
the proper time to celebrate the memorial of the
founding of the new world of righteousness by the
death of the Lamb of God.
a The first passover was held by the Israelites under Moses down in the land of Egypt in the sixteenth
century before our common era. The firstborn offspring of all mankind and of beasts in Egypt were
about to be killed by Jehovah's angel of death so as
to break Pharaoh's proud resistance to Jehovah's
demand that the Israelites be let go free out of
Egypt. In order to have their own firstborn children

5 When was Jeaus tbe Lamb slain from tbe world's foundatiOn 1
6, 7. Wby must be be a I\vmg foundation, and tor wbom 1

8. On what day was be slain as a Lamb. and wby on tbst day?

9. Where was tbe first pas60ver victim slain, and wben 1

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

3lieWATCHTOWER

and domestic animals passed over and spared and in

order to prove their worthiness to be freed from
Egypt by obedience to Jehovah God, the Israelites
were commanded to sacrifice and eat the passover
victim on the fourteenth day of the month Abib or
Nisan. \Ve read: "And Jehovah spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month
shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall
be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth
day of this month they shall take to them every man
a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for
a household: ... and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even
[mat'gin-al reading: between the two evenings]. And
they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two
side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein
they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire, and unleavened bre~d; with
bitter herbs they shall eat it."-Ex. 12: 1-8, Am.
Stan. Ver.
"BETWEEN THE TWO EVENINGS"

37

decline [after twelve noon] is one evening, and the

other evening is after the sun has gone down, and it
is the space between which is meant by between the
two evenings:' That is the traditional Jewish view.
11 However, there are other scholars of prominence
who take the expression differently, among them being the celebrated Spanish rabbi, Aben-Ezra (10921167), called by the Jews the Sage, the Great. Among
his noted works is his Commentary on the Pentateuch; and says he: "Behold we have two evenings,
the first is when the sun sets, and that is at the time
when it disappears beneath the horizon; while the
second is at the time when the light disappears which
is reflected in the clouds, and there is between them
an interval of about one hour and twenty minutes."
(Commentary, on Exodus 12: 6) This Aben-Ezra,
not to mention the Samaritans and the anti-Talmud
Karaites, is followed in this view by such scholars
as Michaelis, Rosenmueller, Gesenius, Maurer, Kalisch, Knobel, Keil, and most commentators of the
nineteenth century. All of these take between the two
evenings to denote the space of time between the setting of the sun and the moment when the stars become visible, or when darkness sets in, which would
be between six and seven p.m.
12 This would mean that, originally in Egypt, the
Israelites killed the passover between the two evenings by killing the victim after sundown and before nightfall on Nisan 14. They at once prepared it

In the Hebrew language in which Jehovah's command was given through :Moses the expression translated at even literally means between the two evenings. This has occasioned a controversy as to just
when the passover lamb was killed. Also, when did
Christ J esus celebrate his last passover supper with
his twelve disciples, immediately after which he introduced a new memorial pertaining to a new world
ruled by God's kingdom 1 There are scholars that
argue that the two evenings between which the passover lamb must be slain extended from twelve o'clock
noon to 6 p.m. or sundown, so that midymy between
these two evenings would be at 3 p.m. They also
point impressively to Jesus' death at that hour of
the afternoon. The Jewish day of 24 hours begins
at sundown. (Lev. 23: 32) So their argument leads
to the conclusion that the passover victim was slain
at mid-afternoon of Nisan 14, before sundown, and
was eaten the night of Nisan 15. They cite Numbers 33: 2, 3 to their support. The noted French
rabbi Solomon Isaald, popularly known as "Rashi",
of the eleventh century, declared in his commentary
on Exodus 12: 6: "It appears to me that the phrase
between the two evenings denotes the hours between
the evening-of the day and the evening of the night.
The evening of the day is from the beginning of the
seventh hour [or, immediately after noontide], when
the evening shadows begin to lengthen, while the evening of the night is at the beginning of the night."
David Kimchi's Lexicon explains that "there are two
evenings, for from the time that the sun begins to

The Jewish historian Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews,

Book 2, chapters 14 and 15, says: "But when the fourteenth day
was come, and all were ready to depart, they offered sacnfice,
and purified their houses with the blood; using bunches of hyssop
for that purpose: and when they had supped, they burnt the remainder of the flesh as just ready to depart. Whence it is, that
we do still offer this sacrifice in like manner, and call thiS
festival Pasch; which signifies the feast of the Passover; because
on that day God passed us over, and sent the plague upon the
Egyptians. For the destruction of the first-born came upon the
Egyptians that night; so that many of the Egyptians who lived
near the Icing's palace, persuaded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.
. . . They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth
day of the lunar month."
In Book 8, chapter 10, Josephus says: "The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the
fifteenth day of the month. and continues seven days, wherem
they feed on unleavened bread. . . . But on the second day of
unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they
first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they
do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honour
God, from whom they obtain this plentiful prOVIsion, in the
first place they uffer the first fruits of their barley."
In Wars of the Jews, Book 5, chapter 3, Josephus says: "And
on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come; it being
the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, or Nisan, when it IS
believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians."
Here Josephus appears to say that the Israelites both sacrificed
and ate their passover and were passed over in the one day of
Nisan 14. Regarding Nisan 15 see The Watchtower March 1,
J
1946, page 72, "114-17.

10. What is the traditIOnal VIew ot between the

11, 12 When would tbe other view show the lamb was llrst slam?

10

tlCO

evenIngs'

38

9heWATCHTOWER

and ate it that same night before midnight.-Num.

28: 16.
IS The Watchtower began publication in the nineteenth century, and from the beginning it has stuck to
this latter understanding of the matter. For example,
in its "Question Column" of its issue of February, 1886, it said: "It was on the afternoon of the
fourteenth of Nisan (corresponding this year to
Monday afternoon, ~J\.pril 19th) that Jesus died. According to the law the Passover lamb must be killed
on the fourteenth of Nisan, ... When the Lord and
the apostles celebrated the Passover Supper for the
last time together, they partook of it early on the
fourteenth-'the same night in which he was betrayed.' After the typical supper the Remembrancer,
or Lord's supper, was instituted, and then they went
out-to Gethsemane, to Caiaphas, to Herod and
Pilate, and to Calvary; where Jesus was crucified on
the afternoon of the same day, and buried the same
afternoon, because the great [seven-day] Feast of
Passover began the day following, commencing at
6 p.m. of the same day in which Jesus died. (John
19: 32, 33) It was not the [seven-day] Passover
Feast then, but the supper, that Jesus observed, and
after which he instituted as instead of it a memorial
of his death in the bread and wine." -Paragraphs 4-6.
H Under "Anniversary of our Lord's Death" in the
Watchtower issue of :March, 1889, we read: "The
Hebrews reckoned their day differently from what
we do. With them it began at sunset or at 6 o'clock
P.1I. Thus it was that our Lord and the apostles
could eat the Last Supper probably about 8 o'clock,
then go to the Garden of Gethsemane, to Pilate and
Herod and be crucified the same day in the afternoon. Probably it was in view of the fact that both
the symbolic supper in commemoration of our Lord's
death, and the death itself, might be upon one and
the same day, that the Hebrews had the custom mentioned, of reckoning the 24-hour day as beginning
with the night."-Paragraph 4.
INTRODUCING THE REME:'tlBRANCER
15 Readers, bear in mind, during all this discussion,
that what we are trying to establish for the benefit of
our new ones is the proper time for celebrating what
Paul calls "the Lord's supper". (1 Cor. 11: 20) That
it was no ordinary meal with leavened bread, nor
any fBast prepared by a friendly entertainer, that
Jesus and his twelve disciples ate, is clear from the
records of Matthew, Mark and Luke. No leavened
bread could be eaten with the passover supper on
Nisan 14. Hence, together with the seven-day feast
of unleavened bread that began next day after passover supper, there were eight days of unleavened

13, 14. Which view has The Watchtower applied to the Memorial?
15, 16. (a) How do we know It was no ordinary meal Jesus ate with
his disciples? (b) Why was It not a passover held a day ahead?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

bread in succession, all together. (Lev. 23: 5, 6) At

Mark 14:12-14 we read: "And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his
disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go
and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? ...
The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where
I shall eat the passover with my disciples 1" (Also
Matthew 26: 17, 18; Luke 22: 7-11) Seated with his
disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem the night
of Nisan 14, .A.D. 33, Jesus said to them: "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you
before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not eat it,
until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."-Luke
22: 15, 16, Am. Stan. ITer.
Ie Jesus thus definitely identified the meal as the
memorial of that first passover of the Israelites in
Egypt. Jesus' words thus bar out the argument of
some that Jesus celebrated the passover a day in
advance of the legal date. In that case Jesus or one
of his disciples would have had to go to the temple
in Jerusalem to kill the passover lamb in the presence of the priests and then have a priest dash its
blood at the base of the altar and offer up its fat
upon the altar. The Jewish priests had definite rules
regarding the sacrifice of the passover. So we may
not imagine that the temple priests would have carried out the essential acts of sprinkling the lamb's
blood and burning its fat together with incense that
same evening on any other day than the legal one,
It is evident, then, that Jesus celebrated the paschal
supper legally, on the anniversary date of its first
observance down in Egypt under Moses.
11 According to the apostle John, it was at this
passover supper that Jesus washed his disciples'
feet for an example of humility and of loving service
to them. John reports: "Now Jesus knowing bef01'e
the feast of the passover, that his hour was come,
that he should depart out of this world to the Father,
having loved those his own who were in the world,
he loved them to the end. And as supper 1CQS preparing, the enemy having already put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, that he should betray him." (John 13: 1, 2, The Emphatic Diaglott)
Thus Jesus prepared himself to wash his disciples'
feet while the passover was preparing, or, "during
supper," as the American Standard Version translated the expression. So, John's expression "before
the feast of the passover" does not mean that this
took place at a meal on the day before the passover
day, on Nisan 13, as some argue. It does mean that
immediately before the passover meal began Jesus
See page 501 of the Lexicon by the Hebrew scholar J. H. Otho,
in which he quotes Maimonides. Published in Basle, SWItzerland,
in 1675.
17. Why does not John 13: 1, 2 show It was a meal before passo"er?

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

SflieWATCHTOWER..

knew that the hour of his own personal sacrifice as

the ''Lamb of God" was at hand. This was why he
seized the final opportunity to wash his disciples'
feet and give them some instruction on humility. So
this was Thursday night, April 2, A.D. 33, according
to our calendar, but Nisan 14 according to the Jewish lunar calendar. It was passover night. Because
three writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, had already
written in detail about Jesus' last passover and his
introducing of the new memorial, John omits ordinary details about the passover and the memorial
and gives us other details not set forth by the other
three writers.
18 While they were eating the lamb, Jesus pointed
out who would be his betrayer, by dipping a sop into
the sauce of bitter herbs and handing it to Judas
Iscariot. "And after the sop Satan entered into him.
Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table lrnew for what intent
he spake this unto him. For some of them thought,
because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto
him, Buy those things that we have need of against
the feast; or, that he should give something to the
poor." (John 13: 27-29) Not that Jesus and his disciples needed anything further for the feast then in
progress, but that the feast of unleavened bread that
was to follow for the next seven days required something, and hence the disciples thought Judas was
sent out to buy something for that feast which was
celebrated beginning Nisan 15.
19 It was only down in Egypt itself, fifteen centuries before this, that the Israelites were forbidden
to leave their houses before morning because Jehovah's destroying angel was abroad in the land. Hence
Jesus was not breaking the law, not even one jot or
tittle of it, when he sent Judas out into the night,
nor even when he and his eleven faithful discinles
went out some time later. (Ex. 12 : 22) Mark the fact,
18 Why does not John 13: 29 show It was In ad"ance of passover?
19. What here shows the tune of day for !I1emorlal to be held?

therefore, that Judas was not present when Jesus

set up a memorial of a new thing on passover night.
"He then having received the sop went immediately
out: and it was night." (John 13: 30) This fixes it
that Memorial is something to be celebrated only at
night, after sundown and before midnight, and not
in the morning or any other hour of the daylight.
20 That the remembrancer of Christ's death was
set up right after the disciples had finished partaking of the passover lamb and had thus fulfilled the
law of Moses by which they were bound, the several
accounts show. Mark reports: "And as they did eat,
Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave
to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And
he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he
gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said
unto them, This is my blood of the new testament,
which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I 'will
drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day
that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when
they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount
of Olives." (Mark 14: 22-26) The kingdom of God,
which Jesus here mentioned as in the future, is the
kingdom of the new world of righteousness, in which
Christ Jesus expected to be together with his faithful disciples, there to drink the cup, not of death under reproach, but of joy in glory. Consequently, the
Memorial bore some relationship to the kingdom of
God by Christ Jesus, and this adds proof that it is
a memorial of the founding of the new world in which
that glorious kingdom will hold absolute control for
the blessing of all obedient humankind.
That Judas departed before Jesus instituted the memorilll
was suggested already in the Watchtower issue of September 15.
1914, which, under the subheading "The Crisis in Judas' Life",
saId the following: "Apparently it was but a short time after
this that Judas withdrew, the record being that 'Satan entered
into him.' .. It is entirely probable, therefore, that Judas was
not present when Jesus, a little later, instituted the Memorial
Supper which Christians now celebrate."
20. What shows Memorial was set up after passover and that
memonalized the founding ot the new world?

It

WHEN AND HOW TO CELEBRATE MEMORIAL

ITHOUT exception men agree that the bread

that Jesus used at the Memorial was unleavened bread, as God's law forbade the use
of any other at passover time and during the seven
days of feasting that followed. (Ex. 13: 3-7) This
sets the example for us likewise to use bread not
lightened by yeast in celebrating the memorial that
Jesus introduced. However, notably since the launching of the so-called "Prohibition Movement" about
the middle of the last century, beginning in the state
of Maine, where the first state-wide prohibition law
~kind of bread and drink did Jesus use at 1Ilemorlal?

was enacted in 1846, many professed Christians have

argued that Jesus used unfermented grape juice as
the second emblem that appears in the Memorial
celebration, and not real alcoholic wine. So, not to
offend their consciences, they insist that grape juice
be provided at the celebration; and many religious
sects that stand pledged to the prohibition movement provide only unfermented grape juice at their
communion gatherings. All along, The Watchtower
has maintained that the "fruit of the vine" which
Jesus passed around to his disciples was the fermented product of the vine, or true wine. For the

~eWATCHTOWER

40

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

"The wme used by our Lord, to represent his shed blood, we

have no doubt was made (as 'orthodox' Hebrews still make their
Passover wine) without any yeast or leaven being added to the
grape Juice to hasten fermentation. But nevertheless it was fermented wine; the elements of fermentation inhering in the grape
juice, led by slower process to fermentatIOn and clarification, and
thus it became ''I'.'ine'. . . . it is clear to us, that the wine used
by our Lord at the Supper, was pure wine (but not Simple grape
j.uice, which would not keep without fermentation from fall to
spring) and of the sallle sort mentioned elsewhere in Scripture,
an excess of which would make drunk (Eph. 5: 18; John 2: 10 ;
Luke 5: 39), . not claiming that our Lord and the apostles
used raisin juice or grape juice, but the real wine, . . . "-The
Watchtower, of March, 1889, under "Anlllversary of Our Lord's
Death", paragraphs 17, lB.
t See the booklet Prohibition-League of Nations, Born of God
or the Devil, WhichY-The Bible Proof, which was published by
the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society in 1930.

would be to attach more value to the shadow than to

the reality, the substantial thing. It would show n
lack of faith in the coming of Jesus Christ as the
Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world.
Hence persons that continue to celebrate the pas~
over as of old are the ones that reject Jesus of
Nazareth as the ''better sacrifice", "our passover."
(Col. 2: 16, 17; Heb. 10: 1; 9: 23) To provide something in place of the annual passover supper, something that would turn their faith and remembrance
in the right direction, Jesus instituted the new
memorial. He instructed his followers to observe it
regularly at the due time. The apostle Paul first calls
our attention to Jesus' instructions to do this, writing the following, at 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26:
, "I received of the Lord that which also I delivered
unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which
he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given
thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which
is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like
manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup
is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as
ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as
ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the
Lord's death till he come."-Am. Stan. Ver.
S The letter containing these words the apostle
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the year
55 (A.D.), or several years before he was put in
prison at Rome. His faithful companion Luke wrote
his gospel account about A.D. 60, while Paul was in
prison at Rome. Luke followed the :Memorial account
as given by Paul and says concerning Jesus on that
passover night of A.D. 33: "And he took bread, and
when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to
them, saying, This is my body which is given for you:
this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like
manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out
for you."-Luke 22: 19, 20, Am.Stan. Ver.
B Since Jesus did not in so many words name the
date or time, the question rightly comes up, Just
when and how often should his disciples, the members
of his body, the church, do this obediently in remembrance of him T Just when and how often to do it
should be perfectly plain from the gospel accounts.
But after the great falling away from the pure, true
faith took place, just as the apostle Paul foretold at
2 Thessalonians 2: 3-7, differences of opinion entered
as to the celebration and its meaning, and when, how
often and in what manner to celebrate. Consequently,
today we find some religious organizations claiming
to celebrate the Lord's supper daily, some several
times a day, as in the Roman Catholic sacrifice of
the mass, others weekly on Sundays, still others

2. Why not object to drinking real Wine at Memorial?

3, 4. Why no longer celebrate the passover? but why the Memorial?

5. Whose account did Luke tollow, and to show what?

6. What contusion exists concerning !IIemorlal, and why?

benefit of our readers we repeat in the footnote below what was published in the issue of March, 1889,
of this magazine.
2 The Prohibition Movement against the manufacture, sale and use of alcoholic drinks has been made
a political issue. Knowing that it does not draw its
origin or support from the sacred Bible or from the
examples of Jesus and his apostles,t we do not go
along '....ith the different religious sects in advocating
the use of unfermented grape juice as an emblem at
the :Memorial supper. A Christian should educate his
conscience according to God's vVord respecting this
matter. He should not let his conscience object to
taking a sip of real wine provided at the memorial
supper in imitation of the apostles. If a Christian,
for personal reasons, wants to abstain totally from
wine and other nlcoholic drinks at other times and
occasions, that is his privilege; and his other Christian brethren should be tolerant with him and he
with them. But the standards of the religious Prohibition movement have no right or authority to
regulate the manner of celebrating the memorial of
Christ's death. The apostle Paul's statement at
Romans 14: 21 has no reference to what is drunk at
the f.lemorial. Certainly, Jesus did not (for the sake
of not stumbling, offending or weakening his footstep followers) refuse to drink pure wine at the passover meal or to offer it to his disciples as a :Memorial
emblem. We shall not be doing wrong against God if
we take Christ Jesus as our example in this.
DOING IT IN

RE)1E~mRANCE

S Jesus lmew that, at his death as the Lamb of God,

the Jewish passover supper followed by its sevenday feast of unleavened bread would become out
of date or obsolete. It could no longer serve as a
"shadow of good things to come", because the good
thing, the better sacrifice, Christ Jesus, had in reality
come and had died as a foundation for the new world
of righteousness. To longer celebrate the passover

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

41

3lieWATCHTOWER,

every quarter of the year on Sunday, some in the

morning and others in the afternoon. Not all can be
right. The Bible indicates all are wrong.
1 Jesus instituted the new memorial at a definite
time, namely, on the night of Nisan 14. This was the
anniversary of the passover night of the Israelites
in Egypt: That t~pical passover was celebrated just
once a year on thIS date, regardless of the day of the
week upon which the date fell. Jesus is the antitypical
passover Lamb, and he instituted the new memorial
in remembrance of himself. The type and the antitype should agree. The shadow and the substance
should hannonize. Accordingly Jesus died and shed
his blood upon the fourteenth day of Nisan after he
had started a memorial in remembrance of himself.
It Scripturally follows, then, that we should keep the
memorial of Christ's death on the night of Nisan 14
or just once a year on this anniversary date, regard~
less of the day of the week upon which the date falls.
Paul's statement concerning the Memorial cup "This
do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance ~f me"
cannot Scripturally be explained to mean frequentiy
or oftentimes during the year or several times a day.
Paul knew the second coming of Christ Jesus would
be a long way off, and hence that the disciples,
although celebrating the ~Iemorial just once each
year, would do it often because of the many years
before the Lord comes.
S Hence Paul said: "For as often as ye eat this
bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's
death till he come." The like thing might have been
said to the Israelites regarding the yearly passover
celebration, namely: 'As often as you eat the passover lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread you
do proclaim the lamb's death in Egypt until the coming of the great antitypical Passover, the Lamb of
God: At Hebrews 9: 25, 26 and 10: 11 the apostle
writes respecting Jesus' one sacrifice: "Nor yet that
he should offer himself OFTEN, as the high priest
entereth into the holy place year by year with blood
not his own; else must he OFTEN have suffered since
the foundation of the world: but now once at the end
of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin
b)' the sacrifice of himself:' "And every priest indeed
standeth day by day ministering and offering OFTENTIMBS the same sacrifices, the which can never take
away sins." (Am. Stan. Ver.) The Jewish high priest
entered just Qnce a year into the most holy of the
temple to offer the sin-atoning blood on the annual
atonement day. And yet the apostle calls it often.
Why? Because of the number of years over which the
high priest did this just once each year on the day
of atonement. Likewise when true Christians celebrate the Memorial just once a year on Nisan 14, it

The equinox is fixed on March 21, although the sun enters the
sign of Aries generally on March 20, and sometimes even on
March 19.-The Encyclopa:dia Britannica, Volume 4, page 571,
of 1942 edition.

7. When and bow often should we celebrate Memorial, and why?

8. How is the Memorial an often celebration?

9. Why not date Memorial by rabbi traditions or barley harvest?

10. How are years ot lunar months harmonized with solar years?

becomes an "often" matter due to the number of

years it is celebrated until Christ's coming.
DETERMINING THE TIME

So, then, according to the Scriptures the :Memorial is to be celebrated on the night of Nisan 14, the
date commemorating Jesus' instituting of the Memorial. How shall we, nineteen centuries since then,
determine the date nowadays T As long as Jerusalem
of apostolic times stood, the matter might have been
regulated by the time at which the Jewish authorities decreed the celebration of their passover supper.
But since the destruction of that ancient Jerusalem
and its temple A.D. 70, and since the forcible discontinuance of the Jewish festivals there, the matter
became one to be determined largely by astronomy.
Remember, too, that we followers of the Lamb of
God are bound to keep, not the traditions of the Jewish elders in this matter, but Jehovah's instructions
in his inspired Word, the Bible. Jehovah decreed
that the month Abib (or Nisan, as it was later called)
should be the opening month of the year and that on
its fourteenth day, after sundown, the passover
victim should be slain and eaten. The month Abib or
Nisan was and is a lunar month. Since the temple at
Jerusalem is no more, the agricultural celebration of
the firstfruits of the barley harvest on Nisan 16 is
no longer kept there. It is not required to be kept
any longer, because Christ Jesus has become the
"firstfruits of them that slept", on Nisan 16, or Sunday morning, April 5, A.D. 33. (1 Cor. 15 : 20) Hence
the determining of when to begin the month Nisan
does not depend on the ripeness of the barley harvest
in Palestine. It can annually be detennined by the
spring equinox and the moon.
10 The spring equinox, when nighttime equals daytime, usually falls about March 21 of our calendar.
It marks the time when the sun enters the zodiacal
sign of Aries, or the Ram, the first of the twelve
signs of the zodiac. The month Nisan may begin
before or after the spring equinox. Whether it does
or not depends upon the moon. The period of time
from one new moon to another is less than thirty
days, namely, 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8
seconds. Hence twelve such lunations would not equal
our sun-time year of 365* days, but would be about
11 days short. Therefore in three solar years' time
the Jewish lunar schedule would be about 33 days
ahead or short of solar time. Hence to slow up their
calendar and harmonize it with our solar calendar,
Jews added a thirteenth month known as Ve-Adar
g

42

3lieWATCHTOWER..

about every third year. In every cycle of nineteen

years they had seven such lunar years of thirteen
months. The years of thirteen months in such a
19-year cycle were the 3d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th,
and 19th.
THEOCRATIC METHOD

The method of calculating Nisan 14 of each year

for the Memorial celebration by Jehovah's witnesses,
the method we follow now, was simply stated in the
Watchtower issue of March 15, 1907, page 87, under
the heading "The Date of the Memorial Supper". It
states: "As we all know, the Jews used the moon
more than we do in the reckoning of their time. Each
new moon represented the beginning of a new month.
The new moon which came closest to the spring equinox was reckoned the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, and beginning the fifteenth day of that
month the [seven-day] feast of Passover lasting a
week was celebrated." In that year of 1907 the new
moon nearest the spring equinox came ahead of it.
How do we know? Because the passover date, which
comes on the 14th day of that moon or month, fell
only 7 or 8 days after the spring equinox, or on
~larch 28. As the Watchtower article said: "The date
of this celebration this year of [1907] will fall on
March 28 after 6 p.m., because at that hour begins
the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, according to
the Jewish reckoning."
12 Another case of where the new moon began
before the spring equinox was in the year 33 (A.D.).
11

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Since Jesus was killed Friday afternoon, April 3, he

celebrated the MEimorial supper Thursday night,
April 2. Hence the new moon that year began before
the spring equinox; it began on Thursday, March 20.
Thus is demonstrated that the Scriptural method
was to reckon the passover night counting from the
new moon nearest to the spring equinox, and not
always from the first new moon beginning after the
spring equinox. (See footnote.)
18 Since Jesus instituted the Memorial supper on
the night of the passover supper, or the night of
Nisan 14, then by ascertaining when Nisan 14 falls
this year of 1948 we learn the night when the memorial of Christ's death must be celebrated Theocratically.
14 We must be guided by Jerusalem time. The new
moon nearest to the 1948 spring equinox occurs
Wednesday, March 10, at about 11: 40 p.m. This
moon would not be visible in the southwest heavens
until about 30 hours later,t or not before 5: 40 a.m. of
March 12. It would therefore not become visible to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem before the early hours
of March 12. Hence it would be proper to begin the
first day of the month Nisan the following night,
March 12. Since Nisan 1 begins the night of March 12,
then Nisan 14 would begin the night of Thursday,
March 25,1948. The moon becomes full that same day
of March 25 at 5: 34: 52 a.m., or about 5: 35 a.m., at
Jerusalem. Accordingly, March 25, Thursday, after
6 p.m. or sundown, will be the proper time for the
members of the ''body of Christ" to observe the Memorial as Jesus commanded them to do on Nisan 14
more than nineteen hundred years ago. From this
our readers will see we do not observe the 19-year
cycle of the Jews, which cycle was adopted by the
Jews several centuries after Christ for calculating
the date of their months and holidays. Followers of
Christ are not under the Mosaic law covenant,

Write, :Hark P. Lindo, the Dutch prose-writer of English.J ewish descent, of the last century: "The Jewish year is luni-solar,
for although the months are lunar, our calculations being founded
on the lunar cycle, every 19th year we come to the same date in
the solar year. The [19-year] cycle contains 235 lunations, which
we diyide into twelve years of 12 months, and seven (termed
Embolismic) of 13 months. The celebrated mathematician Meton
of Athens, who flourished B.C. 432, ... made the same division of
time, but by malnng every third year embolismic, the 18th and
19th were both of 13 months; by our arrangement the solar and
lunar years are better equalIzed.... The embolismic year is formed
by the introduction of an intercalary month, immediately after
Adar, which is called Ve-adar, or Second Adar.... The reason of
the introduction at that period is that the Passover may be kept
in its proper season, which is the full moon of the vernal equinox,
or after the sun has entered Aries; it is indifferent at what period
of it the full moon happens, but it must be kept while the sun
is in that sign. That a tIme was fixed for its observance is shown
in Numbers 9: 2, 'Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover
at its apPQinted season.' ... In the embolismic years [namely, the
3d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th of the 19-year cycle], Adar
has 30 [days], and the intercalary month Ve-adar 29."
See The Watch Tower of February 1, 1908, under the heading
"The Passover in the First Month", pages 35, 36.
As at the end of 19 years the moon returns to have her changes
on the same days of the solar year and of the month on which
they happened i9 years before, it follows that by the use of a
<'ycle consisting of 19 numbers, the various changes of the moon
for every year may be found out without using astronomical tables.
See "Date of Paschal Full Moon", showing the "Golden Number," in any comprehensive almanac, such as The World .Almanac
and book of facts, published in New York.

Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Volume 3 (edihon of 1863),

under the heading "Year", says on page 1804: "It is certam that
the [Jewish] months werE' lunar, each commencmg with a new
moon.... According to the observations of modern travellers,
barley is ripe, in the warmest parts of Palestine, in the first days
of April. The barley-harvest therefore begins about half a month
or less after the vernal equinox. Each year, if solar, would thus
begin at about that equinox, when the earliest ears of burley must
be ripe. As, however, the [Jewish] months were lunar, the commencement of the year must have been fixed by n new moon near
this point of time. The new moon must have been that which fell
about or next after the equinox, not more than a few days before,
on account of the offering of the first-frnlts."
It is also likely that th~ ancient Israelites determined their new
year's day in the spring by the risings and settings of the sun and
other stars which were known to mark the right tune of the
solu year.
t Says Jas. Hastings! Dictionary of the Bible (1898), Volume 1,
page 411: "It is pOSSible, by adding so many hours (not less than
about 30) for the crescent [moon] to become visible, and by takmg
the first sunset after that, to know when each month ought to
have begun."

11. 12. How do we calculate Scripturally wben Nisan 14 tails?

13. 14. How do we calculate NII!llD 14 tor tbls year or 1048?

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

3fieWATCHTOWER

because that ancient covenant with the Jews was

nailed to the tree on which Jesus died. It was thus
taken away. So, we are not bound by the regulations
of the rabbis who now assume to "sit in Moses' seat"
and who make allowances for their sabbath and other
days in their calculations. V\r e endeavor to follow as
closely as possible the way indicated in the Bible,
and for this reason our dates for holding the Memorial do not regularly fall upon the rabbinical dates
for the Jewish passover nowadays.
MEAJ....ING OF E:ltBLEl\IS
lS In harmony with the announcement made in this
issue of The Watchtotver, let the anointed remnant
of Christ's body-members meet together at an hour
convenient for each company of them sometime after
6 p.m., local standard time. After a suitable song and
prayer, followed by a discussion of the Memorial in
the light of the "present truth", let a prayer be
pronounced by one of the consecrated upon the bread
and wine together, and then the members of the remnant be served with the emblems, namely, unleavened
bread and red wine. As they partake of these emblems together, they should bear in mind the apostle's
words: "As ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye
proclaim the Lord's death till he come." (1 Cor.
11: 26, .Am. Stan. V er.) Since both the bread and wine
denote the one and the same thing, namely, Christ's
death, the two emblems are properly served together
and partaken of together, without a formal prayer
in between.
16 While partaking of the emblems the partakers
should bear in mind the apostle's explanation of
their meaning, as stated by him, at 1 Corinthians
10: 16, 17: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not a communion of the blood of Christ' The bread
which we break, is it not a communion of the body
of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one
bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread."
(Am. Stan. Ver.) That is to say, the loaf of unleavened bread symbolizes the "body of Christ", of
which Jesus is the Head. By partaking of the 1Iemorial loaf we show our oneness with him and our
participation with him in his afflictions and reproaches. On the day of Pentecost those who are members
of the body under Christ Jesus were pictured by two
loaves of wheat bread which the high priest offered
at the temple, two loaves being used to show that the
church would be made up of two general classes,
namely, Jews and Gentiles. But at Memorial the one
loaf pictures the unity of all body-members with one
another and with their Head Christ J esus.-Lev.
23 : 15-21; Acts 2: 1.
11 The
red wine symbolizes blood poured out,

15. When, how and to whom should tbe emblems be served?

16. What does one's partakln~ of tbe Memorial loaf show?
~[emonal Wine show?

Ii, What does one's partakinll of the

43

namely, death. It here represents Christ's death, by

which he proved his integrity and faithfulness to God
and by which also he at the same time paid the ransom sacrifice. By drinking the Memorial wine the
remnant proclaim that they are baptized into Christ's
death and that they bear about in their fleshly bodies
the dying of Christ, and that they are thus having
a common participation in his death for the vindication of Jehovah's name. (Rom. 6: 3, 4; Mark 10: 38,
39; 2 Cor. 4:10; Phil. 3:10) It does not mean that
they have a part in the sin-offering or share in providing the ransom sacrifice. Jesus Christ only is the
ransom sacrifice; he only can provide and has provided the sin-offering. But the communion in the
reproaches, affiictions and death of Christ is something that has been given by Jehovah God through
Christ Jesus to the 144,000 members of his body as
an exclusive privilege. To them the promise is: "If
we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if
we suffer, we shall also reign with him," that is,
reign in his heavenly ldngdom.-2 Tim. 2: 11, 12.
1S For this reason the consecrated persons of goodwill, the Lord's "other sheep", who are cordially
invited to be present at the Memorial supper should
not and do not partake of the emblems. They respect
the occasion and respect what it means by attending
the celebration and observing what the anointed
remnant do in obedience to the instructions of their
Head. But they discern that they are not themselves
anointed members of the body of Christ and are not
baptized into his death nor called and destined to
rule with him in his heavenly kingdom. They are
seeking for everlasting life in human perfection on
earth under that heavenly kingdom. For them to
partake of the emblems \vould picture something that
is not true with respect to themselves. Hence they
do not partake.
19 In view of this, the Memorial supper will one
day cease to be kept upon this earth. That will be
when the remnant of Christ's body, who bear about
in themselves the dying of the Lord Jesus, will haye
proved their faithfulness to death, thereby finishing
their earthly course. Hence the Memorial will not be
celebrated during Christ's millennial reign after this
remnant has been joined with him in the kingdom
above. The Memorial is observed till his coming, to
show forth the one thing, "his death," in which it is
given to his anointed body-members to share as a
gracious privilege from God. We repeat once again:
"As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye
do shew the Lord's death TILL HE COME." (1 Cor.
11: 26) This coming refers not to his coming into the
Kingdom A.D. 1914, nor to his coming to the spiritual temple of God in 1918 for judgment work. It
refers to his coming to the completion of his church18. Why do not the consecrated persons of good-Will partake also?
19. Why will ~lemorial cease some day to be kept on ea rth?

44

SfieWATCHTOWER

bride in the heavenly kingdom, the full consummation of the marriage of the Lamb of God and his
spiritual bride, the church.
20 We note that the typical passover sacrifice of the
Israelites came to an end and stopped being observed
by the true Israel of God after Jesus Christ came
and finished his human sacrifice, A.D. 33. In parallel
fashion, the memorial observance of Christ's death
nnds its end after he comes and finishes up his death
as carried out in his faithful anointed body-members.
Till he comes in this sense, the remnant of his bodymembers will continue to take the emblematic bread
and wine to proclaim Christ's death, and they will
continue to show this forth also in their daily course
of action until their earthly life is done.
21 The redeemed ones of humankind will not celebrate the Lord's supper on earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ with his "bride". The
earthly dead who will hear his "voice as King and
who will come forth from the graves to opportunities
for eternal life on earth will not celebrate Nisan 14
each year by partaking of memorial bread and wine.
Nat even the resurrected faithful ones of ancient
times, from Abel to John the Baptist as mentioned
with honor in Hebrews, chapter eleven, will thus
memorialize Christ's death each year. No one of all
these will be dying Christ's death, but will be living
under Christ's kingdom in hopes of gaining eternal
life in perfect flesh upon this earth. The consecrated
persons of good-will today, the Lord's "other sheep",
many of whom will pass through the world-destruc20. How much Jonl;er will the remnant continue to partake of It?
21. With whom does mankmd's abstaining from partaking of the
Memorial begin, and why?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

tion at Armageddon without dying, are part of that

redeemed humankind that will prove worthy of
justification to life eternal on earth through Christ's
sacrifice. Hence redeemed mankind's abstaining from
eating and drinking the memorial of Christ's death
begins in actuality with the "great multitude" of
persons of good-will of today, the "other sheep"
whom the Good Shepherd is now gathering into a
united company with his remnant.
22 Nothing is plainer than that the observance of
the memorial of Christ's death is not laid upon the
earthly ones of redeemed humanity as part of the
requirements for their gaining eternal life under
Jehovah's kingdom by Christ Jesus. Nevertheless,
the devoted persons of good-will now count it a
privilege, as long as the remnant obediently continue
to observe the Memorial, to recognize the occasion.
They will turn out and meet with them on this blessed
occasion and will be hearers and spectators of all
that is said and done at the celebration. They there by
strengthen and comfort the remnant and show they
are backing up the remnant in God's service, in
which service the remnant are still taking the lead
under Christ Jesus.
2~ Realizing that the world nears its final end and
that therefore the Memorial celebration will not be
very often any more, let us all appreciate our prh-.J.lege of taking due recognition of this blessed occasion
this year of 1948 and what years yet remain. Bear
in mind, as we stand at the portals of the incoming
new world of righteousness, that this is a memorial
of the founding of that glorious new world.
22. Row do the present "other sheep" recognize the occasIon?
23. How shall we all show appreciation of our prlvUege, and wb~ 1

DIVINE PROHIBITION OF DEMONISM

EN, if they were righteous by descent from Adam

in his perfection, would not need the law of God in
writing, because they would do righteousness, which
is in harmony with God. "The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient!' (1 Tim.
1 : 9) The Israelites were descended from the sinner Adam,
but Jehovah God selected them as his typical people because
they were the natural offspring of his friend Abraham. He
led them out of the land of Egypt fifteen centuries before
Christ. They were, of course, imperfect, and therefore needed a law to guide them and keep them in the right way by
defining it to them. Hence God gave them his law, prescribing what is right and prohibiting what is wrong. His
law, given through the prophet Moses, was for one special
purpose, as shown by the apostle's statement: "The law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith," and not by the works of such law.-GaL
3; 24.
From the time that God made the promise that he would
send Christ Jesus the l\Iessiah until that one's actual coming
was a long period of time. The Israelites were given the law

of God to keep them in righteous paths and shield and protect them from Devil religion until the coming of Chnst
Jesus. One of the specific things that Jehovah God commanded them was that they were not to indulge in demon
worship. That part of His law at Leviticus 17: 7 said: "They
shall no longer offer their sacrifices to the satyrs to whom
they have deserted. This shall be a standing rule for them,
generation after generation." (Moffatt) Satyrs symbolized
the demons.
The offer of sacrifices to demons was an act puni'lhable
with death among Jehovah's chosen nation. His law specifically said: "Never go to a medium or a wizard, never defile
yourselves by consulting them: I am the Eternal your God."
"Also, any person who consults a medium or a wizard,
deserting me for them, I will set my face against that person and outlaw him from his kinsfolk. Any man or woman
who js a medium or a wizard must be put to death, stoned
to death; their blood shall be on their own heads!'-Leviticus 19: 31 and 20: 6, 27, Moffatt.
The practice of any sort of witchcraft or spiritism and
the observing of times, such as Hallowe'en, Friday 13, April

FEBRUARY

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER..

Fools' Day, etc., constitute an abomination in the sight of

the Lord God, because all such things relate to the demons,
rebels against Him. Just before bringing the Israelites
across the Jordan river into the Promised Land Jehovah
God said to them by Moses: "'When you reach the country
which the Eternal your God assigns you, you must never
learn to follow the abominable practices of the natives.
There must be none among you who burns his son or his
daughter alive, or who practices divination or soothsaying,
no augur, no sorcerer, no one who weaves spells, no medium
or magician, no necromancer. Anyone given to these practices is abominable to the Eternal; indeed, it is on account
of such practices that the Eternal dispossesses these nations
before you."-Deut. 18: 9-12, lI1offatt.
A.D. 29, when Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the
spirit of God and began to carry out his commission on earth
of proclaiming the truth about God's kingdom, then the
demons, led by the chief one, Satan the Devil, began actively
to interfere ,vith Jesus' work and to oppose him. First the
Devi.l sought to induce Jesus to violate his sacred covenant
\vith Jehovah God, to trap Jesus into bringing about his
own destruction. In that the Devil failed.-Matt. 4: 1-10.
The other demons, under Satan their Prince, were work
ing with him. In the Bible such demons are also designated
as "evil spirits" or "wicked spirits". When Jesus was on
earth the demons had seized the mind of many a person and
controlled that person, and it is just so today. Early in the
time of the activities of Jesus while he was in the flesh
preaching the Kingdom gospel, the demons began to show
themselves in opposition to him. Once Jesus was in the synagogue at Capernaum, there teaching the truth to the Israel
ites, and his teaching was a great astonishment to the people.
"And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have
we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come
to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of
God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and
come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him,
and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." C~lark
1: 23-26) It was one of the wicked spirits, one of those
Nephilim from the days of Noah, that thus exhibited his
power of making that poor man cry out.
There are times when many of the demons, acting
together, seize control of a human creature and use that
creature to do and perform unusual things. Mark's account
tells of a poor man dwelling in the burial tombs, who exhibited unusual and marvelous power. When he was bound ,vith
fetters and chains, those chains were at once broken. The
power required to break those chains was beyond the power
of any ordinary man. It ,vas the demons who seized control
of that unfortunate man and put forth the pmver to break
the fetters and chains, thus making it appear that the man
himself could. do it. The demons knew that Jesus was the
Son of God and also that God's judgment is written against
them and that it declares their eventual destruction. When
the spokeman of those demons that had seized control of
this poor man saw Jesus, then the following occurred:
"""hen he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure
thee by God, that thou torment me not. For [Jesus] said

45

unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he
asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him
much that he would not send them away out of the country.
Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd
of s,vine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying,
Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And
forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirit&
went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran
violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about
two thousandj) and were choked in the sea."-Mark 5: 1-13.
RELIGIOUS LEADERS UNDER DEMON INFLUENCE

Demons work in various ways to control humans. They

seize the mind of men and use men to perform strange acts,
and cause such deluded ones to believe they hear the voices
of their friends who are dead. One instance of such is that
of the witch of Endor after the desperate King Saul of
Israel visited her secretly, to ask her to call up Samuel from
the dead. (1 Sam. 28: 11-19) To gain control of the higherups among the people the Devil and his horde of demons
employ very subtle ways. Fear of men leads into the trap
of Satan the Devil, "the prince of the demons." Before the
above Saul became prominent, the Israelites feared that
they would not stand as high among the heathen nations
round about unless they had a visible human king. ~<\t
their request God permitted them to have Saul for their
first human king. Saul, in fear of men, fell thereby under
the complete influence and control of the demons. (1 Sam.
13: 11-14; 15: 24) In course of time, the leaders of the
Israelites, in fear that they would be ridiculed by reason
of not having some formalism aside from the worship at
Jehovah's temple at Jerusalem, adopted and practiced the
religious form of worshiping idols and images.-1 Ki. 11:
4-8.,
When Jesus came to the Israelites he found the leaders
teaching and practicing "the Jews' religion", or "Judaism",
showing they had fallen under the influence of the demons.
These leaders, including the Pharisees, feared they would
not be able to hold control over the Jews and have the
people honor them or speak of them as "rabbi" and hail
them in public places unless they had some kind of formalism to practice and thereby induce the people to believe
such leaders were above ordinary men and were clothed
with special power and authority from Almighty God. They
did not follow Proverbs 29: 25, which says: "The fear of
man bringeth a snarej but whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe." (Am. Stan. Ver.) They failed to trust
Jehovah God and obey the covenant that he had made with
the Israelites, although Jehovah God had frequently
warned them by his prophets. For personal gain both of
money and of approval of men those religious leaders were
willing to use the temple of Jerusalem as a place to sell
various kinds of merchandise. Thus they made the temple
of God a "den of thieves". This was nothing but the result
of the machinations of Satan and his associate demons.
-Matt. 21: 13.
Jesus, observing that the Israelite leaders had fallen
under the influence of the demons and had adopted teachings contrary to God's Word and were teaching such,
denounced those leaders in unparalleled but justified lan-

46

SlleWATCHTOWER.

guage. Concerning their senseless formalism in their meticulous religious practices Jesus said: "'tVoe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and
anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind
guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." "Ye
serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation of hem" (:iHatt. 23: 23, 24, 33) Were those religious leaders in favor and support of the kingdom of
heaven? Listen to Jesus' words of answer: "But woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the
kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ;re them that are entering to go in."
-nIatt. 23: 13.
Here is how they shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men: They failed to teach God's pure Word and substituted
the traditions of highly-esteemed religious men, and this
under no other influence and power than that of the demons.
This accounts for the following occurrence: "Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying.
'Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the
elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their
food.' He replied, 'And why do you transgress the command
of God "ith your traditions? God enjoined, H on01tr your
fathel' and mother, and, II e who curses his father or mother
is to s1cffer death. But you sa~l, whoever tells his father or
mother, "This money might have been at your service but
it is dedicated to God," need not honour his father or
mother. So you haye repealed the law of God to suit your
own tradiiion. Yes, you hypocrites, it was indeed of you that
Isaiah prophesied when he said, This people honou1'S me
with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: vain
is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but
human precepts:" (:Matt. 15: 1-9, Moffatt) How the demons
had deceived those religious leaders!
Those Pharisees and scribes were blind to the truth of
God's ,Yord because they had yielded to the Devil and had
adopted his religion. Jesus rightly said to them that they
were blind. (Matt. 23: 19, 24) They were not willing to
accept the truth as brought to them by the Son of God,
and were trying to preYent the people from seeing and
understanding the truth. Only under one influence did they
thus do, that of the demons. Being blinded by the Devil
and his demon hordes, they turned away from God the
Creator to creatures. It was the truth which Jesus spoke
to them that stung those religious leaders and cut them
to the quick. Their only answer in defense was to attempt
violence against Jesus, and that violence, too, was prompted
by the demons. The proof of this is clear.
Mark, now, that part of the sacred record that proves
conclusively that those prototypes of modern clergymen
were uuder the influence, power and control of the Devil
and for that reason they tried to destroy the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus fearlessly said to them: "Now ye seek to kill
me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard
of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your
father." Then they said to Jesus: ',",Ve be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Jesus replied: "If

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded

forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even
because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie,
he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father
of it." -John 8: 40-44.
After the killing of Jesus his apostles continued to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. Bitterly the demons
actively opposed them in their work. By the power which
the Lord conferred upon them, the apostles healed the
afflicted, but for their good work the Jewish religionists
condemned them. (Acts 5: 16.18; 8: 5-7) They even tried
religious counterfeits. Some of the commercial Jews, seeing
the apostle Paul exercising power over the demons, tried
to do likewise and to steal the show, just as today the
religious clergymen pretend to represent the Lord. Of one
sueh attempt it is recorded: "Some strolling Jewish exorcists also undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord
Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, (I adjure you
by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!' The seven sons of
Sceva, a Jewish high priest, used to do this. But the evil
spirit retorted, (Jesus I know and Paul I know, but youwho are you~' And the man in whom the evil spirit resided
leapt at them, overpowered them all, and belaboured them,
till they rushed out of the house stripped and wounded."
(Acts 19: 13-16, Moffatt) Those seven frauds were themselves under demon influence and did not have the Lord's
power over or protection from the demons; hence their
fraud was exposed.
In the days of the twelve apostles those wicked demons
tried to deceive and in this present century they do decei,e
many who claim to be servants of God. Those same demons
are still alive and active to repeat their tricks of deceiving
many who make great claims of serving God. Writing
authoritatively the apostles testifled that in the end of the
world, where we now are, clergymen claiming to be God's
servants would fall under the influence of the demons. .At
1 Timothy 4: 1, 2 it is written: "Now the spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience
seared with a hot iron." To this day it is true of the nations
which practice demonism as described above, that "the
things which the Gentiles [the nations] sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and not to God", and, says the apostle
to the Christians: "I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils."-l Cor. 10: 20.
The proof is conclusive that the Devil uses his various
brands of religion and religious ceremonies as a means of
deceiving the people and turning them away from Jehovah
God and his Christ. The Devil used religion from the days
of Nimrod, flrst king of Babylon, to the days of Jesus'
apostles, and he is craftily using it in this day. All who
would keep safe from his death-dealing devices follow the
right course in taking heed to the divine prohibition against
demonism in all its manifestations.

The name of Jehovah is a strong tower; the nghteous runneth

into it, and is safe.-Proverbs 18: 10, A.S.V.

JEHOAHAZ, POSSESSED BY A FOREIGNER

REN Jehoahaz succeeded his father Jehu on the

throne of Israel and began his seventeen-year
reign, more than half of his realm was possessed by
the foreign king Hazael of Damascus. Razael had taken all
the territory of Israel east of the Jordan river from king
Jehu. (2 Kings 10: 35; 13: 1; 8: 7,13; 10: 32,33) To the
south of Israel, good king Joash was reigning in Judah and
restoring the true worship of Jehovah under the direction
of the aged priest J ehoiada. In the first year of J ehoahaz'
reign the temple at Jerusalem began to be repaired. Here
was an excellent opportunity for Jehoahaz to prove true to
the meaning of his name, "possessed of Jehovah," by yielding himself to Jehovah's possession and co-operating with
Joash in the establishment of true worship among the Israelites.-2 Ki. 11: 17,18; 2 Chron. 24: 15; 2 Ki.12: 6-12.
But, instead of that, he showed the same lack of faith in
Jehovah's promise that his early predecessor Jeroboam had
shown. Jehovah had promised Jeroboam to give him the
kingdom of Israel and He had promised Jehu, J ehoahaz'
father, that his descendants would sit on the throne to the
fourth generation. (1 Ki. 11: 31, 37, 38; 2. Ki. 10: 30)
But Jehoahaz, as Jeroboam before him had done, turned his
back on Jehovah's word and feared that if the people went
up to Jerusalem to worship at Jehovah's duly appointed
temple in conjunction with the priesthood Jehovah had
organized, they would turn over the kingdom of Israel to
the Davidic king of Judah reigning at Jerusalem; so he
pushed the worship of the golden calves at Dan in the north
of his kingdom and at Bethel hard on the Judean border to
the south. (1 Ki. 12: 25-33; 2 Ki. 13: 2) True, a prophet of Jehovah had prophesied that a Davidic king named
Jo!>iah would burn on the altar at Bethel the bones of the
priests who offered incense thereon. (1 Ki. 13: 1, 2) But
that prophecy had been made over a hundred years before
Jehoahaz' time and there was no Josiah in sight yet; so
again Jehoahaz showed his lack of faith in Jehovah's word
and went on appointing priests from non-priestly tribes to
carryon false worship at the shrines in the cities throughout the kingdom of Israel, just as Jeroboam had done. He
followed that wicked king's example in making metal idols
to be ministered to by the priests of his own creation and
to be worshiped by his deluded subjects.-I Ki. 14: 9.
In addition, .Jehoahaz let remain in Samaria Baal's female
companion, Asherah, whose representation, a wooden pole
or mast, could be seen at the shrines. The poor deceived
people believed that, by having the good-will of the demon
(to them goddess) represented thereby, the products of
their flocks and bodies would prosper. Jehoahaz fostered
such superstitions, though he had a constant reminder of
the offensiveness of false worship right in the very city of
Samaria, the ruins of the temple of Baal from which
emanated_ foul odors. (2 Ki. 10: 27) If that were not
reminder enough, there was Elisha, a prophet of Jehovah
who, in obedience to Jehovah's command, had his father
Jehu anointed to be king of Israel; which prophet was
always firm for true worship. (2 Ki. 9: 1-9) The faithless
king turned his back on Jehovah, his word and his organization for worship and, instead, pushed false worship.
-2 Ki. 13: 6, Am. Stan. Ver.
As a result of Jehoahaz' turning himself and his king47

dom to false worship, Jehovah's anger blazed against Israel.

God delivered Israel into the po\ver of king Razael of Syria.
As Hazael continually encroached more and more on Israel,
burning all the fortresses, all who could fled before him,
leaving their homes rather than being captured and slain
after seeing their little children dashed to pieces and their
'Pregnant women disemboweled. But finally all Israel was in
Razael's power and suffered his cruel oppression. He left
Jehoahaz only a token force of fifty cavalry, ten chariots
and ten thousand infantry. But what was that compared
with the thousands of chariots Israel had had during Ahab's
reign some fifty years before? Israel's army now was weak
as dust, wholly at the mercy of merciless Hazael. The whole
land of Israel, from king to pauper, groaned under the
constant Syrian oppression. How the people longed to
return to their homes and be free! But Jehoahaz continued
in his evil course.-2 Ki. 8: 12; 13: 3, 4, 7, 22.
Throughout his reign Jehoahaz relied on false gods
(really demons) and was defeated on every hand. Because
he gave himself over to be possessed by gods foreign to J ehovah instead of yielding himself to be possessed and ullhe1c1
by Jehovah, he was harassed and possessed by a foreign
king. Then, finally, he begged Jehovah's favor, and Jehoyah
listened to him, not for the sake of the faithless king, but
because He is a God of mercy; He saw the king of Syria
oppressed Israel all during the reign of Jehoahaz, and he
had compassion on them.
Likewise today those who, as J ehoahaz did, refuse to
yield themselves to Jehovah's 1l0ssession and prefer to giye
themselves over to a worship foreign to Him cannot and
will not be prospered by the Lord.
JEBOAHAZ OF JUDAH

There were two kings of Judah called "Jehoahaz"; the

first one, a son of Jehoram, was usually called Ahaziah.
Jehoahaz (in Hebrew, Yeho'ahaz [without the vowel points,
yhw'K.Z1) is the same as Ahaziah (Hebrew, 'Ahazyah1l
['KZYhw]) because both contain the word ahaz, meaning
"holds, possesses, or upholds", and either the prefix J eho(yhw) or the suffix -iah (yhw) which stands for Jehovah
(Yhwh). In the Bible he is twice called "Jehoahaz"
(2 Chron. 21: 17; 25: 23) and once "Azariah" at 2 Chronicles 22: 6, though 15 Hebrew manuscripts here have "Ahaziah". This king has already been discussed in The Watchtower (July 15, 1947).
The other king of Judah called "Jehoahaz" was the son
of good king Josiah and was also called Shallum. (1 Chron.
3: 15; Jer. 22: 11) This Jehoahaz, who lived two hundred
years later than Jehoahaz of Israel, reigned over Judah
for only three months.-2 Ki. 23: 30, 31; 2 Chron. 36: 2.
The Judean Jehoahaz did not wish to be possessed by
Jehovah but chose to give himself over to false worship. For
!luch wickedness Jehovah did not u'Phold him but let him b~
possessed by a foreigner, Necho pharaoh of Egypt, who
deposed him and first took him north to the city of Riblah
and there put him in prison. Then from Riblah Necho took
him in chains south to Egypt. There J ehoahaz was possessed
by a foreigner to the day of his death. (2 Ki. 23: 32, 33;
Ezek. 19: 4; 2 Ki. 23: 34; 2 Chron. 36: 4) A contem-

48

91i.eWATCHTOWER.

porary of J ehoahaz, the prophet Jeremiah, under inspiration uttered Jehovah's sentence on Jehoahaz Shallum:
"Weep ye not for the dead [Josiah], neither bemoan him:
but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return
no more, nor see his native country. For thus saith the LORD

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which

reigned instead of Jusiah his father, which went forth out
of his place, He shall not return thither any more: but he
shall die in the place'whither they have led him captive.
and shall see this land no more."-Jer. 22: 10-12.

SHOWING FORTH JEHOVAH'S PRAISES PUBLICLY

HROUGHOUT the earth Jehovah's witnesses teach

publicly, making use of every opportunity and place
for public proclamation of Jehovah's praises. In milehigh Quetta (now in Pakistan) one of Jehovah's witnesses
was invited to speak in a church building. He says:
"I called on the local Methodist preacher's house on my
rounds. Hearing that I am a convert from the Sikh religion,
during the course of conversation he requested me to come
and address his congregation in his church. For the first
time in my life I went to church, taking another publisher
along. The preacher kept his word and, after their usual
ritual, he introduced me to speak. After briefly telling them
of my conversion through reading the 'Vatchtower publications, I switched on to the more important talk, 'New
Heavens and a New Earth,' giving it extemporaneously in
a condensed form. I gave due emphasis to the name of our
God, JEHOVAH, and what it stands for. The pastor even
interpreted my talk in Urdu as I gave it in English, I not
being able as yet to speak Urdu fluently. After the talk we
gave away 50 booklets free to the congregation, with many
of whom we intend to start Bible studies. Who knows there
might not be any sheep bleating for truth in this church 1
Who knows the pastor may not be one of them 1 He admits
many errors have crept into the church organizations. He
is going to subscribe for The Watchtower and Awake! and
is taking the books 'The Truth Shall Make You Free', 'The
Kingdom Is at Hand', the Watchtower Bibler The Emphatic
Diaglott, and some Watchtower booklets, as well as the book
'Equipped for Every Good Work'. He has come twice to a
book study which I conduct close by and has asked: 'When
are you coming to preach in my church again1'"
In the state of Connecticut, U.S.A., Jehovah's witnesses
taught publicly in a park:
"Recently we obtained a permit from the city to hold a
public meeting in one of our larger parks. Only a few days
before the meeting one publisher noted that a band concert
was being advertised for the same time, place and location.
We \vere surprised, to say the least. After contacting many
of the city fathers who did a good game of buck-passing,
we ended up in the mayor's office. Without hesitation he
gave his blessing to the band concert, which left us holding
about 4,000 leaflets. He suggested, however, that we could
give the public talk right after the concert, which would be
two hours later than our scheduled time.
"We took this rather than postpone the public meeting,
but obtained a concession trom him. Just a minute before
the concert started, when that expectant hush fell over the
crowd, our chairman approached the microphone and announced that the public meeting would be held directly
after the concert and he invited everyone present to stay.
He also did this at the halfway mark and at the end. Result:
Ordinarily we would have had an audience of about 400.

On this Sunday our audience numbered upward of 1,000

The Lord gives his blessing in many ways."
Even restaurants are not passed up as places for public
teaching. In the province of Quebec, Canada, some truthhungry ones were fed with spiritual food in a restaurant.
One of Jehovah's witnesses there reports:
"I recently organized a meeting to be held in a restaurant.
The owner of the restaurant gave us permission to play
several Bible recordings in French on his large electric
phonograph. Many persons heard this lecture, at least 50,
and we were even able to present an impromptu discourse
on the Bible that lasted until 10 p.m.
U After we came home, to our surprise, a carload of si..x
men drove into our yard. These men had heard the meeting
in the restaurant and wanted more information about God's
kingdom. When they left, about 1 a.m., they took with them
booklets, a Bible, and one of them subscribed for The
Watchtower. They told us there were many French people
similarly interested in the Bible, and one man offered the
use of his own car for transporting interested ones to our
study on Sunday.
"It is truly marvelous to see all these 'sheep' coming into
the fold."
That those of good-will toward God recognize his truth
when they see it and wish to be fed at his table is shown
by the following excerpts from a letter written by a truthhungry person in the Canadian province of Quebec.
"I have just finished reading 'The Kingdom Is at Hand'
and Government and Peace. Both books have more than
interested me, and I would like to be better acquainted with
the Bible and Jehovah's witnesses.
"I am a fervent Roman Catholic, but my mind is open
to a wide and impartial study of the Bible.
"Is one who wishes to follow Jehovah's witnesses in their
doings and beliefs obliged to give up his religion? If so, what
practice is he to follow in the way of bettering himself in
actions, faith and the knowledge of God? As you know, it
is a very serious act to abandon your religion, especially
the Roman Catholic, and you are not ignorant of the serious
troubles it may and will entail in so many religious events
in a lifelong period, and I would like to be posted by one
of your well-informed witnesses on all these matters.
"You may rest assured that I would not have written this
letter had I not been. serious in this matter and willing to
gain knowledge of the Bible and the right interpretation.
I pray Almighty God to help me make the right decision,
and ask also your kind help."
The Almighty God is using his witnesses today to carry
his nourishing truths to just such truth-hungry persons.
As faithful footstep followers of Jesus Christ Jehovah's
witnesses follow his example of teaching the people publicly
as well as from house to house.

SEeWATCHTOWER..
PUBLISHED SEMIMONTHLT

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

TRACT SOCIETY

Op'P'ICEns
N. H. liNOM, Preaident

GRANT SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall he tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall he the peace of thy children." lUI/ph 54: IJ.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the Maker of heaven and earth and Gh'er of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active abent in creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reuson of Adam's wrong net all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS wus made human as the man Jesus and suf.
fered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every ot:.her creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANiZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightfui King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
foliowers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization. and are His witnesses whose dut~ and privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establiSh the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessin;;s of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Chl'lst, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness cOJlJpletel~' in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with ri;;hteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves '\"111 be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.
"SO~G

OF PRAISE"

TESTI"lO~Y PERIOD

The 1948 Service Calendar designates February as "Song of

Praise" Testimony Period. Psalm 18: 49, upon which the designation rests, sets as the mottf for this period the ~inging of praises
to God's name among the nations. This we will do by mtensifying
our efforts in the second month of the 1948 Watchto10er campaign
for getting subscriptions for this magazine. AU house-to-house
workers will present the special offer of a year's subscription
together with a premium of eight booklets published by the Watch
Tower Society, all at the regular subscription rate of just $1.00,
American money. The peak of the northern winter has never
halted the forward push of these annual campaigns, and publishers of God's praises are determined it will not this year either.
Conle along With us, all you readers of The Watchtower. Your
co-operation is appreciated, your service is "alued, your joy will
be enhanced IJ)' singing praises to the Most High. We are always
ready to supply information and references for you to work with
organized, trained campaigners. Take part nnd be able to .hand
in your report at the month's end on what you have accomplished
in this "song of praise".
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of March 21: "Gaining Entrance to Permanent Dwellings,"

1f 1-22 inclusive, The Wa#chto1Ver February 15, 1948.
Week of March 28: "Gaining Entrance to Permanent Dwellings,"
1! 23-43 inclusi"e, The Watchto1oer February 15, 19413.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is publlshed for the purpose of enabllng the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-wilL
It arranges systematic Bibie study for its renders and the Society
supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcastlng and for other means
of pubHc instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It is Wholly and without reservatioll
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination
of Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not indUlge
in controversy, and its columns are not open to personaHties.

Notice to 8ubecribere: Rem,ttancce should be sent to oUlce In your

country In compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of
money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
office Is located hy international money order only. Subscription rate. In
dllferent count;les are stated below In local currency. ?I'ohco of c..plrotfo,.
(With rene\l"al blank) is sent at least two Issues belore sUbRcrlptinn
expires. Change 01 addrese when sent to our office may be eXPe<:teu
effective within one month. Send your old lUI well as uew addre.

Please add,rt88 the Watch Tower Soelety In every ease.

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Y.,

''T HEW AT C H TOW E R"

The Watchto1oer is a magazine without equal in the carth, anti

is conceded this rank by all that have been faithful readers thereof
during its more than sixty years of publicatIOn. The Watchtower
has increased in importance with the progress of the years, and
never has it been more valuable than today, at this world crisis,
when the destiny of each intelligent human creature is bcing decided. The getting of COrTect information and instruction, just
such as required for the times, to decide your course wisely to
a happy destiny, was never more vital than now, for "where there
is no vision, the people perish". Informed persons \I"cll acquuinted
with the consistent contents of The Watchtower agree that those
who want to gain life in peace and happine&s without end should
read and study it together with the Bible and in company with
other readers. This is not giving any credit to the magazine\
publishers, but is due to the great Author of the Bible with its
truths and prophecies, and who now interprets its prophecies. He
it is that makes possible the material that is published in the
columns of this magazine and who. gives promise that it shall
continue to publish the advancing truths as long us it continues
to exist for the service of the interests of his Theocratic Government. Carefully and prayerfully read this issue of The 1V atchtower. Then do not delay to mail in your SUbscription, that
you may receive it regularly.) twice a month, twenty-four copie~
the ~ear. Subscription rates are shown abo'e.

gheWAlCIHIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

FEBRUARY

15, 1948

No. 4

GAINING ENTRANCE TO PERMANENT DWELLINGS

"So I tell you, make f1'iends for yourselves with yoltr ill-gotten wealth, so that when it fails, they may
take you into the eternal dwellings."-Duke 16: 9, An American Translation.

EHOVAll God made living creatures and made a belongs, not to mankind in general, but strictly to the
place for them to live in and enjoy life. He knew "little flock" of his genuine, faithful followers. They
each intelligent creature would want a suitable were the ones to whom he said: "Fear not, little
place that he might call home and where he might flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
feel at home. 'With man and woman in view he you the kingdom."-Lul{e 12: 32.
created the garden of Eden and put them in it, offera To gain entrance into the abode of the heavenly
ing them the opportunity to make it their eternal kingdom, Jesus' faithful disciples must undergo a
dwelling-place. In fact, with mankind in vie,y, Jeho- change at the time of their resurrection out of death:
vah God created our earthly globe, because it was his a change from human personality to spiritual perpurpose to have it peopled with lovely, perfect men sonality, such as Jesus underwent at the moment of
and women who should occupy the whole of it for- his resurrection. (1 Pet. 3:18, Douay Version) Theil'
ever as their permanent home. (Isa. 45: 12, 18) being clothed upon. then with incorrnption and imAgreeable to such purpose, he will never destroy mortality makes it sure that these victorious Chrismankind's natmul dwelling-place, this material tians will be able to occupy their new home in heaven
earth. The present generations of mankind average for all time without change.-1 Cor. 15: 47-53; 2 Pet.
far less than a hundred years in duration; and con- 1: 11.
~ :Men and women of good-will in general haye a
trasting this with the duration of man's dwellingplace, God's ,\Yord says: "One generation goes, and different permanent dwelling-place to which to look
another comes, while the earth endures forever." forward, namely, a paradise home on earth per(EccI.1: +, An Amer. Traus.) The rest of God's writ- fected under God's kingdom. That will be in the ne,,'
ten Word docs 110t contradict that scientific truth. It world of righteousness, which Jehovah God ha~
declares that the day comes when the righteous men promised to bring in by means of the kingdom of hi:;:
and women will live forever in peace and happiness; Son J esns Christ. At present, however, in this old
and hence the earth was made to abide for all time world of unrighteousness, living on earth is quite
miserable for hundreds of millions of its inhabitants.
as their natural place of abode.
2 The coming of the :Messiah in the person of J ems
In this third year of the postwar period there is a
Christ did not alter that divine purpose. It only greater housing shortage than ever, untold numbers
worked in with that purpose and made it more sure of human habitations having been wiped out or made
of coming true. By Jesus' death and resurrection uninhabitahle by atomic bombs, V-rockets, and blockman's habitation was not changed from earth to buster bombs dropped upon them, as well as by
heaven, requiring a great monng-day for mankind earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and fires. Millions of
at the time of the resurrection of the dead. It was displaced persons are living in internment camps,
simply to the little group of his faithful footstep former concentration camps, labor camps, or other
followers that Jesus Christ said before his death and crowded, unsatisfactory dwellings, and all property
resurrection: "In my Father's house are many dwell- rights are becoming more uncertain and insecure.
ings; but if not, I would have told you; because I am Large blocks of houses are now owned by religious
going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and systems, Catholic and Protestant, which take advanprepare a place for you, I am corning again, and will tage of the scarcity of homes and increase the rents
receive you to myself, so that where I am you also and exploit the poor rather than relieve them, and
may be." (John 14: 2, 3, The Emphatic Diaglott) political governments must step into the situation to
Jesus, after his resurrection from the dead, went to restrain greedy property owners.
5 The effect of the world-wide condition is to worry
heaven, and his promise of a heavenly dwelling-place
4. How bas the matter of living abodes become prominent recently?

1. Why will the earth abide fore\'er?

5. W1Jat place did Jesus give aIUiety over housing, sn<l how so?

:!, 3. Who from among men will gain hca'\"enl)' abode., and how?

51

52

~e WATCHTOWER..

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

ordinary human creatures. It makes them anxiously was under age he was subject to this steward in
seek for comfortable dwelling-places in this present Abraham's absence. As it is written by the apostle:
wicked world as a need for future happiness. Very "NoW I say, for as long a time as the heir is a child.
few of them feel inclined to give any thought at all he differs in nothing from a slave, lord of all thou~h
to insuring for themselves eternal dwelling-places in he be; but is under guardians and stewards, till that
the new world of righteousness. How to gain the period predetennined of the father. Thus we also.
latter we are told by Jesus Christ. He put our pres- when we were children, were enslaved under the
ent housing anxieties in a secondary place when he rudiments of the world. Now you brethren. like
said: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air Isaac, are children of a promise."-Gal. 4: 1-3, ~S.
have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay Diaglott.
his head." (Uatt. 8: 20) He was seeking a permanent
'Abraham's great-grandson Joseph. as prime
abiding-place elsewhere in God's realm, and he minister of Egypt, had a steward to take care of
recommended to all those who want to follow him not domestic matters. The Hebrew Bible speaks of him
to mind so much about their present living quarters. literally as "the man that was over Joseph's house":
Let them make sure for themselves eternal abodes and Joseph's ten brethren in distress made their
in the future when the present things fail. He put explanations of matters to this steward instead of
his recommendation in these words: "And I say unto to Joseph. (Gen. 43: 19-24; 44: 4) It was he that
you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of handled Joseph's money, putting quantities of it into
unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive the sacks of Joseph's brethren before they left Egypt.
you into everlasting habitations." (Luke 16: 9) Just (Gen. 42:25) He saw to their entertainment at
exactly what did he mean'
Joseph's house. The steward was therefore a house
manager. This is the literal meaning of what he is
THE U1IiJUST STEWARD
called in the Greek Scriptures (oikon6mos), and his
e J e:"us uttered those words as the main point
stewardship was that of house management (or
of instruction in an illustration he had just given, oikonomia). In a parable concerning the end of this
known as the parable of the unjust steward. Hence to world arrangement at his second coming, Jesus
help us understand his words of instruction we must spoke of a steward over his lord's household, saying:
examine the parable. Jesus had just related the "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom
parable of the prodigal son, in the hearing of the his lord shall make ruler over his household, to gh'e
Jewish Pharisee~ and scribes, and while they were them their portion of meat in due season T Of a truth
still listening he added this new parable from which I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all
they as well as his disciples might benefit.
that he hath." (Luke 12: 42, 44) Jesus' parable also
T We read : "And he said also unto his disciples,
of the unjust steward shows that a steward had freE'
There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and wide control over his master's properties and
and the same was accused unto him that he had monies. Evidently, though, he got no salary for hi"
wasted his goods." (Luke 16: 1) This was a steward services, so that, if he was turned out of his stewardof an oriental kind. In his privileges, powers and ship of the house, he was thrown out upon his own
authority in the house of this certain rich man he resources.
was doubtless like the steward of Abraham, "the
e Who it was that accused this steward, whether
friend of God." "And Abram said, Lord GOD, what it was other'servants in the house who were jealou~
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childle~s, and the of him or servants who were just faithful to theIr
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus T" master's interests, Jesus does not tell us. It is not
This statement implies that if Abraham died child- of importance here. The result was the same, namely,
less, then steward Eliezer the Syrian would become that the steward was summoned before his master
heir to all Abraham had. (Gen. 15: 2) It appears
this steward was over all Abraham owned, and he is to answer to the charge of squandering that which
the one meant when Abraham sent to Mesopotamia was not his own, the property of his master. We
to pick a wife for his son Isaac. We read: "And read: "And he called him, and said unto him, How
Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, is it that I hear this of thee T give an account of thy
that ruled over all that he had, ... thou shalt go unto stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward."
my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto (Luke 16: 2) The master was firm and decided; the
my son Isaac." (Gen. 24: 2-4) The steward acted as steward could act as house manager no more, unless
gO-between for the parents of the prospective bride- he could disprove the charge. He must be able to
groom and bride. He thus was a friend of the bride- prove faithfulness to his master's interests, to retain
groom Isaac. No doubt during the time that Isaac his stewardship.
b-8 (a) What parable did he tell. and what poweMl dId the servant
have? (b) What, then. In etrect, w"" till, servant?

9. 10 The .te"ard', being called to account l,rO\'e. what rule'

FEBRUARY

15, 1948

9l1eWATCHTOWER

53

10 This agrees with the rule stated by the apostle

Paul. All t1lOse claiming to he Christians must bear
this rule in mind and follow it in order not to lose
their relationship with Gorl and his Christ. Paul
himself was accused, but falsely. He was charged
with mismanagement of his position, with conducting his Christian ministry to enrich himself and to
satisfy a lust for power over fellow Christians.
Whatever the charges, the apostle knew that he must
answer, not to his accusers, but to his Master, the
Lord God. He knew what was the proper rule for
stewards, and so he himself quoted it before his
accusers and said: "This is how you are to look upon
us, as servants of Christ and ste,vards of God's
secret tnlths. Now in this matter of stewards your
first requirement is that they must be trustworthy.
It matters very little to me that you or any human
court should cross-question me on this point. I do
not even cross-question myself; for, although I am
not conscious of having anything against me, that
does not clear me. It is the Lord who cross-questions
me on the matter. So do not criticize at all; the hour
of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will
come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal
life's inner aims and motives."-l Cor. 4: 1-5, Moffatt.
11 The apostle belonged to the "household offaith".
Thus he was in Jehovah's Theocratic organization.
But as one of the twelve apostles he had a special
responsibility as a shepherd among God's flock of
"sheep", and he was a steward in a special sense with
many duties of importance. As steward he was
responsible to distribute the mysteries or sacred
secret truths of God to his "household of faith" and
to all those seeking to become members of it. The
fourteen epistles or letters that Paul wrote, which are
now contained in the Bible, contain many of these
sacred secrets which are mysteries to the world. But
he distributed these mysteries to us, not only by
letter, but also by preaching with his mouth, testifying, as he tells us, both "publicly" and "from house to
house". As a steward dispensing the sacred secrets
of God and acting as the servant of Christ Jesus the
Head of the "household of faith", the apostle Paul
had to be a preacher, and he confessed that he had
to be faithful and trustworthy in acting as such.
12 For Paul to peddle out these divine mysteries in
such a way as to gain personal material and social
benefit to himself rather than to benefit his heavenly
Master's interests would be unfaithfulness. It would
be squandering the gift bestowed upon him by J ehovah God, because it would bring reproach upon God's
name. For the work of distributing the fragrant,
life-giving knowledge of these sacred secrets Paul
claimed to be qualified, but he disclaimed any com-

mercial benefit or financial profits from his work.

Insisting upon the non-commercial nature of his
ministry, he said: "Who is qualified for this task 1
I am! For I am no peddler of God's message, like
most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned
by God and in his presence, in union with Christ I
utter his message." (2 Cor. 2: 17, An Amer. Trans.;
Diaglott) Here Paul was not recommending himself;
his works and their fruitage did that for him. But he
was showing himself prepared to stand before God
and answer to any false accusations against him. No
one could rightly accuse him of being an unjust,
dishonest, unfaithful steward, disloyal to his trust.
For this reason Paul could say to his readers:
"Become imitators of me, ... even as I also am of
Christ."-l Cor. 4: 16; 11: 1, Diaglott.
is The command to conduct ourselves as stewards
toward God and his people is directed to all Christians, whether apostles or not. Our last opportunity
to lovingly act as such is here, especially since the
final end of this wicked world-organization is upon
us. Therefore Peter's words to this effect strike ItS
with particular force: "Now the end of all is near.
Steady then, keep cool and pray! Above all, be keen
to love one another, for love hides a host of sins.
Be hospitable to each other, and never grudge it.
You must serve one another, each with the talent he
has received, as efficient stewards of God's varied
grace; if anyone preaches, he must preach as one
who utters the words of God; if anyone renders some
service, it must be as one who is supplied by Gorl
with power-so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ."-l Pet. 4: 7-11, Moffatt.
14 A person that has the oversight in a company of
members of the "household of faith" should take
pains to be an example in these respects, remembering he is caring not for his own things, but for God's.
Knowing he must at the last render an account to
God his Master, he should do all his acts and deed~
as to God, because he loves God and lovingly cares
for what belongs to God. Before he is put into such
a responsible place, he should have a record that
recommends him. "For," the organization instructions tell us, at Titus 1: 7-9, "it is necessary that the
overseer be irreproachable, as God's steward; not
self-indulgent, not passionate, not a wine-drinker,
not a striker, not eager for base gain; but hospitable,
a friend to goodness, prudent, just, holy, self-governed; maintaining the true Word in his teaching,
so that he may be able both to exhort by the sound
instruction, and to confute the opposers."-Diaglott.

J J. lIow must and did Paul carry out his work as steward?

13. H, How should all. company servants nnd others, act?

15. Whom did Jeplls foretell as steward at his second COWIng"

12. Why could no one accuse him as a steward who squandered?

FAITHFUL STEWARDSHIP REWARDED

15 Jesus spoke of how God deals with those who
are stewards for him, and .J esus' illustrations are

S1ieWATCHTOWER
not -incorrect or overdrawn. The reward of the just,
prudent and faithful steward stands in direct oppositeness to that of the unjust, dishonest and untrustworthy steward, according to Jesus' illustration of
what was scheduled to take place at this time of his
second coming; and which has taken place. Warning
that his coming in the spirit would be sudden and
at an hour unknown by us before his arrival, he said:
"'Vho then is the faithful, the wise steward, whom
the Lord will appoint over his domestics, to dispense
the proper allowance of food in its season 1 Happy
that servant, whom his master, at his arrival, shall
find thus employed! I tell you truly, That he will
appoint him over all his property." (Luke 12: 42-44,
Diaglott) No individual man now on earth was here
foretold, but the entire organized company of God's
consecrated people who are dedicated to his service
and who work in unity as one man throughout the
earth. As God long ago said to this company of
devoted ones: ''Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah,
and my servant whom I have chosen; ... the people
\vhich I formed for myself, that they might set forth
my praise."-Isa. 43: 10, 21, Am. Stan. Ver.
16 Jehovah's witnesses
of todav must therefore
serve Him unitedly, as a steward'over what he has
entrusted to them through our Savior Jesus Christ.
They must be faithful to God and be wise with
hea;enly wisdom in doing so. They must serve one
another with the spiritual food that God has provided through his Tlleocratic organization. They
must also serve it out to his "other sheep" who are
at present strayed and lost from the paths of truth
and righteousness and whom the Good Shepherd
must yet find and gather to his Theocratic fold.
Jehovah's witnesses have a world-wide assignment,
to preach the Kingdom gospel in all nations. J ehovah God, through their Head and Master Jesus
Christ, has put them in charge of all. They are
necessarily different from the religionists of Christendom, because they have something committed to
them that her religious systems do not have. Her
religionists falsely accuse Jehovah's witnesses as
being false prophets and not true to their name, but
because of such religious accusations Jehovah God
has not cast them out of his service, nor withheld
from them his Bible truths, nor held back his blessing from their witness work, nor yielded them
up to their enemies to be utterly suppressed and
destroyed. rrhe apostle Paul went right ahead under
accusations. 'Ve can do the same, letting our activities and works in obedience to God testify to our
faithful stewardship and explode all false enemy
charges.
11 Note, however, what Jesus said would happen
in our day to the company proving itself to be an
~ must Jehovah's witnesses now serve. desPite accusations?
17; 18. What does Jesus' parable of the unfaithful servant show?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

unwise, disloyal steward. It agrees with what Jesus

described in the parable of the unjust steward. After
telling the reward, bestowed upon the faithful and
wise steward, the Lord Jesus added: "But if that
servant should say in his heart, 'My master delays
to come' and shall begin to beat the servants and
the maid~ns, and to eat and drink and be drunk; the
master of that servant will come in a day when he
does not expect him, and at an hour of which he is
not aware, and will cut him off, and will appoint his
portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, who
knew the will of his master, and was not prepared,
nor did according to his will, he shall be beaten with
many stripes; but he who knew not, and did things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. And
from anyone to whom much is given much will be
required; and from him with whom much has been
deposited, they will exact the more."-Luke 12 : -4:5--4:8,
Diaglott.
18 For one thing, this prophetic description shows
the power and authority that the steward of tl~e
house had over his fellow servants and over }ns
master's property. It shows how the ste\yard could
misuse his privileges and authority before being'
suddenly called to account by his master. Christendom claims to be the steward of God's interests in
the earth and to be in charge ,of his people and of all
his earthly property. So let her look into this mirror
of God's 'Vord; and if it reflects her image as illuminated by the pages of history over sixteen centuries,
and particularly since A.D. 1914:, then let her kno,y
from Jesus' words what is to be her certain fate
from the hand of the Master she professes to serve.
SHREWDNESS
19 The unjust steward of the parable lowered ,vha t
was due to his master from those in debt to him.
While the parable was not told particularly to illustrate the Jewish scribes and Pharisees and the religious clergy of Christendom, yet the facts show that
all these classes relaxed and weakened and reduced
the requirements of God respecting sinners indebted
to him. They did this in a compromising way with
this world in order that they might gain favor and
advantage with the people that want to remain a
part of this world and to continue walking in its
ways. Notice how Jesus illustrates this in the parable
as he goes on to say: "And the steward said within
himself, 'What shall I do 1 For my master takes the
stewardship away from me; I have not strength to
dig: and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do,
that when I am deprived of the stewardship, they
may receive me into their own houses.' And calling
each ODe of his master's debtors, he said to the first,
'How much dost thou owe my masted' And he said,

111. How did tbe ItnJust steward deal "Ith his master's debtors?

FEBRUARY

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

'A hundred baths of oil [estimated as being .more

than 800 gallons of oil].' And he said to him, 'Take
back thy account, and sit down quickly, and write one
for fifty.' Then he said to another, 'And how much
dost thou owe1' And he said, 'A hundred COl'S of
wheat [estimated at not quite 1,200 bushels of
wheat].' He says to him, 'Take back thy account,
and write one for eighty [around 900 bushels].'
-Luke 16: 3-7, Diaglott.
20 Certain he was to be cast out to shift for himself,
the steward tried, before making his final account
to his master, to make friends among his master's
debtors in order to "feather his own nest for the
future". He was looking forward to a soft place for
him to land. He now shmved a form of mercy to his
lord's debtors. As one in charge of his master's
financial affairs he acted inside his duties in altering
and reducing the bills owing from his master's
debtors. These, instead of paying in money or cash,
paid in kind, that is, in valuable, salable :;;ubstances
such as olive oil, butter, or wheat. If the steward had
been an unjust house manager, he likely charged his
master's debtors at exorbitant prices for the sake
of taking in some personal graft. By now reducing
the charges to what would be normal or proper, it
would not really be to his master's loss, but would
bring in the proper returns.
21 However be the case, the master let the final
changed accounts stand, recognizing this as the
steward's responsibility, to collect on the debts as
the steward arranged with the debtors. Otherwise,
by changing the debts back to the first-entered
amounts, the master would have spoiled the selfish
advantage the steward had gained by reducing the
debts. But now, the debts being settled at the reduced
amounts, the steward who thus befriended the debtors would be a welcome man in their homes; he
would not have to earn a living in the hard way by
digging or in a humiliating way by begging. He had
a good eye to the future; and he used the mammon
or wealth, riches, material goods, in order to gain
this advantage. A shrewd man he was!
22 The parable goes on to say: "And the lord COlllmended the unjust stw\vard, because he had done
wisely: for the children of this world are in their
generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke
16: 8) Some readers have taken the words here, "the
lord" to mean the Lord Jesus, as if he were commending-or_ praising the dishonest steward. But this
could not be the case, for Christ Jesus could not
commend the dishonesty and injustice of the steward.
The words "the lord" refer to the steward's lord or
master. 'What the steward had done with the accounts
in order to gain entertainment for himself in the
homes of those whom he befriended came to light in
2O,21.How was the steward thus acting shrewdly?
22. Who commended him, and according to what pro,<,erbs?

55

the investigation, and his lord could not help but

admire the shrewdness with which his unfaithful
steward had acted in his difficulty. He had acted
according to the wisdom of Proverbs 18: 16, which
says: "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men." Also the proverb: ":Many
will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man
is a friend to him that giveth gifts. He that getteth
wisdom loveth his own soul."-Prov. 19: 6, 8.
23 It was this shrewdness, this ability to act in a
practical way with benefit to oneself, that the st~w
ard's master praised. It was this wise, self-benefitmg
action that Christ Jesus emphasized as the principal
point at which he was driving in his parable. Therefore Jesus added the comment: "For the children of
this world are in their generation wiser than the
children of light." Or, more understandably translated today: "For the sons of this age are more prudent as to that generation which is their own, than
the sons of light." (Diaglott) "For the children of
this world look further ahead, in dealing with their
own generation, than the children oflight."-M offatt.
2' Persons of this world act shrewdly or with selfish foresight toward other worldly persons in thi:-:
present-day generation. They take a long-range vie\\
of matters and seek to provide some future advantage or benefit to themselves, especially by making
many friends by acts of friendliness. 'Who can deny
that the United States is trying to act 'shrewdly, with
enlightened selfishness, in its dealing with European
nations in distress by means of the so-called "Marshall plan'" The economic chaos and depression,
followed by unfavorable political upsets which this
country fears will take place in Europe unless the
"plan" is put to work, spurs the United States to
extend this help to the needy nations. It does so to
win political friends thereby and also to avoid the
depression and political troubles that a European
collapse might cause in this land. Thus it has its own
future interests in view, and this affects and directs
the course that it takes now. This course is not necessarily dishonest and unjust toward others, although
it results in the most benefits of a selfish kind in
the end.
2~ That is sound wisdom from a worldly viewpoint.
and self-interest dictates it. Should the "children of
liO'ht" be less wise regarding the things with which
tl~ey have to do, and especially in view of the knowledge they have of what the future holds' Either they
believe in this knowledge of theirs or they do not.
The faithful followers of Jesus Christ are the "children of light", for good reaso.ns. Their. ]H;aven.ly
Father is Jehovah God, concernmg whom It IS WrItten: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. '
23 What did Jesus emphasize about him, and with what comment?
24' How do worldly persons deal shrewdly WIth their generation?
25: How are we chlldren of light, and how should we be wise?

56

2lieWATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

How, now, can a person that follows the light of

God's Word make a practical application of the
special point of instruction in the parable of the
steward ? Jesus himself tells in his very next words:
"And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of
the mammon of unrighteousness j that, when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations."
(Luke 16: 9) Here modern translation, with its better
grasp of the common (koine) Greek in which the
Scriptures were written, makes Jesus' words more
correctly understood: "And I tell you, use mammon,
dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so
that when you die they may welcome you to the
eternal abodes." (Moffatt) The translator here uses
the phrase "when you die" instead of "when ye fail".
This would show we must take into consideration
with whom we have to deal after our life in the
present evil world is done. The majority of the translators prefer the text to refer to the failing of mammon or riches, and so translate Jesus' words in this
way: "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves
friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you
into the eternal tabernacles." (Am. Stan. Ver.) "Make
friends for yourselves with your ill-gotten wealth, so
that when it fails, they may take you into the eternal
dwellings."-An Amer. Trans.; Diaglott.
27 From this we see that the friendships
worth
making are not with the unrighteous, dishonest, or

ill~gotten mammon or wealth. We cannot serve God

and mammon, said Jesus a few verses later (Luke
16: 13). The love of mammon or money is a root of
all evil. (1 Tim. 6: 10) We cannot, therefore, be seek~
ing the friendship of the wealthy ones of this world.
the big landlords and the real estate concerns. We
must be seeking the friendship of those who can give
us more than material possessions, namely, eternal
dwellings, permanent homes. Those able to provide
us with such things are Jehovah God the great
Builder of all things and Jesus Christ his Son, who
said to his disciples: "I go to prepare a place for
you." If we desire to live in happiness for all eternity, these are the ones with whom to make friends;
and to do so we should use what mammon or worldly
wealth we have in this life.
aa The money-loving Pharisees heard Jesus tell his
parable. They did not decide to follow his advice to
make friends of the owners of everlasting dwellings
by means of their ill-gotten mammon or wealth. They
ridiculed him then, and later caused his death on the
tree, showing themselves very unfriendly to him and
to God his Father. (Luke 16: 14) The rich young
ruler, who claimed to be an honest man, saying he
kept God's commandments from his youth up, was
not wise and foresighted enough to follow Jesus'
advice. He was unwilling to use his mammon or
wealth to make friends with Jesus and Jehovah God
by using it in the way that Jesus advised so as to
have "treasure in heaven". Hence, "he went away
sorrowful: for he had great possessions." This
proved Jesus' saying, "That a rich man shall hardly
enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19: 16-24)
The young man's mammon or wealth became specially unrighteous to him, because he made it his gou,
and was unwilling to drop his love of it that he might
love God with everything that he had.
2g Just before telling about the unjust steward
Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son j and this
son likewise showed no wisdom or forethought in
using his mammon which consisted of his part of
hIS father's estate. This prodigal pictured those who
today are becoming the Lord's "other sheep". He
spent his money in loose, extravagant living, making
friends indeed, but friends that forsook him when
his money failed or ran out. He finally found out he
had to repent of his past unwise course and make a
friend of his compassionate father in order to find
a real home. (Luke 15: 11-32) The father's compassion went out to the repentant prodigal. This, and
not any mammon, was what provided for the prodigal son a dwelling with a real friend that would
never forsake him.
~o The repentant tax-gatherer Zacchaeus, who en
tertained Jesus in his home, showed proper pru-

26. What practical application did Jesus tell UB to make of this?

27. With wbom speclftcallv sbould we, wllMlly. make friends?

28, 29 Ho\\ did the rich young ruler and the prodigal not sbow wisdom
30. How did Zaccbaeus and l'entecostal connrts make friendS ~

He is "the Father oflights". (1 John 1: 5 j J as. 1: 17)

Also Jesus Christ, whom they follow, is "the light of
the world", and he has caused the light from God the
Father to shine upon them, thus bringing them forth
as bearers of this heavenly light. His apostle says to
them: "For ye were once darkness, but are now light
in the Lord: walk as children of light." They must
produce the works of light, bringing forth the fruit~
age of God's light. "For the fruit of the light is in
all goodness and righteousness and truth." (Eph.
5: 8, 9, Am. Stan. Ver.) The children of this world
deal with their own worldly generation. On the other
hand, the children of light have to deal with the
organization of light and must render account to
the great Source of light and its channel, namely,
Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. Hence they should
act wisely toward God and Christ. God and Christ
are pleased to have them do so. That is why Jesus
recited this parable of the steward. They should not
show less wisdom than the children of this world do
in their own way to their own generation. Children
of light should be "wise as serpents", but not harmful
as these are. For using wisdom according to the light
they have God will bless them through Jesus Christ.
MAKING FRIENDS BY rtlEANS OF MAMMON
26

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15, 1948

1flieWATCHTOWER..

57

!1 Does making friends of God and Christ Jesus

\vith mammon mean they can be bought or bribed for
favors T Are the Roman Catholic priests and other
religious clergymen right in showing such partiality
toward the rich of this world , Not at all! Simon the
sorcerer of Samaria thought he could buy the favors
of God by the outright gift or commercial exchange
of money. He lusted for power to exercise over
others that he might exploit them and exalt himself.
When he saw the apostles John and Peter imparting
the gift of the holy spirit to the baptized believers
by laying their hands upon such, Simon, so the
account says, "offered them money, saying, Give me
also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he
may receive the holy [spirit]. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money." (Acts 8: 9-20) Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, who jointly acted out a lie with their sale of
property and money contribution, were like Simon
in thinking they could buy God's favor to the extent
of having a- big reputation in the church as full contributors. (Acts 5: 1-10) They failed in their scheme.
U Neither Simon nor Ananias and Sapphira were
wise enough to see that handing over money to buy
something for a selfish purpose could not be acceptable to God or be an act of friendship. Using money
without a loving service of God along with it could

never buy God as Friend so that God would give

special powers and position in this life. Peter's treatment of the offers of Ananias and Sapphira and of
Simon shows we cannot buy an influential place,
power and miraculous gifts in God's organization by
means of a direct trade with money. Were that not so,
then the poor people would be put at a disadvantage
and the rich would be able to buy up all powers and
special privileges and future hopes and reservations.
God would be mercenary. But he is not so, and it
would be ridiculous to think of him as such. In connection with his temple or house of worship he says:
"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the
LORD of hosts." (Hag. 2: 8) "The world is mine, and
the fulness thereof." (Ps. 50: 10-12) And King David
prayed to Him: "All that is in the heaven and in the
earth is thine; ... all things come of thee, and of
thine own have we given thee."-l Chron. 29: 11, 14.
83 We cannot enrich God by giving him what is
already his own. What he wants is our love and devotion. By applying our money in his service in the
way that he prescribes we show our love for him and
hence such use of money is different from the above
use. Not by showing selfishness in trying to get something from him for ourselves by money; but by showing loving appreciation and devotion to God in the
employment of our material wealth, even be it by a
widow's mite, in this unselfish way do we show our
selves friendly to Jehovah God and Christ Jesus and
thus make friends with them.
U This way was the way that Jesus told the rich
young ruler he could make friends of the owners of
eternal habitations. He said: "If thou wilt be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me." (Matt. 19: 21) To the Pharisees Jesus
said: "But rather give alms of such things as ye
have; and, behold, all things [both the inside and the
outside] are clean unto you." (Luke 11: 39-41) Not
that they should make outright money-gifts to the
poor, but that they should use the money principally
in spreading the gospel of salvation to the poor
people of the world that these might thereby gain
enduring riches. Such a course will be rewarded \vith
everlasting abodes with heavenly Friends. Jesus
indicated so in his reply to Peter who said at the
time: "Here we have left all we had and followed
you. What are we to have1" Jesus said to his apostIes: "In the new world, I tell you, when the Son of
Man takes his seat on his glorious throne, you who
have followed me will also sit upon twelve thrones,
and judge the twelve tribes of Israel! And anyone
who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or
father or mother or children or land for my sake
will receive many times as much, and share eternal

31. What two cases cited show GOd cannot be bougbt wltb mammon?
32. Wbat did Peter's treatment ot their offers sbow &. to God?

33. How, tben. w1tb IWlmmon can we make tnends Wltb God?
34. How sbould we .gtve alml to tbe pOor? wltb wbat reward abesd?

dence, foresight and wisdom by following Jesus'

instruction. "And Zacchreus stood, and said unto the
Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any
man by false accusation [ill-gotten mammon], I
restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he
also is a son of Abraham." (Luke 19: 1-10) This
proves that Zacchaeus was making the right friends
by the course he determined to follow with his mammon. Likewise the early disciples from and after the
day of Pentecost used their means in making eternal
friendships according to Jesus' advice. We read:
"The same day there were added unto them about
three thousand souLs. And all that believed were
together, and had all things common; and sold their
possessions and goods, and parted them to all men,
as every man had need." "Neither was there any
among them that lacked: for as many as were
possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought
the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them
down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was
made unto every man according as he had need."
One specially named as doing this was Barnabas.
-Acts 2: 41, 44, 45; 4: 34-37.
HOW USE MAMMON

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BROOKLYN, N. Y.

$lieWATCHTOWER

life."-:Matt. 19: 27-29, An Amer. Trans.; Luke

18: 28-30.
85 This same course of disposing of one's present
riches or mammon for lasting returns in the new
world the apostle tells Timothy to recommend to the
rich Christians. He says: "Charge those rich in the
present age not to be high-minded, nor to confide in
wealth so uncertain, but in that God who imparts
to us all things richly for enjoyment; to do good, to
be rich in good works, to be liberal, willing to bestow;
treasuring up for themselves a good foundation for
the future, that they may lay hold of that which is
really life." (1 Tim. 6: 17-19, Diaglott) Our wisdom
lies, therefore, in treating mammon or riches, not as
our master whom we slavishly serve, but as our ~rv
ant useful in God's work, just as the God-fearing
centurion Cornelius did.-Acts 10: 1-4; Luke 7: 3-5.
a6 Looking at the matter wisely from the viewpoint
of "children of light", we see this:" 'We do not need
to go into real estate deals now in order to provide
houses and lands for the use of ourselves and of
others in the new world that lies beyond the battle
of Armageddon. Even with that battle coming along
fast, there is now no need to provide such places as
"refuge farms" for any Christians to withdraw to in
order to escape the trouble engulfing the world. The
prophet Jeremiah was in prison right in the city
of Jerusalem when it was under siege by the
Babylonians; yet Jehovah preserved him when the
city fell, and saved him from its destruction.
(Jer. 39: 11-18) Jeremiah had the Lord's protection
although in the very midst of danger, and thus he
was really safe, contrary to all outward appearances.
Hence "refuge farms" or suchlike pluces of retreat
are not necessary as long as we keep faithful in
God's service, for .(J eho,ah preserveth the faithful".
-Ps. 31: 23, Am. Stan. Ver.
a, Seeing that JelloYah God and Christ Jesus are
the Ones providing "eternal abodes", there is no need
to build houses now, and tie up money in them, just
to prepare places for the lodging of the faithful dead
whose return we expect by resurrection. If we faithfully apply our time, strength, and material riches
to doing the things God now commands to be done
for the getting of the Kingdom message to the poor
of this world, then the Lord will take care of those
whom he promises to bring back from the dead. Our
being at the entry into the new world of righteousness reminds us of the time that Israel crossed the
Jordan river into the Promised Land. There the
Lord God provided them the dwelling-places, even
the homes that enemies were obliged to vacate. Moses
foretold this by saying shortly before they crossed
Jordan: "It shall be, when the LORn thy God shall
35. In dealin:; with riches, where does wisdom lie?
:1G. Wlly not proVide llouses and farms to llve thlough Armageddon?
;)" 30!. Why uot build now fOI houRin:; rfrlurrected faltbful ones?

have brought thee into the land which he sware unto

thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to
give thee great and goodly cities, which thou
huildedst not, and houses full of all good things,
which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou
diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou
plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be
full; then beware lest thou forget the LORD." (Deut.
6: 10-12) Years later, Joshua testified that the Lord
had given them such things.-Josh. 24: 13.
38 Regarding the battle of Armageddon and its
effect upon those who accumulate houses and lands
but do not trust in God and in his Messiah, the
prophet Isaiah says : '''Woe unto them that join house
to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place,
that they may be placed alone in the midst of the
earth I In mine ears said the LoRD of hosts, Of a
truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great and
fair, without inhabitant." (Isa. 5: 8, 9, 25) If necessary, the Lord God could have the survivors of
Armageddon and the faithful ancients whom he
raises from the dead occupy such vacated houses and
factories of which he dispossesses the wicked users
at the battle of Armageddon. The thing now to do
is for Jehovah's witnesses to use up what they have
in his service as gospel-preachers and let him take
care of providing for the future.
"THE TRUE RICHES"
89 Remembering that the silver and the gold are
Jehovah's and we cannot enrich him by financial or
material contributionl:5, we can appreciate that to
devote our money to His service is relatively the
least thing we can do. Jesus indicated so when he
added these words after his parable of the steward:
"He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful
also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is
unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will COUlmit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have
not been faithful in that which is another man's, who
shall give you that which is your own '" (Lul_e
16: 10-12) Note that comparison which J esus make~
between the unrighteous mammon and the true
riches. True riches are not the material things or"
this world. They are the enduring riches, namely,
the Kingdom truth and the privilege of serving as
a proclaimer and distributor of such truth that
brings salvation to all receiving and living up to it.
God's service with these "true riches" is higher than
that of using whatever material wealth we have. Of
course, we must be faithful in using such earthly
riches in God's service, because, otherwise, he will
not commit to us the superior riches of the truth and
its continued service. God treats us in harmony with
the rule that, if we are not faithful in what is of less

30. nelatively, why is contr1butinc money the least we can do?

FEBRUARY

15, 1948

59

1ffieWATCHTOWER,

or of least importance, we will not display ourselves

reliable in what is of much value and importance.
to Giving ourselves to Him in service as a publisher of his kingdom is more valuable and more
mighty in results than any mere money gift to him.
Our possessing of his holy spirit or active force
inside us is more important and powerful than
possessing great mammonistic wealth. The possessing of the Kingdom truth from his Word, and the
possessing of privileges of preaching which our having that truth offers to us, is more precious and puts
greater responsibilities upon us than our possessing
delusive riches. God prizes as of greater preciousness and worth our loving devotion to him.
n Bear in mind this fact shown in the qnestion put
to Christian stewards: "'Vhat hast thou that thou
didst not receive~" (1 Cor. 4: 1, 2, 7) What \\'-e have
belongs in reality to another, to the great Giver,
.Teho,ah God. If we selfishly abuse or misuse what
he entrusts through Christ Jesus to us as stewards
now; that is, if we are untrustworthy and unfaithful
in that which is another's, how or why should he commit to us that which would be forever our own as
his children in the new world of righteousness 1
Whom will God clothe upon with immortality in the
resurrection, thus giving them life within themselves 7 Certainly not any members of his church if
they have not proved trustworthy on earth in that
which is God's now, especially by right of purchasing
us by the ransom sacrifice of his Son. Neither will
he grant everlasting life in the new world to his
"other sheep" of today if they do not prove faithful
in the use of what he commits to them ac this end
of the world.
U The kingdom of God by Christ Jesus has now
been set up in the heavens, to oust and dispossess
~O.

''"hat is superior to hanng money or contributlul: It?

H. In what rase WIll God not commit to us whllt Is our own?
4:!. Whom WIll the King let dwell WIth hun In the new world?

this wicked, selfish old world that worships mammon

as god. The anointed remnant want to live and reign
with Christ in that kingdom. Their earthly companions, the "other sheep", want to enjoy an everlasting abode on a perfect earth beneath that hea,enly kingdom. Christ Jesus the King tells us whom l!('
will permit to dwell with him there in that new "\yorld.
He was foreshadowed by King David, and throngll
the prophetic words of King David we learn who
will gain a dwelling with Christ as King in the new
world, namely: ":Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful
of the land, that they may dwell 'Yith me: he thrn
walketh in a perfect way, he shall minister unto 1110.
He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my
house: he that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes. Morning by morning will I
destroy all the wicked of the land; to cut off all the>
workers of iniquity from the city of Jehovah." (Ps .
101: 6-8, Am. Stan. V er.) Christ Jesus the King will
not want any self-righteous money-lovers around
him in his domain, for he abominates them and will
never take them into his everlasting habitations.
-Luke 16: 15.
43 Now that the Kingdom is at hand, is it not high
time to think of making and keeping the best kind of
friends, using all that we have at our disposal to
that end 7 Is it not time to use wisdom and foresight,
now that the old world is failing with all its transitory things and a new world without end is at the
door? The King Christ Jesus, and the heavenly
Father Jehovah God, who gave him the Kingdom,
are possessors of eternal abodes. Be wisc. Do not
serve mammon, but serve them. They will not be
unjust to forget your loving service. (Heb. G: 10)
:Make them your e,erlasting Friends, and live forever in the homes they will open to yon wi tIl 11.
loving welcome.
43. What is it now high time to think

ot

and to do?

RESCUE FROM RACE DEGENERACY

EHOVAH GOD has for thousands of years been working out his purpose to rescue humankind from race
degeneracy. Such a rescue was not needed in the beginning of man's existence. God created the first man perfect,
and gave him a woman as helpmeet. Both Adam and Evo
were perfect in body, without pain and sorrow; and were
the most beautiful creatures in Eden. They enjoyed the
right to life in a perfect home filled with beautiful animals
and birds, all subject to man's dominion. Upon one expre...<;sed condition God gave these blessings to man for him
to enjoy eternally; that condition was obedience to God's
law. Penalty of violation was loss of life and the right to it.
The first pair of human creatures on earth did disobey, and
they did lose their lives and their rights thereto.
Because humankind's first parents possessed no right to
life, evelT child born into the world from then until now

has been born imperfect, unrighteous, a sinner, disapproycd

in God's sight, under condemnation, and therefore with no
right to life. The life any have lived has been merely by
divine permission; and all who have died havc dieo. justly,
for nothing but a perfect creature is entitled to life. Unuer
inspiration the apostle Paul sums up the matter of inherited
condemnation: "By one man sin entered into the world.
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned."-Rom. 5: 12.
All the human race, then, from Adam till now, havillg
been born degenerate or imperfect, it follows that if any
ever get full life and the right to life they must get it
through the loving Life-giver, Jehovah God. Unless Goo.
had made some provision for the redemption of man from
death and the lifting up of him again to the condition of
perfect life, the time would come when there would be none

60

~eWATCHTOWER

of the present human race upon earth. We remember that

Adam lived 930 years; and now man does not average
half a century old. The race has been degenerating for
centuries, growing weaker and weaker, and ultimately all
would come to that condition in which they would be unable
to transmit even the spark of life, and the earth would be
depopulated of degenerate creatures. Hence we see our utter
dependence upon God; and God has graciously made provision for the rescue of obedient mE'n and women and children.
At the time of Adam and Eve's first disobedience and

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

sentencing, the invisible troublemaker behind the earthly

scenes was given a death sentence, namely, Satan's head
was to be bruised unto death by the promised Seed, Christ
Jesus. (Gen. 3: 15) God's righteous judgment against Adam
and Eve must stand, but he could be consistent with justice and show his love by providing a redeemer for the offspring of the first human pair. That he has done. (Rom.
5: 15, 18) Those persons seeking rescue from race degeneracy must learn of and meet the conditions of the ranf:om
through Christ Jesus.

INCREASING PRAISE IN THE DARK CONTINENT

EST Africa and South Africa were the objectives of the

flight arranged for Brother N. H. Knorr, the Society's
president, and Brother ~1. G. Henschel, his secretary.
The date set for departure on Pan American Airways was
December 10, and in view of the fact that the route of flight
is through Lisbon, Portugal, it was found possible to plan for
brief visits to Portugal and Spain. Gilead graduate John Cooke
was booked for the flight to Lisbon as a companion of Brothers
Knorr and Henschel.
Weather still stands as a big obstacle for commercial aviation.
December in ~ew York can bring sudden changes in weather, and
so it was that late in the afternoon of the lOth the flight was
postponed unttl 4 a.m. the next day. But at 2 a.m. a 'phone call
brought the informahon that departure had been delayed until
6 p.m. Finally, a little later on, the time was set for take-off
at 12: 30 a.m. on Friday, December 12.
Others in New York had been checking on the flight departure
time too and much to our surprise and dehght brethren from
various units in New York and members of the Bethel family
came to LaGuardia Field to wish us bon voyage. It was not until
1 :05 a.m. that these brethren were sure the travelers would go,
for at that tIme the big DC-4, a veteran of many flights, took
off over New York city, banked to the north and then headed
east for Santa ~Iaria. in the Azores. It was a cold night and only
after an hour of flying did the plane become sufficiently warm
to permIt the passengers to remove their overcoats and feel
comfortable.
For Brother Cooke the experience was something .unusual, as
he was not a veteran flier like the other two travelers. There was
a little dozing after refreshments had been served, but the darkness passed away quickly and soon it was dawn. About 1: 10 p.m.
Eastern Standard (New York) Time, our plane came down
through thick clouds that were hugging close to the Azores and
we made a good landing at Santa Maria Airport. It was a treeless
countryside we viewed about us and there was little to see except
green hills and clouds that were getting darker and blacker by
the minute. The ominous-looking sky apparently meant nothing to
the captain, for in about an hour we were back aboard the plane
and speeding down the long runway in take-off operations. Once
we were up 1D the air we saw nothing through the windows except
the wings of the plane until our watches showed 7 o'clock New
York time; midnight in Lisbon. In the distance we saw the flicker
of lights along the shores of Portugal. It seemed that we circled
over Lisbon and surrounding villages for twenty minutes before
the pilot finally effected a landing at Portela, one of the busiest
airfields in Europe. It had taken us 18~ hours to make the trip.
PORTUGAL

A number of the brethren of the Lisbon company of Jehovah's

witnesses were at the airport to greet us. After going through
entry formalities we were at liberty to talk to our brethren
through Brother Cooke's interpreting. We explained how our
ueparture from New York had been delayed so long that we had
little time to visit the Lisbon brethren as originally planned. Our
plane from Lisbon to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 8: 15 a.m.,
only a few hours away. The brethren wanted to take us to a hotel
to get soml' rp~t for the few intervening hours, but that seemed

useless. By the time we would travel into the city and arrange for
a hotel room it would be almost time to Teturn to the airport, so
it was suggested that we go to the home of the assistant company
servant and talk for a while if that should be their desire; otherwise we would remain at the airport. They wanted a mectmg, so
about 1: 30 we got two taxis and went to a near-by suburb of
Lisbon, where we spent the remainder of the night talking about
the problems of forwarding the Wltness work in Catholic Portugal
and answering many questions that were on the minds of the
brethren. At 6: 30 a.m. our discussions came to a close and it was
now time to return to the airport. Even the children stayed awake
most of the night. Once in a while they showed signs of drOWSIness, but coffee served to keep everyone going. It was a happy
occasion for everyone.
We walked through the dark city just before dawn and it wab
interesting to see the early risers hustling about doing their early
morning chores. As we stepped along briskly in the cold morning
breeze toward the near-by square we saw the httle shops begm
to open. Soon we located a taxi and headed toward the airport
to check in with the Iberian Airways for the tnp to )Jadrid.
There was timl! for breakfast, including hot tea, which pleased
Brother Cooke's English taste very much.
SPAIN

For the three travelers it was difficult to stay awake when one..
we got in the Spanish plane, but we did see the broad expanse
of the Tagus river as we took flight in a big circle and headed
toward Spain. It was not long until we had crossed the border
of Portugal, and then to the north of us we saw the snowcapped
mountams as we neared Madrid. We observed the country or
terrain to be much in likeness to the central part of Mexico. It
was noon when we arrived in Madrid's aerodrome. After considerable formalities we were perlllitted to board a bus and make
the trip to the city. It was an interesting sight we saw. Here wus
the reason why people in the Latin-American countries live as
they do ... everything was what we would call "MeXIcan", but
probably we should say it was "Spanish" because Spain came first.
At the Iberian Airways office in Madrid we were met by some
of the brethren and were escorted by them to a big hotel in the
heart of Madrid. Madrid proper is a clean, well-planned city. It
has beautiful boulevards and pretty parks. There are the subways
too. People crowd the streets. The shops are full of goods, but
the prices are very high. It is a fast-moving city. Many different
uniforms are seen about the city. Some of them are army and
navy dress, but we were informed that the majority are to identify
the various kinds of police now kept busy maintaining obedience
to the Spanish government. At 5 p.m. Saturday we visited some
of our friends who had come from the south of Madrid, as well
as those who were living in Madrid. It was a very informal
occasion, of course, on account of conditions prevailing in Spain.
We were busy until after midnight Saturday and by that time we
travelers were really ready to sleep. We had done but little of thi.
since Thursday.
On Sunday wp had thp opportunity of seeing 27 different
persons and talking to them about the Bible and what a grand
privilege it is for Christians to minister to the needs of the ppop]1'
of all nations.

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15, 1948

61

mieWATCHTOWER..

The three travelers had planned to go on to Barcelona on

Monday, but on account of a shortage of equipment the Iberian
Airways had changed their schedules and it would have been
impossible for Brothers Knorr and Henschel to get back to Lisbon
to make connections for South Africa. It was therefore necessary
to have Brother Cooke travel alone to Barcelona, from which
point he will visit other persons in Spain, and then he expects
to go to France.
There was little more Brothers Knorr and Henschel could
accomplish in Madrid; 50 they arranged to return to Lisbon as
soon as possible. Monday afternoon all arrangements were made
for flight to Lisbon, but a stubborn flight agent at the airport
declared the passports not properly visaed and forced a delay
of one day. On Tuesday things were better and we made the trip
to Lisbon by Portuguese Air Transport. Our brethren in Lisbon
did not expect us back until a later time, 50 no one was on hand
at the airport when we entered Portugal. The airlines bus carried
us into Lisbon, where we were able to arrange for hotel aCCOlUlllOdations. Then we hired a taxi and started out to find some of the
brethren. The company servant. whose address we had, was not
at home. We had no other address. What would we do' We tried
to remember the name of the street where the assistant company
servant lived, but only after consulting a map of Lisbon did we
succeed in locating the suburb where we had been a few days
before. We finally found the bretlll'en and arranged for meetings
for Wednesday and Thursday.
There had been ~ome petty differences among the brethren, as
well as misunderstandings. It was advisable to make personal calls
on certain ones in order to help them solve their problems. Good
results were obtained. In the evening a meeting was held at the
home of the assistant company servant. Thirteen were present.
Therc the company organization was discusscd and information
was given to the brethren concerning the arrangement of the servants llnd study groups as completed during the day. Problems
pertaining to the advancing of the Kingdom interests in Portugal
were handled.
Many of the brethren in the company could not attend the meeting in the city because they lived across the river in villages such
as Cacilhas and Almada. The only way to see them was to arrange
for a meeting on Thursday afternoon. At 3 o'clock a group of
21 assembled 1II a slllall upper room along Wlth five of us that came
over from Lisbon to Almada. They were very happy that we had
come to sce thUll, for it IS difficult for the sisters to travel to
Lisbon at mght to attend the meetings. The llllsunderstandmgs
among- the brethren were small and qniekly melted away. We got
clown to consldermg orgamzatioll in1>tructlOns and the Lord's
Word, which give;; us adVice as to what we should be doing today.
The PlOspccts for expansion In these suburbs of Lisbon are good,
for the brethren are intE'rested in the domg of the Lord's will.
The smull ferry transported us back to Lisbon at dusk. At the
hotel room some points were discussed With the company servant
and then we all traveled to the meeting place. That night 11
attended, some of which were different from tho1>e that had been
there the mght before. It was indeed a privilege to meet with
these brethren and to gi ve them the love and greetings of their
fellow workcrs from all parts of the world as we had done in
:\fadrid. How thE'y appreciated the assurance that the Society is
kecnly interested in them and the work of preaching the good
news and wanted to render them every possible assistance!
Althol1;h Portugal is dOllunated by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy there are some so-called ProtE'slant churches functionmg
and there is a Bible SO('lcty too. During our ~tay in Lisbon a
prominent attorney was interviewcd to see what could be done
to have some of the graduates from Gilead enter Portugal and
to establish the right of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society
to operate in the land. Certainly the presence of trained brethren
will solve many of the problems confronting the local company
and will make it possible to expand the witness work to other
cities in Portugal, where there is now evidence of interest on
the part of some subscribers.
Our reservations with Pan American Airways required our
getting up at 5 a.m. on the 19th so that we could be at the
airport in sufficient time to check through immigration, customs,
etc. In our taxI we sped through the busy, dark streets of Lisbon
and past the centuries-old famous buildings of the city, and soon

were out in the rural area near the airport. We had told our
Lisbon brethren goodbye the night before, but while we waited
for our 8: 30 departure time one of the brethren came up and
informed us that he had come to see US go. After we had boarded
the giant Constellation aircraft we noticed that another brother
had joined him. We appreciated their interest very much.
GOLD COAST

High above a sea of billowy white clouds we traveled south in

a very modern, comfortable high-speed transport. We were moving at a ground speed of 315 miles per hour. When the clouds
began to disperse we could view the barren cliffs of the African
coast to the east, and before long we landed at Dakar's airfield.
Surrounding the airport we could see little but bush country,
l'xeept for a hill toward the sea at the summit of which what
appeared to be a white chapel was located. Up to this point a
topcoat had come in handy, but in Senegal we certainly did not
need one. At 3 p.m. it was humid and hot, and the fewer motions
one made, the better he felt. After about an hour at Dakar the
plane took off and headed toward Accra, the principal city of
the Gord Coast, a British colony in West Africa.
n was almost midnight when we received a hearty welcome
from the brethren and Gilead graduates who had been assigned
to the territory. Students that had been sent to Freetown, Sierra
Leone, had been asked to come to the convention in Accra j and
they were on hand. The brethren stationed at Monrovia had been
asked to come too, but due to difficulties in air travel they were
unable to get to the convention. It was hoped they would arrive
sometime later, '>0 that the president of the Society could talk
to them about their problems in Libena. With the brethren who
were on hand at the airport we traveled along the black, paved
roads into Accra. At that late hour evelJthing was quiet; only
a few folks were still up and around the streets. Some people
of good-will had opened their home for us and we were made
very comfortable. All of the brethren accompanied us to the home,
and because there was 50 much to talk about we didn't retire immediately. Some of the graduates went straight to the convention
cafeteria when they had finished talking with us; breakfast had
to be prepared.
There was much to be done in Accra. Besides the convention
considerable attention must be given problems confronting the
work in the Colony. The Colonial government has not seen fit to
allow all of the Society's Bible-study books to ente!:' the country
without censorship, and they have ruled that the latest books,
such as "The Truth Shall Make You Free", "Let God Be True"
and "The Kingdom Is at Hand", are not suitable publications for
the people in the Gold Coast to read. We called on the acting
comptroller of customs to discuss the matter, but he stated that
he received his orders from hIgher up. He advised m to see the
Colonial secretary, but in view of the fact that our time of stay
in the Gold Coast was so limited it was impos~lble to makc an
appointment. Instead we saw one of the assistant sccretaries, who
pointed out that the government had a right to do a.s it saw fit;
there was no quest:on of freedom, but rather the government was
carrying out the provisions of the Customs ordinance. Later we
saw a member of the Legislative Council, who is also the Society's
lawyer, and finally we called upon the director of education, who
is chairman of the committee that reviewed the books prior to
prohibition. The government officials were asked many questions
and became embarrassed because all of the BrItish Commonwealth
of Nations advocates for freedom of speech and expression and
the Gold Coast colony takes an opposite position.
A petition had recently been filed with the government requesting permission for the importing of all the Society's publications,
and the petition had been signed by upward of ten thousand
prominent educated persons throughout the colony. This petition
was treated lightly by the government and they 1>tlll held to their
old position. No one would point out specifically what was in our
publications that was objectionable. We must assume, therefore,
that there is someone in the government with religlOUS prejudice
who has sufficient power to determine what the people of the Gold
Coast shall read and study. If this is true, then religion is run
ning the state as far as the control of imports is concerned. It
is known that the retiring governor has the reputatIon of being
a staunch Roman Catholic and that the missionariCll in the Gold

62

SEeWATCHTOWER

Coast have exercised much influence with the officials; so the

conclusion must be reached that there is a conspiracy to prevent
the people from thoroughly understanding the Bible and getting
out of control of the religious organizations.
Despite the harsh treatment by censorship and the withholding
of textbooks pertaining to the Bible, the work of Jehovah's witnesses moves ahead splendidly in the Gold Coast. The convention
was well organized by the brethren and the two graduates of
Gilead now stationed at Accra managed it exceptionally well. A
theater called the Palladium was obtained for the holding of the
assembly. The brethren decorated the platform very colorfully and
appropriately. The name was "Praise-giving Nations Assembly"
and this was reproduced in large block letters placed in front of
a rainbow background right in front of the stage. Details like this
made us appreciate the great effort put forth by the brethren in
Accra to copy the organizational methods of conventious in other
parts of the world. They had arranged for a cafeteria. Territory
cards were used for the first time in the Gold Coast. In fact, all
the departments were there. It took much patience on the part
of the brethren to introduce and manage these new things for the
African brethren. All that was done was greatly appreciatcd
by the assembly.
The convention opened Saturday morning with field service.
At 2 p.m. the Branch servant from Lagos, Brother W. R. Brown,
gave the address of welcome. This was followed by the relating
of very interesting experiences in the petition work by Brothers
Baker and Wilkinson, Gilead graduates of the eighth class.
Following them the graduates stationed at Freetown, Sierra Leone,
Brothers Richardson, Fitzpatrick and Gresham, told of their
experiences and problems in Freetown. In spite of some hardships
these brethren are putting forth a wonderful effort to reach the
people mth the message of the Kingdom.
These experiences were followed by a discourse by Brother
Henschel and another by Brother Knorr, which brought the convention to a close for the day at 6: 30 in the evening. This was
necessary because the theater was to be used that night for showing motion pictures.
On Sunday morrung an immersion was held. Brother Henschel
delivered the discourse and then 171 who recently consecrated
themselves to God's service were taken by hired bus sel'Vlce to
the beautiful beach about two miles from the theater. :Many small
palm trees grow Ileal' the shore, and among these the brethren
changed clothes before being baptized in the rough sea, the
Atlantic breakers.
There were 950 brethren ill attendancc at the assembly and well
over 800 of them engaged in the field service, advertising the
public meeting and also gomg from house to house with the book
Children, which is admittcd into the Gold Coast. Information
walkers were well organized and handbill distribution contmued
right up to the time of the public meetIng. The throngs of people
that dUlly traverse the streets of Accra knew that "Permanent
Governor of All Nations" was the title of the public talk to be
delIvered by Brother Knorr through two interpreters.
All of the talks had to be spoken through persons well versed
in Ga and Twi, the native languages of the brethren attendIng'
the convention. That consumed much time, and so the publIc
meeting ran well over an hour To the delight of all present the
hall was packed out; hundreds were standing outSIde too. The
count showed that 1,353 attended the publIc meetIng.
Evening se5sions brought the conventIOn to a close, Brother
Knorr giving the brethren good counsel on how to carry on the
work in the Gold Coast despIte censor5hip on publications. It was
also annoullced that a Branch office would be established in Accrll
with Brother Baker as Branch servant, assistcd by Brother
Wilkinson. This was the best news the brethren had heard for a
long time and it was received with great aeclaim and much
rejoicing. Undoubtedly the work will continue to progress. Our
African brethren have received real satisfaction in havlDg learned
the truth and they are really anxious to tell others in this terntory
the good news of the Kingdom. They have their problems ill
reaching the thousands of small villages. They must go agamst
teachings of fetish practitioners, missionaries and Mohammedans.
The kings and chiefs of tribes can cause great difficulties to those
in a tribe taking up the truth, if they are disposed to do so. But
these things will not stop Jehovah's witnesses, because they will

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

seek first the Kingdom and, by the Lord's grace, will preach it
to all that have an ear to hear. They look to Jehovah to give
them the needed wisdom and strength.
The city of Accra is by ho means what we could call a modern
city when compared with Britain or AmeriC8;, ~ut in Africll: it. is
quite good. It is composed of many small bUlldings, the mllJonty
of them being constructed of mud or bricks and with steel roofs.
Others are made with roofs of woven palm branches. The people
dress very colorfully, having particular preferencc for red and
yellow. Apparently the more the colors clash, the better they like
it. The cloth worn on the head is usually of a color distinctly
different from that of the robe they tie about their body. There
are no buttons, zippers or hooks on their ga.x:nents; they j~t wind
a long piece of cloth about them and drape It on the body m such
a way that it stays. It is not uncommon to see someone stand up
in a meeting and adjust his clothing, nor to have a mother swing
her child from its position on her back to her lap and at the
same time never take the eyes off the speaker. Others, of course.
prefer the European type of clothing, but ~hey are in the
minority. During a convention session many Wlll stand up and
stretch. This we are told is due to the fact that the individual
may have had -a tropical fever or has it at the moment. It does
not disturb the speaker, for he soon gets accustomed to having
plenty of moving about in the audience.
NIGERIA

The British Overseas Airways Corporation representatives iu

Accra. told us that we must be at the airport at 5 : 30 a.m. on the
22nd in order to travel to- Lagos, Nigera. This meant that it would
be necessary to rise at 4 o'clock. Brother Brown was to travel
with us to Lagos. One of the servants in the Accra company very
kindly motored us to the airport in the dark hours of the morning, only to hear with us that the plane we would take would not
leave until 8: 30. Our only choice was to remain at the airport.
It seemed a long time until we took off in a converted British
bomber that carried eleven passengers. En route we caught sight
of some of the beaches and swampy land of the French Dahomey.
but in less than an hour and a half we had landed at the Lagos
Airport.
Here we received a real reception. The brethren were out in
force carrying a large banner welcoming Brothers Knorr and
Henschel to Lagos. Along with brethren from the office and
local publishers there were three graduates of Gilead, BrothelS
Attwood, Moreton and Masinick, all of whom were looking well
and were a joyful sight to us. Entry formalities were quickly
disposed of and we were able to get away by car to Lagos. Lago,;
and environs have much larger population than Accra, but the
people appeared to have similar customs and living conditions
were about on a par. Some of the buildings are a little morc
substantial-looking, but still they are thoroughly African. In the
center of Lagos on one of the busiest streets the Branch officc
(now far too small to accommodate the extensive work) is located,
and there we were able to meet more members of the Branch
family. We were glad to get right into checking matters and dealmg With Branch problems. It was the first time a preSIdent of
the Socicty had visited the Branch; so there was much to be doue.
A public meeting had been arranged for at 6 p.m. in Lagos at
the Glover Memorial Hall, a cinema. A small platform was erectcd
at one end of this open air lot. Sound equipment was installed,
but when 6 p.m. came there were some electrical connections on
the public-address system that were not right. A good crowd was
on hand, and by five minutes past 6 some of them began to call
"Time! Time I" which meant they were ready to hear the speech.
The speaker could have begun, but it would have been impOSSible
for him to make himself heard, because of the noise in the street
and the other sounds of the city. Many people were still coming
in when at ten minutes past 6 the difficulty was found and it was
possibll' to explain to the audience the reason for the delay.
Brother Brown had to hold a connection together with his hands
dunng the entire public lecture because equipment was defective.
When the speech began all the Beats in the outdoor hall were filled
and hundreds of people were standing. Brother Knorr gave the
lecture without an interpreter because the people of Lagos
generally know English. The audience gave close attention, and
as it became dark the only light in the place was that provided

FEBRUAIW

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

for the platform. It was difficult for the speaker to see the audio
ence. Near by was a large steamship that sent out a lot of soot
and smoke through the funnels, which soot blew over to the hall
and settled down on the audience and in the throat of the speaker;
but with the exception of a few breaks in electrical contact during
the talk (which were repaired immediately) the lecture went off
well. The final count turned in by the ushers showed that 4,640
attended. Good advertising had been done by the 170 publishers in
Lagos and good notice was also put in the local newspapers.
About everyone in the city knew about the meeting and those in
attendance showed good interest in the work that Jehovah's witnesses are doing. Tills was the only meeting arranged for in
Lagos, because of the lack of time and, further, two large conventions were planned at 1badan and Enugu.
All day Tuesday and Wednesday morning were spent in the
office. Reports there showed remarkable progress was being made
in Nigeria. This justified the decision to purchase a press as soon
as possible and then print The Watchtower in Yoruba and in
lbo, the principal languages used by the brethren who do not
know English. A mimeograph machine ,~as purchased so that the
Informant could be gotten out in these languages immediately. It
was decided that the Branch office was too small and it should
be changed to a better location; so as soon as a suitable place
can be found a change will be made. A new peak in number of
publishers was reached in Nigeria during the month of November,
when there were 5,304 in the field and the company publishers
a'\"eraged 25 hours for the month. The peak in 1947 (ending
August 31) was 4,068. Brother Bro\vn, who has been looking after
the Society'l' interests in West Africa for the past 25 )-ears, has
done a we nderful work among the African people. His wife has
assisted him in this. He is getting along in years now, nigh unto
70, and the many spells of fever have taken their toll. It was
decided that the burden of the work should fall on younger
shoulders. Brother Brown has been looking forward to this change
for a number of years. Brother Attwood was appointed us Branch
servant, and Brother Brown will always be a member of the
Bethel family, taking care of the duhes assigned to him and
giving good advice and counsel to this graduate of Gilead who has
had much experience in field organization in Britain.

YORUBALAND
Wednesday morning, December 24, the Bethel family had
started on the move. Most of them were traveling by train to
Ibadan, which tram was destined to break down several times
en route and to arrive late. The rest of the family left by ear
around noon. The trip into the interior by auto "as very beautiful.
We passed through the jungles and Y:illages on a WIuding, but
paved, highway. Gas rationing is in effcct in Nigeria, and so at
'l"'arious points along the way the Nigerian police stop traffic to
check on their permits to travel. We, of course, had no illfficulty.
A fine rest house had recently been crected at Ibadan by the
Kigerian govermoent to pronde special accommodatIOns for government officials. Non-Africans who are not employed by the government may also secure accommodations, and so we were able
to stay there during the entire Ibadan con'\"ention. The quarters
were '\"ery comfortable, and after we had completed tbe arrangements at the rest house we proceeded to the convention locution
in the city.
For more than a week plior to the con'l"'cntion the brethren in
Ibadan had been extremely busy. A school and adjoining football
field had been obtained for use of the convention, but it was
necessary to construct a large booth 100 feet mde and 175 feet
long in which to hold the meetings. The Ibadan brethren had to
go into the jungles and cut out long bamboo poles, as well as
gather palm branches. The bamboo poles were stuck into the
ground on the field at a distance of about ten feet apart. The tops
were all notched and then a roof was constructed by crossing
bamboo strips at the tops of the poles and covering them with
straw mats and palm branches. No walls were constructed. That
allowed for the breeze to come through but protected the audience
from the hot sun. It was coming into the harm.attan season, when
the wind blows down from the north; so the African brethren
thought the weather cool, but the travelers did not. As long as
the breeze blew it was quite comfortable. Approximately four
thousand persons could be gathered in the booth. At one end of

63

the booth a platform was erected and nicely decorated. Sound

equipment was installed and lights were strung throughout the
booth. By using the playing field next to the large school the
brethren could move the benches from the school out to the booth.
The holiday season was also a good thing, for the brethren were
able to gather benches and chairs from all the other schools in
1badan and had a seating acco=odation for 3,500 people. One
of the large schoolrooms was turned into a cafeteria eating place.
An open-air kitchen was set up and covered over with a shelter
similar to the booth but smaller. It was easy to see that the brethren in Nigeria were trying to conduct this assembly in 0. mo.nner
similar to other assemblies held throughout the world by J ehovah'8
witnesses.
The arrival of the travelers from America and the Gilead graduates at the convention grounds brought many greetings of kabo I
(welcome, Yoruba) from the African brethren. The address of
welcome by the Branch servant, Brother Brown, started at 6: 30
on the 24th. This was followed by discourses b~' Brothers Henschel
and Knorr.
Thursday was devoted to field service, service Ineetings and
Theocratic ministry course during the first part of the dllY.
Brothers Attwood and Brown made a call on the king of Ibadan,
giving him a special invitation to come to the public meeting at
5 o'clock in the afternoon. They were well received, but due to
his great age it was impossible for the king to attend. He sent
his servants to notify the chiefs in the city to attend and to
inform. their people.
Of course, Jehovah's witnesses gave wide publicity to the public
meeting and every one in lbadan knew of the assembly. News
travels fast in Africa through the grapevine arrangement all their
own. lbadan itself is the largest of native cities in the continent
of Africa and it is the fourth-largest city of any kind. It was
really interesting to see the people coming from all directions and
all parts of the city and quickly fill up all the seats under the
booth. Then they took positions on the shady side of the booth.
and finally crowded in around the speaker's ptatform, until 6,000
persons were in attendance while the lecture "Permanent Governor of All Nations" was being delivered in English and interpreted in Yoruba.
The costumes of the people were very colorfUl, especially those
of the chiefs who wcrc present. Right in the front ro\\' to the left
of the speaker were five chiefs of the Yorubal'. It was not
uncommon to see some of the tribesmen who had come to the
meeting prostro.te thelnselves on the ground in obeisance to their
rulers. During the discourse a large group of gaily dressed
Africans and a witch doctor paraded down the street beating on
their drums and dancing. That caused a little disturbance to some
in the meeting. The pubhe lecture was greatly appreciated !lnd it
was evident that many of the people of good-Will remained for
the evening meetings as well liS came back for the final sessions
of the convention on Friday.
l=ersion was held out in the country, in ll. pond where the
brethren had cleared away some of the lilies and vegetation. That
started the day. There was field service in the morni.ng and the
final sessions were attended by 3,593. The greater portlon of these
were Jehovah's witnesses that came great distances from all parts
of Yorubaland to attend the assembly. The African brethren
greatly appreciated the opportunity of meeting representatln~
of the Society from America and to hear the many good things
that were spoken from the platform, among which were announcements that shortly, it is hoped, printing of The Watchtotver in
Yoruba and in 1ho will be possible. Announcement of the change
of Branch servant was made and the president of the Society
explained that this change was not made because of any failings
or lack of oo-operation on the part of Brother Brown but due
mainly to his age and inability to take care of the numerous
details in the Branch office. Brother Brown is greatly loved by the
African brethren and they are glad that the labor of operating
the Branch office falls on younger shoulders. The work has been
growing very rapidly in Nigeria and much of it is the result of
the tireless traveling and lecturing by Brother Brown, who is
well known throughout West Africa. The conyention voted to
send love to the other brethren along the way.
Soon we would leave lbadan, that large overgrown nati'l"'e
village. The mud huts with galvanized iron roofs are built clos~ly

~eWATCHTOWER

64

together. There are no straight,streets and it seems as if on the

main streets every hut were a .shop. The city is crowded with
people. There are no sidewalks; so everyone has to keep alert
dodging passing cars and lorries. We were later to see some
smaller native villages much more primitive.
OFF FOR IBOLAND

Our next stop was to be Enugu, in the heart of !holand. The convention had been scheduled for Decenlber 27 to the 29th inclusive,
and it was believed that the trip of 400 miles from Ibadan could
be made by ear. It was hoped that the 2 p.m. ferry of Saturday,
the 27th, could be gotten at the Niger river. So five of us rose
at 3; 30 a.m. on the 27th in order to make the trip through the
jungles of Nigeria in time to be at the river to meet the ferry.
Getting off to a good start, ,,'e traveled by moonlight over a paved
road for about 70 miles. Then the fuel line started to give trouble.
Some air was blown through in an effort to keep the line open
and we went a bit farther on the red-dirt roads. Finally, after
considerable coughing, the car refused to run at all. Three hours
were spent in trying to get the car repaired, and during this time
it was decided that Brother Moreton, who was chairman of the
Enugu convention, should take a native lorry and travel on
toward the river and Enugu. About an hour after he left we
finally got the car started again, and when .we drove into the next
village, Owo. we found Brother Moreton still waiting for the next
lorry that would go as far as the Niger. So we took on our
fifth passenger again and traveled at as high a speed as the roads
would allow, until we got to the Kiger. It was 8 p.m. and we were
told the last ferry had left at 5. Two of the party, Brothers Knorr
and Henschel, had to be ba(k in Lagos sometime Monday in order
to get the plane for Accra and make connections for South Africa.
The only thing to do was to send Brothers Attwood and Moreton
across the two-mile-wide river in a canoe so that they could reach
Enugu and give the talks they had heard Brothers Knorr and
Henschel deliver in Ibadan. A copy of the manuscript for the
public lecture was given to Brother Attwood so that he could
deliver it. A. native hired out his canoe, and the two brethren
soon disappeared in the moonlight on the Niger.
Brother Brown and the two of us checked over the ear and
managed to get more petrol. It was deCided to travel homeward
toward Lagos until we could find a suitable location to stay overnight. Had we waited until morning to cross the river on the next
ferry we should never have had time to get to the conventIOn and
return. We regretted this very much, but we had done the best
we could under the circumstances.
So we pushed the ear until we got it started, and began driving
through the jungle night toward Benin city. Driving at night in
the jungles is quite difficult. The roads are narrow. The lights of
the car cast many queer shadows on the road. In addition to that,
we had a full moon above, which added to the shadows and made
driving extremely hazardous. Slowly we made our way along,
and at a few minutes before midnight we reached Benin. We tried
to get accommodations at the Government rest house, but nothing
was available. The assistant district officer would have accommodated us at his home, but it happened that there was a party
going on there that would run until after three o'clock j so we
thought it better to drive on all night if we could obtain the
necessary petrol. A lunch was served to us by the very hospitable
Englishman and then we started on our way. We wakened some
natives who had petrol for sale, and got the tanks filled. We
determined to proceed until we reached Lagos, taking turns with
the driving. At about 2: 30 a.m. on a very narrow road which
turned into a narrow bridge our car got slightly off the dirt of
the road and onto the wet green grass and skidded right off the
road. The driver brought it to a stop before it reached the bridge.
This left the three of us miles from nowhere with the car off
the road on a grassy incline. We tried to push the car back onto
the road., but the more we pushed, the more it slid down the grassy
bank. We unloaded all of the luggage, petrol, oil, and food we
didn't have time to eat, and tried again, without success. So we
had to wait on the road, sitting on our suitcases in the moonlight
out there in the middle of the jungle. At about 3: 30 we heard the
rumble of a lorry, and soon saw its headlights shining through the
night. WI' wavpd the driver to a halt and explained what had

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

happened. He ealled his passengers out of the lorry and about

20 of us picked the car up and carried it back onto the road. It
seemed to be without anything particularly wrong. We tried it
out and then packed our luggage back. We expressed appreciation
to the Africans who were so kind as to help us, and then we
started on our way to Ilesha. By 4: 30 in the morning the fog
and mist became 80 thick in the jungle that we could not see the
road ahead. The only thing to do was to pull off to the side of
the road for an hour or 80 and wait for the dawn.
After dawn fair progress was made. The muffler had blown out
on the way to the Niger, so that had to be wired to the frame.
The box in which the battery is seated loosened at one side and
tipped the battery to one side, spilling the acid and water on the
road. More wire was required to temporarily fix that. We got
petrol at Ilesha and then proceeded to !hadan. On the way the
brakes began to give trouble, but by driving slowly and carefully
it was possible to carry on.
!badnn climaxed the car's troubles. Suddenly the engine stopped
dead, and although we pushed the car back and forth for about
fifteen minutes trying to get it to start it would not run. A
mechanic had to be called, and he put a new part in the distributor. Then the engine ran flne, but the clutch gave out. After
three hours at !hadan the mechanic announced that the car would
get to Lagos all right, but it would go only in forward speeds.
If we wanted to back up at any time we would have to push It;
which we did.
We arrived back in Lagos at 10 o'clock Sunday night. We had
covered over a thousand miles since we left Lagos, and nine hundred of that was in the 42 hours we had been continuously on the
jungle roads. After that we were glad to have some hot soup and
prepare to go to bed. But most pleasant of all was the bath we
were abl~ to take. Our clothes and our bodies were covered with
red dust, grease and sweat. White shirts were pink and only a
good dry-cleaning would fix the suits.
BACK TO ACCRA

The next morning BOAC told us we could leave for Accra on

the 1: 15 plane; so we packed our clothes and got ready. Just
before we left the Branch the following telegram was received
from Brother Attwood, from Enugu:
"Successful 3~ miles canoe crossing. Lorry chartered. Arrived
Enugu 2 a.m. Convention in full swing; 1600 brethren, 3400
public lecture; 67 immersed. Convention sends love and greetings.
all good wishes. SOUTH AFRICAN TRIP."
This brought great joy to our hearts, for it was a relief to knolV
that the two brethren had arrived safely at Enugn and to learn
that they had such a fine assembly in !boland.
We wished it would have been possiblp to stay in Nigeria
longer; but conventions were arranged fa! in other parts of
Africa which, by the Lord's grace, we hop~d to attend. So on
:!Ve proceeded to Accra, where Brothers Baker and Watkins,
Gilead graduates, met us. Brother and Sister Watkins were not
able to get to the convention at Accra, but they finally did get to
Accra from Monrovia to see us and we were able to talk to them
about the problems in Liberia. We were glad that they were happy
in their assigned territory and that many people of good-will are
listening to the Kingdom message there.
The days spent in Accra before leaving for points south were
devoted to going over the matters pertaining to the newly estab.
lished Branch office for the Gold Coast and taking care of detlUls
pertaining to the work in Sierra Leone and the problems of the
three graduates now stationed at Freetown. ViSIts were made to
some prominent men who are interested in our cause of freedom
of speech and worship,
Tobe visit to West Mrica brought clearly to mind the many
problems that the brethren must face in order to preach the
gospel, and we cannot help but admire the zeal and devotion of
thp~e faithful servants of the Lord. Jehovah's spint is very
manifest among the W~st Afriean brethren, and they show the
same zeal and love for Jehovah God and his kingdom as do all
other publishers throughout the world. Theocratic expansIon IS
a reality in West Africa and Jehovah's blessing is WIth his
witnesses in the African nations and tribes.

2lieWATCHTOWER..
PUllLIS:m:D SEMUONTHLY

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By

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"Ana all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; ana

shall be the peace of thy children." Isaiah 54:zJ.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the lIIllker of heaven and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebeIled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth tor mall, made perfect man for
the earth and piaced him upon It: that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and wlllfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life i
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehoyah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne. has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceells to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings ot the peoples cun come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's organization llnd establish
righteousness <.'Ompletely in the earth; and that under the Kinguom
the people of good-will surviving Armllgeudon will carry out the
divine manuate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead In the graves wlll be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.
"ALL NATIONS ADVA...'Il'CE" TESTnlO~Y PERIOD
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"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of April 4: "The 'Trinity' Opposed to God's Kingdom,"

~ 1-18 inclusive, Tile Watchtowcr March 1, 1948.
Week of April 11 : "Why the Holy Scriptures Teach No Trinity,"
~ 1-15 inelusive, The Watchtower March 1, 1948.
Week of April 18: "Why the Holy Scriptures Teach No Trinity,"
~ 16-29 inclusive, The Watchto1cer March 1, 1948.

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gfieWAlfC1HIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

MARCH

1, 1948

No. 5

THE "TRINITY" OPPOSED TO GOD'S KINGDOM

"The Lord

o~tt"

God is one Lord."-Deut. 6: 4, Rom. Oath. Do'uay Version.

years after Jesus Christ. Yet, neither does this late
writer teach or betray any belief in a triad of three
co-equal, consubstantial, equipotential per.sons, all
three distinct from one another and yet all three
blended together in one God.
a Platonic-minded Theophilus of the second century, who was a bishop of Antioch, Syria, introduced the word trias into his religious writings about
A.D. 180. Toward the end of the same century the
Latin writer, Tertullian, translated trias into Latin
by the word trinitas, meaning trinity, and thus the
term was introduced into the religious writings of
Christendom. This Tertullian was also the first to use
the Latin term persona, or person, to mean a single
individual with peculiar qualities of his own; and he
speaks of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit
as being tres personae, or three intelligent persons.
At the same time Tertullian insisted they had a unity
of substance (unitas substantiae) because they all
three had no beginning but existed from the eternal
past. We can thus see that the doctrine that Jehovah
God and Christ Jesus and the holy spirit are three
persons in one God, or a three-in-one God, does not
date from apostolic times or the first century. It
dates from almost a century later, which was late
enough for the apostasia, or the falling away from
the true faith which Paul said was already working
in his day, to get far off from the truth and into the
cunning teachings of paganism.-2 Thess. 2: 3-12.
In the fourth century, in the year 325, came the
religious council of Nice because of the heated debate
over that trinity teaching. At this council, not the
bishop of Rome, but the unbaptized Emperor Constantine presided as the pontiff or pontifex maximus.
By decree of Pontifex Maximus Constantine a ban
was laid upon Arius, who had opposed the trinitarian
doctrine, and the emperor gave his support to the
statement of belief which was drawn up by the trinitarians under Athanasius and which has been called
the Nicene creed. By the sword of the emperor this
creed was enforced as the rule of belief for the Roman empire. The Nicene creed was written, not in

" } EHOVAH our God is one Jehovah: and thou

shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
(Deut. 6: 4, 5, Am. Stan. Ver.) For the reason which
Moses here gave, neither he nor the faithful prophets that followed him, down to Malachi, taught a
"trinity" or believed in any such thing. The heathen
nations of their times did teach various ideas of a
trinity, such as the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the
Grecian, the Chinese, the Hindu, etc., but not Jehovah's chosen nation. A.ll his holy prophets warned
his chosen people against adopting or compromising
with any of the religious teachings of such heathen
nations. The reason why was that such teachings,
including a so-called "trinity", were false. They were
"doctrines of devils", inspired by wicked demons
opposed to the one living and true God. For this
reason the apostles of Jesus Christ followed in the
steps of the faithful prophets before them in likewise
not teaching any such thing as a "trinity', but to the
very contrary.
2 The Greek word trias came into use before Christ,
in the writings of the pagan philosopher of Athens,
Greece, named Plato, belonging to the fifth and
fourth centuries B.C. This word, meaning the number three or triad, occurs in Plato's work entitled
Phaedo, this being a dialogue on the idea of the
immortality of the human soul. The word trias, or
trinity, does not occur in the sacred Greek Scriptures
written by the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ,
from the gospel account by Matthew to the Revelation by John. The book of Acts of the Apostles was
written about 61 (A.D.), about 28 years after Jesus
Christ, and yet it nowhere gives any account of his
apostles' meeting together and framing a creed in
which they state a belief in one God in three persons,
all three persons being one and the same God, of the
same identical substance, all three being equal in
existence, power and glory. John was the last of the
apostles to survive. He wrote his three epistles and
his gospel account and the Revelation in the last
decade of the first century A..D., or more than 60
1. Why did God's prophet. and people not helieve In a trlnlty?

2. 3. How, wben, by whom, was a trifid of thrPe persons Introdured?

4. How
67

WIlS

the Nlcene creed drawn up on the trlnlty?

68

1ffieWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Latin, but in Greek, and it declared: We believe in

one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things
visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God begotten of the Father, Only begotten,
that is of the substance of the Father; God of God;
Light of Light; very God of very God; begotten, not
made; of the same substance with the Father; by
whom all things were made, both things in heaven and
things in earth.... And in the Holy Ghost." The creed
ends up with cursing or anathematizing those who do
not accept it. We dare to challenge that anathema.
3 As in its issue of Sunday, October 10, 1943, the
Catholic newspaper The Register in its local edition
of Denver, Colorado, might choose to publish that
our stand "is actually reviving Arianism!" But we
are not going back to the teachings of Arius. We are
going farther back, to the teaching of the apostles,
and therefore we shall appeal to the Holy Scriptures
themselves, three centuries earlier than A.rius. Then
by examining what Jesus said and did and what his
apostles and disciples said and did we shall determine firsthand whether they taught any such confused, unreasonable and inexplainable thing as a
trinity. Let no one sidetrack us from this search by
saying that the trinity is a mystery that we are not
supposed to explain or understand. Let us prayerfully do as the Christians of Berea did respecting
the teachings of the apostle Paul, namely, "They
received the [apostolic] word with all readiness of
mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether
those things were so." (Acts 17: 11) Thereby we
shall arrive at what God's Word says on the subject,
and not follow traditions of the religious elders,
which traditions Jesus Christ condemned.-Matt.
15: 1-9.
s Discussion of whether there is a trinity might
seem like going back to something away out of date,
belonging to the time when musty old theology held
the floor in Christendom. But that is not so. Nothing
else could be of more timeliness now, when the
nations of the earth are in turmoil and the visible
part of the world is being divided into a western
bloc of nations and an eastern bloc, the eastern
bloc being led by those who deny the existence of
Jehovah God, and the western bloc claiming to believe
in a trinity and thus thinking they have the support
of a divine trinity on their side. In the midst of this
selfish struggle for the domination of this world the
time has come for the living and true God, Jehovah,
to vindicate himself as to who he is and what is his
true and rightful position and his power and authority in the universe. We are at the time when the
prophecy is undergoing fulfillment: "And there were
loud voices in heaven saying, 'The kingdom of this
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of

his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever....

We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God almighty, who art.
and who wast, because thou hast taken thy great
power and hast begun thy reign. And the nations
were angered, but thy wrath came and the time for
the dead to be judged.' "-Apocalypse 11: 15-18,
Catholic Confraternity New Testament.
1 The question of world domination having now
been pushed to the fore as at no time in the past.
there was never a world situation before that made
it more fitting that the truth of Psalm 83 should be
proved to everybody, namely: "Keep not thou silence.
o God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, 0 God.
For, 10, thine enemies make a tumult: ... let them
be put to shame, and perish: that men may know
that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the
most high over all the earth." (Ps. 83: 1, 2, 17, 18)
The question of supremacy is here involved and must
be openly settled, because Moses said there is only
one Jehovah, not three J ehovahs. Hence, Is J ehoyah
supreme as the Most High God'
s 'Whereas the Communist-led eastern bloc deny
Jehovah's existence, the western bloc of nations
solemnly declare that Jehovah is not alone in his
supremacy. They declare he shares it with two more
persons whom they designate as the Son Jesus
Christ and the Holy Ghost. The so-called "Athanasian creed", which has been adopted by the Greek,
Roman and Protestant religious organizations.
makes this strong statement: "And in this Trinity
none is afore or after other; none is greater or less
than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal together, and coequal. So that in all things.
as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity
in Unity is to be wars nipped. He therefore that will
be saved must thus think of the Trinity." Let the religionists so state, but the belief in a "trinity" will not
save the western nations at the battle of Almageddon
toward which both the western and eastern blocs are
marching in combined opposition to God's kingdom.
And neither will their trinitarian belief save the religious systems of Christendom from a whore's fiery
end at the hands of disgusted world rulers, as described at Revelation (or Apocalypse), chapter 17,
verses 12-18. There will be no three-in-one god to
come to the rescue of organized religion with her
Athanasian creed, because no such god exists.

5. How wlll we disprove the talse charge ot "ArlnDlsm"?

6, i. Why Is It now most timely to eUocu-s the "trmlty"?

8. Why will belief In the Athanaslnn crec<1 not save the nations?
9, 10. How does the Kingdom's establishment dIsprove equality?

NO EQUALITY

In establishing the kingdom of God it is Jehovah

God that puts his Son Jesus Christ upon the throne
to reign and thereby blesses him. This is pictured at
Revelation 12: 5 as the catching up of the newborn
man-child "up unto God, and to his throne", where
he must rule all nations, the eastern and western
g

MARCR

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER..

blocs thereof, with a "rod of iron", to dash them all

to pieces at the final war of Armageddon. Ris being
enthroned by Jehovah God both argues and demands
that Christ Jesus be subordinate and not equal to
Jehovah. 'Why s01 and let us have Scriptur~ proof
for it. Such proof follows.
10 At Psalm 21: 1-6 David prophetically referred
to Christ Jesus and his being raised from the dead
and being enthroned as King and says: "The king
shall joy in thy strength, 0 Jehovah; ... For thou
makest him most blessed for ever." (Am. Stan. Ver.)
Also Psalm 45: 6, 7 refers to the enthronement of
Christ as King in the heavens, and the apostle Paul
quotes those verses and says, at Hebrews 1: 8, 9:
"But of the Son he saith, Thy throne is God for ever
and ever; and the sceptre of uprightness is the
sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows." (Am. Stan. Fer., margin) Now fix your
attention upon the fact that Jehovah God is the One
that confers these royal blessings upon Christ Jesus
in the heavens; which fact explodes the trinitarian
creed that "none is greater or less than another".
Since Christ Jesus is thus blessed by Jehovah God
his God, then Jehovah God the Blesser must be
greater and higher than the Blessed One, for the
apostle Paul states the rule: "And without all contradiction, that which is less, is blessed by the better."
-Reb. 7: 7, Douay Version.
11 The subordinate place of Christ Jesus in the
kinlTdom of God is shown in that it is at the right
ha;d of Jehovah God that he sits, and not in the
central position; as it is written, at Psalm 110: 1:
"Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
(Am. Stan. Fer.) This scripture the apostle Peter
applies to the resurrected Christ Jesus.
12 Unlike Satan the Devil, the enthroned Jesus
Christ does not use his Kingdom power to try to
make himself equal with God or "like the ~lost
High". Before he became a man, he did not try to
usurp Jehovah God's power and place, for we read:
"Let this disposition be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who, though being in God's form, yet
did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but
divested himself, taking a bondmans form, having
been made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2: 5-7, The
EmZJhatic-Diaglott) Neither will he attempt a usurpation now that he has ascended up to the heavens
to God's right hand. This is proved by what is foretold to take place at the close of his reign after he
destroys all of the foes of Jehovah God and of man.
After describing Christ's resurrection and then his
second coming to reign in the Kingdom, the apostle
11, 12. How doe~ Jesus show subordination In the Kingdoll1?

69

Paul says: "Afterwards the end, when he shall have

delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,
when he shall have brought to nought all principality, and power, and virtue. For he must reign, until
he hath put all his enemies under his teet. And the
enemy death shall be destroyed last: For he hath
lJ1lt all things under his teet. And whereas he saith,
All things are put under him; undoubtedly, he is
excepted, who put all things under him. And when all
things shall be subdued unto him, then the Son also
himself shall be subject unto him that put all things
under him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor.
15: 24-28, Douay) Thus, to the contrary of trying to
put Jehovah God under his feet and usurp his power,
Christ Jesus excepts or makes an exception of
Jehovah God, and at the end of his reign he himself
subjects himself to Jehovah God, and shows that the
trinitarian co-equality is a religious falsehood.
13 It is useless for trinitarians to argue that Christ
Jesus in the kingdom of God in heaven subjects
himself only as far as his human nature, his flesh
and blood, is concerned, because up there in heaven
in the kingdom of God the glorified Christ Jesus has
no human nature. We do not say so, but the apostle
Paul says so, saying : "Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God."
-1 Cor. 15: 50, Douay.
14 In this connection one noteworthy Scriptural
fact further exposes the religious idea that the
Father and the Son and the "holy ghost" are three
intelligent persons, and all of them co-equal, copowerful and co-eternal together. It is this: In all
the visions given us in the Apocalypse or Revelation
Jehovah God is pictured as sitting upon the throne,
and Jesus Christ the Lamb of God is pictured as
standing in the midst of the throne, but a "holy
ghost" is nowhere envisioned as sitting in or upon
the throne at God's left hand. Look up in Revelation
every reference to the heavenly throne, and you will
find no mention of any "holy ghost" therein. Why
such an insulting omission if there is a trinity of
co-equal divine persons, indivisible and inseparable?
Also, the great multitude that is seen "standing
before the throne, and in the sight of the Lamb",
cry out: "Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the
throne, and to the Lamb." Why do they make no mention of a "holy ghost", if such ghost is an intelligent
person in a trinitarian Godhead! If this "great
multitude" believed or believes in the Athanasian
creed of three co-equal persons, why ignore the socalled "third person", this "holy ghost" ?-Apoc.
7: 9, 10, Douay.
1~ Let trinitarians also explain why it is that Revelation 5: 6, when describing the Lamb of God stand13. \Vhy is Jesus not subject only .s to his hnman nature?
14. 15 How do ,Islons ot the throne di.prove the trinity?

70

~eWATCHTOWER

ing in the center before God's throne before he goes

to it and takes the sealed book out of God's right
hand, says: "A Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the
seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth" T
(Douay) Are there seven "holy ghosts", instead of
one, thus enlarging the trinity to a "nine in one
Godhead"? (Rev. 4: 5) At the time that faithful
Stephen was being stoned to death, the account at
Acts 7: 55, 56 tells us, "he, being full of the Holy
Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he
said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son
of Man standing at the right hand of God.''' (Oath.
Confmt.) But faithful Stephen does not tell us of
seeing any "holy ghost" standing or sitting at the
left hand of .T ehovah God to form an indissoluble
"trinity". And in the vision of Daniel concerning
Christ's enthronement at the end of the political
powers of this world, note that the prophet Daniel
reveals no "holy ghost" as being seen anywhere
around, when he says: ''1 beheld till thrones were
placed, and the Ancient of days sat: ... I beheld
therefore in the vision of the night, and 10, one like
the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and
he came even to the Ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and
glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes and
tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away."-Dan.
7: 9-14, Douay.
16 However, such reception of power in heaven and
in earth does not make this "Son of man", namely,
Christ Jesus, all-powerful and almighty. After his
resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ declared
that his Father and God gave him all the necessary
power in heave.n and in earth for his future work.
(Matt. 28: 18) However, that this did not make him
all-powerful or almighty the apostle John shows. He
describes the end of this world and says: "There
were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom
of this world is become our Lord's and his Christ's,
and he shall reign for ever and ever.... We give
H) lIow

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Daniel and Revclntlon show Jesus Is not co-powerful?

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thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, who art, and who

wast, and who art to come: because thou hast taken
to thee thy great power, and thou hast reigned:'
(Apoc. 11: 15-17, Douay) Do not fail to note the
omission of all mention of a "holy ghost" with the
Lord God Almighty and his Christ. Note also that
neither here nor anywhere else in the Apocalypse or
Revelation is Jesus Christ called the Pantoknitor
or Almighty One; and neither is the "holy ghost".
11 Jehovah God the Fatheris alone the Pantokrato r
or Almighty One. He bestows upon his Son Jesus
Christ all the power or authority that he needs in
heaven and earth to carry out his royal office. Along
with this power or authority Jehovah God Almighty
gives to Jesus Christ the holy spirit, which is not a
"third person" at all, but is the impersonal, invisible
active force which emanates or proceeds forth from
Jehovah God. The apostle Peter so stated on the day
of Pentecost, at which time he said: "This Jesus
God has raised up, and we are all witnesses of it.
Therefore, exalted by the right hand of God, and
receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, he has poured forth this Spirit which you
see and hear." (Acts 2: 32, 33, Oath. Oon/rat.) The
listening multitude did not see the holy spirit itself.
They saw just its manifestation upon Peter and his
fellow disciples by their speaking with tongues after
flames of fire had hovered above their heads, accompanied by a rushing sound as of a violent wind.
-Acts 2: 1-4.
18 Since Jesus Christ has come into the Kingdom.
in 1914, he has poured out afresh of this spirit or
active force upon the faithful remnant of his followers in the earth, in a final fulfillment of Joel 2: 28, 29.
By the illuminating power of this holy spirit from
God through his Christ, this remnant now see Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and the holy spirit in the
right relationship and that they do not compose any
triune God or trinity. Thus, viewed from the stand
point of the kingdom of God, the so-called "trinity'
is seen to be a blasphemous false doctrine. The very
intrinsic idea of it is opposed to God's kingdom by
Christ Jesus.
17. Wbat is the holy spirIt shown to be in actul1lltr?
18. What do the remnant now see as to Father, Son and spirit?

WHY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES TEACH NO TRINITY

ESUS Christ always confessed and showed himself inferior to Jehovah God. All the Holy Scriptures bear witness to his subordinate place toward
Jehovah the Most High God. Jesus always spoke of
himself as the one that God his Father had sent. In
his last prayer in company with his faithful apostles
he said to his heavenly Father: "And this is life

1 now was Jesu< the Apostle of Jehovnh God?

eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17: 3)
The apostle John heard that prayer and tells us:
"For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of
God: for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto
him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all
things into his hand [not meaning that the Father
retained nothing for his own self]." (Jolm 3: 34, 35)

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Jesus also told the murder-minded Pharisees: "If

God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me." Jesus Christ was God's
Sent One or Apostle, and in this capacity he was
"the Apostle and High Priest of our profession".
-John 8: 13, 39-42; Heb. 3: 1.
2 Jesus Christ did not in anv shame hide the fact
that he is the one sent and thus is inferior to God
his Father who sent him. When he washed his disciples' feet, he commented: "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither
he that is sent greater than he that sent him." (John
13: 16) "For whether is greater, he that sitteth at
meat, or he that serveth' is not he that sitteth at
meat' but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke
22: 27) Being sent of God, Jesus was not greater
than his Father the Sender, neither was he as great.
John the Baptist publicly announced himself as sent
to baptize, and therefore he served as a servant
inferior to God. John accordingly baptized the Son
of God in the Jordan river. (John 1: 32-34) Just as
Jehovah God with superiority over his Son Jesus
Christ sent him to this earth, likewise Jesus Christ
as Head and :Master over his apostles and disciples
sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God. He
said in prayer to God his Father: "As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them
into the world. a righteous Father, the world hath
not known thee: but I have known thee, and these
have lmown that thou hast sentme."-John 17: 18, 25.
S Incidentally, in like manner the so-called "holy
ghost" or holy spirit is proved to be inferior both to
Jehovah God and to Christ Jesus. Why T Because
Jesus told his disciples that the heavenly Father
would send the holy spirit as a comforter in Jesus'
name, and Jesus added that he, in turn, would send
this spirit comforter from the Father to his faithful
disciples. And at Pentecost Peter declared that Jesus
had shed this spirit comforter upon them. (John
14: 26; 15: 26; Acts 2: 33) There is or has been no
human nature about this "holy ghost" or holy spirit;
and its being sent from God and through Christ
proves it is subject to both God and Christ. It cannot
be said that the holy spirit is subject only as to its
human nature, because it never had any human flesh
and blood. That fact alone is sufficient to wreck the
whole idea of the "trinity" as to the co-equality of a
"holy ghost" person.
~ Let no one raise his eyebrows in amazement at
our speaking of Jehovah God as superior to his Son
Jesus Christ. Just read 1 Corinthians 11: 3 where
the apostle writes: "I would have you know, that the
head of every man is Christ; and the head of the
2. How does Jesus' being sent disprove trinitarian eqnallty?
3. How IS the holy spirit likewise proved not co~ual?
4, 5. How do headship and servitude dlspro..-e the trinity?

71

woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."

To correspond with the fact that God is his Superior
and Head, Jesus declared he came, not to do his own
will, but that of his Father, and not to speak his own
words or doctrines, but those of his Father.
S In harmony with the prophecies of old Jesus
declared himself to be a servant to God, and not a
person co-equal with God. Some prophetic utterances
of Jehovah God respecting Jesus Christ as his servant are: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my
spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to
the Gentiles.... the isles shall wait for his law."
"By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities." "Behold,
my servant shall deal prudently." (Isa. 42: 1-4;
52: 13; 53: 11) These prophecies the disciples applied
to Jesus, as anyone can prove by referring to Matthew 12: 17-21 and Acts 8: 27-37. Doing no dishonor
to Jesus Christ by calling him a servant, the disciples
in united prayer at Jerusalem said to the Lord God:
"The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers
assembled together against the Lord and against his
Christ. For of a truth there assembled together in
this city against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the
Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what thv
hand and thy counsel decreed to be done."-Act~
4: 26-28, Cath. Confrat.
6 Shortly before the above prayer Peter said to the
Jews regarding the resurrected, glorified Jesus
Christ: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; ... Unto you first God, having raised up his
Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every
one of you from your iniquities." (Acts 3: 13, 2G,
Am.Stan.Ver.) That this servanthood of Jesus
toward God means his lower station and subordination to Jehovah God is made certain by Jesus' own
announced rule: "The disciple is not above his master,
nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the
disciple that he be as his master, and the servant
as his lord." But this is not saying that for the servant to be like his lord he becomes one person with
him, and is at the same time his own lord and his
own servant. (Matt. 10: 24, 25) Toward the close of
his earthly life Jesus stressed a servant's inferiority
to his lord or master by saying to his disciples:
"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all
these things will they do unto you for my name's
sake, because they know not him that sent me." (John
6. What did Jesns show senanthood meant?

~eWATCHTOWER

72

15: 20,21) It is because of the servant's inferiority

to his lord that he must suffer with his lord.

BROOKLYN,

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T As a servant, an apostle and a disciple of J ehovah God the great Teacher, Jesus Christ tried to
please his heavenly Father, his Life-giver. By this
course he denied equality with his Father. It was in
order to please his Father with perfect obedience to
the death that Jesus submitted to being lifted upon
a torture stake bv his enemies. "Then said Jesus
unto them, When
have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall ye lmow that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I
speak these things. And he that sent me is with me:
the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always
those things that please him." (John 8: 28, 29) Now,
suppose that Jesus were the "second person" of a
religious trinity, co-equal with his partners. In that
case he would be inferior to nothing, and would be
free to please himself. But such was not the case,
for Jesus had someone greater than himself to
please, namely, his heavenly Father. To this effect
the apostle writes: "For even Christ pleased not
himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them
that reproached thee fell on me." The One whose
reproaches he bore as a servant was separate and
distinct from Jesus, just as our Christian neighbors
whom we are exhorted to please are individuals
different from ourselves. Hence the apostle uses
Christ's course of not pleasing himself as a reason
for saying to us: "\Ve then that are strong ought to
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please
ourselves. Let everyone of us please his neighbour
for his good to edification."-Rom. 15: 1-3.
s Clearly enough for all but trinitarians to see,
Jesus came out definitely with the announcement
that the Father had supel:iority over the Son. In the
parable in which he likens his followers to sheep
Jesus said: ":My Father, who hath given them unto
me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch
them out of the Father's hand." (John 10: 29, Am.
Stan. Ver.) The Father's superior greatness over all
others included being greater than his Son, and
Jesus said so in these unmistakable words to his
disciples: "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because
I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater
than I." (John 14: 28) True, Jesus was yet in the
flesh when he said those words; but he had been
begotten of God's spirit after his baptism in the
Jordan, and it is begging the question to say that the
Father was greater than Jesus only as to Jesus'
flesh or human nature. If, by the personal pronoun
I, Jesus here meant his flesh, then, by the same
reasoning, when Jesus said to the Jews, "Before

Abraham was, I am," he meant that, before Abraham was, Jesus' flesh or human nature was. That
would mean that before coming to earth Jesus had
flesh as a man in heaven. But, of course, such was
not the case.-John 8: 58.
g By taking on human nature and becoming a man,
the Scriptures tell us, "we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death." (Heb. 2: 9) The trinitarians claim that, at
his return to heaven, Jesus took his flesh and bones
and blood with him. Then they must also agree that
forever Jesus Christ is not only lesser than his
heavenly Father but also a little lower than the
angels. To the direct opposite of such a thought
Paul, in the first chapter of Hebrews, argues to the
effect that Jesus Christ "sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high; being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they." (Heb. 1: 3, 4)
Agreeing that Jesus was exalted to become better
than angels, Peter says: "By the resurrection of
Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the
right hand of God; angels and authorities and
powers being made subject unto him." That certainly
does not mean making Jesus' flesh in which he hung
on the tree to be higher than the angels, for such a
thought is unscriptural, according to Psalm 8: 4-3
and Hebrews 2: 9. Hence the Scriptures teach that
Jesus did not and could not take his flesh with him
to heaven to make himself always less than angels.
He went to heaven as a glorious spirit. Peter positively says so: "Christ also died once for our sins,
the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God,
being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened
in the spirit."-l Pet. 3: 18, Douay; 3: 21, 22.
10 The Scripture evidence is all against the trinitarians, for when Jesus said his Father was greater
than the Son, he was not referring to his flesh. He
was referring to himself as an individual, even
before he carne to this earth and was made man. Did
not Jesus repeatedly say that God the Father sent
him and that the Sender is greater than he that is
sent f Yes; and when God sent the Son, the Son was
still in heaven and not vet a man of flesh and blood.
God sent him, not from "Bethlehem or from Nazareth
as a man, but down from heaven as his Son. In thus
sending Jesus from heaven, Jehovah God showed
he is greater than the Son whom he sent down.
11 Because the Father was greater than the Son,
Jesus could tell his discipIes to rej oice. Why f
Because greater results would follow if he went to
his Father in their behalf. Jesus had done many
wonderful works by virtue of the power of God's
spirit upon him. But now by his going to the Father,
the Greater One, the results would be greater with

7, As to pleaKlng another. how did JeHus show Inferiority 'I

B. How rllrl .lesus .tatp thp Father's superiority Over him"

9. How "as he once lower than angels, but why not tor always?
10, 11 What proves non l(realer more than as to Jesus' flesh?

NOT SELF-PLEASING

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~eWATCHTOWER

his disciples. Hence he said in this talk with his

disciples: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;
and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go unto my Fath~r." (John 14: 12) Yes, greater
works shall he do because I go unto my Father, who
is greater than I am, is what Jesus here meant.
JESUS HAS A GOD

Because Jehovah alone is the Supreme One and

is the Almighty One, he is a God to his Son Jesus
Christ. The Son therefore worships and adores and
serves Jehovah God. In the forty days of temptation
in the wilderness Satan the Devil came to Jesus and
promised him all the kingdoms of this world and
their glory if he would worship Satan. "Then saith
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve." Jesus there quoted the
scripture written at Deuteronomy 6: 13: "Thou shalt
fear Jehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve."
(Am. Stan. 17er.) Jesus thus made it crystal-clear
to Satan the Devil that He was determined to keep
on worshiping Jehovah as His God. (Matt. -1:: 8-10)
Later on he told the Samaritan woman at the well
that he worshiped Jehovah. He showed her the difference between himself and her people, the Samaritans,
by saying: "Ye worship ye know not what: we know
what we worship: for salvation is of the .J ews."
(John 4: 22) What Jesus worships is, not himself,
but God.
13 While yet in heavenly glory, that is,
before
becoming a man, the Son worshiped the Almighty
and Supreme One, Jehovah, as his personal God.
Before any other things were created in all the universe the Son worshiped the Father as his God.
Psalm 22: 1, 18 foretold that some day the Son on
earth would say: ":My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me f why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring1 They part my
garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." 'When the Son Jesus Christ was hanging upon
the torture stake this prophecy went into fulfillment:
"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud
voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani 1 that is to
say, illy God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me1"
(Matt. 27: 46) Jesus, whom the scribes and Pharisees
called a blasphemer against God, there acknowledged
his Father Jehovah as "my God". Furthermore, the
third day afterward, when he was resurrected, Jesus
once again acknowledged Jehovah the Father as his
personal God. He said to Mary Magdalene: "Go to
my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my
Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your
1%

12. How did Je"us' words show he worships Jehovah?

13. How did Jesus' words show he haa a God?

73

God." This shows that Jesus was not Jehovah God,

nor a "second person" in a "triune God". A week
later he materialized in flesh and revealed himself
to Thomas, and this doubter now exclaimed in
astonishment: "My Lord and my God." By this
exclamation Thomas was not saying Jesus was
Jehovah God. Why not TBecause Jesus had just said
that Jehovah was his God and the God of Thomas,
and the apostle John, who records Thomas' exclamation, says right afterward: "But these [things] are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the SON of God; and that believing ye might
have life through his name."-John 20: 31.
I i Because Jehovah is his God, Jesus Christ the
Son could minister to Him as his high priest. A high
priest worships the God to whom he offers sacrifices,
just as Aaron the high priest of Israel did. A high
priest is certainly not as great as the God whom he
worships and to whom he ministers and offers sacrifice. The Son did not assume to be an equal of the
Father by taking the office of high priest to himself,
but he waited for his Father to swear him into the
office. As it is written: "And n~ man taketh this
honour unto himself, but he that is called of God,
as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself
to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him.
Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As
he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of nIelchisedec." (Heb. 5: 4-6)
Since it is forever that he is High Priest after :Melchizedek's order, Christ Jesus in heavenly glory
worships Jehovah God as his personal God forever.
13 In witness
that the Father Jehovah is God
Almighty to Jesus the Son, the apostle Peter writes:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated ns unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Pet. 1: 3, DOllay)
And Paul writes: "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord J esns Christ, who hath blessed us with
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ: that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
of revelation, in the knowledge of him." (Eph.
1: 3, 17, Douay) In the original Greek text, 2 Corinthians 1: 3 reads exactly like Ephesians 1: 3 above,
and hence the Douay Version and American Standard Version read: "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and
God of all comfort." Further proving the fact that
Jehovah the Father is the God whom the Son Jesus
Christ worships as his Superior, the apostle John
writes regarding Jesus: "He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father."-Rev.
1 : 6, Am. Stan. V er.; also Rev. 3: 12.
14. On th18 point, what does Jesus' being high priest show?
111. How do the words of the apostles show Je8US hu a God?

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74

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Trinitarians are swift to rush to John 10: 30 for

support, for there Jesus the Good Shepherd states:
"I and the Father are one." (Douay; Am. Stan. Ver.)
But where is there mention here of any "holy ghost'"
Not once in all of Jesus' parable of the Good Shepherd and his sheep does he even mention the holy
spirit; and it takes three persons to make a trinity.
At most, then, Jesus' words here could only speal\:
for a duality. But notice that Jesus did not say he
and his Father are one God, so as to make one God
in two persons. In all the parable Jesus was not
arguing in support of such a thing. He was rather
illustrating that his heavenly Father and he have a
likeness of occupation, they have common interests
and concerns, and they have one purpose, Jesus'
purpose being blended in with that of his Father.
Jesus informs us that the Father gave him the sheep
and hence Jehovah is the great Shepherd. Jesus was
"the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world", as John the Baptist called him. Jehovah was
therefore a Shepherd e-ven to Jesus, and a shepherd
is greater than his sheep. Jehovah permitted Jesus
to be ''brought as a lamb to the slaughter", where he
was dumb without complaint, just like a "sheep
before her shearers". (John 1: 29, 36; Isa. 53-: 7) So,
at Psalm 23: 1, the shepherd-psalmist David was in
reality speaking prophetically for Jesus Christ,
when he said: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not
want."-Am. Stan. Vert
17 In the parable Jesus also said: "I am the good
shepherd." By this be showed oneness with his
l!-'ather, because he was engaged in a common work
with his Father and toward a common end, the
eternal salvation of the sheep. In accord with this
common purpose Jesus said: "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father,
which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and
my Father are one." (John 10: 11, 14, 28-30) At this
the listening Jews jumped to a wrong conclusion and
prepared to stone him because, as they said to him,
"thou, being a man, makest thyself God." But even
then, Jesus did not argue and maintain he was Jehovah God. He argued that he was simply the "Son of
God", whom God had sanctified and sent into the
world. Jesus quoted from Psalm 82: 6 to prove he
was not blaspheming in saying so. He showed that
others also were addressed as "gods".
18 Jesus did the works of his Father. He did them
in his Father's name as being his Father's visible
representative; and this was what made him and
his Father one. (John 10: 25, 37, 38) Being consub-

stantial or being one and the same substance was

not necessary to this unity. How two separate and
distinct individuals, by colaboring together and having a common interest and one aim, become one, the
apostle Paul illustrates when saying: "Now he that
planteth and he that watereth are one." One in substance 1 one in person 1 one in co-equality t By no
means; but just one in God's work. This becomes
plain from the entire argument of Paul, to this
effect: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but
ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord
gave to every man 1 I have planted, Apollos watered:
but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that
planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but
God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth
and he that watereth are one."-l Cor. 3: 5-8.
18 Paul's planting and Apollos' watering and God's
giving the increase did not make them a trinity or
"three in one" God. Paul was an apostle of Christ
before ever Apollos became a Christian and he had
greater responsibility and a more important position
in God's organization than Apollos did; yet they two
were one because of peacefully colaboring together
in God's organization and service. Because God was
the real One that was accomplishing the results
through them, therefore Paul spoke of the Corinthian church which he founded as being, nonetheless,
God's husbandry, God's building: "For we are God's
helpers, you are God's tillage, God's building."
-1 Cor. 3: 9, Cath. Confrat.
20 That this was the style of unity that existed
between the Son and his Father Jesus e..xplained in
his last prayer with his faithful apostles. He said:
"And not for them only do I pray, but for them also
who through their word shall believe in me; that they
all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee;
that they also may be one in us; that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which
thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they
may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thon
in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast also loved me." (John
17: 20-23, Dottay) In this prayer for oneness Jesus
does not mention once any "holy ghost". No one will
reasonably argue from Jesus' prayer here that he
was praying Jehovah God the Father that some
"trinity" might be enlarged in order that these disciples might be made part of the 'several in one' God
and that, in place of being a triune affair, it might
become a multiple unity of many persons in one, and
yet all one God and all equal in power and glory.
Ridiculous I you say. And yet belief in 0. "trinity" or
"triune God" reduces itself to this absurdity, in view
of Jesus' prayer above.

Ill, 17. What did he mean by ~aylng "1 and the Father are one'"
18, 19. How did Paul ll1uFtrate FU~h Clnene"", at 1 Corinthians 3: 59'

2(). How did Jesus' prayer @how the kind of onenen8 meant ~

UNITY, IN WHAT WAY?

18

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111ieWATCHTOWER
"A GOD"

Informed Catholic theologians know better today

than to rely on 1 John 5: 7, 8 for support. In their
Douay Version those verses read: "And there are
three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one.
And there are three that give testimony on earth:
the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these
three are one." They know that the words "in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one. And there are three that bear witness
in earth" do not appear in the oldest Greek manuscripts available, namely, the Vatican 1\1S. No. 1209
and the Sinaitic MS., both of the fourth century, and
the Alexandrine MS. of the fifth century. They know
such words appear in no Greek MS. earlier than the
fifteenth century. :Most plainly they are a forgery
and an uninspired interpolation.
22 In a footnote on 1 John 5: 7 in the 1931 Westminster Version of the :New Testament, Volume IV,
the Jesuit editors explain why they left the words in
their translation, saying that according to the opinion
of "nearly all critics and of most Catholic writers of
the present day" those trinitarian words were not
found in the original text written by the apostle
John, but that until further action is taken by the
pope at the Vatican it is not allowed to Roman
Catholic editors to cut out the. disputed words from
any translation that they make for the use of
Roman Catholics. The 1943 translation made by the
episcopal committee of the "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" makes a like comment in a footnote
on 1 John 5: 7.
:3 Here is the place to :5ay that the words in question do not appear even in Jerome's Latin Vulgate
translation made in the fourth and fifth centuries, u:::;
is shown by Wordsworth and White's edition of 1911
of the "Latin New Testament according to the edition
of St. Jerome". The ,vords appear in no Latin .MS,
earlier than the ninth century. .A. Latin writer of no
outstanding importance, on~ Vigilius of Thapsus,
21

o John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of :.\Iethodism, once

preached a sermon on the "trmity" :.Ind 10 support of it. In this
particular sermon he quoted the words of :.\Iicbael Servetus,
namely: "I scruple using the words Trinitll and Persons becllubc
I do not find those terms in the Bible." Wesley's belief in the
doctrine of the "trinity" was based upon the text 1 John .j: I.
Wesley saId: "I would insist only on the direct words, unexplained
as they lie in the text." He used the King James translatIon, which
contains the text. Evidently he did not know that the Alexandrine
.MS. of the Jifth century, which was then in possession of the
king of England, did not contain the text, He did not know of
the Vatican No. 1209 MS., which was published in the century
following Wesley, nor know of the Sinaitic ~IS, which Count
Tisehendorf discovered in 1859. Since Wesley would not use the
words trinity and persons for not being found in the Bible, what
would he have taught had he known that all three of these most
llnClent Greek ~ISS, did not eontuin those trinitarian words in
1 John 5: 7f

21, 22. Cau theologians rely ou 1 J 01111 :;: 7? and \vhy?

.!3. 'Yhat Latin support i. there for 1 John ~. 7?

75

North Africa, is the first to cite the text toward the

end of the fifth century, long after Jerome. The
modern non-Catholic translations are honest enough
to omit the words outright.
U All trinitarians, however, make a strong appeal
to John 1: 1, to uphold their idea that the Father and
the Son as well as the "holy ghost" are one God, one
in substance and co-eternal. They try to explain
away the fact that in this verse the apostle Jolin himself makes a distinction between "God" and 'the
Word", namely, by speaking of God with the definite
article (ho in the Greek), but omitting such definite
article when referring to the Word as "God". Trinitarians pass over the fact that here only God and
the Word are mentioned, but there is no mention of
the "holy ghost", the "third person" of their trinity,
in John 1: 1. In fact, no mention of the holy spirit
is made by John until later, 31 verses later, at .J ohn
1: 32, 33, where he describes Jesus' being baptized
with the holy spirit, which spirit was visibly represented, not as a person, but as a bird, a dove. Will
trinitarians argue that the holy spirit is subject to
God only as to the bird flesh 1
:~ John well l.."Ilew that Jehovah God and hi~ Son
the Word were separate individuals. He intelligently omitted the definite article (ho) with rE'fe!'
ence to the Son in order to show the difference,
Hence the verses John 1: 1, 2 are properly translated: "The Word was in the beginning, and the
Wol'd was with God, and the Word was a god. This
Word was in the beginning with God." Such translation is not ours. It is that of "The New 'l'estament
in an Improved Version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome's New Translation", said 'William
Newcome having heen archbishop of Armagh and
primate of all Ireland till his death in 1800. The
grammatical correctness of the above translation
can be checked by any possessor of The Emphatic
Diaglott, by referring to its Greek text and to the
word-for-word English translation underneath such
Greek text.
26The apostle John knew that the Word, who
became Jesus Christ, was a creation of Jehovah God,
the first creation. How so? Because J olm wrote his
gospel account, including John 1: 1, 2, about A.D. 98,
and hence after the Apocalypse or Revelation which
Jesus Christ gave to John about A.D. 96, And in
this Revelation Jesus Christ said to John: "Thus saYf:\
the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is thE'
beginning of the creation of God." (Apoc, 3: 14, Cath,
Oonfrat.) Here the expression "the beginning" does
not mean the author, but means the first one of God's
Newcome's work was entitled "An Attempt towards Rc.i5ing
our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures" (Dublin, 1706,
In two volumes, of royal 8vo, size).
.l4, 25. Why does not John 1. 1, 2 really ,upport the "trinity"?
26. How <lid John Iroo... The Word. Chrl_t Je~l", wu~ creat"ll?

76

SheWATCHTOWER

creation, the creation with which Jehovah God began.

Hence John began his gospel account by writing:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God [ko theos], and the Word was God [just
theos]. The same was in the beginning with God [ko
theos]."-John 1:1,2, Douay TTersion.*
27 The \Vord, or Jesus Christ, was God's first creation. Hence when the next verse says, "A.ll things
were made by him; and without him was not any
thing made tbnt was made" (John 1: 3), it means
all OTHER things were made by him as God's Agent
or Servant. That the word other is to be understood
here is according to the same Scripture practice
followed at J aIm 12: 44, where some dis'tinguishing
words are due to be understood. J aIm 12: 44 reads:
"Jems cried and said, He that believeth on me,
believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." He
One Roman Catholic publication, attacking Jehovah's witnesses and their presentation of these facts, tried to deny the
non-trinitarian translation by saying: "The article was omitted
in the expression, 'The Word was God,' merely in accordance
with the general rule of Greek grammar that in the simple sentence the subJect takes the article, whilst the predicate omits it!"
By emphasizing ouch a "general" rule do those Catholic clergy
attempt to explain away the omission of the definite article before
the second theos in John 1: 1. But their "general rule" does not
hold good in numerous examples in the ChrIstian Greek Scriphlles. It does not hold good at their favorite text, ~latthew 16: 16
and 22: 32, 26: 63 j John 1: 49 j 6: 29; 11: 27 j 20: 31 j and many
other scripture texts 'wIth premcate phrases, winch any student
can check "I';].th Ins copy of a Greek text, for example, The
EmphatIc Dlaglott Wlth its Greek text and the sublinear translation. According to theIr "general rule" why do not translators
put "the" before "Spirit" at John 4: 24?
At John 10: 33, the Jews said to Jesus, "Thou, being a man.
make,t thyself God," olUltting the definite article ho before "God".
Howevcr, as the Diaglott sublmear reamng shows, the Jews said
in fact to him, not that he made himself "The God" or Jehovah,
but, that, "Thou, being a man, makest thyself a god." In answer
Jesus quoted Psalm 82: 6, "I sald, Ye are gods," omitting the
artlCle beforn "gods". And then to show a distinction between
those "gods" and Jehovah God, Jesus said that 'the word of THE
God came unto them', and then added, 'I am a Son of THE God.'
It IS plain that Jesus (or his recorder John) omitted the definite
article to show that those addressed as "gods" were dIfferent
from the God Jehovah. Otherwise stated, the omission of the
f1efimte article 110 is made at .J ohn 10: 3-1,35 m order to show a
distmction between the personalitles involved. Why, then, should
not this also be true of John 1: 1 with Its omission of the defimte
article' It is true, because there two individuals are involved,
The God and The Word. John writes of the Word as being
a god. or a lUIghty one, Just as properly as the apostle Paul writes
of Satan the Devil as bemg' a god, or "the god of this world",
at 2 Corinthians 4:,1,.
We remind our critics of what J. H. 110ulton's Prolegomena
says, on page 83, top, namely: "For exegesIs, there are few of
the finer points of Greek which need more constant attention than
this omISSIon of the article when the writer would lay stress on
the quality or eharupter of the obJect."-Third emtlon reprint
of 1930.
Space does not permit here of our taking up a consideration
of each of the eases in John's writings where the definite article
is omitted before "God" (theos), including John 1: 6, 12, 13, 18.
How('vcr. a consideratJon of them all only confirms us in our
understanding thereof as given in paragraphs 25, 26 above.
27 How do we know Jesus was a creator of all other things?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

did not mean that a person who believes on J esu~

does not believe on him but believes only on God that
sent Jesus as his servant. Hence, although the English translation does not exactly say it, Jesus meant
that such person believed ~OT ONLY on Jesus BUT
ALSO on the One sending Jesus. "\Ve have to nnderstand those words only and also in order to get the
right sense out of Jesus' words. The same is true
where Jesus also said: ""Whosoever shall receive me.
receiveth not me, but him that sent me." (Mark
9: 37) He meant that such person received not J esm
alone, but also God who sent Jesus, as is proved at
:Matthew 10: 40, Luke 9: 48, John 13: 20. Likewise.
since the Word was with God "in the beginning'.
then it must have been after that beginning, or afterward, that the Word began making things, namely.
all other things, after creations.
2S John survived the apostle Paul by about 35
years. He was well acquainted with Paul's writing::
which were then circulating, particularly Paul'::
letter to the Christians at Colosse, about a hundred
miles from Ephesns where John is understood to
have died. John knew that in Paul's letter to the
Colossians he spoke of the Son of God as a creature
of God and an image of God, and not as Jehovah
God the Creator. Paul wrote of the Son: "Who is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every
creature: for by him were all things [that is, all
other things besides himself the firstborn] created.
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers: all [other] things were
created by him, and for him: and he is before all
things [not before his own heavenly Father, however], and by him all [other] things consist." (Col.
1: 15-17) Because Almighty God created his Son the
'Word :first, without the colaboring of any other
person, Jesus Christ is spoken of as "his onlY
begotten Son". (John 3: 16, 18; 1: 14, 18) No othe'r
creature enjoyed the distinction of being created
directly by Jehovah God alone, for after creating his
only begotten Son the Word, then he used this Son
as colaborer in making all other creations.
29 Many other Biblical facts are to be found to
show why the Holy Scriptures do not teach any such
thing as a "trinity". But space does not allow for us
to summon those other facts from the Bible. Yet
sufficient evidence has been mustered in the foregoing paragraphs to show that the "trinity" is an
unscriptural pagan doctrine invented by the demons
who bring reproach upon God's name and most high
position. For discussion of further evidence we shall
wait upon further issues of The Watcktower.
28 How is Christ Jesus the "onlY begotten" Son?
29. What <10 all the foregOIng paragraphs show as to a "trinity"?

Sallctifiy them through thy truth: thy word is truth.-John 17: 17.

A FLYING CONVENTION TOUR THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

ELAYED because of the big New York snowstorm was

the Pan American Constellation plane that the Society's
president, N. H. Knorr, and his traveling companion,
1\1. G. Henschel, planned to take south from Accra to Leopoldville,
Belgian Congo. On January 1 the travelers had time to attend
the service meeting at Accra, where 60 were present, a growing
company. Then they traveled to the airport. The Gold Coast
brcthren said a final good-bye at 12: 15 early Friday morning.
High above the clouds we flew through the night toward Belgian
Congo. It had been hoped that we could stop in Leopoldville for
a few days to meet with some of the interested people there, but
the fact that the planes were flJ''ing behind schedule made it
ad\'isable for Brother Knorr to go right on to Johannesburg,
South Africa, where a convention was to hegin on Saturday, and
Brother Henschel could stay at Leopoldville to look after the
interested persons. Our arrival at Leopoldville was early in the
morning of January 2. While Brother Henschel was checked
through the customs control, Brother Knorr had breakfast with
the other passengers and then boarded the plane for Johannesburg.
Brother Henschel was taken into the city in the airways car
and located at a hotel. Then he started out in search for some
people of good-will. He found a Greek man who had some of
the literature and who was interested in the work. It was possible
to explain to him further the purposes of the Society in preaching
the gospel in all the world for a witness. Through this man of
good-will several other interested persons were reached. Before it
was time for him to leave these persons, Brother Henschel had
arranged for them to receive and distribute the Society's publications among the French-speaking population of Leopoldville.
There are brethren in other parts of the Congo, but none was able
to make the long trip to Leopoldville. Most of them live in the
eastern part of the country, 10 Elisabeth\'ille and vicinity. But it
was good that Brother Henschel was able to stop for a day and
get acquainted WIth someone in Leopoldnlle and to observe the
conditions in the city. Leopoldville IS a clean, well-planned city
mth beautiful tree-lined streets and boulevards. It is built up on
the south bank of the mighty Congo river, many miles from the
Atlantic. The climate is hot and damp, typically tropical. :\lany
new homes and office bUlldings are bemg constructed in this city of
great prosperity. It was the most modern city Visited on the west
c6ast of Africa. It is hoped that some day soon a good \Y'itness
will be given in the Congo by some of the graduates of Gilead.
JOHANNESBURG, TRANSVAAL

Brother Knorr was flying southeastward for Johannesburg. The

weather was good and the land below could be easily seen. Over
the steaming green jungles and mountains of Belgian Congo and
across a corner of Angola the huge plane flew. It was headed
toward Livingstone, in Xorthern RhodeSia. Xorthern Rhodesia is
a very flat country in the western part, and the Zambezi river
drains much of the swampy territory there. In the course of this
winding river its waters rush over the famous Victona falls. The
captain of the ship was kind enough to go a little out of his way
and fly o.er the falls to show them to the passengers. He dropped
the plane from 17,000 feet above sea level to about a thousand
feet above the falls and so gave the passengers a good look at the
marvelous cascade and the deep canyons which the mighty waters
had formed in a zigzag course for a number of miles. For several
miles before reaching the falls we could see the mist that rises
like a cloud into the air, and there is no disappointment when the
falls can actually be seen. Even from such a height the wonderful
beauty of God's creation can be appreciated. After going back
and forth across the falls three timcs the plane headed toward
Johannesburg.
Brother Knorr was a day early in arriving in Johannesburg,
because he was expected at 6 o'clock in the evening of January 3
and he arrived at 4: 30 p.m. on the 2nd. It was not until the next
morning, however, that he was able to locate some of the brethren.
Having walked the streets through the main part of the city and
having found none of the brethren advertising the public lecture,
because they were in assembly in the City Hall, he walked down
to the rail w~y stati0!1 and. there locate~ some of the bre~hren who
acted as ~Ides to lOcommg conventione;rs. He was directed to
the convention hall. Great was the surpnse of the brethren, for

77

they had heard that the visitors from America would not arrive
until that evening and now one of them was in their midst, creating a buzz of conversation. It was a joy for the president to meet
with the brethren and to talk to a number of the graduates from
Gilead who were now in South Africa and to hear their problems
in the work they were accomplishing. Brother Milton Bartlett, an
American graduate, was serving as district servant in the Union.
Already the South African brethren had made him one of their
own.
A very interesting program had been arranged for the day in
both English and Afrikaans. The Branch servant, Brother G. R.
Phillips, gave his address of welcome in both of these languages
and the audience was indeed pleased that he addressed them in
their native tongue. Other Gilead graduates also participated in
the program.
At 6: 30 in the evening the brethren that had planned to meet
the travelers at the airport in Palmeitfontein went forward with
their large banner and gave Brother Henschel the reception that
they had planned for Brothers Knorr and Henschel. Only this
time Brother Knorr was on the other side of the fence with the
South African brethren welcoming Brother Henschel. Brother
Henschel was hUrried away from the airport directly to the convention of native brethren assembled at Communal Hall, Orlando.
while Brother Knorr went on to Johannesburg to address the
Europeans. There were 2,500 Zulu-speaking brethren assembled
that evening and 1,100 Europeans.
Throughout the days before the convention much advertising
was done in connection with the public lecture that was to be
given Sunday. The lecture to the natives had been arranged at th!'
Communal Hall for 3: 30 in the afternoon; but the Hall was much
too small to acco=odate the crowd anticipated, so the front stcps
were used as the platform and the audience assembled on the large
lawns to the front and sides of the building. The lecture dehvcred
was "Permanent Governor of All Nations". When the count was
taken it was found there were 7,276 African natives that had filled
the yard and overflowed onto the street and into the fields beyond.
All heard very well through the public-addrcss system that was
installed. The lecture was interpreted in Zulu. All rejolCed at
this splendid attendance, which showed the keen interest on the
part of the natives in the message of God's Word.
That morning 378 natives had been baptized.
The public meeting for the Europeans was arranged for at the
20th Century Theatre in Johannesburg, a very modern, new mOVIe
house. By 8 o'clock two thousand persons had filled the theater
almost to capacity. Many were the expressions on the part of the
public to the brethren attending the public meeting that they had
never heard anything so plainly statcd; they were interested in
getting more information by having someone of Jehovah's witnesses call at their homes.
Johannesburg is a large, thriving industrial center in the Union
of South Africa. Its population is constantly growing. The
principal industry in the area is the mining of gold, but despite
the people's bemg interested in commercialism some are showmg
interest In the truth. There is a big field here on the Reef where
many thousands of Europeans live and work. The Africans are
not allowed to take up living quarters within the principal cities
themselves, and compounds or large locations are set aside where
o.nly the natives can live in cottages constructed by the municipahties. Natives are allowed in the cities dunng the day and up
until 9 o'clock at night, but after that all natives are to be in
their own quarters unless they have a special pass permitting
them to be on the streets.
Monday, January 5, brought the convention to a successful
close. The hall at Johannesburg was not available for use that
day, so the assembly moved out to the Town Hall in Germiston.
Germiston is about twenty miles from Orlando; so it was a busy
day for the speakers, because they had to journey from one place
to the other. They were shnttled back and forth in order to do
their talking to the two assemblies.
Both of the conventions had been well organized. There were
cafeterias, bookrooms, etc., at the African and the European halls.
The brethren in South Africa know how to organize their work.
The allpouncement of th~ new pion~er requirements was greatly
appreciated and all the ploneer application blanks that the Euro-

~eWATCHTOWER..

78

pean assembly had on hand went quickly; 40 had signed up for

pioneer work. Those who were already in the pioneer work were
Interviewed and given information about Gilead School. There are
many in South Africa who want to attend Gilead and join in the
world-wide missionary work.
CAPE TOWN. CAPITAL OF THE UNION

South Africa is the only country where a Branch is established

that does not have its own Bethel home where the family can live
together as a family; so time was spent during the next few days
in both Johannesburg and Cape Town looking over properties
that might be suitable for use as a Bethel home. After seeing what
was available at Johannesburg and vicinity, Brothers Phillips,
Knorr and Henschel flew to Cape Town and there checked into
the Branch office, handling problems that affect all of South
Africa. The flight down the middle of the Union was quite interesting. Thc first part was over the flat plateau area of the
Orange Free State. It appeared to be a dry, dusty part of the
country. An hour before getting to the south coast the flight is
ovcr very jagged mountains, with deep valleys that are green and
well cultivated. Cape Town itself is an outstanding sight, with its
beautiful backdrop, Table :\fountain. Table :Mountain comes right
up out of the sea, so it appears. to a height of 3,000 feet. It
is very ilat on top and doesn't go to a peak. To the north and
south of the mountain are two peaks of ,about the same height
as Table :\Iountain, adding conSIderably t~ its beauty. The city
is built between the foot of the mountain group and the calm
expanse of Table Bay. It is very easy to see why the early settlers
chose this spot for their home. The Cape Town brethren gave the
travelers a splendid welcome and It was a pleasure to meet the
members of the Branch family who were in the group.
Approximately 200 brethren assembled in the evenings of the
7th and 8th at the Woodstock Town Hall. During the day the
majorIty of these were busy advertising the public meeting to be
held in Cape Town City Hall on Friday evemng, the 9th. The two
evening meetings were devoted to giving Instruction on field scrvice and bringing to the hrethren spil'ltual food. !lIany had not
been able to travel the grcat distance to the Johannesburg assembly and they cspecially enjoyed themselves.
Each morning at 7: 45 all those working at the Cape Town
office assembled for mormng worship j 18 brethren conSIdered the
morning text, had their diSCUSSIon, and closed with prayer. They
went to work at 8. For the visitors the days were spent looklllg
ovcr propertil<s and locations that mIght be SUItable for a Bethel
home where all could live together, as well as gOIng into matters
in the office. Time flew by quickly j there was more to be done than
could pOSSIbly be accomplished.
On Friday evening at the City Hall there were 950 present,
including Europeans, Indians and Cape Coloured. Afl'lcan natives
were not pernutted in the -hall by the management. It was a good
audience, considering the fact that It WitS the summer season and
most people spend their smnJUer cvenings cnJoying the outdoors.
SOUTHERN RHODESIA

Saturday afternoon we left for Johannesburg again with the

Branch scrvant. Tws was the start of a tour of the Rhode~ias and
Nyasaland. Sunday mormng we flew from Johannesburg to
Bulawayo, Southern RhodeSia, in a 22-passenger-capaetty Vikmg
aircraft. For several hours we flew over the wilds of Bechuanaland
and Southcrn Rhodesia. Upon arriving at Bulawayo we got a real
surprise. Here in the heart of Central .Afl'lca is a very beautifully
laid-out CIty, with broad streets and many modern stores and
building'!. Ther<.> are about 12,000 Europeans living in the city,
with many coming in daily from Britain, beSIdes many na.tives in
the compound at the edge of the city. It was a revelatIOn to find
such an up-to-date, clean city filled with attractive homes of
bungalow style. We traveled by car from the airport to our hotel.
That aftcrnoon the African brethren had assembled at Mzilikazi
Village, in an open space, to hear discussion!! by various company
servants. They were prescnt in the nmnber of 1,200 btrong. It
was interesting to note that to the right of the speaker all of the
sisters sat together and in front of the speaker and to his left
sat the men. It is an African custom not to mix the sexes in
meetings. ?lfoliit of the brethren had collected red bricks and they
used onc or two bricks as seats; the others sat upon the ground.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Brother Knorr addressed the assembly through two interpreters.

who spoke Cinyanja and Chishona. In the course of the meetmg
he brought great rejoicing to the brethren by announcing the
release of the first issue of The Watchtower in Cinyanja. The
ban against the Watchtower publications had recently been lifted
and now things were going forward. The brethren will benefit
greatly by the study of The Watchtower, for therein they get
valuable instruction they have never had before to equip them to
be more able ministers to instruct others.
While this meeting was going on, Brother Henschel talked to
some thirty Europeans who make up the small company at
Bulawayo.
Later in the evening Brother Henschel spoke to the African
brethren in the village while Brother Knorr addressed the public
meeting held in the City Hall, where 115 Europeans were in
attendance.
In Bulawayo the Society maintains a depot for supplies. It
comes under the direction of the South African Branch. Here
some literature is stored and the correspondence with the various
companies and servants to the brethren is handled in the nath-e
langulwes or in English, as required. Several native brethren work
there t;anslating literature into Chishona and Cinyanja, and they
are now producing The Watchtower in Cinyanja by use of 11
mimeograph machine. It was good to be associated with the
brethren, particularly with Eric Cooke, a recent graduate of
Gilead who is now assigned to Southern Rhodesia to assist In the
depot and to be district servant. Plans were laid for establishing
a new Branch office in this country beginning with the end of
the service year, and it seems very necessary to send more Europeans into this territory to properly care for the work that must
be done, along the lines of organization among the Europeans
and Africans.
After this very brief stay in Bulawayo the party of fourBrothers Phillips, Knorr, Henschel, and Fergusson, a Gilead
graduate-and the Southern Rhodesia brethren, R. :McLuckie and
Cooke, traveled by air to Salisbury, the capital of Southern
Rhodesia, on the 12th. On arrival Brother Knorr spoke to 135
native brethren that were assembled in a small hall 1D the natIve
location, while Brother Henschel spoke to a small group of European brethren. The stop was just over night, liS at Bulawayo, and
connections were made to take another plane to Blllntyre,
Nyasaland.
NYASALAND

The party of fOllr were safely aboard a small plane that had
A full load of eight passcngers when they waved good-bye to the
group of brethren at the airport. After a short spurt down the
ruIlway the little plane soared into the air and headed of!' to the
ea.<;t. The flight took us over Mozambique, where, it is reported,
many compunies of brethren have recently sprung up. We crossed
the Zambezi rIver, as well us many mountains and native Villages,
and in a few hours landcd at the airport in Chileka, about
12 miles from Blantyre. While coming in for the landing we
looked for Rigns of Ii city but saw none. There were a few
grass-eovered huts visible in the distance. The depot servant and
another brother were there at the airport to meet us. The question
asked us was whether we had any Watch Towel' literature in our
possession, for the publications are under ban in Nyasaland.
Having none, we were pennitted to go to Blantyre in a car with
the brethren. Along the sides of the winding dirt road we often
saw small scantlly clad native children ~tanding beside small plIes
of yellow and green mangoes. They had gone into the woods
where the mango trees are numerous and gathered frUlt to sell
to passers-by. Twenty-four luscious-looking mangoes could be had
for only two cents American moncy or one penny British money.
On we traveled into the heart of Blantyre, which we found to be
e. very small community with houses WIdely scattered over rolling
hills. A few roads were paved, but the maJonty were not. ~atives
were repairing the roads by throwing several red bncks into
depressions and then squatting down beside thcm and smashing
them with small hammers. The grass was high along the roadsides; everything was green.
As soon aEl we got settled in our hotel we were informed that
we should prepare to depart for the capital, Zomba, wwch is
about forty miles away. An appointment had previously been
arranged for by the depot servant WIth the chief secretary to

MARCH

1, 1948

79

SEeWATCHTOWER

the governor of Nyasaland. The purpose of the visit was to discuss

restrictions still imposed against the Society's Bible-study books
since the middle of the war and to try to arrange for the bans
to be rescinded. En route to Zomba we enjoyed the delightful
mountainous plantation-country scenery and the rich green color
of the very prolific foliage. The roads were unpaved and often
quite narrow. We had a blowout of one tire, but fortunately it was
between rains. Shortly after we were on the road again the
heavens opened up and poured down water in great quantities.
It did not take long until the road was covered with about two
inches of water. We came to a little dip in the road and our
native driver hesitated before attempting to ford the temporary
river flowing across the road. He decided it would be safe to
proceed; so into the flood we plunged, wondering all the time
whether the roadbed had been washed out. But the water was
never more than eight inches deep, and we made it. The territory
around Zomba is famous for its heavy rains. One day last year
28 inches fell in one day, nearly ruining the city so proudly
perched on high ground at the foot of a high mountain. We were
glad the rains were comparatively light this day.
The interview with the chief secretary and the police commissioner consumed about an hour's time. We felt that it was
very profitable, for many misunderstandings were cleared away
and it was made clear why our publications should be freely
circulated in the country for the education of the people along
Bible lines. The officials seemed afraid that the natives would
gain too much knowledge and the result 'Would be dissatisfaction
witb the strict rule of the government. But it was pointed out
that knowledge of the Bible truths and adherence thereto would
make the natives a better people who would obey the laws. Before
we left them the government representatives agreed to re\-iew
the entire matter again and said a report will be made later as
to whether they see fit to lift the ban. By the time the interview
had finished the rains had ceased, and our journey back to
Bulawayo was made without mishap or undue concern.
That night a meeting was held at the Blantyre Town Hall. The
hall is used as a bioscope (we would call it a moving picture
theater), and seats about 200 people. Only the Europeans and
Indians were permitted to attend. Considering tbe fact that there
are only about 250 Europeans in the community it was thought
the attendance of 40 to hear "Permanent Governor of All Xations"
delivered by Brother Knorr was quite good.
While we were in Nyasaland the mornings were always clear
and warm and the native brethren always rose early. In fact,
their program called for getting up at 5 o'clock. The native
brethren had assembled at a point about fi\'e miles oub,ide of
Blantyre, not far from Limbe, the tobacco center, at a very
lovely spot. They had erected the usual native huts with thatched
roofs. Additionally, many lean-tos or temporary shelters were
built in a grove of trees. In the center of this setting was the
arena for the assembly of the brethrcn. A small platform was
arranged for, about a foot and a half from the ground, and at
8 o'clock in the morning out in the open 3,000 of the Lord's
servants, all native Africans, gathered together to hear from the
speakers. They sat on logs and branches of trees, for the ground
was wet from the rains of the previous day. Many had climbed
up into the mango trees and taken seats on the limbs. The speakers
stood in the center of a complete Circle of interested faces. The
depot servant, Brother W. ~lcLuckie, interpreted lD Cinyanja,
lind did remarkably well.

The program ran from 8 in the morning until noon. Brothers

Phillips, Henschel, Fergus50n and Knorr spoke, in that older.
It was a real treat to the African brethren to have the Society's
president in their midst. When noon came they did not like to
see the meeting come to an end, but they had the prospect of
hearing from Brother Knorr later. It was announced that all of
the afternoon sessions would be held at the location of the public
meeting, between Blantyre and Limbe, also in an open lot, it
being provided by a man of good-will. Now It was time for lunch
of mealie meal, which is a paste made from maize. It was cooked
in big drums, and the African brethren enjoyed eating it with
their hands.
At 2 o'clock the trek was on. These thousands of brethren were
moving down the roadside, a number carrying some of their
possessions. Many had bundles on theIr heads. The women carried

their children on their backs. Some had cycles. All were headed
for the public meeting site. Brother Henschel was scheduled to
speak before the public meeting. .As the time drew near the skies
darkened and the afternoon rains began to sprinkle lightly. When
the question was put to the brethren they all expressed themselves
in favor of putting up with the rains and hearing from the
speaker rather than taking shelter. They gathered in the open
garden area near the garage owned by the man of good-will who
provided the land on which to hold the meeting. There was a
lean-to beside the garage and in that shelter Brother Henschel
and Brother McLuckie stood to speak to the brethren. After about
forty minutes the rains increased in \"olume to the point where
the brethren thought they should seek shelter, so the meeting ,,"as
interrupted. But there was little shelter to be found.
The rain abated somewhat after a few minutes, so Brother
Knorr asked Brother Fergusson, temporarily assigned to work in
Nysaland, to speak to the brethren. He had been going only a
few minutes when torrential rains descended. They beat on the
corrugated iron roof of the lean-to so hard that no one was able
to hear the speaker. Meetings were adjourned until the time of
the public lecture.
A few found shelter, but the majority could find none. So they
stood in the rain and sang songs. The singing of the brethren in
Nyasaland surpassed anything the travelers had heard anywhere
in the world for congregational singing. They used their own
melodies.
At about 4: 10 the rains let up and the public began to assemble
from the near-by compounds. By 4: 30 there was no rain falling,
so Brother Knorr and interpreter McLuckie went out into the
middle of the open field where the pea-pIe had been gathered.
Some large tree trunks were in the field and each speaker stood
on one. There were six thousand people standing out in the muddy
assembly place to hear "Permanent Governor of All Nations".
There was no loud-speaker equipment, hence both speakers had
to speak with strong voices so that all could hear. The audience
was very quiet and it could easily be seen from the attention paid
that all heard clearly. They were listening to every word, especially the Cinyanja, which they understood best. At about 5 o'clock
the overcast skies began to darken and soon a fine drizzle descended. But this did not disturb the audience. However, when the
clouds really opened up a few minutes later the drenching downpour came and the public began to scatter to shelter of the trees
and small houses near by; but the brethren remained and Brother
Knorr brought his talk to a close while holding an umbrella over
his head. Then Brother Knorr assured the brethren that he would
take their love and greetings with him as he met the other congrogations throughout Africa and back in America. The storm broke
up the meeting, but not without the message of the Kingdom
being proclaimed clearly to the public. Brother McLuckie, who hag
been serving in N;rasaland for the past 14 years, said that the very
fact that the president of the SOCIety, a European, stood out m
the ram and continued to talk to the people and the brethren in
such weather showed to the natives that the people aSSOCIated with
the Society are truly interested in the welfare of the natives, for
this is something that the local Europeans would never have done.
After the meeting a visit was made to the residence of the
provinClal commissioner to further discuss the matters relative
to importation of literature. A fine interview was had with him
and he is definitely in favor of helping the Society.
NORTHERN RHODESIA

The next day we (Phillips, Knorr and Henschel) had to travel

on to Lusaka; and this was accomplished in a 5-seater biplane
of the Central African Airways. We landed at Zomba and
Lilongwe m Nyasaland. The first passenger to disembark was II
puppy that had a little boy waiting to see him at Zomba. The
mall sacks under our feet were disposed of lit Lilongwe. Then
over to Fort Jameson we flew, where we took on two additional
passengers. A new pilot came aboard, too. On to Lusaka through
the rain we flew; the mountains llnd rivers visible to us provided
interesting looking and made the long journey seem much shorter
than it actually was. The small plane held up well after traveling
through heavy rains and rough winds.
We arrived at Lusaka, the new capital of Northern Rhodesia.
late in the afternoon. Brother L. Phillips, the depot servant, and

80

~eWATCHTOWER..

Brother H. Arnott, a Gilead graduate assigned to work the European population, were at the airport to meet us. With them we
traveled by taxi to the Society's depot. A very fine building it
was. The records were checked over and then late that evening the
president interviewed the African servants to the brethren.
The convention at Lusaka was a four-day affair, but the visiting
brethren could spend only a few hours on the 16th with these
Northern Rhodesia publishers. At 8 a.m. the district servant,
Brother Kabungo, brought the meeting to order and introduced
Brother G. Phillips, the Souto African Branch servant. He in
turn called upon Brother Knorr to speak to the brethren.
For a number of weeks it seemed practically impossible to
arrange for the assembly of the native brethren in or near Lusaka,
but finally a very kind European woman offered part of her land
on which the natives could assemble. As soon as the local officials
learned that the brethren had found a place to hold the convention
a commissioner of the government called on this kind widow and
said, 'Do you know that J ehovall's witnesses are going to assemble
on your property T' And she said she did. He tried to tell her
some derogatory things about the brethren and the work, but she
answered that she was a free thinker and the brethren are
Christian people. 'This is my property; if I want them on this
property it is my business. Why don't you mind your business
and I'll mind mine" She did not go back on her agreement; and
after 8 o'clock, when Brother Knorr started speaking, it was
good to see that she had driven from her farm to the meeting
place, and she sat on the platform and listened to all the lectures
from 8 until noon. The speaking was done through interpreters
in Cinyanja, Sikololo and Chiwemba.
A few minutes after 9 the meeting was turned over to Brother
Henschel, while Brother Knorr and three other brethren went into
the city to see government officials about the ban on some of the
literature that the Somety wanted to ship to Northern Rhodesia.
They saw the head of native affairs, as well as the attorney
general, and were informed that within thirty to sixty 'days the
officials felt sure the ban would be lifted and that no further
restrictions would be put on the Society's work.
Upon Brother Knorr's return to the convention at 11: 15
Brother Henschel relinquished the platform to him and Brother
Knorr again addressed the 3,103 in attendance and released a
new booklet in Sikololo, "The Kingdom of God Is Nigh", which
the government had approved for circulation in the country.
The setting of the convention was a picture. The brethren had
arranged a fine platform of their own. They gathered clay and
built up an earthen platform. Poles were implanted in the dirt
and a shelter or roof of grass was made to cover the platform.
The audience was arranged in a semicircle in front of the platform. This time the sisters were to the left of the speaker and the
brothers to the right. A mixed chorus of very good singers was
organized and they sat at the front of the platform, a little to
the right. Most of the sisters were wearing knItted tams. They
were very colorful headgear and the women sat so close together
that that part of the audience looked like a bed of beautIful
flowers. It was a grand audIence to talk to, for their attention was
undivided. They were happy to get the good news we brought.
SALISBURY, CAPITAL OF S. R.

Shortly past noon of Friday we had to hurry away from this

pleasant convention, for we were scheduled to be in Sahsbury,
Southern Rhodesia, that evening. So on to the airport we went.
lnt? the Viking plane we proceeded and by 4 p.m. we were in
Sahsb1U'y. At 5: 30 Brother Knorr was standing on the steps of
the Rf'creation Hall of the native compound in Salisbury addressing ~,OOO natives who had assembled in pubhc meeting. That same
t!-vell.mg he addressed the European public meeting, where 82 were
present. While Brot~er Knorr was speaking to one group Brother
Hcnschcl was speaking to the others. The newspaper of Salisbury
gave a very fine report next morning on the public meetings.
On Saturday at 8: 15 a.m. the Afncan brethren had been
gathered together at their convention grounds under the trees.
There were 2,045 present. Brother Knorr spoke to them for a
while. At 9 he tUl"ned the meeting over to Brother Henschel. He
then went on to the European assembly and addressed them. Then
he visited the government officials concerning certain import
re~trictions on our literature; the difficultfes were overcome.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Bv noon we were on our way to the airport, there to take a

plane for Johannesburg. There was a delay at the airport; but
many of the brethren had come to t~e ai~o!t to spen~ a few
last minutes with us, so we had a fine time wll.1tmg. The skIes were
stormy and we had rough weather all'the way. A stop at Bulawayo
delayed us further, so we were an hour late arriving in Johannesburg. It was necessary for us to go through customs in order to
enter the country, and it so happened that two large air transports
had landed just ahead of us and there were 80 passengers to be
taken care of bv customs and immigration before we were entered.
Hcre we lost two hours. Brother Knorr was scheduled to speak
at 7: 30 to the Johannesburg company, but he could not get there
before 8: 30. Knowing this he asked Brother Bartlett to go to
the Hall and talk to the congregation. His Gilead training came
in handy. He had only 30 minutes to get an hour's program all
lined up and keep things going until Brother Knorr arnved.
There were 450 in attendance. They enjoyed hearing a report of
the trip through Portugal, Spain and all of Africa.
FLIGHT HOMEWARD TO A HAPPY LANDING

Our schedule called for returning to the United States begmning Sunday morning, the 18th. We had to get up at 3 o'clock
in order to be at the airport by 4: 30. More than 40 of our
brethren from Johannesburg and near-by companies assembled at
the airport in this early hour to wish us bon voyage. It was a joy
to talk to them and be with them for a while. The weather was cool.
Promptly at 6 a.m. our plane started away for its 501-hour
trip back to New York. On leaving Johannesburg we went through
some rough weather A stop was made at Leopoldville, which by
contrast was very warm. Then on to Accra, Gold Coast, where
Brothers Baker, Wilkinson, Brown and Amegatcher met us at the
airport. We had an hour to discuss some of the details of the work
that had been accomplished since leaVlng here. Then off again,
this time to Dakar and Lisbon. Again in Lisbon we had a pleasant
visit with Brother Garrido during the two-hour stopover. Then to
Santa Maria, Azores. Because of strong winds from the west we
flew on to cold Gander, Newfoundland, and then down to New
York. We arrived at 1: 30 a.m. Tuesday, the 20th. It was good to
meet members of the Bethel family and then get horne after spending two days in the air.
REVIEWING THE WORK

in South Africa and Central Africa reveals that a great expansion is being accomplished by the brethren in this territory. There
is certainly room for much more of it. Therc are thousands upon
thousands of people of good-,vill. With European brethren serving in this area better organization can be accomplished and more
respect will be paid to the work by the officials because of seelOg
Europeans taking more active charge of the preaching of the
gospel. The officials seem to be fearful that the African will gain
too much power and influence in the community. It is true that
the native Africans need educatIOn, and this was one of the things
that got stress. They should all learn to read their own language
and thus be better equipped to preach the good news. They have
the zeal and determinatIOn to press on, and this they will do
regardless of whether they can read or not; but it was pointed
out to all of these native brethren that it was the keen desire of
all to live forever and that some day they would certainly want
to read the Lord's Word and there was no better time than now to
learn to read. It was not nece5sary to put it off until the new
world was brought in, but they should start now, They appreciated
this admonition, and every effort WIll be made by the servants to
the brethren and the company servants and publishers in the
villages who can read to carry on the great educational work and
promote the true worship of Jehovah. Being able to read and
write all will be better qualified to fulfil their mission.
All of the European brethren in convention assembled and the
native brethren too requested the president of the Society to
convey their love and greetings to their fellow workers throughout
all the world, especially to the Bethel fanuly in Brooklyn, New
York, who are anxious and willing to provide them with the
literature they so much need in these dark countries. With the
bans removed, a great work will be accomplished, by the Lord's
grace. Africa is a big field; more workers are needed. And they
are coming by the thousands.

~eWATCHTOWER.
PUllLISBED

SEMIMONTHLY

WATCH TOWER BIBLE

117 Adams Street

By

TRACT SOCIETY
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S A

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

Pre&ident

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." lJaioh 54:z.J.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully dlsobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to lIfe;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven abo,e every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GO D'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization. and are His \vltnesses whose duty and prl,llege It
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jeho\'ah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act Is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingtlom
the people of good-Will surnving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves Will be rlllsed to opportullltles
of life on earth.

ITS MISSION
IDS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the Bible. It pUblishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-will
It arranges systematic Bible study for Its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes
SUitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances.
It Is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is Wholly and without reservation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It Is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination
of Its contents In the I1ght of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
in controversy, and Its columns are not open to personallties.

Notice to S"bscnbe,.,: Remittances should be sent to office In your

country in compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of
money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
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Please address the Watch Tower Society in every case.
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Printed in the United States of America

Entered a8 8ecf)7ld-cla'8 matter at the po.t otJlce at BrooUyn, N. Y.,

.",der the Act 01 March 3, 1879.

"ALL NATIONS ADVANCE" TESTI1I10NY PERIOD

SAVE

April is the last of the four-month Watchtower subscription

campaign and it has been named "All Nations Advance" Testimony Period. This name agrees with the international effort that
this campaign has been witnessing to secure at least 300,000 new
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the glorious end, April 30.

your personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower.

Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer
or on library shelves. At the end of each year, in its December 15 issue, The Watchtower contains an index of subjects and an
index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in
all the leading articles throughout the year. By saVIng your copies
and keeping them in date order you will have an invaluable reference library for consultation in your study of the Blble. Orgalllzed
companies should preserve copies in the library of their local
Theocratic ministry course school.

'"WATCHTOWER" S.TUDIES

Week of April 25: "That the Ministry Be. Not Blamea,"

11 1-20 inclusive, Tk8 Watc&m1Der MaJ:ch. 15, lil48.
Week of Ma~ 2: "That the Ministry Be Not. Blamed,'"
11 21-40 inclusive, The Watchtower March 15, 1948.

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The renewal blank sent you prior to the expiration of your

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By 1lJfing i:a. these. renewal blanks you are assured of the contmuatim. of JO&r W IMchtowe~ from. the time of expiration, and Wlthoot duy. It will also be a great help if you sign your name uniformly, and note any recent change of address, on the renewal slip.

grficeWAlCHIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

MARCH

15, 1948

No. 6

"THAT THE MINISTRY BE NOT BLAMED"

.,Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed."-2 Cor. 6: 3.

EHOVAH is not to be blamed for that class of

men and women who are popularly known as
"ministers of God" but who do not live up to the
name, bringing disgrace upon it. When hundreds of
thousands of men and women claiming as their title
"minister of God" or "minister of the gospel" act
contrary to what it means and requires, there should
be no surprise that atheism and materialistic Godlessness are increasing throughout the lands of
Christendom.
2 Many people, not familiar with the Holy Bible,
judge God to be what his so-called "ministers" represent him to be in their speech, teachings and course
of life. The religious ministers should not condemn
the people for their materialism and Godlessness
and lay the blame upon the people's lack of faith and
devotion to righteousness. The religious ministers of
Christendom should look at themselves and examine
themselves to see if they are not themselves responsible because of what they teach or fail to teach and
because of the kind of action they take in times of
war and in times of peace. They should investigate
themselves to see what share of the responsibility
they bear for the spread of Godless Communism.
How much did the course of action of the Greek
Orthodox clergy contribute to the d.esire. for co:nmunism and the growth of commumsm m RussIa,
the great. stronghold of ~hat ideology .today' As. for
the teachmgs and peacetIme and wartune operatIons
of the Roman Catholic clergy, how far has the practical effect of such been to disgust men and women
into Godless Communism in Italy, in France, in
Austria, and in Poland, all of which countries were
Roman Catholic bastions for many centuries T
S Of course, chiefly responsible for atheistic Communism is God's great adversary, Satan the Devil.
But if Christendom's ministers of religion have followed a course of action that has resulted in multitudes' preferring anti-God Communism, then it is
useless for religious c1e:gymen to create a grea,~ hue
and cry abou.t Co.mmunIsm ~nd to. carIJ: on a holy
crusade". agamst It. ~y keepmg .o~ m theIr sam~ way
of teac1llng and actmg the relIgIOUS clergy SImply

counteract their strenuous crusade efforts. They will

never succeed, but the great menace to their religious
institutions and to their profession as priests and
clergymen will grow and at last overwhelm them.
The prophecy of the Holy Scriptures forecast exactly that result, saying: "This know also, that in the
last days perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves, . lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof: ... ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
... evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving, and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3: 1, 2, 4, 5,
7, 13) The religious clergy of all Christendom, having a love of pleasures and having an outward form
of Godliness but a course of life denying the power
of Godliness, will never be able to prevent the outworking of prophecy. They will have to eat the bitter
fruit of their hypocritical doings.
4 The matter of "minister of God" is therefore very
important in these perilous times. The question i~,
What kind of "ministers" should the people haye or
look forT They should remember that the Devil has
his and his kind fool the people. Take note in the
Bible that these servants of Satan the Devil take
to themselves holy names, such as "apostles" and
"Christ"; as the Bible says: "For such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel: for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness;
whose end shall be according to their works." (2 Cor.
11: 13-15) Lovers of truth and righteousness do not
want such ministers, despite their outward "form of
godliness". The true and living God has his true
ministers, and these are the ones that all those who
seek God and his way to eternal life want to have.
It is very important that the honest-hearted know
the Scriptural marks of these true and faithful ministel'S of God. Otherwise, they will not be helped into
the way of eternal life in the righteous new world.
Oth eI'Wlse,
. t 00, a ft er h avmg
. th'
eIr eyes opene d t 0 tl Ie

I, 2. Faced with growinl/: Godlessness, who should be investigated!

3. How do rell~lous clergy counteract crusades on Godlessness?

--4. What kind ot ministers shoulrl the people have, snd why?
83

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fraud and hypocrisy of religious clergymen, they

will not know where to go and will fall victim to Godless Communism or some other "ism" and false
ideology of these hysterical times.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

The Holy Scriptures of the Bible give us descriptions and examples of bona fide ministers of the living and true God, to show us what ministers of Jehovah God should be. Noone, therefore, can expect to
get the correct facts upon this important class and
thus be able to safeguard himself against fraud and
misguidance unless he goes direct to God's inspired
written Word, the Holy Bible. There is where we
now turn for the information that is to follow.
6 The Pattern against which all others claiming to
be God's ministers are to be measured is, in all
points, Jesus Christ, for he was and is God's Chief
Servant and, when on earth, he called upon men to
follow him. He is God's High Priest, not by being
born into the family of Aaron the Levite and thus
inheriting priesthood from Aaron the brother of
Moses. No; but by God's oath he was made High
Priest resembling the ancient priest-king named
Melchizedek, who reigned and performed his priestly
office in the old city of Salem. As the apostle Paul
says of Jesus Christ: "But this with an oath by him
that said unto him, The Lord [Jehovah] sware and
will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchisedec: by so much was Jesus made a
surety of a better testament. For such an high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."
(Heb. 7: 21, 22, 26) Jesus was therefore a better high
priest of God than Aaron was.
1 Aaron was just the high priest of good for the
nation of Israel and ministered before Jehovah God
in a sacred tabernacle made by human hands of fellow Israelites. He was just a mortal priest, because
of being a sinner under the condemnation of death.
He could not continue in office forever, but must die,
and he had to be succeeded in the priesthood by his
offspring after him. He offered upon the altar animals whose blood could not really take away human
sins. Hence the priesthood of Aaron at the sacred
tabernacle could only picture and foreshadow a
greater priest to come, with a better sacrifice that
would have actual power to cleanse away human sin.
The apostle Paul helps us to this conclusion, for,
after showing how the ancient king-priest Melchizedek foreshadowed the true High Priest of God,
Christ Jesus, he adds:
8 "Now of the things which we have spoken this is
the sum : We have such an high priest, who is set on
the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the

heavens; a minister [leitourg6s] of the sanctuary,

and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man. For every high priest is ordained to
offer gifts and sacrifices: ... now hath he obtained a
more excellent ministry [leitourgia], by how much
also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which
was established upon better promises. . . . Christ,
being come an high priest of good things to come, by
a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this [material] building;
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his
own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption."-Heb. 8: 1,2,
3, 6; 9: 11, 12.
'9 In speaking about Christ Jesus as having a more
excellent ministry toward God than High Priest
Aaron had, the apostle uses a particular word
respecting Jesus. Our English word liturgy comes
from it, and it means to perform public duties toward
God, to serve the people, to work and exert oneself
for the sake of the public good. Christ Jesus rendered such a public service in the interest of the public or people by presenting his perfect human nature
as a sacrifice to Jehovah God. By such a sacrifice for
humankind in general Christ Jesus was indeed a public minister or public servant, not in being a politician or a statesman of this world, but by being Jehovah's High Priest to offer the only acceptable sacrifice to Him that serves as an offset to human sins. By
faith in his sacrifice anyone of the public who hears
the good news and accepts him as God's appointed
High Priest for sins can have approach to God and
be relieved of the condemnation due to sin and be
brought into the relationship of son of God. Amid
this sinful world and its temptations and its opposition to righteousness Jesus deported himself in such
a way that his ministry could not be blamed or be
found fault with in the very slightest. We admit he
died on a tree as a criminal exposed to public shame
and reproach; but this was at the hands of his
enemies. Also, his unresistingly submitting to death
at their violent hands only worked in with God's
purpose that he die as an innocent man and thus
offer up a perfect sacrifice to Jehovah God. Even his
public enemies could benefit by his sacrifice if they
repented and confessed and believed in him.
10 He laid down his life three and a half years after
his baptism in the river Jordan, but during those
years he was acting as a public servant or minister
according to God's will. How 1 By acting as a teacher
of all the people, by preaching the gospel of God's
kingdom to the circumcised Jews and the Samaritans. He was in the fullest sense God's servant for
the people, because he did not go in for politics or
commerce or the so-called"Jews' religion". He dedi-

Ii. G. Where. and what facts do we get on the pattern for ministers?
7. 8. Why was High Priest Aaron only typical? and typical of whom?

9 How was he a public servant with a blameless ministry?

10. llow "as he God's public servant or the circumcIsIon I

THE PATTERN FOR MEASURING

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cated himself completely to proclaiming the written

Word of God, from the prophet Moses to Malachi,
and explaining to the circumcised Jews the things
concerning God's kingdom in the light of those sacred
Scriptures. For proclaiming the Kingdom message
almost exclusively to such circumcised nation he
could be called a "minister [or, public servant] of
the circumcision for the truth of God". (Rom. 15: 8)
However, before ascending from our earth and
returning to heaven from which he had come, Christ
Jesus, now resurrected from the dead, gave instructions for his apostles and disciples to extend the
Kingdom message out beyond the nation of circumcised Jews and to proclaim the gospel to all the
uncircumcised heathen nations, to make disciples
also from them. He gave these instructions for a
world-wide expansion of the gospel because it
was in harmony with the Bible prophecies that he
preached. And as a public servant or minister he
preached not only in public places, in the temple, in
synagogues, in the out-of-doors under God's blue
sky, but also in the private homes of the people. He
went from house to house to reach the people and
preach to them intimately.
MINISTERS OF MESSIAH

While Jesus the Messiah thus served in a public

way dealing exclusively with God's Word, he had
others who ministered to him in various ways in
order that his ministry might not be disturbed or
lessened. Not to be left unmentioned are the several
women, who went along with him and his apostles on
some of their travels and rendered various services
that female hands could offer. Of these it is recorded:
"And certain women, which had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities, ... and many others, which
ministered unto him of their substance." (Luke
8: 2, 3) The apostles, too, at times went out and did
the shopping to provide things for the meals, or to
arrange for meetings. For example, when Jesus was
preaching to the Samaritan woman at the well near
Sychar, we read: "His disciples were gone away unto
the city to buy meat." (John 4: 8) On his way up to
.J erusalem, he once "sent messengers before his face:
and they went, and entered into a village of the
Samaritans, to make ready for him". (Luke 9: 52)
And just before celebrating his last passover supper
with his apostles and setting up the Memorial of his
own death, "he sent Peter and J olm, saying, Go and
prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they
went, and found as he had said unto them: and they
made ready the passover."-Luke 22: 8, 13.
12 However, they also ministered to Christ Jesus
by joining in with him in preaching the glad tidings
of God's kingdom, in some cases breaking the ground
11

11, 12. How did varIOus olles mini.tel to Jesus tor his work's sake?

85

for his coming later to top off a local witness to the

Kingdom. To this effect we read: "Then he called
his twelve disciples together, and gave them power
and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, ...
After these things the Lord appointed other seventy
also, and sent them two and two before his face into
every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Therefore said he unto them, . . . into whatsoever
house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house."
(Luke 9: 1, 2; 10: 1-5) He thus trained them to serve
God in a public way, for the public benefit.
13 In thus co-operating with Christ Jesus these
disciples, women and men alike, were ministers of
Christ. But through him they were at the same time
ministers to God, because Christ Jesus was God's
anointed Representative. The prophet Moses, who
foreshadowed Christ Jesus as Jehovah's great
Prophet, had his servant, namely, Joshua, respecting whom it is written: "And Moses rose up, and his
minister Joshua: and :Moses went up into the mount
of God." (Ex. 24: 13) "Now after the death of Moses
the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORn
spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister."
(Josh. 1: 1) Elsewhere Joshua is called Moses' servant, because servant means the same as minister.
(Ex. 33: 11; Num. 11: 28) Likewise the prophet
Elijah, who foreshadowed Christ Jesus at his second
coming, had his servant, namely, Elisha, regarding
whom we read: "Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him." (1 Ki. 19: 19-21) And
to show us one of the ways in which Elisha did minister to Elijah, we read: "One of the king of Israel's
servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son
of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of
Elijah [to wash his hands]." (2 Ki. 3: 11) We also
read of how the male members of the tribe of Levi
were presented to High Priest Aaron, "that they
may minister unto him." (Num. 3: 6; 18: 1, 2) However, while Joshua, Elisha and the Levites are spoken
of as being ministers to these several men, they rendered their service as to Jehovah God and they were
primarily God's ministers and serving according to
his appointment.
14 In like manner those who joined with Christ
Jesus in his work were spoken of as his ministers.
The privilege of being such Paul the apostle greatly
appreciated. Therefore in presenting the proof of
his ministry he said: "Are they Hebrews 1 so am 1.
Are they Israelites 1 so am 1. Are they the seed of
Abraham 1 so am 1. Are they ministers of Christ 1
... I am more." (2 Cor. 11: 22, 23) He gave to his
fellow workers and helpers the same honorable
designation. To the church at Colosse he spoke of
how they had learned the gospel from Epaphras, and
13. What lllustrations show to whom they ministered rrimaril Y ?

14. How are we today ministers ot God as well as 0

Christ?

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said: "Ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow- of his written Word foretold the time coming when
servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ." his ministers would be restored upon the earth and
(Col. 1: 7) Paul also instructed the young man would serve him in all parts of the globe. In this
Timothy how to serve faithfully in the church, say- restoration the sptrit of the Lord God would perform
ing: "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of its part, for the prophecy of restoration follows the
these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus well-known prophecy quoted by Jesus from Isaiah
Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and 61: 1, 2, namely: "The spirit of the Lord Jehovah
of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to
(1 Tinl. 4: 6) At the same time Paul calls Timothy preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me
a "minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to
gospel of Christ". (1 Thess. 3: 2) Thus at the same the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
time we today can be God's ministers and Christ's, that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's
not that God and Christ are two co-equal persons in favor, and the day of vengeance of our God." (Am.
a trinity or three-in-one God, but that Christ Jesus Stan. Ver.) Jesus applied this prophecy to himself
is God's Chief Official. So we can serve God through after he had been anointed with Jehovah's holy spirit
Christ, who makes our works acceptable to God. We at the Jordan river, where he was baptized. He \vas
serve God by working under Christ Jesus, whom God Jehovah's Chief Minister. He restored Jehovah God
has appointed as Head over all His servants. In fact, to his true and rightful place in the hearts and lives
no creature on earth can render acceptable service of his consecrated people. His followers, anointed
to God except through Christ our Leader.
with the same spirit from the day of Pentecost forward, became ministers of Jehovah because they
RESTORATION OF SUCH
became ministers of Christ Jesus and imitated him.
15 During the fourth century the doctrine of the
11 During the centuries following the death
of
"trinity" was forced upon Christendom by the decree Christ's apostles and their personal fellow servants
of the Roman emperor. Religious people of the the ministry to Jehovah God was ignored by those
empire were obliged to believe it, under threat of the who proclaimed themselves Christ's followers. After
police power and sword of the political state. As a those many centuries it is nothing else than a final
consequence, the living and true God Jehovah was and complete fulfillment of the prophecy that God's
forced into the background and more prominence holy spirit has been poured out in these last days for
was given to his Son Jesus Christ. Religious leaders the restoration of the ministry to Jehovah God.
ignored Jehovah as if he were to be associated with Speaking of a restoration of His organization of His
mainly the despised Jews, and they made loud claims people in a Theocratic way and also of the rebuilding
of being the ministers of Christ as the "second and expansion of his worship, the prophecy says to
person" in a triune God. In violation of Jesus' com- these restored anointed ones of our day: "And they
mand, that "all men should honour the Son, even as shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the
they honour the Father", the religious leaders of former desolations, and they shall repair the waste
Christendom gave more honor to the Son than to cities, the desolations of many generations. And
the Father. (John 5: 23) Great disrespect was shown strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and
to the rightful place and power and authority of the foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vineFather, Jehovah God, and men did not understand dressers. But ye shall be named the priests of J ehoor seriously consider that they must be first of all vah; men shall call you the ministers of ottr God."
servants of Jehovah, just as his Son Jesus Christ is
18 That prophecy, of Isaiah 61: 4-6
(Am. Stan.
a servant of Jehovah after whom we must pattern. Ver.), has not failed in our day. We have those
The result was that the name of Jehovah suffered an "ministers of our God", who are rendering priestly
eclipse. There were many pretending to be "apostles service to him. No, they are not the religious Hierof Christ" and "ministers of Christ", but practically archy of the Vatican, nor the clergy of Christendom's
none confessing to being ministers of Jehovah God, other religious organizations. They are the smull
really making him known, appreciated and loved by remnant who particularly since World War I ended,
the people.
in 1918, have been making strenuous efforts to revive
,6 The prophecies of the Bible foretold that such
the knowledge of Jehovah and to make known his
a falling away from the true, complete faith and fame among the nations. Because of their persistent
from the loving service of God through Christ Jesus efforts and their faithfulness to his name and uniwould take place among men claiming to be Chris- versal sovereignty, they have undergone great persetians. But Jehovah God did not propose to let him- cution from the religionists of Christendom. Who are
self be always pushed into a corner. The prophecies theyT Jehovah's remnant of anointed witnesses. And
15. How w9.ll more prominence given to the mlnlRtrr to Christ?
16. Hence "hat restoration was promised, and by what force?

17. 18. How has Isaiah 61: 4-6 been fultllled In our day?

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The religious clergy of Christendom's hundreds

of denominations disclaim Jehovah's witnesses and
loudly proclaim that these were not ordained by them
and have no recognized standing with them. That is
good I That is Scriptural; for the genuine ministers
are not made by men or religious clergy, but are
made by Jehovah God through Christ Jesus. That
was what the apostle Paul claimed as true in regard
to himself. Theological training at the feet of Rabbi
Gamaliel did not induct Paul into the Christian
ministry. (Gal. 1: 11-17) The gospel of which Paul
was a minister was not according to man, and he did
not get it of man, but was taught it by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The apostle says: "The gospel,
whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift
of that grace of God which was given me according
to the working of his power.... to preach unto the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."-Eph.
3: 6-8, Am. Stan. Ver.; also Col. 1: 23.
20 Paul ministered this pure gospel of salvation.
By doing so he served as Christ's instrument in the
work of reconciling other persons to Jehovah God.
Hence he says: "All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Cor.
5: 18) All this service aided the believers into membership in the church which is Christ's body; so that
the apostle spoke of himself as a servant of the
church, saying: "The church, whereof I am made a
minister."-Col. 1: 24, 25.
21 We can thus clearly see that the apostle Paul
was not a servant of the Jewish organization that
rejected Jesus Christ. He was not a minister of
Judaism or "Jews' religion" with its traditions of
the religious fathers. (Gal. 1: 13, 14) The thing with
which he carried on his public work was the gospel
as founded on God's written Word and as preached
by Jesus Christ. Today, like Paul, Jehovah's witnesses act separate from all the religious organizations of Jewry and Christendom. They are not ministers of the hundreds of confusing religions of Chris-

tendom. They are in the same classification as Paul,

Timothy, Epaphras, and other early disciples, namely, "ministers of the gospel." It is with the gospel
exclusively that they work. It is this gospel, and not
the wisdom and religious ideas of men, that they
teach privately and preach publicly. It is with this
gospel that they are trained. They are instructed and
built up in Christian faith with it. Acquaintance with
this true gospel, then a dedication of themselves to
make it known to others, is what makes them gospel
ministers. They reject the religious traditions of
Christendom as "old wives' fables" and as profane.
22 Hence we strive to conform ourselves closely to
Paul's words to Timothy: '<Be a good minister of
Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith,
and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed
until now: but refuse profane and old wives' fables.
And exercise thyself unto godliness." (1 Tim. 4: 6, 7,
Am. Stan. Ve,..) We recognize all too well that to be
perfect or mature servants of God and of his gospel
in Christ we must hold to the inspired writings of
the Bible. We must study these in order to become
wise to salvation and must preach them to others.
That is what the apostle told Timothy, saying:
"From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith whieh is in Christ Jesus. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
-2 Tim. 3: 15-17.
23 If we specialize upon this, how can we at all
dabble in the politics of this world, or try to dictate
what the movie industry shall produce or the cinemas
show on the screen, or act as referees in capitallabor disputes' We simply cannot. Those things of
this world are not our concern. We cannot line up
with the governor of Minnesota who, last November,
at a Reformation Day celebration, said publicly:
"Weare personally responsible for the political
conduct of our democracy. If Christians in the United
States do not reverse their indifference to government, the time may quickly come when a decision will
be forced upon them as a result of our apathy....
they must come forward to accept the obligation of
leadership and service in political and civil life as
never before in the history of our nation."-New
York Times, November 3, 1947.
24 Would Christ Jesus, would the apostle Paul,
heed that urgent warning or invitation to entangle
themselves with the political affairs of this country,
if they were personally present here now' Not if
they stuck to the line of action that they followed

19. As shown In Paul's case, by whom are these made ministers?

20. How was Paul a minister of the church?
21. Of whf\t are we ministers? and with what do we work?

22. To be mature servants, we reject what and hold to wbat?

23, 24. (a) With what can we not dabble? (b) Despite being urged,
why may we IMlt mess ourzelvetl up with political atfalrs?

who are those "strangers" and "foreigners" who join

in feeding the flocks and in productive work of plowing the fields and dressing the vines' They are the
"great multitude" of consecrated persons of good-will
who have made common cause with the anointed remnant. Because of the large part that these have with
the remnant in converting the desolation or brokendown state of Jehovah's worship in the earth into a
blossoming garden in all lands, this great multitude
of good-will are also called "Jehovah's witnesses".
-Rev. 7: 9-15.
OF THE GOSPEL, NOT OF RELIGIONS
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when on earth nineteen centuries ago. Christ Jesus

owned up to no responsibility for the political conduct of any nation, but quietly said to politician
Pilate: "My realm does not belong to this world."
(John 18: 36, Moffatt) And Paul wrote to Timothy:
"Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the
affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier." (2 Tim. 2: 3, 4) Both
Jesus and Paul his faithful imitator kept hands off
this world's running of its affairs and stuck to the
ministry of the gospel. We do not imitate Christ
Jesus, but follow the pope of Vatican City, if we
mess ourselves up with the politics of the various
states of this world. Only this past October 30 an
Associated Press dispatch said that Pope Pius XII
"denied that church and state could be entirely separate", but that the pope said that "church and state
go back to the same font, God, and that both have
charge of the same man, of the same natural and
supernatural personal dignity". (New York Times,
October 31, 1947) Talking that way, the pope overlooks that when Jesus Christ was offered the charge
of all the political states of this world it was not
Jehovah God, but it was Satan the Devil, "the god
of this world," that made the offer to Christ Jesus
on the terms that Jesus fall down and worship the
Devil.
25 Because Jesus Christ was a minister of God and
devoted to the ministry of the gospel, he refused
to enter politics in league with Satan the Devil. For
holding to this neutral course he was foully put to
death by a political conspiracy. But no blame can be
cast upon Jesus' ministry, as being fradulent. If the
pope, who claims to be Christ's vicar, had instructed
the Roman Catholic clergy to follow Jesus' example
and stick to the gospel, Monsignor Josef Tiso would
not have entered the political office of president of
Slovakia as a protectorate under Adolf Hitler and
taken part in the slaughter of thousands of helpless
Slovakian Jews, and all this time being on good
terms with the Vatican, and finally appealing to
Hitler for military aid when the allies were closing
in upon the Nazi forces. Condemned after trial in
court, Tiso was hanged as a criminal and Nazi
collaborator April 18, 1947. Just his being a Roman Catholic priest did not earn for him a pardon
or excuse him of his crimes. Tiso's ministry was to
be blamed according to his known actions, and it only
betrayed the Nazi-Fascist sympathies of the Vatican
for its newspaper, Osservatore Romano, to say: "The
circumstances finally that a priestly characterwhich is always sacred even in someone who may be
guilty-was held in no consideration cannot but

cause deep pain to all the faithful."-New York

Times, of April 20, 1947.
28 Let Osservatore Romano remember that God did
not consider the law-breaking, fornicating, thieving
Hophni and Phinehas to be sacred despite their guilt.
Even if they were priests and sons of High Priest
Eli, God decreed their death and promptly let them be
slain by the Philistines while acting as chaplains in
battle. (1 Sam. 2: 34; 4: 4-11) Their ministry, while
measurably not as bad as Tiso's, could nevertheless
be blamed, because it brought great reproach upon
the name of Jehovah God and perverted his service.
2T By no means can God's true ministers of his
gospel undertake to act as the custodians of the
morals of the state' or of the public community that
upholds such a political state, and try to put Jehovah
God in the state. We cannot by making laws give
people an injection of righteousness and morality.
Not even the law of Moses could legislate righteousness into God's chosen people of Israel. That Theocratic law could only condemn them as natural-born
sinners in Jehovah's sight and needing redemption,
redemption through no political legislation, but
through Jesus' blood. The Roman Catholic priests
that try to influence legislation to inject their Roman
Catholic righteousness into the people merely serve
to legislate themselves into power for controlling the
community, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The
apostle Paul knew better than to try to act as custodian of the morals of the people of Rome and other
lands that he visited. He said to the church at Corinth which had a disgusting case of fornication on its
hands: "What have I to do to judge them also that
are without 1 do not ye judge them that are within 1
But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore
put away from among yourselves that wicked
person."-l Cor. 5: 12, 13.
28 The apostle foretold that at the end of this world,
where we are now, the nations would have dropped
to their lowest ebb, creating most perilous times, and
that there would never be any improvement. (2 Tim.
3: 1-13) The failure of Christendom's clergy to
improve the morality of the people of the various
political states proves that theirs is a losing fight,
because it is no business of a true minister of God.
Why, the true ministers of His Word cannot even
force the gospel of salvation upon anyone; and it is
only through that gospel that any person attains to
real righteousness and morality in God's sight. How,
then, can Christendom's ministers of religion hope
to regulate the morality of the political state and to
legislate uprightness into the people that do not
accept and obey the gospel of God in Christ Jesus T
They can not. Jehovah's witnesses are well instructed
in that gospel. They do not let themselves be fooled

25. 26. (alln that regard. how was Jesus' ministry blameless? (bl Why
are crlmlDals not to be spared as sacred for being priests?

27, 28 (alWby cannot true ministers act as cUBtodinns ot the publlc

morals? (bl Why IB It a losing fight to try to do BO?

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into joining the religious clergy in that futile effort

which does not have God's approval or backing. Only
His kingdom established in the hands of Christ Jesus
will bring in a world completely moral and upright,
a new world and not this old world made over.

selves free from blame for the thriving of Communism and its growing menace to the world. Because
they turn down God's Word and fight His witnesses
that spread his Word, Amos 8 : 11 predicted: "Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will
send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor
RELIEF WORK
a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of
29 What if the Roman Catholic religious system
Jehovah."-Am. Stan. Ver.
during the sixteen centuries of its existence since the
81 Hence the vision from the Lord has vanished
days of Emperor Constantine had tried to popularize from the clergy, and Jehovah's witnesses are the
the Holy Scriptures, which, Paul says, are "able to only ones that are bringing real relief to the peoples
make thee wise unto salvation'" What if the minis- of all nations. Those who hear Jehovah's Word
ters of Roman Catholicism, especially since the which his witnesses minister receive the only effective
invention of printing from movable type, in the bulwark against the advance of any Godless "ism"
fifteenth century, had tried to spread copies of the into their lives. This flatly denies the charge of the
Bible among the people' What if they had tried' to Roman Catholic Hierarchy that the practical effect
explain those sacred Scriptures to the people, instead of Jehovah's witnesses' ministry, despite all their
of feeding them upon pagan philosophies and reli- professions, is to promote Communism. That basegious traditions of uninspired men' Then their min- less accusation has an undeniable relationship with
istry would have been relieved of great blame for the charges of the Nazis in Hitler Germany against
today's state of affairs in Christendom and its Jehovah's witnesses. According to a wireless from
nations. Just consider what Jehovah's witnesses, Berlin, June 29,1933, Herman Goering, Nazi premier
with their small numbers, have done in this regard of Prussi~, suppressed Jehovah's witnesses (or
only since 1919, putting out more than half a billion Bibelforscher) as being a "subversive organization",
books and booklets on the Holy Scriptures, besides saying that "under the guise of scientific and Biblical
hundreds of millions of copies of this magazine, free research this international organization has carried
tracts, and other invitations to Bible study! All this on incendiary propaganda against the Christian
despite intense and violent opposition of Roman church and the state, and in dangerous degree has
Catholic religionists and other religious elements in been promoting the Bolshevist disintegration of
Christendom. Whose ministry is to be blamed, theirs civilization", and that this danger has recently
or ours'
become greater, because the German Branch of the
80 Today the food situation all over the world is
Watch Tower Society had come to act as a masked
bad, exciting grave fears in religious and political as refuge for outlawed "communist and Marxist elewell as commercial circles believing in free enter- ments". That was 21 days before the concordat was
prise. It is dinned into our ears that Godless Com- signed between Hitler and Pius XI, Franz von
munism thrives upon famine, disorder and human Papen signing for Germany and Cardinal Pacelli,
misery. For this reason Americans are urged from now Pius XII, signing for the Vatican.
all sides to send food to Western Europe' to save it
82 The charge has not yet been raised by the Roman
from the advancing juggernaut of Communism, and Catholic Hierarchy of America that the organization
the religious clergy take great pride in having a of Jehovah's witnesses is a "masked refuge" in which
leading part in the collecting of such food to be the outlawed "Communist and Marxist elements"
shipped, not for purely humanitarian purposes, but are hiding themselves. Only time will tell whether
largely for political purposes to prop up weak polit- the American Hierarchy will stoop to that. If they
ical governments. But let such religionists underdo, then the open and above-board, public activities
stand plainly now, if they did not understand it
before, that not mere shortages in material food, not of Jehovah's witnesses down to the time of raising
mere famines for bread, are something for atheistic such a charge will brand it a lie. The ministry of
Communism to thrive upon, but that the dreaded Jehovah's witnesses can in no wise be blamed for
Communism thrives more so upon the dearth of Communism's growth in the Vatican's own backyard,
getting the pure, spiritual food from God's written its native land of Italy.
Word. Owing to the unfaithfulness of Christendom's
83 The relief from spiritual famine that Jehovah's
clergy as the ministers of Christ, which they claim witnesses are pushing in all nations by spreading the
to be, there exists throughout the world just such a life-saving knowledge of Jehovah God and the kingfamine for hearing the word of Jehovah God. The dom of his Christ is of far more importance and
clergy responsible for this should not consider them29. For not spreading the Bible, whose ministry must be blamed?
30. Due to what does splrltual famine eXlst and Communism thrlve?

31, 32. (a) Against what do we erect an effective bUlwark? (b) What
brands the charge that we promote and harbor Communism a lie?
33. Besides spiritual, what other relief have we recently glyen?

90

SEeWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

a public service (liturgy), even though it is not

extended to the general public of Christendom but
is confined to Jehovah's servants in Christ. So, in
this respect the ministry of Jehovah's witnesses is
not to be blamed. They may feel sure that this loving
sharing of things with their fellow servants in need
is one of the acts that Jehovah God will not forget,
because they have done this for his name's sake, "in
that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." The apostle exhorts us to keep it up to the end.

value than the material relief being carried on by the

political, social, commercial and religious agencies.
Surely life eternal in the perfect new world is of
more enduring importance and worth than life and
temporary comforts in this wicked world. However,
Jehovah's witnesses have followed the example of
their Christian brethren of the first century and have
generously given material things to feed, clothe and
house their needy brethren in Europe and the Orient.
They have shipped tons upon tons of clothing and
food to the faithful ministers of God in various
European lands, the Philippine Islands and Japan.
During the months of August and September of 1947
alone the witnesses in America contributed $104,000
for the sending of food packages to their fellow
ministers in Germany and Austria through the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe
(CARE). This relief work is part of their ministry,
for the Scriptures classify it as such.
U Read, at Acts 11: 27-30, where the world-wide
dearth was predicted which came to pass in the days
of Claudius Caesar. The disciples in Syria started a
relief campaign and sent it to their Christian brethren in Judea, including Jerusalem, by the hands of
Paul and Barnabas. Acts 12: 25 reports: ''Barnabas
and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had
fulfilled their ministry." Note that this relief work
was called a "ministry". The apostle Paul speaks
thus of such relief when reporting his part in a relief
campaign about twelve years later (or .about
56 A.D.). Acting as supervisor of the relief funds
from Europe, he writes: "But now I go unto J erusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased
them of Macedonia and Achaia [Greece] to make a
certain contribution for the poor saints which are at
Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their
debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made
partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also
to minister [leitourgein] unto them in carnal things."
-Rom. 15 : 25-27.
a~ Jehovah's witnesses have shown the same loving
interest in the material needs of their brethren during the present postwar emergency, entreating the
Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as an agency
that they might do something in this regard. As Paul
says: "Praying us with much intreaty that we would
receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of
the ministering to the saints. For as touching the
ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me
to write to you: for I know the forwardness of your
mind, .... For the administration of this service not
only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant
also by many thanksgivings unto GOd; whiles by the
experiment of this ministration they glorify God."
(2 Cor. 8: 4; 9: 1, 2, 12, 13) Paul calls this relief work

Before not very long this special time of such

privileged service in God's sight will be over, once
the nnal war of Armageddon is past. Appreciating
the matter in this day of salvation, we are determined to do as the apostle Paul said, namely, "finish
my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have
received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of
the grace of God." (Acts 20: 24) Judas fell from the
apostolic service, and Paul, when called to it by
God's mercy through Christ, took it up and held it
fast as a priceless treasure of service. Said he:
"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have
received mercy, we faint not." (Acts 1: 17, 25 j 2 Cor.
4: 1) Paul stood right up to it to the last. He did not
look upon any big trialsome experience as being the
final test of his integrity after which he could take
it easy and stop ministering. No; but when in prison
at Rome for the second time, while it seemed that he
had finished his course, yet he called for Timothy
to bring him "the books, but especially the parchments". He wanted to do more work while in prison
until the end came in God's time for him. They could
hold him bound in prison, but could not stop him
from preaching even there. In his case it was true,
"the word of God is not bound." (2 Tim. 4: 13 j 2: 9)
From such a faithful example as Paul we can take
seriously and without faultfinding his own words to
Archippus: "Take heed to the ministry which thou
hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." And
to Timothy: ''Watch thou in all things, endure affiictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry."-Col. 4: 17; 2 Tim. 4: 5.
ST How could we expect the apostle to exhort otherwise, when he said concerning his own part in the
Lord's work: "I glorify my ministry?" He did so by
giving to it the chief importance in his life and faithfully working at it. (Rom. 11: 13, .Am. Stan. V cr.)
Since he conscientiously copied Jesus Christ in his
service to Jehovah God, we can take an example
from Paul as a true apostle rather than from religious clergymen of Christendom in their presen t
compromising entanglement with this world. His

34. Where do the Scriptures call this rellet work a ministry?

35. What kind ot serVIce Is this. and why are we not blamllbJe?

36. According to Paul's example, what are we determined to do?

37. Why Is Paul's ministry exemplary and WIthout blame?

-Reb. 6: 10, 11.

PUTTING NO OBSTACLE IN OTHERS' WAY
Ie

MARCH

15, 1948

SEeWATCHTOWER,

record shows he put no stumblingblock in anyone's

way. So his ministry cannot be blamed or found
fault with. But that of Christendom's clergy, when
compared with the Scriptures, can be found fault
with. It has put obstacles in the way of many, not
merely Communists but also others, and it has
brought immeasurable reproach upon the holy name
of Jehovah God.
S8 We, too, should be just as jealous as Paul and
the other apostles and their fellow workers were for
the good name of the ministry that God has entrusted
to us through Christ, to preach "this gospel of the
!dngdom". \Ve shall try to so conduct ourselves in
connection with it that we .may put no obstacles in
the way of others' accepting that gospel of salvation.
True, millions of people have taken offense over our
flag-saluting Etand and because of our neutrality
toward wars between nations of Satan's world, but,
in these cases, one's taking offense is not justified.
Why not? Because they are offended at our faithfulness to God's Word and commands and to Christ's
example. Let it be so in all other cases of offense,
that the offended ones can find no fault with us
except it be in regard to our loyalty to the law of
our God.
39 In other respects, though, let us cause people no
reasons for stumbling, because of any selfish conduct, looseness in living up to our calling, or getting
afraid of the foe, or tired and then quitting, thus
affording men a real cause to blame and find fault
with our ministry. But, since we are near the final
end of this special "day of salvation", Armageddon
being so close, let us seek to avoid giving offense.
38. What taking ot offense toward our COurse IS unjustified? and why?
39. To pre\'ent blame upon our miDlstry. what shall we do?

91

Why not make the gospel of salvation committed to

us as commendable to others as possible by our unselfish, faithful and devoted course T That way we do
not waste God's grace that has been bestowed upon
us. As the apostle says: "Giving no offence in any
thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all
things approving ourselves as the ministers of God,
in much patience, in affiictions, in necessities, in
distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults,
in labours, in watchings, in fastings ; by pureness,
by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the
holy [spirit], by love unfeigned, by the word of truth,
by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness
on the right hand and on the left, by honour and
dishonour, by evil report and good report: as
deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well
known."-2 Cor. 6: 1-9.
40 We cannot show proof of our appointment to
this gospel work by displaying religious titles and
gawdy, pretentious robes and collars received from
the Hierarchy and Christendom's theological seminaries. But, like Paul, we can show proof of our
Christian ministry by our consecration to God and
by the works of publishing the gospel and aiding
others to God's way of salvation by Christ. Not the
flattering titles from men count. The results count.
By these we commend ourselves to the consciences
of men in the sight of God. Rejoicing at the results
that God has accomplished through us thus far, we
join with his servant in saying: "I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he
counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry."
-1 Tim. 1: 12.
40. How do we prove our ministry? and what do we express tor it?

MEMORIAL AND THE 19-YEAR CYCLE

VERY 19 :rears the Memorial, Nisan 14, falls on about

the same day of the same month of the modern
(Gregorian) calendar. This is because Jehovah has
so ordered the movements of the earth and moon that
Nisan 1, or the new moon nearest the spring equinox, falls
on practically the same day of the solar year every 19 years.
A lunar month like Nisan averages a bit more than 29i
days and the modern calendar month averages a little less
than 30i days. Hence there are more lunar months than
calendar months in a 19-year period. In a 19-year cycle
between Memorials there are 228 calendar months but 235
lunar months, 01'_ 12 years of 12 lunar months each and
7 years of 13 lunar months each. For example, the Memorial
in 1925 was celebrated on April 8, and 19 years later
(in 1944) the Memorial was celebrated on April 8. Between
these two dates there were 6,940 days, which equal 235
lunar months, or 12 years of 12 lunar months each and
7 years of 13 lunar months each. Because of the slightly
varying length of lunar months, a lunar year of 12 lunar
months may have 353 days or 354 days or 355 days. A

lunar year of 13 months may have 383 days or 384 days

or 385 days. In spite of such variation, in a 19-year period
the total number of days is approximately 6,940. The following table gives the details for the 19-year period between
the Memorials of 1925 and 1944.
From

April
March
April
April
March
April
April
March
April
March

8,
27,
15,
4,
24,
12,
1,
20,
9,
28,

Date.
of the
Memorial.

Number
Number of
of day. lunar months
between
between
MemorIal. MemOrials

To

1925
1926
1927
19281929
1930
1931
19321933
1934

March
April
April
March
April
April
March
April
March
April

27,
15,
4,
24,
12,
1,
20,
9,
28,
17,

1926
1927
19281929
1930
1931
19321933
1934
1935

353
384
355
354
384
354
354
385
353
385

12
13
12
12
13
12
12
13
12
13

In this 19-yeaT period there are five ll'ap years: 1928, 1932,
1936, 1940, and 1944.

92

~eWATCHTOWER
From

Oates
of the
Memorial.

To

Number Number of
of daya lunar montha
between
between
Memoriala Memorial.

April 17, 1935

April
6, 1936
355
12
April
6, 1936 March 26, 1937
354
12
March 26, 1937
April 15, 1938
385
13
April 1b, 1D38
4, 1939
April
354
12
April
4, 1939
March 23, 1940
354
12
March 23, 1940 April 11, 1941
384
13
April 11, 1941
:March 31, 1942
354
12
March 31, 1942
April 19, 1943
384
13
April 19, 1943
April
8, 1944
355
12
Total years 19; days 6,940; lunar months 235.
In the above table it will be seen that the seven (7)

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

embolismic years, or years with a 13th lunar month inserted, were the 2d, 5th, 8th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 18th,
which, manifestly, does not follow the Jewish arrangement
of fixed embolismic "years, namely, the 3d, 6th, 8th, 11th,
14th, 17th, and 19th, of the 19-year cycle. In ascertaining
the Memorial dates, no effort was made to follow the Jewish
arrangement. (See The Watchtower of February 1, 1948,
page 42, 11'10, footnote.)
However, these 19year cycles show the accuracy with
which the Creator has timed the movements of the earth
and moon, which he made and placed in the heavens, movements by whose observation his faithful servants on earth
can ascertain the proper date for the celebration of the
memorial of the death of Christ.

EXODUS TO TEMPLE-480 YEARS

HE extant Hebrew manuscripts of the book of First

Kings state that in the four hundred and eightieth
year after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt
King Solomon began the building of the temple of Jehovah.
(1 Ki. 6: 1, 37) The claim has been made by those who
dispute the figure 480 that in copying this portion of the
Bible (1 Ki. 6: 1) a scribe mistook the Hebrew character
he i1 (5) for daleth , (4), which in the modern Hebrew
alphabet are very similar in form. (See The Emphatic
Diaglott and its footnote on Acts 13: 20.) If that be true,
then the period from the exodus to the laying of the temple
foundation was 580 :rears instead of 480 years long. Do the
facts support such claim?
The extant Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible do not use
numerical signs in the text, but spell out all numbers. 1
Even the Nash papyrus from the second century before
Christ spells out the numbers, "third," "fourth," "seventh,"
"six," and "one".2 Moreover, in the Hebrew Siloam inscription, cut just inside the southern entrance of the tunnel or
conduit which Hezekiah (in the eighth century before
Christ) caused to be dug from the Gihon spring to the
Siloam pool, appear two numbers, three, and twelve hundred; and both are spelled out. 3 (2 Chron. 32:2-4; 2 Ki.
20: 20) Furthermore, the Moabite stone, written in a dialect
differing little from Biblical Hebrew and erected by Mesha,
king of :Moab (2 Ki. 1: 1; 3: 5), after the death of Ahab,
king of Israel (919 B.C.), contains seven numbers (thirty,
forty, seven thousand, two hundred, fifty, one hundred, and
ten), and all of them are spelled out.' In these inscriptions
no numerical signs are used. 1 Thus confusion is avoided.
For this reason the spelled-out numbers cannot be confused
at 1 Kings 6: 1, because four (V::li~, 'arba') and five (lmn,
hamesh) are not at all similar in Hebrew.
It might be argued that some scribes might have used
ciphers for numbers in copying Biblical manuscripts and
that all such copies are now lost.~ But even if it be granted
The Jewish E'lCyclopedia, Vol. IX (1905), p. 348.
2 Stanley A. Cook, "A Pre-Massoretic Biblical Papyrus," in the
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (Jan., 1903).
3 Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. 25, p. 10 j The Westminster Dictionary of the Btbl.e (1944), pp. 564, 565.
The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 403, 404; Enc.
Am. (1942), Vol. 19, p. 277.
5 The Jewish Enc., Vol. IX, p. 348.
1

for the sake of argument that some scribes did use ciphers
in the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, the fact still remains
that the ciphers for 400 and for 500 could not be sufficiently
similar in form to be confused.
It is now known that the ancient Israelites were acquainted with numerical ciphers, even before Jeremiah wrote
First Kings early in the sixth century before Christ. Before
our present twentieth century no Hebrew inscription containing numerical symbols had been found. l Now several
such are known. At Samaria, during the 1908-11 and the
1931.35 excavations, were found dozens of potsherds or
ostraca (pieces of broken clay pots) on which had been
written in Hebrew (from 844 to 836 B.C.) brief notes or
accounts of oil and wine received from the ninth to the
seventeenth year of the reign of Jeroboam II. Some of the
numbers on these ostraca are spelled out (ninth, tenth) and
some are written in ciphers (1, 2, 15, 17).2 At the city of
Lachish 21 inscribed ostraca were found (18 in 1935 and
3 in 1938), which were letters sent to Joash, a Judean
officer stationed at Lachish, by a subordinate at a military
outpost. All but one or two of these letters were written
early in 608 B.C. Ostracon 21 (and perhap~ 19) was written
before the reign of Zedekiah. s Hence all 21 were written in
.J eremiah's time.
Two of these letters contain ciphers, ostracon 9 and
ostracon 19. Ostracon 9 (found in 1935) acknowledges
receipt of 115 things or people that were sent by someone.
The letter says: "May Jehovah cause my lord to hear tidings of peace! ... hath sent 115 ... Return word to thy
servant by the hand of Shelemiah (telling us) what we shall
do tomorrow.'" Ostracon 19 (found in 1938) contains a
list of names and numerals (10,11, 50,15).~ These numerals
are all written in ciphers. Therefore, up to now, Hebrew
ciphers have been found (though not in any formal literary
composition) for the following numerals: 1, 2, 10, 11, 15,
17,50, 115.
1 Mark Lidzbarski, Handbuch der NordsclIIitischen Eptgraph'k
(Handbook of the North-Semitic Inscriptions] (1898), p. 198.
2 G. A. Reisner, Harvard Excavations at Samaria (1924), Vol. 1.
S Bulletin of the 4merican Schools of Oriental Resealch) No. 80
(Dec., 1940); J. Finegan, Light from 'the Ancient Past (1946),
pp. 161, 162.
W. F. Albright, "The Lachish Letters After Five Years," in
the Bull. of the .A.m. Sch. of Or. Res., No. 82 (April, 1941).
~ H. Torczyner, The Lachish Ostraca (1940), pp. 199, 200.

MARCH

15, 1948

SEeWATCHTOWER..

For 1 and 2 the same form of ciphers (simple strokes,

or I, II) appear in cuneiform,t in Phoenician, in
Egyptian, in ancient Greek, in Aramean, and in Roman
writing. The 10 (A, A, A) is made the same in Phoenician
(A), and, with slight variation, in cuneiform, Aramaic,
Egyptian, ancient Greek, and Latin. 2 The symbol for
5 <1, t) is the same in a Phoenician inscription of the third
or second century before Christ and, with a slight variation,
in the ancient Greek (r). The 11 is a combination of the
sign for 10 and the sign for 1; the sign for 17 is a combination of the signs for 10, 5, and 2; the sign for 50 is a
composite one made up of the signs for 5 and 10.
The sign for 100 is a s:rmbol resembling the ancient form
of the letter memo The source of this symbol is not clear,
but it is interesting to note that in Accadian the sign for 100
(metu, meatu), which was taken over from the Sumerian,
was afterwards used as the general symbol for the syllable
me. That made it appear that the symbol for the syllable
me served as the abbreviation for the word hundred. Therefore the Jews used the letter mem as the cipher for meah
(hundred). In some Aramaic inscriptions at Elephantine,
Egypt, written by Jews after the Babylonian captivity, a
negligently written mem is sometimes used as the symbol
for 100. In cuneiform and in Aramaic inscriptions in Egypt,
to express 400 the symbol for 4 C: and" III respectively)
was used together with the symbol for 100, that is, 4 X 100.
If the same principle was followed in Hebrew (and we have
proof that it was followed for expressing 50), then there
could not possibly be any mistaking 400 for 500, because the
symbol for 4 (I III) could not be confused with the symbol
for 5 (1).3 No other system of ciphers is found in Hebrew
before Christ.

I, II,

NUMERATIO~

ON COINS

The first time that a different system of numerical ciphers

is found is on coins of the great Jewish rebellion of
A.D. 66-70. These coins were formerly believed to be 11accabean, but more of such coins found in Palestine from and
after 1935 indicate that they were coined during the great
Jewish rebellion. In the truly Maccabean coins with Hebrew inscriptions the numbers are spelled out." But in this
different system the numbers are indicated by means of the
letters according to their order in the alphabet. The first
letter of the alphabet, aleph, is used for 1, the second letter,
beth, is used for 2, the third letter, gimel, is used for 3,
the fourth letter, daleth (1), is used for 4, the fifth letter,
he, (i"I), is used for 5, etc. This system is still used in
Hebrew.
The first nine letters of the alphabet are used for the
numbers from 1 to 9, the tenth letter is used for 10; the
eleventh, kaph (;), for 20; the twelfth, lamed, for 30,' the
thirteenth, mem, for 40, etc. The nineteenth letter, qoph
(1'), is used for 100, the twentieth for 200, the twenty-first
for 300, and tile twenty-second, tau (n), for 400. That
exhausted the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but five of
1 Wedge-shaped characters used in writing Accadian in Babylonia, Assyria, etc.
2 Lachish Ostraca, pp. 176, 199, 202-204, 207, 208, 211, 212.
3 Lidzbarski,
Altsemitische Texte (1907), p. 36; Lachish
Ostraca, pp. 203, 204.
Millar Burrows, "Significant Recent Finds of Coins in Pal('stine," in The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. VI, No.2 (May,1943).
Narkiss, Coins of Palestine (1936).

93

the Hebrew letters had a different form when they were

used at the end of a word, and at first these were used
for the hundreds above 400; for example, final kaph (1)
represented 500. But the preferred use has been to indicate
500 by a combination of tau and qoph (i. e., 400+100).1
In this system 400 would be one letter (n), whereas 500
would be two letters (I'n). No chance for confusion there.
Even when the final kaph (1) was used alone for 500, it
would be hard to confuse 400 (n) with 500 (1) in the
forms in which they appeared between A.D. 66 and the
date of the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript of 1 Kings
6: 1.2
ORIGIN OF ALPHABETICAL SYSTEM

Where did this alphabetical system of ciphers originate 1

Among the Greeks of Ionia in Asia Minor. Before that all
the Greeks, including the Ionians of Asia Minor, used the
ancient Greek system (called Herodian, after the grammarian Herodianos).3 Even after the Ionians of Asia Minor
started to use the alphabetic system of numerical notation,
the Greeks in Greece continued to use the Herodian numbers. The successors of Alexander the Great made the alphabetic system of numerical notation official, and, as a result,
the alphabetic system began to be prevalent about 300 B.C.,
and the use of the Herodian ciphers ceased about 150 B.C.,
except in Greece proper, especially in Athens, where it
lingered even into the first century. This refers only to
Greek. There is no evidence that this system was adapted
to the Hebrew alphabet till the first century of our common
era."
Now, as for the claim of many persons that the fourth
letter of the Hebrew alphabet, daleth (1), was used for
400, and the fifth letter, he (i"I), was used for 500: There
is no record of such use before Abraham Aben-Ezra, who
was born about A.D. 1092 and died in 1167. He did use
such a scheme in his mathematical writings. 6 But there
are extant manuscripts of the entire Hebrew Scriptures
which were written before Aben-Ezra was born. For that
reason Aben-Ezra's scheme could not have affected the
transmission of the Hebrew Bible text.
Therefore, whether the scribes who copied 1 Kings 6: 1
always spelled out the words for four hundred or used the
numerical signs then current, at no time between Jeremiah's
writing it and our earliest extant Hebrew manuscript of
it could the appearance of 500 and 400 have been so similar
as to be confused.
The WATCH TO'\\TER publication entitled "The Truth
Shall Make You Free", page 150, says with regard to
1 Kings 6: 1, 2 and 11: 42 the following: "In the original
Hebrew text of these verses the numbers of years are
written spelled out in full. It was first hundreds of years
1 The Universal Jewish Eflcyclopedia, Vol. 1 (1939), under
"Alphabet", subhead "V. The Letters as Numerals", p. 204.
2 Tile Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (1939), under
"Alphabet", p. 203; Encyclop<Zdia Judaica (1928), Vol. 2, under
"Alphabet".
8 David Diringer, L'Alfabeto Nella 8toria Della Civiltd (1937),
p.721.
4 Friedrich Liibker, Reallexikon des Klassisrhe"l
Altertums
[Encyclopedia of Classic Antiquity] (1914), under "Zahlen",
p. 1131.
5 Lachish Ostraca, pp. 207, 201.
8 Ibid., p. 210.

94

~eWATCHTOWER

after Christ that alphabetic letters began to be used as

symbols of numbers, and then these were used merely to
number the chapters and verses, but NOT to change the
original Hebrew text."
One point that strongly argues in support of this statement, namely, that originally the numbers in the Hebrew
Bible text were spelled out or written out in full, is this,
that the apostles of Jesus Christ, who were Hebrews, and
their fellow disciples, wrote the Christian Scriptures from
Matthew's Gospel account to Revelation in the Greek language, and in these Christian Greek Scriptures they wrote
all the numbers spelled out in full, including the number
at Acts 13: 19, 20, which reads; "And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred

and fifty years: and after these things he gave them judges
until Samuel the prophet." (American Standard Version)
They did this spelling out of numbers in spite of the
worldly Greek system of numbering with alphabetic letters.
The only exception to this is at Revelation 13: 18, which
gives the "number of the beast" as X~~', or 666, which is a
symbolical number. Let us remember that the Bible is just
one Book from Genesis to Revelation, and hence it is reasonable and consistent that the style of spelling out numbers
in the Greek portion of the Bible would be the same as that
in the Hebrew portion. We therefore accept the number
480 as the nnmber of years from the exodus from Egypt to
the start of building of Solomon's temple.-1 Ki. 6: 1.

JEROBOAM II MISUSES PROSPERITY

N A chilly day in 852 B.C. King Jeroboam of Israel

and his courtiers buried his dead father, King Joash.
(2 Ki. 13: 13; 14: 16) The dampness of the rainy
season made the wind feel cold. Even the wailing of the
professional mourners seemed to intensify the cold. As
Jeroboam trudged along with the funeral procession he
noticed that the once proud palace of his royal predecessors
Omri and Abab was in great need of repair. His whole
capital, Samaria, was run-down. But, he thought, at that
it is better than the tumble-down huts of David. (Amos
9: 11, Moffatt) He remembered the damage his father had
infficted on the royal city of Judah to the SQuth. (2 Ki.
14: 13) But of all the booty his father had taken, all that
remained was those miserable hostages. (2 Ki. 14 :'14) The
gusts of cold, damp wind made him realize that he was not
well clothed. As he looked at the rest of the procession he
saw that even the vestments of the priests of the high places'
showed much wear. The poverty of his tiny kingdom annoyed him; Israel was stripped of everything, of necessities
as well as luxuries; indeed, the Israelites in the part of
Israel freed by his father were faring no better than those
in the part not yet liberated; the affliction was very bitter.
(2 Ki. 14: 26) The plagues Israel was suffering were like
those of Egypt.-Amos 4: 10.
Jeroboam did not continue poverty-stricken. In accordance with Jehovah God's word transmitted through the
prophet Jonah, the Most High, by means of Jeroboam,
helped and delivered Israel, restoring its territory from the
entering of Hamath on the north to the Dead sea on the
south. (2 Ki. 14: 25-28) Jeroboam, rather than recognize
that Jehovah had restored this dominion because it was not
His purpose to blot out the name of Israel from under
heaven, preferred to boast that it was his own power that
had done it: "You are so proud of Lo-Debar [in Gilead],
you think you captured Karnaim [in Bashan] by your own
strength." (Amos 6: 13, Moffatt) The great herds and flocks
of sheep, asses, cattle and camels of the two and a half
transjordanic tribes grazed from Aroer on the Arnon river
on the south to the northern extremity of Anti-Lebanon on
the north, thus reaching to the southern limit of Hamath.
Eastward, toward the Euphrates river, they grazed to the
desert and into it when the spring rains provided pasture
in it. "The sons of Reuben, ... whose settlements at Aroer

reached the length of Nebo and Baal-meon, and stretched

eastward as far as the opening of the desert ending at the
river Euphrates-so numerous were their cattle in Giltad.
Opposite them lived the sons of Gad, occupying the land
of Bashan. . . . They lived in Gilead, in Bashan, in the
townships, and in all the pasture lands of [Sharon] to
their fullest extent. The members of the half-clan of
Manasseh who lived in the country swarmed from Bashan
to Baal-hermon and Senir." All these were "enrolled in the
genealogical registers during the reign of ... Jeroboam king
of Israel."-l Chron. 5:21, 3, 8, 9, 11, 16, 23, 17, Moffatt.
The booty of his conquests, the yearly tribute, and the
resulting traffic, caused wealth to pour into Samaria. This
wealth Jeroboam did not use to honor and glorify Jehovah,
but to advance false worship (golden calves and images of
other demon gods, such as the star-god Chiun), lavish building and sensuous pampering of himself and friends to the
oppression of the poor.-Amos 3: 9, 10; 5: 26; 2 Ki. 14: 24.
In Samaria Jeroboam admires his rebuilt capital and
often boasts of its beauty. He and his nobles have rebuilt
the city on its oval-shaped hill. Its many cisterns filled with
sparkling water keep the city well supplied with water.
(1 Ki. 22: 38) His unscrupulous and prosperous friends
have built sumptuous mansions in Samaria and other cities,
and outside of them; on the hills and in the valleys they
have built beautiful summer homes surrounded by cooling
trees and pleasing gardens.
Jeroboam has enlarged his palace to the west, extended
its outer court and placed a strong rectangular tower on
the south for its protection. As he walks in the new slabpaved court and looks westward between the columns of
its fringing colonnade, he sees the waters of the Mediterranean sea. Turning south he sees the storehouse which he
knows contains the notes or accounts of oil and wine he
receives as royal revenue. Ab, that pure clarified wine
that he and his friends so much enjoy and that fine oil that
feels so good on the body! (Amos 6: 6, Am. Stan. VeT.) His
eyes run over the many little ivory plaques inlaid on his
furniture and palace walls, plaques depicting lotus, lilies,
papyrus, palmettes, lions, bulls, deer, winged figures, figures
in human form, sphinxes and figures of the demon-gods of
Egypt. He proudly thinks, No palace in Egypt has more
artistically adorned ivory panels.-Amos 3: 15.

MARCH

15, 1948

3UeWATCHTOWER

Later in the day the king receives word from Amaziah,

his chief priest at the royal sanctuary at Bethel: "Amos is
conspiring against you in the very midst of Israel, and the
country cannot bear what he is saying. This is what he says,
that Jeroboam is to die by the sword, and Israel to go into
exile, far from his own country." Jeroboam looks at the
massive double walls surrounding Samaria's fiat summit,
then looks at the strong walls on the middle terraces of
Samaria's hill and, farther, others on the lower slopes, and,
beyond, the fertile green valley all around the hill. He
bursts out in a derisive laughter and says: 'How ridiculous
to think that I and Israel shall fall!' Then he commands
sharply: 'Have Amaziah tell that dreamer to run back home
to Judah and earn his living there by playing the prophet;
and never again to come to Bethel to prophesy, since there
is the royal shrine, the national temple.' (Amos 7: 10-13,
Moffatt) Jeroboam thought to himself, How I loathe and
hate that Amos. I abhor him. (Amos 5: 10) Then he
muttered : 'As thy god, 0 Bethel, liveth, I will not have that
Judean Amos besmirch the national religion!' (Amos 8: 14,
.Lim. Stan. Ver.) Then he comforted himself saying aloud:
"Trouble will never touch us, never catch us."-Amos 9: 10,
Moffatt.

At a banquet in the royal palace later in the day the royal

familv and the invited wealthy nobles and their families
spra~l on lu."mrious ivory-inlaid divans, lolling on cushions
covered with silk damask. (Amos 3: 12; 6: 4, Moffatt and

95

Rotherham) The bejeweled ladies say to their sleek husbands: ''Let us have wine to drink!" (Amos 4: 1, Moffatt)
As the king chats with his guests and compliments the
shrewdness of their oppressive shady business deals (Amos
3: 10; 8: 4-6) they beam all over and, with ostentatious
self-righteousness, emphasize the free-will gifts which they
have given. The king pleases them with a promise to have
public announcement made of their generous offerings.
(Amos 4: 5) Among the most prosperous of his guests are
the priests and bribe-taking judges he has appointed. (Amos
5: 12, Moffatt) Next, the royal servants bring in "fresh
lamb and fatted veal". (Amos 6: 4, Moffatt) How Jeroboam
enjoys it, from the first appetizing whiff to the last goldenbrown morsel! Jeroboam and his guests lap wine by the
bowlful as they croon to the accompaniment of lutes and
lyres and other musical instruments they themselves have
invented. Some of them even compose songs for themselves,
and others dance to the music.-Amos 6: 5, 6, Moffatt, An
Amer. Trans., Am. Stan. Ver.

Because, though Jehovah greatly favored Israel in Jeroboam's time and provided much material prosperity, Jeroboam and his associates did not use it to the honor and
praise of God and in harmony with his will, but squandered
it on demon-worship and oppression of the righteous and
needy, Jehovah's judgment of Jeroboam after his 41-year
rule is: "He did that which was evil in the sight of
Jehovah."-2 Ki. 14: 23,24, Am. Stan. Ver.

IN A DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGE
HE follo'wing letter speaks for itself, and well gives an
insight into the conditions obtaining doubtless generally in religious theological seminaries:
"At the age of fourteen I made what I felt to be a consecration to do God's will, that is, to become a Methodist
minister. I started with zeal, believing God's Word to be
true, and basing my faith upon it. However, my faith was
soon dampened by the multitude of sects and churches all
teaching many doctrines. I was bewildered at the lack of
zeal of 'Christians' and the lack of purpose and integrity
among those professing Christianity. Because of this situation, I was dismayed. It soon led to an individualistic attitude and a narrow life.
"Immediately upon finishing high school I went to my
home-town university, Ohio Northern. This is a Methodist
school. I went there as a preministerial student, taking a
liberal arts course. Among the requirements was a year
of Bible.
"The professor in Bible, a Methodist preacher, made this
query before the class the very first day: 'Is there anything
in the Bible too sacred to be investigated in the light of
science?' lIe proceeded to show that there was not. Upon
that basis then tHe Bible was taught the whole year, going
through the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. The second day
the professor showed how evolution was a more logical
conclusion than that man was made perfect and fell as a
result of Adam's sin. Thus the story of creation was put in
a class alongside of myth and superstition. All the Hebrew
Scriptures were taught from a moral and social angle.
According to this belief the prophets had no particular
vision and were merely social reformers. The prophecies

referring to Jesus really did not refer to Him. The Greek

Scriptures were taught from the same standpoint. The
stories concerning Jesus' birth and miracles were myth and
superstition. There 'vas no personal Devil and hence those
who had devils cast from them were merely 'mentally sick'.
Many other God-dishonoring teachings were taught, but
time would not permit to tell all of them. At the meetings
of our University ministerial association we used to laugh
and tear the Bible apart. One would say, 'I don't believe
in angels. 'What don't you believe about the Bible?' There
was plenty of religion on the campus but no Christianity.
"To get away from this distressing situation, I applied
for a student pastorate, knowing by doing this I would
be able to drop school for about six months. Also I could
confine my studies to the Bible and could preach what I
wanted to. After six months of preaching, however, I was
forced back into school by the authority of the church and
the ministerial board. I was still studying to be a Methodist
preacher, they said. This only brought the whole matter to
a head, and three months after going back to school I told
the district superintendent of the church that I was
quitting my student charge and school to go down to a
more fundamental school in Wilmore, Kentucky, Asbury.
This was after I had already informed him I was going to
quit the Methodist church and join the Christian and
Missionary Alliance church. He told me I was a victim
of a closed mind and gave me three modern books on the
Bible to read, placing me on a kind of probation for two
or three weeks. It finally ended that I quit my position
as student pastor and went to Asbury College. Even there
I found a love for worldly wisdom and for rank more than

96

mleWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

for the pure Word of God. There it was that I came to the street. For some strange reason he seemed overjoyed,
the conclusion that a worldly education was false and mis- and I did too. He bade me sit down and tell him what was
leading as far as ever knowing the truth was concerned, and on my mind. I began unveiling to him the above experiences
only a strict Bible education would now suffice. This was I have just told, and he laughed out loud, but pardoned
in the spring of the year 1946. Now I was certain I would himself because, said he, he had heard that more people
never go back to any college, only to a Bible school.
were in a condition just like me, one of confusion. By this
"But while all this was going on in Kentucky, up home time I was really curious and he began to tell me how there
in Ohio Jehovah's faithful servants were working my home were three great corrupt systems controlling the earth,
town, and about the third time around, in a public meeting corrupt politics, corrupt religion, and corrupt commerce,
campaign, 'The Kingdom Is at Hand' book was finally and how religioUll leaders were working with politicians
placed in my home. When I came home from college, that for control. I told him that wasn't anything I didn't already
was one of the first books I picked up in the house. On first know by firsthand experience.
"Then he exploded the 'hell fire' theory by quoting
scanning it, I marked what I thought was false and what
I thought was true, but finally came to the conclusion that Revelation 20: 13. That was a knock-out blow.
"After he explained many different things to me, I asked
the whole thing might be true, especially when I read in
the concluding chapters about Christ having come in 1914 him in my distress what I was to do, because I knew opposiand that He was now ruling in the midst of His enemies, tion to this at home and college would be more than I could
gathering His sheep into His fold.
take at the time. He replied that there was an extra bed in
"Then it was I remembered having met a Kingdom pub- the hall and that in this work I would have many fathers
lisher in Lima, Ohio, on a street corner a year ago and also and mothers.
"The next day after having gone home, I came back and
a young man from whom I obtained a 'Watchtower. I had
merely thrown The 'Watchtower away at that time. The took advantage of that offer and lived up above the Kingnumber of the block where the Kingdom Hall in Lima was dom Hall in Lima. In October of 1946 I started pioneering,
located came to my mind, as the young woman had told and am continuing by Jehovah's grace, having been immersed at the Cleveland Convention, in 1946.
me at the time to come to a meeting sometime.
"The following Sunday I took a bus from Ada to Lima,
"In looking back over this experience three things stand
a distance of 20 miles, to have a talk with someone who out vividly which I haven't mentioned yet. I will always
knew something about this work. It so happened that Sun- remember the power of Jehovah's spirit, or active force,
day evening that I opened the door of the Kingdom Hall, the power of God's Word to turn back the lies of Satan,
Lima, Ohio, and went upstairs. When I finally did open and the very evident enmity between Satan and God's
the door and climb the stairs, whom did I meet but the organization. These three things still burn in my memory
same man I had taken a 'Watchtower from a year ago on and urge me on to gl'cater service."

GILEAD GRADUATES MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA

s PART

of the graduation week-end events thirty into scoring the "universal salvation" doctrine of some reli
two of the tenth class of the Watchtower Bible School gionists. The wicked are not saved, and those once saved can
of Gilead ,vere thrilled to receive foreign missionary lose their blessed status if they become unfaithful. Eternal
assignments for Africa. In spite of zero wintry weather, on salvation is conditional upon day-to-day obedience. Hence,
February 8 there were 99 Canadian and American students guarantee your salvation by enduring daily in Kingdom
graduated, 90 of whom received diplomas of merit.
service. For the faithful the answer to the question "Are
The graduation exercises were held on Sunday morning You Saved~" is Yes, thus far. May it always be Yes for
at nine o'clock, before 647 assembled friends, relatives and all those of the graduating class, :president Knorr concluded.
guests of the class. Addresses were given by the servant in
The diplomas and other gifts of. the Society to the graducharge of the large farm on whose acres the school and ating students were passed out, accompanied by much
campus are located, by the members of the faculty, by the applause from the assembled on-lookers. Specially enthupresident's secretary, and by J. Steelman, a graduate of siastic hand-clapping greeted those graduates that Brother
the first Gilead class and since active for several years in Knorr indicated were assigned to various parts of Africa.
the Caribbean area. He counseled from experience on how While only 32 had received definite foreign assignments to
to be a successful missionary in a foreign assignment. These the "dark continent", it was indicated that many more
preliminary discourses led up to the key address by the would be required to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding African field. Interest in this area for missionary activity
school's president, N. H. Knorr.
"Are You Saved~" was the searching title of his discourse. had been whetted ten days prior to graduation, when BrothIt was clearly developed that settlement of the question is er Knorr gave two travelogue lectures on his recent service
a vital and personal one for each individual. Salvation is tour in that continent. At that time he asked for volunteers
open to all meek ones of all nations, but to gain it certain willing to go to Africa to serve, and 90 percent responded.
steps are necessary. It stems from Jehovah God through
At the conclusion of the graduation exerci~es one of the
Christ Jesus alone. Active, public confession and preaching students rose, and on behalf of the entire class read a resoluare necessary for the Christian to hold fast to salvation. tion endorsed by the graduates. It voiced :firm resolve to
There can be no turning back; to do so means loss of the hold aloft the gospel torch and sing praises unto Jehovah
benefits formerly gained. Development of this argument led God among the nations.-Psalm 57: 9.

.....

I;

"They shall ~JlOW that Iam Jehovah:'

helml 25: 15.
LXIX

VOL.

.,,:

SEMIMONTHLY

No.7

APRIL 1, 1948

--

OONTENTS

i"

.... ',
.',

~."

<

~:

ARE You SAVED'

The Big Personal Question
Calling upon the Divine Name
Faith in the Seed

99
99
101
102
103
105
107
107
110

MAKING YOUR SALVATION SURE

Examples for Our Admonition

The Savior Specially of Believers
HArLING THE NEW WORLD'S KING
FOR WHOM THE

BmLE

WAS WRI'rXEN

JONAH FORESHADOWS JESUS AND

HIS FOLLOWERS
_ _

_ .. 111

"ALL

NATIONS ADVANCE"
TESTIMONY PERIOD

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES
"THE W ATOHTOWER"

_..

98
98
98

1flieWATCHTOWER
PUBLISHED

SJl;YIMONTHLY By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE e> TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFP'ICEns

N. H. KNORR, President

GRANT SurrER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall he taught of Jehovah; and

Qreat shall he the peace of thy children." - Isaiah 54:I3.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and Is the ~Iaker of heayen and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active a&ent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty:
THAT GOD created the earth for mall, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaIthful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully dlsobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and eltalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and thllt Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose dut) and privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom nnder Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act Is to destroy Satan's or~anlzatlon and establish
righteousness completely In the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of gOOd-WIll surVIving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead In the grayes will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

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"ALL NATIONS ADYANCE" TESTIMONY PERIOD

"T HEW ATe H TOW E R"

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"W ATCBTOWER" STUDIES

Week of May 9: "Are You Saved'"

~ 1-21 inelusive, The WatchfO'tller April 1, 1948.
Week of May 16: "Making Your Salvation Sure,"
~ 1-22 inclusive, The Watchtower April 1, 1948.

~ceWAlC1HrIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

APRIL

1, 1948

No.7

ARE YOU SAVED?

"What must I do to be saved?"-Acts 16: 30.

so insignificant as it seemed. It fastened upon all

mankind the wicked, debasing rule of the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, and of all the mighty angels
whose fall he caused. The sin also led to the condemnation to death of all their offspring that were
yet to be born, and it was the tiny seed from which
all the growth of sorrows and evils and wickednesses has sprung up and increased.
Now, by all the signs predicted in God's Word
and by world events that fulfill those predictions, the
time has at last come for God to vindicate his sovereignty by fighting the universal war of Armageddon against the Devil's long-entrenched power and
thus ridding our earth and all the universe of that
wicked one's mighty organization. Therefore a
glorious salvation awaits all those who now seek the
Almighty God's mercy and favor. No vacuum will be
left by destroying the Devil's organization that has
wrought such wickedness throughout the universe
and that has misruled and degraded humankind. God
has purposed a perfect government, a kingdom of
blessing, to supplan.t the Devil's misgovernment. The
Seed of his "woman" who bruises the head of the
great Serpent and who destroys all the wicked seed
of the Serpent will rule as Jehovah's King in that
superhuman government. He will vindicate Jehovah's universal rulership and will bring the salvation so sorely needed by all men of good-will.

EHOVAH has the answer to man's question,

"What must I do to be saved ," He has the answer
more than in just having the true and reliable
information upon the question. He has the answer
because he is the only One that can supply the means
to solve the six-thousand-year-old problem of rescuing mankind from all the things that afflict us.
2 The aims and efforts of righteously minded men
and women show they desire to be saved to eternal
life on earth under a new system of things where
they will be free from sickness, pain, insecurity,
accidents, death, warfare, shortages of life's necessities, false religions, selfish political governments of
imperfect men, and devilish domination by mighty
invisible demons. Otherwise said, they desire to be
saved to a righteous new world, where they will
enjoy being children of God the Creator, knowing
him and understanding his laws and purposes, and
loving and serving him under his Theocratic Government and living in peaceful relationship with
man and beast. Jehovah God foreknew the desire of
honest men and women for such salvation; and he
determined upon it before ever a child was born to
mankind's first parents, Adam and Eve.
8 Jehovah God purposed this salvation for humankind not only to display his love and mercy but also
to show that his purposes can never be defeated but
that he holds the right to sovereignty over all the
universe, including our earth, and that he has the
full power to exercise his universal rulership. Hence,
immediately after Adam and Eve took the wrong
step by disobeying him and by going after God's
adversary, Jehovah God said to the adversary: "I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3: 15)
That declaration of Jehovah's purpose was good
news; it \vas gospel. It pointed forward to final
vindication of his universal rulership and also to the
complete salvation of all obedient men and women
from the death-dealing effects of Adam and Eve's
sin against their :Maker. The sin of these two was not

TBE BIG PERSONAL QUESTION

In view of God's gospel purpose and in the face

of the Armageddon of world-wide destruction just
ahead, the big question that confronts each of us is,
Am I saved T That is a question of most personal
interest, although the thing of greatest importance
is the vindication of Jehovah's universal rulership,
because his rulership is the thing of importance to
all the universe, of far vaster consequence than mere
man on this pin-point globe of earth.
S If asked the question, "Are you saved T" what
would you reply? There are hundreds of millions
throughout Christendom whom her hundreds of religious systems have left in practical ignorance of
8

1. Who has the answer to "What must I do to be saved"?

2. From what Ilnd to what do right-minded men want to be saved?
3. Why did God purpose mankind's salvation, and how?

. For what act has the time now come, and by what means?

Ii, 6. Wbat 1& a bill persoaal queat1on? How wouUl man)' pagans lUlSwer?

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Jehovah the God of creation. Outside of Christendom there are yet more hundreds of millions of
so-called "pagans" in "heathen" lands. If they were
asked, "Are you saved ," and if they sincerely
wanted real, effective salvation, they would doubtless ask the very question that a Greek pagan of
nineteen centuries ago put to two messengers of
salvation: ''\-Vhat must I do to be saved i" (Acts
16: 30) This inquirer knew he must do something to
be saved. He had just come alive through an earthquake that had unfastened all the prison doors and
the bonds of all the prisoners under his supervision.
Furthermore, if the prisoners had escaped under the
circumstances he would have been held responsible
for it by the authorities of the Roman Empire and
he would have been punished with death. He felt life
not worth living anymore because possibly his
prisoners had escaped. He was about to commit
suicide with his own sword, when the apostle Paul
cried to him from the inner dungeon not to hurt
himself, for the reason that all the prisoners were
still there inside prison walls despite the effects of
the earthquake.
1 Paul and his companion, Silas, had been put in
prison under his care because they had expelled a
demon from a slavegirl that kept following them and
shouting to the people: "These men are the servants
of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of
salvation." Her owners had Paul and Silas put in
prison for freeing the girl of demon obsession. Just
before the earthquake jarred the prison Paul and
Silas at midnight "sang praises unto God: and the
prisoners heard them". Likely the prisoll-keepe:r:
heard these songs of Jehovah God's praises also.
(Acts 16: 16-30) This all brought to his attention
the matter of salvation by the :Most High God, and
his escape from earthquake and from self-inflicted
death now made him feel keenly the need of salvation. The men who had been imprisoned for preaching salvation and who had sung the songs of salvation and who had warned him in time not to harm
himself out of fear were interested in his salvation.
He had evidently been spared for salvation, and consistently he hurried to the inner dungeon. On bended
knees he asked these unjustly imprisoned ministers
of the gospel, "What must I do to be saved 1" What,
now, did they tell this pagan Greek prison-keeper of
Philippi to do for his own salvation i By finding out
we can get some information on what we must each
do to get into a saved condition.
8 The account further tells us: "And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,
thou and thy house. And they spake the word of the
Lord unto him, with all that were in his house. And
he took them the same hour of the night, and washed

their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. And he brought them up into his house,
and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with
all his house, having believed in God." (Acts 16: 3134, Am. Stan. Ver.) Just why did they tell him to
believe on Jesus, whom they called Lord or Master?
They did so because this Jesus their Lord and
Master was the Seed of the "woman" whom God had
foretold away back there in the garden of Eden, who
would be bruised in the heel but would recover therefrom and bruise the wicked Serpent's head. Consequently this Seed of God's "woman" was Jehovah's
means or agent for bringing to mankind salvation
from the Serpent and all his wickedness. Belief in
the Seed of God's "woman" was therefore necessary,
for God will not save those who do not believe on the
Seed, but will destroy all the Serpent's unbelieving,
opposing seed or offspring.
8 The pagan Greek prison-keeper knew nothing of
this, but was in all likelihood a believer in Plato's
theory of the immortality of the human soul, and
possibly a believer in the teachings of Pythagoras
about the transmigration of immortal human sonls
from one body to another at death. Such pagan teachings of Plato and Pythagoras agreed with the religious teaching by the Serpent, Satan the Devil, when
he said to Eve in Eden: "Ye shall not surely die: for
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof [of the
forbidden fruit tree], then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Gen.
3: 4, 5) Such teachings on immortality were as untrue
as Satan the Devil himself, and such teachings of
pagan philosophers were mere unproved imaginations that really offered no hope or means of salvation. How, then, did the pagan prison-keeper learn
what to do in order to be saved through the Seed of
God's "woman'" The written account says that Paul
and Silas told the prison-keeper and his household
the Word of the Lord God Jehovah. They had to tell
him what the written Word of Jehovah God said, for
it was the only book that foretold God's Seed by His
"woman"; it identified that Seed and foretold also
what he would do. Hence the pagan pri~on-keeper
and his household not only took up the belief in the
Lord Jesus as the Seed of the "woman", but also
believed in Jehovah God the Father of the Seed and
the great Purposer of salvation through that Seed.
Hence the account tells us that the prison-keeper and
his household rejoiced greatly due to "having
believed in God". Belief in the Lord Jesus does not
cut out belief in Jehovah God, but is inseparably
connected with it. Why, the very name"Jesus" means
"salvation of Jehovah".
10 Their believing in God and in the Lord Jesus did
not mean merely entertaining some ideas aLout God

7. Why did the prison-keeper seek Paul and Silas with his lnqulrr!
8. Why did they tell him to believe on the Lord J eBUS ?

9. Whose word wns he toid, and In whom did he nnd his believe?
10. Whnt did bellevlDg mean. nnd how did tbel' symholtze It?

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ence could understand. To explain this miracle

Peter told them it was the fulfillment of prophecy.
'Whose prophecy? Why, Jehovah's prophecy through
his mouthpiece Joel. Joers name means "Jehovah is
God"; and the prophecy that Peter quoted, at Acts
2: 16-21, is located at Joel, chapter 2, verses 28-32,
where Joel says: "And it shall corne to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
... before the great and terrible day of JellOvah
cometh. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever
shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered."
(Joel 2: 28-32, Am. Stan. Ver.) Following his quotation of this prophecy, Peter went on to say: "Ye men
of Israel, hear these words : Jesus of Nazareth, a
man approved of God unto you by mighty works and
wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you, even as ye yourselves know; him, being
delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men
did crucify and slay: whom God raised up."-Acts
2: 22-24, Am. Stan. Ver.
13 Thus Peter called notice first and mainly to
CALLING UPO~ THE DIVINE NAME
Jehovah God and declared the Word of the Lord
11 The missionaries that Christendom sends to soGod Jehovah to them. After that he preached to
called "pagan" lands tell their converts to believe in them about Jesus the Nazarene, whom their rulers
the Lord Jesus and be saved. But in their teaching had killed fifty-two days previous. No; Peter and his
about Jesus they leave out the most important infor- fellow apostles did not ignore Jehovah. They could
mation, namely, that about Jehovah God and the not, because, as Peter told them, it was Jehovah God
vindication of his universal sovereignty by His Seed. that raised Jesus the Seed with the bruised heel out
To show that belief in Jehovah God is of foremost of death and exalted him to heaven to His right hand.
importance and is inseparable from the gospel, we There Jehovah God committed to Jesus this holy
refer to what another apostle said in answer to spirit or active force, and now on this day of Penteinquiries about salvation. This time the inquirers cost Jesus Christ had begun to pour this spiritual
were not pagans, but Jews of that same first century force out upon his faithful followers upon earth, thus
of our common era. The day of inquiry was the day baptizing them with this spirit. Peter said: "'l'his
of the Jewish feast of weeks, the day of Pentecost, Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.
in Jerusalem. On that day the apostle Peter was the Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted,
spokesman who is specially reported on in the Bible, and having received of the Father the promise of the
and he said to the crowd of Jews and proselytes holy spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye see
before him: "Save yourselves from this crooked and hear. For David ascended not into the heavens:
generation." (Acts 2: 40, Am. Stan. Ver.) What infor- but he saith himself, The LORD [Jehovah] said unto
mation had Peter and his fellow apostles preached my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
to the crowd in order to obey that urgent appeal to thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Let all the
save themselves' Did they preach only "Jesus, and house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God
him crucified" T Did they ignore Jehovah God? For hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus
the answer we go to Acts, chapter 2.
whom ye crucified." -Acts 2: 25-36, Am. Stan. Ver.
12 What Peter and his fellow speakers said that
14 Many of these Jews realized they had been
day was under the power and guidance of Jehovah's tricked by the wily Serpent into acting as his wicked
spirit, because that spirit or active force from him seed when they consented to the demand of their
had just been poured out upon them. That spirit did rulers that Jesus be killed, thereby brusing the heel
not come from Jesus; it came through Jesus, but of the Seed of God's "woman". If they continued concame from Jehovah, and the apostles told their audi- senting hardheartedly to the wicked killing of Jehoence so. Under the energizing power of Jehovah's vah's Seed of salvation it would simply fix God's
spirit or active force the apostles were speaking His wrath upon them and bring great punishment,
message in languages all the foreigners in the audi- destruction. Of all persons, they needed salvation.
and Jesus in their minds, as right ideas. Believing
meant committing themselves or giving themselves
over in full dedication to God through Jesus Christ.
So, now, to symbolize or testify openly to this dedication or consecration of themselves to God through
his Seed the Lord Jesus, the pagan convert and his
household were baptized in water. Either the apostle
Paul or Silas did the baptizing. (1 Cor. 1: 13-17)
Their immersion under water symbolized their death
to themselves and to the pagan gods that they had
worshiped before. Their being raised up out of the
water to a new course of life pictured their being
alive henceforth to the true and living God who had
forgiven them their sins through the Seed of his
"woman". In all this we see the steps that we who
seek salvation today must take; namely, listening to
the Word of Jehovah God, thereby learning ahout
him and his Seed of salvation; then exercising faith
or belief in God and in his provision of salvation
through the Seed; and then symbolizing this faith
or consecration to God by being baptized in water.

11, 12. (a) Whom do Christendom's mis&lonnrles Ignore

converts? (b) How did Peter exalt him at Pentecost?

In

teaching

13. Why did Peter there not Ignore Jehovah God?

14. How did Peter answer the question, "What shall we do?"

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So we read: "Now when they heard this, they were

pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the
rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do ,"
'What, now, did Peter say was the way to be saved?
"And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive
the gift of the holy spirit. For to you is the promise,
and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto
him. And with many other words he testified, and
exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this
crooked generation."-Acts 2: 37-40, Am. Stan. Ver.
1~ See for yourselves that there was here no excluding of Jehovah God from the way of salvation. What
was needed was more than baptism only in the name
of Jesus Christ. Peter showed that the power of this
way of salvation through Jesus Christ would not be
possible at all without Jehovah God. Accordingly he
pointed out how Jehovah had been the One to resurrect Jesus from death and to exalt him to His right
hand in heaven to be our Lord and Christ. Properly
Peter quoted Joel's prophecy: ''Whosoever shall call
on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered."-Acts
2: 21; Joel 2: 32, Am. Stan. Ver.
16 From Peter's inspired utterance we get a broader
description of the way of salvation. We, no less than
those Jews who backed up the cruel murder of Jesus
Christ, are sinners against God. Hence Peter's calling to "repent" applies to us all. In repentance from
our past course of conduct we must now turn to
Jesus Christ, who has been preached to us by means
of God's written Word. We cannot approach God
except through Jesus Christ his Seed or Son, because
this Son was bruised in the heel and died to vindicate God's universal sovereignty and to provide
cleansing from our sins. So, we must be baptized "in
the name of Jesus Christ". That means, with faith
and reliance upon him as God's Seed for our deliverance. By faith in him whose heel was bruised we obtain from God the remission or forgiveness of sins.
The baptism in water of about 3,000 souls that Pentecostal day did not itself procure forgiveness for
them, but was a token of such forgiveness. The water
baptism was in reality an open confession of their
turning from enmity to God and his Seed and their
dedicating or consecrating themselves to him through
the Seed, whom they now named or confessed Jesus
to be. Through him they called upon the name of
Jehovah that they might be saved. This calling upon
the name of Jehovah meant not merely crying out to
Jehovah for help and rescue, but also publicly confessing him to others, preaching his gospel of salvation through Jesus, and so making others acquainted
with Jehovah God.
15, 16, Why repent. be baptized and call upon God's name?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

11 Since the death of Jacob, the founder of their

nation through his twelve sons, Jehovah had been
exclusively the God of the nation of Israel. But from
now on the calling upon Him for salvation through
his Seed was not to be limited to the natural members
of the nation of Israel. Jehovah's own prophecy
through Joel had said : ''WHOSOEVER shall call on the
name of Jehovah shall be delivered." The broad
expression "whosoever" opened the calling up to anyone of our race, Gentile as well as natural Jew; but
now the calling by them all must be done through his
Seed, Jesus the Nazarene, whom God exalted from
death to his own right hand and made to be Lord
and Christ. Neither the Jews nor the Gentiles could
find acceptance with God, which means salvation,
unless they recognized his Seed, Jesus Christ, whom
he has appointed King of the new world.

FAITH IN THE SEED

Faith in Jehovah's Seed, namely, Jesus Christ,

is necessary to salvation. Peter stated this fact still
more strongly later on to the Jews, and hence also
to all of us. Some days later at the temple in J erusalem Peter healed a beggar lame from his mother's
womb, saying: "In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth rise up and walk." To the crowd that gathered because of the miracle Peter said: "The God of
Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our
fathers [that is, Jehovah], hath glorified his Son
Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the
presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let
him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just,
and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and
killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from
the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name
through faith in his name hath made this man strong,
whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by
him hath given him this perfect soundness in the
presence of you all." Then Peter told them to repent
and be converted that their sins might be blotted out.
Also he declared Jesus Christ to be the promised
Prophet who would be like Moses and also to be the
Seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the
earth should be blessed.-Acts, chapter 3; Deut.
18: 15-18; Gen. 22: 18.
18 Arrested for preaching such things in the temple,
Peter and his fellow apostle John were haled before
the Jewish Supreme Court at Jerusalem. The court
asked them the question, "By what power, or by what
name, have ye done this?" Peter replied under the
power of God's spirit. He said: "If we this day be
examined of the good deed done to the impotent man,
by what means he is made whole [or, is saved]; be
lS

17. To whom now was the privilege of cal\lng opened up? By whom"
18. How did Peter later show faith In Jesus' name is necessary?
19. What did Peter tell the Jewish Sanhedrin about salvation?

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it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, same word in the original text of the Bible as he used
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom when he said, "we must be saved." This is also true
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even with respect to Jesus' cures. As to healing the
by him doth this man stand here before you whole. woman that touched him to be relieved of her bloody
... Neither is there salvation in any other: for there flux of twelve years' lasting, we read: "Jesus turning
is none other name under heaven given among men, and seeing her said, Daughter, be of good cheer j thy
whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 7-12) It was faith hath made thee whole [or, hath saved thee].
Jehovah God that made the name of Jesus Christ And the woman was made whole [or, saved] from
important, possessed of power for salvation. J eho- that hour."-Matt. 9: 21, 22, Am. Stan. Vel".; also
vah did not link the name of any other creature with Mark 5: 34; Luke 8: 48 j 18: 42.
the name of his Seed, neither the name of Mary nor
21 When Jesus went to raise Jairus' daughter who
that of Mohammed. Peter said that under heaven had just been pronounced dead, he said to J airus :
there was no other name given by which to be saved j "Fear not: only believe, and she shall be made whole
and it is contrary to Peter's words of inspiration to [or, saved]." (Luke 8: 50, Am. Stan. Vel".) When he
add other names as necessary to salvation. All those healed the ten lepers and the one that was a Samariseeking eternal salvation must, therefore, call upon tan returned to thank him, Jesus said: "Arise, and
Jehovah and must do so through and in the name of go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole [or, hath
his Seed, Jesus Christ.
saved thee]." (Luke 17: 19, Am. Stan. Vel".) Through
20 There is power of salvation in Jesus' name. In
faith in Jesus as Jehovah's promised Seed these
proof, the man whom Peter cured was made whole were relieved or saved from their affliction, from
through faith in his name. Jesus' name could effect bloody flux, death, leprosy, and blindness. This pernot only a physical cure of one's body but, better still, forming of bodily cures through faith in Jesus illusone's eternal salvation. The expression Peter used, trated how you may be saved to an eternal salvation
made whole, referring to the physical cure, is the through faith in the name of Jesus Christ as the
20, 21. (a) How ,,"pre those cured throug;h Jesus spoken of? (b) Hence
name of Jehovah's Seed or Son.
what do those bodily cures through bls name lIJusrrate?

MAKING YOUR SALVATION SURE

~ERE are many religionists of Christendom
~?at profess to believe in Jesus, but they have

even death were saved to an eternal salvation. Those

who have taken the afore-mentioned steps are, of
little regard for Jehovah God, who raised Jesus course, in a saved condition, but their salvation is
Christ from the dead and exalted him to heaven. If not complete. They must remain in that saved state
someone else should ask them, "Are you saved 1" they until the final test in order to make their saved condiwould reply emphatically, "Yes I" and they would tion eternal. They must make their eternal salvation
have the asl{er to understand that they are certain sure by continuing to meet God's requirements. If
of heaven. Some religionists rely upon the saying, not, they will fall from their saved state in His favol'
"Once saved, always saved." But is this what Jesus and will be found fit only for destruction.
4 Let us hear Jesus' words about who is saved. A
himself taught and what he taught through his aposrich young ruler asked him what he must do to be
tles 1 No, indeed I
saved, saying: "Master, what shall I do to inherit
2 From the foregoing article we have seen that to
get into the way of salvation we must repent of our eternal life 1" The young man confessed to having
past sinful course, we must convert or turn from this kept the Ten Commandments from his youth up.
worldly course, and we must do so because we have Thereupon our Lord said: ('Yet lackest thou one
heard God's Word and because we believe his \Vord thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the
concerning the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and
Then we dedicate or consecrate ourselves to him come, follow me." The young man's refusal to do so
through Jesus Christ because of our believing thus, brought forth Jesus' remark: "It is easier for a camel
and we get baptized in water in order to confess to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to
openly our belief and consecration to Jehovah God. enter into the kingdom of God." Those listening now
a Up to this point we have met Jehovah's require- asked: "Who then can be saved ," Jesus answered:
ments, but are we now completely saved beyond all "The things which are impossible with men are
possibility of losing out and being destroyed? No; possible with God." What the rich young ruler had
no more than the people whom Jesus and his disciples refused to do Peter now confessed to doing, saying:
cured or saved from their sickness and disease or "Lo, we have left all, and followed thee." Jesus
replied: "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that
1. Who say. "Once sa'Ce<I, always ~a\"ed"? and Is It true?

2, To get Into the way of bah'atlon 'l'l"hat mUbt we do?

3, Why are we not )'et sa'Ced beyond pOSSible future failure?

4, By whom Is sal'Catlon possible, and despite forsaking what?

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hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or

children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall
not receive manifold more in this present time, and
in the world to corne life everlasting."
~ That meant not merely salvation to life in the
new world, but salvation to a throne in the heavenly
kingdom with Jesus Christ, which is something
higher than eternal life on our earth in its future
perfection under God's kingdom. Jesus' words here
proved that merely getting into the saved condition
now by taking the preliminary steps is not sufficient.
Besides that, we must follow him, that is, keep follo\ving him, and by doing so we must demonstrate
that we have indeed left all, even close dear relatives,
houses, lands, and other earthly riches and possessions, to keep on following him till the "world to
come" is reached.-Luke 18: 18-30.
G There must be no turning back. Peter ignorantly
tried to get Jesus to turn back from the course which
led to his death on a torture stake outside of J erusalem. But Jesus refused to turn back. It ,"..auld have
been turning back to destruction. So he said to Peter:
"Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumblingblock unto me: for thou mindest not the things of
God, but the things of men." Then he showed the rule
of action he was following when he said to his disciples: "If any man would come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever would save his life [or, soul] shall
lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life [or, soul]
for my sake shall find it. For what shall a man be
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit
his life [or, soul] r or what shall a man give in
exchange for his life [or, soul] f"-Matt. 16: 21-26,
Am. Stan. ITer.
1 Doubtless thinking that Jesus' kingdom would be
a visible earthly government, Peter tried to persuade
Jesus to save his present earthly life. But Jesus knew
Jehovah's course as marked out for him in the
prophecies would lead to his death in full proof of
his unbreakable devotion to God. He must he bruised
in the heel as the Seed of God's "woman". Jesus knew
that to try to save his human life which he came to
lay down in death it would mean for him to lose his
eternal future life. Shortly afterward, he hung upon
the torture stake on Calvary, and the seed of the
Serpent tried by ridicule to induce Jesus to save his
earthly life or soul. Certain revilers said: "Save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the
cross." The chief priests and religious rulers said:
"He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be
the King of Israel, let him now corne down from the
cross, and we will believe him." (Matt. 27: 39-42)
The soldiers on duty there said: "If thou be the king

of the Jews, save thyself." And one of the malefactors

impaled alongside him reviled him, saying: "If thou
be Christ, save thyself and us." (Luke 23: 35-39)
Despite these stinging taunts Jesus refused to come
down from the torture stake. He had already declared
his mission in corning to earth, saying: "The Son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give his life [or, soul] a ransom for many."
(Matt. 20: 28) He held true to that mission, and
poured out his soul to the bitter death.-Isa. 53: 12.
8 By doing so, Jesus saved his life, or soul, by proving worthy of Jehovah's reward for faithfulness. He
refused 'to save himself, preferring to let God save
him for his unbroken integrity to Him. Jehovah the
Almighty God did save Jesus on the third day, by
raising him up out of death to immortal spiritual
life in the highest heavens. (Heb. 5: 7) In this, therefore, Jesus was an example to his followers. Having
taken all the preliminary steps of repentance, conversion, consecration, and baptism, thereby denying
ourselves, we must take up our stake of suffering
reproach and pain for righteousness' sake and must
follow him. That is, we must keep on following him
to the finish, enduring as he did and not seeking to
save our lives, or present earthly souls. If we try to
save our lives, we are not denying ourselves, and we
shall lose our future lives, or souls, in the new world
governed by God's kingdom.
9 Giving further warning that a consecrated person
might turn from the way of salvation, Jesus said:
"No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9: 62)
In proof that a believer who has been saved from his
former condemned course of life in the world is not
completely saved but may look back and give up
before the test is all over, Jesus said: "And ye shall
be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that
endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matt. 10: 22)
We must endure to the end of our earthly course in
the way of salvation before we become finally saved,
in the judgment of God. It is Satan the Deceiver that
misleads Christians to think that once they havc
believed on the Lord Jesus and have been baptized
and have stepped upon the pathway to life they arc
saved for all time without any possibility of losing
eternal life by unfaithfulness.
10 Our need of steadfastness and endurance a~
we walk the path of salvation through this worlel
becomes more pronounced at this end of the world.
According to all three gospel accounts of Jesus'
prophecy on the end of this world, he predicted th(>
world-wide persecutions of his true followers at th(>
hands of nations and peoples. In spite of all this, w(,
must make our eternal salvation sure. To encouragc

5. What did J eBus Bhow Is needed besides preliminary steps?

6. What did Jesus Bay to Peter's effort to persuade him to turn back?
7. How did Jesus under taunts refuse to save his life? Why?

8. In not saving hiij life bow was Jesus our e>.ample?

9. The need to not look back but eudure to the end 'ho\\s what?
10. What are our souis that we need to posse.s? nnd ho\\ do 80?

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105

us to do this he said: "Ye shall be hated of all men it easy and grow careless, inactive and friendly with
for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of this world. To warn us, Jude, a disciple of Christ,
your head perish. In your patience possess ye your writes: "I will therefore put you in remembrance,
souls." (Luke 21: 17-19) The term "souls" here refers though ye once knew this, how that the LORD [Jehoto the future life in the new world of God's righteous- vah], having saved the people out of the land of
ness. 'Ve must yet acquire this future life, or soul, Eg)Tpt, afterward destroyed them that believed noL"
and the way to gain possession of it is to prove (Jude 5) Because several million Israelites, together
worthy of it by our patient endurance in God's serv- with a mixed multitude of good-will persons, left the
ice regardless of the hatred and persecution by all land of Egypt and crossed through the Red sea, it
men and nations.
was no sign that all this vast host would be saved
11 The Christian's possessing his soul by patiently
into the Promised Land of Palestine. Of all those
enduring for the sake of God's kingdom by Christ is rescued from Egypt by Jehovah's miracles, how many
what Jesus meant in the prophecy on the end of the entered the Promised Land forty years later T Of all
world when he said: "And ye shall be hated of all men those twenty years old and up when leaving Egypt,
for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the only Joshua and Caleb and high priest Eleazar, and
end, the same shall be saved." (Mark 13: 13; :Matt. possibly some other Levites, entered. (The Watch24: 13) We must maintain our faith to the end of our tower, December 15, 1943, page 382) They might all
trial in this world; we must hold on to our faithful- have entered in the second year after leaving Egypt,
ness to God to the finish of our testing, if we would but they did not do so because they lacked faith and
make sure of our salvation: "receiving the end of disbelieved Jehovah God. So, with the above excepyour faith, even the salvation of your s,ouls." (1 Pet. tions the unbelieving, rebellious ones twenty years
1 : 9) Certainly if we now hope to see the final end of of age and older were destroyed in the wilderness
this corrupt world of Satan in the approaching battle south of the Promised Land, and that, mark you,
of Armageddon we must endure down to its end in after they had all been saved out of Egypt, which
order to prove worthy to be carried alive through then dominated this world.
the battle into the righteous new world that follows.
14 In declaring his decision to destroy them thus
and his reason why, Jehovah God said to faithful
EXAMPLES FOR OUR ADMONITION
Moses: "How long will this people provoke me' and
12 Satan the Devil brought about the destruction of
how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the
Adam and Eve by turning them off the path of per- signs which I have shewed among them T Because
fect obedience to God that would have led to ever- all those men which have seen my glory, and my
lasting life in their earthly paradise. Satan seeks the miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,
destruction of all humankind descended from Adam and have tempted me now these ten times, and have
and Eve rather than see them lovingly serve God not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see
and gain salvation through the Seed of Jehovah's the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither
"woman". Satan the Devil has all this world under shall any of them that provoked me see it."-Num.
his control. But to satisfy himself he desperately 14: 11, 22, 23.
seeks to bring about the destruction of those who
18 The apostle Paul sounded out the warning to
have repentantly forsaken this world and devoted Christian congregations of his day against becoming
themselves to God through faith in his promised deceived by the Devil and falling away through loss
Seed. Knowing Satan's wiliness and wicked designs, of faith and obedience toward Jehovah God. Paul
Jehovah in His written 'Word gives repeated warn- knew that Judas Iscariot had been baptized and been
ings to those who have started in salvation's way. By
made one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and was
religious and political agents Satan tries to destroy
therefore saved to that extent and yet Judas fell
our faith in Jehovah God's way of salvation through away through selfishness by means of which Satan
Jesus Christ our Lord and King. Through his servthe Devil entered into him to make him betray
ant Jude, God warns us that it is possible for those
Jesus. Judas fell away into everlasting destruction.
who have experienced the opening features of salvaWhether our readers agree that Paul took the place
tion to be overreached by Satan's religious, political
of Judas as the twelfth apostle or not, Paul was, all
agents and to desert God and Christ, and that the the same, an apostle of Jesus. He was in a saved
penalty for such desertion will be destruction at condition, and he did not want to suffer Judas' fate.
God's hands.
He knew that his final salvation for all eternity
18 The religious slogan, "Once saved, always saved,"
depended upon his continued faith and devotion to
is deceptive. It leads a Christian to think he can take God. Paul's being an apostle did not, of itself,
II. Down to what must we elldur.., and with what qualities?
12. 'Yhose destruction does Satan desperately seek, and how?
13, Of "hat does Jude remind us to warn against carelessnen?

14. Why did Jehovah say he destroyed tho!!<! Israeli te. ?

15. Despite his apostleahlp, whose fate did Paul not want to .utrer?

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~eWATCHTOWER.

guarantee he would eventually be saved in spite of

carelessness, any more than the apostleship guaranteed to Judas final salvation.
16 For this reason the apostle Paul saw it was needful for him to keep himself always under control,
subject to God's Word and the operation of God's
spirit, and not allowing his fleshly body and its selfish desires to overpower him. By God's grace, he
tried to keep his body mastered in harmony with
God's will and service, because if he did not do so
he would become a castaway even though he had
preached to so many and had written several books
of the Bible. He remembered the warning example
of the Israelites that had been saved out of Egypt,
which is a symbol of this world. All those Israelites
had passed together through the Red sea with God's
protecting cloud overhead and the sea-walls on either
side and they had all been baptized thereby into
obedience to :Moses, God's chosen visible leader for
them. They all ate the same food provided by spiritual means, particularly the manna that fell miraculously during the forty years of wandering. "Food
from heaven," "the bread of the mighty," Psalm
78: 24, 25 calls such manna. (Am. Stan. Ver.) Also,
all those Israelites drank the same water, which was
provided by spiritual means, Jehovah's power opening up a rock on two occasions at least, to cause lifegiving waters to gush forth. The first time that God's
power opened up a rock to provide water was at
Rephidim, in the wilderness of Sin, in the second
month after they left Egypt. The second time that
water is reported as produced from a rock was at
Kadesh, toward the end of their forty years of
wandering; so that they had such spiritually provided drink from start to finish of their long journey.
-Ex. 17: 6; Num. 20: 11.
11 But even if they did all share in common in such
mercies from God that were for their salvation, did
they all enter into the promised "land of milk and
honey"! All having once been saved from the first
world power, Egypt, were they all saved even as far
as the Promised Land r Paul knew the Scriptural
answer. He took the warning to himself and drew
it to the notice of his brethren, lest, for lack of selfcontrol, they fall to the same temptations as those
Israelites did and in that way ruin their chance of
eternal salvation. Paul writes:
is "I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight
I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and
bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that
I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that
our fathers were ALL under the cloud, and ALL passed
through the sea; and were ALL baptized unto Moses
10. What did he try to control, mindful ot whose experiences?
17. 18. (a) Did their common rescue from Egypt result finally In their
common salvation Into Palestine' (b) How were they examples?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

in the cloud and in the sea; and did ALL eat the same
spiritual food; and did ALL drink the same spiritual
drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that
followed them: and the rock was Christ. Howbeit
with MOST of them God was not well pleased: for they
were overthrown in the wilderness. [But why were
they overthrown after being saved from Egypt?
What do their examples show to us who have been
saved from antitypical Egypt, this world, under the
Greater Moses, Jesus Christ f] Now these things
were our examples, to the intent we should not lust
after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye
idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The
people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to
play. Neither let us commit fornicatio~, as some of
them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. Neither let us make trial of the Lord, ns
some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now theE e
things happened unto them by way of example; and
they were written for our admonition, upon whoLl
the ends of the ages are come. Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fal1."-l Cor.
9 : 26, 27; 10: 1-12, Am. Stan. Ver.
IV By all evidences in this world, the antitypical
Egypt, we are at the ends of the systems of things
which have marked this world. Hence the abovementioned warning examples were written for the
admonition of us particularly. We do well to remember that the hundreds of thousands under :Moses that
were saved from Egypt included a large "mixed multitude" of non-Israelites of good-will. On one occasion
in the wilderness it was this mixed multitude that
started the Israelites to faultfinding about the lack
of flesh food, so that Jehovah provided great flocks
of quail, for a month's supply at least. Consequently
the warning of the examples recorded in Scripture if:
for tile admonition of the present-day "great multitude" of persons of good-\vill as well as for the few
remaining members of spiritual Israel.-Num. 11: 4.
20 Together, both this spiritual remnant and the
good-will multitude of mixed nationalities have now
been saved from this world, "which spiritually is
called ... Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified."
(Rev. 11:8) In obedience to Jehovah God we have
broken off from it, choosing to obey God rather than
men. But bodily we are still in this world, although
we are not of it. So the same temptations continue to
befall us as befell the Israelites in the wilderness.
Wllat temptations' Those named by the apo;;tle,
namely: lust after evil things; idolatry, together
with eating, drinking and playing; fornication;
tempting or making trial of Jehovah God; and mur19, 20. (a) For ",hobe warning were those examples written
(b) Why dare we not think we are steady beyond all falllng?

down?

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SheWATCHTOWER.

107

We are all humans, just plain men and women

as the Israelites and mixed multitude of the wilderness journey were. Therefore we are reachable by
the same temptations that Satan the Devil brought
upon them. Surely, further temptations such as are
common to all men, including those Israelites and
mixed multitude, are ahead of us, and none of us
can afford to become careless and indifferent. Yet
we need not become discouraged and fear that we
cannot come through the further trial period successfully. Paul, after sounding a warning about falling through self-confidence, adds: "There hath no
temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the temptation
make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to
endure it. \Vherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." (1 Cor. 10: 13, 14, Am. Stan. Ver.) God's purpose in saving the Israelites and mixed multitude
from Egypt was not just to destroy them in the
wilderness; it was to deliver them into the promised
rest in the "land of milk and honey". Likewise, his
saving us from this world through Jesus Christ is
not just to destroy us in his wrath after a while; it
is that we may win the glorious final salvation in the
righteous new world that is without end. Paul says:

''Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on ...

the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord
Jesus Christ." "God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation." (1 Thess. 5: 8, 9; 2 Thess. 2: 13)
By winning eternal salvation we share in vindicating
God's name.
22 If, now, the question is put to us, "Are you
saved T" we can answer, "Thus far, yes I" We are in
a saved condition, in the way of salvation. But we
have yet to make our salvation sure for all eternity,
by endurance in the way of salvation until the blessed
prize is grasped. Our eternal salvation is conditional
upon our continued faith, obedience and faithfulness toward God in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
What made the Israelites and mixed multitude once
saved from Egypt lose out before reaching God's
rest in the Promised Land was lack of faith in God.
It was a failure to believe him all the way through
the wilderness. Faith and belief meant obedience to
him. Now with the prize so near at this end of the
world, let us not lose out through disobedience and
quitting due to not keeping on believing God until
the prize of eternal salvation is gained. Let us hold
on to our belief. In that belief in God and Christ,
keep on obeying him and working and striving in His
service, following the example of the apostle, who
wrote: ''For to this end we labor and strive, because
we have our hope set on the living God, who is the
Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe."
(1 Tim. 4: 10, Am. Stan. Ver.) We, now in a saved
condition, will have God specially save us to the
hoped-for eternal salvation, provided we prove our
belief in him and in his Seed Jesus Christ to the end.

21. Why need we not become discouraged by fears of falUng?

22. How will God be the Savior specially of the believers?

muring. In this world of temptation a Christian

should not think he is so steady in standing, but
should always be on guard, keeping his self-control,
lest he be overreached bv Satan's world and fall into
destruction and never realize the future blessings of
the new world promised by Jehovah God.
THE SAVIOR SPECIALLY OF BELIEVERS
21

--------

HAILING THE NEW WORLD'S KING

o JOHN, then an aged servant of the anointed King

Jesus Christ, was granted a vision pertaining to the

kingdom of God. The King, by an angel, showed
faithful John what must come to pass in our day, and John
made a record thereof, which is called The Revelation or
The Apocalypse. So says Revelation 1: 1-3. John saw many
symbolic things, but as a faithful witness of Jehovah God
John pictured or represented Christ's faithful followers of
our day who are the final remnant of the church of God.
That \;sion from God by Christ disclosed to John that the
church of God is made up of Jesus Christ the Head and
144,000 faithful and true followers. They are pictured as
spiritual Israelites, at Revelation 7: 4-8 and 14: 1, 3. In the
Revelation, chapters 1 to 3, Christ Jesus the High Priest
is pictured at the temple of God, and in the fulfillment of
the Revelation Christ Jesus began to gather the members
of the church of God to himself after he arrived at the
temple in 1918.
The vision then disclosed to John many other persons
coming to the Lord God. John, discerning that these are not

spiritual Israelites, inquires as to who they are. The information is then given him that such ones picture a great
multitude that are due to appear in God's own time and to
join the spiritual Israelites in the worship of Jehovah God
at his temple. John describes his vision this way: "After
this I beheld, and, 10, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands."
-Rev. 7: 9.
Mark that point: that the great multitude comes from all
nations and peoples, kindreds and tongues. Yet they are
few as compared with the total population of all the nations.
They are all of good-will toward God, and they see that
religion of this world is the product of the Devil, employed
by him to deceive and turn the people away from Jehovah
and his kingdom. They see that salvation does not come to
them by associating with any of Christendom's religious
organizations, because 'salvation is of Jehovah'. (Ps. 3: 8,
Am. Stan. Ver.) These faithful ones turn to God and Christ

108

SEeWATCHTOWER.

the King and serve them. Being clothed with white robes
symbolically identities them as lovers of that which is pure
and as righteous. They are also pictured under the symbol
of having palms in their hands, which they wave while they
hail Jehovah's Anointed and say: ''\Ve hail Christ the King
and the Vindicator of Jehovah!" All creation that loves and
serves Jehovah God joins in the song of praise to His name.
(Re\1. 7: 10.12) That symbolic vision shows that the faithful
servants of God today, like John of old, could not identify
the great multitude until after the members of the remnant
of the 144,000 had been gathered by the Lord to his temple
and enlightened by him, thus coming to full unity in Christ.
(Eph. 4: 12, 13) It was in the year 1935 that God's "faithful servant" class on earth was tirst permitted to identify
the great multitude of Revelation 7.
That agreed with John's experience, who writes: "And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, 'What are these
which are arrayed in white robes 1 and whence came they1
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,
These are they which came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 7: 13-17) Thus the "great
multitude" is detinitely identitied as being composed of
persons of good-will toward Jehovah God and as the "other
sheep" of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. (John 10: 16)
Appreciating the privilege of devoting themselves to Christ
the King and serving him continuously to the praise of the
Most High God, they have their tears of grief at the world's
wickedness wiped away.
Since the multitude at the temple was great, and since
they are pictured as waving palm branches while they hail
Jehovah's anointed King, it draws our attention to the
Jewish "feast of tabernacles". This ...vas a seven-day feast
that the Israelites were commanded to observe in the seventh
month 'when they gathered their fruits of the field', for
which reason it was also called the "feast of ingathering".
(Ex. 23: 16; Lev. 23: 39) Other scriptures called it "the
feast of Jehovah", and well so, for it foreshadowed a feast
of rejoicing in the vindication of Jehovah's name. It being
the feast of "ingathering", its fulfillment in our day takes
place at the time that the Lord Jesus gathers his elect
followers to the temple condition of unity, and then begins
to gather to himself his "other sheep" forming the "great
multitude". Thus the antitypical fulfillment of the feast of
ingathering pictures the gathering of this "great multitude".
This :feast is now in course of fulfillment.
Nineteen centuries ago, it was at the feast of ingathering
or "feast of tabernacles" that .Jesus showed the clear distinction between Jewish religionists, who were on the side
of the Devil their father, and Jews of honest heart that took
the side of Jesus. (John 8: 43, 44) The religious Jews not
only rejected Jesus, but sought to kill him. Many of the
common people believed on him, and Jesus assured them
that if they continued in the truth they should be made free.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

(John 8: 31, 32, 36) By associating himself with the feast

of ingathering Jesus proved conclusively that he fulfilled
the type back there in a small-scale way, but, of course, its
fulfillment in completeness begins now, while his remnant
are on the earth and during the time that these are at the
temple in a gathered condition due to the Lord. As the Chief
Officer of his Father, Jesus boldly cried out to the people at
the last of the feast of ingathering: "If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink." (John 7: 2, 14, 37) So now,
the Lord Jesus is at the temple in spirit, and to those who
would be of his "other sheep" he says: "But Jehovah is in
his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."
-Hab. 2: 20, Am. Stan. Ver.
At the feast of ingathering the feasters waved palm
branches and were required to dwell in booths, that is to
say, in temporary dwellings reminding the feasters of those
used by the Israelites in the forty-year trek through the
wilderness. In symbol, this means that the people who are
now gathered to the Lord, that is to say, Christ's "little
flock" and his "other sheep", are not of this wicked world
over which Satan exercises power, but are for God's kingdom and are temporarily dwelling in the present world
condition, waiting for the inbringing of the permanent new
world. They do not bow down to men and man-made things
and worship them, but their allegiance, worship and devo
tion are wholly to Jehovah God and his kingdom. They
recognize Jehovah God and Christ Jesus as the "Higher
Powers" to whom to be subject, and they refuse to compromise with any part of Satan's world organization.-Rom.
13: 1-4.
ASSOCIATION WITH HIS BRETHREN

In the wilderness the tabernacle of worship, built under

Moses' direction and by men under God's command, had but
one court to which all the people at definite times had access.
(Lev. 1: 1-9) The same was true with the later temple at
Jerusalem. After the destruction of that temple the prophet
Ezekiel had a vision of a great temple, or organization,
where all those assembling will worship Jehovah God after
his establishment of the kingdom by Christ Jesus, hence
from and after A.D. 1914. In that vision the multitudes of
worshipers are pictured as in the "outer court". This court
was trodden by both priests and people in general who
worship Jehovah God. This is another prophetic picture of
the "great multitude" assembled before the throne of God
and worshiping him and his Christ, after Christ comes to
the temple as Jehovah God's representative or messenger.
-Ezek. 40: 17; 46: 3, 9, 21-24.
In a miniature fultillment of Malachi's prophecy concerning the coming of Jehovah's messenger to the temple, Jesus
Christ came to the temple of Jerusalem in the spring of
A.D. 33. On his way thither Jesus rode on the back of an
ass into the city of Jerusalem, presenting himself to the
Jews as their King. God had foretold this by his prophet of
old. (Zech. 9: 9; Matt. 21: 5) Great multitudes of the common people hailed Jesus as he rode along, waving palm
branches and saying: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord." (Matt. 21: 8, 9; Ps. 118: 26) In this event
another prophetic picture was made, foretelling the coming
of Christ Jesus the King into the active power of his kingdom, at which time he gathers to himself his "other sheep"
forming the "great multitude". Accordingly, at Revelation

APnll.. 1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

7: 9 above quoted, the great multitude are shown as waving

palm branches and shouting the praises of Jehovah God
and of Christ Jesus and attributing all protection and salvation to them.
This leads right into the fulfillment of Jesus' parable of
the sheep and goats, a prophecy concerning the end of this
world. In 1914 Christ Jesus was enthroned as king of the
new world. (Matt. 24; 3-14) Three and one-half years
thereafter (or, A.D. 1918) he appeared at the temple of
Jehovah God and gathered to himself his faithful "little
flock" and commissioned the remnant of them on earth and
c;ent them forth to preach "this gospel of the kingdom".
Thus is marked the beginning of the Lord's judgment of the
nations, respecting which the parable says: "And before
him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep
from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on the left."-~Iatt. 25: 31-33.
This discloses specifically two classes of persons. One class,
being extremely selfish and oppressive toward others and
persccuting those who serve God, are designated under the
s)mbol of "goats". The other class, being kind to God's
people and loving righteousness, are designated as "sheep".
These do good to those who serve Jehovah as his witnesses.
Such persons of good-will are the Good Shepherd's "other
sheep", which he is now gathering to himself. The statement
of .Jesus concerning these two classes draws a strong con
trast between the ultraselfish, cruel ones and the persons
of good-will. The parable-prophecy is now in course of fulfillment and has been since the coming of Jehovah's n1essengel' to the temple in 1918. During this time the remnant of
Christ's "little flock", the anointed witnesses of Jehovah,
have been going about from place to place in obedience to
His command, telling the people that the kingdom of heaven
1S here and that the onl;r means of salvation and everlasting
hlessings is to be found by those who turn to Jehovah's King
.Jesus Christ anu who faithfully support rum. At the same
timc, in obedience to God's commandments, these witnesses
give warning, too, of the impending disastcr that shall fall
upon this world at the battle of Armageddon. Therefore this
is the time of great emergency, because Armageddon is very
near.
All nations, and particularly the rulers thereof, see something terrible about to befall the world. Not knowing what
it is and having no faith in God and in his Word, such
rulers rush particularly to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy
and its pope to seek his adVlce, that they may have consolation and that their fears may be allayed. This is particularly
emphasized in recent times by the various public officials
of many nations, statesman, military men, relief administrators, editors and newsmen, judicial officers, etc., making
a special stopover or pilgrimage at Vatican City. The Roman
Catholic Hierarchy of Authority constitutes the leading
religionists on the earth, and that Hierarchy is the bitter
enemv of Jehovah's witnesses because these witnesses announ~e God's kingdom undcr Christ. The Hierarchy selfishly and wrongfully claim that the Papacy shall rule the
1V0rid as the spiritual part of the arbitrary man-made gov-

109

ernments. Hence that religious organization is the Devil's

chief representative on the earth. The Devil uses the Hierarchy and its allies to persecute the Lord as represented by
his witnesses, and to abase his kingdom and all whoever
support his kingdom. It is well known by all that the Roman
Catholic Hierarchy and allies now bitterly persecute and
oppose the true followers of Jesus Christ who are the witnesses of Jehovah and of his kingdom. The Hierarchy and
allied religious organizations the Lord Jesus designates as
"goats". His words of incrimination against the "goats" are:
"I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty,
and ye gave me no drink." "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as ye did it not to one of the least of these [my brethren],
ye did it not to me." (Matt. 25: 42, 45) Thus Jesus declares
that whatsoever is done to his faithful followers he counts
as done to himself, and he takes note thereof accordingly.
However, the people of goodwill now on earth desire to
see right done, and all such refuse to have any longer anything to do with such persecution of Jehovah's witnesses.
Many of such people are under the Roman Catholic Hierarchy because they have long been associated with that religious organization. Seeing the injustice heaped upon J ehovah's witnesses by the Hierarchy up in Quebec province,
Canada, and elsewhere, those persons of good-will toward
the Lord God turn away from that religio-political organ
ization and seek him and his righteous service. They observe
the ,vicked things done in the name of religion and patriotism; and, seeing that Jehovah's witnesses are harmless and
doing good to the people as God has commanded and carrying the message of consolation to the hungry souls, those
persons of good-will take advantage of every opportunity
to do good to the true imitators of Christ Jesus, Jehovah's
witnesses.
When those of the faithful remnant come to them with
the Kingdom message, then such persons of good-will,
whether they be Catholic, Protestant or outside of all religious organizations, treat the witnesses kindly and minister
to their needs, and Jesus Christ the Judge designates such
persons of good-will as "sheep". He says to them, according
to the prophetic parable now in fulfillment; "I was an
hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave
me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and
ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
prison, and ye came unto me." These righteously disposed
"sheep" answer him, saying: "Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, and fed thee 1 or thirsty, and gave thee drink Y
When saw we thee a ~tranger, and took thee in? or naked,
and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison,
and came unto theeY" "And the King shall answer and say
unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me." (Matt. 25; 35-40) Thus it is that they have
part in hailing the divinely appointed King of the new
world. At the approaching battle of Armageddon the end of
the "goats" will be destruction with Satan's organization,
whereas the "sheep" of good-will are due to receive from the
King protection through the battle and eternal salvation in
the world to come.

---------

And it shall be said in that day, La, this is our Godj we have
waited for him, . we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
-Isaiah 25: 9, A.S.V.

FOR WHOM THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN

RIOR to the sixteenth century before Christ did any
people have the Bible1 No; because the prophet Moses
who lived in that century began to write the first five
books of the sacred Bible in 1513 B.C. and did so at the
dictation of God, who disclosed himself to Moses under the
name "Jehovah". Prior to that time God had communicated
with his faithful men on earth by and through his angels
from heaven. (See Genesis 18: 1-33 and 19: 1,15.) But to
Moses God spoke in a special way and gave him instruction
on what he should do in order to lead the Israelites, Moses'
people, out of the slave-land of Egypt. Just before the
Israelites left Egypt Jehovah God made a covenant with
them, and he used Moses as a spokesman and mediator for
that purpose. In the third month from leaving Egypt the
Israelites reached Mount Sinai in Arabia, and there God
confirmed that covenant with them by special manifesta.
tions, notably by giving them his fundamental law including the Ten Commandments. He delivered to them through
Moses his various statutes and ordinances. He commanded
Moses what to write, and this prophet wrote as he was com
manded. He inspired :Moses to write all the history and laws
contained in the Bible's first five books.
Moses' record shows that Jehovah God mnde man in his
own image and likeness and that he made our earthly globe
for man's habitation and that he instructed the first man
what to do in order to keep his integrity toward God and
thus keep his proper standing. But after man's creation
the Devil came into existence by the rebellion of the mighty
spirit creature the cherub Lucifer, who was followed by a
host of other angelic creatures. This horde of wicked angels
under Satan the Devil has since assaulted humankind to
turn them all away from God and to destroy them. It is
but reasonable that God would give to the obedient humans
that withstood the Devil His own word, that these might be
guided in the right way. This God did by his angels or
heavenly messengers for a time. Then in his own due time
he caused his faithful servants under inspiration to make
and record His message to mankind. This written Record
is called the Bible. God has since preserved it for the benefit
of those who desire to know what is right. Moses was wholly
devoted to the Lord God, and God chose him to writc the
five books called "the Pentateuch". Thereafter other faithful servants of God wrote portions of the Bible as God
commanded and inspired them. David, one of such faithful
servants, said of himself: "The spirit of Jehovah spake by
me, and his word was upon my tongue." (2 Sam. 23: 2,
Am. Stan. Ver.) Peter, one of the last writers of the Bible,
wrote to say: ''No prophecy ever came by the will of man:
but men spake from God, being moved by the holy spirit."
-2 Pet. 1: 21, Am. Stan. Ver.
Some men say: "I do not believe there is an Almighty
God, and so I don't believe the Bible." Such men cannot see
and understand the truth and are entirely ignorant of
man's relationship to God. The Devil has made many men
mentally blind. He has done this lest God's truth should
shine into their minds. (2 Cor. 4: 4) A sane and reasonable
man must, by merely looking about him and observing the
things that exist, know that there is a great Creator, who
made all things visible, and which great Creator is revealed
as the Almighty God. A person that does not believe this
Creator's Word could never understand the truth, but must

remain in darkness. The Bible was not written for him. In

God's Word it is written: ''Without faith it is impossible to
please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him." (Heb. 11: 6) The man that says there is no personal
Creator is a fool; and if he puts himself in the fool class,
he shows he is completely under the Devil's control, for the
Devil is a rebel and opposer to God.-Ps. 14: 1.
God does not force humans to believe the truth of his
Word. He puts the truth before them and permits each one
to exercise his own desire and to accept it or not. God is
light, figuratively speaking, and he it is that 'covers himself
with light'. (1 John 1: 5; Ps. 104: 2) His light of truth is
not given to those who serve the Devil. That is shown by
the fact that the wicked angels are restrained in mental
darkness. ''Light is sown for the righteous." (Ps. 97: 11)
The man that delights himself in the law of God and that
strives to walk righteously is a man who walks in the light
and who is blessed.-Ps. 1: 1, 2.
The Bible was not written for fools, nor is this magazine
published for fools. The Bible, which this magazine discusses, was written and given to teachable men for their
aid and guidance, that such men of good-will might be fully
advised as to the right way to go and that they might stay
on the side of God and refuse to serve the Devil. Paul, a
writer of many Bible books, says: "All scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished
unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17) The sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God, and this same written
Word is true and is the proper guide for persons who want
to know and to do what is right. One of the writers of the
Psalms says: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my path. Thy word is true from the beginning:
and everyone of thy righteous judgments endureth for
ever. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
I 'hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love."-Ps.
119: 105, 160, 162, 163.
When on earth Jesus, the Son of God, testified to God
as concerning His Word written in the Bible, and said:
"Thy word is truth." (John 17: 17) Let no man imagine,
however, that the mere possessing of the Bible or an
occasional reading of verses of it is enough to enable him
to be wise. Many persons say: "I have the Bible and know
what it teaches." Yet they are, in fact, grossly ignorant of
what it contains and what it means. The Bible is the greatest storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. A man who desires
to know the truth must study the Bible and thus study to
show himself approved of God, and must not be ashamed
to acknowledge to everybody that all good things proceed
from the Almighty God. (2 Tim. 2: 15) A teachable person
is one that has an honest desire to learn, and he will meekly
take correction from God. If such a man applies himself
in God's appointed way he is certain to learn; as it is
written: "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the
meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the LORD are
mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his
testimonies."-Ps. 25: 9, 10.
All religious clergymen, in one way or the other, deny
the Bible by what they teach. And why s07 Because they

110

bRn. 1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

are not in reality 'men of God', but are on the Devil's side
and part of this world of his. All higher critics are in this
class. Such men are wise in their own minds and desire to
shine in the eyes of other men of this world and to have the
honor and praises that properly belong to the Almighty
God. They thus show themselves in the Devil's company.
The wisdom they possess is worldly, and of the worthlessness of this wisdom we read: "It is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ,There is the wise? where is the
scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
stronger than men."-1 Cor. 1: 19, 20, 25.
The opinion of a man is of no value whatsoever if that
opinion as expressed is contrary to the Word of God. If
people follow the teachings of men they are certain to
remain in worldly darkness. By nature all men are imperfect, and honest men grow in knowledge and wisdom only

111

when they seek to know and to do the will of God. For that
reason the man that denies the Bible as the inspired Word
of God is a foolish person, whether that man be a clergyman or a garbage collector: To trust in the unsupported
opinion of man is folly and leads to certain destruction.
"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in
whom there is no help." (Ps. 146: 3) But to learn and trustfully follow God's direction leads to life and happincss in
the approaching new world. "Trust in the LORD with all
thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy
paths." (Prov. 3: 5, 6) If a man desires to know the truth,
then he must prove and support all things by God's Word,
which is true, and he must hold fast what is in harmony
with that word. (1 Thess. 5: 21) For him to do so the Bible
was written, and that particularly at this end of the world:
",Vhatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, ... they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come."-Rom. 15: 4;
1 Cor. 10: 11.

JONAH FORESHADOWS JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS

EHOVAH said to his Israelite prophet, the Zebulunite
Jonah son of Amittai, in the ninth century before
Christ, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry
against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."
(Jonah 1:1,2; 2 Ki.14:25; Josh. 19:10,13) Jonah was
shocked by this command. He thought: Go to that heathen
nation! Why, they aren't even devoted to God, nor have
they entered into a solemn agreement with God as we Israelites have. '\Thy bother with them now1 The Ninevites might
consider my warning a threat from Israel and come over
here and oppress us. And even if I should go and warn
them, I know what a gracious God Jehovah is, how merciful
and abounding in kindness he is! If I go and tell those
Nincvites Jehovah is going to destroy them, and then he
goes and has pity on them and relents and docsn't bring
any evil on them, I'll be the laughingstock of that great
city. Not II I'll run down to Joppa and sail in the opposite
direction, to Tarshish, beyond the Great Sea. That's what
I'll do. I'll not make a fool of myself!-Jonah 4: 2.
Jonah went down to Joppa on the Mediterranean coast
and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid his fare and
went aboard, to go with the crew to Tarshish. (Jonah 1: 3)
After they put out to sea he felt tired, went below to his
berth, and fell asleep. (Jonah 1: 5) The next thing he knew
he was being awakened by the excited captain, who said:
"What are you doing asleep? Get up and call upon your
god! Perhaps he ,vill give a thought to us and save us."
(Jonah 1: 6, Moffatt) Jonah rubbed his eyes and blinked
and got up, but when he tried to walk he almost fell because
of the rolling and pitching of the boat. (Jonah 1: 4) When
he came to where the crew was, he heard the sailors say to
each other, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know upon
whose account this disaster has befallen us." (Jonah 1: 7,
An Amer. Trans.) Jonah watched them cast lots; and the
lot fell upon him. Then they asked him: "Tell us, now, for

what reason this disaster has befallen us. 'That is your

business? 'Thence do you come? What is your country? And
from what people are you?" (Jonah 1: 8, An Amer. Trans.)
Then Jonah told them that he was a Hebrew; that he
worshiped "Jehovah, the God of heaven, who hath made
the sea and the dry land"; and that the disastrous storm had
come upon them because he was fleeing to Tarshish from
the presence of Jehovah God instead of obeying his command to take His message to Nineveh. (Jonah 1: 9,10, Am.
Stan. Ver.) They replied: "'Whatever have you done?' ...
"What are we to do with you, to make the sea calm?' (for
the seas were running higher and higher)." (Jonah 1: 10,
11, Moffatt) "Then he said to them, 'Pick me up, and cast
me into the sea, so that the sea may be calm for you; for
I know that this great storm is upon you because of me.' "
(Jonah 1: 12, An Amer. Trans.) The men decided to try
to bring the ship back to dry land; so they dug in their
oars. But, seeing they were unsuccessful, for the sea was
running higher and higher against them, they decided to
throw Jonah into the sea. (Jonah 1: 13) He went up on
deck with them. He noticed that the cargo that was piled
up on the deck when he got on the boat was now all gone.
(Jonah 1: 5) Before picking Jonah up, the men said: "We
beseech thee, 0 Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish
for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood;
for thou, 0 Jehovah, hast done as it pleased thee." (Jonah
1: 14, Am. Stan. Ver.) Jonah held his breath as they picked
him up and threw him overboard. (Jonah 1: 15) Jonah was
still holding his breath as he hit the cold, tempestuous sea
and plunged into it. .As the water closed over him, he
thought he was cast out of Jehovah's sight, and \vondered
how he could ever look again upon His noly temple. lIe
prayed to Jehovah for help just as he was about to lose
consciousness. Then he felt himself slipping along a warm,
soft, slimy channel. He tried to breathe and found he could.

112

91leWATCHTOWER.

Then he slid into a larger cavity, also soft and warm. He

felt much revived and started to unwrap the seaweed from
his head. The fishy smell convinced him that he was in the
belly of a huge fish. (Jonah 1: 17) While in the fish's belly
Jonah thought over his previous course and determined to
carry out Jehovah's command to preach to Nineveh if he
got out alive. Therefore he prayed to Jehovah, saying: "1
called by reason of mine affliction unto Jehovah, and he
answered me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and thou
heardest my voice. For thou didst cast me into the depth,
in the heart of the seas, and the flood was around about me;
all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. And 1 said,
1 am cast out from before thine eyes; yet I will look again
toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about,
even to the soul; the deep was round about me; the weeds
were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms
of the mountains; the earth with its bars. closed upon me
for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit,
o Jehovah my God. When my soul fainted within me, 1
remembered Jehovah; and my prayer came in unto thee,
into thy holy temple. They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which 1 have
vowed. Salvation is of Jehovah." (Jonah 2: 1.9, Am. Stan.
V er.) After thinking and praying and sleeping, he felt
himself being forced back into the channel through which
he had come and finally he was thrown out on dry land.
-Jonah 2: 10.
Jonah thanked God for his deliverance. "And the word
of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise,
go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the
preaching that I bid thee." (Jonah 3: 1,2, A.m. Stan. Ver.)
Jonah arose and started out toward Nineveh. (Jonah 3: 3)
He inquired of the first person he met what day it was and
then realized that he had been in the fish's belly three days.
(Jonah 1: 17) He crossed the Euphrates at its great western
bend, traveled east across northern Mesopotamia, and finally
came to the Tigris river and Nineveh. Jonah went into
Nineveh as Jehovah had commanded him and proclaimed
that forty days more and Nineveh would fall. (Jonah 3: 4)
The next day he was surprised to see the Ninevites dressed
in sackcloth, even the officials being so clothed. (Jonah 3: 5)
He was even more surprised to hear the heralds cry throughout Nineveh: "By order of the king and his nobles! Neither
man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything,
food or drink; they must put on sackcloth and call earnestly
on God. Everyone must turn from his evil life and from the
violence he has in hand. Who knows if God will not relent
and turn from his hot anger, to save us~" (Jonah 3: 7-9,
Moffatt) Jonah also learned that when the news of his
preaching "reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his
throne, doffed his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes", and then sent the heralds
out with the royal proclamation.-Jonah 3: 6, 7, Moffatt.
When Jonah found out that God, because of the faith
and humility shown by the Ninevites, had relented and had
"decided not to inflict the punishment he had said he would
inflict upon them", Jonah was mightily vexed and very
angry. (Jonah 3: 10j 4: 1, Moffatt) He thought that if
Nineveh were not overthrown he would be made a laughingstock and would lose his reputation as a prophet; so "he

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

prayed unto Jehovah, and said, I pray thee, 0 Jehovah,

was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?
Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that
thou art a gracious God, and merciful, 81mv to anger, and
abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
Therefore now, 0 Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life
from me; for it is better for me to die than to live". (Jonah
4: 2,3, Am. Stan. Ver.) And Jehovah said, "Are you right
to be angry?" (Jonah 4: 4, Moffatt) With that Jonah
stalked out of the city to the east and sat down under the
shade of a gourd that had sprung up in a night. Jonah was
very glad for the cool shade of the gourd.-Jonah 4: 5, 6.
Next morning Jonah awoke at dawn and found that the
gourd had started to wilt. Then a sweltering wind began to
blow from the east. The sun rose higher and beat on Jonah's
head till he fainted and longed to be dead. "Better death
than life!" he cried. "Then God asked Jonah, 'Are you right
to be angry over the gourd?' 'Yes,' said Jonah, 'mortally
angry.'" (Jonah 4: 7-9, Moffatt) So Jehovah said to him.
'You had pity on the gourd, for which you have not labored.
neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and
perished in a night; and should I not spare Nineveh, that
great city in which are more than 120,000 persons that
cannot discern between their right and their left hand, and
also much cattle?'-Jonah 4: 10, 11.
Just as Jonah before had repented in the sea, so now he
must have repented and lived to write the book which bears
his name in the Bible. That the sailors "feared Jehovah
exceedingly; and [that] they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows" Jonah could have learned by direct
inspiration from Jehovah, or he could have learned of
it from their own lips at a temple meeting or elsewhere.
-Jonah 1: 16, Am. Stan. Ver.
Jehovah used Jonah in the experiences narrated to foreshadow Jesus (Matt. 12; 41) and his faithful followers; for
example, when Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days
and was then vomited up alive on shore, he pictured the
Lord Jesus in the grave three days and then resurrected
to life, which resurrection was a forerunner and guarantee
of the resurrection of the repentant Ninevites and of all
others in the graves. Jesus himself said: "For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall
the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth." (Matt. 12; 40) When Jonah was answering
the Gentile sailors' questions he pictured Jesus' followers,
Jehovah's witnesses, today, answering the questions of
people of good-will toward God. Jonah's preaching to the
Ninevites who heeded God's message through him and
repented pictures Jehovah's witnesses' preaching to those
in Christendom who are of good-will toward God and who
give heed to God's message, which Jehovah's witnesses proclaim. God's purpose in sending Jonah to the inhabitants of
heathenish Nineveh was evidently to show up the Jews as
lacking in faith and humility. Jonah murmuring against
God's pity on the repentant Ninevites foreshadows some
who start out to serve the Lord and who then murmur and
complain when God extends his favor to others also. Jehovah's witnesses rejoice today when they see thousands of
people of good-will toward God show faith and humility
and receive God's favor.

3fieWATCHTOWER
PUBLISREl>

SEMIMOl'lTRLY BT

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFFICERS

N. H. KNORR, President

GRANT SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall be the peace of thy children." - Isaiah 5 :I.J.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOYAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Gh'er of
life to his creatures; tbat tbe Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and bis active al;ent In cr~atlng all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelleu agaInst Jehovah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for mall, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and wlllfully disobe~-ed God's luw and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the rigbt to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and thut Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rigbtful King of the ne\v world: that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His Witnesses whose duty and privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and deciare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule. ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from hea\"en, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jebo.ah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satnn's org-anlzation and establlsh
rlg-bteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-w1l1 surviving ArlUagel1don wlll carry out tile
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of ilfe on earth.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IN NORTH AMERICA
The splendid success of the first District Assembly, in Atlanta,
this past March, heightens the interest of all in those next in the
1948 series. For the information of those in the areas embraced,
we here announce completion of arrangements for the following
assemblies:
HOUSTON, TEXAS: Muy 7-9, Buffalo Stadium,
Corner St. Bernard and Coyle Sts.
Convention Committee
2029 Harold St., Houston 6, Texas
OAKLAND. CALIFORNIA: May 28-30, Exposition Building,
10th and Fallon Sts.
Convention Committee,
2205 Fourteenth Ave., Oakland 6, Calif.
VANCOUVER, CANADA: June 4-6, The Forum
Watchtower Convention Co=ittee,
1696 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver, B.C.

.J U:!o"EA'lT, .ALASKA: June 11-13, Masonic Temple

Watchtower Convention Committee,
Box 2891, Juneau, Alaska

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is published tor the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction speelfically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-will.
It arranges systematic Bible study tor its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publlshes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority tor Its utterances.
It Is entirely tree and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other woridly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Cbrist his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical examination
of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not indulge
In controvers~', and its columns are not open to personalities.

Notice to S"llsoribera: RemIttance. should be sent to office In your

country In COMpliance with reb'illations to guarantee safe delivery of
money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
office 1S located by International money order only. Subscription rat~ in
dltrerent countries are stated below In ioc&l currency. l'ot,ce of ezplratioll
(With renewal blankl is sent at least two Issu&< before subscription
expires. Change oJ addren when sent to our office Ullly be e."pected
efiectlve wl1hln oue month. send your old as weU 83 new address.
Please address tbe Watch Tower Society in every case.
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ot

America

Entered a. second-clau matter at the pod of!lce at Brao/tllI", N. Y.,

under the Act of March 3, 1879.

WINNIPEG, CANADA: June 18-20, Amphitheatre Rink

Watchtower Convention Committee,
63 Martin Ave., Winnipeg, Man.
OnAWA, CANADA: June 25-21, Coliseum, Lansdowne Park
Watchtower Convention Committee,
113 James St., Ottawa, Onto
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA: July 2-4, The Forum
Watchtower Convention Committee,
121 Maynard St., Halifax, N. S.
All persons of good-will are urged to attend these assemblies,
and should at oq.ce write the Convention Committee concerning
rooming accommodations. The president and other official brethren
of the Watchtower Society will serve on the programs of these
assemblies.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES
Week of May 23: "The God of Hope,"
1T 1-17 inclusive, also "A Living Hope",
11' 1-3 inclusive, The Watchtower April 15, 1948.
Week of May 30: "A Living Hope,"
1f 4-23 inclusive, The Watchtower April 15, 1948.

~ceWAlfCIHIlfO

---

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

.APRIL

15, 1948

R
No. 8

"THE GOD OF HOPE"

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing:'-Rom. 15: 13.
EHOVAH is the "God of hope". About six thou- of heredity that he had established, all their offsand years ago, when the basic cause for the spring, all human creation, from birth on, would be
perplexing world situation of 1948 was laid, the subject to vanity, or to human frailty and corrupneed of a hope for all future mankind arose. At that tion, to leanings toward perverseness, foolishness
early time Jehovah God in his mercy gave it.
and empty unprofitableness. All the pleasures of
2 The first human pair, Adam and Eve in the
existence would be fleeting because of the certainty
garden of Eden, were then about to be sentenced to of death for the imperfect, condemned human creadeath for rebelling against the law of their Creator ture. To this day, about six thousand years since the
and Ruler, Jehovah God. Adam, as a perfect man birth of the first human child, mankind has been
created by God, had received his life from God and unable to escape this "vanity", by human efforts. By
was a "son of God". God's own Word speaks of him permitting human creatures to be born under such
as having been such. (Luke 3: 38) No heavenly, conditions the Almighty God, Jehovah, was subjectangelic, spiritual hope was set before this creature ing all human creation to such "vanity" without our
of flesh and blood. He was earthy and hence of the willing it. But why1 Was not this an injustice to us
earth. As long as he continued in innocence and all, tantalizing us with a brief taste of existence
obedience toward God he had set before him the hope under such vain conditions f Not at all! It was an
of eternal life in an earthly paradise. Only in the day unspeakable mercy to us all. God did not instantly
that he broke the simple law of his Creator and destroy Adam and Eve childless, but mercifully let
showed rebellion would he die: "Of the tree of the the human creation be born subject to all this "vanknowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: ity" because of the precious hope that he set before
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt all human creatures.
surely die." (Gen. 2: 17) When sentence was pro5 One of Jehovah's inspired writers calls our attennounced upon Adam and his wife, Jehovah God told tion to this in a letter to the Christian congregation
the man that he would not die at once on that 24-hour at Rome. He says: "For I reckon that the sufferings
day, but would work long and hard at the soil outside of this present time are not worthy to be compared
the garden of Eden until he returned to the dust with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.
from which he was taken. He had been meant to be For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth
father to the human race, and he would still become for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation
father to the race, because God then told his wife was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by
that she would become the mother of many children; reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the
she would have a multiplied conception of children, creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondbut with much pain.-Gen. 3: 16-19.
age of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the
3 No perfect human race would now come into
children of God. For we know that the whole creation
existence. Instead, a sinful, imperfect, degenerate, groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
dying race would be born to parents that had been ... For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen
dismissed from the family of God due to sinful dis- is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth 1
obedience. As God's Word describes the outcome of But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we
matters: "By one man sin entered into the world, and with patience wait for it:'-Rom. 8: 18-25, American
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for Standard Version.
that all have sinned."-Rom. 5: 12.
6 We were certainly subjected to this vanity not
Why, then, did Jehovah God let Adam and Eve according to our own will. Our first parents, Adam
live for centuries and produce children and thus our and Eve, disobediently fell from perfection and derace of mankind come into existence 1 God's con- parted from the family of children of God. We had
demnation rested upon Adam and Eve. By the laws
nothing to do with it. Of our parents' will we were

1, 2. When did the need of a hope for all mankind al1se, and why?
3, 4. Subject to what did God let mankind be born, and why?

II, 6, How, without our wlll1ni It, did God subject mankind in hope?
115

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Sl2eWATCHTOWER-

born into this vanity, and none of us as children of

God. How, then, did God subject all of our human
creation to vanity, but in a hope by which we could
be saved' And when? His Vi ord answers us. He
subjected our human creation in hope by saying what
he did there in the garden of Eden just before he
sentenced Adam and Eve to hard labor, painful
reproduction of children, and death. Before sentencing Adam and Eve, Jehovah God as judge addressed
himself to Satan the Devil, who had used the deceptive serpent to induce Eve and Adam into deathdealing disobedience to God. Jehovah said to the
Devil, represented by the serpent: "Dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel." (Gen. 3: 14, 15, Am. Stan. Ver.) That
statement against that old Serpent, Satan the Devil,
summed up a great hope, a positive hope that the
great introducer of wickedness and all those following him would be destroyed by a deliverer.
T It was first after distinguishing himself as the
"God of hope" by sentencing Satan the Devil with
those words that Jehovah God spoke to Eve and
Adam about bringing forth children. If it were not
for this hope of salvation there would have been no
profit for the human creation to be born from Adam
and Eve. If it had not been for this hope of deliverance by the Seed of God's "woman", Almighty God
would not have permitted the disobedient human pair
to live further and bring forth the human creation
I'ubject to the present vanity. But the hope that He
~et forth in his mercy made it worth while for those
lUen and women to be born who would believe the
hope, act upon it and gain salvation by it. Their
being subject for the few years of this life to the
yanities under the Devil's rule was better than not
eoming into existence at all. It opened up a wonderful opportunity, and subjection to vanity would not
be worthy of being compared with the future blessedness and glory that God's hope would make possible
for them as free sons of God.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

soon as Jehovah God announced the Seed of

his "woman" that promised Seed became the One
whom He appointed as the only hope of all mankind
that would be born. That Seed alone would be God's
instrument or servant to deliver the human creation
from the "vanity" to which they were subject by
descent from the condemned sinners Adam and Eve.
That Seed or Offspring would be by God's "woman"
and hence would be the Son of God. Almighty God
the Father would produce him and give him power to
crush the head of the Serpent, Satan the Devil, after

he had suffered a heel-wound from that old Serpent.

Because the promise in Eden came from Jehovah
God, and because the final fulfillment of it rests with
him, Jehovah is the "God of hope" and is primarily
the hope of all human creation for deliverance from
the vain bondage of corruption into the glorious
lasting liberty of sonship to God. Hence, from the
days of Abel, second son of Adam and Eve, Jehovah
God has been the hope of all believing, faithful men
and women.-Jer. 14: 7, 8 and 50: 7, Am. Stan. Ver.
I Jehovah's promise to provide a Seed from his
"woman" was a promise to set up a righteous worldgovernment with the Seed as its King. For centuries
the forefathers of the nation of Israel kept looking
to Jehovah in hope that he would provide the royal
Seed. Among the faithful forefathers was Abraham
of the twentieth century B.C., and in his days J ehovah God gave fresh proof that he had not forgotten
or swerved from his Edenic promise to raise up the
royal Seed of deliverance. When Abraham was
seventy-five years old God brought him into the land
of Palestine and promised to give this childless
Abraham a seed to whom He would give the land.
(Gen. 12 : 7) Abraham grew twenty-four years older,
but yet he had no seed by his woman, his wife Sarah.
Still he held on to Jehovah's promise or covenant
that his seed would be like the stars of heaven. (Gen.
15: 1-5) The apostle Paul says of Abraham: ''Who in
hope believed against hope, to the end that he might
become a father of many nations, according to that
which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. And
without being weakened in faith he considered his
own body noW as good as dead (he being about a
hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's
womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he
wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong
through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully
assured that what he had promised, he was able also
to perform."-Rom. 4: 18-21, Am. Stan. V er.
10 At a hundred years of age Abraham became
father to a son by his woman Sarah, namely, Isaac.
Years later, when Isaac was a stalwart lad, Jehovah
God foreshadowed that the Seed of his "woman" was
to be bruised at the heel by the Serpent and die a
sacrificial death. At that time God called upon Abraham to sacrifice his beloved Isaac upon an altar at
Mount Moriah, near Jerusalem. At Mount Moriah
Abraham proceeded to do so, without losing faith in
God's promise of the Seed. Why' Because Abraham
believed in God's power to resurrect the dead. Again
the apostle Paul writes of Abraham's faith and says:
"By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac:
yea, he that had gladly received the promises was
offering up his only begotten son; even he to whom
it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: account-

1. WIth what Is our subjection to vanity not worth comparison?

8. Whom did the "God ot hope" appoint as mankind's only hope ':

9. Why was Abraham obllged, In hope, to believe agalllst hope?

10. Why must the Seed be Abrl\ham'~ and be re~urrected from death?

THE ONE APPOINTED AS OUR HOPE

a As

~eWATCHTOWER

AP1uL 15, 1948

ing that God is able to raise up, even from the dead;
from whence he did also in a figure receive him
back." (Heb. 11: 17-19, Am. Stan. Ver.) After Jehovah's angel stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac
and provided a ram for the altar instead, Jehovah
said to Abraham: "I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon
the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed." (Gen. 22: 17, 18) This covenant
or solemn promise proved not only that God held to
his original Edenic promise concerning the woman's
Seed but that the Seed would come through Abraham's line of descent. When Abraham received his
son Isaac as if from sacrificial death, it pictured that
God would raise his own Son from the dead after his
heel-wound.
11 Since all nations and families of the earth are
promised to be blessed in the Seed of the "woman",
the Seed of Abraham, this Seed is the One that J ehovah God has appointed in whom all the nations,
including those of A.D. 1948, must hope. Who is that
Seed of hope 1 It is a descendant of Abraham through
King David of Jerusalem. For that reason he is
called "the Son of David" and is the heir of the everlasting throne and kingdom that Jehovah promised
to ft.'{ in the royal line of David. (2 Sam. 7:12-17)
It was not left for crooked politicians and worldly
religious priests and clergymen to identify who this
Seed of the "woman", this Seed of Abraham and
Son of David, is. Speaking to a multitude of the Jews
at the temple in Jerusalem, the apostle Peter under
inspiration of God's spirit identified the Seed as
.Jesus Christ and said: "Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made 'with your
fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed. Unto you first
God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless
you, in turning away everyone of you from your
iniquities." (Acts H:25,2li, AnI.Stall.Ver.) Years
afterward Paul wrote under inspiration and said:
"Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to
his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of muny
[seeds]; but as of one [seed], Arid to thy seed, which
is Christ." (Gal. 3: 16, Am. Stan. V er.) There is no
room for uncertainty: Jesus Christ, the Son of David
who was the son of Jesse, is the Seed for blessing all
the nations and in whom all the nations muet hope.

11i

nations.... he will bring forth justice in truth. He

will not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set
justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his
law." (Isa. 42: 1-4, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) All
human, private interpretation of this prophecy is
avoided when we turn to the inspired account of the
apostle Matthew, who tells of Jesus' many miracles
of relieving the sick and ailing and then says: "He
healed them all, and charged them that they should
not make him known: that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved
in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit
upon him, and he shall declare judgment to the
nations.... till he send forth judgment unto victory.
And in his name shall the nations hope."-Matt.
12: 15-21, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.
18 Paul was an apostle of the hope and spoke of
himself as "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the
commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope". (1 Tim. 1: 1) That all
nations might make Jesus Christ their hope, Paul
went preaching among the Gentile nations. To back
up his preaching to these non-Jews he quoted a number of Bible prophecies and added that of Isaiah
11: 10, saying: "And again, Isaiah saith, There shall
be the root of Jesse, and he that ariseth to rule ove r
the nations; on him shall the nations hope. Now the
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of
the holy spirit." (Rom. 15: 12, 13, Am. Stan. Ver.,
margin) Manifestly Christendom's religious clergy
do not obey God's command through Isaiah nor do
they follow the apostle Paul's example. In this world
crisis they declare the hope of the world to be the
United Nations or some other man-made makeshift
for God's kingdom by Christ Jesus, the Seed of his
"woman". Jehovah God will not fill such religionists
with all joy and peace and abounding hope, inasmuch
as they do not believe in Jehovah's appointed
Servant, "our hope."
RESURRECTION OF THE SEED

Jesus Christ, then, was definitely the One whom

Jehovah God meant when he said by his prophet
fsaiah: "Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my
chosen, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my
spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the

U Jesus Christ on earth was not subject to vanity

along with the rest of human creation, and he needed
no deliverance from it. This was owing to the fact
that he did not receive his life from Adam, but was
the Son of God from heaven, and his heavenly life
was transferred to the womb of a virgin descended
from King David. As his life was from God, no condemnation, sinfulness, corruption and deathliness
attached to Jesus by birth from the Jewish virgin,
but he grew up to be a mature man in perfection.
He was thus able to offer himself as a perfect sacrifice on God's altar in behalf of mankind and thus

11 Whom did Peter and Paul Identify Abraham'! SeM to be?

I ~ How do we know In who.e name thp nations mu.t hope?

13. Whr. '\Ith good bachlng, dill Paul prPII.h Rm. l1g Gentile nation.!
'
H, Why ('lin Jp"". ". HIgh I'rlp,t frpp u. trolll 'anlty and bondage!

THE CHOSEN SERVANT

12

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~eWATCHTOWER

become a true High Priest to Jehovah God. God's

Word accordingly says of him: "Such an high priest
became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
who ... offered up himself." (Heb. 7: 26, 27) This
vital fact makes it all the more necessary that we
put our hope in him. Only by means of him can we
be delivered from the vanity and bondage to which
we are subject from birth.
1G The Son of God came down and became a perfect
man that he might taste death as a sacrifice and
vindicate God's promise as to the Seed and undo all
the wicked work of that old Serpent Satan the Devil
by bruising the Serpent's head. All those from among
the human creation who were to become children of
God were partakers of flesh and blood, and so to
deliver them from the bondage to the corruption of
death the Son of God must become flesh and blood
also, but not subject to vanity and corruption. His
death must be due, not to mankind's inherited bondage to death and corruption, but to being bruised
at the heel by the Serpent for his faithful integrity
to God. To be a sacrificial death for the ransoming
of enslaved mankind his death must be that of an
innocent perfect man acceptable to God. God's Word
explains it to us thus, saying: "Forasmuch then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also
himself likewise took part of the same; that through
death [for every man] he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on
him the nature of angels; but he took On him the seed
of Abraham." (Reb. 2: 14-16) Satan the Devil was
permitted to wield the power to persecute and inflict
death upon those who turned to God. For this reason
many men and women, out of fear of such death at
the Devil's hands, were held in bondage to sin and
the Devil. But now Jesus, by his sacrificial death,
could nullify the death inflicted on men by the Devil,
because Jesus could raise them from the dead.
16 Jesus had no fear of death at the instance of the
Devil and his wicked seed j but in obedience to J ehovah's promise in Eden he yielded to being bruised at
the heel by the Serpent. He knew that the Serpent,
Satan the Devil, could kill or inflict death only upon
the human body, but had no power over his future
life or souL He feared Almighty God, who was able
15, 16. (a) What kind or death must there be to bring Satan to nothing?
(b) How does Jeaus free men from lifelong bondage In fear?

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

to raise him out of death. That God might be pleased

to do so, Jesus remained innocent and faithful to
God to the cruel death at the hands of Satan's seed.
But by his very death he proved himself worthy to
be the victorious ~eed of God's "woman" to bring to
nothing the wicked Serpent, the Devil, who has
always misused the power of death. Jesus Christ the
Seed will undo all the death that the Devil has
inflicted throughout the centuries upon those choosing God's free service. Because of this power to
nullify the power of the Devil, Jesus Christ the Seed
now frees many men and women who, because of
fearing the devilish power of death, were in slavery
to him and sin all their past lifetime. These now
enjoy the liberty of the children of God.
U Jesus' destiny as the Bruiser of the Serpent's
head depended on the resurrection power of Jehovah
God his Father. A small remnant of the Jews of
Jesus' day had pinned their hope to him as the
chosen Servant of God who was to establish the
kingdom of God and deliver his chosen nation of
Israel. But when Jesus died on the torture stake,
seemingly forsaken of God and, as it were, bruised
at the heel by the Serpent, it appeared as if all hope
had been crushed for such remnant of believing Jews.
On the third day following his death and burial his
disciples said: "The chief priests and our rulers
delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we hoped that it was he who should
redeem Israe!." (Luke 24: 20, 21,Am.Stan. VeT.) But
when Jesus disclosed himself to them as resurrected
from the dead on that third day, their hope became
alive again. It became a "living hope". But they still
needed to be set straight as to what to expect and
upon what to fix their desire. When the apostle
Nathanael first met Jesus he said to him: "Thou art
the Son of God; thou art King of Israel"; and till
now the apostles had in mind the earthly nation of
natural Israel. Hence on the fortieth day after Jesus'
resurrection and just before he ascended back to
heaven, they "asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at
this time restore the kingdom to Israel!" (John
1: 49 j Acts 1: 6, Am. Stan. VeT.) After his ascent to
heaven, then they realized he would not be an earthly
king over Israel. Only a heavenly king at God's
right hand could bruise the mighty superhuman
Serpent's head. Jehovah's resurrecting of Jesus as
an immortal spirit person made it possible for Jesus
to be King at God's right hand to do that.
17. Upon wbat power did JesUll' destlny as "our bope" depend!

"A LIVING HOPE"

FTER Jesus' resurrection and ascension to

heaven as a glorified spirit creature, what
became the correct hope of his faithful disciples on earth 1 And is this the hope that all persons

1. To wbat does Peter say tbe Cbrlatians were begotten? By wbat?

of good.will today, nineteen centuries later, may

entertain 1 Writing to Christians in the first century
"
the apostle Peter says: Bles.sed be the Go~ and
Father of our Lord Jesus ChrIst, Who accordmg to

AP1uL 15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER.

his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope

by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
who by the power of God are guarded through faith
mto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little
while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more
precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved
by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom not
having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see
him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy
un8peakable and full of glory: receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1 Pet.
1: 3-9. Am. Stan. Ver.) It was to a "living hope" that
the first and early members of the Christian congrew
gation were begotten again by God, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death state had an
important connection with it.
2 Peter's words make it most clear that the living
hope is that of eternal life in heaven for the faithful
Christian congregation of Jesus' footstep followers.
The salvation of their souls with which their faith
was to be rewarded was, not to life on a paradise
earth, but to life in heaven. In heaven, says Peter, is
where the incorruptible, undefiled and unfading
inheritance is reserved for them; and it is to heaven
that Jesus Christ went after his resurrection. This
is why they no longer saw him, and this is why the
later believers in him have never seen him, not even
in the flesh. He is no longer flesh and blood, a perfect
man, for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God" and no man can see God and live.-l Cor.
15: 50: John 6: 46; Ex. 33: 20.
3 Peter plainly tells us that Jesus was not resurrected as the human creature that he once was. In
this same letter Peter writes: "Christ also suffered
for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that
h~ might bring us to Gad; being put to death [how 1]
in the flesh, but made alive [how1] in the spirit; in
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison." (1 Pet. 3: 18, 19, Am. Stan. Ver.; Dattay)
Consequently Jesus Christ is not a human King, but
a heavenly King, a spirit King, just as Jehovah God
is a spirit and is a spirit Sovereign over all the universe. Jesus said: "God is a spirit." At his resurrection from the dead Jesus became glorious like
God his Father, "the express image of his person,"
and "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high; being made so much better than the angels".
(John 4: 24; Heb. 1: 3, -1) Being mightier than the
angels of heaven, the glorified Jesus Christ is far
more powerful than the Serpent, Satan the Devil,
2 Where, then, is their hope to be renllzed, and why?
3. How '\Yas .Tesu~ resurrected, and made better than whom?

119

and can bruise him and all his demons in destruction.

(Matt. 28: 18) He will do so.
4 The kingdom of the Seed of God's woman" for
which we may hope according to God's Edenic promise is a heavenly kingdom. The hope of the faithful
congregation of Christ's footstep followers is to be
associated with him in that kingdom. In harmony
with this hope they lteep out of the politics of the
governments of this world and 'seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness', as Jesus' sermon
on the mount instructs them. (Matt. 6: 33) Peter
tells us that when Jesus ascended to heaven then
Psalm 110: 1 was fulfilled, which says: "Jehovah
saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Acts 2: 32-36;
Ps. 110: 1, Am. Stan. Vet'.) Hence Jesus set a heavenly hope before his victorious footstep followers when
he said in the Revelation to the apostle John: "To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down
with my Father in his throne."-Rev. 3: 21.
G To entertain hope of a place with Jesus Christ
in his heavenly kingdom is a limited privilege, for
this same Revelation discloses that only 144,000
faithful overcomers will be enthroned with him
in the Kingdom, which kingdom is symbolized by
Mount Zion where King David once ruled. Revelation 14: 1, 3 reads: "Lo, a Lamb [Jesus the sacrificed One] stood on the mount Sion, and with him
an hundred forty and four thousand, having his
Father's name written in their foreheads. And they
sung as it were a new song before the throne, and
... no man could learn that song but the hundred
and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
from the earth."
HOW BEGOTTEN AGAIN TO IT
e Peter tells God's elect, or those chosen for the
Kingdom, that God the Father begot them again to
this living hope by resurrecting Jesus from the dead.
It is not by Jesus' resurrection that his joint-heirs in
the Kingdom are begotten again to the living hope.
Jehovah God the Life-giver is the One that begets,
produces, or becomes the Father of spiritual children
for the heavenly kingdom. But the resurrection of
his Son Jesus Christ was a basis for him to beget
such additional spiritual children. How so 1 Because
by the resurrection the bruised Seed of God's
"woman" was brought back to life and could ascend
to heaven and sit down at God's right hand. Also he
could thus appear in the presence of God as His High
Priest and could present to God the value or merit of
the hmnan sacrifice that he laid down. By this sacrifice he could redeem his devoted followers from the

~ kind of throne mnst it be that ;resus promls~ Christians?

5. How many wl1l gain that throne? and how do we know this?
6, How is it that God begets them by Christ's resurrection?

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BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

''bondage of corruption" and "vanity" to which they

were subjected through the sinner Adam. (Heb.
9: 24) In a mighty argument to Christ's joint-heirs
for the Kingdom the apostle writes: "If Christ be
not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are
perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ
risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of
them that slept. For since by man came death, by
man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive." (1 Cor. 15: 17-22) The faithful Christians,
therefore, have hope in Jesus Christ, not only in this
life, but also in the promised kingdom.
1 Not by Christ's resurrection in itself, but in view
of that resurrection God the Father begets again the
inheritors of a living heavenly hope. In his same first
letter to the heavenly heirs Peter shows another
powerful thing that enters into the matter of begetting them again. It is the Word of God, from the
days of Eden onward. Peter says to these spiritual
children of God: "Love one another from the heart
fervently: having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word
of God, which liveth and abideth ... for ever. And
this is the word of good tidings which was preached
unto you. Putting away therefore all wickedness, and
all guile, and hyp.ocrisies, and envies, and all evil
speakings, as newborn babes, long for the spiritual
milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." (1 Pet. 1: 22 to 2: 2, A.m. Stan.
Ver.) That "milk" is from God's Word.
S To become heirs of an incorruptible inheritance
reserved in heaven \vith Jesus Christ the King, it is
necessary for the 144,000 to be begotten again by
God the Father. Why begotten again 1 Because they,
to begin with, had been begotten by Adam, and Adam
could not beget anyone to spiritual, heavenly inheritance. Adam was of this earth, earthy, and he had
only earthly human prospects set before him by God
his Creator. By natural procreation Adam's children
cannot rise higher in the scale of life than he their
father. Moreover, when Adam did beget children by
his wife Eve, it was after they both had sinned and
come under divine sentence and had fallen from
human perfection into corruption. Through Adam
death came upon all mankind. All his descendants
were born to a dying existence, in bondage to corruption and subject to vanity. For them to be saved
to everlasting life as human souls it would first be
necessary for them to be redeemed from condemnation and death by a ransom sacrifice; and to provide
this the Son of God "was made flesh", "was made a
little lower than the angels." (John 1: 14; Heb.

2: 9; Ps. 8: 4, 5) But for 144,000 of Adam's condemned offspring to become inheritors of the heavenly kingdom with Jesus Christ now 'made so much
better than the angels', they must not only be redeemed but also be begotten by a father different
from Adam, a heavenly father who can bestow
spirit life and a spiritual inheritance in heaven. To
this end Jehovah God, the Father of Jesus Christ,
has begotten them again, thus adopting them as his
heirs.-Gal. 4: 4-7.
9 These
144,000 Christian believers consecrate
themselves to God and undertake to follow Jesus'
steps till death. Their being begotten again is what
makes them spiritual children of God and his heirs
with a heavenly hope. As Jesus their Redeemer
entered into the heavenly inheritance by laying aside
his earthly human existence and by being resurrected
from the dead, so too with the 144,000. They must
enter their inheritance above by laying down human
life and by being resurrected from death to life in
heaven at the time that God's kingdom is established
with the Seed of his "woman" in the throne. Then
these spiritual children of God will be revealed or
manifested in heavenly power with Jesus. Following
this revelation the earthly blessings will be poured
out upon all nations and families of the earth, all
human creation. Hence God inspired the apostle Paul
to write these words to the 144,000:
10 "The spirit itself testifies together with our
spirit, that we are children of God. And if children,
also heirs; heirs, indeed, of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ; if indeed, we suffer together, so that we may
be also glorified together. For I consider that the
sufferings of the present time, as uD\vorthy of comparison with the future glory to be revealed in us.
Indeed, the earnest expectation of the creation longs
for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to frailty, (not voluntarily, but
by hinl who placed it under;) in hope that even the
creation itself will be emancipated from the slavery
of corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groans together and travails in pain together till the
present time. And not only it, but ourselves also,
possessing the first-fruit of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for sonship
[adoption],-the redemption of our body. For we
were saved by the hope."-Rom. 8: 16-24, Emphatic
Diaglott.
11 Peter speaks of the 144,000 kingdom heirs as
"being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God." The seed of procreation by which Adam begot our race was corruptible seed, with corruption operating in it through
sin, and bearing with it the condemnation of death.

7 lUlulI!'h whal must the 144,000 be begotten again or anew?

S.!l [[0'\ <\0 they entt'r the ht'avenly Inheritance? and wbat follows?

10. Why and with what seed does God beA'et them again?
11, 12. Besides spirit. by "hat else does he beget. and why'

APRIL 15, 1948

121

~eWATCHTOWER

But when God the Father begets the consecrated,

believing ones of humankind to be spiritual sons or
children, he begets them again by incorruptible seed.
That is to say, he regenerates them by incorruptible
means of giving life and existence, namely, the
power of his spirit or active force. In order to see
and enter the heavenly kingdom of God, they must
be begotten anew or regenerated by. His spirit or
active force. Jesus told Nicodemus: "Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
... Except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit." (John 3: 3-6) Being thus given
a start in spiritual life while in their corruptible
flesh on earth, but continuing faithful to death, they
will be fully born of the spirit in the resurrection.
Then the body of 144,000 faithful followers of Jesus
Christ "shall all be changed, ... the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be -changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality." So the apostle
Paul writes to the 144,000 body members, at 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53.
"By THE WORD"

as his spirit. In view of this we can understand

James' statement to the 144,000 of God: "Of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth, that we
should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
-Jas. 1: 18; John 6: 63.
16 In the Holy Scriptures God's Word is pictured
as pure water, because of the cleansing power of
His Word. Agreeable with this, Paul writes: "Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word." (Eph. 5: 25, 26) The "pure
river of water of life" to which all the thirsty and
willing are invited to "take the water of life freely"
undoubtedly refers to the revealed 'Vord of God.
(Rev. 22: 17) Not the water of baptism, but the
water of the revealed Word of God, was what Jesus
meant when saying: "Except a man be born of water
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God." Baptism in literal water is only a momentary act, but the 144,000 need the cleansing Word
of God as well as His spirit all through their earthly
course till death. If God's Word and spirit abide in
those of the 144,000, then His seed abides in them
and the)- will not make a deliberate practice of sin;
as it is written: "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the
children of God are manifest." (1 John 3: 9, 10)
They lead clean lives by the help of God's spirit and
his purif)-ing Word. Their hope, based upon God's
Word, is not a mere mental exercise, but is an active,
motivating force in their lives, a purifying hope.
Hence it is written to the 144,000: ''We know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he [the Lord
God] is pure."-1 John 3: 2, 3.

Peter says that God begets the 144,000 again to

a living hope ''by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead". He also says they are begotten again
of incorruptible seed, but "by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever". "This," he says,
"is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you." (1 Pet. 1: 3, 23, 25) God the Father begets
them again by his spirit, or active force, but this
begetting must be in connection with his word which
has been written down and which lives on and is
preached till this day.
13 In order for the 144,000 to get in intelligent
HOPE FOR THOSE OUTSIDE THE 144,000
touch with God they must get a knowledge of his
15
Pages
22, 23 of the 1948 Yearbook of Jehovah's
Word of the gospel or good news. This gospel Word
must be preached or presented to them, that they witnesses tell that during the service year of 1947
may know God's purposes through his Seed of his an average of 181,071 witnesses or ministers of the
"woman" and that they may know the glorious gospel went out into the field every month of the
heavenly opportunity that he sets before 144,000 year, preaching the good news of the Kingdom "pubcreatures' from among mankind. It is God's Word licly, and from house to house"; indeed, in one parthat sets out the heavenly hope; and only by getting ticular month as many as 207,552 went out, worldto know his Word could they have such a hope formed wide. Call to mind, now, that there are to be only
in their hearts after taking the steps toward it that 144,000 joint-heirs with Jesus Christ in the heavenly
God requires. As Paul writes, at Romans 15: 4: "For kingdom; and also that Jehovah God has been
whatsoever things were written aforetime were writ- begetting, preparing and proving these for the past
ten for our learning, that through patience and nineteen centuries, so that today only a remnant
through comfort of the scriptures we might have could be needed to fill up the full membership of
hope." (Am. Stan. Ver.) Hence for the 144,000 to be Jesus' joint-heirs. Apparently not all of the abovebegotten again to the living heavenly hope it was numbered 207,552 gospel-publishers, or 181,071 regunecessary that God the Father send his Word as well 14. How does God's seed remain In them? With ...hat elIect?
12

13 What 18 the ....ater with which they are born as ~'ell as the spITlt?

15 What question. does

preacher. today raise?

the

publl.hcd

number

of

207,5;;2

gospel.

122

SEeWATCHTOWER.

lar monthly publishers, could gain the Kingdom or

be in line for it and find a vacancy in it, for these
present-day numbers far exceed the predetermined
number of 144,000. What, then' Are these more
than two hundred thousand of today destined to fall
away, leaving only the small remnant required for
the Kingdom' No; because prophecy indicates these
numbers should increase in coming years to a figure
not yet known or foretold. Well, then, are the great
majority of these hundreds of thousands of gospelpublishers due to be disappointed in their hope by
failing to gain entrance into the heavenly kingdom'
No; not one of those outside the faithful remnant
will be disappointed in his hopes for the approaching new world of righteousness. Explain!
16 Well, on Sunday, April 6, 1947, at the celebration
of the memorial of Christ's death a total of 339,125
attended, world-wide, but only 26,745 partook of the
Memorial emblems of bread and wine to confess
they were members of the spirit-begotten remnant
of Kingdom heirs. That meant that less than one
twelfth of the total Memorial attendance confessed
to being in line for the Kingdom or entertaining the
hope of gaining it by faithfulness to death. During
that same month of April there were 201,009 gospelpublishers out in the world-wide field as against
26,745 partakers of the Memorial emblems. So, then,
what hope shall we hold for the more than 174,000
other gospel publishers? God's Word, with which He
formed the Kingdom hope in the hearts and minds of
the 144,000, shows the earthly hope set before these
"other sheep".
17 Turn to Revelation, chapter 7. There Jesus
Christ, by an angel, gave a revelation to the apostle
John concerning this "great multitude", whose hope
is for eternal life in Paradise that God's kingdom
will restore on earth. First, Christ's angel gives
J olm a vision to show that 144,000 spiritual Israelites are sealed for the Kingdom. Right after this
vision of the Kingdom class, John says : "After this
I beheld, and, 10, a great multitude, which no man
could number, of all nations, and hindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms
in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb.... These are they which came
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and
serve him day and night in his temple: and he that
sitteth on the throne [namely, God] shall dwell
among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat. For the Lamb [Jesus the sacrificed
111. About how many world-wide hold the Kingdom-membership hope?
17. Where is this earthlv crowd foretold, and how descl'lhed?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

One, the Good Shepherd] which is in the midst of

the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes."-Rev. 7: 9-17.
18 Today's multitude of persons of good-will who
already outnumber the entire membership of the
Kingdom class belong to the above-described "great
multitude" of God's "other sheep". They have made
their appearance at the due time in fulfillment of
the above vision. Reasonably it was the due time for
them to appear when practically the entire membership of the 144,000 had been chosen and sealed, and
only a fractional remnant of that number remained
upon this earth. Because just this remnant would be
needed to complete the Kingdom class, this would be
one of the many indications of our day to show that
God's kingdom by his Seed of the "woman" was
established and that the final end of Satan's old
world was at hand.
18 Accordingly a tremendous world-wide witness
concerning God's kingdom would be due, but it would
be a larger work than the Kingdom remnant on
earth could themselves alone accomplish in fulfillment of Matthew 24: 14. Hence the Good Shepherd
gathers this "great multitude" of "other sheep" into
the fold in company with the remnant in order to
share with these in the wondrous privileges of the
Kingdom witness. (John 10: 16) By sharing in the
witness work the "great multitude" hail Jehovah
God upon his throne of universal sovereignty and
also his reigning ICing, the Lamb Jesus Christ; and
they cry out that their hope of salvation in this time
of great tribulation lies in no man-made institution
but solely in Jehovah God and his beloved Lamb
Jesus Christ. By virtue of consecrating themselves
to God and proclaiming the kingdom of the Seed of
his "woman" they are pictured as having a favorable
standing before God's throne and as serving him day
and night in his temple, in unity with the spiritual
remnant. Many of the "great multitude", by continuing faithful till the final war of Armageddon, will
be preserved and will survive this end of the world
to enter into the earthly blessings of the righteous
new world without dying. Those dying faithful
before then will be resurrected to eternal life on
earth under Christ's thousand-year reign.-John
5: 28, 29.
KNOWING YOUR HOPE
20 Today, how does a person consecrated to God
know whether he is of the Kingdom remnant or of
the "great multitude" of "other sheep" with an
earthly destiny1 It is not a matter of feeling. It is
a matter of hope, a matter of God's testimony to a

18, 19. (a) Why was It the due time for them to appear? (h) How do
they stand hefore God's throne and serve him In his temple?
:!O. How do the spiritual remnant know what their bope Is?

.APRIL

15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER..

123

person through His revealed Word. The remnant

know they are in line for the Kingdom because they
have fulfilled the preliminary requirements in God's
Word. He has begotten them by his spirit or active
force to be his spiritual children, and by his Word
which he has revealed to them they know what their
hope is. In harmony with their "living hope" of
eternal life in the heavenly kingdom all prospects
of everlasting life on earth under the Kingdom have
faded from their minds and desires. They look forward confidently to Christ's receiving them to a
place with him on the throne by resurrecting them
from the dead. (Titus 3: 7; 2: 13) They confidently
confess their hope to all that ask of them a "reason
of the hope that is in you", but they do so with meekness and with fear lest they should prove unfaithful
and unworthy before the prize is won.-l Pet. 3: 15.
21 By the same token, namely, by the hope set
before them in God's revealed 'Vord, the present
multitude of "other sheep" know what to look for,
and they are overjo)Ted and sustained by the vivid
hope of eternal life on earth under His kingdom. It
was in 1935 that Jehovah God through his Seed
Jesus Christ revealed to all his consecrated ones on
earth that the "great multitude" of Revelation,
chapter 7, is a human class with an earthly eternity
ahead of them under the kingdom of Jesus Christ
with his 144,000. (See the article "The Great Multitude" in the Watchtower issues of August 1 and 15,
1935.) In the service year following that (namely,
September 1935 to September 1936) there were in
the United States alone just 25,435 that partook of
the Memorial bread and wine out of a total attendance of 35,172. This shows that the vast majority
of those in the United States of America at the
:Memorial celebration last year (10,795 partakers,
105,897 attending) have taken up the earthly hope
of the "great multitude" of "other sheep". Since
A.D. 1918, when World War I ended, there have
from time to time been flashes of truth concerning

this earthly class now being gathered for endless life in the paradise home on earth. But that
flash of truth in 1935 upon Revelation 7: 9-17 was
specially clarifying to the vision. It cast clearer
brightness upon the earthly hope for this multitude
of consecrated servants of God and Christ. These
hailed it with joy as the hope that Jehovah God set
before them for their comfort, joy and sustaining
strength.
22 The great multitude's hope is a hope from God's
Word, illuminated by the revealing power of God's
spirit. And as the psalmist says four times in Psalm
119, so they say: "I have hoped in thy word." (Ps.
119:74,81,114,147; also 130:5) They know the
times in which we are living. They know this is the
time of crossing over from the old world of Satan
the Devil to the new world of Jehovah's Seed of his
"woman". 'l'hey know the spiritual remnant will all
of them soon pass into the realization of their heavenly hope, but that Jesus Christ the Seed will bruise
the Serpent's head at Armageddon and usher the
faithful great multitude into the delightful privileges of the cleansed earth in the righteous world
without end. It is their valid hope. With good reason
they hold it fast, in expectation of a full realization
of it in God's due time.
25 Together now, the spiritual remnant and the
"great multitude" of "other sheep" openly confess
everywhere that Jehovah God and Jesus Christ are
the only Ones on whom hope can be centered by
this groaning creation. By their continued witnessing throughout all the earth they bring God's
revealed Word to countless others. Thereby others
of good-will are now imbibing and will continue to
imbibe the true hope that God's kingdom by Jesus
Christ is the only governmental means by which all
our fond desires, whether heavenly or earthly, will
surely be realized to our everlasting satisfaction,
and with all thanksgiving to Jehovah God by Jesus
Christ.

21. How do the

22. Why Is theirs a valid hope, to be held fast?

23. What hope do the remnant and multitude impart to others, and ho" :

"~reat

multitude" now know their hope?

WHY WILL SATAN THE DEVIL DIE?

OVETOUSNESS on the part of Satan the Devil led
to the commission of the greatest and most heinous
crime of all time. The result was the defamation of
Jehovah's great name, and also poverty and death upon
the human race. So many years have passed since the commission of that crime, and so completely has this arch
criminal covered his slimy tracks, that in this day it is
difficult for men in general to understand and appreciate
the enormity of the crime. Only those persons of goodwill toward God, and who desire to know and to do what
is right, fully understand.
To covet means to have and to indulge in an inordinate

desire to possess that which belongs to another. Coveting

means a wrongful desire for gain, and the determination
to get that desired thing by plunder or other unjust and
wrongful means. It is the outgrowth of extreme selfishness.
The creature that wrongfully desires to possess that which
belongs to another or who, in his efforts to satisfy his
inordinate desire, resorts to fraud, plunder or other unjust
methods, thereby discloses a maliciously wicked heart that
is fatally bent on injury to others.
Let us in simple manner summon the facts that are disclosed by the Holy Scriptures and that relate to the commission of the great crime. They are these: In the exercise

124

~eWATCHTOWER,

of God's unlimited power, perfect wisdom, and boundless

love, he had created the heavens, consisting of his firstborn
Son and other spirits known as cherubim, seraphim, angels,
and celestial powers and principalities, all of which show
forth God's glory. "The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge,"
says Psalm 19: 1, 2. God had created the earth also, and
his due time came to create man to inherit the earth. That
mankind might have a desirable place in which to reside
God made a portion of the earth a veritable paradise, which
God called "Eden". Out of the earth's elements God created
a perfect creature called Adam, or "man", and made him
a living, moving thing endowed with intelligence. God
placed this man in the perfect Eden as his home and
instructed him concerning the divine law and the penalty
that would result from the breaking of that law. God
created and gave the man a helpmate, a perfect woman,
and clothed that perfect pair with the ability and power
to bring children into existence. If the man would be faithfully obedient to God's law, the earth was to be his home
forever and he would enjoy riches in abundance.-Genesis,
chapters 1 and 2.
In the language of the psalmist, man is "fearfully and
wonderfully made". God created man, and this psalmist
says to God: "Marvellous are thy works." (Ps. 139: 14) The
perfect man was the crowning or highest part of God's
earthly creation. In Jehovah's invisible or heavenly realm
there was a spirit creature to whom Isaiah's prophecy
applies the name "Lucifer"; and God made Lucifer the
invisible overlord over man. He is also the one meant in
Ezekiel's prophecy, to whom God said: "Thou art the
anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so:
thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."
-Ezek. 28: 14.
The term cherub means one of God's anointed creatures
commissioned to have charge over a certain part of his
organization. The description of Lucifer, "the anointed
cherub that covereth," shows clearly the high position he
occupied. God had appointed him and made him to fill that
high office in God's "mountain" or universal organization.
Ezekiel's prophecy shows that Lucifer had charge over
Eden, the perfect man and the home of this perfect man,
by saying: "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz,
and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the
sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the
workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared
in thee in the day that thou wast created." (Ezek. 28: 13)
Concerning Lucifer's "covering" including beryl, onyx and
gold it is interesting to note that Genesis 2: 1012 says of
Eden~ "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;
and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth
the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the
gold of that land is good: there is bdellium [pearl'S) and
the on;yx stone [or beryl)." From the symbolic description,
Lucifer was a beautiful creature and his appearance was
glorious: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that
thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." (Ezek.

BnOOKLnr, N. Y.

28: 15) This shows that Lucifer was perfect and continued
so until he became lawless, that is to say, rebellious against
God.
When Lucifer became perverse, lawless and wicked, God
changed his name, and from that time onward he is designated in the Scriptures under four names, to wit, Serpent,
which means Deceiver; Satan, which means Opposer;
Dragon, which means Devourer; and Devil, which means
Slanderer. While perfect, Lucifer was the god over the
world that included the earth; that is to say, he was its
mighty one, and that office was not taken away fro~ him
immediately upon his becoming wicked. For centurles he
has been the "god" or invisible ruler of the world which
he has made wicked like himself; in proof of which see
Jesus' words at John 12: 31 and 14: 30.
HOW HE STARTED HIS CRIMINAL LIFE

Having access to the courts of heaven, Lucifer saw the

glory and splendor of the Almighty God, Jehovah, and
observed that all creation worshiped this Most Mighty God.
Knowing himself to be the overlord of man as well as the
chief one over the host of angelic creatures assigned to this
world Lucifer desired to have the worship, praise and
honor'that belong to Jehovah God and which all righteous
creatures give to Him. Lucifer's desire was inordinate and
excessive, and he therefore became covetous. He ceased to
love his Creator, Almighty God. He became iniquitous, a
breaker of God's law. This is proved by the words showing
reckless ambition in his heart, and which words were
recorded long after he had committed his great crime:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the
morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet
thQU shalt be brought down to hell [Sheol in Hebrew,
meaning the death-state], to the sides of the pit." (Isa.
14: 12-15) It was covetousness that led to his great crime,
and it has permeated his entire organization which the
Bible symbolizes under the name Babylon; as we read of
her, at Jeremiah 51: 13: "0 thou that dwellest upon many
waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the
measure of thy COVETOUSNESS."
Now, referring to Lucifer's earthly charge, man, Jehovah
God required of the perfect man Adam full obedience.
Note that God did not require a very great thing of man,
such as moving a mountain, but he required of man that
he should refrain from eating a certain fruit that grew in
Eden. He informed man that disobedience would result in
his death. "For in the day that thou eatest thereof," God
warned, "thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2: 17) It would not
have been difficult for Adam to respect the law of God and
be obedient. The evil was not in the fruit, but his crime
consisted in the disobedience to God's law.
Lucifer, being the anointed overlord of man, knew man's
duty toward God, and it was Lucifer's duty to safeguard
the interests of man. His crime, like all others, began in his
mind, when he coveted that which properly belonged to
Jehovah God. Lucifer, to carry out his covetous desire,

APRIL

15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER.

would resort to fraud and deceit; for doing so he is called

"the Serpent", meaning the Deceiver. (Rev. 20: 1.3) The
saying at Genesis 3: 1, 'Now the serpent was more subtle
than others,' well reflects that he was cunning, crafty, bad
and deceitful. He reasoned that if God did not put man to
death for violating His law, it would prove God a liar;
and that would destroy the confidence of creatures in the
Creator. But if God did kill Adam for violating His law,
that would prove that God could not put a perfect man on
earth who would stay true and faithful to God, and like\vise that course would destroy the confidence of creatures
in the Creator. The result would be that the Devil would
get adulation from creatures together with the praise which
properly belongs to Jehovah.
In carrying out his wicked scheme Satan the Serpent
approached Eve and said~ "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?" and for that reason
are you not eating the good fruit? Eve replied to him:
"We may eat of the fruit ... but of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
Doubtless Satan laughed at Eve's simple faith. "And the
serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil." (Gen. 3: 1-5) That saying of Satan was a willful
and deliberate lie, and under the influence of that lie Eve
violated God's law. Satan had deceived the woman and
had accomplished through her what he desired, to turn her
away from Jehovah. Adam then appeared and was told by
Eve what had come to pass, and Adam "did eat" of the
forbidden fruit also. That shows Adam did not love God,
because he willfully disobeyed Him. (1 Tim. 2: 14) Nor
did he love Eve, because if he had loved her he would
have sought God's face, asking for her forgiveness, seeing
that she disobeyed without his consent and under deception.
Adam knew Eve would be separated from him if he should
stay true to God, and he willfully wanted to have her for
his own pleasure.
Adam and Eve were sentenced to death and expelled
from Eden, and justly so. (Gen. 3: 19-24) That wicked lie
and deceitful act of Satan brought forth death upon humankind, for which reason Jesus said of Satan that 'he was a
murderer and a liar from the beginning'. From then till
now all persons who resort to lies to accomplish their
wrongful purpose are instruments of the Devil, who is the
father of lies and of liars.-John 8: 44.
In Eden the food was perfect and would have sustained
human life forever to the obedient ones. Outside of Eden
the food produced upon the earth was not wholly lifesustaining. Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, and
death was gradually inflicted upon them until they were
dead. During the lingering years that they existed their
children were born, and, the parents being sinful, they
could not bring into existence perfect children, and for
that reason every person born into the world in a natural
way has been born a sinner and must die in due time.
(Rom. 5: 12; Ps. 51: 5) All sickness and sorrow, all poverty
and suffering, and all crime that has befallen the human
race from the day of Eden till now, is chargeable to Satan
the Devil. All persons who willfully or purposely indulge in

125

a course of action that causes others to suffer sickness or to

be impoverished and oppressed are the instruments of
Satan the Devil.
At the time that God sentenced Adam to death he also
entered the judgment of death against Satan. The death
sentence is symbolically stated at Genesis 3: 15 and is
further amplified at Isaiah 14: 14-20 and Ezekiel 28: 18, 19.
Why, then, has God let the Devil live all these centuries
and let him cause so much suffering upon menY A brief
answer is, that Satan boastfully declared his own ability
to cause all men to turn away from God and curse him,
and God has permitted Satan the opportunity to prove his
boastful challenge and at the same time has offered man
the opportunity to prove his integrity toward God and his
adherence to Jehovah's universal sway.
Satan boastfully said to Jehovah God that all men, when
put to the severe test, would renounce his sovereignty and
would curse him. Had God immediately put Satan to death
without the opportunity to prove his boastful challenge,
there would have been forever a doubt in the minds of some
creatures as to whether Satan had stated the truth or not.
A prophetic drama is recorded in the Scriptures in proof
of these points, and it is concerning the good man Job and
the Devil. Job was a righteously disposed man. Satan
declared he could cause Job to curse God. God accepted
the Devil's challenge and the test proceeded to prove
whether a man under the severe ordeal would stay true to
God or not. Necessarily that test involved the question of
the supremacy or sovereignty of God. It would give an
opportunity to all intelligent creatures to choose between
God and the Devil. Therefore the decree of Jehovah God
was that he would let Satan the Devil live for a certain
period of time, during which time the test would be on, and
that at the end of that time Jehovah would destroy him. It
was as in the case of Pharaoh of Egypt, who was a mighty
official representative of Satan the Devil on earth and who
was therefore used to play a part foretelling how God's
purpose was to let Satan the Devil live for a time. Hence
Jehovah's prophet Moses said to Pharaoh: "By now I could
have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people
with pestilence, so that you would have been effaced from
the earth; but this is why I have spared you: to show you
my power, and to have my fame recounted throughout all
the earth." (Ex. 9: 15, 16, An Amer. Trans.) Satan, too,
heard this.
Of course, the test really began with the first children of
Adam and it will continue and be completed at the battle
of Armageddon, in which Satan the Devil and his demons
will die. In the meantime God brings to man's attention the
truth in order to afford man the opportunity to choose
whom he will serve, whether God or the Devil. Cain, the
first son of Adam and Eve, chose to follow the Devil, and
lost. Abel chose the better part, namely, to serve God, and
he received God's approval. Chagrined, Satan the Devil
caused Cain to murder Abel his brother.-IIeb. 11: 4-40.
All reasonable persons who hear the truth today should
readily see that Satan the Devil is God's great opposer and
man's greatest foe. All persons of good-will toward God
will now take the course that faithful Abel took. Doing so,
they will live. The others will follow the course that Cain
took, and will die and remain dead forever. In times past

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~eWATCHTOWER.

almost all persons have died in ignorance or without a

knowledge of the truth, but today the truth of God's established kingdom under Christ is being broadcast far and
wide. Now the day has arrived when those creatures on

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

earth who hear the truth must choose whom they will serve.
Those persons who prove of good-will toward Jehovah God
will choose to serve him and will gain life eternal in the
new world of righteousness.

"A ROOT OF ALL KINDS OF EVIL"

HE deadly root that produces all kinds of evil was
planted in many human hearts nineteen centuries ago
in the days of the apostle that phrased the above
expression. However, with the increase of the world's
population and under the stress of the conditions since
World War I that bitter root is planted in many more
hearts today. After more than sixteen centuries of Christendom the spirIt of selfishness is rampant throughout the
earth; and if the apostle Paul were alive on earth and in
Christendom today he could still write as he did back
there, namely:
"Wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the
truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain. But godli~ess with contentment is great gain: for we brought nothing
into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; but
having food and covering we shall be therewith content.
But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation
and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as
drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil [or, a root of all evils] :
which some reaching after have been led astray from the
faith, and have pierced themselves through with many
sorrows."-1 Tim. 6: 5-10, Am. Stan. Ver., and margin.
After giving the above description, the apostle says to
the man to whom he writes: "But thou, 0 man of God,
flee these things." This exhortation applies with stronger
force today. The apostle admonishes all persons who would
now please God and who would find complete refuge in
Him in this timc of world distress that they must separate
themselves from all those who are moved by a desire for
selfish gain. It matters not whether that selfish gain be the
accumulation of earthly wealth and power or be a gain
that comes from the honor, plaudits and approval of men
so as to cause the gainer to shine among men. The apostle
is emphatic that those who profess to be real Christians
and who want to receive God's approval must withdraw
themselves from all others that pursue a selfish course.
The great religious leaders of Christendom, with the pope
at the head of the list, have made great gains in worldly
wealth and political and social power by the practice of their
religion, but the apostle Paul negatives the selfish claim that
such material and worlUly gain is a proof of godliness and
that true godliness is a way for making such kind of gain.
True godliness is without the desire for selfish gain, and
where true godliness exists there the root of all kinds of
evil is not implanted in the heart. Says the apostle: "Godliness with contentment is great gain." (1 Tim. 6: 6) And
if the person has gotten such godliness accompanied by
contentment with what God provides for him, such person
has gained something indeed. "Godliness" means to be
entirely and wholly devoted to the cause of the gospel of

God's kingdom. Jesus had such godliness and he said

respecting what must be done at this distressing end of the
world: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall
the end come." (Matt 24: 14) The purpose of that kingdom
is to vindicate Jehovah God as the rightful Sovereign of
our earth and of all the universe and then, too, to bless all
men and women of good-will upon our earth. If a person
of good-will finds himself devoting himself in obedience to
God's commandment to that which will vindicate the name
and sovereignty of the Most High God, and if he is doing
this unselfishly and is contented with that which the Lord
God has given him, thEm he is in possession of great gain.
Why? Because it is to persons like that that God promises
complete refuge in this world's end and finally a share in
the blessings of eternal life in the righteous new world.
Such persons have found the secret to happiness and can
enjoy peace of heart and mind during the turmoil of this
world. The root of all kinds of evil finds no soil to grip
in their hearts.
What, then, is the root of all kinds of evil1 The inspired
writer replies: "The love of money is the root of all evil."
The word "all" there has the significance also of "all kinds
of", and may correctly be so translated from the Greek
original which the apostle Paul wrote. Hence the American
Standard Version renders 1 Timothy 6: 10 that way: "The
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." And The
Emphatic Diaglott reads: "A root of all kinds of evil is the
love of money." Money means that which will satisfy the
desire for selfish personal gain, and love of it is the root
of all manner of evils. The desire for personal gain, or
money, is a temptation and a snare, and, as the apostle
says, it often results in destruction.
Whet! a person devotes himself to God through Jesus
Christ and then is assigned to a place in God's service he
has received a great favor at God's hands. Such person is
now in a covenant to do God's will, which means he must
use his faculties in the service of the Most High God. If,
however, he is moved by a selfish desire for greater personal
ease for himself or others, and if, to realize this desire, he
leaves the Lord's service and launches off into worldly
business or enterprise to make earthly gain, he walks right
into the snare of the enemy and may get pulled into his
own destruction. That which lies at the root of all evil and
evil results to those who have once started in the way of
serving God is this "love of money", that is to say, the
desire for selfish gain, regardless of what that gain may be.
Faithfulness to the Lord God and his Christ means we
must remain steadfastly in the happy, contented service of
God and not take a contrary course to satisfy some selfish
desire.

UZZIAH'S PRESUMPTUOUSNESS ANNULS HIS FAITHFULNESS

HI.RT~-year-Old

Uzziah in the ~fteenth year of his

reIgn In Judah (812 B.C.) receIved without regret
the news of the death of Jeroboam II, king of Israel.
Uzziah thought back 26 years to another death. He was only
four years old then, but he could still remember the loud
wails of the mourners and his mother J echoliah's sadness
over the death of his father Amaziah. He learned later that
a conspiracy had been formed against his father in J erusalem; that his father had fled before the conspirators, but
that they had overtaken him at Lachish and killed him
there; and that his father's body had been brought to Jerusalem on horseback.-2 Ki. 14: 20, 29; 15: 2.
He remembered that sometime after his father's death
faithful Zechariah had taken up his training and had educated him in God's fear. He remembered that about seven
years later (830 B.C.) Zechariah and he had rejoiced that
Hosea had begun to prophesy in Israel; and that about
four years later his people made him king when he was but
16 ;}'ears 0Id.-2 Chron. 26: 5, 1; Hos. 1: 1; 2 Ki. 14: 21;
15: 1.
Re remembered, too, that when he had ascended the
throne the 600-foot section of the wall of Jerusalem was
still in ruins and had been ever since Jeroboam's father
Jehoahaz had defeated his father Amaziah and had taken
Judean hostages to Samaria. The very thought made Uzziah
wince. But then Uzziah thought of the marvelous way God
prospered him because he sought Jehovah. He remembered
the activity in Jerusalem at the beginning of his reign as
the workmen repaired the walls and built towers at the
corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the turning of the
wall; that Jehovah had blessed his engineers who invented
machines for shooting arrows and hurling large stones. He
remembered that his officer Maaseiah at his request had
organized the army under his general, Hananiah, bringing
it up to 307,500 well trained and properly equipped troops.
He remembered marching that army to the west of Jerusalem and down to Philistia, where God helped him in his
fight against the Philistines. He recalled breaking down
the walls of the strong Philistine cities: Gath, about 26
miles southwest of Jerusalem; Jabneh, about 28 miles westnorthwest of Jerusalem; and Ashdod, about 31 miles west of
Jerusalem, on a slight eminence rising from a fertile plain
about two miles east of the Mediterranean. In all the Philistine country that he recovered he had planted Judean
colonies. Next he had attacked the Arabs from the Sinaitic
peninsula that had encroached on the southwest half of
Simeon's assigned territory. After that he had attacked the
J\Iehunim to the southeast of Judah and rebuilt Elath at
the head of the eastern branch of the Red sea. He put in
order the copper and iron refineries originally built by
Solomon, and he planted a colony of Jews there. These
Jews did a large amount of industrial work in their own
houses.-2 Ki. 14: 13, 14, 22; 16: 6; 2 Chron. 25: 23 24
26: 2-14.
'
,
Before and after Jeroboam's death Uzziah took an interest in the crops and herds of God's people. As Jehovah
increased his flocks and herds in the coastal lowlands and
in the inland plateaus, he built fortified towers and dug
many reservoirs in the uncultivated pasture land or desert.
Uzzinh is also called Azariah.

He was very fond of agriculture and encouraged farming

and grape-growing in the highlands and in Carmel. Jehovah
continued to strengthen and prosper him; and his fame
extended not only southward to Egypt, but also eastward,
for Ammon paid him tribute.-2 Chron. 26: 10, 8.
In 799 B.C. Jehovah blessed Uzziah with the fruit of his
own body. His joy was complete that year when his wife
Jerusha, daughter of righteous Zadok, bore him a son.
Impressed with Jehovah's perfectness in bestowing blessings, he called his son Jotham, which means "Jehovah is
perfect". As Jotham was growing up, Uzziah used to enjoy
bringing him up in the nurture and admonition of Jehovah.
-2 Chron. 26: 23.
As the years went by Uzziah's "fame spread far and wide,
for he was marvelously helped until he became strong".
After he had become strong, he and his retinue went south
on one of his customary inspection tours of that part of
his domain.-2 Chron. 26: 15.
First he inspects the farms and vineyards in the mountain of Judah. On the way he stops at Bethlehem, his
ancestral seat, just 5 miles south of Jerusalem. While there
he goes east into the desert to inspect the watchtowers he
built there. Then, after returning to Bethlehem, he continues south and goes up to Hebron, the first capital of
his ancestor David. From there he continues his inspection
southward, descending till the mountain of Judah drops
off into the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
Turning southeast from Beer-sheba, he inspects the herds
and flocks and the towers for their protection and the
reservoirs carved out of the rock. Then down the ascent of
Akrabbim he goes, into the hot Arabah rift below sea level.
Going south up the Arabah, he inspects its copper and iron
mines. Along the way he passes caravans going south with
copper and iron ore and other caravans going north loaded
with freight. At the southern end of the Arabah he reaches
Elath, on the Red sea. He inspects its refineries. The hot
winds that had burned his back all the way down the
Arabah here entered the flues of the furnaces used for
smelting the iron and copper mined along the Arabah. He
sees his servants stationed in Elath taking the refined metal
to the homes of the Jews he had settled there. He visits
the homes and sees the skilled workmen hammering out the
copper into beautiful shapes and making other articles for
shipment north into Judah and for export south to Arabia
and the lands beyond. He goes down to inspect the wharves
and finds them piled high with spices and gold and silks
that had just been unloaded from incoming ships. Ravin rr
finished his inspection of Elath, he goes southwest up th:
road to Kadesh.
Uzziah and his retinue find it easy to follow the road.
because centuries of travel over it have worn a smooth
white ribbon over the rocky surface. Up and down across
the hot desolate limestone plateau with its canyons and
conical buttes Uzziah travels until he comes to the oasis of
Kadesh. He stops at the first of its springs, really four tiny
springs that flow out from under a cliff, and there he drinks
the sweet water of Kadesh-bapnea. He quickly admires the
grass and few trees that grow in the gorge and then he
climbs up the north side of the gorge and walles northwest
about five miles, inspecting the Hezron enclosure on the
way, and then drops down into another gorge. For a mile

127

128

~eWATCHTOWER.

he follows the opening gorge westward, and then he comes

to the copious and forceful spring that breaks out of the
cliff. His eyes feast on the fertility all about, acacias, water
plants, shrubs. A little distance down from the spring he
meets the officer who represents him at the oasis, and
receives his report. Together with him Uzziah inspects
Addar, the fortified tower he built there years before to
guard the roads to Beer-sheba, Elath and Egypt and to
protect the flocks and crops. It is really a small fort nearly
200 feet from east to west by over 130 feet from north to
south, with eight towers, one at each corner and another
one in the center of each side. Not a window, door or other
opening on the walls up to 10 feet from the ground, but
above that are small rooms in the wall and interior. Having
inspected the fort, Uzziah go'Cs on down the ever widening
gorge, past more acacias, grass, fields of grain, and masses
of washed-out gravel, and finally, passing Karka on the left,
he comes out on the small fertile plain of the oasis, where
the herds are grazing. He stops, now at a circular stone
shelter of the herdsmen, now at a square one, all with roofs
made of brush or goat's-hair cloth. He inspects the herdsmen's flint implements and occasionally finds a bronze one,
worn perhaps more for ornament than for use. He notices
most of their pottery is handmade ware, very thin and hard,
brownish red on the outside and black or gray within. But
now and then he sees a large grayish green jar which he
recognizes as one made on a potter's wheel. In the open
plain he comes to a few reeds that grow along the sluggish
stream that issues from the Azmon spring that wells up out
of the ground. (Josh. 15: 3, 4) Near the spring he sees
circles of stones marking the graves of the herdsmen who
have died. Before leaving the oasis Uzziah has his secretary
Jeiel make a note of the supplies needed at the fort and
in the rest of the oasis. Then pompously he bids all the
inhabitants of the oasis farewell and turns north on the
road to Beer-sheba. Up the road he goes, out of the plain
and up into the region of bare hills and gravelly canyons
and an occasional well or reservoir. He finally reaches
Beer-sheba, over fifty miles north of Kadesh.
From Beer-sheba he goes down to the Philistine plain
and inspects the grain fields, sycamore and olive trees and
herds and flocks and the Judean colonies. Upon reaching
Lod. situated between the shephelah of Judah and the
shez;helqh of Israel (Sharon), he turns southeast and goes.
up to Jerusalem, over 25 miles away.-l Chron. 27: 28;
8: 12.
His periodic southern tour over, he goes to his palace,
takes a cool bath, and stretches out on a cushion-covered
couch. He thinks to himself: 1\1y subjects all honor me and
count themselves fortunate to have such a wise and brilliant
king who takes care of their every need like a loving father.
They have prospered much because of my benevolent and
efficient rule. My officers are all devoted to me. My fame
has spread far and wide. What king before me ever had
machines that shot stones and arrows? 'That ancestor of
mine had larger flocks and herds than I, or more fruitful
farms and vineyards j I am powerful. What is there for me
to do that I have not already done? That I have not already

N. Y.

done-that gives me an idea! I have never yet burnt incense

in the Holy, making sweet perfume before Jehovah. I know
that my people would be impressed if they learned that
their clever king had entered the temple and made sweet
perfume before their God. I'll do that very thing at the
next temple assembly.
At the next temple assembly Uzziah puts on his royal
robes and goes up to the temple of Jehovah, past the gate
of the inner court, past the molten sea on the left and the
bronze altar on the right, up the temple steps, in between
the bronze pillars, Jachin and Boaz, through the porch and
the golden doors of the temple-and there he is inside the
golden Holy of the temple. Satisfaction fills his soul. He
feels big and important. There beside the golden altar of
incense he pauses a moment to glory in his new attainment.
His reverie is interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind
him. He wheels about to see who has the audacity to enter
while he is officiating there. He sees the high priest,
Azariah, followed by dozens of under priests, rush up to
him, and hears him say: 'It's none of your business, Uzziah.
to burn incense to Jehovah; it's the business of the priests,
the descendants of Aaron, who have beEm consecrated to
burn incense.' First Uzziah is stunned; then he is furious
as Azariah continues, 'Get out of the sanctuary, because
you are acting unfaithfully, and this won't honor you before
Jehovah God.' With that Uzziah's fury explodes and he
rages against the priests. But, as he rages, he notices a
sudden look of horror come on all the faces. They do not
seem to hear a word he is saying. They just stare at his
forehead. He stops and thinks, What have these fools seen?
He tries to raise his brows, but feels a numbness in his
forehead. So that is it-LEPROSY! The priests gather around
him and he feels them push him to the door. As he realizes
that Jehovah has smitten him, he hurries out of his own
accord. Now he craves to be alone and unobserved. He runs
through the crowds, tearing his royal robes, disheveling his
hair, covering his mustache and crying out with great
bitterness, ''Unclean, unclean!" Through his mind flash
all the lepers he has seen; the dry white spots on their
skin; the blisters on their bodies; their limping about; th(
hard claw-like nails on hands !lnd feet; their running sores;
the stench; the dying and dropping off of their extremities.
the final paralysis of face and legs and arms; and thendeath!-Lev. 13: 14.
'To the day of his death King Uzziah remained a leper,
and as a leper he lived apart, excluded from the temple of
Jehovah.'-2 Chron. 26: 21, Moffatt.
The Lord had Uzziah's unfaithful act recorded in his
Word as a picture of the unfaithfulness of Chri.,tendom
Just as Uzziah became haughty and so impressed with his
own importance that he considered himself above God's
law governing the temple and committed the willful sin
that brought on him incurable leprosy, so likewise Christendom refuses to heed God's Word and is willfully disobedient
to Jehovah, and she will never be cured of her unclean
sinful conditi6n symbolized by leprosy, but will be destroyell
by Jehovah God at Armageddon.-2 Chron. 26: 16; Provo
16: 18; Deut. 17: 12; Num. 15: 30.

The fear of Jehovah i8 the beginning of knowledge j but the

despiu wisdom and imtruction.-Proverbs 1: 7, A.S.V.

fooli.~"

BROOKLYN,

9'lieWATCHTOWER,
PUDLIBHED

SE~nMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE [;) TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.SA

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

President

GRANT SUITER, S/!creto.ry

"And all thy children shall be tau8ht of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." - Isaiah 5';:I3.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEliOV AH is tht' onl)' true God, frOID everJastln~ to
everlastin~, IInli Is the :\Ial,er of hell\ ell and pal'th lIud Gh'('r of
life to his creatures: that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his crt'atlOn and his ucti\'e a!"ent In cr( atin~ nil otllel' things;
and that the CI'eatul'e Lucircr l'ebeIleli against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His uni\'el'snl s(),el'eil{nt~;
THAT GOD cl'eated the earth fol' mlln, made perfect nlllll for
the eal'th and placed him .upou it: thnt man )'h'lded to unfaithful
Luetfer, or Surau, HUU wIll1ulI)' dlsuue.' ed God's l.1w and wus
sentenced to death; that b~' l'eason of Adam's wrong nct all men
are horn sinners ami without the right to life; .
THAT THE LOGOS was nillde human us the man Jesus lIud suffereu dellth in OllIeI' to pl'otluce the ransom or I'edelllpt!ve [ldce for
oUPllielll llIen: that Gou t'albeu up Chl'ist ,Jesus divine lllll.! ell-alted
him to heaven lluo"e e"er)' other CI'eatul'e llnd c10thell huu \\!th 1I11
po" el' and Iluthorlty as head of Gou's new capital ol';:anizlltiun:
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a 'l'heocl'uc~' culled
ZiOll, aull thut Chl'ist Jesus is the Chief Oflicer thereof and Is the
ril{htful King of the nell' worlll; tliat the faithful anointed
followers uf Christ .Jebus lll'e Zion's chihlt'en, melUUel'b of ,r.. ho'ahs
ol'g:tnlzation, lItHI lire His witnesses \\ hose dutr lIml pl'i\-ile:;e it
Is to tebtij~' to ,J eho, uh's sUlll'elnnc~' and declure hIS purposes
tOWlU'U IllllUI,i11l1 llS expl'essl'll In the Bible;
THAT TIlE OLD WORLD, or Satan's Uninterrupted l'ule, ended
A.D. 1!J1-I. and ('hrist Jesus hilS heell 1'1lIced h~' Jehovuh upon the
throne, has ousted SlItfin from heu\en. unu now proceet\s to
"inuit:ute Ilis nlllne lIud establIsh the "new ealth":
THAT TIlE RELIEF anll lJiessln;!s of the I)eopl~s cnn come only
by J('homh's kin;:llo1O uillier Christ, which has begun: that His
next g-rpat act Is to lie"'tloy Ratlln's or;:anlZlltion and eswhlish
righteo\lsnl'ss cOlll[lletelr ill the e,lrth; am.! that ullller the Kill';liom
thc Ileollie of goot!." ill sun 1\ Illg AI'Ill11gelldon "ill clllry out the
dh'lne UllllHlllte to "till the ('.1l'1h" "lth I'i;.:hteous ol['sIlI'ln;:, and
that the hunllln dead in the grll\CS will be I'Ulseu to opllortullIties
of life on clIl'th.
"NEIGHBOR LOVE" TESTIMONY PERIOD
The June testtmony pel'lod under the above title touches each
professed 1V0rshiper of God on the question of whether he loves
his neIghbor lib hImself In respect to eternal life. Durmg June,
therefore, eacL oue WhCi pObslb,y can Will, like the Good SlllUal'itan,
get out into the field to hnng his nelghhors God's provideu means
for them to gait. eternal life. The special offer to aid thcm in
studymg thc BIble will be two WATCH TOWER products, namcly,
thp book" Let God Be True" and the hooklet The Joy of All the
People, on a contributIOn of 35c for the combination. Neighhorloving Clmstians throughout the earth will all ulllte during June
in special efforts to help others to eternal life. Will you be one'
You can be, you who read thiS magazine. If necessary, write us
to put you in touch WIth your neighbors who will be glad to have
you lovingly work with them III the field. Arrange, also, to make
a report at the end of June on what you accompllsh.

1f
1f

"W ATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of June 6: "Hearing Ears,"
1-21 Illclusive, The Watchtower May 1, 1948.
Week of June 13: "Hearing to Salvation,"
1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower May 1, 1948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is pUhllshed for the purpose of enflblln~ the
people to knoW Jeho\'ah God and Ills pm'posps as expresspd
In the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good\\ Iii.
It un'unges s~'steU1atlc Bihle stuuy for Its I'eauers and the ~ot:lety
supplies other literature to uld In such stullies. It publishes
suilable material for radio ul'oadcasting anll for other we.lns
of puulic Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adhel'es strictly to the Bible as Iluthol'ity for Its utterances.
It Is entirely free and sepal'ate from all rellgion, pllrties, sects or
other worldl)' organizatious. It Is Wholly und without reservation
for the kingdom of Jeho\'ah God undel' Christ his belo"ed Kin;;.
It Is not uo;..'Wutlc. but Invites ctlreful and criticaJ exalllllllltion
of Its ('Ontents In the lIl;ht of the Scrlptul'es. It rloes not indul::::e
in ('OlItIo"el'S~. antI its columns Ul'e not open to versolluhtles.

"'oflce to SUbSL.,..bera: Rem.ttance8 should be sellt to office In ~ our

countr)' in eOlllllllnllee with reJ:u!lIl(01l8 to gunlllllt~e safe Iieh"erl' of
moue,. ltclIllttnnce..'I\ are nCl'epted at ilrookl}u from (ouutl'le~ \\'h~le 110
oUlee Is 101'aled, by International money oz'lIer only. Suhscriptlon rntes in
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e:qllt ea, Clltmue 01 tldd,'e.. when sent to our olliee may be e"pe< ted
ellectlve withIn olte 'liunth. Send your old as well as new adGl.-9.
Please address the Wateb Tower Society in every ense.
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ALL SIXCEHF. STUUJ'Jl\TS OF 'rIm IlIHI.E who by rellson of in-

flrnlltr. PO\ crt~' or ncl\'er:-.lty are unable to pa,v the SnU"ICllption prfrc 111:'ly
ha, e 1'lle 11"a, clttou:er free upun wr,tteu npllhcntlun to the puo,i1<hel <,
mnde onre l'nl'h sear, ~tntl1i.q the reason t01' so r\'fJlle... tlll~ It \Ye n t e
ilIad to thus "HI lhe needy, 1>ut the wrltlen apphcl1110ll once cadi ) ~~r
Is re4uIled by the po,tal l'eHulotluW!.

Printed tll the United States of America

entered .... a,colld-cluB mtltter at the po.t office at illool,lvn, N. Y.,

""der the Act 01 .utlrcll 3, 1379.

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IN NORTH AMERJCA

The spll'nuiu 'llIccess of thl' fir"t DistrIct Absellloly, in AtllIlltn.
this past Mal'ch, helghtells th" intcrcst of all III thobe next III the
1948 serIes. For the informntion of those m the arcas emhruced.
we here announce complt'tion of arrangements for the folloll lllg
assemblies:
HOUSTON, TEXAS: May 7-9, Buffalo Stadium,
St. Bernllrd St. and Coyle Ave.
OAKLAND. CALIFORNIA: May 28-30. ExpOSition Buddlug,
10th lInd Fallon Sls.

V ANCOUVER, CAN ADA: June 4-6, The Forum

JUNEAU, A~ASKA: June 11-13, Mll50lllC Temple
WINNIPEG, CANADA: June 18-20, Amphitheatre Rink
OTTAWA. CANADA: June 2527, Coliseum, Lllnsuowne Park
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA: July 2-4, The Forum
All persons of good-will are urged to attend these assemblies
The president lind other offiCial brethren of the Wat(htoll er
Society will serve on the progralllS of thcse assemblies. (See
April 15 issue of The Watchtower for more information.)

~ceWAlCIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

1, 1948

:MAY

No.9

HEARING EARS
"Who among you will give ear to this? 'I.cho will hearken and hear for the time to comef"-lsa. 42: 23.

EHOVAH is testing the ears of all nations today

to find the ears that hear. He makes the test by
means of the unusual message he sends out. As
the Creator he made humankind with ears to hear,
and now that he sends forth his message to all
nations there is no excuse for their not hearing. Each
and everyone upon whose eardrums the sound of
the message falls is allowed the liberty to listen to
it and ~ive it a favorable hearing- or else to shut it
out of his head. It is now the time of stupendous
world-change. This is the "time to come" of which
Jehovah's prophet wrote thousands of years ago. It
is mankind's time of sore need for a righteous worldruler, and Jehovah God, as Sovereign of the universe, has raised up his Chief Official to be the royal
ruler over all our earth and its peoples. The important question that thrusts itself upon each one who
comes within range of the divine message about this
is: "",Vho is there among you that will give ear to
this? that will hearken and hear for the time to
rome?" (Isa. 42:23, Am. Stan. Fer.) Who will take
the good news seriously and act in harmony with it 1
\Vho will investigate furtller and plove the fact that
God has actually put his appointed Ruler of a new
world of righteousness in power? Who will believe
his message of the good things that are certain to
~Ollle under the rule of this perfect Ruled The testing of ears by tlus grand message is on!
2 In a bodily sense it is a true proverb: "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Jehovah hath made even
both of them." (Prov. 20: 12, Am.Stan. Ver.) But
hearing and seeing may alw be exercised in a spiritnal sense, and the same Creator makes both of these
~pil'itual functions possihle also. Today he is sending forth his message concerning his kingdom to
lands and peoples outside of Christendom, into
Inelia, Pakistan, Burma, China, into lands Oriental
and African and insular. As a result millions of ears
that were deaf hefore for failure to hear the Kingdom message are tingling with its life-giving news.
Their hearing is leading to life.
3 To have the hearing ear which Jehovah God pro1 110\\ and \\hy'ls Jeht"ah teslln.; the ears of all nations todaY?
.2 Bv l('tlSOn at what are elflnf ears now hearJng!
"1 ":ha t 18 nccdell to ha \e a hearing (Oar?

duces means to have an ear for the Word of God,

written or proclaimed. It means to have a sense of
hearing that is disposed to listen to what his \V ord
says in order to get at its meaning and then to
accept it for what it is worth. To give an ear reql1i res
us to have faith, to have a love of righteousness, and
to be humble and sincere. The Israelites of old had
God's Word preached to them and written down for
them, but that Word did not do the majority of them
any good, even if their eardrums did vibrate with the
sound of it. Why notT Because of lack of faith.
Speaking to those who did hear the good news or
gospel, the apostle Paul said: "Unto us was the
gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it. For we which have
believed do enter into rest." (Heb. 4: 2, 3) To accept
the gospel and act upon it we must have faith in the
Sender of it, Jehovah God, and in his Messiah, Jesus
Christ his Son, whom he has appointed to be the
Ruler of the new world of righteousness. We must
believe in Jehovah's loving purposes toward us and
in his truthfulness. We must believe in his full
ability to do everything he says in his Word. \V e
must believe he will reward us if we accept his \V ord
and act in accord with it. In this way we show faith.
-Heb. 11: 6.
Besides faith, to have an ear for God's Word
we must have a love of righteousness. His Word
shows forth his righteousness. It tells us that J ehovah God is the Creator of all things, and the Preserver of all that is good and right, and the Destroyer
of all that is wicked. He has full power over all that
he has created. In his own love of goodness and righteousness he has set up perfect laws for his creatures.
He gave simple laws and commands to the first man
and woman, Adam and Eve. He was only acting
righteously when he sentenced them to death for
their disobedience and when he declared that Satan
the Devil and all his wicked seed should at last be
destroyed by the Seed of God's "woman", his own
Son Jesus Christ. Not only did he show love and
mercy, but he showed also a love of justice, righteous4, 5 To have an ear to bear. why must we also love rlgbteousness?

131

132

~e WATCHTOWER..

ness, when he provided a ransom sacrifice for imperfect, dying mankind by means of his own beloved
Son sent down from heaven. In expression of his
rightful sovereignty over all the universe he appointed his faithful Son to be the King of the new world
for the deliverance and blessing of all that obey him.
In all this no one can honestly find any unrighteousness with God.
S Hence it requires a love of righteousness to turn
a favorable ear to these truths contained in God's
Word. Ordinarily the Oriental religionists find the
teaching of a ransom sacrifice through Jesus Christ
a "hard saying", and they say: "\Vho can hear it ,"
But now many among them are developing the needed
love of righteousness and are turning their ears
away from demon religion and are saying to Jesus:
"Lord, to whom [else] shall we go' thou hast the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."
-John 6: 60, 68, 69.
HU:'ULITY NEEDED TO HEAR

Besides faith and a love of righteousness, to have

an ear for God's 'Vord we must be humble, and hence
teachable and \villing to be corrected and shown what
is right and true. The most ignorant men can be
proud, and persons that are proud depend upon
themselves for salvation, or else they cling to the
religious ideas that they were previously taught.
Because they trust in demons or in human teachers
they do not feel lowly enough to confess that these
are wrong, and themselves as well. So they reject
God's message of salvation. They do this in pride,
to their own destruction. To show the need of humility to receive his Word, God said to the Jews at
Jerusalem when it was threatened with destruction:
"Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud; for Jehovah
hath spoken." (Jer.13:15, Am.Stan.Ver.) 'fa picture the right attitude, namely, humbleness, willingness to listen, the Bible speaks of inclining the ear
toward God, not away from him. A person with only
one good ear will generally turn that sensitive ear
to anyone speaking to him. We must do likewise if
we want to catch what God teaches us. To persons
who would follow his King Jesus Christ and become
his bridal company to sit with him in his heavenly
throne, Jehovah God says: "Hearken, 0 daughter,
and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine
own people, and thy father's house; so shall the
king greatly desire thy beauty." (Ps. 45: 10, 11)
Likewise, to those who want to become his blessed
people Jehovah says by his prophetic mouthpiece:
"Give ear, 0 my people, to my law: incline your ears
to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in
a parable: I will utter dark sayings of ald." (Ps.
78: 1, 2) It takes humility to incline our ear thus.
8

~ else 1B required to have a hearing ear, and wb,1

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

f A person who realizes he is helpless to save himself or to get salvation by some other man or woman
today will not haughtily turn away from God's message just because it tells of our redemption by means
of Christ's ransom sacrifice. Not one person in all
the nations can sincerely deny God's Word when it
says: "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth
good, and sinneth not." (Eccl. 7: 20) "Those who
trust in their wealth, and boast of the abundance of
their riches. But no man can at all ransom himself,
or give a price for himself to God; since the ransom
of his person forever and ever is too costly, that he
should continue to live forever, without seeing the
Pit." (Ps. 49: 6-9, An Amer. Trans.) Hence all mankind are paying the wages of sin, which is death; and
none can by his own means escape from the condemnation of death, because all are sinners. Their sinfulness is incurable by human means.
8 Hence mankind's sinfulness is symbolized in the
Bible by the plague of leprosy. There are tens of
thousands of lepers in the Orient, but all mankind
are from birth onward infected with the death-dealing leprosy of sin. To show that all men must lend
a humble and believing ear to the message of redemption through Christ's sacrificial blood Jehovah God's
law provided for the cleansing of an Israelite whom
he cured of leprosy. As described at Leviticus, chapter 14, the cured leper showed faith in a sacrifice by
providing a trespass offering to be oITered by the
priest at the temple. We read: "The priest shull take
some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the
priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him
that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his
right hand, und upon the great toe of his ri.ght fooL"
(Lev. 14: 14, 25) Thus, too, any lllall wantmg salYation from sin and death must lend a hearing ear,
his right ear, as it were, to the ransom llle~suge.
The great Ransomer, Jesus Christ, is the High
Priest of God. When he was on earth as a man he
cured many lepers. (l1att. 11: 4, 5; Mark 1: 40-45;
Luke 17: 11-19) As a sacrificing priest Jesus was
foreshadowed by God's high priest for the Jewish
nation, Aaron. On the day that Aaron was inaugurated as high priest and his four sons as underpriests a sacrifice was killed and oITered up, called
the "ram of consecration". It pictured Jesus' own
human sacrifice. Its blood was touched to the right
ear of these five priests. Concerning this, J ehova!1
God commanded Aaron's brother, :Moses: "Thou shalt
take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall
put their hands upon the head of the ram. Then
shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put
it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and UPO}
the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon tilt,

7. Why sbould we not turn from the mebs.llle of redemption 1

B. "'hen 8 leper "-as cleanbetl, ,\ h)' "'as Ius ear touched with blou"
9, 10 Wby was the ear of the 1111"1.1 ~rle.t nnd of the uodelIHlc",.
touched with blood 1

MAy 1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe

of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the
altar round about." (Ex. 29: 19, 20; Lev. 8: 22-24)
In harmony with this prophetic picture Jesus, in
order to become God's High Priest, had to give a
faithful and obedient hearing to God's instructions
and arrangements for him to offer his human life as
the ransom sacrifice for all mankind.
10 Likewise with those who desire to become members of Christ's royal priesthood by following in his
steps till death. From the very beginning they must
present a hearing ear to God's message about the
power of Christ's shed blood to purify them from sin
and to make them acceptable to God as his priests
under the Chief Priest Jesus Christ. They must obey
the words that Jesus, the Son of man, spoke two
years before he was delivered over for the sacrificial
death, saying: "Let these sayings sink down into
your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered
into the hands of men." (Luke 9: 44) We must hold
such sayings for our reference always.
ITCHING EARS TICKLED
11 In place of hearing ears today, the majority of
people, even those inside of Christendom, have itch.
ing ears. This makes it certain that we are living in
the perilous latter time of which God's Word warns,
saying: "For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will
heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts;
and will turn away their ears from the truth, and
turn aside unto fables." The itch on their part is to
hear teachers that tickle their selfish desires and
that teach in harmony with the learning, political
schemes and popular things of this world that do
not call for true repentance and a change in one's
life according to the Bible. Such ears prefer to be
tickled with fables like the "purgatory" doctrine,
union of politics with religion, human immortality,
etc., as against the pure truth of God's Word. The
truth is too much for their ears to endure, because
it is unpopular. It is not in harmony with popular
science and religion, and they do not wish to be made
free from their pleasurable, sinful habits in this
world. Hence, there is now a heap of teachers of
fables, who fill Christendom and heathendom with
their doctrines contrary to God's Word of truth. To
counteract this, God urged his servant to preach the
truth eontinually, saying: "Preach the word; be
urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with alliongsuffering and teaching."-2 Tim.
4: 2-4, Am. Stan. Ver.
12 For more reasons today than ever before we
need to obey the advice that our faithful Teacher,
Jesus Christ, gave when he said: "If any man have

11. What kind of ears do most people have today, and why?
12. Why especlally at this time mll.t v.'e take heed what we hear?

133

ears to hear, let him hear. Take heed what ye

hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be
given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and
he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that
which he hath." (Mark 4: 23-25) We must take heed
what we hear and give ear to, lest we be deceived
and be misled to our destruction. On the basis of
fulfilled Bible prophecy we can boldly say that we
are living at the end of this selfish, oppressive,
demon-ridden old world. What Jesus foretold concerning the end of this world we have seen, namely,
nation rising against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, together with famines, pestilences and
earthquakes, and international distress accompanying. Concerning this same time and its further perils
Jesus prophesied: "Then if any man shall say un to
you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For
there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very
elect. Behold, I have told you before." (Matt. 24: 7,
8, 23-25) Even so, it is nowaday of great deceptions
respecting the most controversial issue, God's kingdom by his Christ, the King Jesus; and we must
therefore watch out not to listen to the self-seeking,
self-exalting deceivers.
18 True, no man today claims to be Jesus Christ in
person. But, on the other hand, many men and organizations claim to be able to do the Kingdom work that
God has assigned to his true Christ. They assume to
take the place of Jesus Christ. They propose to make
his ruling in person unnecessary, because they claim
they can and will build a better and finer world. Yes,
they will establish an enduring peace and make men
live to the age of Methuselah and bind all peoples
and nations together under one government, resulting in justice for all and in the brotherhood of all
men. In effect, they say: 'Here is your Christ I or,
There is your Messiah! The United Nations or a
Federated World or a Federal World Government
will do Christ's work for him.' Reporting on the
spread of Communism in Latin America, the Latin
American News Letter, No. 26, of February 1948,
says: "It is the MESSIANIC character of Communism
that gives it dynamic power to command allegiance.
... It has filled the vacuum caused by the failure of
established religion." (Page 2, U3) However, the
Vatican's religious hierarchy continue to preach the
pope as Christ's vicar or vicegerent to whom all the
peoples and nations must obediently gather in this
ominous time in order for the blessings of Messiah's
reign to be realized. Speaking as "vicegerent of
Christ", the pope has repeatedly since the close of
World War II exhorted the Catholic women to plunge
13, How have faille ChristB arisen to deceive?

134

SEeWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

ears will heed such papal orders to mix in the political fight for one of the governments of this world.
They will thus take sides in the internal controversies
of this world, of which the Bible says that Satan the
Devil is the god and prince. (2 Cor. 4:4; John 12: 31;
14: 30) But what about those who have ears to hear
what Jesus Christ himself says 7 They will obey him
and will take heed as to what they hear and accept.
They hear the scripture say to them: "The ear trietll
words, as the mouth tasteth meat." (J oh 34: 3; 12: 11)
God so made the structure of the ear that it can distinguish a great variety of sounds and can detect
the genuineness in the ring of sounds and voices. It
must test words as to whether they have the ring of
genuine truth coming from the reliahle Source. It
must listen for the voice of the true shepherds and
must respond only to them.

into politics and vote for politicians whom the pope

and his hierarchy endorse.
I f This is the year 19-18, and pope Pius XII is being
forcibly reminded that tins year is the hundredth
anniversary of the year 1848, when great political
revolutions swept Europe following the publication
of Karl Marx's "Manifesto of the Communists".
r"inally insurrection broke out in Rome, and on
November 2-1, 1848, pope Pius IX fled in disguise
from Rome to Gaeta, near Naples, from where he
issued protests against the acts of the provisional
government of Rome. Today it is quite likely that
the totalitarian Communist rulers hope to mark this
centenary year of 1948 by similar revolutions or
political coups, such as in Czechoslovakia. Doubtless
in the heart of pope Pius XII there lurks the fear
that history might repeat itself this year and he
might have to skip out from Vatican City. In 1850,
April, pope Pius IX returned to Rome surrounded
by the bayonets of a French army, but in 1948 the
effort is being made to have the United States arm)'
guarantee the safety and security of the pope.
\. In the 1948 spring elections in Italy the Vatican's
clergy in all that land openly engaged in the electioneering. Of course, they denied the actual fact
that this was a meddling of their religious system in
politics contrary to the concordat which the Vatican gained with that political government through
Mussolini. According to dispatches to the New York
Times, dated Rome, February 12, 1948, by a wellknown correspondent, the Vatican's clergy advised
all Italian Catholics to be sure to vote and to give
their vote to those political parties and men who may
be trusted to guarantee, or, at least, not to harm
Roman Catholic interests. The '-atican's view is that
this is no political activity, because it is limited
to defending its own religious interests, which are
recognized by the Italian State itself j and tllUt by
doing this it does not violate the concordat with Italy
which bans political activity by the clergy. In a dispatch by the same correspondent to the New York
Times, dated Rome, February 16, the Hierarchy, with
Vatican approval, issued a joint pastoral letter urging the clergy and laity to act to prevent a victory of
their enemies at the national elections in April. Says
the letter: "This is the hour of [Catholic] action....
We must strengthen ourselves and go out of the
church to defend the church.... If, however, this
action and this presence are endangered and fought
by violent means, we must be prepared to defend
them with material force capable of safeguarding
freedom." The correspondent called this a "clear-cut
order to fight political opponents physically", to prevent their victory. Use violence I
16 Women, nuns and other "religious" with itching

The faithful sheep say: "Jehovah is a great God,

and a great King above all gods. For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep
of his hand." (Ps. 95:3,7, Am.Slan. Fer.) Tiley
tali:e heed to his Word, and not that of false religious
shepherds. Their great Shepherd appointed Jp~us
his Son to be the Good Shepherd that ~hould lay
down his life for the sheep j and .Jesus says: ., lIe
calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth
before them, and the sheep follow him: for they
know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow,
but will flee from him: for they kno\\' not the voice
of strangers. :My sheep hear my voice, and I kno\\"
them, and they follow me." (John 10: 3-5, 27) The
sheep of today recognize Jesus as the Good SlIepherd. As if with a blood-markE'd ear, they confes~ II(:
laid down his life for them and that ,JE'hovah God
anointed him to be the new world's King to feed thE'
people with everlasting life. As they turn their earfE
away from those fraudulent "strangers", those reli
gious pastors, they hear the Good Shepherd state
the true position for his sheep in this world when h(>
said to the Roman politician Pontius Pilate: "My
kingdom is not a kingdom of this world. If my king.
dom were a kingdom of this world, Illy men would
have fought to keep me from being handed over to
the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom has no 1'uch
origin." (John 18: 36, An Amer. Trans.) As Good
Shepherd he said to his sheep, incl uding Peter: "Ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world."-John 15: 19.
18 This explains why his sheep have in the pust
refused to take sides for political governments orig.
inating in this world. They do not follow Hierarchy
pastors, but follow the Good Shepherd, who tell~

14. 15. How have the \'atlcan's Hierarchy shown political fears:
16. As agamst the itching ears, \\ bat wllI the bearing ears do?

17 What do the faithful sheep sav and do?

lR. 19. What course of conduct do the sheep follow to\\ ard this \\ orld

LISTENING TO SHEPHERDS
11

MAY 1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER..

135

them not to meddle in politics. They remember the sheep to turn away their ears from such sly disturbangel's prophecy written down by Daniel concerning ers of the peace and unity of God's Dock of sheep. He
the "time of the end". As foretold in that prophecy, entreats us with these words: "Now I beseech you,
they see the two great political-combinations, desig- brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions
nated as "the king of the north" and "the king of the and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine
south", maneuvering for world domination the one which ye learned: and turn away from them. For
over the other. They see also that Jehovah's King they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but
has stood up in power, whom the prophecy calls their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech
"~1ichael ... the great prince which standeth for the
they beguile the hearts of the innocent." (Rom.
children of thy people". (Dan. 11: 27 to 12: 1) The 16: 17, 18, Am. Stan. Ver.) In like manner the Sersheep with hearing ears stay absolutely neutral pent beguiled Eve in the garden of Eden, and there
toward the fight between "the king of the north" and has been no peace on earth since. Those who open
"the king of the south". The Good Shepherd has their ear to his beguiling as Eve did will accept
taught them that it is not their responsibility to save another Christ, another spirit, another gospel, than
this world from Godless communism. Both such the true. (2 Cor. 11: 3, 4) But the faithful sheep
"kings" are of this world, Satan's organization, and know they did not learn the truth by listening to men
it is not the sheep's Christian obligation to save one that oppose God's work and that try to disrupt His
part of this world from the other part of it. To visible organization and that at last get out of it
follow the Shepherd they must keep clean from this and try to lead others after them. They learned the
polluted political, commercial, religious world and truth through the sheep that faithfully remained in
must be entirely for God's kingdom and its Prince the Good Shepherd's flock and that seek to promote
its peace and unity.
who stands for the children of God's people.
21 Rulers of this world, who listen to the Serpent's
19 The sheep know that the true Christ will destroy
both of those composite "kings" at the battle of lies regarding God and his purpose, should not be
Armageddon. So they try to increase the interests of surprised at the prevalence of wickedness in their
Christ's kingdom, and not those of any \vorldly reli- dominions. It is written: "If a ruler hearken to lies,
gIOus-political party. By doing this they safeguard all his servants are wicked." (Prov. 29: 12) If the
themselves against the false Christs and false reli- rulers, kings and judges of this world were wise
gious-political prophets that haye arisen and that toward God and hearkened to the straight instruction from his Word, they would spare themselves
hoax the people with wonders.
20 Also, the sheep watch in these perilous times
divine wrath and destruction. But they choose to
against all who seek to cause divisions within the hearken to the religious clergy instead, and they will
Lord's Dock. They recall the apostle Paul's words to accordingly perish at Armageddon. (Ps. 2: 8-12;
certain overseers of God's flock, warning them of Jer. 27: 14-17) When these rulers and judges order
what was to come, and which has come. Paul said: Christ's sheep to do that which is contrary to the
"After my departing shall grieyous wolves enter in voice of the Great Shepherd, Jehovah God, they say
among you, not sparing the Dock. Also of your own in the words of the apostles: "Whether it be right in
selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto
draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch." God, judge yeo For we cannot but speak the things
(Acts 20: 28-31) Such \"ould-be leaders and division- which we have seen and heard." (Acts 4: 19, 20)
ists act hypocritically and use words of speech that Regardless of what rulers and judges think, the
sound pleasing to the ear. The same apostle tells the sheep know to whose voice to hearken.
20. Among the !lock, agninst ,.,.hom do the sheep watoh, and \\ h~'?

21. When <10 they refuse to hearken to world rulers?

HEARING TO SALVATION
HE wise person looks ahead. He desires to
escape from destruction at the battle of Armageddon and to enjoy eternal life in the righteous
new world. So he opens his ears wide to knowledge,
that is, to information that comes from the true
Source, Jehovah God, through Jesus Christ. "The
heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear
of the wise seeketh knowledge." (Prov. 18: 15) He is
prudent and wise because the knowledge he gets

1. 2 How do we ~llln knowlerl~e. and why do we accept reproof?

means protection and blessing now and life in the

world to come. He knows that Satan the Devil has
deceived this old world, and hence he does not rebel
against knowledge from the Lord God just because it
shows him where he is wrong and reproves him. He
realizes that all this is necessary to guide him in the
pathway to life. He does not despise his own life
interests, but sincerely wants to live forever, and that
to the glory of God. Hence he accepts with meekness
what he hears, and stays wise. "The ear that heareth

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21ieWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that way. For this reason the battle of Armageddon will
refuseth instruction [or, correction] despiseth his prove her to be built upon the sands of Babylon and
own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth under- of Rome, and not even her Roman Catholic religious
standing." (Prov. 15: 31, 32) He gets a better under- system with its pope will be found to be built upon
standing of what it requires to gain everlasting life. the unshakable rock of salvation. Christendom, with
2 The person with understanding will not resent
her hundreds of discordant religions, loudly proreproof, and will not take offense at his reprover and fesses to worship God and she fights the Godless
avoid him with ill-feeling. The reprover that adminis- communists, but, for all that, she does not hearken
ters the reproof from the Lord God and according to God's Kingdom message and line up obediently
to his Word is to be valued and viewed as an adorn- with His kingdom under Christ. She offers multiment to the person reproved. He is precious, and tudes of religious sacrifices, including the multitudes
HIe obedient person will appreciate the reprover as of humans she regularly offers up upon the altars of
an adornment to his.ear, as a beautiful earring. "As carnal warfare between her so-called "Christian"
an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so nations, but God's words to King Saul of Israel
is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear." (Prov. apply to her: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
25: 12) So let us tal,e God's reproof through his and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as
Word and his organization.
iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected. the
S For our ear to be really a hearing ear we must
honestly try to put into effect that which we have word of the LORn [Jehovah], he hath also rejected
heard. The obedient ear is the hearing ear. Hearing thee from being king." (1 Sam. 15: 22, 23; Jer.
does not mean merely to catch the sound of what is 7: 22-24) Christendom's kingdom, or her predomisaid and thereafter to pay no attention to it. It nant position on this earth, is shortlived now, ceasmeans to keep or observe the sayings heard. Because ing at Armageddon. Because she gives no heed to
the rulers and people refused to hear God's Word Jehovah's law, all her prayers for peace and prosobediently, destruction came upon the highly favored perity fall upon deaf ears with God, and he will not
city of Jerusalem and her temple both in the seventh change from his purpose to destroy her at Armacentury B.C. and also in the year 70 (A.D.). There- geddon. His Word says not in vain: "He that turneth
fore her punishment was in part pictured as that of away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
a woman having her ears cut off, because she did not shall be abomination."-Provo 28: 9.
~ Different from Christendom and her religious
use them toward God. (J er. 25: 3, 4, 17, 18; 44: 4-6;
Neh. 9:30; Ezek. 23:25) :Modern Christendom's systems, a person with the hearing ear will not turn
destruction likewise because of acting deaf to J eho- away his ear after he hears from God what he must
vah's message proclaimed by his witnesses comes on do, and then forsake God's service and go the way
apace. Her fate in contrast with that of the sheep of this world because it is more pleasing to the
who obediently hear the Good Shepherd's yoice is depraved flesh. He keeps his ear inclined toward
illustrated by Jesus at the climax of his sermon on God that he may receive more instruction, and may
the mount. He spoke of those who call him "Lord, know better how to please the Lord God. He not
Lord", but do not do what he says. He said:
only addresses Jehovah God as his Lord or Master,
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of but he also obediently acts as Jehovah's slave, and
mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise refuses to run away from His service to seek his
man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain own liberty. He is like that servant described in the
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, law of Moses. Such servant loved his master to the
and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was extent that he refused to go free when the seventh
founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth year of legal release came around. 'Vhat was to be
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be done about this? The law said: "And it shall be, if
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee;
upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods because he loveth thee and thine house, because he
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; is well with thee; then thou shalt take an aul, and
and it fell: and great was the fall of it."-l\Iatt. thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall
be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maid7: 21-27.
servant
thou shalt do likewise." (Deut. 15: 12-17;
5 Men who hear but do not do the things taught
Ex.
21:
1-6)
Jehovah's own Son, Jesus Christ, was
them do not want to hear any more, because they do
a
servant
who
loved his heavenly Father to such
not care to hear that they must obey God and must
an
extent
that
he refused to forsake His service,
keep the words of his Son. Christendom is just that
although Satan the Devil and the demons under him
3, 4. fa) Wbat does It really mean to have a bearing ear? (b) llow
did Jesus .how the alternate rewards lor having and lor not haVing It?
5. Why do Christendom's prayers lall on deaf ('ars with God'

6, 7. (a) How dO(,8 th(' picture of boring tbe ear with an awl
thos(' with hearing OIif.'1 (b) How did this apply to Je8u8?

fit

MAy 1, 1948

1f1ieWATCHTOWER.

137

tried all ways to force Jesus to do 'so. Even the offer- more. It is through the ear that the heart or mind
ing up of himself in sacrifice in God's service and for receives much information, enlightenment and inmankind's ransom did not make Jesus quit his struction. This was very much the case in Bible
heavenly Master's service. He continued to turn to times when copies, of the Bible were long and hard
his God and Father a blood-marked ear and let it to make and were not so plentiful, and when learning
be bored or digged to indicate he was Jehovah's the Word of God depended greatly upon hearing
willing servant for evermore.
it read aloud and preached upon. But even today
7 Hence
the prophecy which the apostle Paul hundreds of millions cannot read, and other millions
applied to Jesus foretold Jesus' words as he who can read do not choose to do so, but prefer to
approached his baptism in water as follows: "Sacri- listen. There is thus an intimate connection between
fice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears the heart and the ear, for which reason the wise man
hast thou opened [or, digged; pierced] : burnt offer- says: "Apply thine HEART unto instruction, and thine
ing and sin offering hast thou not required. Then EARS to the words of knowledge." (Prov. 23: 12;
said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is 18: 15) Much information gains entry to the heart
written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: through the ear, and there must be a proper recepyea, thy law is within my heart." (Ps. 40: 6-8; Reb. tion of this information in the heart, before there is
10: 5-9) For such obedience and unbreakable devo- good fruitage from it. Jesus illustrated this in the
tion to his God and Father, Jesus has been made parable of a sower that sowed his seed and some of
Jehovah's Chief Servant or Prime Minister, because which fell upon good soil. In explaining the parable
he is absolutely dependable out of his love for God. Jesus said: "Now the parable is this: The seed is
the word of God.... that on the good ground are
MORE IS GIVEN TO HEARERS
they, which in an honest and good heart, having
s Those with ears to hear the divine message and
heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with
instruction do not turn away when they learn the patience. Take heed therefore how ye hear." (Luke
content of the message and the kind of instructions, 8: 11, 15, 18) Unless the good and honest condition
but are anxious to hear more. They have a desire for of the heart keeps our powers of audition open and
more such information so as to improve their service keenly sensitive to the divine Word, our ears will
by increased knowledge. They have the promise of be as if heavy, dull of hearing. There will be no
indeed receiving more, to' their heart's desire. To ready, interested reception of the divine message,
show them the benefit of hearing with a desire to and there will be no fruit from our heart.
learn more and to obey, Jesus said: "Take heed
HEARING MEANS SALVATION
therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him
10 Hearing, that is, not just hearing literally, but
shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." what hearing symbolizes for even a literally deaf
(Luke 8: 18) "Unto you that hear shall more be person, means our salvation to life. Stating this rule
given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and of operation, God says to those to whom he sends
he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that his message: "Hear, and your soul shall live." (Isa.
which he hath." (Mark 4: 24, 25) Certainly, if they 55: 3) This, of course, means far more than just
have the hearing ear, if they have appreciation and hearing the sound of the message. It means entera desire to increase in knowledge and to serve J eho- taining the message, accepting it, believing it, and
vah God better and further, they will always come obediently acting upon it. Those who thus hear will
to the source of information, and Jehovah will never not have their souls blotted out by Jehovah God,
fail to give them additional knowledge. They will who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
study his Word, the Bible, privately; they will listen (Matt. 10: 28, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) Their souls
to the preaching of his Word; they will go to meet- will be sustained forever in the new world.
11 It follows, then, that all of humankind who will
ings and study and discuss his Word and service
gain
eternal salvation must hear the good news of
with brethren; they will go to his Theocratic organGod's
kingdom by Christ Jesus the Ransomer, and
ization under Jesus Christ as his channel and will
they
must
be given the opportunity to act in harmony
take advantage of every means and provision for
with
it.
Their
obedient hearing with faith or belief
growing in knowledge, wisd-om and understanding
must,
in
all
cases,
precede salvation. As it is written:
and in ability to serve God. True to his promise
"For
whosoever
shall
call upon the name of the Lord
through Christ, Jehovah will give them more. With
hearing ear they will go after more, and they will shall be saved. Row then shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed 1 and how .shall they
get more.
believe in him of whom they have not heard ~ and
9 It is the heart that keeps the ear open to receive
8. Why and how do those with the hearing ear receive more?
9. Through the ear what receives information? and wlth what result?

10. What kind of hearing leads to life in the new world?

11. In all cases, therefore, what precedes salvation?

138

~eWATCHTOWER..

how shall they hear without a preacher! and how

shall they preach, except they be sent T as it is
written, How beautiful are the feet of them that
preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel.
For [Isaiah] saith, Lord, who hath believed our
report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10: 13-17) To all
those finally saved the message of salvation must
come, whether audibly by means of the auditory
nerve or visually by means of printed page or sign
language. All those who do the presenting of the
message by word of mouth or by delivery of the
printed page are "preachers", or pToclaimers. Afterthat it is up to the one to whom the message is
presented to "hear" it, that is, accept it into a good
and honest heart with humility, faith and obedience.
12 So it becomes plain how important the work of
preaching is. Preaching leads to hearing, and hearing to salvation. For this reason no other activity on
earth is more important to humankind than preaching, regardless of how the worldly-wise may view the
matter. The brainy ones of the world may call the
preaching a waste of time that accomplishes nothing
practical for bettering mankind and saving the world
from a third world war, and hence foolishness. But
such brainy ones will perish in their own ignorance
of the truth. "For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are
saved it is the power of God.... hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in
the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching'
to save them that believe. Because the foolishness
[as men call it] of God is wiser than men; and the
weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Cor. 1: 18,
20, 21, 25) In response to mankind's need to hear the
saving news, Jehovah God has ordered preachers
into the field; and persons that have first heard,
believed and obeyed are the ones that he commands
and sends to do the preaching, themselves convinced
of the news.
13 The good and honest heart that receives the
message must bring forth fruit, and that fruitage
can be attained only by preaching. The message of
salvation that encounters a hearer must go from the
ears to the heart and then to the lips. This circuit
of movement is shown in the proverb that says:
"Bow down thine EAR, and hear the words of the wise
[ones], and apply thine HEART unto my knowledge.
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within
thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy LIPS." (Prov.
22: 17, 18) Thus the words of the message of salvation must be established upon the lips of the hearer,
that he may speak them repeatedly, upon every
12. Whom, tberefore, does God send Into the field, and wby?
13. HolV is frUitage from tbe beart attalDed?

BnooKLYN, N. Y.

proper occasion. Preach, preach, preach, says God's

Word to us hearers. Jesus said: "What I tell yOU in
darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye l~ear in
the ear, that preach ye upon the house tops. And
fear not them which kill the body, but are not able
to kill the soul."-Matt. 10: 27, 28 j Luke 12: 3-5.
14 It is wise for the hearer to preach. Repeating
deepens the impression within him of what he has
heard, and in that manner the hearer does not let
slip away the things he has heard and thereby come
in for punishment as a disobedient person. (neb.
2: 1-5) Because it is wise to preach the saving \VOl'd
of God, wisdom is pictured as a person preaching
God's message "without", "in the streets," "in the
chief place of concourse, in the openin.gs of the
gates: in the city." And such personified wisdom
savs: "Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,
an"d shall be quiet from fear of evil." (Prov. 1: 20.:33)
We must give the message in the language that the
people understand, in their tongue and on their
level of intelligence, in order for the sounds of
the message to be understandable to them.
16 To use the apostle's argument: "Even things
without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp,
if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall
it be known what is piped or harped' For if the
trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare
himself for war' So also ye, unless ye utter by the
tongue speech easy to be understood, how shall it
be known what is spoken! for ye will be speaking
into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of
voices in the world, and no kind is without signifI
cation. If then I know not the meaning of the \-oice,
I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he
that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me." (1 COl'.
14:7-11, Am. Stan. Ver.) So, if we do not want to
sound like a barbarian to those to whom we preach,
we must give the witness to them in their under~tood
language and in terms they can grasp. Otherwise,
the effect is no better than if we talked to blank space.
HEARKENING TO THE INVITATION TO pnr;ACH
Ie The situation in the world today invites us to
preach, and blessed are we if we accept and act upon
the invitation. When the apostle Paul had the vision
by night over in Asia Minor, and "there stood a man
of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over
into Macedonia, and help us," Paul promptly responded to the invitation as from the Lord. But
what if he had not acted on the invitation and gone
over into Europe and helped the Europeans 1 The
record of subsequent events in the book of Acts
discloses the blessed privileges he would have willfully denied himself. (Acts 16: 9, 10; Provo 21: 13)
14 Why Is It wise for the bearer to preach 1
15 In what tonl;ue anel In wbat terms ,hould \\ e preach'
16,17. (a) To "hat does the world .ttuatlOn today Imlte us' (bll'or
what otber powerful rea.son also DlUst we let the people lIenr'

MAY

1, 1948

1ffieWATCHTOWER..

Likewise with us now, if we do not accept today's

invitation and step out into the field of opportunity
and preach to the people.
IT TIle invitation to preach comes from countries,
lands, states, counties, provinces and territories
where there is a need for Kingdom publishers. But
more than that, a command comes to us from God:
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the
deaf that have ears.... let them hear, and say, It
is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah." (Isa.
43: 8-10, Am. Stan. Fer.) Aye, let the people hear,
of all nations, kind reds, tribes, and tongues. ~lany,
indeed, will refuse to hear. It is not to be expected
otherwise, because neither did they hear Jesus the
Son of God himself; and he said: "The ~ervant is not
gr~ater than his lord. If they have persecuted me,
they will also persecute you; if they have kept my
saying, they will keep yours also." (John 15: 20)
It is not the general unresponsiveness of people that
dptpnllines "'hat we are to do, but the divine command. And in this end of the world, when Christendom is to be destroved as Jerusalem was in the
seventh century B.C.: God's command comes to us
as it did to Ezekiel: "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.
And they, whether they will Ileal', 01' whether they
will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet
shall know that there hath been a prophet among
them. And thou shalt speak my words unto them,
wh~thpr they will hear, or whether they will forbear."-Ezek. 2: 4, 5, 7, Am. Stan. Ver.
,. The foolish persons will refuse to hpar, and as to
what further to do about them the proverb says:
"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise
the wbelolll of thy words." (Prov. 23: 9) So, when
a pen:on shows himself to be a fool or goat and willfully forbears to hear, we waste no time with him but
pas:,; on to find the sheep with hearing ears. Eventually those forbearing to hear must and will be
made to know and realize that a prophet, Jehovah's
(,Olllj)uny of preachers with the true message of
sah'ution, has been among them, so that they are
without excuse and Jehovah God is vindicated as
blumeless and free from neglect.
19 By lo\'ingly answering the invitation and obeying the divine command to go on out and preach, we
18 1:0\\

de. \\e clpal with the rOOllSh non-hearers. and whr~

HI. Whar acroumq tor It that deaf ears now hellr. un.topped 1

139

.r

cause man.. hitherto deaf ears to hear. It is ehovah

God that is really the opener of their deaf ears,
because He is the One that sends us and He is the
One that equips us with the message to preach.
AcC'ording to the facts, then, now is that day of the
grand fulfillment of the prophecy: "In that day shall
the deaf hear the words of the hook, and the eyes
of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of
darkness. The meeh: ah;o shall increase their joy in
Jehovah, and the poor among men shall rejoice in
the Holy One of Israel." "Then the eves of the blind
shall b~ opened, and the ears of th~ deaf shall be
un~topped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing." (Isa. 29: 18,
19 and 35: 5, 6, Am. Stan. Fer.) Hence tongues that
till now were dumb and utterly silent respecting
God's praises are now obediently singing forth his
praises, because the ears aforetime deaf have at last
been opened to the message by His preachers.
20 Blessed, indeed, are the hearing ears
today!
Blessed, indeed, are our ears because of hearing
what God has made possible to hear today, things
not perceived by human ears since the beginning of
the world, things that kings and righteous men of
ancient time did not hear. (Isa. 64: 4; 1 Cor. 2: 9, 10;
Matt. 13: 16, 17) It is because He has now set up in
the heavens the promised government of his beloved
Son, Jesus Christ our Ransomer. \Vhen on earth the
Son preached the Kingdom and let the people hear,
and thus he unstopped many ears spiritually by
putting the gospel into them, and not just by literally
putting his fingers into them. (Mark 7: 32-35) On
one occasion as he preached, "a certain woman out
of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto
him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the
breasts which thou didst suck. But he said, Yea
rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God,
and keep it." (Luke 11: 27, 28, Am.Stan. Ver.) Yes,
Mary's virgin privilege of being the human mother
of the Son of God born as a man was blessed, indeed.
But Jesus named a blessedness surpassing that of
the motherhood of the human Son of God. It is the
blessedness of all whose ears hear the word of
Jehovah God and who wisely keep it and preach
it out to other ears.
20 How are tbose with hearing ears 8urpn891ngly blessed todny?

WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM FOR KINGDOM WORK

F THE Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were a
commercial organization, people would not ask concerning it: "\\'here does all the money eome from for this?"
But because the Society does not follow the method of
Chnstendom's religious organizations of taking up money
('ollections or tithes, the question is frequently asked.
The SocietJ' has a Godly purpose, which purpose was

clearly stated in the charter granted it in 1884, to wit:

"The purpose for which the corporation is formed is, the
dissemination of Bible truths in various languages by means
of the publication of tracts, pamphlets, papers and other
religious documents, and by the use of all other lawful
means which its Board of Directors, duly eonstituted, shall
deem expedient for the furtherance of the purpose stated."

140

~eWATCHTOWER.

From the very formation of the Society, even before its

legal incorporation in 1884 for the above-stated work,
persons devoted to God recognized that, since this work is
of Him, he will make regular provision for it to continue.
To this year of 1948 Jehovah God ras performed this
miraculous provision. How? Through willing, unforced,
unsolicited givers. Persons have been moved by love of God
and his Word and by His spirit to contribute what they had
of time, effort, ability and money to the spreading of the
message of man's salvation by God's kingdom. The many
privileges of supporting the world-wide witness to God's
kingdom have been grasped voluntarily and cheerfully,
and only God's spirit leads a person to do that. All along
the Lord God has permitted men and women to contribute
of their own free will money, or material wealth, to the
support of His work on earth. If this were not so, the
widow would not have dropped her two coins, her last mite,
into the collection box, causing Jesus to say she donated
more than all other contributors. (Luke 21: 1-4) "God
loveth a cheerful giver." (2 Cor. 9: 7) Thus the money has
come from thousands of men and women, in all stations of
life and in all parts of the earth, who want to share in
helping the Societ) as an organization to advance Bibleeducation among all peoples, with no financial profit to
themselves and with no financial profit to the Society or
anyone connected with it.
In doing this, such contributors act wisely, discreetly,
looking beyond this present uncertain world to the approaching new world of eternal life, peace and plenty.
\Vith money and other material things, or, "mammon," as
Jesus called them, at Luke 16: 9, they are making friends
with Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, and through these two
they hope to gain eternal dwellings in the new world, there
to serve Them forever.
It is the pleasure of The Watcktower to have niany
thousands of new readers. To all our readers, new and old,
we delight to bring information concerning the present
expansion of true worship of God on earth. The Watchtower itself is published in twenty-two languages, but the
Society operates through more than sixty Branches and
literature depots in over ninety different lands. In addition
to this, it has sent abroad more than 500 missionaries
graduated from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead,
whom it supports finanClally, besides maintaining other
hundreds of home missionaries or special publishers and
traveling representatives. Also, yearly millions of pieces
of literature are distributed absolutely free of cost to those
accepting. And the work is not by any means over now,
but we look forward and are preparing for an even greater
work of bringing the saving news of God's kingdom by
Christ to hundreds of millions in all lands.
Hence, in sincerity, persons often inquire as to how a
work of such magnitude is maintained, it being obvious
that there is no monetary gain to the field ministers for
publishing the message and likewise no monetary gain to
the Society. True, some money is contributed for the literature printed, but the money donations received at the time
that the Society's printed publications are placed with the
people are applied toward printing and distributing more
Bible-study helps; but such money-donations fall far, far
short of sufficiency to carry on the Society's global work.
Money gifts, in addition to the gifts for the literature, are

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

financing our work in all lands. All this is by the grace of

Jehovah God. This fact is not a secret; for The Watchtower
has repeatedly announced it, since the Society's organization. Every year, the May 1 issue of this magazine, in an
article such as this. has outlined the donation arranl?;ement
generally known as "Good Hopes".
The Society, in harmony with its governing principle
mentioned above, never solicits money, never 'takes up a
collection', never indulges in the mark of worldly religion.
begging. This article is not a solicitation for money, but is
merely a reminder of the privilege open to its readers.
Many persons, reading of what is done out in the field bJ
the foreign and home missionaries, rejoice at it. They would
like themselves to engage in foreign service and join in
carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth; but, due to
their physical condition or their obligations in their own
home-country, they are unable to enjoy this privilege. Also.
they want to see the expansion work suffer no lag or diminution, and hence they earnestly desire to help the work by
monetary contributions to the Society. Contribution to the
"Good Hopes Fund" offers them an opportunity to do this.
Through this "Good Hopes Fund" the Society is greatly
assisted by being informed in advance the amount the
contributors hope to donate during the twelve months now
beginning. Such information enables the Society to anticipate how much it can spend as a limit during the year ahead.
Planning in advance what we can arrange to give is in
harmony with the advice regarding donations at 1 Corinthians 16: 2. So it is suggested that, upon receiving this issue
of The Watchtower, you address a postcard or letter to the
Society and keep a copy as a reminder to yourself concerning the amount you hope to contribute. All you need to
write is, in substance:
By the Lord's grace I hope to be able to contribute to the
work of announcing the kingdom of Jehovah during the ensumg
year the amount of $
, which I will remit in
such amounts and at such time as I can find it convenient.
as I am prospered.
[Signed]
.

Address your card or letter to

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society
Treasurer's Office
124 Columbia Heights
Brooklyn 2, New York
Those residing outside of the United States, and who
desire to contribute in the above way to the coming year's
expense, please address letters or cards to the Society's
office in the respective country in which you live. (See
page 130 for a list.)
Some persons may not care to undertake any such voluntary arrangement as that above, feeling they are obligating
themselves. They prefer to send in their contributions to
the Society at any time, according to their prosperity or
ability to do so. In such cases they should send all their
contributions to the Society at the above Brooklyn address,
even if they have not notified the Brooklyn office in /ldvanee.
Your desire and ours is that God's will may be accom
plished through his organization. And so, in prayer, present
to Him our need for His guidance, that all money contributions we receive may be used to the best advantage to
announce the Kingdom, until the end comes and the new
world enters.-Matt. 24: 14.

THE RELIGION OF THIS WORLD A SNARE

N HIS sacred Word, the Bible, God gives instruction

to his people concerning the snares set for them by those
crafty invisible spirits, the demons. At an early time he
pointed out to his typical chosen people, the Israelites, what
is the only means of escape from the wiles of the demons to
the place of safety. The inspired statement at Proverbs
29: 25 is exactly to the point: "The fear of man bringeth
a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be
safe." (Am. Stan. Ver.) For stronger reasons such warning
and instruction from Jehovah God applies now to all those
who have made a consecration of themselves to Him to do
his will. Why s01 Because all the demons have been Cl'.St out
of heaven and down to the earth and they know that the
time rapidly approaches when the final conflict takes place
between Jehovah's universal organization and the Devil's
organization of which they as demons are a part. Under the
leadership of Satan the Devil, the chief demon, they are
desperately working to entrap the consecrated ones and to
plunge them into everlasting destruction with themselves.
-Rev. 12: 7-12.
From Genesis to Revelation the Holy Scriptures abundantly give warning of the influence and power of the
demons over men. The numerous subtle means employed
to entrap men are disclosed by those Scriptures, which are
given to the "man of God" that he may be thoroughly
equipped to serve righteousness. Only those who love Jehovah God and who serve him through Christ in spirit and
in truth will now give heed to such warning. Therefore
these truths are published for the benefit of such ones.
The religion of this world in Its many forms and varieties
has long been the chief means of inducing men to yield to
the influence of other men. The religious person fears the
socalled "pastor" or clerg:rman or leader of his religious
sy.stem, and hence he yields to the instruction of such men,
and in this way the demons who promote such religion
entrap the unsuspecting ones. A person fears that he will
not receive men's approval, particularly approval of religious leaders, and because of such fear he is led into the
snare of the enemy. Upon all who want to be God's people
this great truth needs to be fully impressed: that the only
place of safety is with the Lord God Jehovah and only
those who trust him and are diligent to render themselves
to him in obedience can be safe in the~e evil days. Every
consecrated one must dihgently avoid the seductive influence of creatures. Everyone who desires to have God's
approval must see to it that he does not rely upon men,
because men are imperfect and liable to demon influence.
Follow men only as such men follow the Savior Jesus
Christ. "Whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe";
or, as the marginal reading says: "\Vhoso putteth his trust
in Jehovah shall be set on high." That means not only
safety but also that the trusting one will be exalted. For
example, the consecrated Christians, begotten of God's
spirit, will be set on high with Christ Jesus in the heavens
only upon condition that they completely trust in Jehovah
and obey His commandments. All Christians will receive
Jehovah's appl'oval through Christ and will keep the way
to life upon the same condition. Let Jehovah God be your
fear; seek his approval, and not man's.-Isa. 8: 13.
Bible Christianity and the religion of this world are two
"eparate and distinct things. The two are in complete oppo141

sition to each other. Those who practice world religion arc

numerous. Those who are truly Christian are few today. It
will he found that the religIOnists are under the influence
and power of the demons, whether they know it or not. The
Devil and his host of associated demons are intensely fighting. against true Christians, and everyone attempting to
follow Jehovah God must be fully awake and constantly
vigilant and active in his devotion to Almighty God. Always
have in mind that there is but one place of safety, and that
is in or under the Theocratic organization of Jehovah God,
over which Jehovah has placed Christ Jesus as the capital
member or organizational head. This organization furnishes
protection to those who flee to God at this time. All such
must fully trust Jehovah God and must devote themselves
to his great Theocracy, his capital organization Zion.
Here a brief reference to the facts of our day will show
how completely the religionists of this world are in the dark.
At Revelation 7: 4-8 and 14: 1, 3 the Bible makes it plain
that there will be only 144,000 consecrated, spirit-begotten
Christians that will be exalted with Christ Jesus and that
others of good-will who are to be spared during the coming
battle of Armageddon will be few compared with the great
population now on the earth. The World Almanac for the
year 1948, published at New York city, presents the following figures for the "Religious Population of the World",
namely: Totals for the whole earth) 329,775,663 Roman
Catholics; 127,629,986 Orthodox Catholics; 137,945,530
Protestants; making a total of 592,406,542 so-called "Christians". Then there are 15,753,638 Jews, and 220,978,848
Mohammedans; and 1,318,914,254 others; making a total
of 1,555,546,740 not "Christians". The grand total of world
religionists is therefore 2,150,959,919, which is practically
the earth's population. Those figures given by that worldly
publication would indicate that there are millions of "Chris
tians"; which is, of course, unscriptural in import. Accord
ing to the Bible such figures as to true Christians are not
accurate. They are probably correct when applied to the
religionists of Christendom. To say the least, of the millions
who are rated as "Christians", only a very small number
are they who really trust God and Christ Jesus. The worldly
religionists have fallen into the enemy's snare and trust men.
Bible prophecy now in course of fulfillment overwhelmingly proves that within a very short time the genuineness
of the claim of all such religionists will be put to the crucial
test. The crucial time is now upon those who are consecrated
and begotten of God's spirit. The crucial test applied to
Christendom will show that the great mass thereof are
entirely without faith in God and are opposed to the great
Theocratic Government of which Christ Jesus is the King
and Head. The great mass of persons rated as Christians
actually deny God and Christ by their works, if not by
words, and hence in fear of man they bow down to the state,
especially in Its totalitarian form, and consequently they
do the will of the "god of this world", Satan the Devil, and
the demons of which he is "the prince". At the coming bat
tIe of Armageddon Jehovah God will perform "his strauge
act", and by this act of strangeness the so-called "organized
religion" of Christendom will be totally destroyed.
These are perilous times, as the Scriptures point out and
as the facts support. The condition of Christendom just
now preceding Armageddon is stated at 2 Timothy 3: 1-5,

142

2fieWATCHTOWER

namely: "In the last days perilous times Fhall come. For
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, di~obcdient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof: from such turn away." This prophecy
applies specifically at the present time, beyond all contradiction; and concerning the climax the twelfth and thirteenth verses say: "Yea, and all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being
deceived."-2 Tim. 3: 12, 13.
Since the ~'ear 1918, when World War I closed, and more
particularly since 1933 when IIitler came to power in
Germany and fixed up a concordat with Pius XI, the persecution upon those devoted to Jehovah God and his kingdom
has constantly increased and evil men, particularly the religionists of Christendom, have become more vicious. Being
themselves deceived by the demons, they have deceived and
continue to deceive multitudes of others. Despite the outcome of World War II, Nazism and Fascism are not dead,
and Communism is spreading itself; and the religious leaders
associated with these have made an un erasable record for
themselves during the global war. It was not one of Christian deeds, but the masses of the people under the worldly
religious leaders and political leaders persecuted the faith.
ful supporters of Jehovah's Theocratic Government. Today
it continues to be necessary for God's devoted people to
have the foregoing scriptures and the facts of fulfillment
clearly in mind in order that they may escape the snares
of the wily demons.
All persons who think can clearly see that the conditions
existing on the earth haye grown worse in the past decade
or more, so that today religious clergymen publicly declare
that "Europe is no longer Christian and it will require at
least two generations-if even then-of severe Christian
effort to eladicate the anti-Christian forces extant there
now"; in fact, some clergymen claim that the world is
"irreligious", more so now than at any other time in the
Christian era. (Reported in the New York Times, 1947) The
terrible condition existing was foreshadowed nineteen centuries ago when Jesus was actually present in the flesh.
After he preached the truth constantly up and down the
land for three and a half years, only a very small number
of the Jewish people turned to him in faith. Now Christ
Je~ms is present in the Kingdom, having been enthroned in
1914; and few are they that are fully devoted to him as
King and Leader. Concerning this very time Jesus said:
"..Vhen the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?" (Luke 18: 8) The present-day physical facts completely fit the prophetic utterances of Jesus. All persons
having a desire for life should fully awaken to this situation
and ascertain the cause of the presentday perils and what
is the only means of escape to safety. Have faith in God.
THE CAUSE, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES

An honest and unbiased consideration of the Holy Scriptures and of the admitted facts will prove to the satisfaction
of sincere persons that the influence and power of the

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

demons over the people is the primary cause of these times

of peril; and that Satan, "the prince of the demom," is
hastening the whole world like a swift-flowing river down
to eternal death, as pictured by the river Jordan of Pales
tine flowing down into the Dead sea. The demons ha\'e
employed their religion to bring about this frightful concE
tion and by means of such false worship have deceived
multitudes and are still deceIving them and turning them
away from God. Under the iniluence of demons both the
leaders and rulers in the religious institutions have been
made to believe that the religion of Christendom and nible
Christianit;}' are one and the same thing; whereas religion
of Christendom is the open and violent ad\-ersary of all
true Christians. It and its practices are the result of demon
power and influence. Christianity stands for the truth and
for full obedience to the law of Almighty God. \\orld
religion is demon worship. Christianity is the worship of
Jehovah God in spirit and in truth. Sincere persons should
give thoughtful consideration to IIis commandments against
demonism, because these commandments apply more strongly to all who today seek the way of righteousness.
From Nimrod's time onward all the heathen nation~
practiced demon-worship and offered sacrifices to devih.
(1 Cor. 10: 20) The Israelites, the only nation and people
chosen by Jehovah God, were in great danger of falling
away to the demon religion. Thcrefore he commanded the
Israelites to avoid demoni:lm in unmistakable termf-. lIe
commanded his typical people to offer certain animal~ to
him in sacrifice, which sacrifices must be offered in the
manner commanded by him. Those sacrifices cOllFtituted
prophetic pictures which foretold the great sacrifice of
Christ Jesus. In mockery of God and to came the people
to stumble and fall away from God the demon religion ha~
required the practitioners thereof to offer animals in
sacrifice to demons or devils. The people of Israel fell 111llier
the demon influence, at certain times The law that nod
gave them shows plainly that the sacriflce of allimuh to
demons was fruitless and was in violatioll of "the e\"Cl'la~t
ing covenant" concerning blood. (Gen. 9: 517) It subJected
the offerers thereof to the death penalt;,. Thcrefore ,Jehc1\'ah
God gave specific command to the Israelites as follo\\"~
"They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto de\ ik
after whom they have gone a whoring. This shull be fl
statute for ever unto them throughout thcir generutions
And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoe\'er man there be
of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which ~0.l0urn
among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sactifice, and
bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the COil
gregation, to offer It unto the LORD, even that man ~hall
be cut off from among his people."-Lev. 17: 7-9
Jehovah God plainly warned the Israelites that the rel1gion practiced by the heathen would be a snare to them.
The religionists served the demons, and such rcliglOlli<;ts
constituted a menace to God's covenant people. Therefore
he commanded his people concerning the heathen or demon
worshipers, a& follows: "And thou shalt consume all the
people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye
shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their
gods; for that will be a snare unto thee. If thou shal t say
in thine heart. These nations are more than I, how can 1
dispossess them 1 thou shalt not be afraid of them: bnt shalt

MAY 1, 1948

$12eWATCHTOWER.

well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh,
and unto all Egypt; the great temptations which thine eyes
saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand,
and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God
brought thee out; so shall the LORD th~T God do unto all
the people of whom thou art afraid."-Deut. 7: 16-19.
The Israelites did not give heed to the warning of God
concerning religion or devil-worship. God had chosen the
Israelites for hi5 own name's sake, and because of their
unfaithfulness in yielding to demon influence later on Jehovah God said to them: "You only have I known of all the
families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all
your iniquities."-Amos 3: 2.
The Dible makes it clear that what constituted the
iniquities of the Israelites for which God punished them was
idolatry or demon-worship, which the heathen peoples practiced. "All the gods of the people are idols." (1 Chron.
16: ~6; Ps. 96: 5; 97: 7) To quote Psalm lOG: 35-41: "But
[the Israelites] were mingled among the heathen, and
learned their works. And they served their idols: which
were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and

143

their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even

the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they
sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was
polluted with blood [in violation of the everlasting covenant]. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and
went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was
the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch
that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them
into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them
ruled over them." And the apostle Paul writes: "But I
say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye
should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the
cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils."
-1 Cor. 10: 20, 21.
The foregoing scriptures definitely show that the religion
of this world is a snare against which God's Word warns.
They also show that a religionist cannot be a true Christian
until he fully abandons the demon religion and devotes
himself unconditionally to God and Christ Jesus and serves
them obediently, keeping unspotted from the world.

WHAT BOOK IS LIKE IT?

EOPLE call it "The Holy Seriptures" or "The lIoly
Dible", and it is usually bound up as one book; and
the way most people read this "Book" is in the 1,OG8
JiITerent translations from the original Hebrew, Aramaic,
and common Greek in which it was first written, now dead
languages. But it is in reality sixty-six books, written by
about thirty-five men. The remarkable thing about this, too,
is that all these men, with possibly the exception of Doctor
Luke of Asia TIlinor, were members of the same nation.
All sixtysix books hang together. Suppo<;ed "higher" critics
have claimed to find eontradictions in this Book, in small
minor points, but no book of the sixty-six disagrees as a
whole with any other of the books or with all of the other
SIxty-five together.
Further examined, the writership of this Book proves to
be wonderful. Here are the words written by kings, by
governOl'S, by poets, by priests, by statesmen, by shepherds,
fishermen, farmer, musician, tax-collector, physician, tentmaker, by men lcarned in the wisdom of Egypt, or exiles
educated in the schools of idolatrous Babylon, or repatriates
trained up at the feet of rabbis in the land of Palestine.
Rieh man, poor man, statesman, preacher, army captain,
legislator, judge, Levite and non-Levite, yes, men of every
grade and class figure in the writing of this eomposite book
of the centuries. No other book on earth is like it in its
writership.
As for variety of content, what a book it indeed is! It
b filled with law, rules of conduct, prophecy, poetry,
history fart1Ier back than any other history, genealogy,
sanitary science, public economy. It contains writings of
various styles, and yet all is harmonious as a whole and
each part plays its own function in connection with the
whole. But suppose we were to get thirty-five men, say of
the American nation, to write a book on the political
economy or tne destiny of America, men scattered over the
less than two hundred years of national existenee of this

nation, and men drawn from the various walles of life and
grades of soeiety to correspond with the writers of the
Bible. Suppose, then, we took their sixty-six pieces of
writing and bound them all together, and then undertook
to introduce such a composite into a public school or college
or university for the teaching of Ameriean political eeonomy or the historical significanee of America. What board
of education or university faeulty would adopt such a hodgepodge of writing as a textbook for the consistent teaching
of this partieular subject to the students? Not one would
do so, because this composite book of uninspired human
writership would not agree within itself.
Written from 1513 B.C. on down to A.D. 98, it took more
than sixteen centuries to write all the Bible; and the onetime fisherman who wrote the closing books of the Bible
had no personal communieation with the one-time shepherd
who comffinced the writing of the Bible. Thirty.five men
were spread over more than sixteen centuries of hi&tory
and amid various changes of government of their natio~
and extreme opposites of national experience, and yet whcn
you put all their writings together they make up one
harmonious book, setting forth one unswerving, guiding
purpose from the first page to the last. As a whole it is
more than eighteen centuries old, but it is still the most
popular book on earth. How did men, writing such a book
quite independently of one another, produce such a literary
work? Other books written by men of this world get out
of date when they are some J'-ears old, or get buried under
by the mass of other books that continue to be written; but
the Bible has lived on through the centuries, and it ranks
ahead of the mightiest thought and intellects of every
century, and its predictions of things to come run ahead
of all developments of dominant human history and prove
to be unerring.
Suppose that thirty-five men should, one after another,
walk into the administration building of radio station

144

~eWATCHTOWER..

WBBR on Staten Island, New York, U.S.A. Men not in

personal touch with one another for the most part, one man
comes from Maine, another man comes from Washington
state, another from Florida, another from California, and
the others from the various states of the Union. Suppose,
too, that each one came bringing an electrical part, of more
or less intricate design. Suppose as each newcomer deposited
his part alongside the others to be attached, joined or wired
in with the others, it finally built up into an attractive
radio transmitter set for broadcasting Bible truths to the
people, with a power of 5,000 or more watts. You would ask,
How did these thirty-five men from all these different states
and who for the most part had not seen or personally known
one another, how did they manage to produce such multiple-part, yet perfectly adjusted and effectively operating
mechanism as this for radiocasting educational programs
of the highest public interest, convenience and necessity?
To your question of surprise the radio-set operator would

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

answer: "That is easily explained. One engineer planned

the whole transmitter.set, made the patterns, gave the
directions, and distributed them around j and so each of
the thirty.five men followed the pattern for his individual
part, with the result that the products of their guided work
fit accurately together when completed and assembled.
There was one mind designing, directing and overseeing
the whole operation, although there were many collaborators."
Just so with the Bible. It came from various territories.
written by men of various classes, scattered over sixteen
centuries of time; nevertheless, their sixty-six pieces of
writing match one another and produce a wondrous, hannonious whole for mankind's education for eternal life. How
was this miracle produced' One mind, God's, inspired the
entire Book by his spirit or active force. And so tentmaker
Paul avers at 2 Timothy 3: 15.17, and fisherman Pftcr
asserts at 2 Peter 1: 19-21.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
"THE WATCHTOWER" GIVES HOPE

A missionary telling the praises of Jehovah in the

Caribbean island of Jamaica does not let even sickness
interfere with such praising, but continues to proclaim His
praises in the hospital, to the benefit of the other patients.
She says:
"Having to take treatments in the Kingston Government
Hospital, I decided to redeem the time. This I did by bringing a briefcase with forty copies of a recent issue of The
Watchtower. After witnessing to my doctor, I asked permission to take the meSl>age to those in his ward. He said,
'Go right ahead: it won't do any harm and it may do much
good.' He accepted a copy of Awake! and I hurried on. I
had a wonderful time, and ran out of magazines. I was then
called to get my treatment, but even then kept busy talking
about the Kingdom, as the nurse asked many questions.
"On returning, I called back on eight different persons,
four of whom are really interested. One asked, 'Don't Jehovah's witnesses believe we have souls~' I sat on her bed, used
her Bible, and explained. When I finished, I noticed we
were surrounded by other patients, one of whom had been
ordered not to leave her bed. A nurSe came and said to her,
'What are you doing up and out of your bed?' The patient
answered, 'The lady was explaining the Bible, and I couldn't
hear from my hed.' The nurse smiled at me and said, 'You're
helping them to get well quick. May I have one of those
magazines' The doctor came along and said, 'My patients
all seem in better spirits since you visited. Everywhere I
look throughout the ward, they are all reading The Watchtower.' He then tdd me how he enjoyed the Awake! and
asked if I had the latest copy for him. I explained his copy
was the latest, hut promised to take him one as soon as
another issue arrived. He introduced the matron to me. I
gave her a copy of The Watchtower, too. We talked together,
and she gave me permission to cover other wards, and added,
'When you get it finished, I'll get you a pass to go into the
public part where both men and women are treated.' I
thanked her and went home, feeling very happy. Thanks to
Jfhovah, that I could be treated to regain my health, and

at the same time be uscd to bring hope to these poor

unfortunates. Jehovah provides for all those who love him."
THE PRIEST WITHOUT A BIBLE

From Jaffa, Palestine, one of Jehovah's witnesses reports:

"The Orthodox hierarchy in Jaffa is carrying on a
campaign of hate against Jehovah's witnesses, that these
don't believe in Jesus Christ and are Jewish propagandists.
While on my short visit to Palestine I met the chief priest
S-- of the Orthodox Church hierarchy in my brother's
place of business. In a vicious way he said to me: 'What
say you about Christ Jesus? Is he a man like me?' I
replied: 'Where is your Gospel, Mr. Preached' He resorted to a shout, saying: 'Tell me in your own words!' I
replied: 'Christ Jesus while on earth in the flesh was a per.
feet creature without guile.' I quoted Hebrews 2: 9, 14 ann
asked him to explain it to me, how Jesus was made like a
babe and was made a little lower than the angels and that
because of the suffering of death he was crowned with glory
and honor and by the grace of God he tasted death for every
man. The priest then quoted John 1: 1, and I replied that
the word god is not the Almighty God, the most high, for
Jesus testified that 'my Father is greater than 1'. (John
14: 28) The priest continued shouting: 'I wiII not lower
myself or my dignity to discuss the Scriptures with you.' A
prominent businessman present told the priest to go and
get his Bible and discuss the Scriptures in a Christian manner. The priest became more angry and replied: 'That's why
I didn't come to visit your people; it was on account of your
being there.' I said: 'Priest, where is your Biblef Are you
coming to discuss the Scriptures with me 'without a BibleY I
consider this a shameful course on your part. As a priest
your duty is to teach the Bible and not to resort to shouting,
thinking that you are going to win your objective.' At this
he departed. Many people of good-will, Orthodox and
others, were impressed with this experience, and especially
when they observed the conduct of this clergyman. :Many
good persons came inquiring for the lifesustaining food,
and they were fed and departed praising Jehovah God."

SlieWATCHTOWER
PUBLISHED

SEMIMONTHLY By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE e TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
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OJl'Jl'I.OEBS

N. H.

KNOBB,

PreaidellJ

GlUNT

SUITER, Secretary
,

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall he the peace of thy children." 1Jaian 54:r.J.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and Is the lIlaker of heaven and earth and Giver of
Ufe to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active abent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty i
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect mnn for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to Ufe:
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men: that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightfUl King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege It
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth" i
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act Is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely In tbe earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will cnrry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead In the graves will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

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HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
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"NEIGHBOR LOVE" TESTIMONY PERIOD

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IN THE UNITED STATES

The June testimony period under the above title touches each
professed worshiper of God on the question of whether he loves
his neighbor as himself in respect to eternal life. During June,
therefore, each one who possibly can will, like the Good Samaritan,
get out into the field to bring his neighbors God's provic1pd means
for them to gain eternal life, The speCial offer to aid them in
studymg the Bible will be two WATCH TOWER products, namely,
the book {{Let God Be True" and the booklet The Joy of All the
People} on a contribution of 35c for the combination. Neighborloving Christians throughout the earth will all unite during June
in special efforts to help others to eternal life. Will you be onef
You can be, you who read thiS magazine. If necessary, write us
to put you in touch with your neighbors who will be glad to have
you lovi.ngly work with them in the field. Arrange, also, to make
a report at the end of June on what you accomplish.

In addition to the assemblies previously announced in The

Watchtower} there will be district asflemblies at the following
cities:
DES MOINES, IOWA: September 3-5
Des Moines Coliseum

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of June 20: ''Removal of the 'Sin of the World',"

~ 1.21 inclusive, The WatcMower May 15, 1948.
Week of June 27: ''Removal of the 'Sin of the World',"
'if 22-40 inclusive, The Watchtower May 15, 1948.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: September 10-12

International Amphitheatre
Exchange Ave. & S. Halsted St.
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: September 17-19
Rhode Island AuditorIUm
These will conclude the series of district assemblies held in
North America. Announcement is made early for the benefit of
those who must make vacation arrangements well in advance.
Addresses of rooming co=ittees will be announced later.
All Watchtower readers are invited to attend these assemblies.
WEST COAST ASSEMBLY CHANGES

The district assembly will not be held in Oakland, but at The

Cow Palace, Geneva Ave. at Rio Verde St., San Francisco.
The Rooming Committee address is 11 Pearl St., San FranCISCo 3,
California; however, if you have sent mail to the former Rooming
Committee address that is an right. It will be received and answered.

gnceWAlC1HIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

MAy 15, 1948

No. 10

IGNORANCE OF SIN
"He is himself an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world."
-1 John 2: 2, An Amer. Trans.

EHOVAH God sees this world as it does not see

itself. He lmows what is wrong with it, and what
is at the bottom of its trouble. It is a difficulty
shared by all mankind and common to all nations,
and hence all today are in the throes of a world-wide
distress. For many centuries He let the nations go
on in their ignorance of the root of the trouble,
following their own chosen forms of religious worship. But in His due time he began sending all the
nations the truth not only about their common condition of sickness, misery, old age and death but also
about the way of relief that he has lovingly provided.
His truth is simple and plain-spoken, because simplicity and straight talk is for the earliest benefit of
those needing help. His truth absolutely agrees with
the facts, which facts he knows best of all, and it
shows no partiality to any nation, tribe, family, or
color. His truth has been written down for consuItation by all, and it straightforwardly tells us that the
common affliction upon us all is sin. It shows that all
humankind are under sin, in order to show how God
provides a remedy for all at one and the same time,
by one all-sufficient means. As the Creator of mankind, he is also the Great Physician and can accurately probe the cause of mankind's trouble and also prescribe the only cure-all for them. This he has done,
and countless numbers of people till now have benefited by following his prescription.
2 No sick patient nigh to death should rebel against
the remedy the physician prescribes who lmows his
case, pronounces what the real trouble is, and understands the way to cure it. Not if the patient wants
to get cured and live in health and happiness. To
persons in many nations it may sound distasteful
for God's Word, the Bible, to pronounce the common
malady of mankind to be sin. To many persons of
various kinds of religious belief the word sin may
come as a strange, new word, a word that has not
appeared in their religion. Take, for instance, the
Buddhists, who today number about six percent of
the world's population. Their religion, Buddhism,
was formulated in the shth century before our common era. It arose as somewhat of a protest against
the Hinduism then prevailing in eastern India, and

it spread beyond India into many lands of Asia and

of the Pacific, but undergoing some changes by the
local native religions it met up with. In India itself
it has blended with Hinduism, so that now there are
few Buddhists in that great land and the Buddhist
pope is located at Lhasa, Tibet.
8 Trying to explain why no man is free from suffering and distress, Buddhism teaches that our existence as humans came about through a natural law
and that for us to have a personal intelligent existence means just misery, and that the natural man of
earth is wretched as well as evil because he is material. Buddhism also has its "Five Commandments":
not to kill any living creature, not to steal, not to
commit adultery, not to lie, slander or swear, and to
avoid drunkenness. There are five other commandments for those who devote themselves to a religious
life to gain the highest attainment of their religion,
nirvana, a ceasing to exist.
4 For Buddhists there is, despite these commandments, no supreme lawgiver with authority. Hence,
transgressing these commandments does not mean
iniquity and so does not bring any guilt. No repentance is therefore required. If we injure ourselves,
but injure no one else by our acts, then we have done
no wrong; and if it is ourselves only we are inconveniencing, then nobody else has a right to consider
us transgressors. In the Buddhist religious system
no act is sin; the idea of sin is unknown. It is simply
the case of a bad act's producing a bad result, and,
for that reason, and not because bad acts are sin,
they are to be avoided, just as we would avoid a
rotten substance that creates a stench. Such acts are
bad only if they work injury to another person. But
if they produce injury to simply oneself, it does not
matter, because each person is lord of himself and
responsible to no supreme lawgiver. Thus it would
be no crime for a wife to commit adultery, if her
Buddhist husband consented, because, it is reasoned,
no wrong has been done to the husband. There is no
sin, but there is unkindness to others, and such unkindness produces fruit just as a plant or tree does.
8 Certain Buddhists worship devils in hope
of
getting supernatural help, because they suppose that
147

148

~eWATCHTOWER..

devils may exist as well as anything else, and, if

devils are treated kindly, they may be as useful to
Buddhists as any other friendly allies could be. In
much the same manner as pope Pius XI declared he
would do business with Satan the Devil himself if
it benefited his Catholic religious system. For the
Buddhist such devil-worship is not sin, just as for
the pope it appears to be no sin to bargain with
Satan the Devil. Tradition says the apostle Thomas
penetrated into India in the first century of the
Christian era. If so, he must have had to contend
with Buddhist beliefs.
6 In that first century the apostle Paul stood upon
Mars Hill in Athens, Greece, and addressed judges,
some of whom were so-called "Epicureans" and
others "Stoics". For these men sin meant nothing
more than for the Buddists. The Epicureans believed
the world was not made by a Supreme Person, God,
but resulted from the chance coming-together of
atoms, the only eternal and changeless substances;
and that there are no rewards or punishments for
human acts after death; and that pleasure now is the
supreme good, in fact, the only good, because death
ends all. On the other hand, the Stoics acknowledged

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

there was an imperial head over all the universe,

and they held that the world was governed by laws.
But there were no inducements to obey such laws
nor any punishments to keep us from breaking such
laws, except the results that would flow from our
conduct respecting those laws. Though Stoics
believed in a soul separate from the human body,
they did not believe in its long survival after death
of the body nor in its immortality.
T So, when the apostle Paul spoke to those Epicureans and Stoics and advised repentance for their
past ignorant course of life, he was bringing them
a new idea. He said: ''While God overlooked those
times of ignorance, he now calls upon all men everywhere to repent, since he has fixed a day on which
he will justly judge the world through a man whom
he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to
all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17: 30,
31, An Amer. Trans.) No wonder some laughed at
the idea of repenting from sin, just as nowadays
some sneer at the thought of sin. For thousands of
years the most part of the world has not known what
sin is. Do you know what it is 1 At any rate, the
next article is enlightening.

REMOVAL OF THE "SIN OF THE WORLD"

In English the word sin is derived from the Latin word sons,
meaning he who was it, the real person, the guilty one or crimillal.

breadth, and not miss." Also Proverbs 19: 2: "It is

no use to act before you think: to be hasty is to miss
the mark." (Moffatt) Also Proverbs 8: 36: "But he
who misses me [wisdom] wrongs himself, all who
hate me love death." (An Amer. Trans.) Sin is therefore a missing or failing to do the will and law of
God. Because his will and law are right and perfect,
sin is displeasing to him and must bring punishment.
S At Romans 8: 3 we read that "God ... condemned
sin in the flesh". That being so, when Jehovah God
created the first man from whom we all have sprung,
he created him perfect and not missing in anyone of
his proper human parts and qualities. But to show
how different Jehovah God is from mankind today
it is written: "His work is perfect: for all his ways
are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves,
their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a
perverse and crooked generation." (Deut. 32: 4, 5)
That makes it a lie for God's great adversary, Satan
the Devil, to say that all visible, tangible matter is
evil in itself and that all existence in material, human
bodies is wretched and evil in itself. To say that is
merely to judge mankind's beginning by our present,
fallen condition. But God did not give mankind such
a start. When he had finished preparing this earth
for man's dwelling place he did not pronounce this
material earth evil. Contrariwise, the record of crea-

~at Is sin? and what does the word In Ihlelf mean?

3. Because condemning sin, what kind or start did God ghe man"

HAT is "sin"? In the Bible we read two brief

answers: ''Whoever commits sin disobeys
law; sin is disobedience to law." And: "Any
wrongdoing is sin."-l John 3: 4; 5: 17, An Amer.

Trans.
2 The law here meant is the law of the Creator,
Jehovah God the Supreme Lawgiver. For all creation
he fixed laws of operation or laws of conduct. His
way is the right way; and if hurtful results come
from pursuing a different way it is because that is
the wrong way. It is a violation of His will and law,
and hence is a wrong, an offense against the Supreme
Lawgiver. It is not just a mere hurt to the person
breaking the law. It is a failure to do the will of
the righteous Lawgiver; it is disobedience to his law,
and he pronounces it sin. In the Greek language, ill
which the apostle Paul spoke to the Epicureans and
Stoics at Athens, the word for sin originally meant
to miss, as, for instance, to miss one's road. Then it
came to mean to fail of doing something, to fail of
one's purpose, to miss one's point, to go wrong. Now
Paul was a Hebrew, and in the Hebrew part of the
Bible that he read the word for sin likewise meant
originally to miss, hence to fail. For instance, Judges
20 : 16 reads: "There were seven hundred chosen men
left-handed; everyone could sling stones at an hair

MAy 15, 1948

SEeWATCHTOWER..

tion says: "God saw every thing that he had made,

and, behold, it was very good." (Gen. 1: 31) Instead
of giving man a wretched start in human misery and
in a dying condition and with a soul that had transmigrated from some dead beast, fish, bird or insect,
the record of creation tells us this: "And Jehovah
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
BECAME A LIVING SOUL. And Jehovah God planted a
garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man
whom he had formed."-Gen. 2: 7, 8, Am. Stan. Ver.
4 Notice that Jehovah God did not give the first
man a transmigrated soul, but that by God's creative
power man ''became a living soul". The first man
Adam was himself the soul. Moreover, instead of
appointing man from the start to an existence of
unavoidable wretchedness and misery God put Adam
in the garden of Eden; and this name "Eden" means
"delight" or "pleasantness". God afterward gave the
man a wife, whom God made from a part of man's
own body. She was a perfect human soul, the same
as her husband Adam, privileged to share with him
the delights and pleasantness of the garden of Eden.
In this garden they could live forever in ideal happiness with all their children, whom they could bring
into this earth as perfect human souls. In that direction God gave them his blessing, not his condemnation. "And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
(Gen. 1: 28) All this disproves the religious lie that
God could not produce anything on this earth but
wretched, miserable, imperfect creatures, and that
all this world of matter is just an evil development,
and the best thing for us to do is to try to make
our escape from it forever. God condemns the sin
that has come to exist in the flesh, and for this reason
in the world to come he will people this earth with
innocent, sinless, perfect men and women. He will
not approve of any other kind of population to
inhabit this earth forever. He will therefore remove
the "sin of the world".
HOW IT ENTERED

~ As Creator, Jehovah God was rightfully the Lawgiver to man, and he explained the operation of his
law to man in Eden. In the very words of his law to
man God showed that man had not yet known or
experienced evil; for it is written: "And Jehovah
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it: for in the da)7 that thou eatest thereof thou
4. Why were man's start and (]estln~' not wretched and condemned?
~. How did God's law sh<)" A\J.l1U wa. "lIlless and meant for earth?

149

shalt surely die." (Gen. 2: 16, 17, Am. Stan. Ver.) If

the day never came where man ate fruit from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil in disobedience
to his divine Lawgiver, then man would surely never
die. He would live forever and be always able to dress
and keep the garden of Eden, this earthly paradise
of delight. This earth was no evil place for man to
escape from; and hence God made no promise to man
that if he was faithful and obedient for a certain
period of time, then God would deliver him from this
earth and take him to heaven for an immaterial,
spiritual, angelic existence. What God set before man
was either everlasting life on earth or else death,
sure death in the day in which he disobeyed his Lawgiver and thus sinned, failed of doing the divine will,
and missed the mark of perfect obedience to Jehovah
God. Since the perfect human souls Adam and Eve
owed their very existence to God, he had the right
to demand perfect obedience from them and to.
punish them, if they acted lawlessly or sinned, by
taking away their happy existence.
S Today we do not see one part of the human race
perfect and sinless and another part imperfect and
sinful, but all members of our race are far short of
perfection, and deep down in sin, and under a reign
or rule of death. All this argues that our first parents
sinned, and that they did so before ever any children
of theirs were born, so that all their descendants
down to today have inherited the evil consequences
of their wrongdoing, disobedience to law, sin. That is
exactly what the Bible says took place. It says: "By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned."-Rom. 5: 12.
7 Adam and Eve could not say they were hurting
only themselves by lawlessly eating the forbidden
fruit, and so they were doing no wrong and nobody
could say they were wrongdoers. First of all, they
were unlovingly breaking God's law and bringing
reproach upon His name; whereas they owed perfect
love to God to whom everything they had was due.
Secondly, they were hurting all their children who
were to be born, bringing upon them a condemnation
to an imperfect, dying existence. Hence it is truthfully written: "All have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God." (Rom. 3: 23) Fallen man today
is no perfect glory to God, as Adam was in Eden at
the beginning. A.t that time, indeed, it was perfectly
true: "A man ... is the image and glory of God: but
the woman is the glory of the man." (1 Cor. 11: 7)
The man was of God. The woman was of man; and
as the perfect woman Eve stood beside her perfect
husband A.dam, she was a glory to him, an adornment that befitted him, a lovely creature that was of
his flesh and bone and was one with him, and adding
6, 7. Why has aU manltlnd sinned and come short of God's glory?

150

~eWATCHTOWER..

to his completeness. But today, how different! It is

because all men have sinned and come short of the
glory of God the Creator.
Who was chiefly blamable for such start of
human sin T God's Word answers, Satan the Devil,
"the prince of the demons." This creature, who was
once a heavenly son of God, began wanting to have
something selfish, contrary to God's will. Therefore
he rebelled against God his Father and was first in
all the universe to start sin. We read: "He that com~
mitteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from
the beginning.... Cain ... was of that wicked one,
and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him T
Because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous." (1 John 3: S, 12) Adam and Eve, when
breaking God's law in Eden, were of the Devil, to
whose lie and selfish inducements they yielded. Cain,
their first son to be born outside of Eden, was also
of the Devil when he murdered his first brother,
Abel, because Abel had faith in God and righteously
tried to please God. Before Cain devilishly murdered
Abel, God mentioned the sin of Adam and Eve to
Cain. We read: "And Jehovah saith unto Cain: 'Why
hast thou displeasure 1 and why hath thy countenance
fallen Y Is there not, if thou dost well, acceptance Y
and if thou dost not well, at the opening [door] a
sin-offering is crouching." (Gen. 4: 6, 7, Young's
translation; also Rotherham's) Cain did not recognize that the sin of his parents Adam and Eve
required a proper offering for its evil effects to be
removed from him. Abel slew an animal of his flock
and shed its. blood and found acceptance with God.
So Cain should have gotten a like animal for a typical sin-offering and done as Abel. Such slain animal
would prefigure God's means for removing the
world's sin.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

~ The law given to Adam in Eden did not apply to

any of his children, for after his iniquity in Eden he
and his wife were driven outside and prevented from
touching any of the trees of the garden. There is no
record that God gave any statement to mankind of
what sin was all the way down to the global flood of
Noah's day, 1,656 years from man's creation. Though
there was no stated law to show what man's sins outside of Eden were, yet Adam's offspring were all
sinners, from birth on. They had all come into this
earth imperfect and had fallen short of God's glory
and missed the mark of perfect obedience to him.
That they were sinners Enoch showed by prophesying against them and warning men of the coming
judgment day, when mankind must give account to
God. (Gen. 5: 18-24; Jude 14,15) Because there was
no precisely stated law commanding what God wanted
mankind to do and pronouncing punishments for dis-

obedience thereto, God did not execute Cain for

murdering Abel. God let Cain live. on, but under a
curse and with destruction facing him. However,
857 years after the 'flood broke forth, God did give a
written code or systematized collection of laws, giving it to the Israelites, his chosen people, through
his prophet Moses. Of course, before this there were
man-made codes of law, such as the Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon 1792 to 1750 B.C. But there
was no God-given code of laws according to which
to impute or count certain sins to those doing wrong.
Just the sarne, all men were sinners from God's standpoint, all being born of the sinners Adam and Eve.
10 In support of that we read: "For until the law
[by Moses] sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevel'theless death
reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that
had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come."
(Rom. 5: 13, 14, Am. Stan. Ver.) Thus mankind in
general, outside of the Israelites, was left in ignorance of what sin is, and this makes it understandable
why various worldly religions- rose up which take no
account of sin and which cannot explain how it began
and what its penalty is and how God has made provision to remove it from the universe.
11 There was, to begin with, a sinless world; and
God's purpose is to have a sinless new world in which
mankind will live forever in blessedness. That such is
his purpose, he disclosed in a particular way 427
years after the great flood of Noah's day. It was in
the days of Abraham, who died about fifty years
before the reign of King Hammurabi of Babylon.
Because of Abraham's unshakable faith in God he
became called "the friend of God". Consequently God
chose him to be the channel of an everlasting blessing
to mankind. We read that while Abraham was still
in the city of Ur, in southern Babylonia, "Jehovah
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto
the land that I will show thee: ... and be thou a
blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and
him that cur"'~th thee will I curse: and in thee shall
all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 12 : 1-3,
Am. Stan. Ver.) That divine promise to Abraham is
commonly called the covenant with Abraham or the
Abrahamic covenant. Years afterward, when Abraham showed he was willing to sacrifice his dear son
Isaac in obedience to God, Jehovah enlarged upon
that Abrahamic covenant and said: "And in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen.
22: 18) Among other things, that blessing meant that
God would justify or would declare free from their
sins persons of all nations that would show faith in
him like Abraham's.

8W'i\OPromoted the sin? and what prefltrored the sln-o!ferlng?

9. Outside of Eden. why was. sin not Imputed until :'Ioses' time?

10, 11. Row did God show Abraham his purpose to have a clean world?

NOT IMPUTED WHERE NO LAW IS

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151

12 Commenting upon that scripture the apostle

Paul says: "And the scripture foreseeing that by
faith God would declare the nations righteous foreannounced the good news unto Abraham, sayingAll the nations shall be blessed in thee. So then they
who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham."-Gal. 3: 8, 9, Rotherham.
18 But before this blessing of righteousness through
faith in God could come to any of the nations, mankind had to see they were all sinners in God's sight,
unable to purify themselves from sin and unable to
escape by themselves the effects of sin which they
had inherited from Adam. To reveal this fact to men
in a very forceful way Jehovah brought Abraham's
descendants, the nation of Israel, to the mountain of
Sinai in Arabia. There he gave them his law by his
prophet Moses. The fundamental part of this law
was "the Ten Commandments", which Jehovah's
angel pronounced from Mount Sinai in the hearing
of all the people gathered there. (Exodus, chapter
20) With terrifying sights and sounds Jehovah,
while giving them the law, displayed his Godship and
therefore his right to say what sin is. The first four
of the Ten Commandments call notice to his Godship
and call for the Israelites to worship him, and not to
worship any false gods which did not create the
heavens and the earth.
14 The very fact that God gave the Israelites this
law was notice to them that they were sinners. Speaking of this law, the apostle Paul says: "But we know
that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous
man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the
ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for
murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile
themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars,
for perjured persons."-1 Tim. 1: 8-10.
15 The Israelites became flattered over having such
a God-given law, and they got to thinking they could
make themselves righteous by keeping that law.
They paid no attention to the punishments God dealt
out to their nation for repeatedly breaking that law.
However, the humble and honest-hearted saw that
their fallen condition did not permit them to keep
that law, but that they were born in sin like all mankind and that they needed to repent for their sins
and to look to God for deliverance from their sinfulness and its bad effects. Such deliverance must come
by the promised Seed of Abraham in whom all the
nations of the earth are to be blessed. To produce
this realization of sin and their need to repent of it
and their need of a Savior was really God's purpose
in giving the Israelites his law through Moses. It
was to show up their transgressions and to point

them to the coming Seed of Abraham, which Seed is

Jesus Christ. After they had this law given which
declared what sin is, then sin could be imputed to
them.
18 In proof of this the apostle Paul explains to us
why the law of Moses was added to Jehovah's promise to Abraham concerning the Seed in whom all the
nations are to be blessed. Paul writes: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith
not, And to seeds, as of many [seeds] ; but as of one
[seed], And to thy seed, which is Christ. Wherefore
then serveth the law' It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the
promise was made j and it was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator." (Gal. 3: 16, 19) Or, to quote
a more modern translation: "Then what about the
Law' It was a later addition, designed to produce
transgressions, until the descendant to which the
promise was made should come, and it was enacted
by means of angels, through an intermediary." (Gal.
3: 19, An Amer. Trans.; Moffatt) This law produced
transgressions by showing what these were and who
the transgressors were and by making them realize
they were transgressors. "The law entered, that the
offence might abound."-Rom. 5: 20.
17 The psalmist, King David of Jerusalem, was
born under Moses' law, and it is no wonder that he
wrote, even of his own people: "There is none that
doeth good, no, not one.... Oh that the salvation of
Israel were come out of Zion I" (Ps. 14: 3, 7) Centuries later Paul was born under that law, and it
excites no wonder that he wrote: "As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one: Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law: that every mouth may be
stopped, and ALL THE WORLD [Jew as well as Gentile]
may become guilty before God. Therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
"Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law." (Rom.
3: 10, 19, 20 j 7: 7) Sin was not known by the Code of
Hammurabi, nor by the law or commandments of
Buddha, nor by any of the codes of law of any Gentile
nations to this day. By none of these law codes is
man taught his fallen condition in God's sight and
his need of turning to God in repentance for salvation by his Seed of promise. But by the law of :Moses
the Israelites or Jews themselves as well as the
Gentile nations were shown to be transgressors
against Jehovah God. "For as many as have sinned
without law shall also perish without law: and as
many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by
the law; ... tlie Gentiles . have not the law."
-Rom. 2: 12, 14.
18 God's Word says an the world, Jews and Gen-

i2,13.Why and how did Goll ~l1ow the Israelites they were sinners?
14, I;'. Whr did God acid the ~roSAlc law to the Ju.rahanuc co\"enant?

i6."17.How did the Mosaic law show all the world guilty before God?
L8, 19. How w... ..loom ~ perfett mllZlo thoug.il under ~8eR law?

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~eWATCHTOWER..

tiles, are guilty before Him. None is righteous of

himself or able to make himself righteous before God.
That does not even exclude the Jewish virgin who
became the human mother of Jesus. There is no
inspired scripture to show that this Mary was "immaculately conceived" in order to give birth to Jesus.
She was born under Moses' law. She had to be baptized with John's baptism for the forgiveness of sins
just as the apostle Peter and other Israelites did.
Not leaving out Mary, Romans 3: 23 says: "For all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
-:Mark 1: 4; John 3: 22, 23.
THE INNOCENT ONE REMOVES IT

Only one man was ever born sinless of a woman.

He is the promised Seed of Abraham, namely, Jesus
Christ. He was born holy and immaculate, not
because his mother was immaculate, for she was not
so. It was because he was conceived by a sinless,
perfect Father, Jehovah God. Where there is reproduction by two parents, the life sperm comes from
the father and this fertilizes the egg in the mother
who thereafter produces the body of her offspring.
The man Jesus Christ did not receive human life
from the sinner Adam, but received only a human
body through Adam's descendant, Mary. Jesus' life
came from Jehovah God, the Holy One. Prior to his
human birth to become Jesus on earth, this Son of
God was the firstborn and only begotten Son of God
and was therefore with his Father from the beginning of all creation. By use of this beloved Son,
Jehovah God created all other things that have been
created. (John 1: 1-3; Col. 1: 15-18; Rev. 3: 14) At
God's due time for the Seed of Abraham to be born,
his perfect life was transferred from heaven to the
egg cell in the womb of the virgin J ewess, Mary. To
become born of her he had to lay aside all his heavenly glory and position. (Phil. 2: 5-8) His human
mother was under Moses' law, which pronounced her
and all other Jews sinners; and so it is written: "But
when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth
his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that
he might redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons." (Gal. 4: 4, 5,
Am. Stan. V er.) Although born under Moses' law,
Jesus was not condemned by that law, for he was the
only man that kept it perfectly.
20 Jesus' perfection was absolutely necessary if he
was to act for the removal of the sin of the world.
At the ripe age of thirty he came to John the Baptizer who was immersing repentant Jews in the
Jordan river. Not that the Jordan was a so-called
"holy river" the waters of which had purifying
powers; but that it provided depth of water for
persons to be dipped under to picture how they died
19

20, 21. How did ;resus fulfill Psalm 40: 68 when coming to baptism?

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N. Y.

to their past sins and how they determined thereafter to follow a life in obedience to God's will. Their
sins were not actually removed by such water baptism. Something far more potent was necessary, and
this was provided by the perfect man Jesus. When he
came to John it was not as a repentant sinner. It
was as one now consecrating to enter upon a course
of sacrifice that would result in his death as a man.
Animal sacrifices, such as bulls and goats, had till
then been offered at Jerusalem's temple altar, but
these had not really met justice nor been powerful
enough to take transgressions from mankind, who
are superior to bulls and goats. Therefore when
Jesus came to John to symbolize his baptism into
death, he fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 40: 6-8.
21 The apostle Paul calls attention to this fulfillment, saying of Jesus: "For it is impossible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering [of bulls and goats] thou
wouldest not, but a body didst thou prepare for me;
in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou
hadst no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I am come (in the
roll of the book it is written of me) to do thy will,
a God."-Heb.10: 4-7, Am. Stan. Ver.
22 That Jesus was acceptable to God as a sinremoving sacrifice was proved, because, right after
he came up out of the baptismal waters, God's voice
was heard saying from heaven: "This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased." And the fact that
God's spirit or invisible active force came upon Jesus
at that time accompanied by an outward visible sign
proved that God had now begotten him again, not
again in the womb of Mary to become a man, but by
His spirit to become a spirit Son of God, and that
hence Jesus must in due time return to heaven to his
Father's side. (Matt. 3: 13-17) Some forty days after
Jesus was baptized he returned to J olm. J olm, who
had seen and heard these things, pointed to him and
called out to the people: "Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world." (John
1: 29-36) It was because the man Jesus Christ was
innocent and without blemish that he was spoken of
as a sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb that God provided
from heaven to remove the world's sin. As such
Lamb for sacrifice, Jesus was prefigured thousands
of years previously by that lamb that Abel had
offered on the altar just outside of the garden of
Eden.
23 Jesus saw the religious hypocrisy of the many
unrepentant Jews, and he exposed their hypocrisy
to the rest of the people. He showed they had the
murderous spirit of Cain and, like Cain, were children of the wicked one, Satan the Devil. Out of spite
they accused Jesus of being born in sin, of being a
22. How did God and ;rohn testify to Jesus' fltne.s for sacrifice?
23. How did Jesus and Peter testify to His siDlessness?

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153

mongrel-blooded Samaritan, and of having a demon came to give himself as a human sacrifice. He said:
in him. But knowing his o,vn origin and his own per- "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but
fect righteousness, Jesus said to them: "Which of to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
you convicteth me of sin 1" (John 8: 41-49, Am. Stan. (Matt. 20: 28) "I came that they may have life: and
Ver.) His disciples, instead of convicting him of sin may have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd:
in the least thing, testify to his unblemished perfec- the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep."
tion and innocence. Writing to those who had their (John 10: 10, 11, Am. Stan. Ver.) Jesus did this.
sins removed through faith in Jesus' sacrifice, the
2S When on earth Jesus did not shun sinners, as
disciple Peter wrote: "Ye were redeemed, not with if they were of an outcast, untouchable class whose
corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your very shadow falling upon him would defile him and
vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; spoil his sacrifice. No, but he companied with them
but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish so as to do them good. Had he wanted to avoid
and without spot, even the blood of Christ: who did association with sinners, he would not have come to
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, the earth in the first place to be made in the likeness
when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he of men who were then of sinful flesh. He would have
suffered, threatened not; but committed himself to remained in heaven with God his holy Father. How,
him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare then, would God's purpose respecting the Seed of
our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having Abraham have been fulfilled' So, like a great phydied unto sins, might live unto righteousness." sician, he came and visited the human family in their
-1 Pet. 1: 18, 19 and 2 : 22-24, Am. Stan. Ver.
sick condition in order to provide the remedy and
24 By reason of offering to God an acceptable
heal them. As it is written: "This is a faithful saying,
sacrifice, his own perfect human life, Jesus Christ and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
became God's High Priest for the fallen human race into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. 1: 15) Being
estranged from God by sin. By virtue of his perfec- touched by fallen men did not soil him, as religious
tion he was a suitable High Priest for us, and so the Pharisees thought it would do in their own cases.
disciple Paul testifies to us, saying: "Such a high (Luke 7: 37-39) In just the opposite way, when the
priest we needed-godly, blameless, unstained, diseased and afflicted touched him with faith in his
removed from sinful men and raised above the very power, virtue went out from him and healed them.
heavens; who does not need, as the old high priests We read: "And the whole multitude sought to touch
did, to offer sacrinces every day, first for his o'vn him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed
sins and then for those of the people-for this last them all." (Luke 6: 19) Therefore, with confident
he has done once for all, in offering up himself." faith, men of all nations today may approach him
(Heb. 7: 26, 27, An Amer. Trans.) The same writer for relief from sin.
testifies further to the innocence and perfection of
POWER TO FORGIVE
Jesus as a sin-offering, saying: "Be you reconciled
to God I For him who knew no sin, he made a
27 Because he was God's accepted High Priest who
sin-offering on our behalf, that we might become had entered into a contract with God to offer himself
God's righteousness in him."-2 Cor. 5: 20, 21, The to sacrince for the sin of the world, Jesus on earth
Emz)hatic Diaglott.
could forgive sins. In one instance, a paralyzed man
25 Many
other scriptures could be quoted to in his bed was deposited before him. When Jesus
strengthen the proof that Jesus Christ was perfect saw the faith of those who carried him he said to the
and without blemish in the flesh. Be this noted, that paralytic: "My son, your sins are forgiven." Certain
Jesus, in his o'vn human body, disproved the Bud- religious scribes objected to this utterance and said:
dhist claim that all earthly matter is evil and misery "Why does this man talk so, This is blasphemy.
of itself, and that the ideal state is to be separate Who can forgive sins but God alone T" Not underfrom that which is material. Jesus as a perfect man standing Jesus' powers as God's High Priest, reliwas under no condemnation of death from transgres- gious teachers even of today ask the same question,
sions by himself or by Adam, and he could have lived "Who can forgive sins but God alone r' Drawing
in the perfect flesh as a man on earth forever. And wrong conclusions they teach a "trinity" and say that
whereas all other men would have died off, he would Jesus was God himself. Merely telling the paralyzed
have survived alone as a sinless, uncondemned man his sins were forgiven could leave those religious
human creature. But Jesus did not come to earth for scribes doubting whether Jesus' power to forgive
such a purpose. He came to prove his worthiness to sins was real; and so Jesus gave them the proof of
be the Seed of Abraham for vindicating Jehovah God his authority from God to forgive. He said to them:
and for blessing all the nations of the earth. He "Which is easier, to say to this paralytic, 'Your sins
24 Why Is Jesus Christ suitable Cor us as a High Priest to God?
2~1. ror whnt main reasons did Jesus come to earth as a man?

26. Why did Je8us not avoid. or need to a'l"oicl. touch with sinners?
27. Why could ;resus for!dve sins, and how did he prove It?

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are forgiven,' or to say to him, 'Get up and pick up

your mat and walk' 1 But to let you know that the Son
of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth," then
he turned to the sick man and said, '~I tell you, get
up, pick up your mat, and go home!" Thereupon the
man did so. (Mark 2: 3-12, An Amer. Trans.) In
another case, Jesus pronounced the sins of a notorious woman forgiven.-Luke 7: 47-49.
28 Today certain religious priests of Christendom
claim the power to forgive sins. They base their
claim upon Jesus' words to Peter: "And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven." Also on the day that he
was raised by God's power out of a martyr's death,
Jesus said to his faithful apostles: "Receive ye the
holy spirit: whose soever sins ye forgive, they are
forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained." (John 20: 22, 23, Am. Stan. Ver.;
Matt. 16: 19) The Roman Catholic clergy say they
have come by the power to forgive sins because they
are, as they claim, successors to the apostles and to
iU their powers.
29 But aside from their say so, they never produce
proof that the sins pronounced forgiven are really
forgiven. Jesus said it is just as easy to heal sickness as to say, "Your sins are forgiven:' When he
forgave sins, he healed. Likewise, his apostles to
whom he committed anthority to forgive sins performed instantaneous cures by God's power. Now
let all these Roman Catholic priests with all their
boasted, self-claimed powers prove they can forgive
sins by immediately healing those forgiven of the
sickness afflicting them. Jesus said it is just as easy
to do the one as the other for one who is really
authorized to forgive sins. If these religious priests
of Christendom cannot just as easily do the healing
(and they can not do so), then their awe-inspiring
claim is proved to be a misleading, God-dishonoring
fraud. It is as much a fraud as is their claim to be
able to release human souls after death from purgatorial sufferings, for "purgatory" finds no place in
the Holy Bible. God's Word says: "The wages of
sin is death," and, "there is a sin unto death," not
to purgatory torment or to eternal torment in literal
hell-fire. (Rom. 6': 23; 1 John 5: 16) "The soul that
sinneth, it shall die."-Ezek. 18: 4, 20.
30 Jesus on earth had authority to forgive sins. He
has such authority in a fuller measure now since he
has sacrificed his human life and has been resurrected from the dead and has ascended back to
heaven and has appeared in the presence of God
there to present the redemptive value or merit of his
human sacrifice. "For Christ is not entered into the
28, 29. Why do Catholic priests ~Iaim such power. but :talseI1 lIO'
30, Why does J"e~us not mske perf~t in bo4y tb~ DOW forgi,.en~

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

holy places made with hands, which are the figures

of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us: ... now once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself." (Reb. 9: 24-26) When on
earth Jesus made people well whose sins he forgave.
Just so now when forgiving the believers their sins
from heaven, he could make them perfect in flesh
instantaneously according to their forgiven condition and their sincere desire for righteousness. But
he does not do so, because those whom God accepts
at his High Priest's hands for membership in the
true Christian congregation are given an imputation
of righteousness through Christ's righteousness.
Righteousness is counted to them because of their
faith; they are "justified by faith" through the blood
of the High Priest's sacrifice and by the grace of
God. (Rom. 5: 1, 9, 15-21) On such grounds as these
his faithful body of followers can be acceptable with
the God of holiness and can lay down their life in
God's service in imitation of Jesus Christ, that they
may live and reign with him in his heavenly kingdom.
-2 Tim. 2: 11, 12.
OF THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD OR OF THE NEW WORLD?
81 Jesus Christ came into the active Kingdom
power A.D. 1914. Re is the Seed of Abraham in
whom all families and nations of this earth are due
to be blessed. The apostle John says to the body of
Christ's followers: "He is himself an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for
the whole world." (1 John 2:2, AnAmer.Tralls.)
Well, then, since he now reigns in power, and since
he is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world", does this mean that the King Jesus
Christ will spare this old world which has gone on
in sin and wickedness for thousands of years 1 \Vill
he thus spare it because he has removed its sin by
his sacrifice' And if he removes its sin, will he cure
it of its evils and reform and purify it to continue on
foreved Certainly not! The above scriptures could
not mean this, because Jesus Christ as well as other
inspired prophets of God foretold the end of this
world in .a time of destruction such as it has never
before known. Jesus himself will fulfill the scripture
that says, when he becomes the acting King, he will
dash all the nations to pieces like a potter's vessel;
and he prolllised to his body of followers, when in
heaven with him, a share in that dashing of evil
systems of this wicked world to pieces. (Ps., 2: 8, 9;
Rev. 2: 26, 27) Despite all the preaching by Jehovah's witnesses coneerning this established kingdom
since A.D. 1914, this world of politics, commerce and
organized religion continues to reject his kingdom
in favor of self-rule or world domination by itself.

31. Will he forglv.e this wicked worid

8ln~e

A-D, 1014' and why?

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155

Such sin His sacrifice does not remove. He is no sinoffering for such willful sin of opposition to God's
purpose, and he does not forgive such sin of this
evil world.
&: This evil world is dominated by the Devil's
organized system of power which the Holy Bible
calls "Babylon". For Babylon and the nations in
league with it there is no forgiveness nor sin-offering. Jesus, in his Revelation to the apoi:'tle John, says
of this Babvlon: "For all nations have drunk of the
wine of the' wrath of her fornication, and the kings
of the earth have committed fornication with her,
and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich
through the abundance of her delicacies.... Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that )'e receive not of her plagues. For
her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities.... Therefore shall her
plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and
famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire:
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." (Rev.
18: 3-8) How vain, then, at the close of his "Easter
address" to the Romans on Sunday, March 28, 1948,
was the blessing of pope Pius XII "to tlw city of
Rome and to the world" (llrbi et orbi) ! Such "hlessing" will not shield Rome and the rest of this evil
world from the catastrophic end that the Bible
predicts for it.
83 The popes, who claim to be the vicar or vicegerent of the Lamb of God, beat Jesus to nllership
in this earth by beginning their "reign" at Rome
about A.D. 800 in the days of Emperor Charlpmagnp,
or 1,114 years before A.D. 1914. The present popp
at Vatican City adds a new one to his list of sins.
Fearing the national elections that were due to be
held in Italy in April, 1948, the pope addressed
Rome's parish priests and Lenten priests on March
10, 1948, and said: "It is your right and duty to
draw the attention of the faithful to the extraordinary importance of the forth-coming elections anit
to the moral responsibility of all those who have the
right to vote." He said it was "the strict duty of all,
both men and women, who are entitled to vote to take
part in the elections. Anybody who abstains, especially because of laziness or cowardice, commits a
grave sin-a mortal transgression. Everybody must
vote according to the dictates of his conscience. Now
it is evident that the voice of one's conscience urges
every sincere Catholic to give his vote to those candidates or electoral lists . . . " (New York Times,
March 11, 1948) In such terms the pope who claims
to speak for Jesus Christ declares it a most serious
sin, "a grave sin-a mortal transgression," for a
Christian not to take part in political elections and
not to vote, that is, not to vote for Catholic politi-

cians or tlle politicians whom theVatican approves.

And yet tlus vicar who claims to speak for Christ
gives no Scripture qnotation from Christ's words to
prove such is a mortal sin. He does not do so, because
he cannot do so.
34 Rather than for it to be a sin not to vote, it is
contrary to true Christian principles as set down in
the inspired Holy Bible to meddle in the political
affairs of this world to any extent. Therefore those
whose Christian conscience has been guided by the
Bible, and not by Christendom's clergy, have refrained from voting fo.r politicians in any of the
contending parties in elections. The apostle Paul,
when last writing to his fellow worker Timothy,
said: "Conduct thyself in work as a good soldier
of Christ Jesus. No one serving as God's soldier
entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may
please him whose approval he has secnred." (2 Tim.
2: 3, 4, Oatholic Oonfrat. Trans.) When telling Christians to forsake this worldly Babylon the same
apostle wrote: ''Wherefore, 'Come out from amon~
them, be separated, says the Lord, and touch not an
unclean thing; and I will welcome you in, and will
be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and
daughters, says the Lord almighty.' Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 6: 17
to 7: 1, ibidem) Showing further the separateness of
true Christians from the systems of this world the
same apostle writes: "Our Lord Jesus Christ ...
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us
from the wickedness of this present world according
to the will of our God and Father." (Gal. 1: 3, 4,
ibid em) Paul's words agree with those of Jesus himself to his followers: ''You are not of the world, but
I have chosen you out of the world."-John 15: 19,
ibidem.
SlI'VYhen a true conscientious Christian does not
vote for men for whom Christendom's clergy say he
should vote, it does not mean he is indirectly voting
for the political parties opposed to such clergy. It is
a religious lie to say that a Christian is under the
necessity to chose or vote for the lesser of two evils
and to work to improve it. The Christian chooses
neither of the two evils, for both evils are of this
world and he does not choose to share in the responsibility for prolonging either of the two. The apostle
Paul, who realized what sin was by the Ten Commandments, said further to Timothy: "Do not lay
hands hastily upon anyone, and do not be a partner
in other men's sins. Keep thyself chaste." (1 Tim.
5: 22, ibidem) According to this rule Bible Christians
have refused to lay hands of approval upon any politician of this world. They have thereby refused to

32. What d<le8 Revelation 18: 38 say aa to modern Babylon's alns?

33. Why and how did the pope recently brand not Toting a sin.?

34. Why have Christians Dot obeyed clergy voting lD8tructions t

35. How do tlley thus keep t~Belves pnra from woddly Bin?

156

~eWATCHTOWER.

take part in the responsibility for sins such politician, as for instance, Hitler or Mussolini, has later
committed in office. Those who faithfully follow
Christ's instructions keep themselves chaste or pure
from this world, because he has chosen them out of
it and they are no longer a part of it. They are for
the new world, God's world of righteousness.
38 These Christians are under no necessity to choose
or elect between two evils and thus share responsibility for other men's sins against God's kingdom and
against his people. By their repentance from sin and
their consecration of themselves to God through
Christ, they have submitted to God's appointment
of his Kingdom, thenceforth praying: "Thy kingdom
come!" In place of voting for a political party of
sinful men and women of this world which fights
against God's kingdom, they have made their choice
once and for all time for a heavenly King, Jesus
Christ. In his case, indeed, it is true, "the King can
do no wrong." 'Ve have given our unchangeable allegiance to this sinless Ruler and Governor, whose
government will be without a single sin or oppression,
but which will destroy all the evils of this world and
bless the people with deliverance from their sins and
from the penalty death and from sin's originator the
Devil. Our King's name is Jesus, because all who
become his people or subjects he will save from
their sins.
37 The "sin of the world" for which this King was
once sacrificed to remove it is not the sin of this
world of which Satan the Devil is the god and invisible ruler. His world will shortly be destroyed for its
unforgivable sins against Jehovah's universal sovereignty and against his kingdom by Jesus Christ.
The sin of the world that is removable and that will
be all removed by God's Lamb is the sin of all those
who will gain life in the new world of righteousness.
38 The faithful Christians who now find acceptance
with God for a place with Christ Jesus in his heaven36. What kind of government and ruler have they chosen?
37. What is the "sin of the world" that i. taken away or removed?
38. How i. the sinfulness of the Christian congregutlon removed?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

ly kingdom receive now the removal of their sins

through faith in his sacrifice. At death they cease
from this sinful body of flesh. In the resurrection
from the dead they are clothed upon with spirit
bodies of perfection in order that they may sit down
with Jesus Christ in his throne. With him they will
reign in the heavens while he blesses all the families
of the earth during his grand reign of a thousand
years.
Sg In the new world that his thousand-year reign
opens up, all those on earth rendering themselves to
him as subjects will have their sins removed. Tens
of thousands of persons of good-will are now learning what sin is and are repenting and turning to
God's Lamb for its removal. Billions of those who
are in the graves will hear the royal Lamb's voice
and will come forth from their graves and share in
the opportunity of the removal of their sins through
his sacrifice. Those refusing it will die in their sins
and be destroyed forever.-John 5: 28, 29; 8: 23, 24.
40 All persons who will be granted the gift of
eternal life on earth in that new world must repent,
turn from the course of this present world and attain
to a sinless state in the flesh. All sins committed
because of their condition inherited from Adam will
be forgiven as they ask forgiveness through the
Lamb's sacrifice. The Lamb will express God's forgiveness toward them by gradually healing them
during the thousand-year reign and lifting them
finally to an absolutely perfect human state, complete righteousness in the flesh. In this condition
their choosing and standing true to God's will for
all time will gain for them justification to everlasting life in paradise restored to earth. Since "the
wages of sin is death", we know that then the sin
of the world will be entirely removed, for God's
Word says of that blessed new world: "There shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away."-Rev. 21: 4, 5.
39, 40. How will mankind in the new world have their sin. removed"

TO WHOSE BENEFIT DOES THE RANSOM RESULT?

HE Savior of all men is declared to be Jehovah God.

"We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of
all men, specially of those that believe." (1 Tim.
4: 10) He has provided and revealed to man the sure
foundation for the hope of salvation. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
(1 Cor. 3: 11) "This is the stone which was set at nought
of ~'ou builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved."-Acts 4: 11,12.
Wlly did God lay the foundation for the salvation of

sinful men' The answer is, For the vindication of his holy
name. Satan's challenge put God's name at issue. Imperfect
men, when they are relieved of disability inherited from
Adam, and who then prove their integrity toward God, are
a vindication of the sovereignty and name of Jehovah and
are a complete refutation and disproof of Satan's challenge.
God's judgment against the sinner Adam was just. It must
stand forever. Adam's offspring are sinners by reason of
inherited sin. God could therefore consistently permit
another person to purchase the offspring of Adam; and
those men who would "believe" by exercising faith in God
and in the purchaser and who would then render themselves

MAy 15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

in obedience and maintain their belief and integrity toward

God down to the end would be a vindication of God's name.
God exercised mercy toward sinful man by laying the
foundation for man's salvation. How is the foundation for
man's salvation laid? By permitting the man Jesus to bring
the required price for the purchase of mankind, that is, for
purchasing the descendants of Adam, and paying over that
purchase price for the relief or release of such offspring
of Adam from bondage.
What price was required for the purchase of mankind?
The life of a perfect human creature. God's law requires a
life for a life, as stated at Deuteronomy 19: 21. Adam was
a perfect man when he willfully and deliberately sinned in
violation of God's law, and the law of God required the
forfeiture in death of that perfect human life of his. (Gen.
2: 17) Nothing less and nothing more could be required
to purchase the offspring of Adam, but only a perfect
human life. The life of an angel could not furnish the
perfect price, because an angel is greater than man. Because
all of Adam's offspring are by inheritance imperfect, no one
of them could bring the required purchase price, and Psalm
49: 7 so states. All men, being imperfect, could live only a
short space of time on earth and then die, and they would
remain dead forever, unless God made provision for such
to have life.
What has been done for man's relief from death and for
his salvation to life? The answer to the question is found
at Hebrews 2: 9, namely: "We see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of
God should taste death for every man." Since Jesus always
does God's will, it must have been understood between God
and his beloved Son that he should become the man Jesus,
"lower than the angels," and should then suffer death,
thereby proving his faithfulness to God even to an ignominious death, and also by his death providing the required
purchase price for man's salvation from death. In heaven
the Son was known as "The Word", that is, "The \Yord of
God," and from the beginning this Word was with Jehovah
God and, by God's direction, carried into operation God's
purpose. He was the spokesman of J eho\'ah God. He was a
spirit. By the miraculous power of Almighty God a virgin
was made to conceive and to give birth to the man-child
Jesus.-Matt. 1: 18-23.
At John 1: 1-3 we read, in Archbishop Newcome's New
Translation (improved in 1808) : "The Word was in the
beginning, and the Word was with God, and the word was
a god. This Word was in the beginning with God. All
things were done by him; and without him was not any
thing done that hath been done." Nineteen hundred years
ago the time came to begin laying the foundation for man's
salvation, and God caused the \Yord to become a man. "And
the Word was flesh, and :full of kindness and truth he dwelt
among us: and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
son who came from the Father." (John 1: 14, Newcome)
The apostle Paul puts it this way: "But when the fulness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law." (Gal. 4: 4) Lu~e tells us
further: "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him."
-Luke 2: 40.

157

When the man Jesus was thirty years of age he presented

himself to God in full and complete consecration by an
agreement to do God's will. This he symbolized by his
immersion in the Jordan river. (Luke 3: 21.23; Ps. 40: 7,8;
Matt. 3: 16, 17) Jesus was then a perfect man possessing all
the qualifications requisite to the furnishing of the purchase
priee of sinful man. Was there an agreement between Jesus
and his Father, Jehovah God, that he as a man should die?
The answer is written, at John 10:15,17,18: "As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay
down my life for the sheep." "Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again. This commandment have I received of m~'
Father."
From the beginning, it appears, it was agreed between
the Father and the Son that Jesus should become a man,
suffer contradiction and indignities and reproach upon his
name, but, through it all, prove his integrity toward God,
die as a sinner and, proving his faithfulness, then be resurrected out of death and take life once more. This would
mean that Jesus by his death did not forfeit his life or the
right to it, as Adam had forfeited life. Jesus laid down his
life and received life again in full accord with the commandment that he had received from Jehovah God; and
this commandment Jesus fully agreed to obey. Carrying
out that agreement, God raised Jesus out of death and gave
him life as a spirit. In proof of this read 1 Peter 3: 18;
Acts 3: 26; 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4, 20.
Jesus, not having forfeited his right to human life, still
possessed that right to human life when he was raised from
the dead. That right to human life constitutes the purchase
price for sinful man. When God raised Jesus from the dead
he clothed Jesus with all power in heaven and in earth;
that is to say, God made Jesus Christ his Executive Officer,
fully equipped with all necessary power and authority to
carry into operation the purpose of Jehovah, both in heaven
and in earth. (Matt. 28: 18; Phil. 2: 9-11) When J eSllS was
exalted to heaven he presented to God in heaven the value
of his human life; and that asset, which was exactly equal
to what Adam had forfeited, was received by Jehovah God
as the offering of Jesus for sin, that is to say, as the purchase
price offered and presented by Jesus in behalf of sinful
men. This God caused to be shown in type, by the sacrifice
performed at the sacred tabernacle built by Moses in the
wilderness. According to Leviticus, chapter sixteen, the
typical picture was made in this manner:
On the annual atonement day a bullock without spot or
blemish (which represented the man Jesus) was brought
into the court of the tabernacle and slain there. The court of
the tabernacle pictured the earth. The blood of this bullock,
representing the lifeblood of Jesus poured out as an offering for sin, was then carried by the typical priest into the
Most Holy of the tabernacle and then it was sprinkled
before the mercy seat. (Isa. 53: 10; Lev. 16: 14) The Most
Holy of the tabernacle pictured heaven itself, where Jesus
Christ appeared and presented and offered the asset or
valuable thing, his right to human life, as the purchase
price for the offspring of Adam. (Heb. 9: 3-25) The sacrifice offered at the tabernacle in the wilderness once each

158

~eWATCHTOWER

year on the typical atonement day foreshadowed or pictured the work of Jesus in offering himself, that is, his
human life, as the purchase price for man. Hence we read:
"Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests
went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the servo.
ice of God. But into the second [the Most Holy] went the
high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people."
"It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in
the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that
he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth
into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the
world: but now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
-Heb. 9: 6, 7, 23-26.
Thus it is seen that Christ Jesus, God's great High Priest,
resun'ected as a spirit creature, when he appeared in
heaven, presented and offered to Jehovah the asset he
possessed, to wit, his right to human life, as the purchase
price for man. This offering was accepted by Jehovah,
and Christ Jesus became the owner of all of Adam's offspring that willingly comply with the rules of Jehovah
governing salvation. Thus God laid the foundation in Christ
Jesus for the salvation of man, and there is no other possible
means of salvation.
THE

MEAJ.~ING

OF THE

TRA.L~SACTION

The lifeblood of the man Jesus is the ransom price for

man. As God declares in his law: "The life of the flesh is
in the blood: . . . the blood of it is for the life thereof."
(Lev. 17: 11, 14) So the lifeblood of the man Jesus is the
asset, the valuable thing, by which he ransomed sinful
humankind. The English words ransom, redeem, redeemed
and redemption are often used in the Bible, but do not
always mean the same thing exactly. It will here be profitable to call attention to the different Greek words from
which our English word ransom is translated. As we know,
that part of the Bible written by the inspired followers of
Christ .Jesus and which has commonly been called "The
New Testament" is translated from the Greek into our
modern language; and in our King James Version of the
Bible there are different Greek words translated ramwm.
A brief treatment of these words will enable all Watchtower
readers to get an understanding.
John Parkhurst, M.A., is a well-known Greek authority.
His Greek and English Lexicon (1769) says concerning
"ransom" the following: UAntilytron is from anti [meaning] in return, or correspondency; and lytron, a ransom.A ransom, price of redemption, or rather a correspondent
ransom. 'It properly signifies a price by which captives are
redeemed from the enemy; and that kind of exchange in
which the life of one is redeemed by the life of another:
[Hyperius] So Aristotle uses the verb anWytroo for
redeeming life by life."
The word combination lytron anti occurs at :M:atthew
20: 28 and lIIark 10: 45. But the word antilytron appears

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

only once in the Greek Scriptures, and that in the following

verse, to wit: "Who gave himself a ransom [antilytron] in
behalf of all, the testimony in its own seasons; for which I
was appointed a herald and an apostle." So 1 Timothy 2 : 6, 7
reads according to The Emphatic Diaglott; but Parkhurst
translates it to read: ''"Who gave himself a correspondent
ransom." That verse does not say or mean that Adam was
or is ransomed, but does mean that the human perfection
once possessed by him is purchased or bought back or
ransomed for Adam's offspring, who were prevented from
receiving that life and the right to it by reason of Adam's
sin before their birth. (Human perfection carried with it
the right to life, which life, together with the right to it,
was forfeited by the willful disobedience of Adam before he
begot children.) Those of Adam's offspring who accept
God's provision for their purchase and who comply with
God's fixed rules concerning the same, are privileged to
receive the benefit of the ransom price. By his own lifeblood Jesus ransomed or purchased life and the right to
human life for those of Adam's offspring that are saved.
This, then, is the evident meaning of 1 Timothy 2: 3-6 :
That God desires all men to be saved and to come to an
accurate knowledge of the truth who comply with his fixed
;md unchangeable provisions. The verses read: "For this
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
who will have all men to be saved [by availing themselves
of the ransom price, because God is impartial], and [then]
to come unto the [accurate] knowledge of the truth [in order
that they may continue to walk in the right way]. For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all [all
that will be saved~, to be testified in due time." Having
mentioned this gracious provision that God has made for
the salvation of men, the apostle then adds: "Whereunto
I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle."-Verse 7.
By the will of God his Father, the man Jesus turned his
human perfection and right to life as a human into a thing
of value with sufficient purchasing power to purchase or
buy back all the rights that Adam forfeited for himself and
which Adam's offspring lost by reason of Adam's sin. That
does not mean that Adam was purchased, but means that
every right that Adam once possessed was purcha~ed.
It was not God's will to send Jesus to the earth to give
his life a ransom price and that, when so doing, Jesus should
forever go out of existence in the place or stead of Adam,
in order that Adam and his offspring might exist forever;
but God's will was that the man Jesus should lay down his
life as a man and should thereafter receive life again; in
proof of which Jesus said: "Therefore doth my Fa.ther love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again
. .. This commandment have I received of my Father."
(John 10: 17,18) Life or existence is what Jesus did take
or receive, not as a man, but as a spirit. At the same time,
when resurrected as a spirit, he still held the right to life
as a perfect man, because he had not forfeited that right.
God raised Jesus out of death a spirit; and, since Jesus still
possessed that right to life as a perfect man, that asset or
thing of value he paid over to Jehovah God as the price
l'equired. He thereby became the owner of Adam's offspring
who had not willfully sinned as Adam did, and who should
in due time avail themselves of the value of that ramol1l

MAy 15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

price. Jesus could then release or deliver Adam's offspring

from the bondage of sin and death which had come upon
them by reason of Adam's sin. The right to lifehad been
denied to Adam's offspring on that account. That means
that the ransom sacrifice would inure to the benefit of the
worthy ones of Adam's offspring; and by "worthy ones" we
mean those who would follow God's rules.
Who is to determine what ones of Adam's offspring are
worthy? Christ Jesus will determine that, for he acts with
full authority from Jehovah God. Christ Jesus is "the Everlasting Father", which means he is a life-giver. (Isa. 9: 6)
As a father he has power and authority to bring creatures
into life who have died and he can give life to as many as

159

he will according to the pleasure of Jehovah God. Such life

he could rightfully bestow on those only, and on no others
than the ones far whom Adam had lost the right to life.
Since Adam lost the right to life for aU humankind, Christ
Jesus can bestow life on members thereof, namely, those,
and only those, of Adam's race as meet the required rules
made by Jehovah God. Because he loves righteousness, he
would not be willing to become the Everlasting Father to
the willfully wicked and unrepentant rebellious ones. He
will become Father of Eternity to all humans exercising
faith and wanting to become his children, forever bound to
him by the ransom sacrifice that he gave lovingly for their
sakes.

MAKING THE EARTH GLORIOUS

HOUSANDS of years before the Creator made man

he created man's habitat, the earth. 'When he started
making it he had perfect man in view. "For thus
saith Jehovah that created the heavens [in advance of our
earth], the God that formed the earth and made it, that
established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to
be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else." So
the Creator speaks in his prophecy to man, at Isaiah 45: 18,
Am. Stan. Ver.
Upon earth God made only the garden of Eden fully
developed and put the perfect man Adam in it. In proof
that the part of the earth outside of the garden was not
fully developed, God gave the man a commission to bring
all the earth under control. When he drove man out of the
garden because of sin, he said to man respecting the
undeveloped part: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in
toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." (Gen. 3: 17, 18,
Am. Stan. Ver.) Since then, imperfect man outside of Eden
has found employment and work for his own good in his
attempt to cultivate and beautify the earth. Some parts of
it have been beautified, but most of it is yet barren and
unfruitful and many parts devastated by wars. Originally
man was meant to develop the earth gradually.
Since Jesus Christ was raised from death and ascended
into heaven, the great event to which true students of the
Bible have looked forward has been his second coming and
his kingdom of a thousand years. Now the facts show that
he reigns at the right hand of Jehovah God, who says: "The
heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." (Isa.
66: 1) By the kingdom God's will is to be enforced in the
earth as well as in the heavens. It is written, "The heavens
declare the glory of God," and this earth too should declare
his glory, because it is his footstool. Plainly suggesting that,
Jehovah God says, at Isaiah 60: 13: "I will make the place
of my feet glorious." The original garden of Eden was
perfect and glorious, and the Creation record is that in
this garden there grew everything that was pleasant to
the sight and good for food. Had the first man proved his
complete loyalty and obedience to Jehovah, doubtlessly God
would have shown him how to make the earth beautiful,
because it is written, at Genesis 1: 28, that God said to the
man and his wife: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it." This commission implies that God

would have supplied man with a proper knowledge and the

means to accomplish that ver;r thing. Had man followed
that course and had his offspring remained in perfect
harmony with God, then in the course of time the earth
would have been fully developed and robed in glory as
God's worthy footstool, and perfect man would have had
something to do with it. Just now God's prophecy speaks
of men "which destroy the earth", and tells of His purpose
to destroy them very shortlJ, at the battle of Armageddon.
-Rev. 11: 18.
:Man lost all the above privileges and blessings by reason
of his own wrongdoing. All his children have been born in
sin and formed in iniquity, and all are by inheritance from
Adam imperfect. They have failed of the commission ginn
to perfect man in Eden. Jehovah God, having expressed his
purpose to make his earthly footstool a place of glory, will
do it, and this he will accomplish by his chosen instrument, Jesus Christ, during the thousand-year kingdom. At
1 Corinthians 15: 45, 47 it is indicated that the second
Adam, Jesus Christ, is the One Jeho\'ah has vested with all
power and authority, both in heaven and in earth, to carr~'
out his purposes. Jehovah God has made his beloved SOil
"heir of all things", which includes the earth. He has made
him the Executive Officer to carry into operation the divine
will, and that includes making our earth a glorious place.
More than nineteen centuries ago Jesus Christ by his own
shed blood provided redemption for believing humankinu.
Now he comes the second time, with glory and power, however, to deliver men of good-will and to make man a glorious
home on earth. It is a rule without exception that, when it
is desired to build a new and beautiful edifice, the lot of
ground is first cleared of the old and unsuitable buildings.
Before Jehovah God by Jesus Christ his King will clothc
the earth with beauty and glory, he will first destroy and
entirely remove the wicked structure that Satan and hii,
servants have built up and which grows more hideous and
unsightly to all persons lo'ving righteousness. The great
battle of Armageddon just ahead of us will clear the ground
to make way for the erection of the beautiful and glorious
new arrangement on earth for the eternal good of man and
to the imperishable honor of God.
World War II and the troubles following it have increased
the number of sorrow-breeding tombs of the billions of dead.
Man has made special efforts to cause these places to look

160

mleWATCHTOWER.

pleasant; but the memories of death which these monuments

arouse make the cemetery a place of sadness. For the
comfort of men of good-will the hope-inspiring words of
J eaus now sound forth: 'Marvel not: the hour is coming in
which all dead in the graves will hear my voice and awaken
and come forth.' (John 5: 28, 29) His words of promise are
certain to be fulfilled, for Jesus bulwarked that promise by
saying, after his own resurrection from the tomb: "I am
he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for
evermore; Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
~Rev. 1:18.
Clothed with power and authority to open the graves
and lift those in them out of death, Jesus now comes to
resurrect and to lift up all obedient ones out of sin and
death and to make them joyful of heart. In connection with
the new heavens in which he will rule, we read: 'God will
wipe all tears away from their eyes, and there will be no
more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain;
for the former things will be done away with, and God on
his throne will make all things new.'-Rev. 21: 4,5.
How about the wild beasts upon earth 1 They have long
been man's deadly enemies and have preyed upon man,
because Satan the Devil made them to act so. All the beasts
of the field and the birds of the air were originally under
the supervision of perfect man; and when man obeyed
Satan and rebelled against Jehovah God, the wicked one
turned them against man in order to mock God. Under the
reign of Jesus Christ, Jehovah will make an arrangement
with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and will
establish peace between them and man. That he can and
will do this is shown by his promise written at Hosea 2: 18 :
"In that day will I make a covenant for them with the
beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with
the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will
make them to lie down safely!'
The condition will then exist as described by the prophet
Isaiah (11: 6-9), namely: "The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and
a little child shall lead them. . . . .And the sucking child
shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the LoRD, as the waters cover ~he sea."
Furthermore, thorns and thistles now encumber the earth,
and Satan the Devil sends an army of creeping and winged
pests to ruin the crops for man; but such conditions will
not exist during the reign of Christ, and this the divine
promise at Isaiah 55: 13 indicates, saying 1 "Instead of
the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LoRD
[Jehovah J for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not
be cut off." The earth will then be free from the pests and
plagues and will yield its increase. The people will rejoice.
What Jehovah God once accomplished in Palestine, in fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 : 34,35, be will accomplish earth-wide
under the Kingdom, namely : "And the desolate land shall
be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that
passed by. And they shall say, This land tb!l.t was desolate
is become like the garden of Eden i and the waste and
desolate and ruined cities are become fenceq, and are
inhabited." The people of good-wj.ll are due to rejoice when
they see God's handiwork in this regard, and they will not
seek to desecrate his earthly footstool. The faithful and
appreciative ones will strive to adorn his footstool forever
by loving obedience.

"LET GOD BE TRUE"

y MEANS of the WATCHTOWER books and patient oral

explanation Jehovah's witnesses lead people of goodwill to God's Word the Bible and aid them to understand it. For example: One of Jehovah's witnesses, a minister of God in Biloxi, ~Iississippi, in calling on the people at
their homes with the message of God's kingdom in printed
form, came to a Catholic woman who said that she was a
Catholic and was not allowed to read the Bible or any Bible
literature except that which was Catholic. Even after being
assured that the literature being presented to her quoted
from the Catholic Douay Bible as well as from other translations of the Bible, she still declined to accept any literature other than a copy of Kingdom News. Upon reading it
she found what it said to be very different from what she had
been taught. When the same minister of God called on her
again and offered her the Bible help, "Let God Be True", she
took it. The minister showed her that she could read further
Bible proof for the statements made in the book by looking
up in her Bible the scriptures that were referred to but
not quoted. The Catholic woman answered that neither she
nor her family had ever owned a Bible. She told Jehovah's
witness that in the "old country" the priest would walk
miles to take a Bible away from any member of his flock.
Such conduct had made her wonder. Jehovah's witness

offered to bring her a Bible. Weeks later she asked for two
copies of the Bible, one for herself and one for her mother.
Another minister of God, at Modesto, California, called
on a young housewife at her home ten miles from town and
left her a copy of the book "Let God Be True". A week later
Jehovah's witness called on her again. This time the husband was at home and the couple agreed to have the minister come back that same week, on Saturday, to help them
study their Bible. That Saturday, when the minister called,
the couple had a list of questions that kept the minister
explaining the Bible for one and a half hours. They were
so well pleased with the Scriptural answers they received
that then and there they decided to meet with Jehovah's witnesses at their Kingdom Hall the next day, though they had
a dairy and three small children to look after. They continued to meet with Jehovah's witnesses at their Kingdom
Hall and the minister who first called on them continued to
conduct a weekly Bible study in their home. Three months
after they first obtained "Let God Be True" they began to
take the gospel of God's kingdom to -others, both on the
street corners and from house to house.-Acts 20: 20.
These experiences show that the unselfish ministering of
Jehovah's witnesses enables others to experience the joy of
understanding their Bible and serving God acceptably.

~eWATCHTOWER
PUDLIBBED

ITS MISSION

SEMDLONTHLY Br

WATCH TOWER BIBLE e TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S.A.
OFFICERS

N. H. KNOJm,

President

GRANT

SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." lsaid 54uJ.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to

everlasting, and is the Maker of heaven and earth and Gi'l"er of

life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent in creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to Hfe;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suf
fered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price :for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and cJothed him with all
vower and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
I'ightful King of the new world; that the :faithful anointed
foHowers of Christ Jesus are Zion's chIldren, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privIlege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's organIzation and establish
righteousness completel~' in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will sUI'vivlng Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with rl;:;hteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

ffiS Journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the

people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-will
It arranges systematic Bible study for Its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all rellgion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is wholly and without reservation
for the kingdom of J ebovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination
of its contents in the llght of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
in controversy, and its columns are not open to personallties.

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"NEIGHBOR LOVE" TESTHIONY PERIOD

"PERMANENT GOVERNOR OF ALL NATIONS"

The June testimony period under the above title touches each
professed worshiper of God on the questton of whether he loves
his neighbor as himself in respect to eternal life. Dunng June,
therefore, each one who pOSSIbly can will, like the Good Samaritan,
get out into the field to bring his neighbors God's prorided means
for them to gain eternal life. The special offer to aid them in
studying the Bible will be two WATCH TOWER products, namely,
the book "Let God Be True" and the booklet The Joy of All the
People, on a contribution of 35c for the combination. Neighborloving Christians throughout the earth will all unite during June
in special efforts to help others to eternal life. Will you be one'
You can be, you who read this magazine. If necessary, write us
to put you in touch with your neighbors who will be glad to have
yoo lovingly work with them in the field. Arrange, also, to make
a report at the end of June on what you accomplish.

Scientific advances have shrunk the earth till nations on opposite

sides of the globe are as next-door neighbors. But the work of making them good neighbors lags far behind. Men see the need of a
world organization able to erase national differences. They seek to
meet it with the United Nations. Christendom's clergy join hands
with world politicians, bless the United Nations, and hail it as paving the way for God's kingdom. But does it! Does it hail Jehovah
as universal sovereign' or Christ as permanent governor of all
nations' Can it ever draft God and Christ into roles in world politics' The Bible and physical facts answer with a resounding No!
This answer, bulwarked with abundant proof, came to large
audiences in the United States, England, West Africa and South
Africa when the president of the Watchtower Society dellvered
the lecture entitled "Permanent Governor of .All Nations". Now it
comes to a much larger reading public in booklet form, with a first
edition of 5,000,000 to launch a world-wide distribution campaign.
You will thrill as you read of Jehovah's purpose for this earth,
how its inhabitants will be united under a perfect and permanent
governor, and how blessings defying description will shower down
unendingly. Obtain and read your personal copy of the 32-page
booklet PermaflB1lt Governor of AU Natiofls, on a 5c contnbution.
Better still, show love for your neighbor by obtaining extra copies
to present to your friends. Fifteen copies are sent on a 50c contribution, 30 copies on $1 contribution.

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of July 4: "Testing the Spirits in the World Crisis,"

1f 1-9 inclusive, also "Operations of the Holy Spirit,"
111-6 inclusive, The Watchtower June 1, 1948.
Week of July 11: "Operations of the Holy Spirit,"
11 7-21 inclusive, The Watchtower JUM 1, 1948.
Week of July 18: "Operations of the Holy Spirit,"
11 22-37 inclusive, The Watchtower June 1, 1948.

~ceWATC1HIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

1, 1948

JUNE

No. 11

TESTING THE SPIRITS IN THE WORLD CRISIS

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false
prophets are gone out into the world."-1 John 4: 1.

EHOVAH God foresaw thousands of years in

advance the final crisis that is now upon this
world. The people have reached the fork of the
road, and for their warning he foretold the going
forth of spirits of falsehood that would turn the careless people down the branch that leads to destruction
with this world in the terrible catastrophe of Armageddon. With accurate sign-language he portrayed
for us the fast-moving world situation in these words
in the Revelation, the last book of his Holy Scriptures: "The sixth [angel] emptied his bowl upon the
great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up to
make the way ready for the l.-ings from the east.
Then I saw three foul spirits like frogs emerge from
the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the
animal and from the mouth of the false prophet.
They are demon spirits that perform wonders, and
they go out to the kings all over the world to muster
them for battle on the great Day of God Almighty.
... So they mustered the kings at the place called in
Hebrew Armageddon."-Rev. 16: 12-16, An Amer.
Trans.
2 For a quarter of a century wide-awake students,
benefiting by the light of fulfilled prophecy, have
seen that the above-mentioned dragon pictures the
wicked organization of Satan the Devil, "the prince
of the demons." The animal, or wild beast, pictures
the Devil's visible organization on earth and which
has risen up out of the abyss of the sea of humanity;
and the false prophet pictures the outstanding part
of that visible organization and which makes deceptive predictions of things to come in order to keep
humanity under control. The mouth is one of the
organs of speech. What comes forth from the mouth
pictures the utterance, prediction, or teaching.
What comes forth must have something for its
inspiration; and the question is, Who inspired it'
God's Word fearlessly declares that what issues
from the mouth of the dragon, the wild animal and
the false prophet has for its inspiration the demons,
See The Watch Tower of January 1, 1921, pages 12-15, and
of :March 1, 1925, pages 68-70.

of whom Satan the Devil is the prince. God's Word

speaks of these demons as unclean or foul, and therefore what is inspired by them is also unclean. In the
Scriptures frogs are unclean animals, which God's
chosen people were forbidden to eat; and, quite
fittingly, the spirits or messages that issue from the
mouth of the dragon, wild animal and false prophet
are pictured as "three foul spirits like frogs", and
they are identified as "demon spirits that perform
wonders". Wonderfully, the kings and rulers all over
the world listen to their croakings and then regiment
the total population and drive them down the road
that leads to Armageddon.
S Those spirits have come forth, not from God, but
from the demons, and are misleading rulers and
people alike into a showdown fight with Jehovah
God. The human race under its misled kings and
rulers does not have the shadow of a chance of winning in that fight, for it is a battle against God
Almighty, whose time to set up his own Government
of a new world of righteousness has come. Except
for the small minority of men and women who try
the spirits and who prove that these are unclean
demon-spirits and who refuse to follow such, the
mass of humanity are now being marched in doublequick time by their rulers to the Armageddon of
sudden destruction at Almighty God's hand. Just
because the rulers are taking the lead in following
these spirits, it does not prove that they are right
spirits and are of God. Although the world rulers
refuse to believe it, the influences mustering them
out to battle and hurrying them on in their frantic
course are the spirits from demons. In this world
crisis the rulers have yielded to the demons in opposition to the kingdom of God, and now the people as
individuals must test the spirits abroad in the land
to prove for themselves whether such spirits are of
God or not. Then, regardless of who or how many
choose to follow the demon spirits to destruction,
those who love God and his kingdom of life must
choose to follow only his spirit.

1. IIow did (:od warn us of .pints that lead men to ~rmageddon?

2. What do the dragon, aDlmal, false prophet and frogs picture?

3. Who follow suell spirits, and who do not? and wh,!

163

164

~e WATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

4 This course of trying out the spirits is urged

npon all lovers of righteousness by the Word of God.
"Beloved," it says, ''believe not every spirit, but try
the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world." (1 John
4: 1) Let us not imagine that the "spirits" to be tried
are invisible spirit persons, for, if this were the case,
then how would we be able to see and hear them so as
to test them T Rather, by the word "spirits" is to be
understood messages or utterances that have some
invisible inspiration behind them. Hence Revelation
16: 13 pictures such spirits as issuing forth from
the mouth.
S For example, if the government of a totalitarian
country hands a certain statement out to all the
country's newspapers for required publication, it is
not a free and independent message, but is spoken
of as an "inspired statement". By carefully examining the statement and testing its teachings and
principles we can -arrive at the unseen source that
inspired it and its publication. Likewise, at 1 John
4: 1, the word "spirits" means messages or utterances that are circulated throughout the earth by
"prophets" or spokesmen and that have some source
of inspiration behind them, either God or the opposing demons under Satan the Devil. For this reason
An American Translation renders 1 John 4: 1 as
follows: "Dear friends, do not believe every inspired
utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they
come from God, for many false prophets have come
out into the world." The demons inspire utterances
that lead men into opposition to God and down to
destruction. Hence your life depends upon obeying
this warning command and making the test, now!
S God's Word speaks of Satan the Devil as "the
prince of the demons" and "the god of this world",
and Jesus spoke of him as "the prince of this world".
(Matt. 12:24-27, Am.Stan.Ver.; 2 Cor. 4:4; John
12: 31) So, when you test an utterance that declares
Jehovah is not God and has no right to the sovereignty of our earth and cannot put men and women
on earth who will remain true and faithful to Him
under the pressure of this world crisis, then be
sure of this: such utterance is inspired by the "prince
of the demons" and it hopped out of the mouth of the
Devil's dragon organization. 'When you test an utterance that declares man-made governments of this
world stand for Jesus Christ the King and are
appointed to rule this earth forever in their imperfect way in order to keep the sea of humanity calm
and in check, then you can be sure that such utterance is inspired by the demons and has hopped out
of the mouth of the visible organization of Satan the
Devil, "the god of this world." When you test the
utterance of the Anglo-American political combina-

tion that declares our civilization is best for mankind

and that the United Nations is the only hope of mankind and will succeed' and establish a lasting peace
and justice and universal brotherhood, then you can
be sure such prophecy is demon-inspired and hopped
out of the mouth of the "false prophet". None of such
three "spirits" are of God, because not one of such
spirits or inspired utterances agrees with the spirit
or inspired utterance from God. The testing of them
by God's written Word proves it.
T As to the manner of testing, the apostle John goes
on to say: "Hereby know ye the spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye
have heard that it should come; and even now already
is it in the world." (1 John 4 : 2, 3) Once again modern
translation presents the meaning of the apostle's
words in a sensible, understandable and Scriptural
way, as follows : ''You can tell the spirit of God
in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges
that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes
ff!lm God, and any inspired utterance that does not
acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the
inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that
it was coming, and here it is already in the world."
-1 John 4: 2, 3, An Amer. Trans.
8 Back-there in those apos10lic times, nineteen hundred years ago, it was of antichristian inspiration
for anyone to deny that Jesus had come to earth as
a man and suffered and died and been raised from
the dead. So now, in this twentieth century, it is
equally of unchristian inspiration for men of this
world to say that Jesus Christ does not need to come
as King to rule the earth; but that politicians,
together with clergymen as spiritual advisers, can
govern the earth for themselves, and that all we need
is, not Jesus Christ in his rightful kingdom power,
but merely a United Nations or a Federated World
or a man-made Federal World Government. Leaders
in Christendom are foremost in making such utterances, but their being of Christendom does not mean
such utterances are Christian and are inspired by
the spirit of God and cannot be of demon-inspiration.
By what test do we know for certain that they are of
antichrist and are not inspired by God's spirit' By
testing such utterances with what is taught in the
Bible. And why with the Bible 1 Because the Bible
was produced by means of the spirit of Jehovah God,
and so anything contrary to Bible teachings would
be contrary to the spirit of God.
e The apostle Peter shows the necessary part that
God's spirit performed in producing the Bible by
saying: "No prophecy of scripture is of private inter-

4, 5. What are the splrlta that we must test1 &nd why test them?
6. Ho\\ are the three spirits like frogs proved to be not of God 1

7. 8. How do we prove today which s!lints are of antlchrlst?

II. With what benefit do we use the Bible as the touchstone?

JUNE

1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER.

pretation. For no prophecy ever came b)T the will of

man: but men spake from God, being moved by the
holy spirit." (2 Pet. 1: 20, 21, Am. Stan. Ver.) All

165

persons who use the Bible as the touchstone to try

the spirits will safeguard themselves against deception and will preserve their eternal interests.

OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

N PREVIOUS. issues of The Watchtower it has
been proved at some length by the Bible that the
"holy spirit" that moved the Bible writers is not
a person. It is not the "third person" of a religious
"trinity", but is the invisible active force of Almighty
God; and this active force or energy proceeds from
God and through his Son Jesus Christ. To prove
this it has been necessary to test or try the spirit,
the inspiration, of the "trinity" doctrine to see
whether it is of God or of the demons. By testing the
doctrine against the Word of God it has been proved
to be demon-inspired and antichristian and anti-God.
Nevertheless, many persons will ask, If the holy
spirit is not an intelligent person but is God's invisible active force used by him to accomplish his will,
how is it that the Bible speaks of the holy spirit as
hearing, talking, teaching, interceding and performing other operations of a personality' Hence, for the
benefit of readers who are still troubled by such
Bible expressions concerning the spirit, we take up
a consideration of the Scripture texts involved.
2 Not a single text can be produced that says the
holy spirit is God, but many Scripture texts do show
that the holy spirit is associated with God, issues
forth from him, and brings his will to pass. Jesus
said: "God is a spirit: and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John
4: 24) That means God is an invisible, active, powerful Person, and not a material person like us humans.
But that is not the same as saying that 'the holy
spirit is God and is one with God and of the same
substance and equal in power and glory with God',
as trinitarians unscripturally claim. Trinitarians put
two scriptures alongside and say that such two scriptures together prove the holy spirit is .J ehovah God.
The conclusions the trinitarians draw do violence to
the rest of the Bible and put senseless confusion and
contradiction into that harmonious and reasonable
Book. Without straining or wresting the Scriptures,
what the Bible says concerning the operations of the
holy spirit of God can be sensibly explained in harmony with all the other scriptures. Let us now test
this statement out.

holy spirit after he was resurrected from the dead.

He spol{e of this spirit as "the comforter, helper, or
advocate". According to An American Translation,
he said: "And I will ask the Father and he will give
you another Helper to be with you always. It is the
Spirit of Truth. The world cannot obtain that Spirit,
because it does not see it or recognize it; you recognize it because it stays with you and is within you."
"I have told you this while I am still staying with
you, but the Helper, the holy Spirit which the Father
will send in my place, will teach you everything and
remind you of everything that I have told you."
"When the Helper comes whom I will send to you
from the Father-that Spirit of Truth that comes
from the Father-he will bear testimony to me, and
you must bear testimony too, because you have been
with me from the first." "If I do not go, the Helper
will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to
you. When he comes, he will bring conviction to the
world about sin and uprightness and judgment; I
have much more to tell you, but you cannot take it
in now, but when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will
guide you into the full truth, for he will not speak
for himself but will tell what he hears, and will
announce to you the things that are to come. He will
Jo honor to me, for he will take what is mine and
communicate it to you. All that the Father has
belongs to me. That is why I said that he will take
what is mine and communicate it to you."-John
14: 16, 17, 25, 26; 15: 26, 27; 1G: 7, 8, 12-l!'5; also
Rother-ham.
If the holy spirit were the third person of a
"trinity" and were equal in power and glory with
Jesus, why could it not cOPle to Jesus' disciples without his first going away and leaving them 1 and why
would the holy spirit have to wait to be sent by
Jesus' The reason is that the holy spirit is not such
a coequal, co-powerful person, but is the invisible
active force proceeding from God. In tne same discourse Jesus said: "The servant is not greater than
his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that
sent him." This proves that the holy spirit which is
sent is not equal to Jesus the Sender. (John 13: 16)
COMFORTER
Because this invisible, holy, active force would be
S A few hours before dying on the tree Jesus Christ
a comfort, help and support to the disciples Jesus
the Son of God promised to send his disciples the spoke of it as a ((comforter", ((helper," or ((advocate".
.. See The Watchtower of June 15, 1944, pages 179-187; and In the Greek text of the Bible the word for "comof August 15, 1944, pages 247-252; and of March 1, 1948, forter", "helper," or ((advocate" is in the masculine
p~g,:~-76.
gender, and hence Jesus would refer to it with the
1. By testing the "trinity" doctrine, what has been proved?
2. How do trinitarians show the holy spirit Is God~ but falsely?
3. In his last discourse. what did Jesus say of the noly spirit?

. Why did Jeaue refer to luch holy eplrlt with the pronoun he'

166

mieWATCHTOWER

masculine pronoun "he". However, in the Greek text

the word for "spirit" is in the neuter gender, and
hence the Bible speaks of the holy spirit as "it".
$ After his resurrection and ascension to heaven
J ~s':s was not to be personally or bodily with his
dIscIples; and, therefore, by means of this invisible
a~ti!e force projected fr~m heaven down upon his
dISCIples he would help, mstruct, and guide them.
How he could do this at such a distance as at the
right hand of his Father in heaven is easier to understand now that we are in the atomic age, with its use
of radio broadcasting, television, bouncing radar
beams off the moon, the discovery of cosmic rays
from unknown sources away out in space the harnessing of atomic energy. All these moder~ developments disclose to us how marvelous unseen forces
can be directed by scientific minds knowing how to
control them and having the means or equipment for
it. What man has accomplished in these fields does
not compare with all the power Jesus has in heaven
and earth since his resurrection.-:Matt. 28: 18.
S Remember what Jesus said to his disciples about
the holy spirit comforter as we now consider its
operations described for us in the book of Acts of
the Apostles. When telling of the coming of this holy
spirit comforter to them, Jesus did not speak of it as
a person, but spoke of it as an active force, energy.
He said: "I send forth the promise of my Father
upon you: but tarry ye in the city [Jerusalem], until
ye be clothed with power from on high." "But ye
shall receive power, when the holy spirit is come
upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses." (Luke
24: 49 and Acts 1: 8, Am. Stan. Ver.) Likewise, when
the disciple Luke tells of the sending down of holy
spirit upon the disciples waiting there at Jerusalem
on the day of the feast of Pentecost, he describes it
as energy rather than as a person. Notice the language of his account: "And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven, like a violent wind rushing; and
it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And
divided tongues appeared to them, like fire, and one
rested on each one of them. And they were all filled
with holy spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them utterance." (Acts
2: 1-4, The Emphatic Diaglott; Rotherham) When explaining afterward what had just taken place, Peter
also emphasizes the thought of power rather than of
personrrlity for the holy spirit. He says: "God raised
up this Jesus, of which we all are witnesses. Having
been, therefore, exalted to the right hand of God, and
having received from the Father the promise of the
holy spirit, he poured out tlus which you both see
and hear."-Acts 2: 32, 33, Diaglott.
T Any idea of the holy spirit as an intelligent,
5. What (ooay helns WI to understand how Jesus uses the aplrlt?
6. How do Jesus, Luke atld Peter reter to the spirit's deacent?
7, 8. How does the trinity doctrine make their language laughable?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

corporeal person, the "third person of the mas t

blessed trinity", makes the language of Luke and
Peter laughable. In all seriousness try to imagine a
corporeal person splitting himself up and distributing himself bit by bit to the hundred and twenty
disciples, and thus all of them being filled with this
corporeal personality. In all soberness think of
Jesus' receiving from his heavenly Father this holy
spirit "person" and then pouring him out or shedding
him forth like liquid fire upon a hundred and twenty
men and women so as to fill them. 'Pouring out' is
God's own way of expressing it at Joel 2: 28, 29, the
prophecy which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost.
S Getting filled with the holy spirit was not to be
confined to the first hundred and twenty, but, as
Peter said to the multitude before him: "Reform,
and let each of you be immersed in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you, will
receive the gift of the holy spirit. For the promise is
to you and to your children, and to ALL who are far
off, as many as the Lord our God may call." (Acts
2: 16-18, 38, 39, Diaglott) The Scriptural number of
144,000, who make up the complete Christian congregation or "body of Christ", all receive that spirit, and
they are exhorted: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess; but be filled with the spirit." z'For by one
spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and
have been all made to drink into one spirit [saturated
with one spirit]."-Eph. 5: 18; 1 Cor. 12: 13; All
Amer. Trans.
g All such is not language befitting an intell.igent,
corporeal person, for it would be unreasonable and
not understandable. But when we face the fact that
God's holy spirit is lUs invisible active force by
which he can operate upon matter and mind and
accomplish his will, then the language become:::
simple and comprehensible to us. This makes it reasonable for the Christian congregation, the "body of
Christ" of 144,000 members, to be the temple of God.
Being such a temple does not mean that God personally or bodily dwells in the fleshly bodies of the
members of this spiritual temple, for that would be
destructive. Jehovah God told Moses: "Thou canst
not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and
live." (Ex. 33: 20) If the mere sight of God would
be destructive to a human creature, how, then, could
a man have God occupy him bodily and live! :Man
could not. Not according to what Stephen said:
"Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith
the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my
footstool: what house will ye build me f saith the
Lord: or what is the place of my rest 1 Hath not my
hand made all these things 1" And Paul said: "God
9-11. (a) Why does God not dwell bodily In the church ns a temple:
(b) How does God dweil In It, and with what ell'ect?

.JUNE 1, 1948

SlieWATCHTOWER

that made the world and all things therein, seeing

that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in
temples made with hands." (Acts 7:47-50; 17:24)
Hence the way that the Most High God dwells in the
Christian congregation as his temple is by means of
his holy spirit, his active force which is devoted to
holy purposes. To this effect we read the following
quotations:
10 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you T If any
man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy;
for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
(1 Cor. 3: 16, 17) And to this temple class, which is
the "body of Christ", it is further written: "Know ye
not that your body is a temple of the holy spirit
which is in you, which [spirit] ye have from God 1
and ye are not your o'\"'n; for ye were bought with
a price: glorify God therefore in your body." (1 Cor.
6: 19, 20, Am. Stan. Ver.) "You are built upon the
apostles and prophets as your foundation, and
Christ .Jesus himself is the cornerstone. Through
him every part of the building is closely united and
grows into a temple sacred through its relation to
the Lord, and you are yourselves built up into a
dwelling for God THR01JGH THE SPffiIT." (Eph.
2: 20-22, AnAmer. Tran.s.) "No man hath seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in
us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we
that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath
given us of his spirit."-1 John 4: 12, 13.
11 Compare these scripture quotations and relate
them together; and yet no honest person can claim
they say the holy spirit is God, a personal God. The
whole force of these scriptures is to show God does
not directly, in a bodily way, dwell in the Christian
congregation as his temple, but he does so by filling
it with his holy spirit, his invisible energy. In this
way it is true that "God is he who is working effectually among you, both to will and to perform, on
account of his benevolence".-Phil. 2: 13, Diaglott.
SPEAKL~G,

HEARI:'\G, TEACHING, REMmDING

Luke's account regarding the hundred and

twenty disciples on the day of Pentecost says that
"the spirit gave them utterance", to speak foreign
languages. (Acts 2: 4) God through Jesus Christ at
his right hand poured out his spirit upon them. He
radioed it do:\v.n upon them, thereby causing them to
utter speech in foreign phrase, just as a radio transmitting station can make loud-speakers of radio sets
in millions of homes produce speech, music and
sounds when such sets are turned on, dialed, and
tuned in on the radio station many miles away.
Whatever the electrical energies or impulses pick up
at the radio station, or, so to speak, whatever they
"hear" at the station, they send out to the radio
12

l:!. Bow clIn 'ire illustrate the

~plrlt's

hearing and speaking?

167

receiving sets, causing such sets to speak accordingly. In like manner, whatever the spirit of God lz,ears,
that the spirit speaks to the disciples, and it shows
them things to come and reminds them of what Jesus
said or did. Then those disciples upon whom the
spirit operates speak the things the spirit has heard
or picked up from God. They speak prophecies or
whatever the spirit has to teach them. The spirit or
active force emanating from God is the means of
transmission by which He conveys teaching, prophecy, or foreign-language powers to his receptive,
obedient servants on earth. Just as the electrical
impulses from the radio television station send out
and project a moving vision upon the video screen
of a far-off television set, the spirit of God could
even more easily produce a vision before the eyes of
his prophets on earth.
1S In many texts the Scriptures testify to the operation of the spirit or active force of God in this way.
Peter says: "Brethren, it was needful that the scripture should be fulfilled, which the holy spirit spake
before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who
was guide to them that took Jesus." (Acts 1: 16,
Am. Stan. Ver.) As to the spirit's speaking by David,
Jesus said this: "How then doth David in spirit [or,
by inspiration] call him Lord, saying, The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies thy footstool." (Matt. 22: 43, 44; Diaglott) "For David himself said, by the holy spirit,
'Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet.' David
himself, therefore, calls him Lord." (Mark 12: 36, 37,
Diaglott ) Jesus' disciples also declared God's spirit
spoke by David, for they prayed to God, saying:
"Who by the holy spirit, by the mouth of our father
David thy servant, didst say, Why did the Gentiles
rage, and the peoples imagine vain things 1" (Acts
4: 25, Am. Stan. Ver.) Even David himself test.ifies
that God moved him to speak prophetically by means
of His holy spirit, for David confessed: "The spirit
of Jehovah spake by me, and his word was upon my
tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel
spake to me." (2 Sam. 23: 2, 3, Am. Stan. Ver.) The
holy spirit did not in itself speak, as if it were a
person, but this active force of God spoke by means
of the intelligent person upon whom it acted. Thus
God, by means of his spirit, spoke through such
inspired person.
14 The apostle Paul calls attention to the same
method of operation of the spirit. Concerning the
visit the Jews paid him as a prisoner in Rome, we
read: "And when they agreed not among themselves,
they departed after that Paul had spoken one word,
Well spake the holy spirit through Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers, saying, Go thou unto this
13. How was It that Kln~ Davld spoke prophetically?
14. Why does Paul say the spirit spoke by Isaiah and Psalm 05?

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~eWATCHTOWER.

people, and say, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall

in no wise understand." (Acts 28: 25, 26, Am. Stan.
Ver.) In his book of Rebrews Paul quotes Psalm
95: 7-11, and says: "Wherefore, even as the holy
spirit saith, To-day if ye shall hear his voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the
day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers
tried me . . . They shall not enter into my rest."
(Reb. 3: 7-11, Am. Stan. Ver.) Who wrote Psalm 95
we do not know. Renee we cannot say that in Psalm
95 the spirit spake by so-and-so. The main point is
that the psalmist was inspired to speak by God's
spirit, and so Paul explains it by saying "the holy
spirit saith". The real speaker talking about entering
into rest is Jehovah God, but he used his holy spirit
to express himself through the anonymous writer
of Psalm 95.
15 Once again, to show that the human creature
was not speaking his own mind, but spoke under
divine inspiration, Paul quotes Jeremlah's prophecy,
and says: "Moreover, the holy spirit also testifies
this to us, for after it had said, 'This is the covenant
which I will covenant with them; After those days,
says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts,
and on their minds will I inscribe them;' [it adds,]
'and their sins and iniquities I will remember no
more.''' (Reb. 10: 15-17, Diaglott) By his spirit God
also inspired the prophet Moses to arrange the ceremonies at the sacred tabernacle. Therefore Paul
says: "The holy spirit this signifying, that the way
into the holy place hath not yet been made manifest,
while the first tabernacle is yet standing."-Heb.
9: 8, Am. Stan. Ver.
1ft Both Jeremiah and Moses spoke and acted under
the power of the holy spirit, and so Paul gives the
credit for their prophecies to the spirit, and not to
the men. The spirit proceeded forth from Jehovah
God. It was beamed down upon Moses and Jeremiah.
This made it, in reality, Jehovah God that was
prophesying. Jeremiah's prophecy actually tells us
it was Jehovah promising the new covenant. But
under no circumstances do Paul's words about Moses
and Jeremiah require us to say that the holy spirit
is Jehovah God and that Paul upholds the trinitarian
formula, "God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost, three persons in one God."
17 Peter and his. fellow apostles, when on trial
before the Jewish Sanhedrin or Supreme Court in
Jerusalem, used language like Paul's concerning the
holy spirit, when they said: "And we are witnesses
of these things,-also the holy spirit which God hath
given unto them who are yielding obedience unto
him." (Acts 5: 32, Rotherhamj An Amer. Trans.;
Moffatt) Peter, the apostles and the holy spirit were
15. IG. Quoting th!'lr prol,hecles, why does Paul refer to tb!' hoi)'
Bpillt rather than to JerelOlab and Moses?
l'l Why did Peter declare tbe spirit testified before tbe Sanhedrin?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

witnesses. Peter and the other apostles were intelligent persons, but because the holy spirit is said to
be a witness with those men, it does not demand the
conclusion that the holy spirit is therefore also a
person. No more so than its being associated with
Jeremiah or other prophets made the spirit an intelligent person. Peter and his fellows witnessed about
Jesus, but they told the Sanhedrin they were testifying these things under the power of God's spirit,
and thereby the holy spirit was with them in testifying these things. God backed them up by his spirit
in all they were testifying. So the Sanhedrin should
have accepted it.
SPIRIT, WATER AND BLOOD
18 John, who was with Peter before the Sanhedrin,
says of Jesus: "This is he who came by water and
blood,-Jesus the Anointed one; not by the water
only, but by the water and by the blood; and the
spirit is that which testifies, because the spirit is the
truth. For there are three which testify; the spirit,
and the water, and the blood; and the three are for
one [or, are witnesses to one thing]. If we receive the
testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater;
for this is the testimony of God that he has testified
concerning his Son." (1 John 5: 6-9, Diaglott j Rotherham) Because the water and the blood testify or bear
witness, no sane man will argue that the water and
the blood are two persons. They are just as impersonal as is the holy spirit. John does not say the
spirit is a person or is God, but "is the truth". J ehovah God anointed Jesus with holy spirit; and since
God used the spirit as an anointing upon Jesus, it
proves that the spirit is not a person, It is God's
active force with which he approved Jesus as his
Son and commissioned him to act as Christ the
Messiah.-Acts 10: 38.
lG In the light of other texts, the "water" by which
Jesus came does not refer to the water of his baptism
nor the water that came from his side when pierced
on the tree, but refers to God's Word that Jesus
preached. (Eph. 5: 26) The blood points to his death
as a human sacrifice. 'The spirit was the invisible
energy with which he was anointed. Well, then, what
was the one thing on which all three agree, bearing
witness togetherT The water, blood and spirit agreed
in bearing witness to the fact that "Jesus is the Son
of God". The spirit with which Jesus was anointed
came from his Father. That being so, then it was
God who, by means of his spirit, was giving witness
respecting his Son Jesus Christ. The blood that
Jesus had in his human organism on earth testified
he was God's Son, because his human birth was not
by man's begettal but by the life-giving power of
Jehovah God. Most of the Word of God was written

18. 19. (a) In testlfylnlZ wltb tbe water and tbe blood wby was not
tbe spirit a person 'I (b) "'hat do these tbree unitedly testify?

J:UNE

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mleWATCHTOWER..

before Jesus' human birth, and all this Word of God

also testified that the Christ would be the Son of God.
D At Pentecost the glorified Jesus in heaven began
pouring out the holy spirit upon his disciples on
earth. There the prophecy of Jesus went into fulfillment, as we read, at John 7: 37-39: ''In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water. (But this spake he of the spirit, which
they that believe on him should receiVE!: for the holy
ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not
yet glorified)." The words of Jesus here about the
holy spirit are far from teaching that the holy spirit
is a corporeal person, even if the King James Version translators did render the same Greek word
pneuma first spirit and right afterward ghost in the
same verse (39).
21 Further showing the spirit is no person but is
an active force from God the Holy One, John speaks
of this outpoured spirit as an unction or anointing.
He says this anointing teaches those having it.
Notice: "And ye have an anointing [chrisma, Greek]
from the Holy One, and ye know all things. And as
for you, the anointing [chrisma] which ye received
of him abideth in you, and ye need not that anyone
teach you; but as his anointing [chrisma] teacheth
you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie,
and even as it taught you, ye abide in him. And now,
my little children, abide in him; that, if he shall be
manifested, we may have boldness, and not be
ashamed before him at his coming." (1 John 2: 20, 27,
28, Am. Stan. Ver.) It is God the Holy One that
anointed them with his spirit through Jesus Christ,
and thus it is God that has taught and is teaching
them by means of the spirit of his anointing. To continue to receive such teaching by means of His spirit,
Christians must abide in God, in unity with him. Then
he will not remove his spirit from them. The spirit
does not have to be an intelligent corporeal person
for them to be thus taught, but whatever God sends
them on the carrier wave of his spirit, that is what
they are taught.-See 1 Samuel 16 : 13, 14 and 18: 12.
JUDGING, WARNING
Z2 Trinitarians use Peter's words in Acts, chapter 5,
to support their teaching that the holy spirit is God
and a personal member of a "trinity". So let us read
Acts 5: 3, 4, 9, 10: "But Peter said, Ananias, why
hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the holy spirit,
and to keep back part of the price of the land' While
it remained, did it not remain thine own' and after
it was sold, was it not in thy power' How is it that
thou hast conceived this thing in thy heart' thou hast

20. When and how ",us .John 7' 37-39 fulfilled'

21. How does 1 John 2::W, 27, 28 show the spirit Is not a person?
~. Whv does Act. 5: 3, 4, 9, 10 not menn the spirit 1s a per.on?

169

not lied unto men, but unto God." Later, after

Ananias dropped dead for lying, Sapphira his wif('
came before Peter and upheld her husband in his lie.
We read: "But Peter said unto her, How is it that
ye have agreed together to try the spirit of the Lord!
behold, the feet of them that have buried thy husband
are at the door, and they shall carry thee out. And
she fell down immediately at his feet, and gave up
the ghost [or, expired]." (Am. Stan. Ver.; Rotherham) Peter was anointed and filled with the holy
spirit. This clothed him with the power of crime
detection. Hence when Ananias and Sapphira lied
to Peter, they lied in fact to the holy spirit within
Peter and were testing out the power of the spirit
within him. Moreover, as that spirit was from God
and as He was their Judge, Ananias and his wifE'
were lying to God. His eyes have more than television
powers, and run to and fro throughout the earth,
beholding the evil and the good. (Prov. 15: 3) TherE'
is no Scriptural foundation for reading trinitarian
nonsense into Peter's words, to twist them into saying that the holy spirit is a person.
28 If we followed trinitarian reasoning, we would
be compelled to believe that the holy spirit is an
angel. How so, By comparing verses 26, 29 and 39
of Acts, chapter eight. Philip the evangelist had just
finished a good work of preaching in Samaria, and,
we read, "the angel of the Lord spake. unto Philip,
saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way
that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is
desert." Obeying this command from the Lord's
angel, Philip encountered a chariot being driven
along with an Ethiopian eunuch in it reading Isaiah'b
prophecy. Here we read: "Then the spirit said unto
Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot."
After Philip got in and preached Jesus Christ to the
eunuch and baptized him, then, as we read, "when
they were come up out of the water, the spirit of thE'
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him
no more." (Acts 8: 26, 29, 39) In the first instance.
the angel of the Lord is said to speak directly to
Philip. In the next instance, where it is written that
"the spirit said unto Philip", it is not described
whether this was by the angel visibly or invisibly
or by direct spiritual communication.
2f In corresponding fashion,
in the days of thc
judges of Israel, an angel of God appeared to Gideon,
gave the divine message, and disappeared. In fear
Gideon said : "Alas, 0 Lord Jehovah! forasmuch as
I have seen the angel of Jehovah face to face. And
Jehovah said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not:
thou shalt not die." (Judg. 6: 22, 23, Am. Stan. Ver.)
After the angel's disappearance Jehovah spoke
peaceably to Gideon, either by the angel from the
angel's invisible station or directly by means of his
23, 24 Why does Acts 8: 26. 20, 39 not show the splnt .8 an angel?

170

3"fi.eWATCHTOWER.,

active force, the holy spirit. Likewise with Philip.

When the spirit told Philip to join himself to the
eunuc~'s chariot, it may have been the invisible angel
speakmg under the power of God's spirit. This understanding does away with any need to personalize the
spirit or to say the spirit is an angel. After the
eunuch was baptized the spirit of Jehovah "caught
away Philip", not by transporting him bodily through
the air, but by moving him quickly and without
further delay to leave the vicinity and head for
Ashdod (Azotus).
25 If we appreciate the way God dealt with Gideon
and Philip, it helps us to understand the way he may
have dealt with others, as, for example, with Peter
and the congregation at Antioch in Syria. About
twenty-one hours after God's angel had appeared to
Cornelius at Caesarea on the :Mediterranean sea, an
operation of the spirit took place toward Peter at
Joppa on the seacoast about thirty miles south of
Caesarea. By means of television and tele-communication powers Almighty God caused Peter to see a
vision and hear a voice of command. While Peter
was thinking on the meaning of it all. three men from
Cornelius of Caesarea arrived.
'
26 Now we
read: "'While Peter thought on the
vision, the spirit said unto him, Behold, three men
seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down and
go with them, doubting nothing: for I have'sellt
them." (Acts 10: 3, 19, 20; 11: 13) But Acts 10: 3-7
says the angel of God told Cornelius to send those
three men to Peter. So, when the spirit told Peter
to go along with them, God doubtless put his spirit
upon this same angel and used such angel to instruct
Peter what to do. When Peter later said to his brethren at Jerusalem, "And the spit'it bade me go with
them, nothing doubting," we can be sure he was not
thinking of the holy spirit as a personal member of
a trinitarian "godhead". Especially so, as Peter went
on to tell of his Bible talk to the household of Cornelius, and added: "And as I began to speak, the holy
spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning.
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he
said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall
be bl:J.ptized with the holy spirit." (Acts 11: 12,15,16;
Am. Stan. Ver., margin) "The holy spirit fell on all
them that heard the word. And they of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came
with Pemt, because that on the Gentiles also was
poured out the gift of the holy spirit. For they heard
them speak with tongues, and magnify God." (Acts
10: 44-46, Am. Stan. Ver.) How could Peter sanely
think of the holy spirit as being a corporeal person
and, as such, falling upon all of Cornelius' household
and being poured out as a gift like oil upon them T
lIe could not have had such a thought.
2!\, 26. Why does Actr 10 not show the holy spirit Is a person?

BROOKLYN, ~.

Y.

21 As for the congregation at Antioch, for more

than a year Paul and Barnabas had assembled with
that company and acted as teachers. (Acts 11: 22-26)
The account tells ns: "Now there were at Antioch,
in the church that was there, prophets and teachers,
Barnabas, ... and Saul. And as they ministered to
the Lord, and fasted, the holy spirit said, Separate
me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I
have called them.... So they, being sent forth by
the holy spirit, went down to Seleucia." (Acts 13: 1-4,
Am. Stan. V er.) Verse 9 speaks of "Saul, who is also
called Paul, filled with the holy spirit". Just what
personal agency the holy spirit used here to give
orders respecting Paul and Barnabas is not stated.
It may have been an angel from heaven, as when
sending three men from Cornelius to Peter; or it
may have been a prophet of the Antioch congregation. The prophet Agabus could have spoken under
the power of the holy spirit, for we read: "And in
these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto
Antioch. And there stood up one of them named
Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should
be great dearth throughout all the world: which came
to pass in the days of Claudius Cresar." (Acts
11: 27, 28) Consequently, since the orders to send
ont Paul and Barnabas as missionaries were gh-en
under the power of God's holy spirit, these two men
were, indeed, sent forth by the holy spirit, although
the spirit is not a person.
2S To remind his hearers that he spoke under the
pow~r of the spirit of God, the prophet Agabus said
it was not he himself, but was the holy spirit speaking. mIen Paul with Luke reached Caesarea, the
following took place: "There came down fro111 Jucla~a
a certain prophet, named Agabus. And coming to us,
and taking Paul's girdle, he bound his own feet and
hands, and said, Thus saith the holy spirit, So shall
the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this
girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the
Gentiles." (Acts 21: 10, 11, Am. Stan. Ver.) Quite
reasonably, communications like this by prophets
inspired by the holy spirit were what Paul meant
when he said just before this to the elders from the
congregation at Ephesus: "And now, behold, I go
bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the
things that shall befall me there: save that the holy
spirit testijieth unto me in every city, saying that
bonds and afilictions abide me." (Acts 20: 22, 23, Am.
Stan. Ver.) In support of this understanding of the
matter, Luke tells us what happened when Paul
landed at Tyre: "And :finding disciples, we tarried
seven days: who said to Paul throngh the spirit, that
he should not go up to Jerusalem." (Acts 21: 4)
Paul's encounter with Agabus followed shortly after
this. All this explains how the holy spirit, although

27. How did the spirit speak to send tortb Paul and Barnabas?
28. Row /lTd the spfrlt testify to Paul about visiting Jeru<alem?

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mieWATCHTOWER

not being a person but merely divine active force,

could be said to speak, testify and warn.
SETTING, FORBIDDING, DECIDING

On the occasion of Paul's meeting with the abovementioned elders of Epnesus, he said to them: "Be
taking heed unto yourselves and unto all the little
flock in which the holy spirit hath set you as overseers,-to be shepherding the assembly of God which
he hath acquired through means of the blood of his
own." (Acts 20: 28, Rotherham; Diaglott) More than
two and a half )'ears prior to this Paul baptized
twelve believing men at Ephesus, and thereby helped
to build up the congregation at that city. For two
years and three months he preached and taught at
Ephesus. At other cities Paul and Barnabas had
appointed elder brothers to positi?ns of servic~ in
the congregations, and he wrote TImothy and TItus
to appoint elder brothers to positions of overseer
and assistant in the congregations under their care.
(Acts 14: 23; 1 Tim. 3: 1-14; Titus 1: 5.9) Now Paul
was a member of the governing body of the church
of the first century, and he was filled with the
holy spirit. If he or some other authorized person
appointed overseers in the congregation at Ephesus,
then it could truthfully be said that "the holy spirit
hath set you as overseers". All appointments of men
were made under the power of the holy spirit, and
the credit should be given to it, and not to human
instruments through whom the spirit worked.
30 The Lord God exercised his spirit or active force
{Treatly toward the apostle Paul, to direct his move
~ents, utterances and writings. On his second
missionary tour he was inclined to go at first into
the province of Asia of which Ephesus was capital,
and afterward to turn eastward toward the province
of Bithynia, but here Almighty God intervened by
his spirit. We read of Paul, Silas and Timothy: "And
they \yent through the region of Phrygia and Galatia,
haring been forbidden of the holy spirit to speak
the word in Asia; and when they were come over
against Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; ~nd
the spirit of Jesus suffered them not; and passmg
by Mysia, they came down to Troas." Here at Troas
Paul had the night vision, directing him to turn westward to Enrope with his missionary work. "And
when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought
to go fortb into Macedonia, concluding that God had
called us to preach the gospel unto them." (Acts
16: 6-10, A.m. Stan. Ve,..) The details are not given
of how the holy spirit forbade that missionary group
to preach in the province of Asia and did not permit
them to go into the province of Bithynia. While such
details might have been helpful to our understanding of how God's spirit acted in a forbidding and
2.

29. How did the spIrit sjlt overseers in the church at Ephellus?
30. How did !t.e spirit rorbld and prennt Paul's movements?

preventive manner, the account of its operations in

other instances helps us to understand, without falling into trinitarian pitfalls. As in other cases, the
spirit was free to operate through angel, vision or
human prophet or directly with no intermediary.
That vision steering Paul westward to Europe was
by the spirit. Hence by it God called him west.
31 Some time before this vision Paul and Barnabas,
home from their first missionary tour, went up to
Jerusalem to attend a conference with the apostles
and elder brothers there. To help the conference out
of the difficulty over the question of circumcising
Gentile believers, the disciple James quoted the
inspired writing of the prophet at Amos 9: 11, 12
(Septuagint Version), and said: "Simeon [Peter]
hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gen
tiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And
to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is
written, After this I will return, ... that the residue
of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord.
who doeth all these things." (AGts 15: 14-17) Seeing
that God had poured out his spirit npon Gentiles
without their first being circumcised, and seeing
this was in fulfillment of prophecy, the conference
decided not to require circumcision of Gentiles, and
wrote a letter addressed to them, saying: "It seemed
good to the holy spirit, and to us, to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary things: that
ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and froll!
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication." (Acts 15: 28, 29, A.m. Stan. .ver.) If the holy
spirit was not an intelligent person, how could thi~
seem good to the holy spirit as well as to the special
conference of Christians' How could such impersonal holy spirit and those Christian men decide
the matted
32 In this way: Peter, Paul and Barnabas had done
their works among the Gentiles by the power of the
spirit of God. To support their work, the disciple
James under guidance of the holy spirit quoted
Amos 9: 11, 12. The prophet Amos, whose prophecy
was being fulfilled, had spoken and written as he was
moved by the spirit of God. Accordingly, what was
good and proper in the light of these operations of
the holy s.pirit became plain, and the holy spirit thus
helped in deciding the matter. The Christian conference did not decide the matter for itself, apart from
what the holy spirit showed was God's deciding will.
Those Christians in conference could well say concerning the mysterious things of God: "Unto us God
revealed them throngh the spirit: for the spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God....
the things of God none knoweth, save the spirit of
God. But we received ... the spirit which is from
31, 32. What did the special t'Onferenct! at

Jeru"al~m

wrIte Genttle-?

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3lieWATCHTOWER..

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God; that we might know the things that are freely to be free from sin and to do the will of God pergiven to us of God. Which things also we speak, not fectly. But the hope that God by his spirit has imin words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the planted in their hearts helps them to bear up and
spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with not to be overcome with discouragement. The spirit
spiritual words." (1 Cor. 2: 10-13, Am. Stan. Ver.) thus helps our weaknesses or infirmities, counterLike them, we can profitably learn things from the balancing the effect of these upon us. Our inward
way the spirit operates.
groans or sighs often remain unexpressed, unuttered,
because we do not understand our situation and we
TESTIFYING, INTERCEDING
are at a loss what to express. We want to pray, but
33 Weare now prepared to understand how the
exactly what to pray for under certain circumstances
holy spirit testifies to persons who are spiritual chil- we do not know, and mere groans and sighing would
dren of God and how it intercedes for them. Paul, not help. It is here the spirit intercedes for US; not
under inspiration of the spirit, writes: "The spirit meaning, of course, that it is a person that must
itself testifies together with our spirit, that we are utter indescribable groans and sighs for us.
Ia How, then, does it intercede t In this way: God
children of God. And if children, also heirs; heirs,
indeed, of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if, foresaw and foretold our experiences as a Christian
indeed, we suffer together, so that we may be also congregation. In his Word, which is inspired by
glorified together.... but ourselves also, possessing means of his spirit, he foretold we would come into
the first-fruit of the spirit, even we ourselves groan certain situations. By that same spirit-inspired Word
within ourselves, waiting for sonship,-the redemp- he caused prophetic prayers to be recorded that fit
tion of our body. For we were saved by the hope; ... our situations. He caused prophecies to be recorded
And in like manner also the spirit assists our weak- that foretold how we should be brought up out of
ness; for we do not know what we should pray for such situations and be continued in his further servas we ought; but the spirit itself intercedes with ice. Because we do not understand the prophecies
'unspoken groans, and he who searches the hearts and prophetic prayers, we do not know exactly how
knows what is the mind of the spirit, because accord- to express ourselves and the right thing for which
ing to God it intercedes on behalf of saints."-Rom. to pray. If we understood the prophecies and the
immediate purposes of God, we should pray for just
8: 16, 17, 23-27, Diaglott; Rotherham.
that. But God knows his times and seasons, and he
3. Those Christians whom God has begotten to be
knows
what was written down in his Word through
his children as joint-heirs with Christ he has anointed
with His spirit. This anointing or unction teaches his spirit, and he knows how such written things
them, as above explained; and, by the things that it apply to us and when. He knows what is the mind
reveals to them from God's written Word, it bears of the spirit, or what is the meaning of those spiritwitness to them that they are God's spiritual chil- inspired prophecies and prayers, and he lets these
dren. It makes plain on the pages of the written intercede for us. He accepts these as being what we
Word of God that the promised Seed of Abraham in should like to ask and pray for, and, accordingly,
whom all the nations are to be blessed is Jesus Christ, he fulfills them. Afterward he reveals to us by the
.the Son of God. Also, those who become his footstep power of his spirit how these prophecies have been
followers are adopted by God to be his heirs with fulfilled toward us, and we see that it is just what
Jesus Christ the Seed, and thus they are made the we should have asked for, had we known and undersons of God. (Gal. 3: 8, 16, 27-29) By his revealed stood. The remnant of faithful Christians since
written Word God sets before these sons the hope of A.D. 1918 can particularly appreciate this fact.
37 All things considered, God's Word agrees with
being joined with Jesus in the heavenly kingdom.
Now, all of God's written Word was produced under itself on what the holy spirit is. By his Word we have
inspiration of His spirit (2 Tim. 3: 15-17); and so been testing the spirits, or inspired utterances of
by this Word it is really the holy spirit that is testi- these times, to prove whether they are of God or of
fying to these Christians that they are the begotten demons. We have proved that the religious utterchildren of God. Also, by the spirit's operations in ances regarding a "trinity" are inspired by the
their lives, just as in the lives of Peter, Paul and demons, under Satan their prince. On the other hand,
other disciples, the spirit bears further witness to we have proved that his holy spirit is the invisible
active force or energy by which Almighty God perthem concerning their sonship to God.
forms
his will. By the help received through the fore35 Owing to their bodily imperfections, weaknesses
may we be better informed on how to
going
articles
and inclinations to sin, these Christians groan or
try
the
spirits
in the future, that we may prove and
sigh deeply within themselves, because they desire
may accept only what is of God through Christ.
33. To whom does the spirit testify. and why Intercede for them?
34. How does the spirit bear witness to their being sons of God?
35. How does the spirit assist their weakness Or Infirmities?

36. How does the spirit Intercede, God knowing Its mind?
37. Summlnll: up, what has our teet proved as to trinity and spirit?

THE ATTEMPT TO CATHOLICIZE CHRISTIANITY

OT to the pagan city of Rome, but to the Syrian citJ-of Antioch goes the distinction of being where the
name "Christian" was first used. The disciple Luke,
the companion of the apostle Paul, writes, at Acts 11: 26 ;
"And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
That was about A.D. 41. Roman Catholic clergy claim that
the apostle Peter wrote his first epistle about A.D. 48; but
there is reason to believe he wrote it between A.D. 61 and
65. In this letter to his brethren in the provinces of Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia he indicates that
the name "Christian", which he uses at 1 Peter 4: 16, was
unpopular and that the name had spread from Antioch
throughout all those provinces and also to Babylon, in
Mesopotamia, from which Peter wrote this first epistle.
From "Christian" came the name "Christianity".
The Roman Catholic system of religion is one that designates Peter as its first pope and designates its beliefs and
practices as "the Christian religion". This system of religion
terms itself "Catholic", and the history of its religious
('fforts shows it has tried to Catholicize the true Christianity,
so that what Christianity is in actuality is now grossly misunderstood. Whatever true Christianity the religious leaders
of Roman Catholicism had, it is evident, even according to
the confession of their clergymen, that these earlJ-- leaders
fell away to demon religion, being themselves deceived and
also as leaders deceiving many others, so that today hundreds of millions are decei,-ed. What is here said in this
article is not for the purpose of ridiculing sincere Roman
Catholics of today. It is that the sincere people in the
Roman Catholic organization ma;r see and appreciate the
perilous position in which they have been put by their
clergymen or leaders in these days when the Holy Scriptures show demon spirits are going forth to the kings or
rulers of the whole earth to gather them and their subjects
to the universal war of Armageddon. (Apocalypse 16 : 14-16)
Those ignorantly practicing demon religion are exposed to
the danger of being led by these demons to their destruction
in the final war of Armageddon.
The Lord God specifically command~ that those who
serve him acceptably must serve him in spirit and in truth
and that they must avoid all manner of demon-worship or
demon religion. The Bible used chiefly by English-reading
Roman Catholics is the so-called "Douay Version", and from
this version the following Scripture verses are quoted, to
show that the Roman Catholic leaders have no reason to be
ignorant of God's commandments concerning demonism.
In the Ten Commandments the Lord God says this; "Thou
'lhalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make
to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that
is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those
things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt
not adore them, nor serve them; I am the Lord thy God,
mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me: and shewing mercy unto thousands to them that
love me, and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20: 3-6,
according to the Douay Version) If we do not keep this
commandment, we do not love the Lord God, the Father
of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Besides the foregoing commandment, note also the following quoted from the accepted Catholic Version; "Go not

aside after wizards [them that have familiar spirits; practitioners of demon religion], neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God."
(Lev. 19: 31) "The soul that shall go aside after magicians,
and soothsayers, and shall commit fornication with them,
I will set my face against that soul, and destroy it out of
the midst of its people." (Lev. 20: 6) "A man, or woman,
in whom there is a pythonical or divining spirit, dying let
them die: they shall stone them: their blood be upon them."
(Lev. 20: 27) ''Neither let there be found among you any
one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to
pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or
observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any
wizard, nor charmer, nor anyone that consulteth pythonic
spirits [or, oracular spirits], or fortune tellers, or that
seeketh the truth from the dead. For the Lord abhorreth
all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy
them at thy coming." (Deut. 18: 10-12) The Lord God has
not changed in his attitude toward all these things of
demon-worship, but still opposes and condemns them. In
none of his inspired writings by the Christian apostles and
disciples did He say that those demon-worshipers possessed
the archetypes, or prototypes, or crude representations of
great spiritual truths, and that' we can therefore adopt
their demonistic emblems, rites and ceremonies and combine
them with Christianity.
CONVICTED OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic religious system has

done these very things, as is admitted by their own authorities. Take, for example, the celebrated John Cardinal
Newman, who is most widely known for his religious song,
"Lead, Kindly Light." John Newman left the Anglican
religious organization and became a Roman Catholic, and
in the year 1879 pope Leo XIII created him a cardinal.
This was after the said Newman had written a book in
defense of Roman Catholicism entitled An Essay on the
Development of Christian Doctrine, to try to harmonize
Catholicism's adoption of demon-worship with Christianity.
From chapter 8 of that publication as issued in London,
England, by Pickering & Company in 1881, we quote to
show Catholicism's argument that it can assimilate demonism ,vithout hurt to Christianity, just as Aaron's rod which
had been turned into a serpent by God's power devoured
the rods of Egypt's magicians which had been turned into
serpents by the power of the demons. In this argument
Jerome and other Catholic authorities fail to note that
Aaron's serpent-rod devoured the serpent-rods of the magicians not to assimilate them and become demonized, but to
destroy them and to show that God was opposed to them,
and was superior to them. (Ex. 7: 8-13) This action was
no prophetic picture of how Christianity would incorporate
demon religion into itself without becoming demonized.
However, Cardinal Newman, calling his adopted Roman
Catholicism by the name "Christianity", goes on to show
the unscriptural reasoning by which the forbidden demonism has been adopted into the religious organization and
thereby millions of demon-worshipers have been taken in
as supposed "converts". Under the subheading "Assimilative Power", Cardinal Newman's Essay says, on page 371:
"Confiding in the power of Christianity to resist the infec-

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~eWATCHTOWER

tion of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and

appendages of DEMON-WORSHIP to an evangelical use, and
feeling also that these usages had originally come from
primitive revelations and from the instinct of nature,
though they had been corrupted; and that they must invent
what they needed, if they did not use what they found;
and that they were moreover possessed of the very archetypes, of which paganism attempted the shadows; the
rulers of the [Roman Catholic] Church from early times
were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or
imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the
populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class."
On page 373 of his Essay Cardinal Newman specifically
names some of the said "instruments and appendages of
demon-worship", when he writes the following: "The use of
temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and orna
mented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps,
and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy
water; asylums; holy-days and seasons, use of calendars,
processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments,
the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East,
images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and
the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified
by their adoption into the [Roman Catholic] Church."
Cardinal Newman might also have mentioned the adoption
of the "trinity" doctrine, and the doctrine of the "immortality of the human soul", and other doctrines of pagan
origination. But this learned clergyman has said enough,
so that there is no doubt from his testimony that the cere
monies practiced by the Roman Catholic religious system
originated with the deceitful demons; and that such ceremonies and practices were carried on by Pagan Rome and
adopted by the Roman Catholic religious organization.
Cardinal Newman attempts to picture this as the "development of Christian doctrine", but in reality he shows it to
be the death-dealing corruption of Christian doctrine. It certainly cannot be called "pure religion", or, "religion clean
and undefiled before God."-Jas. 1: 27; Douay Version.
Take another authoritative Roman Catholic publication,
the book The Faith of Our Fathers by the late American
cardinal, James Cardinal Gibbons, and which book is very
popular in American circles. In it the cardinal gives some
explanation of the Roman Catholic doctrine of "purgatory",
and then to uphold his attempted interpretation of the
Scriptures he says: "This interpretation is not mine. It is
the unanimous voice of the Fathers of Christendom." Note
that the cardinal does not say it is the voice of the apostles
of Jesus Christ. The cardinal accepts the private interpretation of the so-ealled "fathers of Christendom", and thereby
the cardinal shoves aside the inspired writing of the apostle
Peter, namely: ''Understanding this first, that no prophecy
of scripture is made by private interpretation. For prophecy
came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men
of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost."-2 Pet. 1: ~O,
21, Douay Version.
The apostle Peter taught no "purgatory" doctrine, nor
did any of his fellow apostles. The entire Bible, from Genesis
to the Apocalypse, flatly contradicts the "purgatory" doctrine as taught by the Roman Catholic organization and
copied from the Buddhist religion. This is proof conclusive
that such doctrine proceeds from the demons whose religion

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

the Lord God condemns in his Word. This Roman Catholic

(but not Christian) doctrine of "purgatory" is, in substance, this: 'That man possesses an immortal soul; that at
the time of the dissolution of the body at death only the
body dies, but this soul lives on forever; that the wicked
soul suffers eternal torment in the depths of hell; that all
Roman Catholic souls in purgatory, which is a place
supposed to be intermediate between hea,en and the depths
of hell, spend an indefinite time there; and that in purgatory the human soul is conscious but wholly unable to help
itself, although it can still pray for persons alive on the
earth; and that such soul, not by its own prayers but by
the prayers and masses of those on earth, may be saved
in the long process of time.'-See The Faith of Our Fathers,
chapter 16.
The artist Dore, copying the Italian poet Dante's descriptions in his poem on "Purgatory", drew many pictures
purporting to represent "purgatory", and some years ago
the motion picture industry produced a gruesome motion
picture based on Dante's poem on "Purgatory" for display
on the screen. But such poetic and artistic descriptions and
pictures could have originated only in the mind of a person
under the power and influence of the demons, and not under
the influence of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. That the
doctrine of purgatorial torments of the human soul after
death originated with the "prince of the demons", Satan the
Devil, is clearly shown by the sacred scriptures of the
Bible. These tell us of Satan's lie to Eve in Eden, when
he said to Eve: "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
(Gen. 3 : 1.5) This statement Satan made to Eve in response
to her answer to him that the Lord God, the Creator, had
commanded Adam and his wife not to eat of the forbidden
fruit. Satan then contradicted God, which act made Satan
a liar, and he told Eve that, when she did eat in disobedience to God, she would become "as gods" and would not
die. The yielding of Eve to that lie with the hope that she
and her husband might become "as gods" was the beginning
of demon religion among human creatures. The actual result
of yielding to Satan's contradiction of .Jehovah God was
that Adam and Eve were shortly thereafter condemned to
death, and in less than a thousand years they died and
returned to the dust of the ground from which they were
taken. That Satan the Devil thus brought about their death
by this religious means is clearly shown in Scripture.
-Rom. 5: 12; John 8: 44.
Satan, "the prince of the demons," is the adversary of
Jehovah God. The Bible contains the word of Almighty
God, which word of God is the truth. (John 17: 17; Ps.
119: 105) Any doctrine taught by men that contradicts the
Word of Almighty God is a lie, and such doctrine or lie
proceeds from the adversary, Satan the Devil, and his
associated demons. The doctrines and practices of the Catholic religious system are specifically contradicted by the
Bible. That is particularly true "with reference to "purgatory"; to the primacy of the pope; to the dead as being
more alive than ever; to prayers for the dead; to the doctrine and claim that the true church of God is founded upon
Peter; to holy water, to images and the veneration of those
canonized as "saints"; and to many other doctrines, rites

JUNE

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

and practices. These things, viewed from the pure, written

Word of God, prove that the Roman Catholic religion is
demonism. Sad to relate, by such practice of demonism
under the assumed name "Christianity" many credulous
people are led fully into the snare of the Devil and ulti

li5

mately into the destruction that awaits all the wicked,

deceitful demons and their prince. Those who seek the
salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ will faithfully stick to His pure Word of truth and will resist the
religious attempt to Catholicize Christianity.

AMOS PROPHESIES AMIDST OPPOSITION

MOS pastures his flocks between the fortress of Tekoa

in the mountains of Judah and the Salt sea. In his
solitude he often meditates on Jehovah's law and
prophecies, and never tires of seeing Jehovah's creation in
the heavens and on earth. Often he thinks of the surrounding nations, Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and
Moab and their cruelty and opposition to Jehovah's namepeople. It hurts him to think that even his own beloved
Judah has not always been a land wholly for Jehovah's
worship, but has often rejected his law and fallen to worshiping idols; but now King Uzziah reigns in Judah, and he
is a stickler for God's law. How different the conditions are
in Israel to the north!
Jeroboam, king of Israel, has extended the boundaries of
the kingdom to the northernmost limits God had long ago
promised; and the land is rich and prosperous, but the ruler
and subjects are corrupt, worshiping the golden calves
instead of Jehovah, and violating justiee and decency for
the sake of self-gratification. All this grieves Amos.
He finds comfort in thinking of Jehovah and His worship
at His House in Jerusalem. Then, about 811 B.C., in vision
Amos hears Jehovah's voice thundering from his temple on
~Iount Zion with a roar louder than the roar of all the lions
he has ever heard. He sees the pasture lands ruined, and
eyen the garden park of Carmel ridge withered. When he
understands what Jehovah is saying, he realizes it is a
declaration of judgment against the surrounding nations
and also against Judah and Israel: "After crime upon crime
of Damascus I will not relent, for they crushed and tortured
Gilead; so I fling fires of war on Hazael's house, to burn up
Benhadad's palaces, I shatter the defences of Damascus,
... I fling fires of war on [Philistine] Gaza's walls, to burn
up its palaces, I wipe out the chieftains from Ashdod, the
sceptred king from Ashkelon, I strike my blows at Ekron,
till the last of the Philistines perish- ... I fling fires of
war upon the walls of Trre, to burn up its palaces. . . .
I fling fires of war on [Edomite] Ternan, to burn up
Busaireh's palaces.... I set fire to Rabbah's walls, to burn
up its palaces, amid shouts on the day of battle, amid storming on the day of blasts, till their king is carried off to exile,
hc together with his nobles- ... I fling fires of war on
:\1oab, to burn up Keriy)-oth's palaces, amid shouts and the
blare of trumpets; I wipe out their monarch and slay all
his nobl-es with him- ... I fling fires of war on Judah, to
burn up the palaces of Jerusalem....
"After crime upon crime of Israel I will not relent, for
they sell honest folk for money, the needy for a pair of
shoes, they trample down the poor like dust, and humble
souls they harry; ... prophets you forbade to prophesy.
So now I make :rour steps collapse, as a cart collapses, laden
with sheaves; and flight shall fail the swift, the sturdy shall
not hold their own, the warrior shall not escape alive, the
archer shall not stand his ground, quick-footed men shall

not get clear, horsemen shall not escape, and even the
stalwarts in the ranks shall strip and run upon that day."
-Amos 1: 2-2: 16, Moffatt.
Hardly has the vision ended and Amos recovered from his
astonishment when he hears Jehovah say to him: "Go,
prophesy unto my people Israel." (Amos 7: 15) Immediately Amos obeyed; entrusting his flocks to another herdsman, he went north, past Bethlehem and Jerusalem, to the
land of Israel, and there began to prophesy:
"Hear this word that Jehovah hath spoken against yon,
o children of Israel, against the whole family which I
brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, You only haye
I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will
visit upon you all your iniquities." (3: 1, 2, Am. Stan. Ver.)
No sooner had he started to prophesy, than the Israelite
state priests began to oppose his preaching there. Bnt Amos,
having heard Jehovah speak, knew that the proclamation
of that message was as inevitable as a shudder of fear when
a lion roars, and that no man could stop it; so he said: "The
lion hath roared; who will not fear [or, shudder]? The Lord
Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3: 8,
Am. Stan. Ver.; Moffatt) Even after much preaching Amo,,;
sees that the Israelites do not return to Jehovah but continue their false worship at Bethel and Gilgal; so he delivers
to them God's message calling attention to this, and then
gives them God's solemn warning: "Therefore thus will I
do unto thee, 0 Israel; and because I will do this unto thee,
prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel. For, 10, he that formeth
the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto
man what is his thought; that maketh the morning darlmes~,
and treadeth upon the high places of the earth-Jehovah,
the God of hosts, is his name."-Amos 4: 12,13, Am. Sfall.
Ver.

In spite of mounting opposition Amos continues boldly

declaring God's message to Israel. He sees clearly that they
hate him for telling them the truth that exposes them.
Though they tell him it would be wiser to keep quiet at
such a time and that everything will turn out all right
anyway, he continues fulfilling his God-given commis~ion to
preach.-Amos 5: 10, 13, 15; 6: 1-14.
In vision Amos sees Jehovah bringing up locusts to
destroy the crops. Upon Amos' plea for mercy Jehovah
relents. Then Amos sees Jehovah bringing fire down to burn
land and sea; but again Jehovah grants Amos' request and
relents. (.Amos 7: 1-6) Then in vision Amos sees the Lord
standing beside a wall with a plumb line in his hand, and
he hears Jehovah say, "Amos, what do you see?" Amos
replies, "A plumb-line." Then the Lord says, "With a
plumb-line I test my people; never again will I pardon
them, but Isaac's heights shall 'be laid waste, the shrines
of Israel shall be ruined, and I will attack Jeroboam's
house with the sword."-Amo!l 7: 79, Moffatt.

116

~eWATCHTOWER.

Afterward Amos declares the whole vision at Bethel.

When he finishes, he sees the Bethel priest Amaziah rush
toward his own quarters. Later he learns that Amaziah has
written King Jeroboam, accusing Amos of conspiring
against the king. Armed with the authority of the king's
answer, Amaziah says to Amos: ''You dreamer! Be off to
Judah and earn your living there; play the pJ;ophet there,
but never again at Bethel, for it is the royal shrine, the
national temple." (Amos 7: 12, 13, Moffatt) Doesthatintimidate Amos? Does he stop prophesying in Israel and run
back to Judah? On the contrary, he is more determined
than ever to continue preaching in Israel, the territory
God has assigned him, and he boldly answers Amaziah: "I
was no prophet, neither was lone of the sons of the prophets; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore-trees:
and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah
said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now
therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah: Thou sayest,
Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against
the house of Isaac; therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thy wife
shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters
shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by
line; and thou thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean,
and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land."
-Amos 7: 14-17, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.
Jehovah rewards Amos' determination and boldness with
another vision. Amos sees a basket of ripe fruit, and he
hears Jehovah say, "Amos, what do you see?" Amos answers,
"A basket of ripe fruit." Jehovah says to him, "So is the
doom ripe for my people Israel; never again will I pardon
them. The temple hymns shall change to howls, as corpse on
corpse is flung out with a 'Hush!'" (Amo~ 8: 1-3, Mtffatt)
Amos tells Israel of this vision, and continues: "Hear this,
o ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor
of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone,
that we may sell grain'! and the sabbath, that we may set
forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel [price]
great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; that we
may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of
shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat1 Jehovah hath sworn
by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any
of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and
everyone mourn that dwelleth thereinY"---8: 4-8, Am. Stan.
Ver.
Seeing the people's utter disregard of God's words, and
witnessing the reproach they bring upon God's name, Amos

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

longs for the time when Jehovah will clear His name'and
word. Jehovah appears to Amos in a vision and further
assures him of the complete and inescapable destruction he
is bringing on His opposers: ''1 will slay the last of them
with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and
there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into
Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they
climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And
though they hide themselves. in the top of Carmel, I will
search and take them out thence; and though they be hid
from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them. And though they
go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine
eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. For the Lord,
Jehovah of hosts, is he that toucheth the land and it melteth,
and all that dwell therein shall mourn."-Amos 9: 1-5, Am.
Stan. Ver.
Then, after Amos' steadfastness in delivering the burden
of adverse judgment, Jehovah gives him a message of comfort and hope concerning the freeing of His name-people
from captivity and their subsequent prosperity; "In that
day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,
and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its
ruins, and 1 will build it as in the days of old; that they
may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that
are called by my name, saith Jehovah that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman
shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him
that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine,
and all the hills shall melt. A nd I will bring back the
captivity of my people Israel, anti they shall build the waste
cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their
land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their
land which I have given them, saith .Jehovah thy God."
-9: 11-15, Am. Stan. Ver.
Just as Amos relied on God's backing and let nothing
intimidate him but continued boldly prophesying amidst
the greatest opposition of Israel,.so likewise Jehovah's witnesses today continue to declare to Christendom Jehovah's
adverse judgment in spite of all the persecution and
opposition she can bring against them, for Jehovah's witnesses know that Jehovah has commanded them to preach;
they have already experienced his infallible backing.

FIELD EXPERIENCE
"While engaged in doing house-to-house work in my
territory in the city I had an interesting experience,
which I thought would be of interest to your office, as it
concerns the Quebec issue. I called on Mr. - - - , M.P.,
C.G.F., for this constituency. He was very cordial, inviting me in, and opened the conversation himself on the
Quebec situation, discussing it at some length. He said he
was quite aware of the rotten state of affairs in Quebec,
that we have no real democracy, and also that the situation
was dynamite, politically. Mr.
informed me that
the C.C.F. were preparing a bill guaranteeing freedom of
worship, which will be introduced at the next session of
Parliament. He admitted that Jehovah's witnesses were
carrying on vital educational work in Quebec, and that all

Canada would benefit by our taking the issue to the courts.

He also expressed his hope that we would carry our fight
to the limit, and that they would be right behind us. This
opened an excellent opportunity for a further witness. I
presented the literature, with the result that he accepted
'The Prince of Peace' booklet and the Leaflet Quebec's
Burning Hate, and after looking through the copy of
Awake! he expressed his desire to subscribe for one year.
He said he could not understand why we don,'t vote, that
he thought we had a lot in common, however, but use
different methods. Much interest has been aroused here as
elsewhere through distribution of the leaflet and publicity
through the press. MlUlY express their indignation and
disgust with Quebec."

~eWATCHTOWER.
PUBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE 6 TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.
N. H.

OFFIOERS
KNORR,

President

GlUNT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau\:1ht of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy chUdren." - Isaiah 54: z.J.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlnstlng to
eYerlasting, and Is the Maker of h~aYen and earth and Giver of
life to his crentures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his acU,e agent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THA'l' GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man ~'ielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was
s<}ntenced to deRth; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made humun as the man Jesus and suf
fered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedil.'nt men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above e,ery other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's 'new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATIO~ is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rilrhtful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus urI.' Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and priyl\ege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THA'l' THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914. and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, bas ousted Satan from' heaven, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THe BELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
b~' Jeho,ah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act Is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely In the earth; and that under the Kingdom
th-e people of goo(l-will surviving Armageddon wll\ carr~' out the
di,ine mandate to "fill the earth" with l'1ghteous offspring, antI
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and 'all people of good-will.
It arranges systematic Bible .study for its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
ot public instruction in the Scriptures.
It aQheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It Is entirely free Ilnd separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is wholly and without resertation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It Is not dogmatic, but Invites careful nnd critical examination
of its contents In the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
in controversy, and its (:olumns are not open to personalities.

Notice to Svll,Cf'lll6l": Remittance. should be sent to office In your

country In compliance With regulations to guarantee safe dell,ery of
money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
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effective within one month. Send your old as well as new address.
Please address the Watch Tower Society In every case.
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ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason ot In
firmlty, poverty or adversity are unable to pay tile subscription prlee may
haye The Watchtower free upon written appllcatlon to the pUblisher<,
rn:t<ie once each year, stating the reason for so requesting It. We are
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Entered a8 8econd-elas8 matter at the lJOst olftee at llrooklvn, N. Y,
ullder the .4.et of .lIarel. 3, l1i1'9.

"NEIGHBOR LOVE" TESTI:tIONY PERIOD

"PERMANENT GOVERNOR OF ALL NATIONS"

Tho June testimony period under the above title touches each
professed worshiper of God on the question of whether he loves
his neighbor as himself in respect to eternal life. During June,
therefore, each one who possibly can will, like the Good Samaritan,
get out into the field to bring his neighbors God's provided means
for them to gain eternal Me. The special offer to aid them in
studying the Bible will be two WATCH TOWER products, namely,
the book "Let God Be True" and the booklet The Joy of .All the
People, on a contribution of 35c for the combination. Neighborlovmg Christians throughout the earth will all unite during June
in special efforts to help others to eternal life. Will you be one'
You can be, you who read this mag-azine. If necessary, write us
to put you in touch with Y0ul' neighbors who will be glnd to have
you lo\ingly work with them in the field. Arrange, also, to make
a report at the end of June on what you accomplish.

ScientIDc advances have shrunk the earth till nations on opposite

sides of the globe are as next-door neighbors. But the work of making them good neighbors lags far behind. Men see the need of a
world organization able to erase national differences. They seek to
meet it with the United Nations. Christendom's clergy jom hands
with world politicians, bless the United Nations, and hail it as paving the way for God's kingdom. But does it! Does it hail Jehovah
as universal sovereign' or Christ as permanent governor of all
nations' Can it ever draft God and Christ into roles in world polItics ~ The Bible and physical facts answer with a resounding No!
'rhis answer, bulwarked with abundant proof, eame to large
audiences in the United States, England, West Africa and South
Africa when the president of the Watchtower Society delIvered
the lecture entitled "Permanent Governor of All Nations". Now it
comes to a much larger reading public in booklet form, with a first
edition of 5,000,000 to launch a world-wide distribution campaIgn.
You will thrill as you read of Jehovah's purpose for this earth,
how its inhabitants will be united under a perfect and permanent
governor, and how blessings defying description will shower down
unendingly. Obtain and read yonr personal copy of the 32-page
booklet Permanent Governor' of .All Nations, on a 5c contributIOn.
Better still, show love for your neighbor by obtaining extra copies
to present to your friends. Fifteen copies are sent on a 50c contribution, 30 copies on $1 contribution.

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of July 25: "Advance to Maturity or Relapse

into Sin, Which '"
11 1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower June 15, 1948.
Week of August 1: "Advance to Maturity or Relapse
into Sin, Which!"
11 21-27 inclusive, also "Abusive Speech Against
the Holy Spirit Deadly,"
11 1-12 inclusive, The Watchtower June 15, 1948.

gnceWAlC1HIIO

---

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

JUNE

15, 1948

No. 12

ADVANCE TO MATURITY OR RELAPSE INTO SIN, WHICH?

"Let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation."-Heb. 6: 1.

EHOVAH God has much to reveal to us about his who was a priest upon his throne. Melchizedek, ill
kingdom, under which his will shall be done in fact, foreshadowed the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and
earth as it is done in heaven. For more than four so God by his sworn oath made his Son a high priest
thousand years he caused prophecies to be uttered on the style of Melchizedek, or, "after the order of
and recorded under inspiration concerning that king- Melchizedek." Paul had much to say about this typidom. Thus much that needs explanation has been cal high priest and king, and there were many diffispoken and written upon the subject. Much prophecy cult things to be explained about him so as to underhas been fulfilled in our day, and much is yet due to stand his prophetic meaning. But the Hebrews were
he fulfilled. During the thousands of years past knowl- so backward about learning that it delayed the apo~
edge has advanced, and it has been a question of keep- tIe Paul in going into an interpretation of :.Melchizeing up with it. Particularly in this twentieth century dek to throw more light upon the kingdom of God.
it is a matter of vital importance to keep up with the
a With good reason the apostle wrote: "l\felchizefulfillment of prophecy and the unfolding of God's dek. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard
Word. All signs indicate we have reached the ((time of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearof the end" of the nations, which fact makes this the ing. For when by reason of the time ye ought to he
period when we must studiously run to and fro teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you
through the pages of the Holy Bible, that our knowl- the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of
edge and understanding of its contents may be God; and are become such as have need of milk, UlHl
increased. The divine prophecy, at Daniel 12 : 4, said not of solid food. For everyone that partaketh of
many things would be sealed shut to human knowl- milk is without experience of the word of righteousedge until the present "time of the end". The due ness; for he is a babe. But solid food is for fullgrowll
time having arrived, it is now our privilege to run men, even those who by reason of use have their
to and fro at the right source of information and to senses exercised to discern good and evil." (Heb.
share in the foretold increase of knowledge. It is 5: 10-14, Am. Stan. Ver.) If those Hebrews had
most advisable for us to do so, for very sad conse- sharpened their ears and had been more keen to
quences are certain to follow if we willfully refuse learn and understand during the time they had the
to keep up with advancing knowledge. Not only do chance, they might have been preaching and teachwe get behind and become backward, but serious sins ing. It would not have been necessary for the apostle
are possible by us through ignorance, especially Paul to teach them and to use the methods that are
willful ignorance. People's resistance to learning has used in instructing little children. Instead of liqnid
led to enormous sin.
food, the solid food suitable for full-grown Chris2 Nothing is of higher importance than God's kingtians could have been fed them by Paul from the
dom. It deserves our study, and nothing is of greater inspired Hebrew Scriptures. Instead of being like
value than a clear knowledge of it. About A.D. 61 a babes, or infants that cannot speak and thus give out
great preacher wrote to Hebrews who had interested information to others, they would have been able to
themselves in the latest developments regarding the teach and explain God's righteous Word to others
Kingdom. This preacher, the apostle Paul, wrote seeking knowledge. The trouble with them was, they
them about the exalted Son of God who had been were inexperienced in handling God's Word. They
called and chosen of God to be the King. By an oath had not searched it and thought upon it according
Jehovah God had sworn him into that royal position. to the best rules of study. They had not waked theIr
He was not only a King but also a High Priest of the minds up and exercised their mental powers to see
:Most High God. In this respect he was like Melchize- the sharp difference between truth and error,
dek, the king of Salem in the twentieth century B.C.,
between good and evil.
1 How DlUY we now increa~e knowledge, and why should we?
2. About wbat king-priest did Paul ha\'e much to say. and why?

3. How were the Hebrews to wl10m Paul wrote Ute babes. and wby?

170

180

~eWATCHTOWER.

'It is not God's will for us to remain babes in

knowledge. For us to stay babes in this wicked world
puts us at a disadvantage. It leaves us quite unable
to protect ourselves against the deceptions of the
servants of the 'Wicked One. It leaves us quite useless for spreading the knowledge of God's Word to
others. There is an urgent need for us to grow in
knowledge. The Word of God was not written for
babes, although persons who are babes in knowledge
can be taught from his Word by patient teachers.
The foundations for knowledge of the truth are in
his written Word. But once we have laid the foundations of our knowledge, that is, once we have proved
what these foundations are, then we should not be
repeatedly laying those foundations and thereby get
nowhere with building on top of them the grand
structure of a full knowledge and understanding of
God's purpose of salvation. If we keep on partaking
only of the milk of foundation truths, it will check
our mental growth and leave us babes in knowledge
that can be rocked to and fro by the hands of the
Devil's servants. As babes we can~ot enjoy the greater portion of God's Word, which he had written for
our complete instruction in what is right and for our
protection against what is mit::leading and injurious.
5 It is God's purpose that under the kingdom of his
King foreshadowed by lIelchizedek all those then
babes and children shall grow up to full maturity in
body and mind, that thus the paradise earth may be
forever full of full-grown men and women, perfect
in kno,vledge and in God's image and likeness. No
less is it God's will that all those now Christians on
earth shall advance in knowledge to that fullness
that befits men of God able to t::erve him acceptably.
In harmony with this the apostle goes on to say:
"Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not
laying again a foundation of repentance from dead
works, and of faith toward God, of the teaching of
baptit::ms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And
this will we do, if God permit." (Heb. 6: 1-3, Am.
Sta.n. Ver.) Unless we do what the apostle here says,
we cannot understand the perplexing situation in the
world today or solve the baffling questions that meet
us on every side; we cannot make decisions that are
right, meeting God's approval; we cannot keep from
being sidetracked into bondage to this old world.
FALLING AWAY

If we do not advance beyond the first principles

of Christ, but childishly linger with the foundation
truths of repentance, faith, baptism, begetting by the
spirit, resurrection, judgment, etc., there is danger.
Of what' A relapse into sin.
6

4. 5. Why 16 It not God's wl1l for U8 to remain babes In knowledge'

6. What Is tbe danger If we do not go beyond first principles'

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

7 A person who is a babe in knowledge is to that

extent weak and can easily relapse. He has some
responsibility, for, although a babe in knowledge of
Christ, he has received at least some enlightenment.
He sees a measure of the light of God's Word and is
in the way to see still more glorious things by it. To
see such, he must not stand still but advance in the
light as to the height of a brilliant noonday. If he
refuses to make progress, it denotes a certain willfulness on his part. He does not want to take on the
responsibilities that come with greater light and
fuller knowledge of God's will and purpose. He is
like a person that grows out of childhood but wants
to hold onto the playful, carefree irresponsibility of
childhood, rebelling against undertaking the heavy
responsibilities and duties of manhood. Let us not
be that way, but do as Paul, who said: "For we know
in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that
which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall
be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child,
I fElt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am
become a man, I have put away childish things."
-1 Cor. 13: 9-11, Am. Stan. fl er.
8lf we hold on childishly to part knowledge, to
elementary things of God's Word, and balk against
marching on to perfection of knowledge, it may
result in time in something worse than standing still.
Such selfish willfullness may end up in falling away.
Whether a person likes it or not, he gets left farther
and farther behind by the advancing light. He may
thus come into a condition from which he cannot be
recovered, and which means destruction for him.
The apostle warns against this. Why does he say
that, if God permits us to progress in knowledge by
opening up the meaning of the Scriptures, we will
do so, Paul answers: "For it is impossible for tho~e
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the holy
[spirit], and have tasted the good word of God, and
the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame." (Heb. 6: 4-6) That
is a hopeless state in which to relapse. Why? Because
it is the result of one's own choice, although one
knows better and is responsible to God for what one
does.
First of all, this one has come into the light that
shines from Jehovah God through Jesus Christ. He
has therefore emerged from the religious darknes~
of this present world. In doing so he had to repent
of his sinful worldly course and turn from it. In the
light he sees what he is doing. He is under the obligation to do right according to the commandments of
Q

7. Why doe. an enllgbtened person refuse to ad"ance in light?

8. Because of .tandlno: still In knowledge, wbat may befall ~?
9. How ba_ tbe enllgbtened one tasted of the heaven!)' gift?

JUNE

15, 1948

181

~eWATCHTOWER..

God. He has begun to get a taste of the heavenly

gift. What is this gift1 Not just Jesus Christ, the
beloved Son whom God gave that all believers in him
might have everlasting life. It is, rather, what the
apostle has in mind when saying, "Thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Cor. 9: 15) This
gift is the sum of all the goodness that God has to
give us through Christ, and the repentant person
that has been converted from the world has gotten
a taste of it. He gets baptized in wuter to confess
openly that he has made a full consecration of himself to God through Christ who died for him.
10 In Paul's day those who were baptized in water
in the presence of any of the twelve apostles had the
hands of the apostles laid upon them. Thev then
became partakers of the holy spirit, for by the'laying
on of apostolic hands the gifts of the holy spirit were
imparted to the baptized belieyers. (Acts 19: 1-7;
8: 14-19) This meant that God had accepted their
consecration and had begotten them by his life-giving
spirit and had adopted them as his spiritual children
to become joint-heirs with Christ in his kingdom of
the new world. God still imparts his spirit to those
he accepts.
11 up till receiYing a share in the holy spirit the
person consecrating has fed upon God's \Vord, first
the milk of the simple truths or first principles. Now
he is ready for the solid food of more advanced
truths. With the spirit he gets a penetrating understanding of God's Word. The spirit or active force
of God has clarifying powers, and with it the deeper
things of God are delved into and uncovered to our
understanding. (1 Cor. 2: 10) In this way the consecrated, spirit-hegotten person tastes more richly how
good God's Word is, and how superior it is to all the
religious teachings and political propaganda of this
old world. He tastes powers which are no part of this
world and do not have their source in this world.
These powers de!"cend from God through his King
Christ .J esus. The King said his kingdom did not
belong to this world but was of the new world which
God has promised to set up. God and his Christ are
both associated with the new world, the world that
comes after the present wicl;;ed world is destroyed.
Therefore powers that come to the enlightened consecrated person from them are powers of the world
to come. Since the Kingdom is of the world to come,
then if a person is made a preaching and teaching
ambassador: of that kingdom by means of being
anointed with God's spirit it is a power of the world
to come. It is an empowering of the consecrated
person to act as preacher, teacher and servant for
the God and the King of the new world. Also he
enjoys the organization of God's people, who are
organized, not according to this world, but Theo10. How does one become a partaker at the holy spirit?
11. liow does one then taste God's good Word and new....orld powers?

cratically. In all these ways the person tastes what

it will be like in the new world. But, caution! he may
fall away from all these grand things.
12 'What if a person that has gone so far in his
privileges does fall away TIt is not for any failure on
God's part to give him what he needs to advance
closer to perfection. Neither does he fall away
because of not knowing the foundation truths concerning faith in God and the Son of God. He knows
that Jesus Christ died in order to prove worthy of
the throne in the kingdom of God and also to ransom
mankind from the sin and death inherited from the
first man Adam. He once appreciated all these things,
and by his changed course of action he confessed that
they are true and right. So now by falling aw.ay from
his enlightened privileges he willingly goes over to
the side of those who nailed Jesus to the tree at
Calvary. He falls to the side of those who rejected
Jesus as King and who mocked his claim, heaped
reproach upon him and exposed him to public contempt. He now assents to their vile treatment of
Jesus. Thus for himself he impales Jesus and brings
shame upon him. The world, marking his falling
away, sees he is rejecting Christ the King whom he
once endeavored to follow. This shames Christ in the
eyes of the world.
13 \Vhen he became a Christian he repented because
he had been in the darkness of this world and he saw
he was a sinner for whom the Son of God died. He
was not accountable for his sinful state then, because
he had inherited it from Adam. He could repent of
that sin and be forgiven through Christ's sacrifice.
But now his sin of knowingly falling away to the
world and joining in its rejection of the Son of God
cannot be laid at Adam's door. It is of his own choice
and preference. How, then, could he repent of it1 He
is not doing it blindly in the dark, but after having
been enlightened. For this reason it is impossible to
bring him afresh to repentance, and his sin is unforgivable because it cannot be covered by the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Of his own decision he
now nails Jesus Christ to the tree, not as a ransom
sacrifice, but as the criminal which the world has
branded Christ.
THE FATAL HALT

Back to what can the falling away of this

relapser into sin be traced T To his being unwilling to
continue making due progress in the light and bringing forth the fruit of light. He lets selfishness creep
in little by little, and, not wanting to take on the
responsibility of greater light and have to spend
himself further in the reflecting of light, he halts.
But he finds that the advancing light does not halt
14

12.
13.
14,
(b)

Whv 1s his talllnl1: away a w1lltul matter?

Why can he not be renewed al!'ain to repentance?
HI. (al Why d<Xls he become accursed and what Is his end?
What hope do we want to express for the careless and Indlt'lerent?

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with him. Neither do the faithful ones walking in the

light halt. And so he gets left behind. It makes it
harder for him to catch up again, and the forward
movement of the organization of light without him
tends to make him feel hurt and then bitter. As he
does not want his conscience to be pricked with feelings of being responsible to God for past mercies
and favors, he finds it to be more comfortable for
him to associate with the world that feels no responsibility toward God. Jehovah God, Christ Jesus, and
the organization of light have spent much work upon
this relapser, but now he no more brings forth good
fruit in response to such goodness but brings forth
fruit like the rest of the world. However, he is more
reprehensible than the world, for better things were
due from him and to be expected from him. He is
accursed. His end could be only destruction. He is
like the sinner that had been given a full opportunity
one hundred years long. Under God's new covenant,
"the sinner being an hundred years oH shall be
accursed." He does not die as a babe in knowledge
and experience.-Isa. 65: 20.
15 Farmers, who cultivate ground only to have it
later bring forth thornbushes and briers, burn over
sucll ground and scorch it with fire. The enlightened
person that relapses has destruction like that awaiting him. The apostle says: "Ground that drinks in
frequent showers and produces vegetation that is of
use to those for whom it is cultivated receives God's
blessing. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is
thought worthless and almost cursed, and it will
finally be burned." If any Watchtower readers have
gro\vn careless and indifferent, \ve do not publish
the above things to discourage them, but we want to
express our hope of better things from them henceforth. Like the apostle, we say: "But about you, dear
friends, even though we say this, we are sure of
better things that promise salvation." (Heb. 6: 7-9,
AnAmer. Trans.) The thing for them to do is at once
to pull themselves together, renew their efforts to
move ahead in the light and its service, and not lose
the good reward for all they did in the past by now
relapsing.

Jesus Christ, a people is being taken out of all

nations to be a people for the name of Jehovah.
(Acts 15: 14) The new covenant was put in force by
reason of the blood of the sacrifice that really takes
away human sins, namely, the sacrifice of the perfect
human life of Jesus Christ the Mediator and High
Priest. Proof that such sins were actually taken
away is given in that God remembered them no more,
and no repeating of the sacrifice was needed. For
such reason, in the terms of the new covenant, God
could say: "This is the covenant that I will mal;:e with
them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them; and their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more."-Reb. 10: 16-18.
11 The operation of this new covenant for taking
out a people for Jehovah's name comes before He
sets up the new world of righteousness. When God's
kingdom brings in this new world, it will never
relapse into unrighteousness, because the kingdom
will not permit it to do so and the people of goodwill on earth who appreciate it will not forsake the
righteousness of that world. Equally so, when God
takes away the sins of the people for his name by the
sacrifice of the new covenant, he removes and forgets their sins, with the thought that the forgiven
ones will stick to righteousness and not relapse into
sin. Rightly so; for, if we did not purpose to keep on
in righteousness but intended to return to the practice of sin after a while, why should we abandon the
sinful course of this world at all ~ But since our forsaking of sin was meant to be for all time, and since
we have experienced the divine forgiveness of sins
through the sacrifice of our High Priest, then we
should not seek to find pleasure in practicing sin
again.
18 But sin is subtle, and we are surrounded by n.
world under the great promoter of sin, Satun the
Devil. On this account we must always watch against
taking up sin again as a practice or regular course
in our lives. To that end we cannot afford to stand
still and become backward, but must make progress
in righteousness. Progress, not stopping, is the greatSINNING WILLFULLY
est counterforce against relapse.
19 We must not hinder our Christian brothers and
16 Let us constantly remember we are living in the
time when God's marvelous arrangement for com- sisters in their advance in righteousness, but, all
pletely abolishing sin and death from the earth is together as one, we must march onward to the goal
reaching its grand climax. We are living in the time of perfection. Weare living in the day of the Lord
of His new covenant. The old law covenant mediated God, and Jesus Christ the Melchizedekian King and
by Moses passed away with the death of Jesus Christ, Righ Priest is gathering together the remnant of
the high priest foreshadowed by Melchizedek and his faithful "little flock" into unity within the fold.
who presented himself in sacrifice for our sins. By Particularly since 1935 he is also gathering together
the old Mosaic law covenant the nation of Israel was with this remnant a great multitude of "other sheep"
separated from the world as Jehovah's people; but to enjoy everlasting life on earth under the Kingnow by the new covenant through the new mediator, ~ should forgiven one.- not seek to practice sin again?
16. Under the new covenant whose sins does God forget. and why1

18. Why must we watch against sin, and how may we best do so 'I
19. Why mUl!t we not forsake the gathering of oursel ves together?

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dom. We should do nothing to hinder or resist this

gathering work which the King is doing by means of
his angels. (Matt. 24: 31; Mark 13: 27; Luke 17: 37)
In Jesus' day Jerusalem resisted the gathering
together of her children by him, and for this she was
destroyed and her people were scattered to the ends
of the earth. (Matt. 23: 37, 38) The same fate, or
worse, will befall Christendom. We act wisely, therefore, if we aid in Christ's gathering work and help
in the unifying work. To do this, we must lovingly
consider the "sheep" whom Christ has gathered
together. We must meet with them and encourage
them to love God by doing his good works. We must
help them to confess openly without wavering their
faith and hope by ourselves going out with them in
giving witness to God's kingdom.
20 To this wise and faithful course there is no other
alternative but to drop back into sin, and that by
choice, willfully. The outcome of such a relapse will
be divine vengeance against us for deserting God's
righteous arrangement. His vengeance is at hand,
for the day of the Lord God is here and the final
battle of Armageddon is now unavoidable. The apostle exhorts us: "Let us hold the hope we avow without wavering (for we can rely on him who gave us
the Promise) ; and let us consider how to stir up one
another to love and good deeds, not ceasing to meet
together, as is the habit of some, but admonishing
one another-all the more so, as you see the Day
drawing near. For if we sin deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer
any sacrifice for sins left, nothing but an awful outlook of doom, of that burning wrath which will consume the foes of God. Anyone who has rejected the
law of :Moses dies without mercy, on the evidence of
two or three witnesses. How much heavier, do you
suppose, will be the punishment assigned to him who
has spurned the Son of God, who has profaned the
covenant-blood with which he was sanctified, who has
insulted the Spirit of grace 1 We know who said,
Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital: and again,
The Lord will pass sentence on his people. It is an
awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
-Reb. 10: 23-31, Moffatt.
21 We know what sin is. The law of Moses brought
the knowledge of what sin is to human creatures,
especially to the Jews; and they as well as all the
rest of mankind became unmistakably guilty before
God. By his commandments which pointed out what
was wrong, God showed how distasteful and hateful
sin is to him: "that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful." Why exceedingly sinful'
Because sin is not just wrong in itself, but is a violation of God's law and displeases him. (Rom. 7: 13;
3: 19, 20) His condemnation of sin is manifested in

that he had his dear Son die as a human sacrifice to

take away the sin of the world and make it possible
for men and women to live in righteousness in the
new world. The blood of his sacrifice sanctifies or
purifies the believers from sin. This sacrifice was
offered for those who inherited a sinful condition
from Adam and who, to begin with, did not know
what sin was, they being helplessly born in it and
under its penalty of death. It was not offered for
enlightened, willful sinners. It was offered for those
who desired to forsake sin and to be relieved of the
burden of divine condemnation of sin and its penalty,
death.
22 Hence Jehovah God arranged that the blood of
Jesus' sacrifice should make a new covenant valid
and operative. The old Mosaic law had condemned
men and shown them all up to be sinners. Moreover,
the animal sacrifices offered in connection with it
could not take away the sins of men who are superior
to such animal victims. But now the blood of the new
covenant is of sufficient power to cleanse sins away
and sanctify or purify the Christian believers, and so
God promises to remember the sins of the forgiven
ones no more. In order to provide such sanctifying
blood God did not spare his most beloved Son, Jesus
Christ, but gave him to act as High Priest and
Mediator of the new covenant, with a human sacrifice.
In this action he manifested, indeed, the "spirit of
grace". That is to say, the thing that inspired or
motivated this entire provision was God's grace or
undeserved loving-kindness. The entire arrangement
breathed and was expressive of God's graciousness.
The truth about all this we find in His written Word,
from' which alone we get the knowledge of all this
and are enlightened.
28 The whole purpose of God's grace is to get us
away from sin and its disabilities and into His righteous service for the vindication of His name. Consequently, if anyone has gotten a knowledge of the
above truth from God's Word and acts upon it in
appreciation of the spirit of grace that inspired it,
he sins willfully if after a while he turns back to the
world and a regular practice of sin. He now takes
up a course in sin of his own free choice, and not for
being born in it by descent from Adam. By the blood
of the new covenant he had been made free from the
disabilities descending upon him from Adam's sin;
and so Adam is not responsible for the willful
person's new course in sin.
24 The sacrifice of God's High Priest was offered for
the sin and condemnation taking hold of us because
of Adam's original sin. It was not offered for any
willful course in sin, and its benefit could not cover
such deliberate wickedness. How could it' Why, even

~ outlook Is there for one relapsing Into willfnl sin 1

23. Who Is responswle If one turns from such grace and sIns?

:n.

From what are faithful belleYers sanctified, and by what1

22. How was the "spirit of grace" manifested, and by wbom?

2-1, Why doe. no sacrifice remam for hIm? and what does he insult?

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ze While we shudder at such a terrible end for the

willful sinner, let us bear in mind how it began. How'
By his halting for some selfish reason in the course
of righteousness and refusing to make further progress toward maturity and perfection. He loses the
desire to take on more knowledge of God's gracious
purpose. He does not care to take on further responsibility for added knowledge, or to continue shouldering responsibility for what he already knows and
enjoys. He quits putting forth faith in God and
loving him and the truth and righteousness for which
God stands. He draws back. In the start his drawing
back might be ever so small, seemingly a mere
stopping, but it acquires motion and gathers speed
and momentum with his persistence in this course.
Finally it becomes unstoppable, and he plunges into
the hopeless state under the doom of destruction.
:Mindful of this, how nrmly ought we to determine
not to make the stop with which the drawing back
begins, especially now that the day of the Lord God
is upon us and his Messenger of the covenant, Christ
Jesus, is at the temple to execute judgment!
21 As speaking for ourselves, as voicing our own
nxed determination, we well repeat the apostle's lifesaving words. He nrst quotes Jehovah's words, at
Habakkuk 2: 4 (LXX), ":My righteous one shall live
"HOW :\tDCH SORER PUNISU:\lENT"
by faith: and if he shrink back, my soul hath no
25 "That, then, awaits such willful chooser of sin 1
What alone can he fearfully expect according to his pleasure in him," and then he says to us: "But we
previous knowledge of God's Word' Not eternal are not of them that shrink back unto perdition, but
torment in a fiery lake supervised by devilish of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul."
imps, but a fiery destruction, a being consumed to (Heb. 10: 38, 39, Am. Stan. Ver.) Having thus stated
nothing as by nre, and this by God who is a consum- the need for faith and having expressed our detering fire against all wickedness. (Heb. 12: 29) The mination to display faith, the apostle then devotes
willful sinner now has no Mediator to stand between chapter eleven of his epistle to a stirring account of
him and God, to shield him and provide for divine the feats of faith performed by men of ancient times,
clemency. He has trodden the Mediator under foot from Abel to John the Baptist,.all of whom received
and has made light of the blood with which the Medi- witness from God that they pleased him for their
ator validated the covenant. The benefits he once faith. The apostle then immediately proceeds to exenjoyed under the new covenant were greater and hort us with the nrst verse of chapter twelve, saying:
more real than under Moses' typical law covenant, "'Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
and therefore he is accountable for more; his insult so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
to the God of graciousness is greater; his depth of weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
sin is deeper. He does not deserve any mercy. His let us run with patience the race that is set before
penalty should be greater than that of any violator us." (Heb. 12: 1) So, then, no stopping for us, with
of the Mosaic law covenant. How, then, does he get danger that a relapse into sin will follow t But, laying
a sorer or heavier punishment1 In this way, that he aside the easily besetting sin of lack of faith, and
does not come into any human court, as under Moses' laying aside all other weights to our proper progress,
law with two or three witnesses appearing against let us advance to maturity. Let us press on to perfechim. Because he has rejected the "one mediator tion, showing patient endurance during the long run
between God and men", he falls into the hands of the and trying to make the best speed possible toward
living God to be judged and then executed with ever- the prize for unwavering faith, the eternal saving
lasting destruction. There is no escape for him from of our souls in the new world.
this terrible end.

the enlightened, willful sinner does not want the

benefit of such sacrifice any more. He treads the
sacrificed Son of God underfoot like salt that has lost
its taste and is cast out as worthless, or as swine
would trample under hoof precious pearls. The sinner
no longer values the sanctification or purifying from
sin that resulted to him through the blood of the Son
of God. Now he counts it as something common,
ordinary, unholy, no better than the blood of a sinful,
imperfect man. Also he does not feel bound any
longer by the new covenant according to which he
ought to serve as Jehovah's witness, as a member of
His name-people taken out and separated from the
worldly nations. The grace or unmerited favor of
God the deliberate sinner no longer appreciates but
now thrusts away; and thus he mocks and disrespectfully insults the spirit of grace that Jehovah God has
shown toward him personally. For such a contemptible sinner there is no sacrifice of a Redeemer on hand
for his benefit. What is more, ne does not desire or
pray for redemption. He desires to continue in sin.
H he has insultingly thrown back God's most gracious
provision, then certainly no other arrangement, not
possibly more gracious than God's, could hold an
appeal for him.

~ may he fearfully expect, and why'

26, 27. (a) How did hl8 drawing back begin, and what i8 Its end
(b) What, then, Ie our determination, with \\ hnt end in view?

Woe i$ unto me, if I preach not the gospell-1 Cor. 9: 16.

ABUSIVE SPEECH AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT DEADLY

N\VILLINGNESS to learn more and to

advance in knowledge because it shows the
right way for us to go has been exhibited by
sinners in all ages. Their stubborn unwillingness to
attain to clearer knowledge and understanding has
invariably led to greater sin. In the days of the "man
Christ Jesus" on earth the religious Pharisees,
Sadducees,.scribes and la,vTers were viewed as the
learned class, as the wise men, the men with the key
of knowledge. They looked down upon the Galilean
fishermen, Peter and J olm, as being "unlearned and
ignorant men". Because Jesus had not attended their
rabbinical schools at Jerusalem, they did not consider him a teaching authority. They contradicted
his teaching and misrepresented his works. What was
the reason ~ This: they did not want to learn more,
progressing to maturity of knowledge of the truth.
And why not? Because they did not love the truth
and did not want to be led to certain truthful conclusions, namely, that they were erroneous teachers
of traditions of men but Jesus was the Messiah, an
anointed Teacher sent from God. Just how their
resistance to knowledge led to sin, and how serious
their sin of this sort was, Jesus plainly declared to
them.
2 On one occasion Jesus l::aid to them: "Every sin
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the
blasphemy against the spirit shall not be forgiven.
And v,7hosoever shall speak a word against the Son
of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall
speak against the holy spirit, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to
come." (Matt. 12: 31, 32, Am.. Stan. Fer.) How had
they sinned against the holy spiriU and why could
they speak against Jesus and be forgiven, and yet
not speak against the holy spirit and be forgiven 1 Is
the holy spirit greater or more holy than .J esus 7 How
is this?
3 At other times the religious leaders had spoken
against Jesus the Son of man. There could be some
excuse for that, because they could be ignorant of
the true facts about him that fulfilled the prophecies
identifying him as the promised Messiah. The
Messiah or Christ was prophesied to be born in
Bethlehem-Judah, but Jesus was known as the Nazarene or "Jesus of Nazareth", and this created prejudice against him, because Nazareth was a despised
town of Galilee. For this reason they might be forgiven for what they said in ignorance of the truth
about Jesus' origin.
4 For example, Saul of Tarsus was a most earnest
Pharisee and spoke and acted against the Son of
man, and yet he became the apostle Paul. How could
that happen 1 As apostle, he tells us: "I verily
1. To what has unwllllngness to advance In knowledge led? Why?
2. What did Jesus say about blasphemy against the holy spirit?
3. 4. Why could speaking against the Son of man be forgiven?

thought with myself that I ought to do many things

contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this
I also did in Jerusalem: and 1 both shut up many of
the saints in prisons, having received authority from
the chief priests, and when they were put to death 1
gave my vote against them. And punishing them
oftentimes in all the synagogues, 1 strove to make
them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against
them, 1 persecuted them even unto foreign cities."
(Acts 26: 9-11, Am. Stan. Ver.) On what basis could
this great persecutor be forgiven 1 As apostle, he
explains: "1 was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit 1 obtained mercy,
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace
of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and
love which is in Christ Jesus. Faithful is the saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am
chief." (1 Tim. 1: 13-15, Am. Stan. Ver.) Despite all
the sins that he committed against the Son of man
and that made him appear as the "chief" of sinners,
the terrible persecutor was not be)'ond repentance.
5 Repentance was possible for Saul of Tarsus
because he did not resist knowledge of the truth. He
was willing to learn and to make progress into light.
Hence he was an example of how other great sinners
against Jesus Christ might be shown their wrong
path and might repent and go the right way. As Paul
said: "God had mercy on me in order that in my case
as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience, as an example to those who would later
believe in him and find eternal life." (1 Tim. 1: 16,
An Amer. Trans.) The apostle Peter held out hope
for repentance on the part of many Israelite sinners,
saying: "And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance
ye did it, as did also your rulers." Many ignorant
ones did repent on learning the truth.-Acts 3: 17,
Am. Stall. r er.
6 However, when the Pharisees said: "This man
doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the prince
of the demons," why was this a sin and blasphemy
against the holy spirit T Because Jesus had just cured
a demon-possessed man that was blind and speechless, and he had done so by the power of the spirit
of God. When Jesus came up out of the waters of
baptism in Jordan, God had poured down the holy
spirit upon Jesus, anointing him and filling him with
this spirit or active force. (Luke 3: 21, 22; 4: 1) It
was evident to all honest men that he was filled with
a power not possessed by ordinary men, and his
being filled with it was shown by the marvelous cure
he performed on the demonized, blind and dumb
man. It being a good deed, against the oppressive,
unclean demon in the man, the proof was there that
5. What does the case of Saul of Tarsus Illustrate?
6. Why wa, the Pharisees' sill one against the hols spirit?

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the curative power within Jesus was the holy spirit,

a force active for good to the glory of God. Hence
Jesus told the blaspheming Pharisees: "If I by
Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons
cast them out 1 therefore shall they be your judges.
But if I by the spirit of God cast out demons, then
is the kingdom of God come upon JTou."-Matt.
12: 27, 28, Am. Stan. Ver.
T The Pharisees believed in angels and demons and
the spirit or active force of God. At times their sons
cast demons out, and the Pharisees were quick to
claim their sons expelled such demons by the spirit
of God. But when Jesus came along and also cast
them out and performed many other cures while
preaching the kingdom of God, those Pharisees spoke
evil of the power within Jesus and attributed it to
Satan the prince of the demons. Why should they
grant holy power to their sons, but not to Jesus 1
Why? Well, because they did not want privately or
publicly to admit the truth that Jesus was the Son
of God and promised Messiah. They resisted the true
conclusion to which Jesus' works of which they were
eyewitnesses should have led them. Too many selfish
things were at stake for them.
e Jesus did not insist on their believing in him just
because of what he was as a man. He was willing to
he talked against as the Son of man. But he did
insist on their accepting the witness of God's spirit
which was working in him. He said: "The works
which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father
hath sent me." "If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me,
believe the works: that ye may know, and believe,
that the Father is in me, and I in him." (John 5: 36;
10: 37, 38) When they refused to believe him for the
works such as no other man had ever done, and when
they said the power doing such unusual good works
was from Beelzebub the prince of the demons, then
they were sinning. Sin and blasphemy against the
holy spirit are sinful and abusive, injurious speech
against the open demonstration of the power of God.
The religious leaders guilty of such were willfully
sinning for selfish reasons, because they were sinning
against the manifest facts, which they saw and knew.
l'hey voluntarily did not want to accept the testimony of the spirit of God at work in the servant of
God. Stephen well said to them later on: 'eye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the holy spirit: as your fathers did, so
do ye." (Acts 7 : 51, Am. Stan. Ver.) They resisted the
display of the spirit of God, because it led to a course
of thought and action which did not agree with their
selfish purposes.

From all the foregoing it is clear that there is a

distinction to be made respecting sins. The apostle
J olm defines sin, saying, "All unrighteousness is sin,"
and yet he adds, "There is a sin not unto death."
(1 John 5: 17) Sin is sin, but there are different
qualities or aspects about sin. For instance, Romans
6: 23 says: "The wages of sin is death," and ho\\",
then, can there be a "sin not unto death"~ In this
way: If the sinner does not sin willfully, but repents
of his sin and turns to God for the benefit of Christ's
atoning sacrifice, his sin can be forgiven. He can be
spared, redeemed, delivered from the death which the
sin would otherwise bring upon him as the penalty.
Despite this, we should not take sin lightly, because
really there is a "sin unto death", and the prayers of
others for persons that commit this sin will do no
good for them. Writes John: "If any man see his
brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask,
and God will give him life for them that sin not unto
death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this
do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin: and [yet] there is a sin not unto
death. We know that whosoever is begotten of God

7. Why were they thus sinning willfully?

8. On what grounds did Jesus invite them to believe him? and for
what rea~on did they refuse?

9. (a) In what way was theirs an "eternai IiIn"? (b) What did
mean In saying it was not forgivable in the world to corne?
10. Why should we make II distinction respecting sins?

9 This willful quality in their sin was what made it

unforgivable, because it made them nnteachable,
beyond correction,. and opposed to God's provision
for forgiveness. Hence they were "guilty of an eternal sin: because they said, He hath an unclean spirit".
(Mark 3: 29, 30, Am. Sta.n. Ver.) Theirs was an "eternal sin", an unending one, because it remained forever against them. There was no forgiveness for it,
because there was no atoning sacrifice for it, "neither
in this world, neither in the world to come." This
does not mean that those wicked blasphemers against
the holy spirit will come up in the resurrection in the
new world. If they did, they would only find that
even in that world they could not be forgiven. No;
those blasphemers went into the Gehenna of destruction, from which there is no resurrection, because
their sin of blasphemy stands against them for all
time. Evidently, then, Jesus meant that even in the
new world with all its exhibition of the spirit of God
in action under the Kingdom there will be men and
women that will blaspheme or speak injuriously
against the spirit then exercised by the King Christ
Jesus. This would be especially at the end of his
thousand-year reign at which time Satan the De\'il
will be loosed for the final test of earth's inhabitants.
Those then committing the sin of blasphemy as to
God's spirit will not be forgiven either in that world.
Such sin is unforgivable at any time, and brings
destruction.-Rev. 20: 7-10.

SIN UNTO DEATH

10

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sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth

himself, and the evil one toucheth [or, catcheth] him
not. 'Ve know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in the evil one."-l John 5: 16-19, Am.
Stan. Ver.
n :Mark, everyone, that John does not say there is
a sin unto purgatorial suffering or to eternal tonnent
in unquenchable fire and brimstone. The extreme is
death, here meaning the annihilation or destruction
which Revelation 2: 11 and 20: 14 speak of as "the
second death". It is willful sin for which there is no
forgiveness now or in the world to come. There is
no sin-atoning sacrifice provided for it, the High
Priest's sacrifice covering only those sins due to our
fallen, imperfect, weak estate inherited from Adam.
It is sin by one's own choice after coming to the
knowledge of the truth. It is sin by one who has been
enlightened and tasted of God's goodness and who
cannot feel any repentance and who does not crave
forgiveness, well knowing what he 'is doing. It is sin
\vith the eyes wide open to the undeniable operation
of God's holy spirit or active force. It is unforgivable; and how can God answer the prayer for
anyone to be forgiven fiuch sin? So do not pray for
anyone guilty of it. As God told Jeremiah in ancient
Judah: "Therefore pray not thou for this people,
neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make
intercession to me: for I \Till not hear thee." (Jer.
7: 16) For like reason we do not now join the religious clergy in praying for modern-day Babylon,

whose sins reach to heaven, nor for religious Christendom. Why not? Because Babylon and Christendom both reject the Kingdom message that Jehovah's
witnesses have been proclaiming since A.D. 1919 by
the power of God's outpoured spirit and in the face
of most brutal persecution at the hands of religious
leaders and fanatics. The doom of Babylon and of
Christendom is sealed.-Rev. 18: 1-5.
12 For brethren who sin due to weakness but who
repent, seek forgiveness, and ask our prayers that
they may be helped to recover from such sin through
divine mercy, we will pray. In answer to their
repentance and our prayer through Jesus Christ,
God will save such sinners from death. He will grant
life in the case of all not sinning the sin to the
second death, destruction. If we do not pursue a
course of sin for the pleasure of it, but seek to do
righteousness, God will keep us. The wicked one.
Satan the Devil, will not be able to catch firm hold
of us, though often he assault us and put temptation
berore us. All the world is already lying in the powerful grip of the wicked one, but we are of God and
abiding in him. For this reason the wicked one would
like to catch unbreakable hold of us by inducing n~
to turn from God's light and goodness and willfully
take up the self-indulgent practice of sin. But, by
divine grace, we will not relapse into sin. That would
mean sin to the second death. Our determined choice'
is to advance steadily in truth and righteousness to
glorious perfection.

n.

12. (al Why may we pray for those not slnnmg to death?
doing what will God keep UO, and from whom?

'That Is the "sin unto death", and why not pray for It?

(b)

r,H

NOT RANSOMED AGAINST YOUR WILL

NE of the basic truths stated in the precious Bible is

that one written at 1 Timothy 2: 3-6 and which
reads: "It is right to do this, and it pleases God our
Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to know
the truth. For there is but one God, and one intermediary
between God and men-the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself as a ransom for all men. This is what was testified
to at the proper times." (According to the modern rendering of An American Translation) Incidentally, this grand
statement of truth disproves the religious doctrine of a
"trinity", because it plainly says that God is one person and
Christ Jesus is another person entirely separate and distinct
from him. The apostle Paul, who wrote the above-quoted
words, says concerning intermediaries or mediators; "Now
a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one." Or,
in modern expression : "An intermediary implies more than
one party, while God is but one." (Gal. 3; 20, A.V. and
An Amer. Trans.) Hence God and Christ Jesus are not one
Being, one in substance, because how could God mediate
for himself? But God is one person or party, and Christ
Jesus is another party, separate and distinct, and it is he
who acts as intermediary or mediator between God and
sinful man.

Ponder those grand words: "The man Christ J esns, whf)

gave himself as a ransom for all men." As you do, likel~'
the questions will suggest themselves to you: Does not the'
ransom price of Jesus result to the everlasting benefit of
all regardless of their will? Since the scripture says Christ
Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all, is not that a guarantee that all the human race must have the full benefit of
Christ's ransom sacrifice or ransom price? Our considered
answer is, No; such a conclusion is not correct. Some of thc
human race, the offspring of the first man Adam, arc willfully wicked, and such ones are not benefited by the ramom
But if any comply with God's rules concerning the ransom,
these might become righteous, and then they would receivc
the benefit of the ransom price. Note how this view is
expressed in Jesus' own words, at John 17: 2, 3; "As thotr
[0 heavenly Father] hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." At the time that Jesus prayed these words to God
his heavenly Father, the Father had given him only a small
remnant of faithful disciples. To these Jesus purposed to

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give eternal life, and to all others whom God should yet
give him.
According to the above prayer, those persons who refuse
to know Jehovah God and Christ Jesus cannot receive
eternal life. 1\1any persons to whom the truth is presented
and who are shown God's provision for salvation to eternal
life spurn such truth. They say, in substance: 'I am not
at all interested. I am satisfied with what I have.' What
reason is there to expect Adam to receive life in the new
world of righteousness 1 He was a willful and deliberate
sinner in Eden, despite his perfection. Neither is there any
reason to expect any of his offspring to receive life who
willfully refuse to hear of God's provision for life.
To give Adam the benefit of the ransom sacrifice would
mean that God would thereby show that his judgment
against Adam back in Eden was not just; whereas Psalm
89: 14 plainly says: 'Justice is the foundation of God's
throne.' To give all of Adam's offspring the benefit of the
ransom sacrifice when many of these spurn God's provision
is wholly inconsistent with His purpose expressed in the Holy
Scriptures. The above-quoted scripture at 1 Timothy 2: 5, in
saying that Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for ALL bears
out that "God is no respecter of persons", as Peter de~lared
to the Gentile Cornelius, at Acts 10: 34. And hence the
ransom is for the benefit of all who conform themselves to
God's will or law. Also, because there is only one Almighty
God, "whose name alone is Jehovah," there is only one
mediator between him and men, namely, the one whom he
has appointed, "the man Christ Jesus," because he gave his
life as a ransom for all without regard to who the persons
are. "All men" means all who God wills shall be saved
because they comply with the requirements that God has
laid down. There is no authority to say that the ransom
sacrifice automatically operates for the benefit of all.
It if' somewhat of a handicap to us that the original Bible
\\as written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. So we
have to wrestle with that Greek word agoradzo when discussing this matter of the ransom. From our Greek-English
dictionaries we learn that the above Greek word comes from
agora, meaning "the town square" or "market", and this in
turn came from the Greek verb ageiro, which means "to
gather", as to the town square or market place. Recall how,
when Paul was at the Grecian capital Athens, he used to
dispute "in the market daily with them that met with him".
(Acts 17: 17) So, that Greek verb agoradzo literally means
to go to market and hence to purchase and redeem that
which is sold. For example, slaves were bought and sold at
the market place, and the verb agoradzo is properly used
concerning them. Let us now take a Scriptural usage of
the word.
At ~iatthew 13: 44 we read: "Again, the kingdom of
~eave~ is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when
a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth [agoradzo] that field."
Many who have tried to interpret the Scriptures have said
that the word field used in this verse symbolizes the entire
human race, the wicked and all others. That is certainly
wrong. Please mark this: The scripture verse says, "The
kingdom of heaven is like," etc. It is the kingdom of heaven
which is bought. Certainly the kingdom of heaven is not
the entire human race. Nor is the kingdom of heaven hidden

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

within the folds of the sinful human family. The kingdom

of heaven is the hidden treasure, and it is that which is
bought. It is the treasure hidden within God's universal
organization, which organization is holy and in no wise
sinful. The "kingdom of heaven" is the hidden mystery
spoken of at Ephesians 1: 20-23 and 5: 32. "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints." (Col. 1: 26) Christ
Jesus, by rendering himself in full obedience to his Fother's
will, became the heir of all things, including the hidden
mystery, the kingdom of heaven. So we read at Hebrews
1: 2 and R{)mans 8: 16,17.
God made known to Jesus His purpose to have a capital
organization over His universe, namely, His government,
"the kingdom of heaven," which for ages was a mystery and
which mystery was hidden from all others of God's universe
until God's due time to reveal it. When Jesus learned of
this, he sold his all to become the heir of it and the head
of the kingdom. It was not his human life as the ransom
for humanity that bought that estate of the kingdom of
heaven. It was his surrender of everything, including
human life, for the purpose of maintaining his integrity and
faithfulness to God under the greatest pressure, even unto
an ignominious death. He did this for that field and its
hidden treasure. The suffering of Jesus had nothing to do
with purchasing humankind. His human life was the price
for them. But it was by his suffering that he learned obedience to God and proved his integrity and faithfulness to
God and became God's heir of all things in the universe
and at the same time heir of the kingdom of heaven.-See
Hebrews 5: 8, 9.
Now take another use in the Scriptures of the Greek verb
agoradzo, which is translated "bought", namely, at Matthew
13: 45, 46: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a
merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he
had, and bought it!' This parabolic saying has the same
meaning as the parable given in the preceding verse
(44) quoted above. These two parables take into consideration the body of Christ's footstep followers, because
these will form a part of the kingdom of heaven. Now, if
the purchasing or buying that is here mentioned concerning the kingdom of heaven referred to the ransom price for
humankind, the Christian members of Christ's body would
have no part in it, because they do not have any part in
the ransoming of the human race. That the body members
of Christ have a part in the kingdom is true beyond any
doubt, as a reading of IWmans 8: 16, 17 and Revelation
1: 6 and 20: 4 will prove in few words. Those who faithfully
follow Christ Jesus and become a part of the kingdom of
heaven are first bought by the precious blood of Christ
Jesus before they can start on their way to be made a part
of the kingdom. So 1 Peter 1: 18, 19 assures us.
AGREEMENT TO BE BOUGHT

At 1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20 it is written: "What? know ye

not that your body is the temple of the holy [spirit] which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own Y
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body." This text refers only to the anointed Christians
as the ones that are bought and make up the "body of

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15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

Christ". This text could not be construed to mean that it

drags along with these Christians purchased every individual of the human family, wicked and otherwise, and that
these are automatically bought. Would a slave be bought
and be given his freedom who refused to obey his master?
Take the case of Joseph in Eg:rpt, and the agreement that
he as prime minister made with the people. First, the people
came to Joseph and asked to be bought before Joseph would
buy them for the ruler Pharaoh. This is a picture of the
purchase and redemption of those of the human race who
come to Christ Jesus to be bought. (Gen. 47: 19-23) Those
disciples who become members of the "body of Christ" first
come to Jesus and agree to do whatever is his and the
Father's will. Then his purchase price applies to them, and
ihey become his and no longer belong to themselves. They
are his bond servants or his slaves, from then on obligated
to do his will and obey his commandments. They were NOT
RAXSOIlIED AQAlr-;ST THEIR WILL, because the fact is that they
desired to be ransomed or purchased. God's rule is the same
at all times in this respect.
Whether the person is called by the Lord God and
granted life in the spirit in heaven or his hope is one of life
on the paradise earth, the course of procedure concerning
his purchase is exactly the same. On this, consider another
text directed to those of the "little flock" to whom it is the
heavenl;).. Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom: "For
he that is called in the Lord, being a servant [of some man
on earth], is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is
called, being free, is Christ's servant [that is, the bond
servant or slave of Christ]. Ye are bought with a price; be
not )'e the servants of men." (I Cor. 7: 22, 23) These
persons were not called until they first surrendered themselves in consecration to do God's will, and then the purchase or ransom price operated toward them and they were
bought and the Lord became their owner. Being accepted in
the Lord, such ones became his bond servants, because they
have willingly and voluntarily agreed to be bought on the
Lord's terms. They have sold themselves to the King Christ
Jesus, instead of to the Devil.-1 Ki. 21: 20, 25.
Those who are wicked are not purchased, because they do
not first consent. Some who have consented to be bought
afterward turn back to worldly bondage and renounce the
former purchase. There will never be a repurchase of them,
for Christ Jesus dies no more, and hence only destruction
awaits them. The apostle Peter says: "But there were false
prophets [in ancient Israel] also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you [who are Christians] , who privily shall bring in damnable heresies [or,
introduce destructive sects], even denying the Lord that

189

bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."

(2 Pet. 2: 1) Such were first bought, but afterward became
wicked, denying the Lord and the value of his blood by
which they had been bought when consecrating themselves
to God. For such there is no further salvation. The Scriptures make that plain at Hebrews 6: 4-10 and 10: 26-29.
The Bible refers to mature and faithful Christians as
elder brethren, who are bought or redeemed from among
men and to life in the spirit in heaven. At Revelation 5: 9
we are told: "And they [the members of the body of Christ
symbolized by the twenty-four elders] sung a new song,
saying, Thou [Christ Jesus] art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation." This scripture could have
no application to the wicked, because they are not redeemed
unto God. Its language shows conclusively that none are
automatically redeemed, because the "elders" were redeemed, as it says, "out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation." Not all were thus redeemed, showing
that all had not met the requirements or been selected.
The members of the ''body of Christ" are the ones ransomed and redeemed, as is also stated in Revelation 14: 3, 4:
"And they sung as it were a new song before the throne,
and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man
could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four
thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are
they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the
firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."
The fact that these were "redeemed from among men"
argues that all men were not automatically redeemed. The
members of the body of Christ, the 144,000, first consecrated
th~mselves b)T agreeing to do God's will, and hence asked to
be bought. The purpose and provision of God is for the
redemption of men without discrimination as to nationality,
color or language, but all who are redeemed must first have
faith in God and in Christ Jesus and then fully consecrate
themselves to do God's will. This rule applies to all who
eventually gain eternal life. Others will gain such life on
the paradise earth. The members of the "body of Christ"
are merely the "firstfruits" unto God and to his Lamb
Christ Jesus. This proves that there will be others who will
see the privilege of being bought and who will avail themselves of being bought by willingly exercising faith in God
and Christ and proving their faith by fully consecrating
themselves to God to do His will for evermore. No one will
be ransomed against his will.

PEKAH, A CONSPIRATOR AMONG CONSPIRATORS

EKAH was a young man when Israel's 22-year kingless
period ended in 789 B.C. In that year Zachariah,
conspirator Jehu's great-great-grandson, had been
placed on the throne of Israel. (2 Ki. 9: 14; 15: 8) Pekah
and the rest of Israel could well expect a change in the
ruling family of Israel after Zachariah, because everybody
knew of the prophecy spoken to his ancestor Jehu: "Thy

sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation." (2 Ki. 10: 30; 15: 12; Amos 7: 9) But Pekah could
hardly have expected the change to come as soon as it did.
"Shallum, the son of Jabesh, conspired against him [Zachariah], and attacked him in Ibleam and killed him [six
months after his enthronement] and became king in his
stead."-2 Ki. 14: 29; 15: 8-13, An Amer. Trans.

190

~eWATCHTOWER,

Pekah saw that Shallum's conspiracy got him nowhere,

for just one month later Shallum was himself defeated and
slain.-2 Ki. 15: 10, 1315.
Shallum's slayer and :;uccessor was from Israel's ancient
royal capital, Tirzah. "JUenahem the son of Gadi went up
from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the
son of J abesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his
stead." (2 Ki. 15: 14) When the town of Tiphsah, about
three and a half miles to the northwest of Tirzah, refused
to open up to him, "then :M:enahem smote Tiphsah, and all
that were therein, and the borders thereof, from Tirzah:
because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and
all the women therein that were ,vith child he ripped up."
(2 Ki. 15: 16, Am. Stan. Ver.) About that time Tiglathpileser, an Assyrian official, usurped the throne of Assyria
and set out to expand the Assyrian empire on every side.
When he went west into Syria and turned south toward
Israel, IGng Menahem decided to submit to him and continue his rule over Israel as a tributary of Assyria. In order
to get the necessary silver for the tribute, ":M:enahem
assessed all the wealthy men of Israel, taking nearly four
hundred pounds in silver from each." The more than four
hundred thousand pounds in silver that he collected he paid
to the invader. "So the Assyrian king turned back, instead
of remaining in the country." The Syrian kingdom of
Damascus to the north of Israel also became a tributary
of Assyria. Menahem died in 779 B.C., after having ruled
ten years. (2 Ki. 15: 17-22, Moffatt) Probably by that
time Pekah had already entered on a military career.
l.Ienahem's son Pekahiah, who began to reign over Israel
in Samaria in 777 B.C., made Pekah a captain in his army.
After Pekahiah had reigned two years, "Pekah, the son of
Remaliah, conspired against him, and, with fifty men from
Gilead, struck him down in Samaria, inside the citadel of
the royal palace; having killed him, Pekah reigned instead
of him."-2 Ki. 15: 22-26, JIoffatt.
Pekah continued the policy of his predecessors; "he did
that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed
not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith
he made Israel to sin." (2 Ki. 15: 27, 28, Am. Stan. Vel'.)
That is, he worshiped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan
instead of worshiping Jehovah at His temple in Jerm:alem.
When Pekah came to the throne, Judah to the couth was
prospering under the regency of Jotham, whose fathcr,
King Uzziah, was dying from leprosy; in fact, hc diJ die in
the very accession year of Pekah. In Pekah's second year
Jotham began his rule alone, over Judah and subject Edom
and Ammon and the Philistine cities his father Uzziah had
taken. Damascus to the northeast was a strong Syrian kingdom ruled by Rezin.
In 759 Pekah learned that J otham had associated his son
Ahaz on the throne with him. Thinking that such action
indicated the nearness of Jotham's death and remembering
that it was by conspiracy that he (Pekah) had acquired the
throne of Israel, Pekah planned to gain control of Judah
by conspiracy. He invited King Rezin of Syria into the
conspiracy with him. Together they plotted to set up a
puppet regime in Judah, saying, ''Lct us go up against
Judah, and throw it into a panic, and make a schism in it
to our interest, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in
the midst of it." (Isa. 7: 6, An A.mer. Trans.) What did
Pekah care about Jehovah's covenant with David (Ahaz's

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

ancestor) promising the kingdom to his descendants1 He set

about getting fifth columnists in Judah who would uphold
his conspiracy. As soon as Jotham died the Syro-Israelite
confederacy went into action.
Rezin sent an army southward to the important Judean
Red sea port, Elath, took it, transferred its Judean inhabitants to Damascus as captives, and replaced them with
Syrians. (2 Ki. 16: 6; 2 Chron. 28: 5) At the same time the
Israelite and Syrian armies marched toward Jerusalem. The
battle was joined, and "Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in
Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all of
them valiant men; because they had forsaken Jehovah, the
God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim.
slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler of the
house, and Elkanah that was next to the king." Moreover
the Israelites captured 200,000 Israelite wome~ and children
and an immense amount of spoil. (2 ehron. 28: 6-8, Am.
Stan. Ver.) After the battle Pekah, back in his palace, at
Samaria, is glorying in the success of the confederacy's arms
and is a,vaiting the arrival of the captives and spoil. A fast
runner from the south brings him news that Ahaz's "heart
trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the
forest tremble with the wind". (Isa. 7: 2, Am. Stan. Vel'.)
He congratulates himself, thinking, With just one or two
more such victories all Judah will be under my control, but
Pekah is annoyed when he realizes that the spoil is long
overdue. Then the reason for the delay is reported to him;
Oded, a prophet of Jehovah in Samaria, "went out to meet
the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold,
because Jehovah, the God of your fathers, was wroth with
Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye havc
slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven.
And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah
and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but
are there not even with you trespasses of your own agaimt
Jehovah your God1 Now hear me therefore, and send back
the captives, that ye have taken captive of your brethren;
for the fierce wrath of Jehovah is upon you. Then certam
of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son
of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai,
stood up against them that came from the war, and said
unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for
ye purpose that which will bring upon us a trespass against
Jehovah, to add unto our sins and to our trespass; for our
trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.
So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the
princes and all the assembly. And the men that have been
mentioned by name rose up, and took the captives, and with
the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and
arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to
drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them
upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palmtrees, unto their brethren: then they returned to Samaria."
(2 Chron. 28: 9-15, Am. Stan. Ver.) Pekah was furious. To
think that his own princes had sabotaged him! But he was
not beaten yet; with the aid of the combined armies of
Israel and Syria he felt sure the conspiracy would succeed.
Pekah was soon comforted by news that the Edomites had
attacked Judah on the southeast and defeated it and carried
away captives. With satisfaction he thought to himself, No

JUNE

15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER..

prophet of Jehovah there to interfere. Then he received

more welcome news: "The Philistines also had raided the
cities of the lowland [shepheldh] and the South [negeb]
of Judah and had captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its towns, Timnah with its towns, and Gimzo
with its towns, and were living there." (2 Chron. 28: 17, 18,
An Amer. nans.) Pekah gloated because Judah had been
brought so Jow. But the next report he received from his
agents in Judah made him have some misgivings. He was
informed that Ahaz had taken the silver and the gold that
were found in the temple at Jerusalem and in the treasuries
of the royal palace, and had sent it to the king of Assyria.
-2 Ki. 16: 8.
Pekah did not have to wait very long to find out why
Ahaz had sent silver and gold to Tiglath-pileser. The Assyrian emperor marched his armies westward and lay
siege to Damascus and also invaded Israel. The Assyrians
first struck Israel at its northernmost city of Ijon; then they
swept south and attacked and captured Abel-beth-maachah,
Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor. Then the enemy crossed the
Jordan to the east and took all of Gilead. The victorious
armies then completed their work by taking the rest of
Galilee and Naphtali and the seacoast as far as Gaza in
Philistia. From all the conquered territory they deported
Israelites.-2 Ki. 15: 29; 1 Chron. 5: 26.
The next report he received was that Damascus had fallen
and that the kingdom of Syria had been divided up into
four Assyrian provinces; that the former Israelite territor;}7
beyond the Jordan had been divided into two Assyrian
provinces, Hauran and Gilead (or, Beyond the Jordan),

191

that the Israelite territory north of Samaria had been made

the Assyrian province of Galilee with headquarters at
Megiddo, and that all the coastal territory of Israel was now
the Assyrian province of Dol' (or, Way of the Sea); and
that Ahaz had gone to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser.
Then his informer paused and, with some hesitation, told
him his ally Rezin had been killed. (Ezek. 47: 16 j Isa. 9: 1;
2 Ki. 16: 9, 10) Pekah hardly has time to start wondering
what his own fate will be when he sees Hoshea is upon him
with a drawn sword. Quickly that sword ends his thought,;
forever. By his own murderous conspiracy Pckah had
gained the throne; by the murderous conspiracy of another
he lost it.-2 Ki. 15: 30.
Just as Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria entered into
an international conspiracy against Jehovah's kingdom
covenant with David, likewise today the worldl;}7 nations
unite in a conspiracy against Jehovah's kingdom covenant
with the Son of David, Jehovah's anointed King Christ
Jesus. As Pekah and Rezin were both destroyed without
accomplishing their ends, Jehovah's Word assurcs his people
today that in like manner the present world conspiracy
against God's kingdom under Christ will be entirely
defeated and destroyed: "Say ye not, A conspiracy, con
cerning all whereof this people shall say, A conspirac)';
neither fear ye their fear, nor be in dread thereof. Jehovah
of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear,
and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary."
(Isa. 8: 12.14, Am. Stan. Ver.) To the conspirators He says:
"Associate yourselves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken
in pieces."-Isa. 8: 9.

AN INTERESTING LETTER
April 16, 1948

goyerns two cases, the genitive and the accusative; and when
it governs the genitive it means "with", but when it govern<;
Your letter of l.Iarch 27, addressed to C. J. W- at our the accusative it means "after". In the above text. Acts
address, has been referred to us by him as being more 13: 20, metd governs the accusative, and hence mean<;
appropriate for us. We appreciate your reading The Watch- "after", and not "corresponding with". In this verse it
tower critically and bringing into play all the fund of occurs in that familiar Greek expression metd tauta, which
knowledge and information at your disposal; and the sugges- expression occurs four times in Acts, written by Luke, and
five times in the gospel of Luke. In checking these instances
tions offered have our respectful consideration.
The question at issue is the article in the March 15, 1948, in Fenton's translation we note in these nine instances,
issue of The Watchtower, under the title "Exodus to Temple namely Acts 7: 7; 13: 20 j 15: 16; 18: 1 and Luke 5: 27 ,
--480 Years", and setting forth the information we had 10: 1; 12: 4; 17: 8; 18: 4, he renders metd in every case
compiled of the most recent date as to source. Now is not "after", except in the one verse of Acts 13: 20. There he
the time to be going into a discussion of the chronological finds himself in a mental difficulty over chronolog? as
tables which you submit, but the main matter is that of accepted up to his time, and, accordingly, he departs from
numerals and the written 'Word of God, and hence prin- his accustomed way of translating metd with the accusative.
in order to harmonize certain views on chronology, possibly
cipally of page 5 of your letter.
You call our attention to Ferrar Fenton's translation of in line with the Syriac Version of the verse. Fenton has no
Acts 13: 19, 20, and that here he renders the Greek prepo- real textual basis for doing this, as this accustomed phrase.
sition metd as "contemporary with", making it read: "After- metd tauta, occurs also in the Greek Septuagint Version of
wards when he had conquered seven nations in the land of the Hebrew Scriptures, where it also means "after this (or,
Canaan, he entrusted them with the possession of their that)"; as, for example, Exodus 5: 1, there translated
country for about four hundred and fifty years; and, con- "afterward". It is therefore very plain that Fenton's transtemporary with these events, he gave them judges until the, lation of Acts 13: 20 is extraordinary, and carries no weight
end of Samuel. And then they demanded a kingdom." It in determining whether the period of the judges who once
may be true, as you say, that at 346 places in the "New ruled Israel was 450 years in length and not less, u,;
Testament" this preposition metd has been translated explained on pages 131, 132 of the book "Equipped fol'
"with". But you must remember that the preposition metd Every Good Work".
DEAR BROTHER:

192

~e WATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Now as to the Greek text of Revelation: It is true, as with a rough type; it contains the usual contractions for
you state, that in the Greek text found in The Emphatic the sacred names and also abbreviations for numerals. HowDiaglott we find Greek alphabetic letters standing for ever, as Dr. J. H. Moulton's Grammar shows, the papyrus
numbers at Revelation 13: 18, to produce the symbolic manuscripts give good support to writing Or spelling out
number "666"; but, also, at Revelation 7: 5-8 we find the numbers, and, as he also says (page 173), "arithmetical
alphabetic letters ib standing for the number 12, and processes are not represented in New Testament." Hence
occurring twelve times. However, this Greek text is not that there would be no general use for ciphers required in the
of the ancient Vatican Manuscript 1209 of the fourth cen- Christian Greek Scriptures or "New Testament". In Adolf
tury, but, as the Diaglott footnote explains, its text is that Deissmann's Light from the Ancient East, he writes on the
of another Vatican manuscript, No. 1160, of the eleventh "language of the New Testament", and points out how
century. Also, in the California version of 1930 to which among the words supposed to be thought not standard
you refer, it shows in its superlinear readings over its Greek Greek of the day but only ''Biblical'' Greek were a series
text that alphabetic letters were used for numerals in a of numerals spelled out. (Page 77, par. 1, footnote 1)
Vatican manuscript containing the Revelation; but again
Finally, we quote from the exhaustive work of 1,454
this latter manuscript is not the Ancient Vatican MS. 1209, pages, by Dr. A. T. Robertson, of 1923, entitled "A Gramwhich does not contain Revelation, but is the manuscript mar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical
No. 2066, generally registered as 046. This latter manuscript Research". Discussing numerals it says (page 283) : "As a
is also a late text, of the eighth century, written in some- rule in the New Testament MSS. the numbers are spelled
what sloping uncials.
out instead of mere signs being used."
What the above-mentioned Watchtower article said in its
It is true, as your letter states, that we do not know for
last paragraph regarding numbers was based on texts closer certain whether "the apostles and their fellow disciples
to the apostolic times than AISS. Nos, 1160 and 2066 (046). wrote all the numbers spelled out in full, seeing that we
It had in mind the Vatican MS. 1209 and Sinaitic MS., both have no knowledge of their originai writings being still in
of the fourth century, and Alexandrine 1'18. of the fifth existence". But what The Watchtower had said was based
century, and which spell numbers out, except in the case upon the indications of such highly respected and authorof the symbolic number at Revelation 13: 18, where alpha- itative 1'1SS. of great age as the Vatican MS. 1209, Sinaitic
betic symbols are used for 666. As you know, Vatican and Alexandrine. So, as we see it, the situatio.n calls for
MS. No. 1209 does not contain Revelation, but it does one of tolerance of opinions upon the matter, while we seek
contain the Greek Septuagint Version of the ancient Hebrew to find which way the weight of authority leans and then
Scriptures; and in this translation from the Hebrew the lean accordingly, even if it does break up previously held
Greek text of Vatican AIS. 1209 spells out the numbers, even views.
in the book of Numbers with its registration data. This style
Appreciating your frankness and intense interest, we
throughout Vatican 1\1S. 1209 indicates what would be the remain
ease with numerals if this :US. did contain Revelation.
Faithfully yours in Kingdom service,
J. H. Moulton's A Grammar of New Testament Greek, of
1929, says, on page 171, that in the Beza MS. (D) of the
sixth century ciphers were used, and in a footnote it adds:
"The great frequency of this writing in such a 7IIS. as D
suggests the PROBABILITY that the autographs used symbols NOTE: There is a set of papyri known as the "John H. Schelde
rather than words for numbers." It then refers to a papyrus Biblical Papyri" and which date from the late second or early
fragment of the end of the third or the beginning of the third century. They include Ezekiel 19: 12 to 39: 29 (with some
fourth century, but, as Dr. F. Kenyon says of this papyrus losses), in Greek, and are now deposited at Princeton UniverSity,
fragment (PI), it "is written in too rough and untrained a Princeton, New Jersey. In these papyri of such early date the
hand to be of much palaeographical value". (Palaeogr. of numerals in the text are written out in full, and Ciphers are not
Greek Papyri, page 109, note) It represents the type of used. The pages are the only parts that are numbered with the
letters of the Greek alphabet used as numerals. This confirms
"New Testament" which was used by poor men in the third what is said in the above letter concerning the commonness of
or fourth centuries. The papyrus fragment (PH) of Revela- writing or spelling out the numbers in full in the body of the
tion 9: 10 to 17: 2 is about of the same age, and is written Bible text.

FIELD EXPERIENCE
SHARING GOOD NEWS

Learning of the good news of God's kingdom makes the

honest-hearted want to share it with others, as the following
experience from Missouri shows:
''While in the magazine work I placed the 'Let God Be
True' book with a lady. She gave me her name and address
and I called on her later. Her husband was opposed, so she
asked for my name and address and said she would come

and see me when she could. One Saturday morning while we

were eating breakfast she knocked on our door. We asked
her to have a cup of tea with us and she did. She said she
had a few subscriptions that she wanted to give me for the
Awake! for some of her friends. I was very much surprised
when she handed me a slip of paper with twelve names and
addresses on it. She said she had found a bankbook, had
returned it, and had received a reward for it. She thought
this was the best thing she could do with the money."

~eWATCHTOWER
PuBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adanu Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNOllR,

President

GlUNT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~hi: of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." JUlian 54:J.1.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEAnLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, !lnd Is the Maker of hE'aven and earth and Giver of
lIfe to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his acUve agent In creating all other thln;;s;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jeho'l"ah anu raised
the Issue ot His nnh'ersal sovereignty;
THA'l.' GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong aet all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and SUffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege It
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon tIle
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now procecds to
vindicate His name and establlsh the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's organization and estnbllsh
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of goodwill surviving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves wlll be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.
UGOD'S MINISTERS" TESTI1IIONY PERroD

Because the Testimony Period during the month of August is

entitled "God's Ministers", that does not e~clude any of our
lVatchto~ver readers. To be one of his ministers does not mean to
be an ordained graduate from some sectarian religious theological
seminary; it simply means to be one of his servants, spreading
the gospel of his King and kingdom. You can be one of such by
taking part with all of Jehovah's witnesses during August in
spreading his message by 'Word of mouth and by printed page. The
special offer for the month will be the combination of the book
"The Kingdom Is at Hand" and the new booklet PClmallent
Governor of All Nahons, on a contribution of 35c. Anyone willing
to minister God's message to the people can easily and quickly
learn to present this offer from door to door with success and have
the rare joy of singing God's praises to all nations. Experienced
ministers stand ready to help any desiring to start out in this
ministry during August, and your request to us by card will move
us to put you i~ ~ouc~ wi~h the .need~d personal help and inst1;tctions. All partICipating m this mIdsummer Testimony Penod
should submit their report when August closes.
VACATION
In order that companies and pioneers may plan their work for
about two months of the period affected, they should order literature well in advance of August 7. This information is given to all
Kingdom publishers in view of the fact that the Brooklyn factory,
office and Bethel home will be closed from Saturday, August 7, to

ITS MISSION
HIS jQurnal Is pubUshed for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-wilL
It arranges systematic Bible study tor Its readers and the Society
supplies other Uterature to aid In such studies. It pUbllshes
suitable material tor radio broadcasting and for other means
of public Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances.
It Is entirely tree and separate trom all rellgion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation
tor the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It Is not dogmatic, but InVites careful and critical examination
of Its contents In the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
In controversy, and Its columns are not open to personalities.

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Please addresa the Watch Tower Soclet;r in ever;r case.

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SAVE
your personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower.
Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer
or on library shelves. At the end of each year, in its Decem
ber 15 issue, The Watchtower contains an index of subjects and an
index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in
all the leading articles throughout the year. By saving your copies
and keeping them in date order you will have an invaluable reference library for consultation in your study of the Bible. Organized
companies should preserve copies in the library of their local
Theocratic ministry course schooL
"WATCBTOWER" STUDIES

Week of August 8: "Transmitting the Sacred Record,"

1T 1-15 inclusive, also "Compiling the Record from
Original Souree,;",
1f 1-8 inclusive, The Watcl~tower July 1, 1948.
Week of August 15: "Compiling the Record from
Original Sources",
11' 9-34 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1948.

~ceWAlCIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

JULY

1, 1948

No. 13

TRANSMITTING THE SACRED RECORD

"So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by
epistle of ours."-2 Thess. 2: 15, Am. Stan. Ver.
EHOVAH God gifted his creature man with the that could be read and reread aloud and rehearsed
ability to write. By making markings on certain in the ears of others. It could thus be used as a vindimaterials, as clay, stone, wood, skins, or paper, cation of the speaker whose words were recorded,
man could indicate the sounds of speech. In this and as a testimony against enemies and false acmanner not only spoken words could be recorded for cusers. No one has been reproached and maligned
future reading, but also unspoken thoughts, ideas more than the Lord God Jehovah. But he has had
committed to writing a faithful declaration of his
and messages.
works and good purposes, and the day draws near
2 The art of writing being his gift, God saw to it
that it was used for His good purpose. The Holy when his Word will be fully vindicated once and for
Bible reveals him and his purpose toward mankind, all time. Had the knowledge of God depended upon
and he caused it to be written that those who seek oral tradition in order to be transmitted to man's
eternal life and happiness might get the needed children and children's children, it would have been
information and instruction. The writing of his holy more and more corrupted, added to or taken from,
Word from time to time has produced all the inspired so as to make it largely unreliable. But because it
books of the sacred Scriptures, for "scriptures" has been faithfully preserved in writing for a memomeans "writings". In this sacred Record we read the rial, the truth seeker can satisfy himself with a
commands he gave to certain men to do the writing trustworthy, authentic account concerning his Creaof their part of it. The first such recorded command tor. God's words to one of the first writers of the
was that to the prophet :Moses, after the famous Bible were: ''Ye shall not add unto the word which
battle of Rephidim, when "the LORD said unto Moses, I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from
Write this for a memorial in a book". (Ex. 17: 14) it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
That was in 1513 B.C. But even before this, in the your God which I command you." (Deut. 4: 2; 12: 32)
days of Job, this man of affiiction had cried out: "Oh His instructions to the last writer of the Bible, J olm,
that my defence were written, oh that my case could were quite similar.-Rev. 22: 18, 19.
The first book of the Bible, Genesis, contains the
be preserved in writing, cut with an iron pen on lead,
oldest
record on earth. It tells of conditions and
or lastingly engraved on stone!" (Job 19: 23, 24,
Moffatt) "0 that one would listen to me! Here is my events before the lifetime of Moses. Since he wrote
signature! Let the Almighty answer me! And the Genesis in its present form, as Jesus Christ and his
scroll which my opponent has written-surely I faithful apostles assure us, the question is, How did
would carry it upon my shoulder; I would wind it the prophet Moses get his information, and fro111
around me as my diadem." (Job 31: 35, 36, An Amer. whom? We have the pertinent words of the apostle
Tmns.) Job's wish for his words of defense to be Peter : "No prophecy of the scripture is of any priprinted in a book was heard by the Lord God and vate interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
answered, for Moses recorded them either on papy- old time by the will of man: but holy men of God
rus paper from Egypt or on clay tablets as a substi- spake as they were moved by the holy [spirit]."
tute for stone-.'The fact that Job spoke of a written (2 Pet. 1: 20, 21) God could have directly revealed
scroll long enough for him to wind around him like all of Genesis verbally to Moses by inspiration of his
a diadem shows he was familiar with papyrus of spirit, and it would have been perfectly true and
reliable. Without a question of doubt, the book is
Egypt, or leather scrolls.
inspired,
but there is nothing to indicate it was
3 The above-quoted statements by Jehovah and Job
revealed
word
for word by inspiration. In Genesis
show the purpose that writing has according to God's
5:
1,
which
speaks
about Adam and his creation, the
will, namely, to use the book written as a memorial
term book appears. But as there is no record in the

], 2. With wbat ablIlty dlrl God gift man? and bow did God use it?
3. What purpose does the writing of His Word have?
4. Was Genesis revealed verbally to. HOllell by God's spirit? Why?
195

196

~eWATCHTOWER..

Bible saying directly that anyone wrote before the

days of Job and Moses, it was long thought that
"book" there did not refer to writing back in Adam's
day. This led to the thought, a quite reasonable one,
too, that Moses got his information from his forefat4ers by oral tradition.
S The record of Genesis could have been thus transmitted to Moses by oral tradition without too great
likelihood that it would be corrupted and twisted
from the truth. Why, there were just five human links
needed to fill out the' gap between Adam, created in
the forty-first century B.C., and Moses, born in the
sixteenth century B.C. This was possible because
Adam's long life overlapped on that of (1) Methuselah; his on that of (2) Noah's son Shem; his on that
of (3) Abraham's son Isaac; his on that of his grandson (4) Levi; his on that of his grandson (5) Amram,
who was the father of Moses.
a Remarkable, but true, just those five intermediaries could have verbally carried down to Moses the
story of creation and the garden of Eden from Adam,
together with all the intervening history through
which these five intervening men lived. Moses could
then have written it down. Being moved by God's
holy spirit, he would have had its help and guidance
in compiling the information thus received by oral
tradition. All things are possible with Almighty God;
and this writing with oral tradition as the source of
information was just as possible as direct verbal
inspiration, in fact, more likely, more reasonable.
The important factor which would produce a true,
accurate record in either case would be the inspiring
spirit of God. During the twenty-five centuries from
Adam's creation to Moses' beginning to write there
was unquestionably a great deal of passing on of
historical information from generation to generation
by oral tradition. Did :Moses get it that way' The
Bible does not say so. vYe examine another possible
\vay, then.
THE ART OF WRITING

At least since Moses' day Jehovah God has shown

he approved of the committing of his Holy Word to
men by means of a faithful written record. Why,
then, should he not also have the events of the book
of Genesis, prior to Moses, committed to writing for
Moses to receive in that form' What was to hinder
him T Ah, you say, man's failure to develop the art
of writing. Upon this understanding that the art of
writing had not been invented much before Moses'
day the theory of oral tradition is based. Says the
noted Bible commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke: "There
are only three ways in which these important records
1

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

could have been preserved and brought down to the

time of Moses: viz., writing, tradition, and divine
revelation. In the antediluvian world, when the life
of man was so protracted, there was comparatively little need for writing of any kind, and perhaps
no alphabetical writing then existed. Tradition
answered every purpose to which writing in any
kind of characters could be subservient; and the
necessity of erecting monuments to perpetuate public
events could scarcely have suggested itself, as during
those times there could be little danger apprehended of any important fact becoming obsolete, as
its history had to pass through very few hands, and
all these friends and relatives in the most proper
sense of the terms; for they lived in an insulated
state under a patriarchal government." ("Preface to
Genesis," 1836) But this theory as to the ancien~ness
of writing and the alphabet has been shaken by what
the archaeologists have uncovered in Bible lands
from the early part of this twentieth century forward.
a Whenever writing was invented and the human
instruments of God acquired the art, then the putting
of vital information about God down in writing must
have begun. Just when an alphabet for writing originated is not yet proved, but it has been ascribed by
some learned scholars to Adam and other men before
the Flood. How to furnish support for this thought
was lacking until the diggings and discoveries of
archaeologists brought to the surface good reasons to
believe writing was invented before the great flood
of Noah's day 4,317 years ago. In view of this the
honor for the discovery, or rather for the transmitting, of writing can no longer be divided between
the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians.
The honor must be conferred upon someone before
the Flood. Consequently, the art of writing was
carried through the Flood of 2,370 B.C. from the
world that then was to this present evil world, by
no others than Noah and his three sons.
PREFLOOD WRITING
g The Bible tells us the ark landed upon the mountains of Ararat in Armenia. From there Noah and
his household went forth into the post-Flood epoch
tb.at continues till this day. Then we read: "In the
days when the whole earth had one language and one
vocabulary, there was a migration from the east,
and men came upon a plain in the land of Shinar,
where they settled. Then they said to one another,
'Come on, let us make bricks, and give them a good
burning.' Then, as they had bricks for stone and

See "The Truth Shall Make You Free", pages 148, 204, 205,
edition of 1943.

We accept the date of 2,370 B.C. for the Flood, as given in

the book "Equipped for Every Good Work", page 143, chart
of chronology.

5, 6, How could M08e8 have gotten It by tradition with accuracy?

7. Why was oral tradition thought likely? but why leBB 80 now?

8. Wheu do we have reason to believe Writing WBJI Invented? Why',

9. Where as a homeland did men settie 8 fter the Flood?

JULY

1, 1948

~e WATCHTOWER.

197

asphalt for mortar, they said, 'Come on, let us make "ziggurat" was cleared of the dirt mound covering it.
a name for ourselves by building a city and a tower The claim is made that the ziggurat had been built
whose top reaches to heaven; it will keep us from 250 years before Abraham was born. During the
being scattered all over the wide earth." (Gen. 8: 4; excavation they found bricks bearing the inscription
11: 1~4, Moffatt) In this plain of Shinar the city of of the city-king, Dr-Nammu, who built the high place.
Babylon (Babel) was built, as well as Kish and Dr Cuneiform characters were found perfectly stamped,
of the Chaldees, the city of Abraham "the friend of thus disclosing that hundreds of years before AbraGod". The Bible, and anham writing was common
cient tradition, and now
in the plain of Shinar.
archaeology assign the
This was therefore in
homeland of mankind
Noah's own time, for
after the Flood to the
Abr'8.ham was born only
plain of Shinar, or Babytwo years after Noah
died. At a place (AI
lonia, now known as
Mesopotamia or the
Ubaid) some four miles
Kingdom of Iraq.
from Dr a clay tablet was
found, which was calcu10 Logically it is there
lated to belong to a period
that we look for the un5,000 years ago, as the
covering of the earliest
archaeologists push the
traces of our presentFlood farther back than
day civilization since the
the Bible locates it. The
Flood, including early
names of the two Sumerievidences of the art of
an kings found on the
writing. Digging in the
tablet
actually follow the
Mesopotamian valley, arFlood, but precede Abrachaeologists are amazed,
ham. There have been
the farther down they
found various deposits of
dig, at the suddenness
clay of great thickness
with which civilization of
and which various ara high order bursts upon
chaeologists have asthe world. This directly
scribed to the evidences
contradicts the so-called
of the Flood at that area.
"evolution theory". Just
as the first post-Flood
But this is not conclusive.
builders here used sunThe statements made, for
dried brick, so the writ
instance, by Ashurbaniing from the earliest
pal (called Osnapper in
times was on tablets
the Bible), indicate in
made from clay and dried A letter in cuneiform with the front of the clay envelope themselves that there
in the sun to the hard- broken away. It is of Noah's time, found at Dr of Chaldees was writing before the
ness of stone after inFlood. For the benefit of
scriptions had been made upon them with a stylus. our readers we quote the words of Ashurbanipal:
This kind of pen had an angular head, and with it "I had my joy in the reading of inscriptions on
they made wedge-shaped impressions in the clay, stone from the time before the flood." As early as
combining these in various patterns to a great 1872 tablets had been recovered that described a
number of combinations. Such writing is called great flood.
cuneiform, meaning wedge-shaped.
12 The Sumerian records before Abraham's time
refer to five cities before the Flood, namely, Eridu,
11 At the invitation of Jehovah God, his friend
Abraham left Dr of the Chaldees, his native city, and Badtibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak, and one
arrived in Palestine in 1943 B.C. Yet in that twen- record lists a sixth, Ellasar. Also, cuneiform tablets
tieth century B.C. when he left Dr, this city was found in both Babylonia and Assyria frequently
enjoying a high level of civilization, with many things refer to the time before the Deluge. The Bible proves
making for culture, including writing. Just twenty- that there were cities before the Flood. It names
five years ago (A.D. 1923) the great high place or Cain, the murderer of Abel, as the first one to build
a city, which he called Enoch, after his son. (Gen.

10. On what was writing early done, and with what alphabet?
11. What shows that writing was In vogue right after the Flood?

12. 13 What Indications are there ot writing l}(>fore the Flood?

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4: 16, 17) The development of the art of working in

metals is attributed to a great~grandson of Cain
before the Flood, namely, Tubal-cain, concerning
whom we read: "Zillah in turn bore Tubal-cain, the
forger of bronze and iron utensils." (Gen. 4: 21, 22,
An.1hner. Trans.) This marks a great advance in the
arts and sciences, including stringed and pipe music
and also writing, in Adam's time.
13 Before the Flood men used seals to impress their
signature. At Ur of the Chaldees Sir Leonard
Woolley found seals belonging to men that lived
before the Flood. The impress of such seals on plastic
material like clay was the equivalent of the modern
signature. Usually the seal was a cylinder from half
an inch to an inch and a half long, but sometimes it
was a precious stone engraved and worn on a ring.
Each seal was specially inscribed for the owner. It
often included his name in cuneiform. Here, then, is
definite evidence of writing in use before the Flood,
.
of 2,370 B.C.

~~ ~t:t:T$T~T~":TT-H(T ~ '~~=:--~n
Na bi

U1)

ku. du ur ri u

su-' ur

The name of N'ebuchadnezzar in syllabic cuneiform

14 "\Vriting was therefore no strange art to Noah
and his sons with him in the ark. It was easily
possible for him or his sons to keep a logbook of their
ship, the ark, during and after the forty-day rainfall,
until they emerged from the ark. (Gen. 7: 7 to 8: 19)
As the human family multiplied after the Flood writing passed into general use. Thousands of clay tablets
have been found written before the patriarch Abraham's day. Till now, about a quarter of a million
cuneiform clay tablets have been found and distributed to museums throughout the world. Hence,
when Abraham moved out of Dr of the Chaldees,

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

writing was being used in connection with all the

transactions of life, the clay tablet being used to
receive records and the cuneiform script being the
style of writing.
.
15 On moving into the Promised Land of Palestine
Abraham found writing in vogue there, the cuneiform
syllabic system being the one used. Because of famine
in Canaan Abraham moved down into Egypt for a
while. There he found the Egyptians acquainted not
only with their own local style of writing but also
with the Akkadian cuneiform which doubtless he
himself used. The facts show that at least shortly
afterward Akkadian was an international language.
This is proved by the more than 350 clay tablets dis~
covered A.D. 1887 at Tell el-Amarna, about 160 miles
south of the Nile delta. Written in Akkadian cunei~
form, these proved to be the correspondence ad~
dressed by princes and governors in Syria and Pales~
tine to their foreign overlords, the kings of Egypt.
Their being found in Egypt proves that Egyptian
officials could read the cuneiform as well as their own
hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic writing. Since
Abraham's great~grandson,:Moses, up till his fortieth
year, "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," he was doubtless taught to read, write and
translate the cuneiform for state purposes. (Acts
7: 22) He also wrote Hebrew in Semitic alphabetic
characters then used by his brethren to transmit the
sacred record. This is proved by the hundreds of
tablets in cuneiform found at Ugarit (now Ras
Shamra) on the Mediterranean coast opposite
Cyprus. These tablets show that the Canaanite
scribes invented a new way of writing, dropping the
syllabic cuneiform and adapting the Semitic alphabet
to cuneiform writing. The dialect they used was
closely related to the Hebrew of the Holy Scriptures.

See page 42 of New Discoveries in Babylonia Abollt Genesis,

by P. J. Wiseman, C.B.E. On page 82 Wiseman clnim~ to be in
posses~ion of cuneiform tablets written a thousand years before
Moses.

Some modern archaeologists claim to have found an Egyptian

inscription of the thirteenth century B.C. with the name Jehovah
written on it in Egyptian hieroglyphics. While hundreds of much
older hieroglyphic inscriptioIll! are known, this is the first time
the name Jehovah has been found written m hieroglyphics.

14. HoVi' were records on the Flood and other matters of hte kept?

HI. What Indicates Moses could read cuneltorm to transmit records?

COMPILING THE RECORD FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES

HETHER tradition by word of mouth or

written document was the means used to
pass on the information during the sixteen
centuries between Adam and Moses, Moses was the
compiler of the facts contained in the book of
Genesis. "The book of Moses," or "the book of the
law of Moses", was originally one book including
what are now called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy, but it was made a Pentateuch or divided up into these :five sections for con1. 2. Wilen did lItoses begln writing, and with wbat recordIJ?

vemence' sake. (Ezra 6: 18; Neh. 8: 1; Mark 12: 26)

By the very way that Moses wrote Genesis for us he
indicates the sources of his material for this boole
By this method also he indicates that the material
was handed down to him in writing and not by oral
tradition.
2 At the latest, Moses began writing his book in the
year 1513 B.C., after the battle of Rephidim on the
peninsula of Sinai which occurred a few weeks after
he led the Israelites out of Egypt. We read: "Then
the LORD said to Moses, 'Write this as a memorandum

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199

in a book, and recite it to Joshua; for I will blot out

the very memory of Amalek from under the heavens."
(Ex. 17: 14, An Amer. Trans.) Since the Lord had
decided upon Moses to do the writing, He would see
to it that Moses had the records from the creation
forward for consultation and compiling, so as to
write up one connected account for God's people, the
children of Israel, in the language that they understood and in the script that they could read.
S Those ancient records, in writing, were as a Bible
to Moses in Egypt. They were like "oracles of God"
that were committed to him to hold in sacred trust
and to use according to the will of God. (Rom.3: 1,2)
Moses was of the tribe of Levi. He doubtless received
these prized records from his great-grandfather Levi
through his own father Amram, Levi and Amram
being two of the overlapping links between Moses
and Adam. (Page 196, ~ 5) The tribe of Levi was the
one tribe of Israel that Jehovah set apart for himself
to act as his servants at the tabernacle, to take care
of the written oracles of God, to make copies of them,
and to teach them to the other tribes of Israel. So the
choice of Moses the Levite as a writer was a fitting
one. Moses was to write those things of which he
was an eyewitness, and the written records that he
consulted for compiling the account of Genesis were
those of eyewitnesses.
~ Papyrus paper was invented in Egypt at an early
date and was imported into Palestine and Syria, but
prior thereto writing was done in the land of Shinar
and the Mesopotamian valley upon stone and baked
clay tablets. Noah must have carried such tablets
concerning the world before the Flood into the ark
with him, and his sons could keep the log of the ark
during the Flood, writing on tablets of some material.
After they left the ark the account was continued by
them. The life of Shem, son of Noah, overlapped
upon that of Abraham; and Abraham, being "the
friend of God", doubtless received the records on
tablets from Shem. These he carried along with him
as a sacred trust when he left Dr of the Chaldees
twenty centuries before Christ. This friend of God
must have had some records to read on the works of
God with relation to his forefathers, in order to
build up his faith in Almighty God. What Shem
personally could have told him, as well as what was
written on tablets, supplied Abraham with the knowledge essential to faith.
a Abraham's grandson Jacob moved down into
Egypt when his son Joseph was prime minister of
that country. He would take along all the precious
documents that he had on tablets to hand them down
to his sons at his death. Through his son Levi and
his great-grandson Amram such tablets came into

the hands of Moses, son of Amram. The records

included Jacob's document and were written in
cuneiform. But as the Foreign Office of Egypt exchanged correspondence with the land of Palestine
and Syria in the cuneiform, Moses, as a statesman
in Egypt up to his fortieth year, could read those
ancient tablets. He could have transcribed them,
recopying them in the proto-Hebrew alphabetic
letters readable by any of his Hebrew brethren.
8 Although papyrus paper was at hand in Egypt,
the writing upon stone or upon clay tablets was not
at once broken off with Moses. The first writing that
Jehovah God directly committed to Moses through
His angel was upon stone tablets, upon which the
"finger of God" had inscribed the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 31: 18) The finger of God wrote, not in
cuneiform nor in hieroglyphics, but in the ancient
proto-Hebraic alphabet. That was the living alphabet among the Israelites then; and the law given on
Mount Sinai was to be read widely by the Israelites,
particularly the Levites, and was to be understood by
all Israel. That written record was to continue on
in the Hebrew alphabet, the characters of which
would undergo some changes simplifying their outline, so as to be read in unbroken sequence by
Hebrew and Christian scholars down to our own day.
1 Moses did not take up a supply of papyrus paper
to the top of Mount Sinai for writing purposes. After
his first descent from Sinai following the giving of
the Ten Commandments, we read: "And Moses wrote
all the words of Jehovah, ... And he took the book
of the covenant, and read in the audience of the
people: and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken
will we do, and be obedient." Moses also sprinkled
this book of the law with the blood of the sacrifices
over which Jehovah made his covenant with Israel.
(Ex. 24: 4, 7, 8, Am. Stan. Ver.; Heb. 9: 19) After
this, when Moses spent forty days atop Mount Sinai
in communion with Jehovah's angel, he had plenty
of time to write, and he wrote, not on papyrus, but
on tablets. "And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write
thou these words: for after the tenor of these words
I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty
nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water.
And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." (Ex. 34: 27, 28, Am.
Stan. Ver.) All this serves to show that the use of
stone or clay for writing was an established practice
among God's people even as late as Moses' day.
Some such hard, imperishable substance must have
been what Adam used in making his personal record
more than sixteen centuries before Moses.
8 As early as 1894 The Watch Tower raised the
question of whether Adam did any writing. On page

3. Why was God's choice of :r.roses the Levite to write a fitting one?
4. How did Abrn.hllm get the knowledge essential to his faith?
5. How did the tablets come Into Moses' hands?

6, 7. On what, and In what script, did Moses write for his brethren?
8. What have we to show whether Adam did or did not write?

200

~eWATCHTOWER.

324 of its October 15 issue of that year it said: ''It

does not follow that they had a written language in
Adam's day, or that they printed books or had the
law written upon tables of stone. Perhaps they had
conditions which were preferable. Perhaps they had
means of communicating thoughts without writing or
printing. We believe they had. The necessity for
written language may (we believe does) lie in the
fact that Adam's race has fallen from the original,
perfect state in which he was created." Of course,
that statement was made back in 1894, when, as the
same paragraph said, "The flood of Noah's day has
left no traces of the early civilization, so far as is
now known." Now, in this twentieth century, the
diggings of the archaeologists in the Mesopotamian
valley have uncovered traces of the civilization prior
to the Flood, showing that writing was then in use.
All the archaeological finds which show the ancientness of writing clear up to right after the Flood when
Noah and his sons were still alive indicate that writing was carried over from antediluvian days by those
men in the ark. Furthermore, to indicate that Adam
wrote or possessed written records, we have the
statement at Genesis 5: 1, namely: "This is the book
of the generations of Adam." The term book infers
writing.ELEVEN HISTORIES
g Genesis 5: 1 reads in full: "This is the book of
the generationst of Adam. In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him."
Verse 2 belongs to this to make the full conclusion
to Adam's document. But with Genesis 5: 3 we have
the beginning of a new document written by Noah
and ending with the statement, at Genesis 6: 9,
"These are the generations of Noah." However, there
are other generations that are spoken of before
those of Noah and Adam, and of these we read, at
Genesis 2: 4: "These are the generations of the
heavens and of the earth when they were created,
in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven."
(Am. Stan. Ver.) Those words end the first written
document on which the book of Genesis is based and
which is the earliest written source consulted by

In a footnote on Genesis 5: 1 we read, in Dr. Adam Clarke's

Oommentary (of 1836) ; ''i!:lC sepher, in Hebrew, which we generally translate book, signifies a register, an account, any kind of
writing, even a letter, such as the bill of divorce. Here it means
the account or register of the generations of Adam."
Page 214 of Volume I of Delitzsch's New Oommentary on
Genesis (of 1888) says; "This is the book of the generations of
Adam. i!:lC [sepher] may designate any COMPLETED writing, even
a document consisting of only a few leaves or of a single one,
such as, for example, a writing of divorcement, Deut. 24: 1; or
a deed of purchase, Jer. 32: 11; or a written memorial, Ex. 17 : 14;
lsa. 30: 8."
t The expression "the book of the generations" occurs also at
Matthew 1: 1; and in the Greek Septuagint Version at Genesis 2: 4.
9 Of what generations before those of Adam do we read? Where?

BROOKLYN,

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Moses. It is after these words that the second document begins.

10 In the ancient Greek Septuagint translation of
the Hebrew Scriptures it renders Genesis 2: 4 as
follows: "This is the book of the generation of heaven
and earth, .. " By book it denotes the writing down
of those generations of the heavens and earth. Now
it is evident that the unintelligent heavens and earth
did not generate, beget, or originate anything of
themselves. Also what follows this verse does not
describe he~ven and earth as generating anything.
This indicates that here, at Genesis 2: 4, as well as
at 5: 1 and 6: 9, the translation of the Hebrew word
toledoth (mi5,n) is incorrect when rendered generations. It should really be translated history, or family
history, or origins, to refer to what precedes this
word, and not to what follows it.
11 Hence, An American Translation is wrong when
it translates Genesis 2: 4: "The FOLLOWING are
the origins of the heavens and the earth in their
creation." It inserts following."TIr. Jas. Moffatt saw
the difficulty here, and in his translation he took
these words of Genesis 2: 4 right out of their setting
and made them the very first verse of the Bible, so
that his translation reads: "This is the story of how
the universe was formed. When God began to form
the universe, the world was void and vacant, darkness layover the abyss; but the spirit of God was
Hovering over the waters." (Gen. 2: 4; 1: 1, 2) Note
that Moffatt renders the Hebrew word, not as generations, but as story. Authoritative lexicons, such as
those of Benjamin Davies and F. H. Gesenius, show
that one meaning of the Hebrew word is history or
story of origin. Moffatt's forced arrangement of
Genesis 2: 4 shows he did not understand that story
or history in that ancient Hebrew document referred
to what went before, and not to what follows in our
Bible. The expression was the concluding statement
for what went before. It was not the introduction
for what follows in the next document which has been
added.
12 Now if Watchtower readers will take their Bible
concordances and look under "generation(s)", they
will find that the particular expression we are discussing is found eleven (11) times in the book of
Genesis, as follows:
Genesis 2: 4a: "These are the generations of the
As far back as 1873 it was suggested that Genesis 2: 4 was a
conclusion to what went ahead. In The Book of Genesis with
notes, published that year by American Bible Union, New York
city, the footnote on Genesis 2: 4 said: "This verse has by some
been regarded as the conclusion of the preceding narrative. In
their view, the writer means: "These (referring to what precedes)
are the generations of the heavens and the earth." But then the
footnote went on to discount this view and to speak for the common view that Genesis 2: 4 is "an introduction to what follows".
10. What does Genesis 2: 4 show generaHom really to mean?
11. How have modern translations misunderstood these generatloM'
12. In Genesis "these are the generations" occurs how many times?

JULY 1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER..

heavens and of the earth when they were created."

Genesis 5: 1a: "This is the book of the generations
of Adam."
Genesis 6: 9a: "These are the generations of Noah."
Genesis 10: 1a: "Now these are the generations of
the sons of Noah."
Genesis 11: lOa: "These are the generations of
Shem."
Genesis 11: 27a: "Now these are the generations of
Terah."
Genesis 25: 12a: "Now these are the generations of
'"
Ishmael."
Genesis 25: 19a: "And these are the generations of
Isaac."
Genesis 36: 1a : "Now these are the generations of
Esau."
Genesis 36: 9a: "And these are the generations of
Esau."
Genesis 37: 2a: "These are the generations of
Jacob."
18 According to our modern style of literary composition the repetitious expression above seems misplaced in most cases. This is because Moses wrote in
the ancient style as he received it, and he thereby
revealed the source of the document that he incorporated into Genesis. In :Moses' day, and in the more
than sixteen centuries preceding him, it was the
literary style for a historical document to be concluded with the words, "Tnese are the generations,"
or, better translated, "This is the history," of So-andso, in this way to indicate who was the writer of the
document or its owner.
U This expression is therefore to be understood as
the conclusion of the document whose writer or
owner is named. It is not the introduction of any
document that the compiler Moses puts behind it.
"Moses himself used this type of conclusion to certain
sections of his own writings. For example, in the last
verse of Leviticus Moses framed his conclusion in
these words: "These are the commandments, which
the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel
in mount Sinai." (Lev. 27: 34) These words do not
form an introduction to what follows, namely, the
book of Numbers. Moses ended the book of Numbers
'with the words: "These are the commandments and
the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the
hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the
plains of- Moab by Jordan near Jericho." (Num.
36: 13) These words do not form the introduction to
the next book, Deuteronomy. Hence in both verses
In the Bible the genitive case is lIgain and again used to denote
the possessor of something, the one to whom something belongs.
For instance, in Galatians 3: 29 the genitive case, "of Christ,"
or, "Christ's," occurs, and .An .American Tran8lat~on renders it:
"And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of
Abraham and his heirs under the promise."
13, 14. This expression forms what part of each document? Why?

201

above-quoted An American Translation reads:

"These were the commands .. " Notice in Numbers
36: 13 how Moses dated the book of Numbers by
there saying, "in the plains of Moab by Jordan near
Jericho," thus indicating 1474 B.C.
lS From the foregoing it becomes clear that Moses
compiled the material for Genesis, down to chapter
37, verse 2, from eleven written documents. When we
consider that these were written or inscribed upon
the ordinary-size clay tablets of the time, we can see
that the material of some of the documents could not
be gotten all on one tablet. Two or more tablets were
needed for some documents. The size of the tablets
usually depended upon the quantity of material that
was to be written on it, and a tablet was rarely more
than fifteen inches square, according to cuneiform
tablets which archaeology has recovered. To keep
tablets that belonged in a certain order to a certain
series, it was customary to put them together in their
order on a string.
16 As further insurance that the tablets would be
put and kept and read in their proper order, the
device was adopted of using certain catchwords and
titles, as well as numbering the tablets. Today we use
titles at the top of the pages to show to which book
the pages belong and also to what chapter of it. Take,
for instance, the book "Let God Be True", and the
pages of chapter two, entitled' 'rwho Is Jehovah 1"
We find that the pages on the left-hand side are
marked with the even numbers from 22 to 32 and
have at the top of the page the title of the book, "Let
God Be True". The pages on the right-hand side are
marked with the odd numbers from 21 to 31 and have
at the top of the page the title of chapter two, namely,
"Who Is Jehovah ," Thus in preparing the book for
publication the assemblers at the WATCHTOWER printing establishment have no difficulty in getting the
pages in their proper sequence. In like manner Moses
used certain title words from the document at the
end as well as the beginning to certify to which series
the tablets belonged.
11 As for catchwords, it was different: Words from
the following document were added to the end of the
preceding document. This method is still followed
today. For instance, in the Hebrew Bible put out by
the Hebrew Publishing Company, New York city,
the type is, of course, read from right to left; and
at the bottom-left of each page there is put the opening expression of the next succeeding page. At the
bottom of the first page are printed in smaller type
the Hebrew words of verse 15 which mean "And let
them be"; those are the words with which page two
begins. Likewise, Moses used such catchwords to
115. What cuneiform tablets were bound together, and why?
16. What was the use of "titles"?
17. What was the use of "catchwords"?

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gfieWATCHTOWER.

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N. Y.

connect two adjoining documents to each other in wrote or owned Document II, as its colophon shows.
proper order. (Gen. 11: 26, 27)-See page 203, 11"26. This is not giving credit to sinner Adam for writing
18 Then, too, there was the conclusion of the docupart of the Bible, because Moses was the inspired
ment, which is called a "colophon". This is an inscrip- compiler and editor of Genesis. Whether Moses
tion placed at the end of a document or manuscript, depended upon oral tradition or upon written docuoften' containing facts relative to its production, such ments, in either case he would have to depend upon
as the writer's or printer's name and the date and Adam for the information which only Adam could
place of writing or publication. In a modern book give as an actor and eyewitness or which God had
this would be the information placed at the beginning told Adam about creation. Jehovah God is the Author
on the "title page"; but in Moses' day and prior to of the entire Bible, and by his power he would watch
him it was put at the end. The foregoing facts have that the material contributed by Adam and compiled
been abundantly established by the findings of by Moses would be correct and genuine. Even the
modern archaeology in Bible lands.
unfaithful prophet Balaam, contrary to his intention
to curse Israel, was made to pronounce a blessing,
REVIEW OF HISTORIES
and his prophecy is included in Moses' writings, at
19 Briefly reviewing, then, the eleven documents
Numbers, chapters 22-24.
that :Moses consulted in compiling Genesis, we note
22 Document III includes Genesis 5: 3 to 6: 9a, and
the following features:
Noah is the writer of this document, as shown by the
20 Document I includes Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 4 and is
colophon or conclusion in the last verse: "These are
the account of creation. Its colophon 01' conclusion is the generations of Noah." For this document Noah
Genesis 2: 4, reading: "These are the generations of could get information directly from Adam's descendthe heavens and of the earth when they were created, ants, from his grandson Enos down to Methuselah,
in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the except Enoch, who was translated 69 'years before
heavens." Those parts of this account which took Noah's birth.
place before Adam was made had to be revealed to
23 Document IV extends from Genesis 6: 9b and
him by God, as no man was eyewitness to such. Adam, ends with the colophon, at Genesis 10: 1, "Now these
who was created at the close of the sixth day and are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham,
before Eve's creation, could write the record as God and J aphetl~: and unto them were sons born after
revealed it to him. It is written with all the pure the flood." All three sons of Noah contributed to this
original flavor; and the fact that it speaks of "two document, and this accounts for three statements of
great lights" on the fourth day and does not name like meaning in parts of the document, denoting the
the sun and the moon agrees with the fact that at the separate viewpoints of the three sons. (Gen. 7 : 18-20
time of Adam the earth was encircled with a great and 21-23) They were eyewitnesses of what Docucanopy of water and sublimated minerals in suspen- ment IV relates. They open up their document with
sion which did not let Adam directly see the sun and the words, UN oah was a just man and perfect in his
the moon but only their diffused light. Adam did generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah
not necessarily write the creation account in Eden. begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and J apheth." (Gen.
After he sinned and was driven out and death began 6: 9b, 10) The colophon of this document repeats
working in him and memory's powers began to fail, "Shem, Ham, and Japheth," like repeating a title
Adam had centuries of time in which to write or for the series of tablets.
dictate the creation account. In this document a title
24 Document V includes Genesis 10: 2 to 11: lOa,
occurs at its beginning and end, namely, "God created
the heaven and the earth," at Genesis 1: 1 and 2: 4. ending with the colophon: "These are the generations
of Shem." This marks Shem as the writer. He lived
21 Document II runs from Genesis 2: 5 to 5: 2. Its
for
502 years after the Flood began, and his life
colophon or conclusion is: "This is the book of the
overlapped
upon that of Abraham 150 years and
generations of Adam. In the day that God created
man, in.the likeness of God made he him; male and upon that of Isaac 50 years. He had sufficient years
female created he them; and blessed them, and called after the Flood to observe personally what he detheir name Adam, in the day when they were scribes in his document (V). That this and other
created." (Gen. 5: 1, 2) The words "when they were documents should begin with genealogical data
created" repeats the like expression of Genesis 2: 4b, should not seem improper for an introduction. The
Hnd thus ties this document to Document I. Adam book of Exodus begins with such genealogical data
See the book The Earth's Annular System, by Isaac N. Vail (Ex. 1: 1-6), and so does the book of 1 Chronicles.
(1885); also "The Truth Shall Make You FreeN, pages 64-66. (1 ehron. 1: 1 to 9: 44); also Matthew's gospel
18. Wllat was the use of "colophons"?
19, 20. What are 80me features of Document I?

21. What are some features of Document II?

22. What are some teatures of Document III?

23. What nrc Bome features of Document IV~
24. What are some features of Document V?

JULY 1, 1948

203

ZlieWATCHTOWER

account, written for Jewish readers, to begin with.

-Matt. 1: 1-17.
:5 Document VI, from Genesis 11: lOb to 11: 27a,
belongs to Terah, Abraham's father, for its colophon
says: "Now these are the generations of Terah."
Moses did not compile more than 18 verses from
Terah's document. It begins, "Shem was an hundred
years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the
flood." These last words, "after the flood," correspond
with the words in the documents of Noah's sons, at
Genesis 10: 1b, namely, "Shem, Ham, and Japheth:
and unto them were sons born after the flood." This
establishes a bond with those docmnents preceding,
and shows coherence.
26 Terah's document, at Genesis 11: 26, says: "And
Terah lived sevent)" years, and begat Abram, Nahor,
and Haran." This has led many Bible students to
jump to the conclusion that Abram (Abraham) was
born when Terah was seventy years old. The facts
are that Abraham was born when Terah was 130
years old, and was 75 years old when Terah died. It
has been suggested that the difficulty is due to the
use of a catchline in this verse, as above described
at page 201, ~ 17. This catchline was taken from the
beginning of the document following next, and which
begins with the words: "Terah begat Abram, Nahor,
and Haran," and these words were added to Terah's
document, at Genesis 11: 26. Doubtless, Terah's
document at this verse originally read merely: "And
Terah lived seventy years." Vlithout specifying the
particular event at Terah's seventieth year, this
dated the time of writing his document, namely, 60
years before Abram's birth.
21 Document VII opens at Genesis 11: 27b, with the
statement, "Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran;
and Haran begat Lot." It continues to Genesis 25: 12,
where we find the colophon, "Now these are the
generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar
the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham." This document includes matters about Ishmael
and his younger half brother Isaac and was doubtless composed by both of them, for Isaac's colophon
is recorded just seven verses later. We have seen
how this document (VII) is attached to the preceding one by the catchline, "begat Abram, Nahor, and
Haran." The fact that no document is ascribed to
Abraham is no proof that he could not write. The
transaction, -_described at Genesis 23: 1-20, where
Abraham enters a contract to buy a burial cave for
his wife Sarah, indicates he could write. Verses
17-19 include place names, old and new, which fact
See page 66, 'If 2, of New Discoveries in Babylonia About
Genesis, by P. -T. Wiseman. (Edition of 1936)
25, 26. (a) What are Bome features of Document VI? (b) How does a
"catchline" seem to create a dlJl1culty of understanding here?
27, What are BOIDe features of Document VII?

suggest3 that the original words of the written document appear here. Moses used the place names of
the original contract, but he also gave the name of
the place as it was called in his day, saying: "The
field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan." (Gen. 23: 19) Other
places in Genesis where Moses uses place names new
and old are Genesis 2: 11-14; 14: 2, 8, 3, 7, 15, 17;
35: 19.
:8 Document vm is exclusively Isaac's. What
Moses compiled from it runs from Genesis 25: 13 to
25 : 19a, closing with the colophon, "And these are the
generations of Isaac, Abraham's son." This is not
saying Isaac did not contribute also to the documen t
ahead of this one. Isaac outlived his half brother
Ishmael by 58 years, and hence could write about
Ishmael's death, at Genesis 25: 17, 18. The words
"Abraham's son" occur in Isaac's colophon and act
as a tie to the preceding document where the like
words occur.-Gen. 25: 12.
29 Document IX takes up at Genesis 25: 19b and
continues to 36: 1, where the colophon says: "Now
these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom."
This document was composed by Esau and Jacob.
It might be ascribed to Esau as the firstborn son of
Isaac, but Esau's twin brother Jacob would have a
copy of it. It contains much information about Jacoh
in his relations with Esau.
30 Document X is also Esau's document. It includes
the verses from Genesis 36: 2 to 36: 9, where the
colophon says: "And these are the generations of
Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir." At
Genesis 36: 8 we find the expression "Esau is Edom",
and this repeats what appears in the colophon of the
preceding document just seven verses above, and
thus it ties the two documents together.
31 Document XI, beginning at Genesis 36: 10 and
ending at 37: 2a, is assigned to Jacob by its colophon,
"These are the generations of Jacob." Near the end
of this document we find the expression, "the father
of the Edomites" (Gen. 36: 43), and, as this repeats
what is said in the colophon of the preceding document, it binds the two documents together ill
sequence. Just before the end of this eleventh document the statement is made: "And Jacob dwelt in the
land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land
of Canaan." (Gen. 37: 1) This seemingly isolated and
misplaced statement was written at this point of the
document in order to date it. By it Jacob shows he
produced the document while still in Canaan and
before he went down into Egypt, where he lived for
seventeen years, dying at the age of 147 years.
-Gen. 47: 28.
28. What are
29. What are
30. What are
31. What are

30me
some
some
some

features
featnres
features
features

of
of
of
of

Document
Document
Document
Document

VIII?
IX?
X?
XI?

204

31ieWATCHTOWER
MOSES CONTINUES THE RECORD

Thinking, with other "higher critics", that the

colophon was a title or superscription to what
follows, F. Delitzsch makes this comment on Genesis
37: 2: "That the title: 'These are the generations of
Jacob, should be followed by: Joseph was seventeen
years old, and was feeding the flock with his brethren,
seemed so strange to ancient expositors, that they
felt obliged to regard this SUPERSCRIPTION as the subscription of 35: 23-26, and as referring thereto past
the PARENTHETICAL portion chapter 36. . . . The
[ge1~erations of Jacob] are, according to their proper
notion, the history of Jacob in his sons, not merely
in Joseph, though chiefly in him." (New Commentary
on Genesis, Volume 2, page 252) Follo"ring that
"higher critical" notion, James Moffatt in his The
Bible, .A New Transla,tion of 1935 actually lifts
Genesis 35: 22-26 from its place and inserts it in
Genesis 37: 2, between "These are the generations
of Jacob" and "Joseph was seventeen 5"ears old", etc.
The difficulty felt by such higher critics vanishes
when we see that the words These are the generations
of Jacob are not the introduction to the history of
Jacob's sons but the final statement to the document
that precedes. Moses, in order to preserve the purity
of the documents from which he compiled Genesis,
stuck to their literary style and inserted their
expressions as he found them. By this device he
showed the sources of his information and genuineness of his data.
as From Genesis 37: 2b forward the expression
"These are the generations of", or, "This is the
history of," occurs no more, and the book of Genesis
az

32. What difficulty of under'tun,lIng has there been about Genesis 37: 2,
and how Is It easily cleared up?
33. Who composed directly the remainder of Genesis? How so?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

does not end with that expression. The closing

verse leads smoothly on to the opening verse of
Exodus. Therefore it is evident that Moses himself composed the remainder of Genesis, as he was
the compiler of the whole book and the writer of
Exodus. For this purpose he could get his information through his father Amram from Joseph's
brother Levi. Joseph died 64 years before Moses.
U The weight of the evidence, both the internal
peculiarities of Genesis and the findings of archaeology, goes to show Moses got his materials for writing Genesis from written documents and not by oral
tradition. Even getting his information in writing
was in a sense getting it by tradition, for the broad
meaning of this word is "delivery; act of delivering
into the hands of another". Since tradition can be
either by mouth-to-mouth transmission or by writing, the apostle Paul writes: "So then, brethren,
stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were
taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours."
(2 Thess. 2: 15, Am. Stan. Ver.) Compiling the record
from original sources in writing safeguarded against
the lapses of memory of imperfect men and insured
the accurate, uncorrupted transmitting of the vital
facts to future generations of God's people. Most
important of all, the spirit of God exercised itself
that there might be a faithful transmitting and compiling of the Holy Scriptures for the servants of
J nhov~h GQd, that they might be sure of the firmness
of the basis of their faith.
Outside of Genesis, where it occurs eleven times, the expression
is found at Numbers 3: 1, Ruth 4: 18, and Matthew 1: 1, or
fourteen times in all
34 What does the weight of evidence go to show? and of what benefit
to us has this been?

WEBR LIFTS UP ITS VOICE

HOUSANDS of radio stations of every conceivable type
and of a wide range of powers operate daily in every nook
and corner of the earth's surface. All purport to operate
in the public's interest, convenience and neeessity. But among
these thousands there is but one station that can truthfully justify
its claim of such an existence. That broadcasting station is
Watchtower Radio-WBBR, located on Staten Island, New York.
This claim can be substantiated by the attestations of a multitude
of its enthusiastic listeners. Its unselfish devotion .to proclaiming
only what is for the public's welfare has the approbation of
thousands. What could pOSSIbly be of greater interest, convenience,
and necessity in this day of turmoil than the broadcasting of
refreshing draughts of divine truth, proclaiming the disintegration
of a corrupt old world, and announcing the dawning of a glorious
new world created by Almighty God in which all strife and greed
will cease forever' That is what Watchtower-WBBR is broadcasting today. That is what it has been broadcasting without
ceasing for the past twenty-four years. What other radio station
anywhere, in any country or clime, can lay claim to doing this'
Not one!

Back in 1922, on the eighth day of September, at the unforgettable convention of Jehovah's witnesses at Cedar Point, Ohio, the
slogan was sounded forth amid the acclamation of the thousands
of conventioners, "Advertise the King and his kingdom!" Only
two short years before that, radio broadcasting had its beginning.
Would this newcomer in the field of advertising also be used to
announce the presence of Jehovah's anointed King, Christ Jesus'
Yes. In that same eventful year of 1922 the practicalness of using
the radio for plloblishing the Kingdom message was first reeognized,
and its adoption as an adjunct to the already existing advertising
agencies God was using was initiated. Thousands of radio receiving sets were then in daily use, and radio broadcasting had begun
to be established as a reliable medium of communication. New
York city being America's great metropolis, with millions of
people residing in it and in near-by cities in New Jersey and
New England, eyes quite logically turned in that direction for a
radio station site. Too, in the Borough of Brooklyn of New York:
city were located the central office and printery of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., the legal entity that would
build the station.

.JULY

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

Directly to the south of the Borough of Manhattan in New

York city there is a long triangular-shaped island named Staten
Island and which comprises the city's Borough of Richmond.
Toward the southern end is a small village named Huguenot. Within a mile of this is the site that was selected for the location of the
proposed station. Thcre, in 1922, the late J. F. Rutherford, then
president of the Watchtower Society, together with a few of his
advisers, first took claim to some twenty-four acres as the location
for the Society's first radio station. It was a high point on the
island, more than a hundred feet above sea level.
A working brigade to establish the radio was soon organized
with competent men at the head to direct the work. First driveways
were constructed leading back from Woodrow road to the site
for the station some five hundred feet away. Trees were cleared
off, and the swamps filled, and the land leveled off. All during
the long winter of 1922-23 and the summer of 1923 construction
work went on apace. Many young men from the Society's Bethel
home in Brooklyn assisted in this work week-ends, among them
the present president of the Society. Assiduously did carpenters,
plumbers, masons and electricians soon erect a large 22-room,
stucco-finished, two-story frame dwelling house to shelter the
workers and to provide accommodations for the radio station
operating and programing personnel. A power house for the
transmitting equipment was also constructed. To support the
antenna for the projected station two large three-section wood
masts of fir timber from the western coast of the United States
were erected north and south of the power house and spaced three
hundred feet apart. They towered to a height of 200 feet and
were guyed by massive steel cables, which, in tum, were anchored
in huge blocks of concrete. As a ground system, which is necessary
to a radiating system, just a limited number of copper wires were
buried over an area of about 150 feet square. The radio studio,
in the attic of the dwelling house, was connected with the transmitter some 150 feet distant by suitable mterconnecting circuits
placed underground. For broadcasting purposes the first microphone used in the studio was of a type identical to such as used
on ordinary desk-stand telephones. WBBR was a pioneer in radio('asting.
On April 23, 1923, permission was obtained from the Federal
Radio Commission at Washington, D.C., to broad(,Jast on 660
kilocycles. However, by the time WBBR obtained and installed
a small composite 500-watt transmitter, early in 1924, the Commission granted a new frequency, a mueh inferior one of 1230
kilocycles. This was the one used on WBBR's initial program on
Sunday, February 24, 1924, at 8: 30 p.m. Since then many efforts
were unsuccessfully made to obtain a more deSIrable frequency
somewhere in the middle of the hroadcasting band. After changes
of assignment to 1100 kilocycles, then to 720 kc., back to 1170 kc.,
the Commission ordered WBBR to go to the "graveyard" section
of the broadcasting spectrum, at the level of 1300 kc., on November 11, 1928. Nevertheless, during the following twelve years to
March 29, 1941, thousands of people of good-will continued to
get a heart-cheering message much to their delight, as testified to
by their numerous letters. But on this last date WBBR was caught
in the general shake-up of all broadcasting stations, and the
frequency was again raised to a still higher frequency value and
one of less efficiency to broadcasters, that of 1330 kc. This
frequency remains. in force to the present day, as a damaging
testimony on how little value the authorities of this world attach
to the message of God's kingdom and the educating of people for
eternal life in His new world.
Early in 1924, by February, all necessary preparations seemed
to be well in hand. Many had waited long to hear WBBR
on the air. So when the date for the initial broadcast, Sunday,
February 24, was finally announced, many waiting ears were in
earnest expectation. Crystal receiving sets with their galena
crystals and "cat whisker" detectors were adjusted for the occasion,

205

or the more modem receiving sets having one or two "electron

relays" (as they were then called, instead of "vacuum tubes") and
the hom type of loud-speakers were gotten in tune. As the hour
for the opening ceremonies that cold winter night finally rolled
around, the radio engineers down in the power house were feverishly watching their transmitter meters and fingering the various
control knobs. Some twenty miles distant in Brooklyn the Bethel
family had assembled to listen to this new wonder of radio advertising God's kingdom. The hour of 8: 30 p.m. arrived I Switches
were thrown, power was applied, the radio carrier went "on the
air", signals were flashed to the "studio in the attic", the radio
announcer began his introductory announcement, and WBBR as
a broadcaster was born. That first program over WBBR continued
for two hours, from 8: 30 p.m. to 10: 30. There were piano solos,
vocal duets and solos, congregational singing, and the I.B.S.A.
Hawaiian trio, and in between was the feature of the program,
the lecture by the Society's president, J. F. Rutherford, on the
subject, -"Radio and Divine Prophecy." Listeners of good-will
were delighted and clamored for more. Each evening thereafter,
from 8: 30 to 10: 30 p.m., and on Sundays, from 3 to 5 p.m.,
programs with good music and educational talks were radiocast.
STUDIO MOVED TO BROOKLYN

That humble beginning was merely the prelude to hundreds of

thousands of hours of broadcasting the Kingdom message over
not only WBBR but, in due time, over hundreds of other radio
stations in various parts of the earth. The first two-hour broadcast
was the beginning of a regular schedule which was rigorously
kept up from that Sunday in February of 1924 to this very day
in 1948. Every hour of the thousands that were broadcast during the interval of 24 years contained something of worth to the
people. Because there were so few transmitters on the air at that
time, and possibly because there were fewer sunspots, WBBR
could be heard practically all over the earth. It received letters
from England, Ireland, Alaska, Washington, California, and
intervening places.
About a year later the studio was moved from the attic space
down to a beautiful large studio in the transmitter house. But as
this studio was located on Staten Island at a distance of twenty
miles from the Society's main office in Brooklyn, the problem
became more and more pressing, namely, how to keep up a high
standard of program with a varied musical talent at so remote
a location and with such limited transportation facilities. This
problem was not completely solved until years later, about the
latter part of 1929. Then the studio was moved to the Society's
administration building at 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2,
N.Y., near to the source of supply of the necessary program talent.
The telephone circuits between the excellent new studios in Brooklyn and the transmitter on Staten Island consisted of smallgauge wires enclosed in lead cable, some of which was routed
underground and the rest overhead. Amplifiers and equalizers were
installed in this telephone line at two remote relay points, equidistant from each other. For some time the WBBR principal
studio in Brooklyn was rated one of the most beautiful in the
world. It occupied a large palatial room, 45 feet long by 23 feet
wide, with a ceiling 17 feet 6 inohes above the floor, the whole
artistically designed. A control room and a small studio were
adjacent. These rendered good service until, due to the city's
constructing a new superhighway to the rear of the Brooklyn
headquarters, the studios had to be moved back to the former
location in the transmitter house on Saturday, October 12, 1946.
New studios are projected in the new headquarters addition now
under construction in Brooklyn.
THE WATCBTOWER NETWORK ORGANIZED

While radiocasting of the Kingdom message was initiated by

Watchtower-WBBR, other radio stations not owned by the

206

~eWATCHTOWER

Society were also employed from time to time. In July, 1927,

while a convention of Jehovah's witnesses was in session at
Toronto, Canada, the largest hookup attempted till then, including
the facilities of the National Broadcasting Company, was used to
broadcast the puhlic lecture on "Freedom for the Peoples", by
J. F. Rutherford, Sunday, July 24. After this the use of the
facilities of the NBC and also other chain broadcasting systems
were denied to Jehovah's witnesses, for "controversial reasons",
as they claimed. Then the Society organized a chain broadcasting
network of its own, with WBBR as the key station, and known
as the Watchtower or White Network. The Watchtower chain
broadcast was begun on Sunday, November 18, 1928. At the
beginning this network included twelve stations along the eastern
seaboard of the United States from Maine southward to North
Carolina, and inland as far westward as Cleveland, Ohio. The
total power aggregated but 12,750 watts, ranging from the lowest
station of 150 watts to the highest one of 5,000 watts. In course
of time the chain was lengthened to many more than twelve
connected stations.
In 1933 recordings of Brother Rutherford's speeches began to
be made by electrical transcription. Thereafter thousands of
recorded programs made on 15-minute discs and known as
"transcriptions" were mailed out to hundreds of radio stations
which were willing to accept them at the regular co=ercial
rates for broadcasting. These stations were located in many
countries from Australia to Europe and also Japan as well as
America. At one time more than three hundred of such radio
stations scattered throughout the world were broadcasting these
115-minute transcriptions weekly. In all this period of time, for
broadcasting the Kingdom message, the Society spent upward of
two million dollars and never received a cent of pecuniary profit
from it. Then in a lecture hroadcast on September 26, 1937, from
the international convention of Jehovah's witnesses at Columbus,
Ohio, Brother Rutherford announced that 011 the following
October 31 the Society would cancel all contracts for broadcasting
requiring the payment of money. Said he: "We are not being
driven from the air; but are notifying the people in advance in
order that they may be prepared to receive the message of truth_
IN ANOTHER MANNER by which it will be brought to them." That
new manner proved to be special pioneer work, supplemented later
by foreign missionary work.
And so on October 31, 1937, olle phase of adverti5ing the Kingdom ended, that is, by the broadcasting of 15-minute recordeu
lectures over hundreds of radio statIons at commercial rates. A
few radio stations in widely scattered localities kept on proclaiming the glad tidings in spite of dire threats from a few of the
belhcose religious individuals residing within the radio audience.
'roday, in our year of 1948, WBBR stands alone as a beacon
light in a bedarkened world. Even durrng the tumultuous years
of World War II WBBR unceasingly radiated the message of
God's kingdom and day of his vengeance, based upon the solid
foundation of the Bible, to gladden the hearts of the downtrodden
and saddened peoples groaning under the burdens of this demoncontrolled world.
World War II having ended in 1945, indications pointed in the
direction of expansion in all lines of Kingdom activities, including the radio. Engineering plans were formulated, and the usual
legal proce'dure with the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), at Washington, D.C., was instituted. After some months
of waiting for action on WBBR's application for an increase of
power from 1,000 watts to 5,000 watts, permission was finally
granted early in 1947, but under the stipulation that the increase
to 5,000 watts would cause no harmful interference with other
stations operating on the same frequency as WBBR in widely
scattered parts of America. To do this it required that the
radiated energy from the new 5,000-watt transmitter of WBBR
be so controlled that a minimum amount of energy be radiated

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

toward the northwest and southwest where other regional stations

were operating on WBBR's wave length. Such a requirement
could be fuIiilled in only one way, that is, by using a directional
antenna system. The present location of WBBR so happens to
be snch that a directional antenna system could be installed that
the greatest field of radiated energy could be directed to the north
and northeast, right over the most densely populated areas of
New York city and surroundings, with a total population of
20,000,000. At the same time the radiated field would be reduced
to a minimum in the direction of the other regional stations
requiring protection. To do so required of WBBR an antenna
system consisting of three steel towers each of which is an
antenna of a three-element array. Each tower must be 411 feet
above grade and be spaced precisely one quarter of a wave length
apart (or 185 feet apart) and on a straight line running 50
degrees east of north.
No tall trees are permitted in the neighborhood of this type of
directional antenna, and, at the time, the area selected for the
antenna system was timberland. Moreover, the laying of the many
miles of copper wire around the three towers required all stumps,
roots, boulders, etc., to be removed from a large area extending
out at least 300 feet from each tower. Clearly, much work lay
ahead before the full 5,000 watts of radiated power could be

.--

..J - ....

-:.. -.

-.

--'-

-...

~
-

- -. -. ---- -

~:.:-.

~o:.'

-~.,-

vI~- . --. " .

"_ ...

Aerial view of Watchtower-WBBR. In the foreground

can be seen the old antenna towers. with the transmitter
house between them. In the background are the new 411foot-high steel towers used by the new WBBR.

JULY

1, 1948

207

~eWATCHTOWER,

realized. On June 9, 1947, the work began. And work it was by

the hands of consecrated brethren, from morning till night, often
seven days a week and late into the night until it was finally
completed nine months later, or early in 1948. Extensions of time
for the construction period were requested and granted by the
FCC at Washington from time to time.
The area required for the antenna array hnving once been
cleared off and prepared, the next operation of pouring the con
crete foundations for the three towers and of laying the fifteen
miles of copper wire for the ground system was begun. The wires
were laid to a depth below plow level by means of a special
machine designed for the purpose, which was drawn by a heavyduty tractor. The wire-laying was begun in November and continued through many cold wmtry days amid sticky mud and
occasional snow and ice until December 24, 1947. Two days later,
December 26-27, the greatest snowstorm ever recorded for the
New York city area occurred, preventing all further groundwork
operations for the rest of the winter. But enough of the groundwire laying had been completed, together with the making of more
than 700 copper-welded joints in the ground system, and the
ponring of the concrete foundations, with 85-pound anchor bolts,
for the towers, so as to permit the erection of the antenna array.
On February 18, 1948, the insulators, 350 pounds each, were
attached to the anchor bolts, and thereafter the construction of
the towers began.
So throughout the severe winter of 1947-1948 the construction
work outside and inside proceeded apace. A transmission line
mounted on wooden poles high above the ground to carry the
radio power was constructed, also the various radio circuits and
the electric power for lighting the six 1,000-watt beacon lights on
the towers. At the base of each tower was constructed a small
wooden building for housing the complex electrical phasing and
tuning equipment. In the transmitter house, some 600 feet away
from the antenna array, work progressed to prepare the interior
for installing the new transmItter. Flooring was arranged to
permit laying numerous electrical cables interconnecting the
diverse electrical apparatuses. Air-filtering equipment to protect
the valuable radio equipment was installed, and numerous other
details worked out while howling blizzards raged outside.
Jnnuary arrived, and with it carloads of steel for the radio
towers arrived. The following month these began to be erected.
The new 5,000-watt radio transmitter had been delivered early in
Deccm!,~r, and now during the snowy winter months it was
gradually being assembled, piece by piece and WIre by wire. By the
time the three antenna towers were completed, the transmItter
"'as also assembled and ready for testmg. By noon of April 21
the erection crew finished the antenna construction with the completion of thE.' third and last tower to its full height. HowevE.'r,
hefore broadcasting could be permitted with the higher power,
highly teclmical engineering work had to be done first on this
three-element antenna array to cause it to produce the required
(lirectional effect of the radiatcd powcr, intensified many times
in the northeasterly direction across New York city and the SIte
of the United Nations capital, but decreased in a SImilar proportion in the southwesterly dilcetion. The initial power generatE.'d
by WBBR's new radio transmitting apparatuses is rated as 5,000
watts. But by using the directional antenna array, this power is
multiphed to more than 25,000 watts in the northeasterly direction
where the population is densest. In fact, by actual test, the power
radiated in that direction is found to be approximately 30,000
watts. In terms of the voltage ratio of WBBR's signal, this means
that its new signal over the metropohtan area is 5~ times stronger
than that radiated by old WBBR.
The first transmitter used by WBBR back in 1924 was an
amateurish type of instrument of but 500 watts power and which,
according to the present-day standards of good engmeering practice, would be considered to be what is jocularly known as
"haywirE.''' construction. Three years later when WBBR had

The new 5.000-watt broadcast transmitter, with the transmitter control console in the foreground

obtained permission to increase its power, a new transmitter (the

third for the station) having 1,000 watts power was purchased.
For twenty-one years this was used continually to herald forth
the one message of hope for the peoples. In this year 1948 when
WBBR expands to 5,000 watts power by governmE.'nt licE.'nse, the
most modern equipment available has been installed, all intended
to assist in rendering to the radio audience the best possible
service. Watchtower Radio-WBBR is worthy of this E.'xpansion,
and we thank the Lord God for it at this his due time. WBBR
is in existence for but one reason, to advertise the dawning of
the new world of God's own making, a world wherein shall dwpll
peace and righteousness without end. It is dedicatE.'d to the broadcasting of such programs only which offer information of lifE.'giving value to the prospective citizens of the new world, hence
programs of the highest educational and spiritually upbuilding
kind. These deserve the best transmission and the widE.'~t publicity.
OFFICIAL OPENING

In view of the departure of the Society's president for the

San Francisco District AssE.'mbly the following day, his official
introduction of WBBR to the radio audience on its incrcasen
power and new directional antenna equipmE.'nt was set for
Tuesday, May 25. For tbis purpose Brother Knorr made a spE.'cial
trip out to thc Staten Island studio. UnnumbE.'red thousands
throughout northeastern United States and adjacent Canada Wl.'Tl.'
cagerly intent on hearing this particular program. Specially
printed postcards announcing the official opE.'ning had bepn
provided and mailed out by the thousands to companies. pionE.'crs
and friendly persons of good-will in all the area in which WBER
was expected to reach with its new installation. Most of tho~e
in this area had beE.'n unable to get WBBR up till now becausE.'
of its low power and its non-directional system of radiocasting.
At 6 p.m. the regular evenmg's program began, with WBBR
going on the air by means of its old transmitter and antE.'nna
system which had served its listeners for many years and on Its
old power assignment of 1,000 watts. After a fine musical program, an interview was put on, beginning 6: 45 p.m., in which
WBBR's manager asked the Society's president eight pointE.'d
questions which WBBR's listeners had asked or would likc to
have answered. These Brother Knorr now answered quite satisfactorily and with much enlightenment to all in his audience.
This ended at 6: 59 p.m., at which time the station announcer
said: "And this brings us to the end of our broadcasting on old
WBBR on 1,000 watts. In just a few moments we shall bring you

208

~eWATCHTOWER

the new WEBR with its directional system, its orand new transmitter and its higher power." The station manager then made
the station announcement and bade the audience: "Stand by for
the new voice of WBBR." There were some seconds of dead stillness, punctuated by a click as WEBR was switched off its old
equipment onto its new. About 4 seconds after 7 p.m. the
announcer's voice broke the silence: "We come to you now with
our new voice and say, This is WBBR now broadcasting with
its new power of 5,000 watts on 1330 kilocycles. And here again
is Mr. N. H. Knorr the president of the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society to grect you officially for the Watchtower Society."
Those of us listening in on our receiving sets out at WBBR
right under the shadow of the new three-tower antenna array
noticed the increase in volume of sound and also the richer quality
with which the speaking voice was transmitted. Immediately after
the president began speaking an anonymous gentleman telephoned
the station from Bay Ridge, Long Island, N. Y., to advise us
that his instrument for measuring the loudness of sound showed
WBBR was now coming in on his radio set 21 decibles stronger
than before. This means it was about ten times as strong as before.
Brother Knorr's introductory remarks were very appropriate.
After greetings he said:
"In officially opening up WBBR with its new transmitter and
increased power, I wibh, first of all, to acknowledge and give
thanks to the Creator of radio. No, not to any set of men known
as inventors and sciellti5ts who have merely experimented with
and made practical applications of this invisible power called
'radio'; but to the great Creator of all things, Jehovah God. He
is the source of all the marvelous forces at work throughout the
universe; he is the Framer of the wondrous laws of nature; he
is the One that endowed man with the mental faculties to observe
the operation of His laws, to investigate the mystifying hidden
forces, and to invent machines and apparatuses to harness those
forces. Jehovah God put those forces in operation, and in his
due time hE' has let man ili~eovpr them and determine thpir WilY
or operation according to luw and apply them usefully. ...herefore
all praise and credit are clue to be given Him for the revelation
and the development of the power of J'adio today, and to Him
I take pleasure in publicly giving the praise and credit at this
momentous time. In harmony with this attitude I am keenly
interested in the best use of radio, which means its use in harmony
with the will of the Creator and hence to his glory and praise
and to the blE'ssing of my fellow creatures."
For the next twenty minutes he related about the beginnlllgs of
WBBR and led up to Its present expansion. From here he
broadened his remarks to discuss the world-wide expansion of
God's work in departments other than the radio. The tremendous
work of preaching the gospel in all thc world for a witness began
nineteen hundred years ago. It continues to this day. Jehovah's
witnesses have dedicated themselves to preach the gospel. They
are not discouraged because of the hardships connected with it.
They know their good deeds never find favor among selfish men.
They arc not trying to convert the world, but merely trying to
preach the gospel, turning the minds of the people to the Bible.
Their education concerning Jehovah's purpose is essential. The
people often appreciate this lUore in times of distress. The growth
of our work in Germany illustrate~ this. In 1932 Jehovah's WItnesses were diligently pre lehing this same gospel, when Hitler
and his ~azi crowd came along and put them in prisons and
concentration camps. That year, before such restraints, there were
14,453 Kingdom publishers reporting in Germany. In 1946, after
the brethren came forth from their restraints, there were just
8,895. But these pushed ahead preaching to their distressed fellow
Germans, and now in March of 1948 a new peak of 32,064 publishers reported as gospel ministers. Not only in Germany, but
also in Greece, Rumania and elsewhere the witnesses press forward in the world-wide expansion, though under great difficulties.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

So the work moves on, noticeably. In 1924 when WBBR was

born only a few hundred persons in Greater New York city were
interested in the Kingdom message. Now, in 1948, in this city
alone, instead of one fair-sized company of publishers there are
19 units, and 2,749 Kingdom publishers reported activity during
April. These ministers are ready to serve WEBR's listeners of
good-will anytime, anywhere. With WBBR's excellent work over
the new penetrated area, more people will become interested in
the message. The care for this interest falls upon Jehovah's witnesses in this area. At WEBR's beginning in 1924 there were only
1,064 publishers throughout the United States. But April of 1948
shows us a new peak of 76,639. The world-wide report of publishers brings the grand total from 207,000 last year up to
233,578 for 1948. These witnesses of Jehovah will use every
instrument possible to advance the true worship of the Most High
God in all the earth.
The expansion goes on in every country. The Watchtower
Bible School of Gilead, established in 1943, has graduated one
thousand students, and has 534 of them located in 68 countries
and with 85 different missionary homes. Shortly 14 new countries
would be served by graduates from Gilead, to make a tot{ll of
82 countries in which they will be serving. Many others of the
thousand graduates are serving here in the United States and
in Canada.
WBBR has kept pace with the general expansion work of the
Lord's people world-wide. Beginning on 500 watts of power, and
later increasing to 1,000 watts, now it moves up to 5,000 watts
with entirely new equipment in hopes of serving a far greater
area. Everyone tuning in on the program was requested to drop
the station a card or letter telling how the program was received.
This present stage is not the end of expansion of WBBR. WIthin
twelve months it hopes to move into new studios located at the
administration building at 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, where
a new Bethel home is being constructed. The excavation was now
nnunr way, IlDr! had gotten tp a great depth, and the following
wel.!c thE' pouring of the concrett' into the forms should begin for
the foundations of a new ten-story home. There WBBR will have
a large studio which will accommodate 400 persons, as well as two
other smaller studios in which discussions can be held, concerts
given, and WBBR's splendid news service broadcast to its
listeners. The hundreds of ministers of the gospel at this enlarged
Bethel home will be used in giving Bible instruetion over WBBR.
So the new Bethel home, into which WBBR hopes to move its
studios next year, will be the next step in this station's expanSIOn,
which is a worthy part of the expansion work of the Watchtower
Society in this country.
Plans have been finished for the construction of a new factory
for publishing the Society's greatly demanded literature, and
excavation at the site of this would begin around July 1. Thus
before 1949 rolls around, remarkable ehanges- will be seen at
124 Columbia Heights and at 117 Adams street, Brooklyn, by the
grace of Jehovah. This means that here we are trying to keep
pace with the world-wide expansion. "The expansion work is on,
to the glory of God," said Brother Knorr in conclusion, "and
when all engines of war lie smoldering in ruins; when all greedy
wealth li~ desolate in shame; when all evil tonguE'S lie silent in
the dust, then will the righteous living give boundless praise to
the great Creator, Jehovah, the One who caused his everlasting
name to resound throughout the earth. .A.ll hail his holy name."
With this the official opening program came to a close about
7: 42 p.m., with the radio audience, new and old, unspeakably
uplifted and rejoicing. Telephone calls and telegrams now began
coming in to the station, concernmg which we may have more
to say elsewhere. So, by divine mercy, WBBR continues to serve
in an enlarged capacity Jehovah's gospel purpose of salvation.
God bless it.

.~

1
i
1

'They shall know that I am Jehovah:'

Ezeklel ';5.l5.

VOL. LXIX

SEMIMON'rlILY

No. 14

JULy 15, 1948

.,

I'

"'

.'

..

"OUB COMMON SALVA.TION" 211

..r.'
. f ".
-

... ;

,. .~-:t /~>( ,..',.'

~

,,'

.'

t .. .:'

CONTENTS

'.

J.'/.1.

.'

Good Wishes Fulfilled

212
How "Co=on'"
_
213
CONTENDING FOR THE F A.ITH ........ 215
Something of Whi<lh to Be Reminded 217
Angels Not Exempt from Falling to
218
Destru<ltion
POLITIOS A.:ND DEXONISM _
219
DIVI:NE FOREKNOWLEDGE A.ND
H UlIA.:N DESTINy

J ()Tlll],[

222

223
224
. 210
210
210

BECOMES POWERFUL ..

A LE'ITER

"GoD's MINISTERS" TESTIMONY PERIOD

''WA!l'CHTOWER"
"AW AXE 1"

8'l'UDIES ._

$fieWATCHTOWER..
PtmLISBEll SEKn!:ONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.
OF]!'lCERS

N. H.

KNOBB,

Presidenl

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall he ta.~ht of Jehovah; and

greAt shall he the peace of thy chiIciren." ~ Isaiah 54:z.1.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the Maker of hE-aven and earth and Giver of
llte to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent in creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universai sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and piaced him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and wlllfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's Wl'ong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesns and suftered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion. and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightfui King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesns are Zion's chlldren, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses Whose duty and privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule. ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jeho,ah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
Vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under ChriSt, Which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will surViving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with nghteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal fa pUbUshed tor the purpose of enabllng the
people to bow Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes BIble instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people ot good-will
It arranges systematic Bible study tor its readers and the Society
8llpplies other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes
SUitable material tor radio broadcasting and tor other means
ot public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It Is entirely tree and separate trom all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organiZations. It Is Wholly and without reservation
tor the kIngdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It Is not dogmatie, but invites careful and crItical examination
of Its contents in the light of the scrIptures. It does not indulge
In controversy, iUld Its columns are not OpeD to personalities.

Notice to Eub.oribtr,: BetJrittanu, should be Bent to office In your

country in compliance with regulatloll8 to guarantee pfe delivery of
money. Remittancelll are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no
ollice is located, by International money order only. Subscription rates in
d1trerent countries are stated below In loeal currency. Notice of ezptrahon
(With renewal blank) llJ sent at least two issues before subscription
expires. Change of adllre.. ....hen sent to our office may be expected
etrecUTe within one month. Send ;your old IlS well IlS new address.

Please address the Watch Tower Society In every case.

Ollicu

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TranslatlolLl of this journal appear In many languages.

ALL SINCERE :!ITUDENTS' OF THE BmLE Who by reason of infirmity, poverty or adversity Ill"e unable to pay the subscription price may
have The Watchtower free upon written application to the publishers,
made once each year, stating the reason tor so requesting it We are
glad to thus aid the needy, but the written application once each year
ia required by the postal regulations.

Printed in the United States of America

.Entered IU second-clau matter at the P08t ot1lce at Brookll/1l, N. Y.,
under the Act 01 March 3, 1879.

"GOD'S MINISTERS" TESTIMONY PERIOD

"AWAKE!"

Beeause the Testimony Penod during the month of August is

entitled "God's MIIDsters", that does not exclude any of our
Watchtower readers. To be one of his ministers does not mean to
be an ordained graduate from some sectanan religious theological
seminary; it simply means to be one of his servants, spreadlDg
the gospel of his King and kingdom. You can be one of such by
taking part with all of Jehovah's witnesses during August in
spreading his message by word of mouth and by printed page. The
special offer for the month will be the combination of the book
"The Kingdom Is at Hand" and the new booklet Permanent
Governor of All Nations, on a contributIOn of 35c. Anyone willing
to minister God's message to the people ean easily and quickly
learn to present this offer from door to door with success and have
the rare joy of singing God's praises to all nations. Experienced
ministers -stand ready to help any desiring to start out in this
ministry during August, and your request to us by card will move
us to put you in touch with the needed personal help and instructions. .All participating in this midsummer Testimony Period
should submit their report when August closes.

This magazine stepped into the field of public seITice at the

Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses in
August of 1946, and is published by the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society, Inc. It answers the rousing call for fearless information, not because we have entered the atomic age, but because
the world is fast asleep near the brink of that universal war Scripturally called "Armageddon" and lovers of life in security need
to be awakened to the real sense of the news and the pressing
issues upon which to decide. Awake! is aimed to help them make
a right decision that leads to life unending in the now-close New
World of righteousness. It is a Illagazine of 32 pages devoted to
news and information of world import, gained from world-Wide
sources. Its make-up is of fine appearance. Its leading articles,
without compromise toward co=ercialism, politics and religion,
present the straight facts, without fear to publish the plain truth.
Much variety of interest is also provided in shorter articles of
educational and instructive value. Under the heading "Thy Word
Is Truth", each number of Awake! offers a moderate-length discussion of Bible teachings of importance. A. final section, headed
"Watching the World", makes note of the latest world news before
going to press and gives the pith of all news items, uncolored,
undistorted, concise. A wake! is published on the 8th and 22d of
each month. A year's subscription of 24 issues is $1, American
moneYi individual copy, 5cj mailed anywhere.

"WATCBTOWER" STUDIES

Week of August
,y 1-19 inclUSive,
Week of A.ugust
,y 1-18 inclusive,

22:
The
29:
The

"'Our Comlllon Salvation,'''

Watchtower July 15, 1948.
"Contending for the Faith,"
Watchtower July 15, 1948.

g&eWAlCIHITO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

JULY 15~

No. 14

1948'

"OUR COMMON SALVATION"

"Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained
to write unto you exhorting yo'u to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto
the saints."--Jude 3, Am. Stan. Ver.
EHOVAH is the God to whom salvation is to be faith and contend for it in order to hold it, it means
ascribed. If all men but looked up above their your eternal salvation. If you do not have it, .lose no
ordinary pursuits and recognized that fact and time in getting it. Then hold onto it till faith is fully
acted in harmony with it, there would be the stal't of rewarded. If we are all together in this effort, we
a great difference in earth's affairs for human salva- are going to share salvation in the new world
tion. Certain American religionists have raised the together with all other faithful ones. We now need
prayer: "Savior of the world, save Russia." The fear warning, and to warn us a disciple of the Messiah
because of which they raise this prayer shows they long ago wrote a letter, short but of the greatest
are not saved themselves. They may mock at the importance today.
suggestion, but, just the same, they stand faced with
3 The writer's name is Jude, or Judah. He was
sudden destruction at the battle of Armageddon. named after one of the twelve sons of the patriarch
v'Vho will be saved, how can we be saved, from the Jacob, from whom the twelve-tribe nation of Israel
wreckage of this world when its annihilation comes sprang. When this Jacob. of old became father to
in the "battle of that great day of God Almighty"? Judah, then, we read about Leah his mother, "she
That is a realistic question now. In considering it we said, This time. will I praise Jehovah: therefore she
should disregard all the mocking to which we can called his. name Judah." Hence the name "Judah",
e..'C.pect to expose ourselves for not following the or Jude, means "praise", particularly with reference
ideas of worldly-wise mockers. But Jehovah God has to Jehovah God.-Gen. 29: 35, Am. Stan. Ver.
provided for the salvation of those who ascribe the
4. Jude wrote his valuable letter about A.D. 65, or
glory, majesty, dominion and power for a righteous about thirty years after the death of Jesus of
new world to Him. His salvation will work, and that Nazareth. In fact, he was a brother of Jesus. Not
is what honest lovers of life and happiness want. that Jude here tells us so, but he identifies himself
It is the thing worth contending for against all as a brother of James, who was a brother of Jesus
mockers and subversive elements.
according to the flesh. (Matt. 13: 55; Gal. 1: 19 j Acts
2 Some of our readers may exclaim: 'Oh, I'm sure
15: 13; Jas. 1: 1) But Jude does not try to make
I'm saved already; I am a good paying member of capital of his being a fleshly brother of Jesus the
a religious organization.' Well, granted that you are Messiah, so as to get any glory for himself. There
now in a saved condition, still you have to admit is a more important relationship to Jesus Christ
that your salvation is not at its completion. Not yet; than as a fleshly brother. It is a spiritual relationnot if you perceive the dangers, the temptations and ship. To this ~atter Jude points and c.on.fesses himthe conditions on earth that destroy faith in the self to be subJect to Jesus. He does thIS In harmony
Savior. You may have a favorite religious organiza- with the Christian rule stated by the apostle Paul,
tion. Now if in the great turmoil ahead this should that Christians henceforth know no brother accordgo down, where will your faith be the~ 1 How will ing to what.he is in t~e flesh. Though they had once
you keep from stumbling and slipping then 1 Is your known Chnst according to the flesh, yet now, as
faith such that it "",ill survive such an event? Or do God's new creation, they know him no more in a
your faith and your saved condition rest upon the fleshly sense. (2 Cor. 5: 16, 17) Accordingly Jude
solid foundation 1 To use the Bible expression, Is writes: "Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and the
yours 'the faith that Jehovah God once for all brother of James, to those who have been called,
delivered to his holy people'1 It is by God's grace who are dear to God the Father and have been kept
that we are saved through faith. If you have that
See the book "Equipped for Every Good Work", pages

264, 350-352.

1. What Is the thing we want? and ngnln!lt w!lom do we contend for It?
2. What should we now deterlIllne reglmllng our falth. and why?

3. 4. Who wrote the letter? and how

211

Wall

he related to Jesus Christ?

212

~eWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

through union with Jesus Christ; may mercy, peace,

and love be granted you in abundance."-Jude 1,2,
An Amer. Trans.
5 It is not a self-degrading term for Jude to style
himself as a "slave" of Jesus Christ. It shows
humility upon his part, and how he is not seeldng
to glorify himself out of having been Jesus' fleshly
relative. But fleshly relationship carries little importance, for at one time, so John 7: 5 tells us, "neither
did his brethren believe in him." Only after Jesus'
resurrection did these doubting brethren believe
upon him. To confess oneself as his "slave" counts
more with true Christians than fleshly connection
with Jesus Christ. Such slavery to him is a life-giving
service, and is what makes us Christian brothers.
It is what puts us all upon the same level. Just like
slaves, we have been bought, yes, bought by Jesus by
the value of his precious blood shed under the most
painful circumstances. The apostle Paul reminds us
of this when saying: "For a slave who has been
called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the
Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a
slave of Christ. You have been bought and paid for;
you must not let yourselves become slaves to men."
(1 Cor. 7: 22, 23, An Amer. Trans.) Besides being
bought by our Master Jesus Christ for his everlasting service, for which he gives us everlasting life,
we have been taken captive by his love and have willingly surrendered ourselves to him. As a slave Jude
tried to please his Master Jesus Christ. He would
try to please him by writing to fellow slaves what
was most needful and profitable for them in serving
Christ. Only after first mentioning his slavehood to
Jesus Christ did Jude identify himself as a fleshly
brother of James. He started his letter right.
S Jude's letter is not addressed to any particular
local congregation of slaves of Jesus Christ, and is
therefore a general one. Yet the letter is very definite
as to to whom it is directed, for it is addressed "to
those who have been called". To what have all these
Christian slaves been called' To a position higher
and freer than that of the freest citizen of this world,
freer than the greatest slaveholder or employer of
the greatest number of industrial workers. So they
have something of which to conduct themselves
worthy. For this reason Paul writes to them: "That
ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you
unto his Jringdom and glory." (1 Thess. 2: 12) Slaves
now of Jesus Christ, but also called by Jehovah God
to the glorious ldngdom of his Son in the heavens!
This ordering of matters illustrates the wise rule of
humility before glory. As Jesus said: "Whoever
wants to hold the first place among you must be your
slave." (Matt. 20: 27, An Amer. Trans.) What a
wonderful salvation is in store for these Christian

Jude opens his letter with the wish that mercy,

peace and love may be multiplied to these dear called
ones. That good wish of nineteen centuries ago
carries over to us today in this "time of the end".
If we speak for the remnant of "called" ones yet
alive on earth, we can say that expressions of divine
mercy, peace and love have been granted us in
abundance. Of course, we experienced these things
when we believed and consecrated ourselves to God
and received his forgiveness of our sins through
Jesus Christ. But we have experienced them in
special ways since A.D. 1918. That year brought the
end of World War I, but it found the remnant of
Jehovah's witnesses on earth quite neglectful of their
service to him as slaves of Jesus Christ. Why'
Because they had a large amount of fear of men of
this world who used governmental measures and
violent means to try to suppress and destroy their
work of publishing the good news of God's kingdom
to all nations. The remnant were still under the religious idea that the "higher powers" to which all
Christian souls must be subject with fear and awe
were the secular rulers of this world. Hence if these
rulers yielded to their religious prejudices and
framed mischief by unjust laws to ban Jehovah's
witnesses and forbid their God-given gospel work,
then they must comply. (Rom. 13: 1) Besides this,
there were other religious soils from which they had
not gotten clean and which marred their organization and hindered their free service as witnesses of
the Lord God.
s It was, therefore, a multiplying of his mercy to
us when the God of salvation opened our eyes to see
these sins and shortcomings and forgave us these
unwitting transgressions after our confession. It was
mercy on his part that he had not let the enemy
destroy us, but kept us for Jesus Christ that we
might further serve as slaves to him, carrying out
his command for the end of the world: "This gospel
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for
a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
come." (Matt. 24: 14) He did not mercilessly hold

5. In what way did he start his letter right, and why'

6 To whom is the letter addressed? and why are they dear to God'

7. Why did the remnant need mercy to be multiplied since 1918'

8. How did God multiply mercy. peace and love to the remnant?

slaves if they walk worthy of it to the end by loyally

serving their Master to the death, despite having to
bear all the reproaches that came upon him also!
No wonder they are said to be beloved and dear to
God their heavenly Father, and no wonder they are
kept by him. He safeguards them because they are
in union with his Son Jesus Christ and they are
destined for membership with him in his ldngdom.
It is the heavenly Father's good pleasure to give
them the ldngdom with Jesus if they prove their
faith and obedience toward him to the end.
GOOD WISHES FULFILLED
f

JULY

15, 1948

$fieWATCHTOWER

onto his displeasure and anger toward us for our

general failure during the period of World War I.
No; but he restored us to peaceful relations with him
by forgiving us in our repentance and delivering us
from the slavish fear of worldly men. He broke the
power of the Devil's Babylonish organization over
us and opened up to us new and grander privileges
of serving him within his free organization. He
cleared out the disturbers and filled the company of
his restored, reorganized people with peace to do
their work unitedly. Out of love he cleansed us from
Babylonish religious soils. He opened up to us more
fully the meaning of his Word, revealing to us the
fulfillment of its prophecies and feeding us spiritually with fresh truths that imparted new strength. He
disclosed that the birth of his kingdom had occurred
A.D. 1914, when he enthroned his Son Jesus Christ
in the heavens and commanded him to rule in the
midst of his enemies till he had destroyed them and
brought in a righteous new world.
s Manifestly this turbulent, distressed world does
not have the divine blessing and favor upon it. But
Jehovah's witnesses know they have God's mercy,
peace and love toward them in abundance. Thousands
upon thousands of persons of good-will are beginning to realize this. Oh yes, persecutions are heaped
upon these witnesses of the Most High God. Notwithstanding this, they have the evidences of mercy,
peace and love such as r:eligious Christendom and
the rest of the world do not have. It is because of
the evidences of the divine goodness toward these
that Christendom and all the world hate and persecute them. But the people of good-will flock to their
side. They too want to share in the good things that
Jehovah God is showering down upon his faithful
remnant of "called" ones. The remnant lovingly
welcome these people of good-will, these "other
sheep" whom the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ the
King hunts and gathers. Together, the remnant and
these "other sheep" rejoice that God's kingdom long
prayed for is now here and that shortly Jehovah's
King Jesus Christ will finish his rule amidst his
enemies by wiping them out in the universal war of
Armageddon. Thus, as one peaceful flock safeguarded by the Good Shepherd, the remnant and the goodwill "sheep" joy together in God's love and mercy.
The prayer of Jude's letter has been abundantly
answered uI10n them.
HOW "COMMON"7

Having together entered into these lovingkindnesses and benefits from on high, we need, more
now than ever, to give heed to the faithful exhortation of Jude. He prayed that the divine mercy, peace
10

9. (a) How does Christendom act toward them? (b) How do the "other
sheep"?
10. From writing on what subject did Jude change, and why?

213

and love might increase toward us, and not decrease

and finally cease. This is possible. Hence he writes:
"Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you on
the subject of our common salvation, but I am forced
to write you an appeal to defend the faith which has
once for all been committed to the saints." (Jude 3,
Moffatt) This indicates that Jude had been inclined
to write in a general way about "our common salvation". But by the spirit of inspiration God made
Jude aware that something more forceful and rousing was needed than mere doctrine on the common
salvation, something urgently needed to make that
salvation sure to them, by God's grace. What the
circumstance was that inspired him to turn from
explanation of the common salvation to stirring
exhortation we shall see.
11 First, however, what is this "common salvation",
and in what way is it common T This expression that
Jude uses in the original Greek is one that occurs in
the literary common Greek by non-Christian writers
of his day. By them it meant "the safety of the
state", But Jude uses the expression in a Christian
sense and with no reference to the political states,
in bilingual Palestine or elsewhere. He is writing to
those called to the kingdom of God, which kingdom
is not of this political, commercial, religious world.
Hence the salvation has reference to that kingdom
and is a salvation of those called to it. It is common,
but not in the sense of being low-grade, ordinary,
for the Kingdom is Jehovah's capital organization
through which he now rules the universe. The salvation is "common" in that it is shared equally and
alike by all those in the group of called ones; it is
shared in common by them all. Hence they are
exclusively God's kingdom-class and he has made
them a nation separate and different from all the
nations of this earth.
12 They were foreshadowed by the nation of the
twelve tribes of Israel, to whom Jehovah said by his
prophet Moses: "If ye will obey my voice indeed,
and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth
is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests,
and an holy nation." (Ex. 19: 5,6) For lack of belief
in Jesus the Messiah, the Israelites failed to realize
that divine promise. As a people they failed, but
thousands of individuals showed the required faith
in Jesus Christ and were called to the kingdom with
him. In God's appointed time he called men and
women with faith from among the non-Jewish
peoples. He formed all these believers, Jew and Gen See .A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light
of Historical Research, by A. T. Robertson, page 125, ewLlOn
of 1923.
11. What Is tl\ls "common salvation", and how Is It "common"?
12. (a) Who fo=eshadowed this new nation? (b) Who make It up?

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mleWATCHTOWER

tile alike, into his new spiritual nation. The apostle

Peter bears out this fact, saying to the called and
chosen ones: ''Ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye
should shew 'forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light!' (1 Pet.
2: 9) This is the nation to which Jude now belonged
and whose salvation he meant.
13 Jude wrote at a time when the Good Shepherd
had not yet begun to gather the "great multitude" of
"other sheep" who were foreseen in the Revelation
to the apostle John. (Rev. 7: 9-17) Jude was not writing about a salvation that is common to this great
multitude or to other faithful ones of mankind. While
this present-day multitude of "other sheep" are not
included in the "common salvation" of which Jude
wrote, nevertheless these dear ones of mankind have
good prospects of eternal life before them. All the
rest of the Bible is full of divine assurances, promises, and prophecies that they do. Their hope is one
of eternal life in the new world as much as that of
the remnant of the ''little flock" is. But they are not
of the spirit-begotten class who are called to the
Kingdom and heavenly glory with Jesus Christ. In
consequence of this their hope is one of life unending
on this earth brought to a global paradise condition
by the kingdom of Jesus Christ with his called ones.
God's kingdom is the means for blessing them. Their
salvation is dependent upon the Kingdom. The King
Jesus Christ died to save them as well as his little
flock of called ones, for "he is himself an atoning
sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also
for the whole world". (1 John 2: 2, An Amer. Trans.)
This is a salvation which the Devil begrudges them.
He is now trying to cheat them of it. Their sal~ation
is a precious part of the faith once delivered to the
saints in Jude's day, and it must be unremittingly
contended for until the prize is gained by these
"other sheep".
U For a "common salvation" we must have a "common faith", and that we do have, unlike Christendom
with her hundreds of religions. (Titus 1: 4) The
"faith" is the sum of beliefs concerning Jehovah God
and his kingdom as delivered to us by Jesus Christ
and his inspired disciples. It is based upon the
ancient Hebrew Scriptures, to which Jesus constantly made reference to support what he taught, and
also upon the teachings which Jesus gave as the Son
of God sent down from heaven. It is the gospel or
good news concerning God's "own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light
through th~ gospel".-2 Tim. 1: 9, 10.
13. How Is salva.t1on for "other sheep" related to common salvation?
14. What Is the "common faith"?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

11 This is the gospel faith that was delivered nineteen centuries ago to the saints "once for all", and
for that reason there is no other gospel. There will
never be another gospel given. What has been
delivered to us remains the faith, because it is sufficient to accomplish God's good purpose. It is the
good news that Jehovah God had in his prophetic
view in the garden of Eden when he gaid that 'The
Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the
Serpent, who had started sin upon this earth'. The
Devil would like to turn the heirs of salvation aside
from the true faith of the gospel by counterfeiting
the true and foisting a false gospel upon God's
people. There was danger, said the apostle Paul, that
some Christians would be removed from God's favor
to "another gospel: which is not another; but there
be some that trouble you, and would pervert the
gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed".-Gal. 1: 6-9; 2 Cor. 11: 3, 4.
1e The Devil would like to make us let go our grip
on this precious faith and give it up. In all earnestness, then, we have to struggle and wrestle and contend against the shams and diversions with which the
Devil tries to win us away. It is a "precious faith",
well worth contending for, because it leads to everlasting salvation. (2 Pet. 1: 1) Bya sham gospel the
adversary wilily tries to adulterate our faith and
confuse us and make us be conformed to this world's
beliefs and ways. This leads to self-deception and
destruction. The Devil makes it his business to add
to or take away from the written Word of God so
as to bring contradiction into it, confuse our understanding, and turn us to the philosophies of unbelieving "wise men" of this world.
17 There is but the one gospel which was once for
all delivered to God's holy people, the one delivered
in purity by the Lord Jesus Christ and his inspired
apostles and disciples. Hence the way for us to contend for the true faith is to hold fast to that original
gospel in its purity; to go back always to it in cases
of doubt or dispute; and to measure any new, foreign
suggestions by means of it as the canon or straightedge of faith. That means to go back to the written
Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation. If we let
this slip from us, there is no escaping destruction.
"God ... hath in these last days spoken unto us by
his Son, ... How shall we escape, if we neglect so
great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with
signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and
gifts of the holy [spirit], according to his own will7"
-Heb.1:1,2; 2:3,4.
1~. How Ie It a faith dell..ered "once tor all"?
16, 17. Wby must "e contend for this faith? and how do we?

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215

11 It goes without saying that the remnant of God's

called ones must earnestly stand in defense of the
faith against all invasion attempts by the Devil and
his agents. When we resist what these enemies of
the faith have to offer, persecution is raised to make
us compromise with the world and its encroachments
upon our faith. Now that Jesus Christ has begun his
heavenly rule in the midst of all his enemies, including those on earth, we live in the days of the coming
and presence of the Son of man. To indicate the great
difficulty we would have in holding fast the pure
faith in this time of struggle for world domination,
Jesus said: "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth 1" Not any more
faith than in the days of Noah before the flood.
(Luke 18: 8) If we consider the sore persecution that
has come upon the upholders of true, unadulterated
faith since A.D. 1914, this is a time of struggle and

testing. Indeed, it began when the witnesses of J ehovah were taken captive by the Devil's visible organization during World War L To mark this as a time
of special proving of our adherence to the true faith,
Revelation, chapter 13, describing that organization
as a wild, vicious beast, says: ''Whoever is destined
for captivity, to captivity he goes: whoever kills with
the sword, by the sword must he be killed. This is
what shows the patience and the faith of the saints."
-Rev. 13: 10, Moffatt.
18 Now the Good Shepherd's "other sheep" as well
as the remnant of "saints" must show good endurance and unbreakable adherence to the faith once for
all delivered to the saints. As we cling together in the
Lord, we strengthen and uphold one another to do
so. Beholding our steadfastness, others take courage
to adopt this glorious faith, and the number of
"other sheep" goes on increasing.

18. How did Jesus and Revelation show faith would be tested now?

19. How do the "other sheep" take courage to adopt this faith?

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

HIS twentieth century is not the first time that

an enemy has :filtered in trained workers into
another nation to undermine that nation,
weaken it, overturn it and bring it under control of
the enemy. Those are the tactics that God's enemy,
Satan the Devil, began using in the first century
against God's "holy nation" in the midst of a hostile
world. All the consecrated members of this holy
nation are called to God's heavenly kingdom with
Christ. They are heirs of a "common salvation" to
that kingdom. God keeps his holy nation for Jesus
Christ, and He will save the nation to the Kingdom.
But certain individuals that were once members of
the nation will not share in that "common salvation".
This is due to those individuals themselves. They may
now, in common with other called ones, be holding a
hope of final salvation, yet that is no certain guarantee that they will see that hope realized. Our being
now in a saved condition is no reason for imagining
we cannot be moved, forced or drawn out from that
place of refuge and thereby not make our salvation
eternal. The adversary is opposed to God's purpose
of saving a holy nation unswervingly devoted to Him.
He uses various means to bring about the destruction
of as many as he can of those in that saved condition,
to the reproach of God. One of his tactics is to introduce slyly in among the ranks of the holy nation persons that will serve his nefarious purposes. This
makes it necessary for those who want to make their
salvation a fully realized thing to contend earnestly
for the faith that saves, once for all delivered to
God's saints.
1. Do all in llne for the common salvation gain it? and why?

2 Contention, or standing up in defense, is forced

upon God's people. God permits it to test the integrity and devotion of his holy nation to him. We have
to contend thus, or stand up in defense, not only in
our congregations against any infiltered enemies, but
also in our preaching the gospel from house to house.
Testing by this method is good for God's people, to
make them strong and immovable. Explaining why
he exhorts the people of God to contend for the apostolic faith, Jude says: "For some people have
sneaked in among us-their doom was foretold long
ago-godless persons, who turn the mercy of our
God into an excuse for immorality, and disown our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."-Jude 4, .An
Amer. Trans.
Until Jude wrote his letter, about A.D. 65, some
thirty years after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven,
there had been plenty of time for foreign elements,
persons with devilish designs, to worm their way in
among God's people. Even the Hebrew Scriptures
had warned that such enemy agents would steal
their way in. About ten years before Jude's letter
(or about A.D. 56) the apostle Paul had warned of
the same thing, saying: "I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away
disciples after them." (Acts 20: 29, 30) Jesus had
pictorially described the same enemy movement. He
gave the parable of the tares, in which the Devil SQws
the bearded darnel seed, or "children of the wicked
one", in among the good seed, or "children of the

2. Why does God let contending for the faith be forced upou us?
3. How was the sneaking in of such godless men foretold?

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BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

kingdom", and does so stealthily by night when men

are sleeping. (Matt. 13: 24-43) The result has been
the corrupt organization of Christendom, with its
tremendous falling away from the faith once for all
delivered to the saints nineteen centuries ago.
, Now we are thirty years past the momentous year
A.D. 1918. Bible prophecy, made plain by the spirit
of God in the face of world events in fulfillment, indicates that then the reigning King Jesus Christ came
to the temple of God for judgment work. Malachi
3: 1-5 foretold that this judicial Messenger of God
would cleanse the temple of all foreign, injurious
elements, just as Jesus Christ did when he came to
the typical temple in Jerusalem. To be sure, Christendom and her religious systems have not been
cleansed since A.D. 1918, but have grown more corrupt and worldly, have supported a second world
war, and now approve the preparations for a third.
But look at the witnesses of Jehovah, the most hated
and persecuted minority group in all the earth. Their
irrepressible zeal for the gospel service of God
proves they are consecrated to Him as followers in
the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The recent history of
their faith, organization and activities proves they
have undergone a continuous purification from all
soils of this world and a purging of their ranks from
undesirable elements. Even the heavy persecution
against them has served to purify their ranks and to
sever them farther apart from this world. By their
fearless zeal in God's service they show His spirit
has been poured out upon them. It is the King and
Judge, Christ Jesus, at Jehovah's temple, who has
been thus purifying the remnant of God's holy
nation. It is evident proof that he did come to God's
spiritual temple in the spring or Memorial season
of A.D. 1918.
~ Honest men love a clean organization. God's purpose is to have now on earth a clean organization of
his people, to which his Good Shepherd can assemble
the "great multitude" of "other sheep". Hence God
orders those who bear the vessels of his temple for
use in his service to be clean from all Babylonish or
worldly contamination. (Isa. 52: 11; 2 Cor. 6: 17)
Having now sent his Messenger-Judge to the temple
for the cleansing of those worshiping at it, Jehovah
God promises that his temple class shall be kept
pure. The enemy forces shall never again defile it.
H{)wev:er, droves of "other sheep" are now being
gathered to the side of the remnant, and they are
joining these in 'serving God day and night at his
temple'. (Rev. 7: 15) The Devil would like to infiltrate injurious, evil-designing individuals among
them. With Jesuitic craftiness he would like to work
them in among the Theocratic organization of God's
people, to start a work of defilement from within.

Even with God's promise to keep his organization

clean, even with his angels on duty to gather out of
His kingdom-class all offenders and workers of lawlessness, there is a need to watch. Our reigning King
has cast Satan the Devil out of heaven down to the
earth, where he now has great wrath and makes war
against the remnant and their great multitude of
good-will companions. He is out to injure, disrupt,
destroy. (Rev. 12: 12-17) So we dare not relax our
guard among our local groups, for the Devil is still
trying his old tactics. All the strict means for straining out or debarring enemy agents and keeping him
from gaining a foothold among us must be kept
raised up and ever applied.
e Those who now slip in through some craftiness
will not succeed in subverting or undermining and
defiling the organization as a whole, although they
may do injury locally with sQme individuals. But
even this is to be regtetted and to be guarded against
jealously. Let persons who do slyly get inside know
that doom was foretold for such kind as them long
ago, and the Lord God will speedily execute it now
through his angels. From the start these persons do
not sincerely fear God. They do not seek admittance
into the organization with the clean desire of learning about him to serve him and worship him. They
do not look at the organization and its members with
pure eyes and chaste motives. Peter describes them
as ''having eyes full of adultery [or, an adulteress],
and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstedfast
souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness.;
children of cursing". Or, as a modern translation
renders Peter's description: "They have eyes for
nobody but adulterous women-eyes insatiable in
sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are
trained in greed. They are accursed !"-2 Pet. 2: 14,
Am. Stan. Ver., margin; and An Amer. Trans.
T Worldly men have been heard to say, 'I'll propose
immoral relations with this girl and that, and the
first girl that refuses me, I'll marry her as a faithful
girl.' The Devil tries to corrupt God's organization
by insinuating persons of such a mind in among the
Lord's pure-hearted people, to try to lure and entice
unsteady souls into pleasurable sin. These evilminded persons see the grace and mercy that God
has extended to his people in forgiving their sins
through Christ's precious sacrifice. They observe
that among God's consecrated people are those who
were once fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, men of unnatural vice, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, such as are named by
the apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 6: 9, 10. So they
think that if God forgave a person for fornication,
adultery, sodomy, and such things, in the past, he
will be gracious and merciful enough to forgive a

4. Who show a punficatlon since A.D. 1918, and how?

5. Despite this purification, why may we not relax our guard?

6, 7. (al Will those sneaking in succeed? and bow do they look at

the organization? (bl How do they reason on God's mercy toward sin?

JULY

15, 1948

3fieWATCHTOWER

person if he intentionally and willfully goes after

such sinful things again. They think they can go in
for a season of enjoying the pleasures of sin whenever they like or feel the urge. All they have to do
is to go through a form of repentance and good
behavior and ask God's forgiveness, taking advantage of his grace. Thus they can continue among
God's people, until the next time that they want to
seek further indulgence in sin among the Lord's
people, if they can persuade others by false, impure
reasoning to yield to their subtle advances.
8 Such persons are guilty of "turning the grace of
our God into lasciviousness". They pervert the grace
of our God into immorality. They overlook the fact
that, although the apostle told the consecrated
believers, "Such were some of you," he also added,
''But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6: 11) They do not appreciate that God was gracious and merciful to us in
washing us from our sins in Christ's blood, not for
us to yield to the cravings of our fallen flesh and go
back to the former filth and uncleanness now and
again, but for us to pursue determinedly the way of
righteousness henceforth. The faithful person that
appreciates this purpose of the grace and mercy of
God will not pervert it presumptuously. He will contend for the faith once delivered to the saints by
indignantly resisting the advances and suggestions
of ungodly persons who creep in among us unawares.
We know we are the slaves of Jesus Christ bought
with blood for the service of God, in obedience to
the example of our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence if we yielded unsteadily to ungodly persons
and took up the service of sin for the selfish pleasure
of our flesh, it would be denying, yes, disowning
Jesus Christ as Master and Lord. True to the faith
once delivered, we refuse to do this. By this course
we have part with Christ in vindicating Jehovah's
name.

217

What Jude now shows those who share in the

hope of "our common salvation" is that this salvation
is not yet a closed matter, all sealed up and delivered
to us beyond loss and failure. He points out that,
despite our being now in the saved condition, we of
the remnant can fail of "our common salvation".
How' By not cOIitending for the faith. Just succumb
to the enticements of the ungodly persons who pervert God's grace into an excuse for immorality and
worldliness and whose course disowns our Master
and Lord Jesus Christ. Jude has already stated that
such impious persons had their doom foretold long
ago; but how' By the historical record of the Bible.
It tells us of such kind of persons in connection with

God's people in ancient times and of the sentence of

destruction that He executed upon them. These were
precedents or types of what God will do in like cases
now. Let such persons of today know definitely that,
before they ever start within the Lord's organized
people into which they have sneaked for unclean,
selfish purposes, they are doomed. Let them read
their doom, and also let us read how it is possible
to fail of final salvation by yielding to such doomed
ones, as we quote Jude's words:
'{Now I want to remind you, though you know it
already, that he who brought the people safely out
of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed the ones
who did not believe, and the angels who neglected
their responsibilities and abandoned their homes he
has put in everlasting chains to be kept in darkness
for the judgment of the great Day, just as Sodom
and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like
them indulged in immorality and unnatural vice
stand as a warning, in undergoing the punishment
of eternal fire."-Jude 5-7, An Amer. Trans.
10 Egypt was a type of this world, where our Lord
Jesus was impaled as "the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world". (Rev. 11 : 8; John
1: 29, 36) Jehovah God saved the Israelites and the
mixed multitude of good-will people out of Egypt.
Before ever he did so, they killed the typical passover lamb and sprinkled its blood on the doorways
and ate its flesh roasted with fire that night. Their
firstborn of man and animal were saved from the
death that struck all the firstborn of Egypt not partaking of the benefits of the passover lamb. The next
day the Israelites and mixed multitude marched out
of Egypt and later marched through the Red sea,
God saving them all from death or re-enslavement by
destroying all the heavily armed Egyptian pursuers
in the midst of the sea. Then the command of God
their Savior was that they should not return to
worldly Egypt again. (Ex. 13: 17; Deut. 17: 16)
Note, now, what those dramatic events prefigured:
Those whom God saves from this world recognize
Jehovah as God and Jesus Christ as the passover
Lamb whose blood buys them out of thil;> world. They
confess, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."
(1 Cor. 5: 7) They have been thus saved from this
world, but with the understanding that they should
never return to it and its sinful bondage.
11 However, does this initial salvation from Satan's
world mean we are unalterably saved to everlasting
life in the new world without any possibility of failure now' Not if those Israelites with their mixed
multitude are a true illustration. God, one time their
Savior, destroyed a million or more of them in the
wilderness. Why' Because these "believed not",
yielded to temptation and rebelled.

8 How do we contend for the faith against such men, and why?
9. How can we fall of salvation, and how does Jude remind us?

10. What was forbidden to Israel atter salvation from EgypO and why'
11, 12. How did they show our final salvation Is not yet certain?

SOMETHING OF WHICH TO BE REMINDED

9

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~eWATCHTOWER.

12 The apostle Paul uses the same illustration to

warn us here at the end of the world that our being
saved from this world at the beginning of our Christian career is no nnal proof that we shall share in
the "common salvation" when the new world begins.
He emphasizes that Israel as a whole experienced a
common salvation from Egypt and as a nation the
Israelites finally entered into the Promised Land of
milk and honey, but that hundreds of thousands of
individuals perished before entry into the Promised
Land was made. Paul states the reason for their
failing to attain the final salvation into the land of
promise: "Still most of them disappointed God, for
they were struck down in the desert. Now these
things happened to warn us, so that we should not
long for what is evil as they did. You must not
become idolaters, like some of them, for the Scripture says, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and
got up to dance.' Let us not practice immorality, like
some of them, twenty-three thousand of whom fell
dead in one day. Let us not try the Lord's patience
too far, as some of them did, for they were killed for
it by the snakes. You must not grumble, as some of
them did, for they were destroyed for it by the
destroying angel. These things happened to them as
a warning to others, but they were written down to
instruct us, in whose da:ys the ages have reached
their climax. So the man who thinks he can stand
must be on his guard against a fall." (1 Cor. 10: 1-12,
An Amer. Trans.) "Whether we are of the remnant
of called ones or are of the "great multitude" of
"other sheep", we must all be on guard. We must
contend for the faith.
A..~GELS

NOT EXE:lIPT FROM FALLING TO DESTRUCTION

We are men, made a little lower than the angels.

(Ps. 8: 5; Heb. 2: 9) Yet, because angels are free
moral agents like ourselves and mortal, they are not
free from all possibility of falling to their destruction. Their having access to God and beholding the
face of our heavenly Father is a blessed privilege
that they have, but even from this high estate in life
they can fall. Why, right now there are angels that
once enjoyed the light of the favor of Jehovah God
and the light of the knowledge of his purpose but
that are now under sentence to destruction. What
false step led them to this terrible result' It was
their departing from the clean, holy condition in
which God created them and departing from the
responsible place in his heavenly organization to
which he had assigned them. They were created holy
spirit creatures, perfect and glorious; they had the
opportunity for eternal life in heaven before them.
That was their beginning, their original or nrst
estate. They were not amphibious creatures, meant
13

13. (a) Why are angels subject to falling? (b) What 1s

tb~lr

habitation?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

to live partly in heaven as spirits and partly upon

earth a8" humans. The invisible heavens were their
home, . their habitation, where they should live righteous lives in God's service in full harmony with their
holy beginning.
14 How did angels with such a favorable start come
into their present "everlasting chains to be kept in
darkness for the judgment of the great Day'" As in
the case of other creatures smce, they did not choose
to. continue in the righteousness of their original
estate. They yielded to Satan the Devil after he
rebelled against Jehovah God and brought sin into
this world. In the ancient world before the Flood,
and particularly during the six hundred years of
Noah's life before that catastrophe, they decided to
mix in directly with the wickedness of mankind. Says
Genesis 6: 4:: "There were giants in the earth in
those days." Such giants were those fallen angels, in
the Devil's service. They did not keep their position
of responsibility to God but went over to the service
of His enemy. In pursuance of this, they left heaven,
which is the home of spirit creatures, and transferred their home to this earth. They did so by
materializing in visible human flesh as "giants", to
domineer over wicked humankind. They wanted
close fleshly associations.
15 For joining Satan's rebellion, God sentenced
them to destruction with Satan. The Flood did not
destroy them with mankind, for then they merely
dematerialized their giant fleshly bodies and returned
to their proper home or habitation in the spirit
world. But they did not return to their original
estate of righteousness inside God's universal organization, with responsibilities laid upon them by Him
and enjoying the light of His approval and counsel.
No, but God has restrained them with chains that
have held them since he sentenced them until now,
"everlasting chains". These are not chains such as we
humans know, but are God's powers of restraint by
which he has kept them "in darkness" respecting his
arrangements and purposes. In this restrained condition and under sentence of destruction they are kept
in reserve until Almighty God executes his judgment
against all of Satan's organization in this great day.
Then their sentence of destruction will be executed.
(Rev. 20: 1, 2; Mark 1: 23-27) So angels fell to destruction. We could yet do so.
l f The Lord God is decidedly against fornication
and sodomy, and on this account fiery destruction
poured down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, more than
450 years after the Flood. Two angels of God materialized in flesh and went to Sodom, a city in which
there were not even ten righteQus persons, but only
See the 64-page booklet entitled "Angels".
14. Why did they leave their IlrIt estate and their habitation?
15. In what are tbey restralned, and reserved to what?
16. Particularly tor what 11v. were Sodam and Gomorrah destroyed?

JULY

15, 1948

21ieWATCHTOWER,

219

Lot, who had moved in with his wife and two daughters. The angels went to Sodom, not to indulge the
passions of the flesh with the wicked population, but
to inspect the city's moral conditions and to rescue
Lot from the destruction overhanging the place. By
close personal observation these angels found that
the Sodomites had "given themselves over to forni
cation and gone after strange flesh". The men not
only delivered themselves to fornication with women
but also went after relations with flesh other than
female flesh, namely, the flesh of men, besides, no
doubt, the flesh of brute beasts. (Lev. 1S': 22-25) The
two angels turned in for the night at Lot's house,
and then, the record says: "They had not lain down
to rest before all the townsmen, the inhabitants of
Sodom, beset the house, young and old from every
quarter, shouting to Lot, 'Where are the men who
came to visit you to-night' Bring them out to us that
we may rape them.''' They lusted more hotly for
male flesh than for female, for they refused Lot's
offer of his own daughters for the purpose of intercourse in order to protect the two angels appearing
as men. (Gen. 19:4-9, Moffatt) That capped the
climax, and the next morning, at sunrise, fire and
sulphur rained down upon Sodom, Gomorrah and
near-by cities. Lot and his daughters escaped to Zoar
just in time.-Gen. 19: 10-30.
IT Like the angels that left their proper habitation
in the invisible heavens, the inhabitants of all those
burned-up cities went after the satisfaction of the
flesh. It brought sudden destruction upon them by
means like fire bombs dropped from airplanes in
World War II. They suffered the punishment of

"eternal fire". Its being called "eternal" does not

mean the sulphurous fire still hurns at those city
sites today. In fact, the charred ruins of those cities
lie under water, according to the latest maps of
Palestine, which represent Sodom, Gomorrah and
Zoar as lying beneath the waters of the southern end
of the Salt (Dead) sea, just below the peninsula that
juts into the sea. So the meaning is that the fire
resulted in eternal destruction to those cities. That
is the meaning of the "lake of fire burning with brimstone" described in Revelation 19: 20; 20: 10, 14, 15;
21: S. The Sodomites, etc., were not tormented eternally in that fire. They are "set forth as an example,
suffering the punishment of eternal fire".-Jude 7;

See The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Btble, 1945

edition, page 62, Plate X.

17. How is the fire with which they were punished eternal?

18. Who shOuld take warning, and what course should they tollow ?

Am. Stan. Ver.

18 For whom are they an example of warning?
Peter answers: ''Unto those that after should live ungodly." (2 Pet. 2: 6) Let those who sneak in and try
to defile God's holy organization beware. Those
Sodomites were destroyed for burning with desire
to defile the flesh of Jehovah's holy angels. So these
impious, ungodly persons are under doom to eternal
destruction just as complete as if accomplished by
fire and brimstone. Mayall of God's sincere people
take warning and not consider even momentarily the
enticements of such doomed persons who sneak in
with devilish cunning. In the hope of eternal salva.tion to be realized in the new world may we all resist
such persons and so avoid their fate, by defending
and contending earnestly for the faith once for a.ll
delivered to God's saints.

POLITICS AND DEMONISM

OLITICIANS have always required worldly religion
and used it as their handmaid. From the time of
ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt on down to this
very hour the visible ruling factors of all worldly nations
have had their "wise men", astrologers, soothsayers and
other demon-controlled religionists at hand for counsel and
advice. Such rulers have always called for "more religion",
whether it was a so-called "state religion" or an ecclesiastical
religion. To this very day the rulers in the Occident continue advocating more religion, saying that 'the religion of
your individual choice is all that is necessary, whether that
religion be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or Mohammedan.
.Anyone of these meets the requirements, just so you have
religion.' Even in the United States wheJe separation of
church and state is constitutionally required the president
and the governors of the forty-eight states say : 'We must
have more religion; otherwise the government of the United
States cannot stand.'
Without an exception, however, the religionists of Christendom have always opposed the real and true servants of
Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. Their opposition shows that

the religion they have proceeds from the same source as

Babylon's religion of old time, namely, from Satan the
Devil, "the prince of the demons," who is the chief adversary
of God and Christ and all who follow Christ. Note, now,
some of the Scriptural proof upon this point.
Nimrod was the founder of Babel or Babylon, and, as
its dictatorial ruler, he made religion the leading factor of
his government, in opposition to Jehovah God. The brief
account at Genesis 10: 8-10 reveals that fact. As to ancient
Egypt, the king Pharaoh set himself up as a mighty one
and was worshiped as a god by his servile subjects. When
the Israelites were held slaves in Egypt, Pharaoh set himself in full opposition to the servants of Almighty God.
Moses and Aaron appeared before this political ruler and
delivered the message of Jehovah God to him, and to back
up the message they performed certain miracles. But the
aecount at Exodus 7: 11, 12 tells us: "Then Pharaoh also
called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of
Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they
became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their

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~eWATCHTOWER..

rods." Those magicians and sorcerers were the visible representatives and mediums of Satan's demons, influencing
and inducing the king Pharaoh to put himself in direct
antagonism to the Almighty God. Each time Jehovah's
appointed servant appeared before Pharaoh he called upon
the sorcerers, magicians, and representatives of the practice
of demon religion, to appear before him and perform their
powers, until they at last had to admit they were outdone.
-Ex. 8: 7, 18, 19; 9: 11.
Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who destroyed
Jerusalem in 607 B.C., had his demon mediums or representatives always on hand to give advice, whether out on
military expeditions or at court. (See Ezekiel 21: 21-23;
Daniel 1: 20; 2: 2.) Those demon representatives were in
complete opposition to Jehovah God and his servants. This
is proved by the fact that God gave to his servant Daniel
wisdom and power to tell the king's dream and to explain to
Nebuchadnezzar its meaning, but those practitioners of
demon religion were unable. "Daniel answered in the
presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king
hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the
magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; but there is
a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known
to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are
these j as for thee, 0 king, thy thoughts came into thy mind
upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he
that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall
come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to
me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but
for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to
the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy
heart." (Dan. 2: 27-30; 4: 7) With such words Daniel
exposed the demons as false gods whom the astrologers,
magicians and soothsayers worshiped, but proved that J ehovah is the true, living God.
The Israelites, of whom Daniel was one, would have
gotten protection from the influence and power of the
demons had they obeyed God's commandments and kept
their covenant with him and avoided demon religion.
Instead, they as a nation demanded a king, and God let
them have a king, Saul. This man, their first king, quickly
embraced devil religion. Being influenced by it, he violated
God's commandment and rebelled against His sovereignty.
Then Samuel, the prophet and visible representative of
Jehovah, delivered to king Saul this message from the Most
High: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath
also rejected thee from being king." (1 Sam. 15: 22, 23)
Thereafter Saul, who continued to hold the office of king,
made himself a further abomination before Almighty God
by seeking advice from a demon medium, the witch of
Endor, who lied to Saul and led him further into the Devil's
snare.-l Sam. 28: 7, 8.
Saul, under the influence of demons, fell to persecuting
David the true servant of Jehovah. This persecution Saul
carried on for about thirteen years while at the same time
he kept up an appearance of godliness. Thus Saul the politician had an outward form of godliness, but denied the
supremf1 power of Almighty God, just as the political rell-

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N. Y.

gionists do in this present day. Because Saul embraced the

demon religion he went into darkness concerning God's
purpose and continued ever afterward in darkness, and had
no truth or revelation from Almighty God. (Contrast
Exodus 22: 18 and 1 Samuel 28: 6-18.) This action of Saul
was in direct violation of God's law governing demon religion and its practice. It violated Leviticus 19: 26, 31, which
reads: ''Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither
shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. Regard not
them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards,
to be defiled by them: I am the LoRD your God."
Saul's death was because he rebelled against Jehovah God
in a manner similar to that rebellion of the Devil against
God at the beginning. Naturally, then, Saul sought advice
of a woman who was a demon medium. "So Saul died for
his transgression which he committed against the LoRD,
even against the word of the LoRD, which he kept not, and
also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to
enquire of it; and enquired not of the LORD: therefore he
slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the SOn of
Jesse." (1 Chron. 10: 13,14) This ought to be a warning to
all the religious clergy and the principal ones of their flock,
namely, the politicians, judges and commercial men, who
do not, however, appear to heed it but continue to say to
the people: "What we need is more religion." And they try
to legislate accordingly.
MODERN COUNTERPARTS

In this time of Christendom's distress it is appropriate to

compare the course of King Saul and the cause of his death,
with that of the religious leaders or clergymen. Saul, at
first placed in a position of favor by Jehovah God, went
over to demonism, and in this he foreshadowed or typified
the clergymen of Christendom and their course of action,
leading to a like disastrous end. Concerning those who claim
to serve God and who act as clergymen and religious leaders
of so-called "Christians" but who really practice demon
religion, it is written, at Isaiah 9: 16: "For the leaders of
this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them
are destroyed." Such religious leaders, who assume to teach
the people God's Word but who yield to the doctrines of
demon religion, become blind to the truth llnd lead others
into blindness. Concerning religious leaders like these Jesus
Christ said: ''Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch."-Matt. 15: 14.
In their desperation the Roman Catholic Hierarchy are
taking more and more of the lead among all the religionists
on earth in an attempt to guide and teach the people in
political affairs of the nations, and particularly in the
United States, and not only in political affairs but also in
social, economic, military and educational matters. That
religious organization participates in the politics of every
nation on earth. The members of the Hierarchy cause the
people to err, and the Protestant clergy are not far behind,
and all of them are headed for destruction. All people who
give heed to such religious teachers and blindly follow them
are therefore held under the influence and control of the
demons. They are all in line for the same end, unless the
individuals awaken to the great danger and turn quickly to
Jehovah God and fully trust in him.

JULY

15, 1948

g}ieWATCHTOWER

The politicians and commercial leaders are induced to

believe that the religious clergy are clothed with some
invisible power. Because of this such politicians and commercial men fear their religious leaders and are thereby
led into the snare of demon religion and entrapped by these
malignant invisible powers. Politicians and commercial men
seek the advice of clergymen, and, most notoriously, the
advice of the ruler of Vatican City, and the clergymen can
only give bad advice because they are under the influence
of demonism and not strict adherents to the Bible. It
reminds us of the days of King Ahab, ruler of the ten-tribe
kingdom of Israel with capital at Samaria. Ahab had gath.
ered to himself some 400 false prophets, who were nothing
other than practitioners of the Devil religion, and they gave
Ahab bad military advice regarding a campaign for the
recapture of Ramoth-gilead. We read: "Then the king of
Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred
men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead
to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the
Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king."-l Ki. 22: 6.
Now Micaiah was the true prophet of Almighty God. At
the insistence of King Jehoshaphat, the ally of Ahab,
Micaiah was called before King Ahab, who demanded that
Micaiah should give his piece of advice. Micaiah gave good
advice, but because it was unfavorable Ahab cause? him to
be imprisoned, no doubt on the charge that he was mterfer
ing with the successful prosecution of the war. Heedless of
Micaiah but yielding to the subtle advice of the false
prophets, King Ahab went to battle and was slain. Thus
was illustrated long ago how the religious leaders of this day
give advice out of harmony with God's Word to the politicians. The result is certain to be disastrous to the foolish
political rulers. Like advice was given by false prophets and
diviners to the political rulers of Jerusalem in Jeremiah's
time, with similar bad results to the politicians and all the
people for not heeding Jeremiah's warning against them.
There are many other Biblical accounts of advice given to
rulers by unfaithful religious leaders and which resulted
bad to them.-Gen. 41: 1-24; Dan. 2: 1-13; Ex. 7: 11 to
8: 19; 9: 11.
The Scriptures refer to the present time as "the last
days". In this same connection it is written respecting the
present-day clergymen, who give advice to the politicians:
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
... ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth." (2 Tim. 3: 5-7) In this twentieth century the
religious leaders claim to be learned and ever learning, but
they by their course of action, disclose that they have
neither knowledge nor appreciation of the truth of God's
Word. This is due to the fact that they have fallen under
the power of the demons and teach their doctrines. They are
therefore in darkness concerning Jehovah's purpose and
have no .revelation whatever from Him of his purpose.
Being blind to the Kingdom truth, they lead their blinded
parishioners and congregations down into the di~c~ of
destruction at Armageddon. They attempt to be splrltual
advisers of the political and commercial men and at the same
time they openly oppose Jehovah's witnesses who proclaim
God's pure Word of truth to the people. Let it be admitted,
to be generous toward them, that their opposition to Jehovah's Theocratic Government is due to ignorance. That
only further supports the conclusion that they are under

221

the influence and power of the demons because of spiritual

blindness. When telling of their "form of godliness" the
scripture tells why these religious men are of Satan's organization and therefore sightless; it says: ''Now as Jannes and
Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth;
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But
they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."-2 Tim. 3: 8, 9.
The Bible likens our modern.day religious leaders and
spiritual advisers of Christendom to the false prophets
among the Israelites. They are like the prophet Balaam
who claimed to serve Jehovah God, but who was a sooth
sayer hence under the influence and power of the demons,
and ~ho sold himself to try to curse the children of Israel
before they got into the Promised Land. Thus he hired him
self out to the politically minded King Balak of Moab and
tried to use religion against the chosen people of God, but
his efforts were in vain and his intended curse was turned
into a blessing.-Josh. 13: 22; Num. 22: 1-41; 23: 1-30.
One more example of a false spiritual adviser in the pay
of a politician, namely, Elymas, of Cyprus. This magus or
sorcerer counseled the Roman governor against the Christian apostle, Paul, but that advice was prompted by the
demons and resulted only in hurt for magician Elymas
himself. (Acts 13: 6-12) Today the clergymen as leaders
in the practice of Christendom's religions proffer advice to
the politicians and commercial strong men. Their advice
leads the men advised by them right into the snare of the
Devil. So the religious leaders enter into a conspiracy with
one another and with the political, judicial and commercial
men, and together they wor~ in an effort to injure and
suppress the faithful witnesses of Jehovah God and to
oppose the Theocratic Government which is due to rule all
the earth. In doing this, those conspirators are, as the Scriptures- make plain, influenced by the demons and acting
accordingly. Referring to their efforts at world domination
to the exclusion of the heavenly kingdom of God, Isaiah's
prophecy says, in the language of the Roman Catholic
Bible, the Douay Version: "Say ye not: A conspiracy: for
all that this people speaketh, is a conspiracy: neither fear
ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts
himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your
dread." "And when they shall say to you: Seek of them that
have pythonical spirits [prophetic inspiration by demons],
and to diviners, that mutter in their enchantments: should
not the people seek unto their God, and not for the living
to the dead? To the law rather, and to the testimony. And
if they speak not according to this word, they shall not
have the morning light."-Isa. 8: 12, 13, 19, 20.
The religionists have fully approved the conspiracy
formed among the politicians to rule the world by human
political systems and unions and alliances, instead of having
it ruled from heaven by Jehovah's great Theocracy under
Christ Jesus. The religion practiced by such religious clergy
is therefore not Christianity, for true Christianity upholds
God's kingdom and absolutely washes its hands clean of
all co-operation and fraternization with the politicians of
this world. The collaboration of the rulers in Christendom
is therefore a working together of politics with demon
religion and has God's disapproval. It shall be broken up
and destroyed at Armageddon.

DIVINE FOREKNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN DESTINY

FTENTIMES in Bible discussions the question comes

up as to whether Almighty God foreknew that
rebellion would break out in the garden of Eden,
and did he, despite this foreknowledge, put the perfect man
there and also install the covering clierub, Lucifer, over
him. Did he foreknow the destiny of Adam, and does he likewise foreknow the destiny of each of Adam's. descendants1
Some, in reply, claim that God did not choose to know the
outcome of matters in Eden in advance, but laid his plans
in the alternative against any possible deflection of Adam.
Others, in arguing for God's foreknowledge of each one's
destiny, point to the apostle Peter, and cite how Jesus foretold he would deny his Master three times that very night.
In reply, we say there was no need for the omnipotent
God to form a plan in the alternative to provide against
any unforeseen emergency. He is so mighty and so wise that,
without delving into matters in advance, he would be equal
to any emergency that would suddenly arise and he could
instantly form his purpose as to how to deal wjth it and
dispose of it to his own glory and vindication. So there is
no necessity for him to exercise his powers to peer in
advance into the destiny of each of his creatures, to forearm
himself for coming developments. Nothing can overtake him
and get the better of him.
Persons who argue for divine foreknowledge of each
creature's destiny and who call to their support the case
of Peter might have further referred to Christ's predictions
respecting him. They could have cited Jesus' words to Peter
after His resurrection, that when Peter got old he would
stretch forth his hands and another would gird him and
carry him whither he did not want to go; to which prediction Jesus also added that ~he apostle John would tarry
until He came.-John 21 : 17-23.
That there would be an unfaithful apostle among the
twelve original apostles, the Holy Scriptures foretold, and
Judas Iscariot proved to be that one. CPs. 41: 9; John
13: 18) Divine prophecy had also declared that Jesus the
Good Shepherd would be smitten by the enemy and that his
sheep would be scattered at that time. Therefore when Peter
bragged greatly after the last supper about his flawless
devotion to Jesus, our Lord Jesus knew that Peter was talking contrary to what the prophecies said about the sheep.
Hence Jesus foretold Peter's three denials of him. In order
that the prediction might be fulfilled, Almighty God
maneuvered the course of developments about Peter that
night so as to bring Jesus' prediction to pass and also to
show Peter his weakness on three counts. But Jesus also
said for the overconfident man's comfort that afterward
Peter would become strengthened and then with his strength
he should comfort his brethren. Hence, after the resurrection, because the risen Jesus now had confidence in Peter's
unswerving course henceforth, he told Peter just how he
was going to die and also how the apostle John would survive until a certain late event. In fulfillment of Jesus'
prophecy concerning the two apostles, God could maneuver
the affairs of Peter and John, to work out for the- vindication of His name and word.-Zech. 13: 7; Mark 14: 26-31;
John 13 : 18, 38; 21: 18-22.
However, Peter and John were representative men, of
the band of twelve apostles and also foundations of the
Christian church. Therefore special predictions would

properly be made concerning them by the Lord Jesus. So it

was not in the ordinary course of things that God would
foretell by Christ Jesus how he would deal with Peter and
John for their continued faithfulness to. him. But their cases
are not to. be taken as proofs that God foreknows the destiny
of. each human individual.
All righteous things are. possible with God. He can accordingly withhold knowledge from. himself, and this he does
with regard to the destiny of individuals. In this way he
allows the individual. to- determine his own destiny by the
course of action he. takes. in the light. of certain knowledge
~ under certain circumstances.. For God to. exercise himself
to. foreknow our destinies would mean for him to make predeterminations and prejudgments concerning us. This
would, in effec.t, be a personal predestination of us, and
would make our cases eithex hopeless. or foolproof from the
start of QUI' lives. He would have to see that everything
eoncerning us individually would have to be maneuvered
by himself so as not to prGve. his foreknowledge to be false
and unreliable.
If God foreknew our destiny, why, for instance, should
he let any of us come to a knowledge of the truth. and then
beget us by his spirit and call us to the heavenly kingdom,
when he already foreknew that we would faiU Why, then,
should it be allowed that "many are called, but few are
chosen"? Why not. at the outset, limit the calling only to
the few that would make good, and not waste time with
the many who- are foreknown to prove- failures? Wasting
time with them is not economical, and God does not waste
time and effort. For God to foreknow our destiny as a failun. but to give us still an opportunity would be. nothing
less than a deception- of us, Do mocking of us; raising our
hopes when he already knew WI!; would not make good. Why
not be frank with us, and inform us at the start that we
are not worth. wasting time and attention upon, because
in the end we will fail anyhow? Since it is not a matter
of divine justice to let any creatures gain the heavenly
kingdom, but since it is of God's mercy toward sinners, the
requirement of justice to give all an equal opportunity does
not flgure in here. It would be no counterbalance to his foreknowledge of our individual destiny.
Carefully studied, the foreknowledge of each person's
destiny by God cannot be hannonized with the Scriptures
and all the various situations that they describe, such as
that of Lucifer and Adam. in Eden, etc. The outcome of
God's testing our personal integrity toward him is not a
foregone conclusion with him., already foreknown to him
and unable to turn out otherwise contrary to his foreknowledge. He is just and fair with us, with no prejudice; and
he lets it. all depend upon us as to whether we win or fail.
He supplies aU the help we need to win. He could hardly
be expected to do this,if he had determined upon our destiny
by his foreknowledge. What point would he prove to the
Devil by helping us when He had prior knowledge that we
would lose out 1 The only thing proved would be the
aceurae.y of his foreknowledge.
It was first when God brought Satan the Serpent and
Adam and Eve to judgment there in the garden of Eden
that God foreknew the end from the beginning, and he disclosed this by what he told all three of them. It is as- regards
God's own purposes and works that he foreknows and fore-

222

JULY

15, 1948

SffieWATCHTOWER.

tells the end from the .start. (Isa. 14: 24-27 and 46: 9-11)
It is only regarding Hu works that we read: "Known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world."
(Acts 15: 18) But this is not said regarding our personal
works as his creatures. Almighty God lets us determine
these for ourselves, without his foreknowledge. If we know

223

his foretold pnrposes and works, then -we have the privilege
of co-operating with him and having'8 part in the ful.fillment
of divine prophecy. By proving our integrity to him down
to the end of our test, then we may be sure we shall have
8 blessed destiny 'according to what he promises and according to what:he has in.reservation for all those who love him.

JOTHAM BECOMES POWERFUL

OUNG Prince Jotham of-Judah admired his father's
constant efforts to obey Jehovah God's law. As far
back as he could remember, his father King Uzziah
and his mother Jerusha had taught him concerning Jehovah,
his mighty acts {)n behalf of his name-people, and his law.
(2 Ki. 15 : 33; 2 Ohron. 27: 1) J otham was fully determined
to set his course in harmony with God's will that he might
do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah, as his father was
doing. (2 Ki. 15: 34; 2 Ohron. 27: 6) That is why Jotham
was greatly surprised one day when he saw his father enter
the temple of Jehovah with a censer in his hand. The sight
caused to flash through his mind the incident of non-priestly
Korah and his 250 non-priestly followers whom Jehovah
consumed with fire for attempting to usurp the priestly
prerogative of offering incense before Jehovah. His own
parents had told him about it when he was a child. It
seemed but yesterday that his father had read to him from
God's law: ''No stranger, that is not of the seed of Aaron,
[shall] come near to burn incense before Jehovah; that he
be not as Korah, and as his company." (Num. 16: 1-40,
Am. Stan. VeT.) As these thoughts were running through
Jotham's mind he saw Azariah the chief priest and dozens
of other priests rush into the temple after his father. Then
he saw his father with his clothes rent run out of the temple
and past him, crying out, ''Unclean, unclean!"
Immediately Jotham knew. His father had not been consumed by fire, but Jehovah had smitten him with leprosy;
for he knew that God's law commanded: "The leper in whom
the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare,
and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall
cry, Unclean, unclean." (Lev. 13; 45, 46; 2 Chron. 26: 1620) Though his father had not been consumed instantly, he
realized that leprosy would eventually lead to his death.
After that his father lived in an isolated house outside
Jerusalem and never again came near the temple of Jehovah.
Jotham was appointed regent. (2 Ki. 15; 5; 2 Chron.
26: 21) Now he was more determined than ever to adhere
to the course marked out in God's Word for his true worshipers. (2 Ohron. 27; 2) He remembered the kingdom
covenant Jehovah had made with his ancestor David and
expressed to him through His prophet Nathan: "Jehovah
will make the-e a house. When thy days are fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed
after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I
will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with
the stripes of the children of men; but my lovingkindness
shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom
I put way before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom

shall be made sure for ever before thee: thy throne shall
be established for ever."-2 Sam. 7: 11-16, Am. Stan. Ver.
Shortly thereafter when Jotham heard that the Assyrian
emperor Pnl was marching south from northern Syria
toward Israel, he felt secure in Judah, because he knew that
his God Jehovah was all-powerful and able to protect him
from the might of Assyria. Knowing that King Menahem
of Israel to the north was following a wicked course in spite
of Jehovah's admonition through his prophet Hosea, Jotham
was not surprised to learn next that Menahem had bought
off Pul with a large amount of silver.-Hos. 1: 1; 2 Ki.
15: 19, 20.
The twenty-first year (779 B.O.) of Jotham's life was an
eventful one. Not only did the Israelite king Menahem die,
but J otham's son Ahaz was born. J otham could now look
forward to bringing him up in the admonition of Jehovah.
The following year (778 B.O.) Judah was prosperous
and peaceful, as usual; but conditions in the northern kingdom of Israel were such that Menahem's son Pekahiah was
unable to ascend the throne. Wicked Pekahiah did not
become king until the year after that, in 777 B.O.-2 Ki.
15: 23,24.
Two years later, 775 B.O., Jotham learned that Pekahiah
had been murdered by his successor, Pekah. But other news
interested him more; a young man named Isaiah was proclaiming to the people a message from Jehovah: "Keep on
hearing, but understand not; and keep on seeing, but know
not!" Wanting to know more, Jotham found out that in a
vision given him by God Isaiah "saw the Lord seated on
a high and lofty throne; his trailing robes spread over the
temple-floor, and seraphs hovered round him, each with six
wings-two covering the face, two covering the body, and
two to fly with. They kept calling to one another, 'Holy, holy,
holy, is [Jehovah] of hosts, his majestic splendour fills the
whole earth!'" (Isa. 6: 1-3, Moffatt) At the sound of those
who called, the foundations of the thresholds shook, and the
temple began to fill with smoke. Then Isaiah said to himself,
"Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts."
(Isa. 6: 4, 5, Am. Stan. Ver.) But one of the seraphs flew
toward Isaiah with a live coal in his hand, which he had
lifted with tongs from the altar, and touched his mouth
with it, saying: "See! this has touched your lips; so your
guilt is removed, and your sin forgiven." Then he heard the
Lord's voice saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us 1" Isaiah answered, "Here am I! send me." Then he
said, "Go and say to this people: 'Keep on hearing, but
understand not; and keep on seeing, but know not!' Make
Pul is also called Tiglath-pileser.

~eWATCHTOWER

224

the mind of this people gross, dull their ears, and besmear
their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and have a mind to understand, and turn, and be
healed." (Isa. 6: 6-10, An Amer. Trans.) Jotham was glad
that now there was a prophet in Judah, but the realization
that his people were acting corruptly and transgressing
God's law grieved him. He deplored the fact that the people
were still sacrificing and burning incense in the high places.
-2 Ohron. 27: 2; 2 Ki. 15: 35.
That same year (775 B.O.) Jotham's father, King Uzziah,
died and was buried with his fathers. The next year
(774 B.O.) Jotham continued to rule, but no longer as
regent; now he was king. (2 Ohron. 26: 23; 2 Ki. 15: 7, 32)
He set ahout to build up the higher gate of Jehovah's
temple, the gate on the north of the temple area at the upper
end of the little valley that led down and around to the
Kidron valley. He also built extensively on the wall of
Ophel, to the south of the temple area and overlooking the
Kidron valley.-2 Ki. 15: 35; 2 Ohron. 27: 3.
Though the Ammonites had paid tribute to his father
Uzziah, it became necessary for Jotham to fight against
them and conquer them. Then they paid their yearly tribute
of forty-one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds in
silver, a hundred thousand bushels of wheat, and a hundred
thousand bushels of barley. (2 Ohron. 26: 8; 27: 5, Moffatt)
The Gadites, who lived between the kingdom of Judah and
the kingdom of Ammon ({were enrolled in the genealogical
records in the days of Jotham, king of Judah".-l Ohron.
5: 17, An Amer. Trans.
So much did Jehovah prosper Judah during Jotham's
reign that Jotham "built cities in the highlands of Judah,
and in the forests he built castles and towers". (2 Ohron.
27: 4, An Amer. Trans.) Elath on the Red sea to the south
continued under Judah's control, being ruled by a governor
to whom Jotham entrusted one of his own signet seal rings.
Jotham was interested in that port because by sea and land
werE' brought to it gold and silks and the spices and incense
which Jehovah's duly appointed priests burned before Him
in the temple at Jerusalem.
Though the people of Judah perversely continued to go

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

wrong, Jotham tried to do what was right in the eyes of

Jehovah. He was grateful to God that in addition to Isaiah
He had also raised up Micah as a prophet to admonish his
people. (2 Ki. 15: 34; Mic. 1: 1) Jotham ({became powerful,
because he established his ways in the sight of [Jehovah]
his God". (2 Ohron. 27: 2,6, Moffatt and An Amer. Trans.)
Following the example of his ancestors Jotham associated
his son Ahaz on the throne with him in the sixteenth year
of his reign, which proved to be his last. (2 Ki. 15: 33;
2 Ohron. 27: 1, 8) He had set his people a good example, but
they had continued in their evil ways.
Toward the end of his reign Jotham learned that King
Pekah of Israel and King Rezin of Damascene Syria were
plotting against Judah and its king. Though the two conspiring countries together were larger than Judah, Jotham
knew they could never defeat Judah as long as it had Jehovah's protection. He knew that the demon gods Israel worshiped under the guise of golden calves and Baals (Hos.
2: 8), and Damascus under the name Rimmon, or Hadad,
could never prevail against Jehovah. (2 Ki. 5: 18) He knew
that Jehovah had inspired his ancestor David to say: "Give
ear, 0 Jehovah, unto my prayer; and hearken unto the
voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will
call upon thee; for thou wilt answer me. There is none like
unto thee among the gods, 0 Lord; neither are there any
works like unto thy works.... For thou art great, and doest
wondrous things: thou art God alone. Teach me thy way,
o Jehovah; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear
thy name. I will praise thee, 0 Lord my God, with my whole
heart; and I will glorify thy name for evermore."-Ps.
86: 6-12, Am. Stan. Ver.
Just as Jotham ({was strengthened, because he had his
way directed before the Lord his God" (2 Ohron. 27: 6,
Douay) , so likewise all the true worshipers of Jehovah God,
including those on earth today, are strengthened because
they have their way tlirected before Jehovah their God;
therefore, they pray unto Jehovah: "Show me thy ways,
o Jehovah; teach me thy paths. Guide me in thy truth, and
teach me; for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee
do I wait all the day."-Ps. 25: 4,5, Am. Stan. Ver.

A LETTER
IN RE THE 144,000 SINGERS

June 6, 1948
Dear Brother:
With reference to your inquiry concerning Revelation
14: 3:
The Luther translation "without the hundred and forty
and four thousand" is forced. The Greek expression is the
one regularly used to mean ({except".
This verse does not mention the words of the ({new song",
but Revelation 5: 8-10 does mention them. There we read
that the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders
offered up the prayers of the saints, symbolized as incense,
and sang this ({new song": ''Worthy art thou to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain,
and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every
tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them
to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign
upon the earth."-Am. Stan. Ver.

Only the 144,000 can take up the words of that new song
and sing : 'You purchased or redeemed us with your blood
out of all earthly tribes, tongues, people, and nations, and
made us to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and we
shall reign over the earth.' You will notice that Revelation
14: 3 emphasized that the 144,000 were purchased or
redeemed OUT OF the earth, in harmony with the terms of
the new song. Hence they go to heaven to reign with Christ.
Hence the great multitude of good-will today who expect
to be under the Kingdom rule and to remain on earth
forever as a part of perfected mankind could never sing
that song, because it does not apply to them. They hear the
small remnant yet on earth of the 144,000 singing that new
song, and they get familiar with it and can tell the contents
of it to more people than the remnant can, but they can
never sing it as belonging to them and as expressing their
hope according to the Scriptures.
Faithfully yours in Kingdom service,
WATCH TOWER BmLE & TRACT SOCIETY

.,,,

VOL. LXIX

No. 15

SEMIMONTHLY

AUGUST 1, 1948

CONTENTS
PAYl:NG RESPECT TO THE JUDGE ....

Dignities
Typical Men
Their Destiny
Enoch's Prophecy ......................_

227
228
229
231
232

KEEPl:NG l:N THE LoVE OF GoD 233

Mercy to Others as to Ourselves

235
To:wl OJ' THE RESURRECTION 235
A.H..u; FEARS MAN
__._.. 238
FIELD EXPERIENCE
240
"GoD'S Mml8'l'EB8" TEBTlllONY PERIOD 226
''WATORTOWER" STUDIES
226
"THE W ATCRTOWER" ____ 226
THE

- '.':: 'OWT.B. 8. T.S.

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~eWATCHTOWER
PuBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
N. H.

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

Oi'i'ICERS

KNORR,

President

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

shall he the peace of thy children." Isaiah 54-:I.J.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, trom everlasting to
everlustlng, and Is the Maker ot hE>aven and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the be!!=lnning
of his creation and his active agent In creating all other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THA'l.' GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithfUl
LUclfer, or Satan, and willfully disobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to pro!luce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clo,thed him with all
power and autbority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are ZIOn's ch!lllren, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege It
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
towurd mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THA.T THE OLD WOULD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule. ended
A.D. 1914. and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
tlll'one, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vinrlicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THA.T THE UELIEF nnll blessmgs of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom unller Christ. which has begun; that His
next great act is to destro~' Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the peopie of good-\\ ill SUl'VI\"1ng Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" WIth nghteous offsprin~, and
that the human dead in the graves wlll be raised to opportunities
of Ufe on earth.
"GOD'S l\UNISTERS"

TESTIMO~Y

PERIOD

Because the Testimony Penod dunng the month of August is

entitled "God's Mini&ters", that does not exclude any of our
Watchtower readers. To be one of his mimsters does not mean to
be an ordained graduate from some sectarian religious theological
seminary; it simply means to be one of his servants, spreadmg
the gospel of his King and kingdom. You can be one of such by
taking part with all of Jehovah's witnesses during August in
spreading his message by word of mouth and by printed page. The
special offer for the month will be the combination of the book
"The Kingdom Is at Hand" and the new booklet Permanent
Governor of All Nations, on a contribution of 35c. Anyone willlOg
to minister God's message to the people can eaSlly and quickly
learn to present this offer from door to door with success and have
the rare joy of singing God's praises to all nations. Experienced
mlnisters stand ready to help any desiring to start out in this
ministry dunng August, and your request to us by card will move
us to put you in touch with the needed personal help and instructions. All participating in this midsummer Testimony Period
should submit thell' report when August closes.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of September 5: "Paying Respect to the Judge,"

1-16 inclusive, The Watchtotoer August 1, 1948.
Week of September 12: "Paying Respect to the Judge,"
11' 17-27 inclusive, also ''Keeping in the Love of God",
~ 1-11 inclusive, The Watchtower August 1, 1948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal is published for the purpose of enabllng the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-wlll
It arranges systematic Bible study for Its readers and the Society
supplles other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public Instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances.
It Is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It Is wholly and without reservation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination
of Its contents In the light of the Scriptures. It does not IndUlge
in controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

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"T HEW ATe B TOW E ROO

The Watchtower is a magazine WIthout equal in the earth, and
is conceded this rank by all that have been faithful readers thereof
during its more than sixty years of publication. The Watchtower
has increased in importance with the progress of the years, and
never has it been more valuable than today, at this world crisis,
when the destiny of each intelligent human creature is being decided. The getting of correct information and instruction, just
such as required for the times, to decide your course wisely to
a happy destiny, was never more vital than now, for "where there
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who want to gain life in peace and happiness without end should
read and study it together with the Bible and in company 'with
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truths and prophecies, and who now interprets Its prophecies. He
it is that makes possible the material that is published in the
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to exist for the service of the interests of his Theocratic Government. Carefully and prayerfully read this issue of The Watchtower. Then do not delay to mail in your subscription, that
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the year. Subscription rates are shown above.

gnceWAlCIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL. LXIX

A.UGUST

1, 1948

No. 15

PAYING RESPECT TO THE JUDGE

"Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all."
--J1tde 14, 15, Am. Stan. Ver.
EHOVAH as Judge of heaven and earth deserves have nothing to do with the ungodly men that sneak
the respect of all. But who on earth now pays the into the congregation of the called ones, saying: "Yet
due respect to him' Few men will question that in like manner these also in their dreamings defile
the world has entered its most critical judgment the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at
period. What mankind does now will count in the dignities. But Michael the archangel, when contenddetermination of the judgment for or against. Promi- ing with the devil he disputed about the body of
nent men have the feeling that history will catch up Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgwith them and that the future generations of men ment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee."-Jude 8,9,
will by the history now made pass judgment on how Am. Stan. Ver.
they spoke and acted at present, and will either
B In the same way that the filthy people of Sodom
approve or condemn them. Unfortunately such men and Gomorrah polluted their flesh with loose sex
do not think about the judgment of the One far relations and unnatural relations with the male sex,
higher and more important than future generations so these evil-intentioned sneaks defile the fleshly
of men. Nor do they consider that this is the body. They are bent on corrupting those inside the
appointed generation in whose time the Supreme organization of God's people. They have no regard
Justice has taken his seat to render final judgment for the apostolic command: "Flee fornication. Every
on the world. He has come to judgment with all his sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that
court attendants and executioners. Men ought to committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
open their eyes of understanding to see the great Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the holy
Judge on his throne, with the court examination now spirit which is in you, which ye have from God 1 and
proceeding. Then they might pay more respect to ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price:
Him than to history. They might change their course glorify God therefore in your body."-1 Cor. 6: 18-20,
of action for the sake of having the Judge hand down Am. Stan. Ver.
a favorable decision. His decision counts above that
4 Although the flaming destruction upon immoral
of all others. Those who are discreet, with an eye to Sodom and Gomorrah was set forth as a warning to
their eternal destiny, will take recognition of this men inclined to imitate their sex debauchery, these
Judge. In this world crisis they will pay him the filthy intruders try to carry their practice into the
respect that is his due by a right course of conduct. Christian congregation, God's temple. However, they
2 Jude, a Bible writer, produces evidence from
are dreamers. Whyf Because they imagine they can
more than five thousand years ago to show that this ignore the plain teaching of Bible history showing
judgment time was foretold long in advance and set how God deals with the wicked. They are visionaries
down on God's trial docket. Jude does this to warn because what they think is contrary to God's 'Word
men who act in contempt of court by mocking Jeho- and purpose, which will never fail. They dream of
vah God's authority as Judge. He also comforts and being able to pervert the graciousness of God into
assures us who love truth and justice that the punish- an excuse for disorderly conduct and to get off withing of wickedness and the exalting of righteousness out a sentence of puniShment by the Judge. One cerare sure to come. In our last preceding issue of The tain day they will find they are not in a dream world;
Watchtower we discussed the first seven verses of they will wake up to find the Judge executing his
the letter of Jude. In this issue we complete our sentence against them. Since A..D. 1918, when the
verse-by-verse discussion of his robust letter ad- Judge sent his Messenger to the temple for judgment
dressed to those whom God has called to the King- proceedings, he is fulfilling his declaration: "And I
dom. Jude now gives further reason why we should will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a

1. To whom as judge ought men to pay respect, especially now?

2. Of what does Jude gIve warning, and how does he comfort us?

3. How are such wen like Sodomltes and Gomorrheans '/"

4, 5. How are they filthy dreamers, vlslonarl<!1l despising dominion?
227

228

~eWATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

e Jude tells us we can identify them because they

"speak evil of dignities". What are the "dignities"
against which they rail, blaspheme and speak abusivelyT Jude used a Greek word meaning "glories,
honors". Hence he must refer to persons who hold or
occupy glories and honors, All such things come from
God through his King Jesus Christ, and properly no
credit is to be given the favored persons on earth
who enjoy them. Yet they are to be respected for it
and treated and spoken of accordingly, with chief
regard for God, who says: "Them that honour me I
will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly
esteemed." (1 Sam. 2: 30) God has delivered his
remnant of faithful called ones from bondage to
this world and has especially honored them since
A.D. 1918. As we read: "Arise, shine; for thy light
is come, and the GLORY of Jehovah is risen upon thee.
For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon
thee, and his GLORY shall be seen upon thee." (lsa.
60: 1, 2, Am. Stan. V er.) It is a glory to shine thus
for the Lord God, enlightening the bedarkened
peoples concerning the true God and his kingdom of
blessing. The enlightened remnant, letting the glorious.lighJ .shine by proclaiming the Kingdom gospel
in an organized way, are therefore to be respected,
because Jehovah God has made it possible for them
to do this work by shining his glorious light upon
them.
1 Upon Mount Sinai Moses received the law of
God's covenant with the nation of Israel. There the
divine glory shone upon him, so much so that Moses'

face shone when he came down. It became necessary

for him to wear a veil when addressing the fearsmitten Israelites. Now God, through a Greater
Moses, Jesus Christ, has made a new covenant with
the Christian congregation, and the apostle Paul was
made a special minister or servant of that new covenant. Paul wrote to his Christian brothers who were
fellows with him in serving the purposes of that new
covenant. He said: "But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit. Therefore seeing
we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we
faint not." (2 Cor. 3: 18; 4: 1, Am. Stan. Fer.) The
new covenant is more glorious than the :Mosaic law
covenant. So the privilege of being under the new
covenant and serving its purposes by letting God's
light shine is a glory. Just because the faithful
Christians were yet in earthen vessels God did not
hold back from them this precious treasure of the
ministry, but had mercy upon them in committing
it to them. Consequently, even if the remnant of
today are in earthen vessels, they are not to be disrespected. Rather, because the great Judge has
counted them worthy of his mercy and has glorified
them with his ministry, we should fear to speak
abusively of them. Jesus included them in his prayer
to God when he said: "And the GLORY which thou
gavest me I have given them; that they may be one,
even as we are one."-John 17: 22.
s If the remnant of called ones did not show belief
in God instead of in men, he would not in his mercy
show them such glory. Jesus said to the religiou"
leaders who failed to receive the New Covenant glory
from God: "I am come in my Father's name, and ye
receive me not: if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, who
receive glory one of another, and the glory that
cometh from the only God ye seek not 1" (Jolin
5: 43, 44, Am. Stan. V er.) For that reason those reli
gionists spoke injuriously of Jesus; they had no
regard for the glory that Jehovah God had conferred
upon him and was revealing through him. So it is
today. God has an organization of his people. In thi"
organization there are special positions of responsibility, such as overseer and assistant, which Christendom in her religious style of talk calls "bishop"
and "deacon". When the great Judge Jehovah honor"
certain ones in his visible organization with special
places of service because of their faithfulness, then
these responsible special servants are to be treated
with due regard. It is not because of what they are
in themselves in the flesh, but is because of the favor
God has bestowed upon them and because we know
the source of such favor and know what it means in

6. Of what dll!1lltles do they speak evil, especially as to light?

7. 'Why, though In earthen vessels, are the remnant to be respected?

8. Why do we not fear appointed Ser'l'llnts. and yet respect them"

swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the

adulterers, and against the false swearers, and
against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith
Jehovah of hosts:'-Mal. 3: 1, 5, Am. Stan. Ver.
5 No, those who bore from within do not fear J ehovah, Sovereign Lord of the universe. They do not
realize they are dealing with the true organization
of the living Jehovah. Either that or else they do not
care, for they "despise dominion", ''lordship they set
aside." (Jude 8, Rothe1'ham) No desire moves them
to share with God's people in vindicating His universal sovereignty by obeying him and keeping integrity to him even under persecution. They set aside
the fact that Jehovah is the Owner and Master of his
organized people and that he has appointed it to be
pure. He will not let it be converted into a modernday Sodom and Gomorrah fit only for destruction.
And so, until they run up hard against that immovable fact, these filthy dreamers continue their efforts.
DIGNITIES

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not resort to abusive speech and condemn him with

scoffs and railing. He did not try to run ahead of
God's appointed time for him, but respected the great
Judge of all and accorded to him the right to rebuke.
He humbly said: "The Lord [Jehovah] rebuke thee."
(Jude 9; Delitzsch's Hebrew Translation) Despite
the mildness of this expression against the Devil,
Michael prevailed over him and kept control over
Moses' corpse; for the record says: "So Moses the
servant of Jehovah died there ... And he buried him
in the valley in the land of Moab over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this
day." (Deut; 34: 5, 6, Am. Stan. Ver.) Michael's
example of giving respectful place to Jehovah and
saying, "Jehovah rebuke thee," was followed later on
when repulsing His enemies, down till A.D. 1914.
-See Zechariah 3: 1, 2.

the way of responsibility. Of course, we do not fear

these, flatter them, show partiality to them or heap
worldly titles and honors upon them, but we unselfishly co-operate with them and support them in the
Lord's service. Thereby we pay due respect to the
Judge, Jehovah God. We have respect for the dignity
from God, rather than for just the person wearing it.
t The flesh-defiling dreamers do not respect such
dignities or glories from Jehovah. They despise his
lordship and therefore talk evil and abusively of
those clothed with such dignities and glories, not
only certain individuals but the whole visible organization. They look at the flesh; and because they are
burning to defile the flesh they abuse and blaspheme
God's servants in the flesh. In doing so they presumptuously take liberties such as even the chief one
of God's angels, Michael the archangel, did not take.
His name means "Who is like God T" It shows he is a
defender of Jehovah God. The book of the prophet
Daniel speaks of Michael as "one of the chief princes"
and as Daniel's prince, "the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people." When he stands up
in his princely power in the "time of the end", there
comes the "time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time". (Dan.
10: 13, 21; 12: 1) The "time of the end" for the
nations of this world began at the birth of Jehovah's
kingdom with Christ Jesus enthroned as his King.
Revelation 12 describes this birth of the Kingdom
and the beginning of the time of the end, and says:
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his
angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon
fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was
their place found any more in heaven. And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the
Devil, and Satan." (Rev. 12: 7-9) All this evidence
identifies :Michael as the Chief Son of God. It proves
that Michael of Daniel's day was the beloved Son of
God who became the "man Christ Jesus".
10 The Michael of Revelation is the Lord Jesus
Christ after he was sacrificed as a man, resurrected,
and received up into heaven again, with glory, honor
and immortality. When casting Satan the Devil out
of heaven after the Kingdom was born A.D. 1914,
Michael stood up in his Kingdom power and administered Jehovah's rebuke to that wicked deceiver.
That was not the first brush of Michael with Satan.
Jude tells us that long before this rebuke of A.D. 1914
Michael had contended with the Devil. He disputed
over the body of Moses, who had just died on top of
Mount Nebo. The Devil well knew the catholic use
of religious relics. He wanted the body of Moses to
start a religious cult around the corpse of Moses, and
thereby lead the Israelites to violate Jehovah's commands. In resisting him Michael the archangel did

Michael's respect for the dignity and glory of

Jehovah God was displayed here on earth when he
became flesh as "the man Christ Jesus". But these
dreamers, who pretend to be his followers and who
slip in among his true followers, do not follow his
example, even though they are so inferior to Michael
the archangel. Says Peter: "Daring, self-willed, they
tremble not to rail at dignities: whereas angels,
though greater in might and power, bring not a rail
ing judgment against them before the Lord." (2 Pet.
2: 10, 11, Am. Stan. Ver.) In this way they give evi.
dence of having fully surrendered to that which is
animal and having lost the power of reason that
man has. The first man Adam was made in the image
and likeness of God. He was thus made higher than
the animals, which move more by instinct than by
reason. Animals cannot appreciate dignities, glories
and honors conferred by the Most High God. In
blaspheming and speaking abusively of such things
from God, these disrespectful persons are like animals that do not know what such things mean. They
are animalistic still more in that they understand
only what appeals to the passions of their flesh, and
not to the mind and the faculty of reason. So, like an
animal that minds only the flesh, they seek the satisfaction of the flesh. And as they have been born with
fallen flesh, they corrupt themselves in fleshly sins
and so work out their own destruction according to
the laws of God. They show themselves to be no
better than mere beasts that were made to be caught
and destroyed without any provision for resurrection from the dead. Indeed, that kind of destruction
awaits such sinners.
12 Jude now uses certain men of Bible history as
types to show the sins for which these animalistic
religious persons will be destroyed. They follow

9\ 10. (a) Whom do developments show Michael to be? (b) How do the
tl thy dreamers take more Uberties than Michael did toward Satan?

11. How do those dreamers show themselves to be like brute beasts 1

12. How do they go In the "way ot Cain"?

TYPICAL MEN
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Cain's path. Cain acted religious and offered a gift

on his altar to the Lord God. It was bloodless, and so
it betrayed that Cain felt no need of a living sacrifice for him as a man born in sin and condemned in
God's sight. His righteous brother Abel realized the
need of a sacrifice with life in its blood and he accordinglyoffered a slain lamb upon the altar. He had
faith in God's power to provide the suitable sacrifice
in due time, and for his faith he was counted righteous with God. In judging between the two offerings
God dignified Abel with the acceptance of his sacrifice. He instructed Cain to procure a like sacrifice as
a sin-offering. Cain grew envious. He did not respect
the dignity bestowed upon Abel and follow his
example and seek honor from God. He hated the
dignity upon his brother and thought injuriously of
him. Then he murdered him. "And wherefore slew
he him 1 Because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous." (1 John 3: 12) These animalistic religionists are like Cain in hating the faithful
witnesses whom Jehovah has dignified with his service and in speaking abusively about them. They are
murderers because of having Cain's attitude: "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." (1 John
3: 15) Cain was cursed; there is no eternal life for
him, and his offspring were wiped out by the Flood.
Hence, woe to those today who have gone in the way
of Cain! Do not follow them.
13 Another typical bad man was Balaam, of Moses'
day. He was a prophet in the land now Iraq and had
relations with Jehovah God, but he was a prophet far
different from :Moses. Moses loved God's people, but
Balnam showed no respect for them as Jehovah's
chosen nation. Moses had led the nation of Israel to
the plains of Moab across the Jordan river from the
Promised Land. Balak, king of Moab, sent to Mesopotamia to hire Balaam to come down and prophesy
a curse upon Jehovah's chosen people. King Balak
offered the prophet gifts and honor if he would do so.
At the start Balaam did not say a flat, final No I to
the offer. Then he yielded to the renewed offer of
selfish reward from man. He went to curse Israel, in
utter disregard for Jehovah, who had chosen them.
For reward he was willing to plunge into destruction,
whereas, on the way down to Moab, the brute beast
under him was sensible enough to turn aside from
the path of destruction. The animal's action and its
miraculously speaking to warn Balaam of his madness saved Balaam's life then. When he came to King
Balak, Balaam twice tried to curse Israel, but God
turned his curse into a blessing.-Num. 22: 1 to
24: 25; Deut. 23: 3-5.
H Balaam's heart was not in that blessing. Having
failed to curse, he went after Israel's destruction in
another way, by trying to corrupt them with false

religion and animal passion. The death of 24,000

Israelites by a plague at Shittim on the plains of
Moab was because Balaam "taught Balak to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornicr.tion".
(Num. 25: 1-9; Rev. 2: 14, Am. Stan. Ver.) Shortly
afterward the Israelites warred against the Midianites whose girls had been used to entice Israelites
into fornication, and "Balaam also the son of Beor
they slew with the sword". (Num. 31: 8, 16) Th~
divine disapproval and destruction that came upon
Balaam were typical of the certain destruction that
must come upon men today who can be hired by the
Devil's organization to work for the curs.ing, corrupting and downfall of Jehovah's people. Woe to them!
15 The third typical person to whom Jude likens
this class of ambitious sinners is Korah. Korah was
inside the organization of Israel; he was an Israelite. More than that, he was a Levite honored like all
the adult male Levites with service at the tabernacle
of testimony, as assistants to the priests, High Priest
Aaron and his sons. Korah and other male members
of the family of Kohath had charge of transporting
the ark of the covenant and other precious pieces of
furniture of the tabernacle. Korah, as a Kohathite,
encamped on the south side of the tabernacle, where
the tribe of Reuben encamped. Korah and his fellow
Kohathites were greatly honored by Jehovah God.
Why, then, did he give way to gainsaying and rebelliousness' Because he grew proud and thought
himself as good as his cousins Moses and Aaron. He
had ambitions to make himself a priest like Aaron
and his sons. He charged Moses with having selfishly
arranged for his brother Aaron to become high priest
and Aaron with having grabbed the honor of the
priesthood for himself and his family. Korah did not
respect the dignity conferred upon Aaron and his
sons by Jehovah, and did not show respect for
Jehovah's decision in these matters as the Judge.
He challenged Jehovah's appointments and rebelled
against them. His determination to put Jehovah to
the test as to who should be priest followed. He drew
into his rebellion certain prominent members of the
tribe of Reuben, on his side of the tabernacle.
1e Korah and these Reubenites had been saved out
of Egypt, but they never entered the Promised Land
and did not die natural deaths. They were destroyed
in a new way. An earthquake cracked open the
ground beneath them: "and the earth opened her
mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and
all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all
their goods. They ... went down alive into the pit,
and the earth closed upon them: and they perished."
The 250 Levites that joined Korah and tried out the

13. 14. Ilow do they run greedily after Balaam's error for reward?

like him?

Hi, 16. (al What was B:orah's gainsaying? (bl Why Is it

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priest's function of burning incense were burned to

death by a burst of fire from Jehovah God. Next the
Israelites that murmured at this judgment from God
died by plague to the number of 14,700. Their salvation from Egypt proved to be vain, for lacking faith
and due respect toward the Supreme Judge. Do you
shudder at the destruction that befell all these' Then
know that those who rebel against Jehovah's Theocratic arrangements and instructions for his organized people are following Korah's rebellious example
and are certain to perish as he and his company did.
''Woe unto them!"
THEIR DESTINY
IT Today the literal earth does not need to open up
to swallow men guilty of gainsaying and rebellion
like Korah's. The type can be fulfilled in another way,
as prophecy shows. The religionists of Christendom
begrudge Jehovah's witnesses their privileges of
testifying to him among all nations. As Korah and
his company said to :Moses and Aaron, ''Wherefore
then lift ye np yourselves above the assembly of
Jehovah l" so these religious leaders say now, "V,Then
did Jehovah call these people to be his witnesses T"
Then, to blunt the effect of Jehovah's witnesses upon
the people, the clergy speak in abuse of them and
try to get the political government to suppress them.
The Roman Catholic clergy in particular blasphemously call them "Communists" and say: "'\Vhatever
may be the professions of Jehovah's witnesses, there
is no room for doubt that the practical effect of the
Watch Tower activities is to stimulate Communism,
not to say anarchy, and to undermine all feeling of
reverence for authority." (:Magazine Catholic Mind)
But the actual truth is the other way around, as facts
show. Here in the United States of America this
spring there were more than 76,800 witnesses of
Jehovah reporting actual time spent in the field
preaching the gospel of God's kingdom; but the
Warld Almanac for 1948, published by the New York
World-Telegram, says, on page 659, that there are
only 70,000 Communists in the United States. But in
the Roman Catholic land of Italy the national elections on April 18,19, 1948, disclosed that, in spite
of the most intense anti-Communist pressure and
interference, yet between 30.5 and 32.1 percent, or
8,025,990, of the Italians voted Communist. This high
Communist percentage is the practical effect of
whose activities 7 The Vatican and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy have been in Italy for more than sixteen centuries. Let them answer, honestly if they can.
IS In ",Vorld War II the symbolic "earth" opened
its mouth and swallowed up or absorbed the NaziFascist deluge, which had the priests' blessing in
Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and elsewhere.

17. How do Christendom's religionists act like Korah toward us?

18, 19. How wlJ1 the symbolic eartb open and swallow them down?

231

(Rev. 12: 16) Revelation, chapter 17, illustrates how

the "earth" will open its mouth again to swallow
these religious leaders who show no respect for J ehovah the Judge but speak injuriously of those whom
He has dignified. Their organized religion is pictured
as being of Babylonish origin and also as being guilty
of fornication with the political rulers and riding a
seven-headed beastly creature' "full of names of blasphemy". This beast and the political rulers are all of
the corrupt earthly organization. How will this symbolic "earth" open up to swallow organized religion
in frightful destruction'
19 The apostle John describes it, saying: "The
seven heads are seven mountains, on which the
woman sitteth. And the ten horns that thou sawest
are ten kings, who ... receive authority as kings,
with the beast, for one hour. And the ten horns which
thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot,
and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat
her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. For
God did put in their hearts to do his mind, ... And
the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which
reigneth over the kings of the earth." (Rev. 17: 9,12,
16,17,18, Am. Stan. Ver.) Following this, in short
order, will also come the destruction of the ''beast''
and earthly rulers, all defeated by Jehovah's King of
kings at the battle of Armageddon. (Rev. 19: 11-19)
The faithful remnant and their associates of goodwill will rejoice at this vindication of Jehovah's universal sovereignty against all who defile the flesh, set
at nought his dominion and speak abusively of the
Theocratic organization which he has dignified.
20 To make as forceful as possible his warning not
to have anything to do with these men but to stand
immovable in defense of the faith once delivered to
the saints, Jude shows more of the shamefulness of
this class and their terrifying destiny. "These," he
says, "are they who are hidden rocks in your lovefeasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water,
carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit,
twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild waves of
the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering
stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been
reserved for ever."-Jude 12, 13, Am. Stan. Ve1'.
21 A vessel that moves in toward a rocky shore
must be careful. Jagged rocks hidden under water
might spell its disaster. Like hidden rocks that rip
vessels or swimmers unsuspectedly, the Devil's
agents who sneak in make a showy pretense of love
f-or the brethren to cover their selfish, unclean
motives. They used to frequent the love-feasts in
Jude's day and to mix in with God's people and partake of their feast. Just what these love-feasts were
20, 21. (al How are they like "hidden rocks"? (b) What are more
profitable than the "love feasts" tbey used to frequent?

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is not clearly described in apostolic accounts; but

they were not mandatory upon the Christian congregation and have been discontinued in their ancient
form. The self-seeking persons here described abused
them. Today we have conventions of Jehovah's witnesses of an international, national, district and
circuit kind. The cafeteria arrangements at these
conventions, whereby the conventioners may get
wholesome food at a reduced rate or even free and
may eat it in a community dining room, are for the
convenience of the Lord's people of small means. It
is not a revival of the ancient love-feasts. But these
regular large-scale gatherings do allow for the brethren to sit down to a spiritual table primarily, to hear
God's Word and service discussed and to do his will
unitedly. There is evidence to prove these are far
more effective and upbuilding than the old-time lovefeasts. Nevertheless, even at these profitable gatherings the Devil constantly tries to infiltrate some of
his servants of evil design, to catch some unstable
souls off guard. It is best to be watchful on all
occasions.
22 The spiritual benefits are the things that a person should seek at the Lord's organization, because
these are what mean everlasting life. But animalistic
persons seek to satisfy their flesh, whether it be their
stomach or their sexual appetite or their craving for
power. After Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand, many followed him; but Jesus said: aYe seek
me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye
did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you." (John 6: 26, 27) Those who
lower themselves to the animal level do not seek the
spiritual food for the everlasting life in the new
world. They think solely of this life and of enjoying
selfish benefits at the expense of the Lord's organization. They are like shepherds that fleece and sacrifice the flock to dress and feed themselves. They have
no fear for the needs of others, but think first of
themselves: "when they feast with you, shepherds
that without fear feed themselves!' (Am. Stan. Fer.)
Or, "They have no qualms about carousing in your
midst, they look after none but themselves." (Jude 12,
Moffatt) Desiring to be always on the receiving
end, how could such persons be productive of anything for the blessing of others' They are deceptive
in appearance, and disappointing, like clouds that a
farmer thinks will drop down much-needed rain for
the furtherance of the crops, but which clouds prove
to be without water and are driven from overhead
by winds before depositing any moisture.
23 These selfish persons fail to see the real purpose
God has in calling people to his organization, namely,

to be fruitful in righteous works and to let the heavenly truth shine out. When, for the time that they
have been among us, they ought to be producing,
they contribute nothing to the spiritual good of the
organization and fail to be shining lights in this dark
world. They are as trees that, at the close of the fruitbearing season, are found without fruit, showing
they have missed their purpose and are as good as
DEAD. In Palestine unproductive trees were cut down
or uprooted to escape the tax on fruit trees. When
uprooted, such fruitless trees became twice dead or
doubly dead. Likewise, persons of this kind, who are
dead to righteous works, are destroyed forever as
hopeless cases. In place of admirable fruit, they disorderly bring forth works of shame, just as the wild
sea waves stir up mire and dirt, mixing these with
their foam. (Isa. 57: 20, 21) They do not hold to a
steady course in righteousness, carrying out the
organization instructions as witnesses of Jehovah,
but disobediently follow an irregular path. They are
wandering stars, and have no part in fulfilling
Daniel's prophecy for the fime of the end: "They
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. 12: 3) For
such "wandering stars" no bright-shining place has
been reserved in the heavenly kingdom. By decree of
the great Judge, Jehovah, the "blackness of darkness
hath been reserved for ever" for them. (Am. Stan,
Ver.) That signifies destruction.

22, 2:1. (a) In what way do they feed themselves without fear? (b) How
are they rainless clouds, twice-dead trees, dirty waves, stars?

24, 25. (a) How was Enoch seventh from Adam, Ilnd what did
propbesy? (b) When and how is bls prophecy fulfilled?

ENOCH'S PROPHECY

Through faithful Enoch, Jehovah God foretold

the bringing of religious persons of the above kind to
judgment. Enoch was the seventh in the line of human progression, counting from the first man Adam,
as follows: (1) Adam, (2) Seth, (3) Enos, (4)
Cainan, (5) Mahalaleel, (6) Jared, and (7) Enoch.
Because of Enoch's faith and faithful walking in
God's way, he "was translated that he should not see
death". But before his translation beyond the power
of wicked men to put him to a violent end, God used
him as his prophet. (Gen. 5: 1-24; Heb. 11: 5, 6)
Enoch's particular prophecy was carried down by
means outside the Hebrew Scriptures. It was not
incorporated in the Bible until Jude was inspired to
write it in. In the last two centuries before Christ, a
book came into existence called "The Book of Enoch".
But Jesus and his disciples did not recognize it as
inspired and canonical. This book, copies of which
have been found in Greek and Ethiopic, is composed
of twenty sections, subdivided into 108 chapters. It
enjoyed some popularity after the death of Christ's
apostles. It was certainly not written by Enoch,
but by several spurious writers, who embodied the
24

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prophecy of Enoch in Chapter Two, to make it seem

authoritative and genuine.
25 Jude quoted the prophecy of Enoch as handed
down, rather than that apocryphal book of Enoch,
when he wrote: "It was of these, too, that Enoch the
seventh from Adam prophesied, when he said,
Behold the Lord comes with myriads of his holy ones,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the
impious of all the impious deeds they have committed, and of all harsh things said against him by
impious sinners." (Jude 14,15, Moffatt) It is Jehovah whose coming to judgment is here foretold by
Enoch; and the Hebrew translation of Jude 14 reads:
"Behold, Jehovah comes with ten thousands of his
holy ones." (Delitzsch,. also Salkinson-Ginsburg)
The chief holy one is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to
whom Jehovah has committed all judgment. Jehovah
sends him as His judicial Messenger to the temple
for judgment proceedings. Hence, as represented in
this holy Judge, Jehovah comes and judges by him.
(John 5 : 27-29 ; Acts 17 : 31) The coming is at the end
of this world, for Jesus uttered a prophecy on the
end of the world and closed it with the parable of
the sheep and goats, saying: "When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats." (Matt. 25: 31, 32)
This separating of the people of the nations is now
under way, according to all the facts at hand; and
the ungodly sinners of whom Enoch prophesied have
just one judgment possible for them. That is, to be
divided off to the company of the "goats", at the
Judge's left hand, to be punished with everlasting
destruction.-Matt. 25: 41-46.
26 Seeing we are in the time of this judgment and
that the day of execution of sentence is drawing
near, Jehovah God permits that ungodly class to
become manifest. To that end he lets them engage
in their ungodly works and speeches. In this way he
can convict them all of such ungodly practices
against his name, his kingdom, and his faithful wit-

nesses. We should not be surprised at their appearing among us and all about us. This "time of the end"
is when iniquity was foretold to abound. We should
take comfort that their end is foretold and is near.
Jude identifies them, saying: "For these people are
murmurers, grumbling at their lot in life-they fall
in with their own passions, their talk is arrogant, they
pay court to men to benefit themselves." (Jude 16,
Moffatt) Lacking the godliness with contentment,
which is a precious thing to gain, they grumble and
betray a lack of faith in God's provision for his
people. His ways do not suit them. They do not see
such a thing as a Theocratic organization in which
Jehovah God by Christ appoints each one to places
of service as He pleases. Naturally, then, they do
not pay respect to the Supreme Judge, but find fault
with their lot in life. Because they cannot have their
o,vn way inside his Theocratic organization and
because, in time, his holy ones or angels put them
outside, they complain and vent their spite on certain
outstanding servants of the Lord God. Slaves to selfish desire and passions, they cannot break off following these. Not succeeding in finding satisfaction for
these inside God's faithful organization, they murmur, speaking abusively.
21 Since they think they deserve more prominence
than they are getting, these complainers seek to
draw attention to themselves and speak arrogantly.
They give out their own views and interpretations
with ponderous, wordy speech, assuming a great
deal for themselves and their importance. Desire to
gain some advantage for themselves always moves
them. So they look around, single out persons, make
a show of admiration for them, and try to cultivate
the favor and support of these. It is not sincere, but
is done with hope of some gain, materially or socially.
Their seeking advantage by means of a fellow creature blinds them to the higher aim of cultivating the
favor of the Creator and Giver of life. In this crucial
day of judgment they fail to pay the deserved respect
to the great Judge who can award life or destruction
to creatures. For this failure they shall perish. If we
love and respect the Judge, seeking the promised life
~the "Book of Enoch" the part corresponding to Enoch's eternal at His hands, we will be on watch against
prophecy quoted by Jude reads: "For he cometh with his ten thou- these doomed ones and give them no encouragement.
Sllnds and with his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to
destroy all the ungodly, and to convict all flesh of all the deeds of We will contend against them in wholehearted
their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of the defense of the faith, all for the vindication of the
hard speeches which they have spoken, and of all the things which great Judge of all.
ungodly sinners have spoken against him."-From Chapter Two.
2ilHiiW nre they murmurers. complainers, walking after lusts?

27. How do

the~'

speak? and why Rhow admiration for perRons?

KEEPING IN THE LOVE OF GOD

HE thing the Lord Jesus Christ predicted

concerning the end of the world was the very
opposite of world conversion to Jehovah God
and his Christ. He said: "Because of the increase of

1 Was JUde an apostle? and of whom does he next warn us?

wickedness, most men's love will grow cold. But he

who holds out to the end will be saved." (Matt.
24: 12, 13, An Amer. Trans.) Jude, a brother of Jesus,
uses the most. of his letter, in pointed, descriptive

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mieWATCHTOWER.

language, to expose those who now work iniquity and

slyly try to cool our love for God and get us out of
his love. Jude indicates he is not one of the twelve
apostles of Christ by referring to others as apostles
who have given warning of these workers of iniquity
in the last times of this world. He writes: "But ye,
beloved, remember ye the words which have been
spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ; that they said to you, In the last time there
shall be mockers, walking after their own ungodly
lusts. These are they who make separations, sensual
[natural; animal], having not the spirit."-Jude
17-19, Am. Stan. Ver.
2 We have simply to turn to the second epistle of
Peter (3: 1-4) to locate a written warning by that
apostle regarding "the last days", our own time. He
tells us the presence of mockers and scoffers is a
proof of the late hour of this world, and they are to
be looked for, not in heathendom where men have
not had access to the Bible, but inside the so-called
"Christendom". They scoff and mock at us for believing from prophecy and world conditions that we have
reached the world's end, that the Kingdom has been
born in the heavens, and that Jehovah's Judge has
come to the temple and the judgment is on, both of
God's household and of the nations. In their own
minds they postpone the Lord's coming and the time
for judgment, and accordingly they keep on following their godless passions, feeling that the time of
accounting is nowhere near.
3 Contrary to the unifying work that the Lord God
is carrying on among his people all over the earth,
the mockers use various means to create divisions
and to set up distinctions among His people. There
is no true show of spirituality about them, but they
are animal like other natural men. Although the
final and complete fulfillment of Joel 2: 28-32 is in
progress and the Lord God has poured out his spirit
upon his faithful remnant in the flesh, the mockers
have not received that outpouring of spirit. So there
is no burning with zeal for God's service about them.
They assault us with abuse, they stir up strife and
cont-ention in companies to produce divisions and to
distract us from God's witness work. They do not
gather with the Lord of the harvest, but scatter.
rrhis neither promotes love of God nor wins love
from him.
4 Under the circumstances, what is the right course
for the faithful remnant to follow to share at last in
"our common salvation"? The next words of Jude
mark it out: "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves
on your most holy faith, praying in the holy spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
2. How does Peter warn us ot the same mockers? and how do they mock?
3. How do they show no lo\"e ot unity and spirituality?
4. 6. Where do we keep ourselyes?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

(Jude 20,21, Am. Stan. Ver.) In the opening verse

Jude tells us we are ''beloved in God the Father, and
kept for Jesus Christ", and he prays that the divine
mercy, peace and love may be multiplied to us. For
this prayer to be fulfilled toward us, we must keep
in the love of God. How T
& It takes faith to please God. The mockers and
scoffers would destroy our faith now when it is most
necessary. Against their railing, abuse and faultfinding we must build ourselves and our brethren up
in it, to give us stronger incentive fo please God. It
is a most holy faith, for it looks to the God of holiness and is based exclusively upon his holy Word.
It does not rest itself partly upon the traditions of
worldly religions or the lofty-sounding philosophies
of men of this world. It is completely separate from
them and does not conform to human schemes of a
"finer and better world created by men's hands". Our
faith is confidently fixed upon the new world which
God alone can produc'e and which will be subject to
the kingdom of his beloved Son Jesus Christ.
e To build ourselves up and grow stronger in this
most holy faith we have to study the Bible, growing
more familiar with it and gaining a better understanding of it, being more and more convinced of its
truth. To this end we will use all the Bible helps that
God has provided for us through his organization.
All the meetings and assemblies for studying and discussing his Word together with our brethren we will
regularly attend. We will deepen the impression his
Word makes upon our lives by serving it to our
brethren and going forth to the people in world distress so as to proclaim it to them. By this course we
shoall be made more able to "contend earnestly for the
faith which was once for all delivered unto the
saints". (Jude 3, Am. Stan. Ver.) This makes God
love us more.
T We cannot do these things apart from prayer.
We are told to pray "in the holy spirit". This we do
when we pray in harmony with the things in his
Word, which things God grants us to see by the
power of his spirit. Praying according to our flesh
like natural men of this world will not receive any
answer from God. Jesus, when filled with God's
spirit, taught us how to pray. And all the Word of
God written under inspiration of his spirit shows us
what to ask in prayer. We will pray to be filled with
his spirit, knowing God is more pleased to give this
to his children than ea1.'thly parents are to give good
things to their children. His spirit is an effective
protection against the influence of this world and the
religious scoffers of the times. If we pray in the holy
spirit our prayers will disclose a right heart condition. God loves that.
6. Bow do we build oureelvea up?
7. How do we pray In the holy eplrlt?

AUGUST

1, 1948

1f1ieWATCHTOWER

MERCY TO OTHERS AS TO OURSELVES

If we keep ourselves in God's love, we may look

for mercy to be multiplied to us. God will extend this
to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. We continually
need it; for we are still in the imperfect flesh. This
continuance of his mercy to us means everlasting
life in the end, for through it we are forgiven our
sins and restored to divine favor. Moreover, when
God raised Jesus from the dead, he bestowed upon
him the "sure mercies of David". (Acts 13: 34; Isa.
55: 3) It is a special mercy to share in Christ's
resurrection, and that is what the faithful remnant
may expect, after we have faithfully kept ourselves
in God's love to the end.-Phil. 3: 10.
P We ourselves expect further divine mercy. So we
must be merciful to others whose eternal life is at
stake. Jude tells us: "And on some have mercy, who
are in doubt; and some save, snatching them out of
the fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating
even the garment spotted by the flesh." (Jude 22,23,
Am. Stan. Ver.) To do this we must make a distinction between these and the doomed scoffers and animalistic dreamers, whose destruction was pictured
by the fiery end of Sodom and Gomorrah. Slipping
in among God's people, they try to make some of us
unsteady, uncertain and full of doubts as to whether
this is the truth, the Lord's work, the Lord's organization. Jude says to pity and have mercy upon those
who have been made to waver and doubt. Patiently
seek to build them up again in the faith once delivered to the saints. We must act quickly, now that we
are in the day when judgment begins at the house
of God.
10 Such unstable ones are in danger of the fire or
everlasting destruction reserved for the "goats" of
this time. By our coming quickly to their aid with
exhortation, instruction and prayer, we are in effect
snatching them out of the fire. Some may have yielded to the deceivers and fallen to immorality with
S

So "-!l\" must we continue to look for mercy of our Lord Jesus?

9. How are some made to waver? and why must we haye mercy on them?
10. (a) How do we snatch some out of the fire? (h) How do we hate
the spotted garment and )'et have mercy?

235

them or fornication with this world, spiritually

speaking. As it were, the inner garment next to their
flesh they have stained through giving way to animal
practices. They have stained their identity as true
Chi-istians. We hate such a garment, and fear to
spot up our own garment of Christian identity in
such a way, because it displeases God and may lead
to destruction. But, while we hate the stained garment, we have mercy upon the wearer of it. We try
to help them back to salvation from the death to
which keeping on in such worldly, animal uncleanness would at last lead them.
11 Desiring to see us win the "common salvation",
Jude closes reminding us of the One able to bring
us through the great fight of faith victoriously. He
is the One to whom to ascribe glory, majesty, dominion and power, and Jude does so, in almost a prayer
to Him for us, saying: "Now unto him that is able
to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before
the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and
power, before all time, and now, and for evermore.
Amen." (Jude 24,25, Am. Stan. Ver.) We of the
remnant want to be safeguarded against stumbling
into destruction. We want Jesus Christ to resurrect
us from the dead to present us in spiritual perfection before the glorious presence of God with exceeding joy. Since that is so, we too must attribute to
Jehovah God glory, majesty, dominion and power.
If we ascribe these things to him now when he has
taken to himself his majestic Kingdom authority
over all the earth, we will order our lives on earth
in harmony and will bear witness to him. Then he
will keep us from falling and bring us into the
heavenly kingdom. All persons of good-will, who
want to stand approved for eternal life in the new
world, must also now ascribe glory, majesty, dominion and authority to the only God. He is "our Saviour
through Jesus Christ our Lord".
11. Why now ascribe glory, majesty, dominion and power to God?

THE TOMB OF THE RESURRECTION

READERS of The Watchtower will recall, the

president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society
visited Palestine toward the end of April of 1947.We were intereilted in what he had to say regarding the
so-called "holy places" there, over the preservation of which
the pope of Vatican City was so concerned during the ArabJewish fighting following the declaration of the new State
of Israel on May 14,1948. According to the account directly
given us, such places seized upon as "holy" by religionists
are subject, and have been subject for years, to commercial
development and sectarian exploitation. This practice
reminds us of Paul's description to Timothy of religious

------see The Watchtower '0 August 15, 1947, pages 252-255.

men, "corrupted in mind, and who are destitute of the

truth, supposing gain to be godliness." (1 Tim. 6: 5, Catholic Douay Version) "Religion, they think, will provide
them with a living." (Monsignor Knox's Trans.) They work
religious tradition for all the gain they can get out of it.
The present city of Jerusalem, that is, the part of it
which is called "the old city", is bounded by very high walls,
quite similar to those in the olden days when Jerusalem had
great prominence in Bible history. This part is now smaller
than the city was when it was overrun by the Romans
A.D. 70. But the religious systems, Catholic, Protestant, and
others, have set aside certain things within this outwardly
dirty city of today that they claim are the "sacred spots"

236

~eWATCHTOWER..

where Jesus walked, celebrated the Memorial of his death,

etc. Covering some of such supposed sacred spots is the
edifice known as "the church of the holy sepulcher".
According to the Roman Catholic sect, the sites of Calvary and of the sepulcher from which Christ was resurrected are located within the walled city of Jerusalem.
Inside of this "church of the holy sepulcher", located near
the center of the city, they have one large tomb. It is decorated very elaborately, so that on observing it the tourist
does not get any conception of something hewn out of rock,
as the gospel accounts say of Jesus' tomb, but the floor of
the church is the base, and the tomb seems to sit on the
floor of the church. The tourist goes into a hole to get inside
of what they call a "tomb". On the inside the whole thing
has a beautiful marble lining. It is just like a little chapel
inside of a big religious structure, "the church of the holy
sepulcher." The Roman Catholics claim it is the spot where
Jesus was buried. Guides take tourists through and describe
it to them.
Inside the church and a little toward the east is the site
they call "Calvary", where Jesus was hung upon the tree.
When the tourist walks into the church from the south he
turns to the right. From the floor of the church there are
steps that take the tourist from this ground floor to a place
about twelve feet high. Up there the tourist is on "Calvary",
according to the traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic
sect. The tourist having walked up these stairs to this platfor~ is then supposed to be on top of Calvary, yes, where
Chnst was put to death on the stake. Do not be surprised,
hut "Calvary" is inside of this church, this structure being
built around the hill as well as around the tomb. When the
tourist gets upon the hill it appears to be built out of rock
or granite. On the walls round about are hung all kinds of
tapestries, lamps, and other religious paraphernalia. It is
interesting to look at, but the tourist that knows his Bible
wonders what all this has to do with the true worship
of God.
Now the tourist gets to the "exact spot" where they claim
Jesus was staked. The religionists have a bronze plate in
the floor, and a hole, where the guide tells the tourist he
can put in his hand and feel the very spot where the "cross"
stood. The tourist that understands the Holy Scriptures is
not so awestruck and anxious to put his hand down there,
because he does not believe the religious tradition. However,
to the religiously inclined people who swallow tradition
without investigation it means a lot.
Immediately behind this hole is an image of what is
represented to be Christ Jesus nailed on a cross, in all
his agony, and a thief on each side on a cross, too. That,
Mr. Tourist, is "the exact place of Calvary". All around
ar.e many kinds of jewels and millions of dollars' worth of
gems, coins, embroideries of gold thread, and all kinds of
things that have been designed and stuck around this entire
place of "Calvary". But the tourist that has a sincere respect
for what was transacted at the real Calvary revolts at the
sight of all this gawdy decorating of traditional ''holy
places". Yet it remains the idea of credulous religionists
today that Calvary is situated right here within this church
building and the Savior's tomb is about twenty-five to fifty
yards to the west of "Calvary" within the same building,
near the heart of Jerusalem.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

From early centuries there have been doubts about

whether the tomb that Bishop Macarius found in Emperor
Constantine's day was the true sepulcher. As far back as
A.D. 754, when the pilgrim Wildebald paid Jerusalem a
visit, he remarked, in the course of his description of the
religious sites, that "Calvary was formerly outside the city,
but that the empress arranged that place so that it should
be within the city Jerusalem". Many travelers during the
course of the centuries have expressed doubt about this
traditional Calvary, claiming it could not be the true one
because it was in the middle of the town. Plainly the effort
at making this a "holy place" has been a forced one. Says
the Encyclopredia Britannica under "The Holy Sepulcher" :
"After He had risen from the dead, the place of His burial
does not appear to have had any attraction for His followers,
and there is nothing in the writings of the first three
centuries to lead us to suppose that the actual rock-cut
tomb was regarded with any special feelings of veneration.
Whether even a recollection of the site was preserved traditionally is doubtful.... no writer up to the time of Constantine speaks of the tomb, or of worship being performed
there." (Edition of 1911) Certainly the writings of the
apostles and fellow disciples mention no pilgrimages' being
made from year to year to Calvary and the sepulcher to
hold religious ceremonies.
Now there is another teaching or belief among many of
the people in Palestine who have studied these things. These
adhere to the Scripture description that Calvary was outside of the city and that there was where Christ Jesus was
also buried. This is at a site called "'Gordon's Calvary", and
immediately to the west of it is a garden with a tomb. This
site is shown on the map of Jerusalem today in The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, of 1945, on page 101,
D. In 1842 Dr. Otto Thenius asserted that the killing of
Christ must have taken place on the north of Jerusalem on
the rising ground outside the Damascus gate above the
quarry known as Jeremiah's Quarry. Back in 1867 a man
found this garden tomb, discovering it quite by accident,
and he was led to believe it was the place where Jesus wa&
interred. (See the Palestine Exploration Fund's Quarterly
Statement, April, 1892, pages 120-124.) The British General
Chas. G. Gordon, of Khartoum fame, made it his custom
when he was in Jerusalem to come here for prayer and
meditation, and for this reason the name was given to the
spot, Gordon's Calvary and Tomb. In arriving at the conclusion that this was the Calvary, and this the tomb, marking Jesus' death and burial, certain scriptures were consid
ered by those who reject the traditional sites and adopt
those here under consideration. The garden site has since
been purchased by a Garden Tomb Association, and among
the main purposes of the purchase as defined in the Trust
Deed was "that the Garden and Tomb be kept sacred as a
quiet spot, and preserved on the one hand from desecration,
and on the other hand from superstitious uses". So, today,
there are no religious paraphernalia hanging around the
place as in the "church of the holy sepulcher". It is strictly
a garden with a tomb in it, Gordon's Calvary being a little
to the east.
With reference to what was the true site John 19: 17-22
(Rev. Stan. Ver.) reads: "So they took Jesus, and he
went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place

AUGUST

1, 1948-

~eWATCHTOWER

of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they

crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side,
and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put
it on the cross; it read, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews.' Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where
Jesus was crucified was NEAR THE CITY; and it was written
in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the
Jews then said to Pilate, 'Do not write, "The King of the
Jews," but, "This man said, I am King of the Jews.'"
Pilate answered: "That I have written I have written.'''
"NEAR THE CITY"

Note the statement that Jesus was crucified "near the

city". But immediately adjoining the place was a garden,
as it is stated in .Tohn 19: 38-42, where we read: "After
this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might
take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him leave.
So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who
had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture
of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. They
took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with
the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the
place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in
the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.
So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb
was close at hand, they laid Jesus there." -Rev. Stan. Ver.
From the foregoing we note that Jesus was impaled at
the "place called the place of a skull". But in the traditional
site within the "church of the holy sepulcher" inside of
Jerusalem there is nothing that corresponds with a place
called by that name. But when the tourist goes out of the
Damascus Gate on the north and walks a little toward the
east, he sees a very steep cliff that cuts off very sharply. Ai;
he looks at this cliff from different angles, he sees the
resemblan('e of a skull: he marks the forehead, rather flat,
and two hollow eye sockets, a jagged nose, and a mouth.
Indeed, it looks like a skull. That rock or precipice must
have been there 1,900 years with the same big jagged
appearances or caves in the rock that suggest the features
of a rotting skull. When the tourist is down on the road
below and sees this big cliff he can see this effect: it does
not take much to imagine a very large skull. It is believed
by the archaeologists that the Jews 1,900 years ago referred
to that hillside as "the place of a skull". On top of it is
what is known as "Gordon's Calvary". In Aramaic it would
be called Golgotha.
The apostle John says Jesus was staked "near the city".
But, as we have observed, the "church of the holy sepulcher"
has "Calvary" and the "tomb" inside of the city. The apostle
Paul also says: "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered WITHOUT THE
GATE." (Heb. 13: 12) And if they took Jesus out through
the Damascus Gate on the north and then northeast to
Gordon's Calvary, it would be both "outside the gate" and
"near the city".
Another point to notice is that near where he was staked
there was a garden. Now, within the city and inside the
"church of the holy sepulcher" there is hardly space for a
garden between the traditional Calvary and the tomb. But
about a hundred yards to the west of Gordon's Calvary
there is found a very large garden. With the passage of

237

time they have altered it, but within it there was once a
winepress, one that had been dug out and where the grapes
could be trodden under foot of creatures so that the juice
would overflow into vats below and then be taken away in
animal skins. There are also wells in this garden, of very
fine, clear water, and these they claim are some hundreds
of years of age, possibly thousands. In making exploratory
excavations they have found walls that bounded the garden.
The apostle John tells us there was "in the garden a new
tomb where no one had ever been laid". Quite in keeping
with all the other local features that match the Scriptures,
there was found in this garden a tomb hewn out of the rock.
It is a very large garden, bounded at its north end by a
cliff. This cliff that rises from the garden is solid rock, and
in it the tomb is located. The entrance into the tomb was
likely quite small in the early days, but evidently it was
enlarged during the past centuries. Inside, it appears to
have been a new tomb that had never been used, but just
such a kind as would have been convenient for Joseph of
Arimathea and his family.
The tourist goes through the entrance into a room, takes
a few steps down to the central floor, and there to the left
is one finished grave space, cut out of the live rock, with a
head rest hewn at the west end of this space. Evidently the
dead person put into this grave would have had his head
at the west, and thus would have faced east in his burial
position. This is the only finished grave inside this sepulcher.
In the opposite wall, which is toward the outside, there are
windows giving light to the other grave spaces, but, very
likely, when the tomb was iirst built this wall was solid,
and the only way for light to get in was through the
entrance. Ai; the tourist stands outside at one position, he
can see the finished grave, but not much of it. If someone
were in it, the inspector could see from outside that the
body was there and had not been removed. From any other
position outside, one would see nothing of this finished
grave through the entrance. This is the grave inside the
sepulcher where it is thought that Jesus was laid.
At the one entrance to the sepulcher is where they would
have put the stone and sealed the doorway shut. There is
now a grooved runway extending lengthwise of this sepulcher and past this doorway. A round stone could be run
easily in this trough and rolled to the doorway. The archaeologist who takes the tourist through the place and describes
it will tell him that many tombs have been discovered with
what is called a "rolling stone", that is, a high, circular,
flat stone which can be rolled into place in front of the
grave. In this way the tomb can be closed, after one interment, and then the stone rolled away for another interment
and replaced. But such stones can easily be rolled away and
back into place, which indicates that such was not the kind
of a stone that was rolled in front of Jesus' tomb. When
Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the sepulcher early on the resurrection day, "they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of
the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the
stone was rolled away: for it was very great." (Mark
16: 1-4) The angel by his mighty power had rolled away
the stone before they arrived. (Matt. 28: 1, 2) The groove
in front of the tomb is therefore accounted for by the coming of the Crusaders in the eleventh century and their

238

31i.eWATCHTOWER..

cutting this channel as a feeding trough for their ani.mals.

So the experts view it. In fact, the front face of the rock
is so shaped as to indicate that once there was an arched
building built before this tomb. Fragments of hard Roman
mortal' still adhere to the rock. The two water cisterns there
still in good repair and the remains of extensive masonry
foundations and ruined buildings give proof that this
garden enclosure was also built over in Byzantine and
Crusading times. This served to conceal the tomb from
ancient times, and its discovery only quite recently is
therefore not surprising.
John tells us that, "as the tomb was close at hand, they
laid Jesus there." This fits in well with the fact that this
particular tomb is but a hundred yards away from what is
called "Gordon's Calvary". This tomb would be "close at
hand", and it would not have been very difficult to carry
Jesus' corpse this distance.
That the sepulcher as well as execution place should be
outside the city is indicated by another circumstance. At
Matthew 27: 31,32, we read: "And when they had mocked
him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes
on him, and led him away to crucify him. As they were
marching out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by
name; this man they compelled to carry his cross." (Rev.
Stan. Ver.) Mark 15: 21 also reports: "And they compelled
a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the
country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his
cross." (Rev. Stan. Ver.) Plainly this means that as they
were leading Jesus out of the city they met this Simon of
Cyrene, who was on the outside and coming toward the
city from the countrY.,This would hardly have occurred in
a crowded street inside the city. It is not certain that Jesus
was led outside the city through the Damascus Gate on the
north, but the Scriptures show he was led from the

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

governor's palace. The governor occupied the Citadel which

was once Herod the Great's palace, and this has been
excavated and found to conform to the description given by
the JeWish historian Josephus. Leaving this palace Christ
Jesus would pass outside the city and along the line of the
wall to the place of the skull, Golgotha, Calvary. The findings of archaeologists quite recently establish that this wall
stood to the west and north of the "church of the holy
sepulcher" and included a Damascus Gate. This would
indicate that the traditional sites now included inside the
"church of the holy sepulcher" were deep within the city
in Jesus' day, and hence could not he the true locations of
the historical Calvary and tomb of Christ's burial and
resurrection.
We therefore have no faith in the traditional religious
sites which are today venerated as "holy places". However,
we are not dogmatically declaring that the so-called
"Gordon's Calvary" and the "Garden Tomb" are the actual
sites, although we are inclined to give them favorable consideration. The sacred Scriptures do not advocate the estab
lishing of any of these locations of historical events as
"holy places" and "holy relics", nor the making of regular
pilgrimages to them and paying almost idolatrous worship
to them, and opening up the way for a lot of superstitious
usage and religious commercialism and exploitation. We
give the above information to show how Satan the Devil,
appearing as an angel of light", can mislead the gullible
religious folk by the use of religious tradition into many
unscriptural practices, and thus waste their money, substance, time and attention on that which is nought, in fact,
bringing reproach upon God's holy name and creating a
great deal of contempt for religion. Instead of religious
tradition, let us magnify the Scriptural facts and truths.
Then we shall not be misled, but shall have God's approval
and blessing.

AHAZ FEARS MAN

WENTy.one-year-Old Ahaz is filled with fear in the
second year of his reign over the kingdom of Judah
(758 B.C.) when he learns that King Rezin of Syria
is marching against Elath, Judah's port on the Red sea.
He sends some Judean troops south to Elath, prays to the
molten images he has made of Baal, offers sacrifice and
burns incense on the high places, and fearfully awaits the
results. The report of the outcome confirms his fears: Syria
defeated Israel and took captive to its capital Damascus
a "great multitude of Judeans, including all the survivors
in Elath. Now Elath is to be colonized by Syrians.-2 Ki.
16: 4, 6; 2 ehron. 28: 2, 4, 5.
Ahaz wonders what Syria's next move will be. Fearing
King Rezin, Ahaz says: "Forasmuch as the gods of the
king of Syria themselves strengthen them, therefore will
I sacrifice to them, and they will help me." Then he sacri
fices openly to Rimmon and the rest of the demon gods
of Damascus, Syria.-2 Chron. 28: 22, 23, Bagster LXX.
No sooner has he done that than he hears that King Pekah
0. Israel is attacking him from the north. Ahaz sends out
the Judean army, and then fearfully goes down into the
valley of the son of Hinnom south of Jerusalem and there
offers incense to demon gods. Back at the palace he receives

later the report of a single day's fighting: Pekah has slain

in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand men, all of them
brave soldiers; Zichri, a general of Ephraim, has killed Ju,
dah's prince Maaseiah, Azrikam the commander of the
palace, and the prime minister Elkanah; and the Israelites
have carried away captive two hundred thousand Judean
women and children, besides carrying off rich plunder,
which they have taken to Samaria. (2 Chron. 28: 5-8)
When he has heard the report he hurriedly takes one of
his little sons and rushes down to the valley of the son of
Hinnom and there has one of the heathen priests burn
him in the flames as a sacrifice to the demon gods. (2 Ki.
16 : 3; 2 Chron. 28: 3) He goes back to his palace, and as
he and his people are trying to bolster up each other's
courage a messenger arrives with thc report that King
Rezin of Damascus has joined up with King Pekah of
Samaria and that the Syrian armies are already encamped
in Ephraim; that since Gibeah, just four miles north of
Jerusalem, is already in the enemy's hands it wiII not be
long before Jerusalem will be attacked. Such news make~
the heart of Ahaz quiver like the trees before the wind in
the forest. Ahaz gives orders for the defense of the capital
and, accompanied by some of his armed courtiers, he goes

AUGUST

1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

out to inspect the city walls and Uzziah's defensive artillery thereon. (2 ehron. 26: 15) On Fuller's Field highway
he sees Jehovah's prophet Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub
walking toward him, but he notices them too late to avoid
them. All three meet at the end of the aqueduct coming down
from the upper pool, which is just below the eastern walls of
Jerusalem. Isaiah then gives him a message from Jehovah:
"Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart
be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands,
for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of [Pekah]
the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son
of Remaliah, have purposed evil against thee, saying, Let
us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a
breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of
it, even the son of Tabeel; thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It
shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head
of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin;
and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be
broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people: and the
head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is
Remaliah's son." Ahaz thinks to himself, Who can believe
such dreams1 It seemed to him that the expression on his
courtiers' faces showed like unbelief. Isaiah continues: "If
ye will not believe, surely :re shall not be established." (Isa.
7: 2-9, Am. Stan. Ver.) Ahaz, feeling greatly annoyed, continues his inspection of the defenses.
Soon after Ahaz returns to his palace a messenger arrives
from the northeast corner of the kingdom. He reports that
the two hundred thousand captive women and children have
been set free by Israelite chiefs as a result of a protest
made by Jehovah's prophet Oded. (2 Chron. 28: 8-15, Am.
Stan. Ver.) Ahaz thinks to himself, If those simple-minded
Israelite chiefs want to be impractical and visionary, they
can; but I am going to be practical.
Just then a watchman reports that the armies of Pekah
and Rezin are encircling Jerusalem. Later Isaiah presents
himself before Ahaz and the royal family. Ahaz thinks to
himself, What will this dreamer pester me with this time1
Isaiah says, "Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it
either in the depth, or in the height above." Ahaz answers
indifferently, "I will not ask." Then he adds with a selfrighteous air, ''Neither will I tempt Jehovah." Ahaz is
pleased to notice members of the royal family second him
with bored sighs and looks. Isaiah retorts: "Is it a small
thing for j'OU to weary men, that ye will weary my God
als01 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:
behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call
his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, when
he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For
before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose
the good, the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be
forsaken. Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy
people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not
come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judaheven the king of Assyria. (Isa. 7: 10-17, Am. Stan. Ver.)
Ahaz and his companions just yawn. He is relieved when
Isaiah leaves. The king is seriously considering calling on
Tiglath-pileser, the Assyrian emperor, for help. He mentions it later to some officials.It was not very long thereafter that two officials in Judah,
Uriah the priest and Zechariah Jeberechiah's son, reported

239

to the king that Isaiah had posted a big board with the
words, "For the spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth," and had
served notice on them by having them attest it. They
explained to the king that-the pithy message was intended
to discourage calling on Assyria for help. (Isa. 8: I, 2, Am.
Stan. Ver., margin) Ahaz was displeased but was very
much afraid of the enemy's attack on Jerusalem. Day after
day he expected the attack. The suspense was telling on his
nerves. Finally the enemy lifted the siege and withdrew
without ever succeeding in delivering their attack. (Isa.
7: 1; 2 Ki. 16: 5, An Amer. Trans. and Moffatt) Ahaz
trembled as he wondered what the enemy's next move would
be.
He was shocked when he received the report that the
Edomites had attacked Judah from the southeast, defeated
it, and carried away captives; then another report that the
Philistines had raided all the western part of Judah, capturing Beth-shemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth, Shocho, Timnah,
and Gimzo, with their townships, and settling in that northwestern portion of Judah. (2 Chron. 28: 17, 18, Moffatt)
That settled it for Ahaz. He decided the only practical
thing to do was to appeal to Assyria for aid. He had heard
that Tiglath-pileser had just successfully attacked Ararat
to the north of the empire. "So Ahaz sent messengers to
Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant
and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of
the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel,
who rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold
that was found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures
of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king
of Assyria."-2 Ki. 16: 7,8, Am. Stan. Ver.j 2 Chron. 28: 16.
Toward the end of Ahaz' second year he learned that
Isaiah's wife had borne the prophet a son whom he had
named The-spoil-speedeth-the-prey-hasteth, with the exp~anation that before the child would be old enough to say
hIS first words, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria would be taken away before the king of Assyria.
(Isa. 8: 3, 4) To counteract Isaiah's preaching Ahaz instructed that the people be counseled to consult mediums
and wizards. (Isa. 8: 19) Later Ahaz was annoyed when he
heard that Isaiah was still publicly preaching against his
appeal to Tiglath-pileser and was also counseling against
consulting mediums and wizards, but rather directing them
"to the law and to the testimony".-Isa. 8: 5-22.
In Ahaz' third year Tiglath-pileser overran the sL"teen
provinces of Syria and then laid siege to Rezin in his
capital, Damascus, and destroyed the gardens and orchards
surrounding the city.
In Ahaz' fourth year, while Damascus continued under
siege, Tiglath-pileser invaded Israel and Philistia making
Assyrian provinces of all Israel except a small p~rtion in
the center and south, and taking away the inhabitants. Then
Hoshea in Israel conspired against Pekah and killed him.
Toward the end of Ahaz' fourth year (early in 755 B.C.)
Damascus fell, Tiglath-pileser killed its king Rezin and
transported its population to Kir. (2 Ki. 16: 9) Ahaz
hurried to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser and pay the
tribute he demanded. While there he met the kings of
Ammon, Moab and Edom, who had also come to pay tribute.
There Ahaz learned about Assyrian worship and saw an
altar, whose pattern he sent to priest Urijah with instruc-

240

gneWATCHTOWER

tions to make one like it.-2 Ki. 16: 10; 2 Chron. 28: 21.
When Ahaz returned from Damascus he "drew near unto
the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burntoffering and his meal-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the
altar. And the brazen altar, which was before Jehovah, he
brought from the forefront of the house, from between his
altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it on the north
side of his altar." King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest
to use the new altar for all the offerings.-2 Ki. 16: 12-16,
Am. Stan. Ver.
"King Ahaz also cut off the border-frames of the stands
and removed the lavers from them; he also took down the
sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it
upon a stone pediment." (2 Ki. 16: 17, An Amer. Trans.)
He made further modifications in the temple to conform

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

it to Assyrian worship, "cut in pieces the vessels of the

house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of Jehovah; and lie made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
And in every city of Judah he made high places to burn
incense unto other gods." (2 Ki. 16: 18; 2 Chron. 28: 24, 25;
29: 19, Am. Stan. Ver.) Even on the roof of his upper
chamber he set up altars.-2 Ki. 23 : 12.
Concerning Ahaz' course the sacred Record says: "He
did not that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah his
God." "He had dealt wantonly in Judah, and trespassed sore
against Jehovah." Instead of putting his trust in Jehovah
he let his fear of man lead him into the snare of false
worship and compromise with God's enemies. "The fear of
man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in
Jehovah shall be safe."-2 Ki. 16: 2; 2 Chron. 28: I, 2, 19:
Provo 29: 25, Am. Stan. Ver.

FIELD EXPERIENCE
THE LORD'S "OTHER SHEEP" KNOW HIS VOICE

Sheeplike persons of good-will toward God readily recognize and rejoice to hear his voice in the message his
ordained ministers take to them. One of God's ordained
ministers in western Canada met a little group of such
"sheep" in Canada. Concerning them she says:
"While offering the Watchtower subscription in my newly
assigned territory, 1 met a young mother of three small
children. 1 explained why 1 was calling and then opened
my brief case to get a sample copy of The Watchtower.
She immediately saw my No. 10 Bible and said, 'Oh, the
Bible! 1 have always wanted one, but the Catholic prjest
has never let me have one. Do you handle them too? I'd
sure like to get one of my own. :My husband and 1 quit
going to church because we weren't allowed to have a Bible.'
1 explained to her that I could bring her a Bible the next
time 1 came around. 'You know,' she said, 'I have a green
book, "Let God Be True", that one of Jehovah's witnesses
left here. 1 have read most of it, but I think I'd get more
out of it if someone studied it with me. You have studies
with other people, don't you?' 1 explained that we did.
'Well, could you come and study with me too?' '\Vhy, of
course!' So 1 immediately asked her to suggest a day or
evening. 'Oh, any day is good enough for me. What day
would suit you?' Wednesday evening, 7 o'clock was decided
upon. 'Now, what did you say that magazine cost for a
yearY' 1 told her that the subscription for one year was one
dollar. 'In one year you would get twenty-four magazines,
or two a month, and, besides, eight free booklets.' 'Sure, I'll
take that subscription. 'l'hat sure is a reasonable price.' So
1 sent in a subscription for her. 'I'll be looking forward to
having that study on Wednesday night,' she said.
"On Wednesday night at 7 o'clock she was ready and
waiting. Her husband was not at home. Before the study
she asked if I had brought that Bible. 1 told her I hadj so
she wanted to know how much it cost. 1 replied that it was
on a contribution of one dollar. 'One dollar! Is that aUT
Why, in the book stores they are a lot mare than that. I
can see you people are not making any profit at that rate.'
I explained that it was not our duty to 'sell' literature but
that we asked a small contribution to cover the cost of printing, and that we left the literature with the'people for their

own benefit and not to make money on it. This she could
see quite readily. During the. study she listened carefully.
The children made a lot of noise; so she put them into the
next room. She was anxious to read the scriptures but knew
very little about where to find them. She read them aloud.
After an hour of study she said she really enjoyed it and
wanted to study the whole book through and asked me to
come and study with her again next week.
"Next Wednesday she was ready and waiting again. Her
husband was not at home, but we had the study anyway.
After the study she said that her husband would be home
for it next week and that now she knew why Jehovah's
witnesses were persecuted so much. '1 don't know what
would become of the good-will people on earth if there were
not any Jehovah's witnesses to explain the Bible to them,'
she said.
"After talking to her for some time about the work that
Jehovah's witnesses did and showing how they follow Christ
Jesus' example, she showed a keen desire to learn more
about them and their work; so 1 told her I'd bring a Year
book, dealing with what Jehovah's witnesses have done III
other countries.
"Next \Vednesday her sister and husband were present.
She invited her sister to stay for the study, and she did and
listened to the explanations of the scriptures and seemed
quite interested. Her husband answered many of the questions and read many scriptures, although he, too, needed
help in finding the scriptures, as he was not acquainted with
the Bible. After the study he said, '1 never studied for such
a short time and learned so much. 1 went to the Catholic
church for two years, but 1 didn't learn anything. I don't
think they know what they are talking about.'
''Next week 1 studied with them again. All the children
sat around quietly and listened for the whole hour without
saying a word. After the study they stood about for five
minutes while I answered some questions. When 1 was asked
if 1 would come back next week, all the youngsters exclaimed, 'Oh, goodie, she is going to come and study with
us again next week!' These children have not started to
school yet, but they seem to understand a lot more than
some people 1 have called on that said they knew everything
about the Bible."

~eWATCHTOWER.
PuBt.ISB1!:Il SEMnrONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE e TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adam5 Street
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S.A.
N. H. KNORR, President

o J'll'IOEBS

GRANT SUlTEB,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." - lJaiah 54:Z.J.

~rea.t

THE BmLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and Is the Maker of hl'aven and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the begInning
of his creation and his active agent In creating all other thln:rs;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong nct all men
are born sinners and without the right to lIfe;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suf
fered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocrnc~' called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege It
is to testIfy to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
Vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessmgs of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act Is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingl10m
the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities
of Ufe on earth.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes lUI expressed
in the Bible. It publl8bes Bible instruction speclficail)'
designed to aid. Jehlriah's witnesses and all people of good-Will
It arranges systematic Bible study tor its renders and the Soc!f!t)'
supPlies other literature to aid In such studies. It pubilshes
Buitable material for radio broadcasting and tor other means
ot public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterance&.
It Is entirely free and separate from all religion. parties, sects or
other worldly organj'Zatlons. It Is wholly and without reservation
for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but Invites cateful and critical examlnntloll
of its contents In the light or the Scriptures. It does not indulge
in controversy, and its C!Olumns ate not open to personalities.

Nottee ta Bultoriben: R'elft,n_ Ihould be .-ent to office In )'our

cauntr)' In eompllanee with regu1&tions to guarantee sate delivery of
mone,. Remittance. are accepted at Brookl1U trlKD countries where nel
office Is loeate<!. b)' iuternatloDlll money order ouly. SubJcription ra.tea I.
different countries are stated below In loeal <:U1'rency. Nolice 01 U!"ret",.
(with renewal blank) Is sent at least two Lsaues before aubeeriptlo.
expiree. Change 01 atUfre.. when sent to our office may be expected
effective within one month. Send your old- u well lUI new address.
P l _ address the Watch 'n>wer Soelety In eTery cue.

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TranslatiOns of th1s journal appear In many languag8lL
ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who b)" reallon of Inllrmlty, poverty or adversity a.re unable to pay the subsCription price maT
have The Watchtower free upon written applIcatlon to tlIe publisher",
made once eacb year, stating tbe reason for bO requesting It. We are
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is requ1red. by the postal rel:Ulatlollll.
Printed In the Uu1ted States of America

Entered aecond-clall matter at the po.t ofJlce at Brooklllft. 'N. Y.,

under the Act 0/ March 3. 11l79.

"GOD'S MINISTERS" TESTIMONY PERIOD

UNITED STATES DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES FOR SEPTEMBER

Because the Testimony Period during the month of August is

entitled "God's :Ministers", that does not exclude any of our
Watchtower readers, To be one of his ministers does not mean to
be an ordained graduate from some sectarian religions theological
seminary; it simply menns to be one of his servants, spreading
the gospel of his King and kingdom. You can be one of such by
taking part with all of Jehovah's witnesses during Augnst in
spreading his message by word of mouth and by printed page. The
special offer for the month will be the combination of the book
"The Kingdom Is at Hand" and the new booklet Permanent
Governor of All Nations, on a contribution of 35c. .Anyone willing
to minister God's message to the people cnn easily and quickly
learn to present this offer from door to door with success and have
the rare joy of singing God's praises to all nations. Experienced
ministers stand ready to help any desiring to start out in this
ministry-during August, and your rcquest to us by card will move
us to put you in touch with the needed personal help and instructions. All participating in this midsummer Testimony Period
should submit their report when .August closes.

Splendid success has marked the district assemblies held thus

far in North America. The three final ones of the series are jnst
ahead, and announcement is here made of their time and place
and convention committee address. All persons of good-will are
invited to attend the district assembly serving their area. Please
write at once to the Watchtower Convention Committee at the
assembly you choose to attend and obtain rooming acco=odations.
DES MOINES, IOWA: September 3-5, Des Moines Coliseum
Convention Committee, 702 W. Third St., Des Moines, Iowa.
CHIOAGO, ILLINOIS: September 10-12, International Amphitheatre,
Forty-third & South Halsted Sts.
Convention Committee, 2357 S. Lawndale Ave., Chicago 23, Ill.
PBOVIDENOE, RHODE ISLAND: September 17:19, Rhode Island
Auditorium
Convention Committee, 22 Plainfield St., Providence 7, R. I.

"WATCBTOWER" STUDIES

Week of September 19: "The Way of Pleasantness

and Prosperity,"
~ 1-8 inclusive, also ''Expanding Your Ministry",
~ 1-13 inclusive, The Watchtower August 15, 1948.
Week of September 26: "Expanding Your Ministry,"
~ 14-33 inclusive, The Watchtower .Augnst 15, 1948.

USE RENEWAL SUBSCRIPTION BLANK

The renewal blank sent you prior to the expiration of your

Watcht01D~" subscription should be fi)led out and returned to the
Brooklyn office 01' to the Branch office in the country where you
reside. Sensnts in the companies, and individuals, when sending
in renewals tor Th4 Watchto-wel', should always use these blanks.
Ry filliDg in t1uIse :renewal blanks you are assured of the continuation of your Watclltower from the time of expiration, and withont.oelay. It will also be a great help if you sign your name uniformly, and note any recent change of address, on the renewal slip.

grfieWAlCIHIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

AUGUST

15, 1948

No. 16

THE WAY OF PLEASANTNESS AND PROSPERITY

UThen thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou sltalt have good success."-Josh. 1: 8.

EHOVAH makes real prosperity sure. To him

Psalm 119: 165 is addressed: '''Great prosperity
have they who love thy law, and no obstacles confront them." (AnAmer. Trans.) To love God's law,
the keeping of which leads to prosperity, we have
to know it. The knowledge of his Word containing
his law is important to our lasting prosperity and
contentment. If we study his Word and its law,
from Genesis through to Revelation, and follow his
principles of truth and righteousness, then we are
bound to have the contentment that comes from
prosperity, and all the obstacles that confront us
will pass out of the picture in one way or another.
The Lord God will help us, and by studying his
Word and watching his leadings we shall find the
way out. Not that we shall not have problems now
and then. We shall. The hardest tasks may arise in
our lives, such as problems because of our brethren
in the faith being thrown into prison unjustly, or
mob action stirred up against us, but if, in the light
of God's Word, we have the proper view of what we
are doing we can overcome the obstacles.
2 We must therefore k~~p a1;>r_east of the revelation
of God's truth. We cannot slow down along the way,
saying: "I have read the Bible two or three times,
and I have pretty well in mind everything I should
have." No; we are leaky vessels, and we need continual replenishment. Also at his due times God continues to reveal his truth for our benefit. He reveals,
because he is the interpreter. We are not the interpreters of his Word, but must keep up with his
revelations. He says: "My son, forget not my teaching, but keep my commands in mind; for a long
and happy life, with abundant prosperity, will they
bring to you." (Prov. 3: 1, An Amer. Trans.) We
should never neglect the study of the Scriptures, but
keep our minds on the laws of God. By doing so, we
are gainers, because this course brings us a long and
happy life with abundant prosperity.
3 The apostle Paul admonished Timothy to study
God's Word continually. He said: "Attend to your
Scripture-reading, your preaching, and your teaching, till I come." (1 Tim. 4: 13, M 0 fJ att) Paul was

interested in having Timothy study the Bible and

teach God's Word, because he wanted to see the
young man's progress. He told him: "Let no one
slight you because you are a youth, but set the believers an example of speech, behaviour, love, faith, and
purity.. Attend to these duties, let them absorb
you, so that all men may note your progress." (1 Tim:
4: 12, 15, lrfoffatt) The thought is, to set a good
example in the congregation of God's people; and,
when others see your progress in the right way, they
will imitate you. They will see the advantage of
studying and teaching the Bible. They will note your
godliness marked with great gain and contentment.
By your course of life they will see you are wholly
satisfied and contented. That is what Paul wanted
to see in the case of Timothy; namely, his progress
in the Lord's work, the expansion of his ministry,
and not his just standing still. The Lord God assures
us that by not forgetting his teachings our lives will
be pleasant. Indeed, the life of the faithful Christian
is the most pleasant one, because it satisfies; it is
complete.
~ An understanding is one of the gains we make
by applying the knowledge we receive from God's
Word. We study his Word, we get information and
knowledge from it, and we put this to work. Then,
because of the Lord's blessing, we see the results,
and thus we get an appreciation and understanding
of how God's laws and instructions operate. The
ungodly do not gain such understanding, because
they do not study and apply God's Word. The
inspired wise man, writing the ProverbS', says:
"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man
that getteth understanding. Length of days is in her
right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
are peace." (Prov. 3: 13, 16, 17) We cannot have a
long and happy life if we are quarreling and fighting
with our fellow Christians, our brethren. When we
faithfully walk in the footsteps of Christ and put
his teachings in practice, then we shall be at peace
with our brethren. Our paths will be peaceful. We
shall go in the way that means a pleasant life for

1. What guarantees real prosperity for us?

4. How do we gain understanding and a pleasant way of llfe?

2, 3. To what good ends should we study God's Word contlnually?

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~eWATCHTOWER..

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

ea;ch one of us. The person that is not quarreling

wIth another has contentment and peace of mind. He
is an enjoyable brother with whom to be associated,
and it makes easier our united expansion of God's
work. All those associated together in a company
of Christians, all those full-time Kingdom publishers
that are sent out in groups into special territories
or into foreign lands and who must work together,
should get along in peace with their fellow workers.
That is the course of contentment. It brings satisfaction.
5 Paul described to Timothy those craving for controversy. Such would rather fight than be pleasant.
There are some who like to wrangle over words.
They believe in argumentation rather than in practice. They do not realize that God's service comes
before their fights. There are others who like to
slander and find fault and start gossip. None of these
are contented j they could not be when following
such a course of conduct. Oh, they may point to their
record of service in the field as their godliness. But
even at that, there is no real, inward gain to such
individuals, no real profit to them, because they are
not contented.
6 With all the sound advice available to us in the
Lord's Word, we should try to get His mind on
matters. If we do that we can become contented.
The Lord does not want us to gossip about our
brethren and judge them, but to leave that to his
Son, to whom he has committed all judgment. Why
should we start judging our brethren T Why start
suspicions about them, and create divisions in our
ranks? Why not mind our own business and concentrate on preaching the gospel? Why not try to be
thoroughly contented, with peace of mind and joy,
and with pleasant association with our brethren T
Sometimes individuals will imagine to themselves
such an important position in life that they feel they
can become the judges and find fault with others.
Then they cause disturbance in the Christian company, until no one is contented. They really do not
gain anything by it, because godliness brings gain to
us if it is accompanied by contentment. But there is
great gain in coming to a knowledge of the truth
and becoming God's servant and pursuing godliness.
Yes, there is great gain in that, if we are contented.
But we cannot afford to be faultfinders. If we
become such, there will be no contentment. Godliness must stay linked up with contentment if we are
going to find some satisfaction in being a witness of
Jehovah and in being associated with his Theocratic

organization. Our service to God must be connected

with peace among ourselves. Otherwise, there will
be no happiness so far as we are concerned.
r As we serve the Lord we should be content with
food and clothing. Those who desire to be rich fall
into temptation. The apostle is right when he says:
"The love of money is the root of all evil." (1 Tim.
6: 10) It is true, as he says, that through this craving many professed Christians have wandered away
and pierced their hearts through with many pangs.
But if a Christian has the necessary food and clothing and has the knowledge of God and his purpose,
what more should he want TCertainly with food and
clothing we should be content. That is all we are
promised as God's servants. We brought nothing
into the world when we were born. Why, then, make
a fuss about what someone else has T If we can help
other people out with food and clothing, that is an
aid to them in God's service. But we should not feel
that anybody is obligated to us to feed and clothe us
in our need. If they want to help us, that is a good
thing if it is with benefit to the Lord's service. The
point is, As long as we have food and clothing we
should be content, because, besides such things, we
have something far more precious than food and
clothing. That is the message of God's kingdom. The
great thing for us in the Lord's organization is to
have a knowledge of his Word and to minister it to
others and be content.
s The individual that comes to a knowledge of the
truth should engage in p1"eaching it, because that will
be gain to him in the things of the Lord. He should
take advantage of the ministry which is possible for
him through possessing the knowledge of God's
kingdom message. Do you want to become a ministerT You can. By doing so you will expand your
privileges. Jehovah God is keenly interested in having you be his minister and expand your privileges
in the ministry. He loves his servants, and we can
always depend upon him to help us in every time of
need. When we become ministers of the Almighty
God we do need all the assistance and instruction we
can get from him through his organization to share
in the great work of preaching the gospel to all the
world for a witness before the end comes at the
battle of Armageddon. As a servant of the visible
organization of God's people, the Watch Tower
Bible & Tract Society is interested in helping you in
your ministry, yes, in increasing your privileges in
the ministry. The active ministry will prove to you
to be the way of pleasantness and prosperity.

5, 6. Why do some tail to get real gain with their godUness?

7. Why should we be content?

8. Why should we engage In the ministry, and who wUl hell> us?

The salvation of the righteous is of Jehovah: he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. And Jehovah helpeth them, and
rescueth them: he rescueth them from the wicked, and saveth
them, because they have taken refuge in him.
-Psalm 37: 39, 40, A.S.V.

EXPANDING YOUR MINISTRY

N TRYING to encourage all 'faithful volunteers
today in the great work of expanding the worship
of God in all the earth, how does the Watch Tower
Bible & Tract Society deal with us, Note the various
ways. Are you a subscriber for Th-~__W at~J},tower or
do you get copies of this magazine regularly irom a
Kingdom publisher on a street corner or one visiting
your home on his route with each issue' If so, then
the Society helps you by coming directly with the
Watchtower magazine twice a month to you. This
magazine is published in sixteen languages. Thus,
whether the Watchtower reader speaks Englisn or
another language, the Society is interested in him.
No matter of what tongue its readers be, the WATCH
TOWER organization tries to reach each hungry
individual with spiritual "meat in due season".
2 Each month the Society also publishes in many
languages a field-service paper entitled "Informant".
If you take up the active ministry of God's Word,
then the Society is interested in having. you get a
copy of each release of this Informant. It publishes
the magazine Awake! twice each month, with its
many features of world-wide interest. This live
magazine helps to keep you abreast of the times and
supplies material for use in your field service, and
in building up talks for delivery at service meetings
and at public occasions. So the Society is interested
in every individual and his progress i.p. the Lord's
service by coming into your home weekly or monthly
with a magazine or an Informant. Yes, it is interested in you personally in that, if you write the
Society for information and help, it will come into
your home with a letter of reply.
S Furthermore, the Society wants to assist you
in increasingly serving Almighty God as his minister, preaching the gospel. Under Society supervision
companies of His consecrated people have been
organized in thousands of locations all over the
earth. The Society shows concern for all the individual members of such companies by appointing the
various servants to essential duties of benefit to all.
It appoints and finances traveling representatives,
to act as "servants to the brethren" and to visit all
the companies, also isolated persons. These representatives help in solving local problems, assisting
in the general field-service work, and going out with
various publishers when calling at the people's
homes. We ask these special servants to take you
from door to door and help you by giving you their
personal attention as you preach from house to
house or make return visits upon the interested or
start home book studies with persons for their
instruction in the Bible. Not only does the Society
have the desire, but it tries to help you through its

representatives in expanding the extent and degree

of your Christian ministry. These men call twice a
year at each company or unit and spend a week with
it. Everyone should take advantage of these visits,
by arranging to go from door to door with the servant or to make a back-call on persons that have taken
literature. If the servant to the brethren is married
and his wife is traveling with him, she, too, is expected to assist in the local activities, and the sisters
in the company should avail themselves of her assistance in their field work.
4 Thus individually and collectively, as company
publishers and organized groups, the active ministers of the Lord God receive help from the Society
in expanding their ministry. The Society aids each
publisher to keep spiritually healthy and up-tO-date
in the truth by providing its various publications
and releases with timely instmctions and spiritual
food. It arranges for group study of The Watchtower weekly by the company, where you may attend
and express yourself in answer to the questions on
the week's lesson. Attendance at these Watchtower
studies is very vital to you. Tme, you read The
Watchtower privately, but, when thus reading it by
yourself, you do not get out of each paragraph
everything that there is in it or that you would like.
Reading is a difficulty with many, even with all their
schooling. The Watchtower endeavors to express
itself in language and phraseology that is understood from one end of the country to the other; but
with some persons at a Watchtower study, if there is
some local expressing of it in other words, if it is
said in the local accent or according to the local
dialect, the point is made clear to them. When we
hear someone else say or read it with the proper
inflection of the voice, it means much more to us.
6 We urge all servants appointed in each company
to attend the Watchtower study and to participate
vocally in it. They are the mature ones in the company, the overseers or assistants in various capacities, and they should set the proper example to the
other brethren in the company by faithful, regular
attendance. If they do so, not only their own personal progress will become manifest, but that of all
the company also.
e Activity or service meetings are advised weekly,
or as regularly as possible, for all organized companies of God's consecrated people. By urging these
meetings we want you to know still further of our
interest in your expansion of the Christian ministry
in your territory: Such meetings should be well
planned, and the local servants as well as the visiting "servant to the brethren" should help in planning
good, lively, interesting, practical, profitable pro-

I, 2. With what papers does the Soclety show Interest In ministers?

3. By what appointments does the Society show further Interest?

4, 5. What speclal study doe. It urge, and participation In It?

6, 7. What other weekly meetings does It urge, to expand ministry?

245

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SffieWATCHTOWER..

grams. We help with suggestions from here, through

the Informant or special letters. In addition to the
foregoing, the Society aids your expansion work by
urging the establishment in each company of the
Theocratic Ministry school, to be held weekly 'if
possible.
'
T For the proper course of study in such schools
the Society has provided the excellent publications Theocratic Aid to Kingdom Pttblishers and
"Equipped for Every Good Work", and it issues a
regular schedule for the conducting of such ministerial schools uniformly throughout the land by all
companies. These are for the benefit of your growing
eompany. Not only are the one-hour school sessions
interesting in themselves, but they help all in attendance to learn how to deliver public discourses, or to
carryon good conversations in the truth on returnvisits, or to present effective testimonies to the
people as we bear. witness from door to door. As we
continue these schools, the "other sheep" that are
coming into the organization from time to time can
take advantage of this grand provision for ministerial training. We do not want them to be without
the good things provided for us. It is because you
individually exert yourself to expand your ministry
that these "other sheep" are coming to associate
with your local company or unit.
s Another thing: There are isolated, unattended
territories in many counties, states, provinces and
lands. To the extent possible, the Society gives attention to these by sending in pioneer publishers.
Occasionally they are sent to organized companies in
order to help in some service in their expansion
activity. Realizing the commission from the Lord
Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations the
Society interests itself in expanding the Chri~tian
ministry to every country in the world. To that end
it establishes Branch offices or supply depots wherever the territory warrants it. It obtains property
for Branch offices and puts trained men in the offices
to look after Kingdom interests in that territory.
'For the training of special representative servants and missionaries, the Society, in the very midst
of World War II, opened up an educational institution, the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, in upstate New York. Among others, active servants are
brought from Branch offices to this school and put
thFOugh it as well as through a practical training
process at the Society's headquarters in Brooklyn,
N.Y. Then it sends them back better qualified and
more efficient to the Branches. It has opened up
many missionary homes in many lands, and to these
it has already sent more than six hundred missionaries graduated from the School of Gilead. This discloses the Society's world-wide outlook, an interest
8, 9. How does the Society show a world-wide outlook on the work?

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

in global expansion; and to carry on the expansion

on such a broad scale the WATCH TOWER literature
is published in 89 languages at present. All the
money that is voluntarily contributed to it the
Society uses in this expansion program, seeking to
render a faithful account to the Lord for the discreet
and effective use of all such finances.
"YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD"
Each individual publisher, in every land, has
an active part in this world-wide expansion. It all
devolves upon the publishers, those who tell the
truth out to others. Each individual, no matter how
isolated, each organized group, no matter how small,
must make a contribution of service if there is to be
further growth on all fronts. Each must constantly
sustain his part of the work in his territory. All
together, the publishers constitute the "light of the
world". (Matt. 5: 14) If it were not for them, no
light of truth about Jehovah's kingdom by Christ
Jesus would be going out into the world today, and
it would be necessary for 'the stones to cry out'.
Because we as individuals are letting the light shine,
the people in our neighborhood, yes, right next door
to us, are learning or being given the opportunity to
learn the life-giving truth. We let the light shine on
the street where we live, in the city in. which we
reside, in the territory circuit within the boundaries
of which our groups of companies are located. 'Ve
are letting the light" shine in the country in which
we are citizens; and just as the apostle Paul used
his Roman citizenship for the advancement of the
gospel message, so do we today.
11 But the field of gospel-preaching extends beyond
our own land. "The field is the world," Jesus said;
and all of us throughout the habitable earth, by
unitedly sounding out the one Kingdom message
and mutually supporting one another, are covering
the entire field of the world with the gospel of salvation. Each publisher shining locally, when combined
with all his fellow publishers throughout the earth,
creates a great blaze of light that is penetrating in
every direction and serving notice upon all nations
and peoples that God has set up his promised kingdom by Christ and that the new world of righteousness governed by that kingdom is at hand. In consequence of all this expansion activity the great sign
proving the end of this world is being fulfilled, namely, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then
shall the end come."-Matt. 24: 14.
11 Thus it is apparent that, particularly since the
close of World War I in 1918, Jehovah God has been
organizing his consecrated people in all the earth for
the ministry of the glad tidings of the Kingdom. He
10

10, 11. Who are now the "light of the world"? and how?
12. For what has God organized his people since 1914. and why?

AUGUST

15, 1948

SheWATCHTOWER

247

established this kingdom of the new world with and shelter. Jesus did not make these the deciding
Christ Jesus in the heavens .A.D. 1914. The "seven factors in his life. He was content as long as he had
times" allotted to Satan the Devil for uninterrupted some food and clothing, although, as he tells us, "the
Gentile domination of the earth ended that year, Son of man hath not where to lay his head." (Matt.
according to Bible calculations. There is, therefore, S: 20) The conditions in his day were not far unlike
no occupation or profession of more importance those today in these respects, except as to style. In
today than this Christian ministry of the Kingdom parts of America and elsewhere people live conmessage. .And you do not have to graduate from siderably better than the majority of mankind
a secular university or college and then attend a throughout the earth. In India, Africa, Asia, and
theological school for several years and finally be sections of Europe, the customs have changed very
ordained by a body of religious clergymen and little since the time of Christ. Our conditions of life
priests in order to be such genuine ministers. J eho- have become great burdens, because we have some
vah God has made the provisions for your training features they did not have in Jesus' day. With our
and share in the glorious ministry as described in houses, our heating systems, our large wardrobes,
the foregoing paragraphs, and the Watch Tower etc., we find ourselves burdened. When one female
Bible & Tract Society stands at your disposal to help finds out that some other female of the community
you with its world-wide organization.
has gotten a new coat or hat, she, too, has to get one
13 Do not be afraid. The only question is, Are you
to keep up with the style. Things like these are actuwilling f We cannot make our secular work, or our ally burdens falling upon us because we live in this
social position in life, or the personal, selfish things modern civilization. Here in the Occident during
we have to do or like to do more important than the 1948 the feminine population are supposed to have
things God has for us to do, if we are seeking eternal the "new look". In India, Africa, and elsewhere,
life in the new world. Sometimes creatures weigh they do not have the new look. They have one look,
matters as to whether to serve God and to do the the old look.
active preaching of the gospel. But why should we
15 Truly, because of our "civilization" we have
weigh matters when it comes to serving the Lord brought upon ourselves heavy burdens in the way of
God? Is it not the right thing to do! Is it not what clothing, food, housing, automobiles, etc. These
his Word instructs us to do if we want life through things require money, and trying to get them leads
his Son Christ Jesus f Is it not the example that this to love of money. Thousands of our Christian brethSon set for us, which example he set for us to ren in other countries have really an advantage in
follow as a sure guide to everlasting gain 1 He said: not having all the worries we have assumed. Weare
"La, I come to do thy will, 0 God." Do we also come worried about our meals. If we have the same meat
to God for the same purpose' If we follow in Jesus' twice in a day, we think we are not being fed properfootsteps, then we should be willing to do the things ly. We are used to having every meal changed. But
he did when on earth; and his chief work was bear- if we go to Africa and live with the natives, as our
ing witness and preaching the gospel. He was a missionaries ofttimes have to do, we shall have the
minister of God. "When Isaiah had a vision of the same thing seven days a week. For instance, they
Lord God at the temple and the question rang out, will take some roots of trees and pound them into
"'Whom shall I send 1 and who will go for us 1" he flour, sift it, and pour in boiling water, roll it into
promptly responded, "Here am I; send me." The balls, and pop it into their mouths. If they want
Lord accepted him and sent him, and the grand book fruit, they can go to the country and get bananas
of the prophecy of Isaiah is one of the results. The and other fruit. They take several yards of cloth
like question comes to us today. Having the light of and wind it around themselves and, 10, they are
the truth and getting an appreciation of the oppor- dressed. In Germany the end of World War II saw
tunity of becoming a real minister and expanding the release of Jehovah's witnesses from the concen
our privileges of serving God, are we now just as tration camps, underground dens and prisons into
ready as Isaiah to answer the question and say, which the Hitler Nazi regime had forced them. To
"Here am I; send me'" If we are anxious to follow this day innumerable homes of the people are just
Christ's steps, we will do so. If we do, we shall shells. But Jehovah's witnesses in that war-battered
gain unspeakable blessings, and these without end. country are not worried particularly about building
-Isaiah, chapter 6.
homes. Nor are they worried about clothing. They
could not get it if they did worry. Food is not too
MODERN BURDENS
great a worry. They put forth efforts to get what
14 Confronted with
the opportunity of such a food and clothing they need, but their foremost conministry, let us not be anxious about food, clothing cern is preaching the gospel. In Germany there are
13. How did Jesus and Isaiah Illustrate for us willingness?
14. How bas modern clvlllZlltiOD created burdens for us?

15. How do brethren In otber lands .bow treedom from oucb worries?

248

~e WATCHTOWER.

in this third postwar year more than 32,064 active

Kingdom publishers reporting, to compare with
16,077 a year ago.
1e Even we who live in more favored spots might
be able to take care of modern problems of civilization more simply than we do, if it were not for the
selfishness of fallen man. With less attention to the
selfish things of life, the consecrated natives who
devote themselves to publishing the message of
God's kingdom in Africa run up averages of 25 or
26 or 27 hours a month preaching the Kingdom by
word of mouth and distribution of literature. They
do not have automobiles to take them to their territory assignments for gospel-preaching among the
people. They do not even have shoes. Yet they make
their calls upon the people and proclaim God's
message. Those conditions are similar to what Jesus
had in his day. So, as long as we have food, clOthing
and shelter, we can be happy. We should be content,
as the apostle Paul tells us to be. (1 Tim. 6: 8) It is
plain why the native Christian of Africa is content
with his meal of fu-fu and his several yards of cloth
for dress. He does not have the problems and big
worries we assume and carryon our shoulders. He
shows us we should not take these things so seriously.
Jesus said: "Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eatT or, What shall we drink' or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed T (For after all
these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you."-Matt. 6: 31-33.
n As to getting out among people and presenting
the glad tidings of the new world of righteousness,
there is basically little difference between the method of Jesus' day and ours. His was a direct communication with individuals, getting in personal
touch with the people. So is ours. The results are
the same. He went about preaching for about three
and a half years, personally. He told some persons
he cured to relate to others the good things the Lord
God had done to them, and he also sent out his twelve
apostles and seventy evangelists. They preached
the gospel. What were the results' On the day of
Pentecost following Jesus' ascension to heaven there
was, to begin with, a congregation of about 120 souls
in Jerusalem. Then the holy spirit descended upon
them, and they preached in many languages to the
great throng that gathered at the miraculous event.
On that day of preaching by word of mouth there
were 3,000 that were added, submitting to baptism
in confession of their faith in Jesus Christ as the
Messiah. These, too, must have taken up the preach16. What shows we should give less attention to selfish things?
17, 18. How are the working methods and the results in the daye of
Jesus and the apostles SimIlar to those of us today?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

ing work, for the record, at Acts 2: 46, 47, says:

"And they, continuing daily with one accord in the
temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favour with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be saved."
18 Today Jehovah's witnesses go about preaching
in the same manner as Jesus and his disciples. The
result! We see some hearers of good-will coming
into association with Jehovah's Theocratic organization, and this is because of expanding the ministry
of His Word in all lands. Let us not forget, this is
not educating people merely for a way. of life now.
It is a life-saving work, helping people of good-will
into God's way of salvation that conducts them to a
happy, everlasting future in the new world. Is any
work more salutary, more productive of lasting
good, more beneficial to the people and more pleasing to God and his Christ, than this' Do you not
want a share in it while it lasts TIt means your own
salvation as well as that of those whom you assist
.
into the truth.-1 Tim. 4: 16.
ALL CLASSES OF PEOPLE USABLE

There is, then, every reason to keep your interest

in the ministry high, realizing that it is not the job
exclusively of men who parade around in ecclesiastical skirts, in frock coats, collars and vests buttoned
at the hinder side, and always presenting a mournfully black sight. Jesus' disciples were of the common, everyday people without copege or seminarial
education, and he taught them to preach, and to
preach what really led to the salvation of the people.
Today the Watch Tower Society is teaching all who
want to serve the interests of God's kingdom, regardless of the walks of life from which they come. It is
using a number of agencies in order to help them
into the ministry, namely, The Watchtower, the local
Theocratic Ministry schools, regular Bible studies
and practical service meetings at company meetingplaces, the appointment of many servants, local and
traveling, and many other means.
20 The Society is helping these thousands upon
thousands of consecrated people of God to make the
Christian ministry their real life's vocation. Then
their secular businesses and activities that they have
to carry on become merely the secondary operation
of their life, just as the apostle Paul made tentmaking secondary to preaching as an ambassador of
God's kingdom. If we appreciate God's kingdom as
the most important thing in the universe, how could
we make being its ambassador and proclaimer
secondary to our less important, selfish, personal
occupations for material gain' If we have expanded
10

19, 20. Who may become ministers, and how important 1.8 being one?

AUGUST

15, 1948

mleWATCHTOWER

249

our view on the importance of the Kingdom and of matter of pioneer service very careful consideration,
the exalted privilege of serving it, we can not do so. making your life's work the full-time preaching of
God's kingdom now here' That more publishers are
21 All over the earth Almighty God has organized
his people for the ministry. Those already engaged needed in the pioneer ranks hardly needs demonin it are encouraging and helping others into it, stration. We have made it known as our objective to
because to confess God and Christ by sharing in have at least one-tenth of all the present active
the ministry means life to the minister and his Kingdom publishers enlisted in the pioneer division.
hearers. "FoOr with the heart man believeth unto Even now in a number of parts of the earth we find
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is approximately one Kingdom publisher reporting for
made unto salvation." (Rom. 10: 10) Because of each 1,000 of the national population. According to
certain inescapable responsibilities, not all those who the news release of March 10, 1948, by the United
enter the ministry and make it their chief concern States Census Bureau the nation's population
can put in 15 or 20 or 30 hours a month in direct reached a new high of 145,340,000 at the start of this
field activity. God through Christ sends those con- year. If, now, we had one Kingdom publisher reportsecrated to him into the field as His witnesses to ing for every 1,000 persons in these United' States,
the extent of their ability and circumstances. If you we should have to show about 145,000 publishers. If
have made a consecration to obey the Lord God with a tenth of these became pioneers it would mean
Christlike obedience, then you can not sidestep it: 14,500 pioneers. If we were to have one Kingdom
you are sent to do the Lord's witness work, and you publisher to every thousand of the whole world's
population, it would call for 2,000,000 publishers. We
should prepare and equip yourself to go.
have
far to go to meet this figure.
22 If you attach to it the importance that God's
u
The
1948 Yearbook disclosed there were 187,000
kingdom imparts to it, then you will not be content
publishers
reporting field service throughout the
to do just as little as you can in this service. You
earth
in
1947.
Ten percent of this would mean 18,700
will rather seek to enlarge your direct share in it.
pioneers
in
all
the earth. Actually the average for
If you are putting in two or three hours a month,
possibly you can so arrange your personal affairs the globe was 7,017. With earth's two billion populathat your privileges of field ministry will be gteater, tion, think what would happen or could be done if
in connection with your local company of Jehovah's we had those 18,700 pioneers. Other countries where
witnesses. There is an added privilege of service by they have the ten-percent figure show that if each
being a "pioneer". As such, you are in full-time of us were to care for a thousand individuals in our
service to the extent of putting in 120 hours a month personal territory, the field would not be overcrowddirectly in the field, witnessing by word of mouth, ed, it running that average already in Cuba, Canada,
distributing literature from house to house or at and Denmark. As we survey the field, the world, and
magazine posts, revisiting the people getting the perceive the vast untouched portions, we can see it
literature, and promoting home Bible study or even constitutes a call to every Watchtower reader to
conducting such studies with persons willing to take up the ministry, to expand the number of herlearn. Taking part in the pioneer work may open up alds of God's kingdom, and thus to try to meet the
the way for you to attend the Watchtower Bible world's need.
25 Could we reflect on Paul's advice to Timothy
School of Gilead with free tuition. Knowing we are
sent of God, can we not feel, too, that he is sending from a practical viewpoint' He speaks to Timothy
us to do pioneer service? Is it not possible for more as a minister, and Timothy was just a young man
Watchtower readers to engage in this blessed pio- whom he picked up in the course of his missionary
neer service , We are interested, not merely in the work in the small city of Lystra, in Asia Minor.
expanding of organized companies, circuits, districts, Through Timothy he speaks to everyone interested
and counhies, but also in each person's larger share in the ministry and reminds us that there is great
in the grandest, most important and most profitable gain in godliness with contentment. We brought
service on the earth. Profitable, gainful, remuner- nothing into the world, but came in without a stitch
ativeT Yes, not as respects personal material gain of clothing. We can take nothing out of the world.
to ourselves, but in terms of the heart satisfaction We should not be going after money, for the love of
and peace of mind accruing to us from this godly this is the root of all evil. (1 Tim. 6: 6-10) Now at
activity now, besides the invigorating hope of a this end of the world, when it will go out of existence
prosperous eternity in God's new world.
and be able to take nothing out except the lives that
23 So, if we want to get into the ministry or want
it has wrecked and ruined, are we interested in
to expand our ministerial activity, why not give the things we shall not be able to take out, Are we in
our daily lives just intent on keeping up a big home,
21. Why should we engage In the ministry, and to what extent?
22, What suggestions to expand our ministry are put to us? and why?
23, 24. How should number of publishers compare with population?

25, 26. By contentment with necessary thiJ:lgB, what could we do?

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or the easy comforts of life, and are we slaving

away much of our time and energy in trying to hold
on to the present position we hold' Or could we be
more content with less, with just necessary things,
and by such contentment spare ourselves to enlarge
our ministerial efforts' Could we arrange our affairs
now, forgetting about wealth and things of the world
without which we can get along' Could we thereby
devote more talent and endeavor to God's work
which leads to eternal gain' Could we arrange to
enlist as pioneers' Would we not be really more content if we were actually in such full-time service'
28 How many of you Watchtower readers ever said,
"I wish I could be a pioneer like these about whose
experiences I read 1" Not at our invitation, but at
the Lord's invitation and the challenge of the world's
end, why not quit wishing, and be one' Of course,
not everyone of us can do so, because of binding
obligations. So, if you can, how privileged you ought
to consider yourself to be!
FOR OUR AND OTHERS' SALVATION

Expansion of our individual ministry is very

important for our own lives now and forever. First
of all, it helps us personally in rendering direct
worship of the living and true God to a greater
extent, and that means an enrichment of our lives.
Secondly, it affords us greater opportunity 'to help
people of good-Will to gain a knowledge of the lifegiving truth. That helps them to answer the grand
call to this blessed gospel ministry. We should be
concerned not only in expanding our own privileges
in this matter, but also in helping others to get into
the work which God now commands his consecrated
people to do for the vindication of his name. It is not
the contribution of money that does this, but is
chiefly the contribution of ourselves, the giving of
our personal attention and aid to those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness and life.
28 There is no end of work before Armageddon is
fought. Jesus said this gospel shall be preached to all
the nations for a witness, not for world conversion,
and then the end will come. While we could never
accomplish world conversion, we can try with our
comparatively few workers to give a big witness to
all nations by preaching as energetically as we can,
by all means of publicity, until Jehovah shuts down
the international work by signaling to Christ Jesus
to begin the fight of Armageddon and wipe out the
enemy nations. Let us strive to expand our personal
accomplishments in the divine service. Let us help
the "other sheep" to do the same, especially to get
started in it. Invite them to read The Watchtower,
to attend the public meetings, the studies and service meetings and Theocratic Ministry school sessions
27

27, 28. Besides expanding our own ministry, what else should we do?

BROOKLYN,

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in the company's Kingdom Hall. Invite them to go

with you into the field witnessing as your companions. Let them taste the good things you already
enjoy as you widen the sphere of your service. The
results will be, probably not astonishing, but at least
gratifying as the weeks, months and years hasten
along toward Armageddon. We do not know how
long it will be till then. We are not worried. If we
have the truth in our hearts and are privileged' to
confess it with our mouths to others, we can be
content. With this we are satisfied, we are pleased,
we are at peace. What more could a creature now on
earth in this old world ask for'
IN DEFIANCE OF THE WORLD

2. The more active we ar.e about our heavenly

Father's business, the more we can expect the world
to frown and oppose. But why let that dishearten us,
There is no use in trying to get on the favorable
side with this world. We cannot please it and our
God at the same time. So we should never be fearful
about speaking the truth, but should present it
whether in season or out of season to ourselves.
Remember that, though Jehovah God sent Christ
Jesus into the world with all the signs and miracles
to show for it, they did not believe this Perfect One.
This great Minister of God told us that the world will
not believe us either. The thought of that should
not cause us to slack our hand, but should nerve
us to face an unappreciative world and to seek the
Lord's "other sheep" and to appreciate all the more
whatever of them we do find by proclaiming the
Kingdom news. Press on, then; in your individual
expansion work, because if we all do so together,
then there will be tremendous expansion results on
the part of the organization as a whole.
80 It will be impossible to please the religionists,
the commercial men and the political rulers of this
world and also find favor with God. They will always
find fault with you and put you in the unpopular
class. For example, in Rumania, before World
War II and Hitler's taking over the country, Jehovah's witnesses were classed as "Communists" and
they were persecuted and killed because they were
not Hitlerites, Fascists, and Axis supporters. Now
the Communists have taken control of Rumania, but
Jehovah's witnesses keep on in preaching the same
message now as they did then, preaching God's kingdom as the only hope of mankind. Before the war the
Rumanian clergy played up to the Nazis, but now,
to please the people in power, they are playing up to
the Communists. These clergymen who have changed
their tune and their tactics also .change their charges
against Jehovah's witnesses. Now they say we are
"imperialists" and that they must stop the witness
29. Why Is It uselesa to try getting Into favor with the world?
30, 31. How may we draw on RWIUUlla for an illustration and example?

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251

work and get us out of the country. The same organization that such religionists a short time ago called
"Communist" they now call "imperialist". The sole
reason for this ecclesiastical somersault is, in every
case, to make Jehovah's witnesses unpopular and to
set them up as a target of attack because we show up
the hypocrisy and the lack of Christianity of the
religious clergy. Does that slow down the efforts at
expansion of Jehovah's work in Rumania' No. The
people of good-will in that eastern European country
still want to hear the message of truth, and they are
hearing it under great obstacles.
31 We know our brethren there have an understanding of the truth. They have the Theocratic
Ministry school as we do in countries outside of the
Soviet sphere of influence. They also have the weekly
Watchtower study and service meeting. They are
pushing the work and, by God's grace, are succeeding in helping the people with His message. Even
though the enemy kill some of them, they. will not
stop preaching the Kingdom gospel. They are God's
ministers. They know they are sent by Him to preach,
the same as our active Watchtower readers in other
lands are sent to preach, yes, the same as the Son
of God was sent to earth to preach The course of the
Rumanian brethren furnishes us just another concrete example that if we can appreciate we are commissioned and dispatched by God to do this wo'rk we
will follow his instructions and 'Vord. Realizing we
are sent and also being willing and joyfully volunteering to be sent, we will put forth every effort to
expand our service privileges, now more so than
ever before because the time remaining is so short.
82 Are we following Christ's footsteps 1 Then we
shall want to do the heavenly Father's will as he
did. When we find out what the divine will is we will
press on in the service he assigns to us, so as to
show him our obedience to his will. We cannot give
him too much direct worship in this world. His worship is to our advantage. The more we properly
worship him according to truth and with the help
of his spirit, the more our interest grows in vindicating his universal sovereignty, name and Word. The
more, too, we are training our minds in the right

direction. As we expand our ministry we find our

love for our neighbors deepening, for more of them;
yes, not merely for the brother or the sister whom
we know and with whom we work in the local
company organization or in the pioneer group, or
missionary home, or Branch office, but for all the
other strayed and lost "sheep" that Christ Jesus the
Good .shepherd says he will gather and bring safely
into the fold before Armageddon. By expanding our
ministry we get in touch with more of such "other
sheep", we gain many more friends, Christian brethren, people for whom we can show love, people we
can help and train in God's true worship in which
we are already engaged. All, yes, we can help these
dear ones to gain life, getting into the same righteous way into which we have been brought through
Christ's ransom sacrifice and through the Christian
ministry of some other faithful servants of God. Can
the acquiring of uncertain material riches compare
with the reward attending our efforts at gathering
together the Lord's "other sheep'" No, indeed 1
sa The ministry of preaching the Kingdom gospel
for the gathering of the Lord's "sheep" was foretold.
It is now in progress. In no great while it will be
accomplished and will be history in vindication of
God's name and Word. Our greatest privilege in
these pre-Armageddon days is to avail ourselves of
the opportunity and to enter .iPto it with heart and
soul. So, enter it and stay with it we will) and that
with contentment. We will serve and abide with our
brethren in peace, yes, with the "other sheep". We
will not be drawn into strife and let ourselves be
provoked to it. Away with all discontent and faultfinding 1 We will make the best of situations and
give ourselves unselfishly to improving things for
the sake of the work and the spiritual welfare of our
fellow servants of God. We will enjoy to the full all
our privileges as they come to us, responding to the
call to action the way Christ Jesus our Leader did.
Being sent by the Supreme Power and Authority, we
will preach his message that those who believe may
be saved. Appreciating that we are sent as his servants and that he is with us till his "strange work"
is finished, we are bound to expand our ministry.

32. How does expanding our ministry affect our expression of lo...e?

33. How will we now conduct ourselves in the ministry, and why?

UPLIFTING MANKIND TO PERFECTION

s MANKIND,

without superhuman aid, able to bring

itself back into harmony with the Creator, the God of
all the universe? Mankind's history for the past six
thousand years, culminating in the condition in which it
is found today, answers, No. It is well that we have the
plain, blunt answer. Then we can appreciate all the more
the one effective means for uplifting mankind to the perfection in which it will be a glory and praise to the Creator.
We must bear in mind that for about sixty centuries the

human race has been traveling the broad road of unrighteousness that has led it to its present degradation and now
to the brink of destruction at the battle of Armageddon.
After such a long journey in sin and debauchery the race
is today most wicked and depraved. Visit the New York
city slums or those of any other great city and gather some
idea of the vice, immorality, corruption, juvenile delinquency and wickedness practiced in those places. Take a
look at the filth, muck and poverty-stricken conditions.

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N. Y.

Shudder as you look at those afflicted with loathsome and crime. These are all samples of what Satan the Devil,
disease, the mentally weak, the wretched, the crippled, the "the god of this world," has to show for his wicked rule
lame, the blind, all herded together in small, poorly venti- over humankind.
lated hovels, and no proper clothing and food. Uplift for
We read: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the
the mind and body they have none. Many of them have devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son
likely reached the state of total depravity. Certainly it IS of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
a time of woe for the earth and its inhabitants, for the of the devil." (1 John 3: 8) At his first manifestation of
Devil has come down unto them and wrought his work the Son of God on earth he suffered death, but, thank God!
with a vengeance.
was resurrected to life in glory in the heavens. But his
Do not quit just yet, but come along to the insane death and resurrection alone will not undo all the evils
asylums, and gaze horror-smitten at the hundreds of thou- described above. Armageddon's overthrow of Satan's world
sands whose minds are turned entirely into the ways of organization and the restraining of Satan and all his
unreasonableness and nervous distraction and prostration, demons and human servants will not relieve humankind
and inability to grasp any truth. And ponder at the same from their miserable downfallen condition. There is sometime the ominous reports of bad management of these insti- thing else that must be done. It will be done, and that by
tutions and brutal treatment of these poor victims of condi- the establishment of Christ's kingdom of a thousand years
tions which the minds of increasing numbers of people can for mankind's uplift to perfection. There will be a restituendure no longer. From these mental hospitals go to the tion of God's kingdom with a righteous invisible overlord
other hospitals and look with pitying eyes upon the bed- over mankind; and of this we read: "He shall send J eSUli
ridden, the maimed, the pain-racked, and the moaning sick Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the
and d;ying. What a wreck sin and its author, Satan the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy
Devil, has made of this race of ours!
Do not stop here, but now go to those who are moral prophets since the world began." (Acts 3: 19-21) For this
wrecks and addicts of crime. Yes, go into the jails, prisons reason men should repent and turn to God.
Satan's misrule of six thousand years has wrought all the
and penitentiaries and look through the bars at the marks
of crime upon the faces of the men and women and youths evils among humankind. Now God will demonstrate to all
behind, dragging out a weary and depressing existence in his intelligent creatures that one thousand years of rule by
such places of confinement, like animals in cages. Since we his beloved Son, Jesus Christ the righteous One, can and
are out to see it all, at its worst, let us not shrink from will undo all the evil that has been done, and will uplift
the "red light districts", but let us peer into the~ brothels all the willing and obedient ones on earth to the full glory
and houseE!,of ill fame. Those girls there, whose beauty of and beauty of perfect humanity. This blessed and glorious
face and form is now corroding away, have been turned work will make an everlasting name for Jehovah in the
into female demons by reason of evil practices which forced minds of all, and they will forever honor it. The sacred
many of them unwillingly into this kind of life. Do not Bible shows that this uplift work will embrace the first one
overlook, too, those men burning with passion that regu- thousand years of the new world, the "new heavens and a
larly patronize these places. contaminating and being con- new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness". "Millennium"
taminated with gruesome diseases that modern science is means one thousand years, and so this reign of Jesus Christ
trying to eliminate. What a modern Sodom and Gomorrah! is called "the :rtfillennium". During that time the entire
For a contrast, first pay a visit to the highly respected human race will be under his control, and he will lead all
financial centers and view the hard, merciless, greedy coun- the obedient ones among men back into harmony with Jehotenances of the money gamblers and profiteers who do not vah God. Satan the Devil will be bound so that he cannot
stop at war to force millions of youths into the muddy, hinder this uplift work in the slightest. His ousting from
vermin-ridden, blood-soaked trenches or foxholes, there to power in the earth will be completely effected by the battle
kill and be killed; financiers who take advantage of every of Armageddon now near in which the new world's King,
favorable turn of the market to make gain and satisfy their Christ Jesus, will vanquish all the organization of wickedconscienceless love of money. Turn away from them and ness, demonic and human. Multitudes of persons of goodlook down into the dark coalpits and salt pits and other will today living upon earth are now taking their stand
mining projects and behold the poor, miserable creatures, for God's kingdom and will see this destruction of Satan's
toiling amid dampness, darkness, and dangers to limb and organization at Armageddon and will sing the praises of
life, for a pittance to support themselves and families, God and his triumphant King after the battle is over and
while those barons of wealth roll in wealth and material peace has come to this earth to stay.
splendor, at ease. Go, too, the rounds of the sweatshops,
RESURRECTION TO OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIFE
where poor widows, friendless girls and poverty-driven
men labor under cramped, unsanitary conditions, to eke
These good-will survivors of the battle of Armageddon
out some kind of existence. And then on your way from all are included in the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy
this sightseeing in the Devil's world, worm your way telling him to preach this good news to mankind, saying:
through the crowded streets and press into the subways, "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus
the excursion boats, the restaurants and the soup joints, Christ, who shall judge the quick [that is, the living] and
the jazzy dance halls, and other such places and take note the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the
of the modern boys and girls, the old men and women, word." (2 Tim. 4: 1, 2) Particularly since A.D. 1918, at
pleasure-mad, slaves to nicotine and drugs, breeding vice which time the Scriptures show the King came to the temple

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~eWATCHTOWER

for judgment proceedings, the nations of this world have

been under judgment, and these people of good-will have
turned away from the worldly way of the nations and have
repented and dedicated themselves to God's kingdom of the
new world. Therefore the King and Judge at the temple
judges them to be worthy to be preserved from destruction
with the nations at Armageddon and to be carried alive,
"quick," into the glorious new world after that battle. So
the thousand years' of the judgment day of mankind in
general begins favorably for them. They will enjoy many
earthly blessings before the general resurrection of mankind in the graves begins.
The Bible's comforting teaching concerning the resurrection of the dead has long been hid from the minds of people
inside and outside of Christendom, and this has been accomplished by Satan's use of his earthly representatives, the
religious clergy, to teach unscriptural pagan doctrines.
These false prophets, claiming authority to teach the Bible,
have caused people to believe every man has an immortal
soul and that what is called death is not really death
because the human soul is deathless; and so the person
supposed to be dead has merely had a change and has
passed on into another realm of life, either heaven, or a
terrifying purgatory, or a hopeless hell of torment unending. If the dead are thus not nonexistent, but consciously
alive somewhere, what need is there of resurrection?
The truth is that every human creature is a soul; no man
has a soul that can exist independently of his fleshly body.
Genesis 2: 7 declares plainly that God formed man of the
dust of the earth, breathed into 1man's nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. That means, man
became a living, moving, breathing, sentient creature. Mankind's first parents sinned, but they did not thereby bring
upon themselves and us their descendants a hell of conscious
torment for our souls after death. In the law of God it is
written in Roman Catholic and other editions of the Bible:
"The soul that sinneth, the same shall die." (Ezech.
18: 4,20, Douay) If the human soul were immortal it could
not die. No souls at death can go or do go to a "purgatory"
or a hell of eternal fiery torment. Psalm 89: 48 says:
"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall
he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" No; but
when a man dies he is as dead as any brute beast, a lion
or a dog. You can read that for yourselves at Ecclesiastes
3 : 19-21 and 9 : 5, 10 and Psalm 115: 17. The man remains
thus until the resurrection.
We do not have to tell you that these religious clergymen
have induced millions of people in Christendom to believe
that at death the church members go to purgatory, if not
directly to heaven, and there they suffer purgation until
they are relieved at the instance of religious priests, who
pray for them and accept money considerations for such
prayers. They also teach that the wicked die and go to
the lowest hell, and that depth of hell is a place of eternal
torture. To the contrary of this, God's Word teaches that
Hades, hell or the inferno is the tomb, the condition of the
dead; and that all who die within the bounds of God's
grace through Christ go there with a possibility of a resurrection from the dead. The purgatory doctrine is purely
an invention of demon-controlled religious leaders. There
is no such place or condition where men are suffering

253

torments after death and from which they can be relieved

by clerical prayers with or without money consideration.
Concerning Jesus it is written: ''For thou wilt not leave
my sour in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One
to see corruption." (Psalm 16: 10) The apostle Peter said
that meant Jesus Christ, at Acts 2: 27-32. Jesus did not
suffer torment in hell, and he did not stay there forever,
but was resurrected from hell the third day. This is of
itself conclusive proof that the Bible Hades, hell or inferno
is not a place of eternal torment. There is no doctrine that
is more clearly taught in the Bible than that of the resurrection of the dead. But if the human soul were immortal
or deathless, then there could be no resurrection from the
dead; and if the souls of men were in torment that was
decreed to be eternal, they could not be brought out for
all eternity.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a guarantee that the
dead will be resurrected. The argument of the apostle Paul
concerning the body of Christ's footstep followers is that
Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, and that if he was
not raised, then there is no resurrection of any dead, not
even of Christians. In other words, the resurrection of
Christ Jesus is proof that the other dead will be raised.
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the
firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits;
afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."-1 Cor.
15: 20-23.
That even the un-Christian dead are to be resurrected we
have inspired Scripture. The apostle Paul said: "There
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just 'and
unjust." (Acts 24: 15) In discussing the judgment day
Jesus said concerning the dead: "Marvel not at this: for
the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection by judgment." (John 5: 28, 29,
Am. Stan. Ver.) The word in Greek here translated
"tombs" means "memorial" and implies the memory of
God. Therefore these words of Jesus are proof conclusive
that God holds in his memory all those who have died,
except those who have been willfully wicked, such as Judas,
or those who are beyond correction and uplift; and that in
His due time, through Christ Jesus, he will bring them back
out of death by the resurrection. "For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him."-1 Thess. 4: 14.
When will the general awakening of the dead begin after
the battle of Armageddon? The Scriptures do not disclose
the day, but indicate it will be after the new organization in
the earth has been built by the resurrection of the faithful
men of old to be "princes in all the earth" and after the
surviving multitude of persons of good-will have had an
opportunity to do their part with these princes in spreading righteousness throughout all the earth and cultivating
and caring for the earth according to the will of God,
toward its beautification to a paradise condition. Revelation,
chapter 20, describes the general resurrection of mankind

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to life on this earth. (Rev. 20: 11-15) During the millennial

reign of Christ all human creatures on earth may enjoy
the Kingdom blessings and experience its uplifting powers
by obediently co-operating with it and serving God and
Christ his King. Attaining to human perfection by the end
of the thousand years, all those who hold fast to it by

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

integrity to God during the loosing of Satan the Devil

for a short season will be justified to eternal life in human
perfection upon the paradisaic earth. All the disobedient
and rebellious will be destroyed. The kingdom of God by
Christ Jesus is mankind's only hope today for everlasting
uplift.

HEZEKIAH TRUSTS JEHOVAH

EZEKIAH finishes his study of a part of J ehovah's law from the roll that he had his scribe copy
for him thirteen years before, in the very first year
of his reign (745 B.C.). It makes him think of the roll from
which his faithful grandfather, King Jotham, used to instruct him. Though he has missed discussing God's righteous doings with his grandfather since he died, 27 years
before, during all those years he has had the joy and privilege of associating with God's prophets Isaiah and Micah,
and the rest of Jehovah's faithful worshipers in all Judah
and beyond, whether Israelites or proselytes.-2 Ki. 16: 20;
18 : 1-3, 13; Isa. 26: 1; 2 Chron. 28: 27; 29: 1; 32: 1.
Spiritually refreshed, he goes for his morning meal. A
panting messenger meets him with the news that the
Assyrian emperor Sennacherib has crossed the Euphrates
river up north and is marching south. Up in the cool
Lebanon mountains he has already burned down the summer house of the king of Tyre, who with his family has
fled to Cyprus. Sennacherib is overthrowing his strongholds, the places of his, food ;and drink and the forts in
which he trusted, and they are submitting to him.
King Hezekiah immediately commands that his princes
and his mighty men be assembled that he may confer with
them. As he awaits their arrival in the council hall he
reviews in his mind Jehovah's mighty acts on behalf of his
people that he has personally seen; how He strengthened
his grandfather Jotham because of his faithfulness (then
with pain he remembers how low his father Ahaz brought
Judah through his false worship; his grief and the determination in his heart to purge the land of demon-worship
as soon as Jehovah gave him the power); how the day
finally came when Jehovah used him to restore His true,
pure worship throughout the land. The realization that ever
since then proper worship of Jehovah has been carried on
in his kingdom in an orderly, enthusiastic way gives Hezekiah great peace of mind. He knows that he has sought his
God with all his heart and that He has prospered every
work that he has begun in the interests of God's temple, his
law and his commandments, keeping him and his kingdom
free while Ephraim and Manasseh have fallen to Assyria
(740 B.C.) "because they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah
their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that
Moses the'servant of Jehovah commanded, and would not
hear it, nor do it." Jehovah has smitten the Philistines
before him and he has completely conquered Philistia as
far as Gaza.-2 Ki. 18: 4-12, Am. Stan. Ver.j 2 Chron.
29: 3-32: 3; Psalms 33 and 122; Isa. 22: 15-25.
As he hears his princes and leading men approach he
silently thanks Jehovah for all his blessings and protection
and confidently asks his direction and protection in the
present emergency. When they are gathered they prayer-

fully consider the Assyrian threat. The decision is that a

tunnel be cut to bring into the city the water from Gillon
spring which is outside the city and that the outside springs
be covered over. The people enthusiastically co-operate,
shouting, "Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find
much water?" Hezekiah takes courage and builds up any
part of the city wall in need of repair, builds towers on
the wall, and rears another wall outside. He strengthens
the citadel in the city of David and makes weapons and
shields in great quantity.-2 Chron. 32: 2-6, Am. Stan. Ver.
While all this preparation is going on, reports keep coming in to Hezekiah of Sennacherib's southward advance
toward Jerusalem. All the dominion of Tyre has surrendered to him. While Sennacherib is stationed at Hosah on
the mainland opposite insular'Tyre, the rulers of Shimronmeron, Zidon, Arvad, Gebal, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab and
Edom rush there to present their tribute and kiss his feet.
Then Sennacherib crosses over to the plain of Sharon and
throu~h it to. northern ~hilistia where he takes the towns
of Beth-dagqn, Joppa, Bene-berak: and Azor. Then he goes
up to Math in the highlands north of Jerusalem and takes
Migron, just about six miles north-northeast of Jerusalem.
At Michmash he is storing his baggage; now they have
crossed the gorge, they are lodging at Geba; Ramah
trembles, Gibeah is in flight, lIadmenah (less than three
miles north of Jerusalem) is running away; the inhabitants
of Gebim just outside Jerusalem to the north are scurrying
into the capital for safety. The enemy has reached Nob
on the ridge less than a mile north of the temple. There
Sennacherib is shaking his fist at Jel'usalem.-Isa.l0: 28-32.
Then Hezekiah, appointing captains of war over the
people, gathers them to him in the open space at the gate
of the city and speaks reassuringly, saying: ((Be strong and
of good courage, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king
of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for
there is a greater with us than with him: with him is an
arm of flesh; but with us is Jehovah our God to help us,
and to fight our battles." (2 Chron. 32: 6-8, Am. Stan.
V er.) Hezekiah is pleased to hear the expressions of the
people, showing they trust in Jehovah. Encouraged, Hezekiah and the people await Sennacherib's next move. After
staying at Nob that day, Sennac.herib withdraws.
The next report Hezekiah receives tells of Ekron's having feared Sennacherib's advance and having sent to
Egypt for help; of the Egyptian armies under Tirhaka
king of Ethiopia and nephew of Egypt's Pharaoh as having
come and drawn up in battle array in the environs of
Eltekeh, about 22 miles west of Jerusalem; of Sennacherib's
defeating them and taking Eltekeh and then advancing
southeast about six miles and taking Timnath; of going
back to Ekron and taking possession of it; of Sennacherib's

AUGUST

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER.

reducing the rest of Philistia and marching up to Lachish

and laying siege to it. Part of the Assyrian army is raiding
towns of Judah and causing much suffering.
At that Hezekiah sends word to Sennacherib at Lachish,
admitting that he has offended the Assyrian monarch, and
adding, ''Withdraw, and I will pay any fine you choose
to inflict." Messengers return with the information that
Sennacher.ib has fixed the fine at 300 talents of silver and
30 talents of gold. Hezekiah pays it and awaits Sennacherib's withdrawal and the end of the people's suffering.
-2 Ki. 18: 14-16, MojJ.
Hezekiah is surprised to see a large Assyrian army approach Jerusalem and encamp before it. He is informed
that three Assyrian officers, one of them, the Rabshakeh or
field marshal, a renegade Jew, are stationed on the road
below the citadel and are calling for the king. Hezekiah
sends out three of his own officials to them, and instructs
the rest of the people to keep silent. When his officials
return he sees they have torn their own garments and are in
anguish. They- report to the king the arrogant Assyrian
demand of surrender and insults to Jehovah and His servants. As soon as Hezekiah hears it, he tears his own garments, and sends his three officials to the prophet Isaiah,
instructing them to say to him: "This day is a day of
trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely; for the children
are come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
It may be Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of
Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath 'sent
to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which
Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer
for the remnant that is left." Hezekiah then puts on sackcloth and goes to the temple of Jehovah. When he leaves
the temple his officers meet him with Isaiah's answer: "Thus
saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast
heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have
blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he
shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and
I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."
-2 Ki. 18: 17-19: 7, Am. Stan. Ver.; Isa. 36: 2-37: 7;
2 ehron. 32: 9-19.
Rabshakeh withdraws from Jerusalem to Sennacherib,
now at Libnah. When next messengers are sent to J erusalem, they bring along a letter from Sennacherib. Hezekiah
receives the letter from the hand of a messenger and reads
it: ''Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you,
saying, 'Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the
king of Assyria.' You have surely heard what the kings of
Assyria have done to all the lands in completely destroying
them, and will you be delivered1 Did the gods of the nations
which my fathers destroyed deliver them1"-2 Ki. 19: 8-14,
An Amer. Trans.; Isa. 37: 8-14.
Hezekiah is indignant but his trust in Jehovah is unshaken. He goes up to the temple and spreads out the letter
before Jehovah and prays: "0 Jehovah, the God of Israel,
that sittest above the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou
alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made
heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, 0 Jehovah, and hear;
open thine eyes, 0 Jehovah, and see; and hear the words of
Sennacherib, wherewith he hath sent him to defy the living
God. Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid
waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods
into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's

255

hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

Now therefore, 0 Jehovah our God, save thou 'us, I beseech
thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that thou Jehovah art God alone."-2 Ki.
19: 14-19, Am. Stan. Ver.; Isa. 37: 14-20.
As he leaves the temple he meets a messenger from Isaiah
who tells him that God has told the prophet that He has
heard his prayer. Then he tells the king what Jehovah has
spoken concerning Sennacherib. "The virgin daughter of
Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; the
daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom
hast thou defied and blasphemedT and against whom hast
thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on higM
even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy messengers
than hast defied the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude
of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains,
to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the
tall cedars thereof, and the choice firtrees thereof;' and I
will enter into his farthest lodging-place, the forest of his
fruitful field. I have digged and drunk strange waters, and
with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of'
Egypt. Hast thou not heard how I have done it long ago,
and formed it of ancient times T now have I brought it to
pass, that it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into
ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were of small
power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as
the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass
on the housetops, and as grain blasted before it is grown
up. But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and
thy coming in, and thy raging against me. Because of thy
rnging against me, and because thine arrogancy is come up
into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose,
and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by
the way by which thou camest."-2 Ki. 19: 20-28, Am. Stan.
Ver.; Isa. 37: 21-29.
Then the messenger relates Jehovah's assurance of deliverance from Sennacherib: "He shall not come unto this
city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before
it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. By the way
that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall
not come unto this city, saith Jehovah. For I will defend
this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant
David's sake."-2 Ki. 19: 29-34, Am. Stan. Ver.; Isa.
37: 30-35.
Early the next morning when Hezekiah looks beyond the
walls, he sees no Assyrian army marching against the city.
Soon a Judean messenger appears with the news: Sennacherib had left Lachish and was besieging Libnah when he
heard Tirhakah was marching against him. It was then that
he had sent his blasphemous letter. But this morning
185,000 Assyrian warriors and officers were found dead in
the Assyrian camp, slain by Jehovah, and Sennacherib has
rushed back to Assyria.-2 Ki. 19: 35, 36; Isa. 37: 36, 37;
2 ehron. 32: 21.
"Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of
Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them
on every side." Hezekiah's prayer that all the kingdoms
of the earth might know that Jehovah is God alone was
also answered, for "many bronght gifts unto Jehovah to
Jerusalem, and precious thinglt to Hezekiah king of Judah;
so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from

256

~eWATCHTOWER

thenceforth." He was thus blessed and strengthened by

Jehovah because "he trusted in Jehovah, theoGod of Israel",
and "departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses".-2 Chron.
29 : 2; 32: 22-33; 2 Ki. 18: 3, 5, 6; 20: 1.21, Am. Stan. Ver.;
Isa. 38: 1-39 : 8; 1 Chron. 4: 3243.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Hezekiah prefigured Jehovah's King, Christ Jesus, who

always trusts Jehovah and is now restoring true worship.
Jehovah's destruction of the Assyrians prefigured Jehovah's
destruction of all his enemies at the impending battle of
Armageddon and his preservation of his heavenly King
and kingdom, that all may know that Jehovah is God alone.

FIELD EXPERffiNCES
A REAL MINISTER OF GOD AND A PRETENDED ONE

PREACHING ALONG THE HIGHWAYS

A fifteen-year-old bona fide minister of God tells us:

"One day while working in my territory I knocked at the
door of an ordinary-looking house and was suddenly confronted by a priest. I went ahead with the presentation of
the Watchtower magazine which was a current offer. The
priest asked me if I was one of Jehovah's witnesses. When
I replied I was, he asked me in, saying that he had heard
and read quite a bit about us but had never had a chance
to speak to one of us. The first question he asked was why
we were always attacking the Catholic church. I tried to
explain to him that we were not against the Catholic people
but were fulfilling our commission to Jehovah by preaching
the truth contained in the Bible and that these truths
proved tha.t religion was contrary to the worship of Jehovah
God. He then asked if I did not know that the Catholic
church was the preserver of the Bible. I asked him, if the
Catholic church were the preserver of the Bible why did she
have Tyndale and others tortured and killed because of
their work of translating and publishing the Bible. He
excused that. by saying tha.t it h:1ppened long ago, !i.lld that
the Catholic church had improved since then. Oh, then
what about the 110,000 Bibles that were destroyed in 1941
in Spain by the Hierarchy? That did not look as though
they were trying to preserve the Bible. He came back
with the question, 'What kind of Bibles were they?' I told
him, 'No doubt the King James Version, as they were sent
to Spain from England.' He then said that only the Douay
Version of the Bible was inspired. From my knowledge of
the 'Equipped' book I explained to him that the Douay
Version in itself was not inspired and was just a translation
of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate by Jerome. The faithful
men who wrote the original Hebrew and Greek canon were
inspired but not the translators. This confused him quite a
bit, and he then went to the doctrines and asked me about
purgatory. I told him that we did not believe in purgatory,
as it was not even mentioned in the Bible. To prove the
doctrine, he quoted the text from the Maccabees. I told him
that the Maccabees were not a part of the Bible canon but
were of the Apocrypha, and therefore were not inspired
authority. He insisted that the book was part of the Bible.
Then I told him that, even if it were, it did not support the
doctrine of purgatory but actually the doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead, and r quoted other scriptures
showing the condition of the dead. He then brought up
other doctrines, such as the immortality of the soul, Peter
the first pope, etc. Each time I refuted his argument he
would jump to another subject. I left a Watchtower magazine with him, and, as I was about to leave (we had discussed these things for more than an hour), he said: 'I
am sure that God will bless all you people because of your
sincerity and conviction in your worship.' "

WIlerever they are Jehovah's ministers are always ready

to declare Jehovah's praises. Concerning a salesman whom
they met while traveling in New York state two of Jehovah's witnesses say:
''We gave him a witness as best we could and on leaving
him left the book 'Equipped for Every Good Work' with
him. He seemed very much for religion, stating he lived
with a Catholic priest and discussed the Bible very much.
He was completely forgotten until this morning when we
received a letter from him. The following is what he said:
"'I know you both will be surprised to hear from me at
all and especially so since so much time has elapsed since we
rode together. I've read up to the seventh lesson in
"Equipped for Every Good Work". I told you at the time
I received this book that you would probably have it
returned with marginal notes and comments. Sorry, fellows,
it won't be marked at all. I'm surprised and pleased. So
far I find it sound, factual and on the whole very much
something I've been looking for in all religions. As you
know, I was hom a Catholic. There have been many, many
things supposedly taught me that were far from satisfactory in my search for truth. I don't believe that my life
will ever be long enough to give me even a mild satisfaction
in this search. These first seven chapters are the nearest
non-confusing, progressive and aggressive evidence toward
a definite understanding that I've found. When I stop to
think of the number of Jehovah's witnesses I've sent from
my front door without a chance to speak, I feel ashamed.' "
GOD'S TRUTH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

A native of Budapest, Hungary, writes from there:

"A few booklets got into my hands which a friend of
mine received from America, but Bhe threw them out in the
garbage can in her kitchen and for some reason I picked
them up and brought them home. These little booklets,
Choosing Riches or Ruin, Escape to the Kingdom, Warning,
Hereafter, from day to day enlightened my understanding
so much that for the past two weeks I can hardly sleep,
for my mind is constantly on the contents of the booklets
and the Bible. I find many interesting new things in these
booklets which have changed my life completely. If I had
found gold in my friend's garbage can, it would not have
made me as happy as those four booklets which I found.
"One of the booklets states that a lecture in printed form
will be sent free to anyone for the asking. Will you please
send me this lecture, because I admit that I have use for
more enlightenment which will lead me to Jehovah God.
My conscience dictates that I write this letter.
''Now I will close with the belief that I will not be
cheated in Jehovah God's service and that He will give
me the things necessary for me to get life, which I desire."

"They shall know that Iam Jehovah~'

- Etekiel 35:15.

VOL. LXIX

No. 17

SE1UMONTHLY

SEPTEMBER I, 1948

CONTENTS
A HEALTHFUL MEANS OF GAIN ...... 250

Mystery Solved
260
Sent "in the Flesh"
261
Morc Healthful than Bodily Training 251
AWAY OF LIFE WITH CONTENTMENT
263
Healthful Teachings
214
"A Sufficiency of One's Own"
266
NEARING THE PORTALS
OF THE NEW WORLD

HOSEA PROCLAIMS JEHOVAH'S MERCy

AN INTERESTING LETTER IN HE MEMORIAL
"KING FOR ALL EARTH"
TESTIMONY PERIOD
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES
ANNUAL MEETING OF WATCH TOWER
BmLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
SAVE

267
270
271
258
258
258
258

ZheWATCHTOWER
PtJlILtBH!:D

SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S.A.
OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

President

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and

great shall be the peace of thy children." - baiah 5 : IS.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH is the only trUe God, from everlasting to
everlustlng, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Gh'er of
life to his crpatures; that the Word or Logos was the be~lnnlng
of his creation and his acllve agent in creating all other thin;."S;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against JehO\'ah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty;
THA'l' GOD created the earth for man. made perfeet man for
the earth /lnd pl/lced him Upon it; that man 3'ielded to unfnlthful
LucIfer, or Satan, and willfully diso[)e~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that b3' reason of Adam's wrong act all men
al'e born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT 'fHE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suf
fered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other Cl'eature and clothed him with all
power und authority as head of God's new capltai organization:
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATIO~ is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Ollicer thereof and is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithfUl anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovuh's
organization, and are His Witnesses whose duty and privilege It
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as e"-1>ressed in the mble:
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted ruie, ended
A.D. 1014, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne. bas ousted Satan from beaven, and now proceeus to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehovah's kingdom unuer Christ. which bas begun; thut Ills
next great act is to destro~' Satan's orgaUlzation and estublish
righteousness completely In the earth; and that under the KillgUOlU
the people of goou-will sur\'n IDg Armagel1don will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous of'fsprin::;, and
that the human dead in the grn yes Will be rUlsed to opportunities
of Ii Fe on earth.
"KING FOR ALL EARTH" TESTIMONY PERIOD

For a world-wide testimony to the one "King for all the earth"
the month of October has been set aside. During tbat fa\'orable
season all subjects of Jehovah's King, who now reigns despite
his enemies, will join in special efforts to advertise the King
and his kingdom. The Awake/ magazine will be the principal
offer to the people, a year's subscription for $1.00. For those
who are readers of A.wake! already, the offer wiII be three bound
books on a contribution of $1.00. The books to be offered are
"Let God Be True", "The Kingdom Is at Hand", and "The
Tmtll Shall Malee You Free", besides the latest booklet, Permanent' Governor of All Nations. This is not book-agency work,
but is ambasslldonal work for wi.nning subjects to the new
world's King. Viewing it that Scriptural way, Watchtowe,' readers
will appreciate the honor of,it and will want to show their allegiance to the "King for all the earth" by sharing in this special
work of October. We anticipate that many will write for references and instructions and supplies. We want to put all such
in happy contact with the organized active subjects of the King.
We close with a reminder of your l'eportlOg at the end of this
Testimony Period.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of October 3: "A Healthful Meaus of Gain,"

1-21 inclusive, The Watchtower September 1, 1948.
Week of October 10: "A Way of Life with Contentment,"
11' 1-17 inclusive, The Watchtower September 1, 1948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is pUbllshed for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In tbe Bible. It publlshes Bible Instruction Spe<:itlcully
designed to aid JelloVllh's witnesses and all people of good-will.
It urranges s~'stematlc Bible studY for Its readers nnd the Society
supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It puLJlishes
suitable muteriul for radio bl'Oadcastlng and tor other means
ot public instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from ali religion, parties, seets or
other woridly organizations. It is wholly and without resen'atlon
tor the klng!lom of Jeho\'ah God under Christ his belo\'ed King,
It Is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical exululnutlon
ot Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not IndUlge
in controversy. and Its columus are not open to personullties.

Notice to Sub.erib/lf": Re....ttallCe. should be sent to oIDce In your

country In compliance with rel,lulations to guarantee safe ,Ielh'ery of
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expires. Ohanoe of addru. when sent to our office mas be expected
elIective within one moutll. Send your old lUI well ns new address.

Please address the Watch Tower Society In e\'ery C118e.

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Printed In the United States of America
Elltered as .econd-cla ",atter of the post o.f!lce at llrookZvn, N. Y.,
u/ldc, the ..tct 01 Match 3, 11l79.

A!\'NUAL MEETING
OF WATCII TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, II nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation, will hold the annual meeting of its mel1lber~
on Friday, October 1, 1948, at 10: 00 o'clock, forenoon, at the
registered office of the Society, Wabash Building, 410 Libcrty
Avenue, Pittsburgh 22, Pennsylvania. Regular business of the
corporation will be then transacted.
This announcement merely supplements the regular notices
of the meeting, which are being mailed to the members together
with proxy forms, Every member, whether attending the meeting
in person or not, should mail his proxy to the office of the secretary of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2J New York, by September 15, 1D-18.
SAVE

your personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower.

Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer
or on library shelves. At the end of each year, in its December 15 issue, The Watchtower contains an indcx of subjects and an
index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in
all the leading articles throughout the year. By saving your copies
and keeping them in date order you will have an invaluable reference library for consultation in your study of the Bible. Organized
companies should preserve copies in the library of their local
Theocratic ministry course school.

~eWAICIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

1, 1948

SEPTEMBER

No. 17

A HEALTHFUL MEANS OF GAIN

"Supposing godliness to be a means of gain! Now it is a great means of gain-godliness, with a
sufficiency of one's O1U'Il."-1 Tim. 6: 5, 6, Rotherham.

EHOVAH knows the most healthful way of living.

The IJealth that it brings us if we follow it means
everlasting life to us. Christendom has failed to
bring this healthful way of life to this world, notwithstanding her sixteen centuries of existence and
her hundreds of religions and her 592,406,542 members. Today she is in a spiritually and morally
diseased condition worse than ever in her history.
Her sickness is one spelling her death soon. Her
condition with all its symptoms fits the prediction of
what was due to come in the last days of her life,
namely: "Know this, that in the last days grievous
times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self,
lovers of money [high profits, revenues, salaries,
wages], boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control,
fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed
up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
holding a form of godliness, but having denied the
power thereof: ... evil men and impostors shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
-2 Tim. 3: 1-5, 13, Am. Stan. Ver.
2 In such a condition Christendom could never be
God's organization. The trouble with her is, she does
not walk in God's wholesome laws and ways. She is
the dominant part of this wicked world and she is
as worldly as any other part of it. She is soaked
through with religious hypocrisy and holds to only
a "form of godlines:,;". Because she does not have
true godliness and its health-giving po\ver she will
die. All her selfish gain will be lost forever.
3 She has gone out of the way of godliness for the
sake of gaining all this world has to offer. For this
she will lose her own soul, her life. Thinking that an
injection of a form of godliness would immunize her
against sin's penalty, death, she has not minded the
words of Christ, whom she loudly boasts of following: "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the
whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul1
Or what exchange shall a man give for his s0l1l1"
(:Matt. 16: 26, DOHay) Christendom has been willing

to exchange her soul for the selfish political, commercial and religious gains she has won from this
world. Her whole system is now pierced with the
continual pangs of distress, suffering, sorrow, suspicions, perplexity, and fear. Shortly she will sink
to her ruin and destruction. She cannot escape the
penalty for ignoring the warning she has often read:
"They that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts,
such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which
some reaching after have been led astray from the
faith, and have pierced themselves through with
many sorrows."-1 Tim. 6: 9,10, Am. Stan. Vel".
The way of this world is a sickly way of death.
Christendom has been walking in it and leading her
religious flocks in it. Now she and they are near the
end of the way! All along she has copied worldliness,
which is the opposite of godliness. If honest-hearted
men and women both inside and outside of Christendom have become disgusted with her religious sham,
it is only fair to God that we have them understand
that Christendom's practice of religion in hundreds
of forms is not true godliness. Men and women
should not reproach Jehovah God, thinking he
approves of her hypocrisy and does not see through
it. They should not blame him for all the disastrous
results that have befallen this world due to her
inconsistent professions and actions. To pass a
correct judgment upon godliness, they should first
come to know what it is, and its benefits.
5 In spite of his perfection, the first man Adam did
not set the perfect example of godliness for us. He
broke off from devotion to God and hunted for
selfish gain, and this has led to all of our ills which
end up in death. Adam did not vindicate God as
Creator by worshiping him and obeying him in the
face of temptation, but yielded to the wicked one,
Satan the Devil. Whereas that wicked one set himself to destroy all godliness from the earth and to
keep it out, Jehovah at once declared in Eden his
purpose to put a man on earth who would display

1, :1 What IS the reaSOn for ChrIstendom's s!JJrltually Sick state?

3. Whr Ilas she not walked tile godly war. IguOrlng wllat \\arlllug?

4. Why should the honest not mlsJudJ';e godliness by Christendom?

5. How and why WllJI the "mystery ot godlIness" Introduced?
2~O

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perfect godliness, dying rather than swerve over to

the Devil's world. Godliness is at enmity with this
world, and so in declaring his purpose Jehovah God
said to the Devil: "And enmity will I put between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed,-he shall crush thy head, but thou shalt crush
his heeL" (Gen. 3: 15, Rotherham) This statement of
purpose introduced a mystery. For four thousand
years a!ter tha! it remained a sacred secret, namely,
'\Vho will be thIS perfect exemplar of godliness, the
Seed of God's "woman'" All creatures had to admit
that the secret was great indeed, for angels as well
as many faithful men, and wicked schemers also,
tried to delve into the meaning of the secret. None
of them solved the mystery. (1 Pet. 1: 10-12) Then,
nineteen centuries ago, Jehovah opened up this
secret of godliness, and the apostle Paul called
attention to it, saying: "And evidently great is the
mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the
flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto
angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is
believed in the world, is taken up in glory."-l Tim.
3: 16, Douay.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

How was this "mystery of godliness" solved T By

producing the Seed of God's "woman" and by proving that it was absolutely godly. Jehovah God solved
the mystery in this way by sending hil5 beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, into the world to give a perfect demonstration under the most searching test. The test was
made with Jesus Christ in the flesh to the extent of
letting his 'heel be bruised by the deceitful Serpent'.
Under test he proved that a man in the flesh can be
tried to the very limit, a most shameful and painful
death, and yet hold onto perfect godliness. Satan
the Devil has made himself the "god of this world"
and wants everybody in it to become worldly according to the style of this world. He tries to get all to
worship him as god by becoming a part of this world
and thereby giving their allegiance to the Devil's
domination. Conforming oneself to the Devil's wishes
is worldliness, and it denies the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God. Worldliness and godliness are
exact opposites. By cleaving to godliness in the midst
of the Devil's world Jesus Christ vindicated the
universal sovereignty of God his Father. He refused
to bow down and worship Satan the Devil and to
become a part of his wicked world. He did not go
worldly.
T For suffering the final heel-wound because of his
godliness, Jesus Christ gained the most glorious
reward. He had left the spirit realms in order to
become man and undergo the test in the flesh. But
at his resurrection from a martyr's death he was

restored to the spirit realms. As an immortal spirit

creature he was exalted to God's right hand. Jehovah
God then instructed Jesus to sit at his right hand
and wait till his Father should glorify him with
Kingdom power and honor, making all his foes to
be his footstool. Then Jesus Christ as reigning King
would vindicate his Father completely by destroying all such enemies.-Ps. 110: 1-6; Hcb. 10: 12, 13.
S Jesus' course of absolute godliness and the eternal gain to which it led were foretold in veiled language in God's prophecies from Genesis to Malachi.
No wonder it was long a mystery! The apostle Paul
admits it was a great one when he writes: "And
confessedly great is the sacred secret of godliness,
- '\Vho was made manifest in flesh, was declared
righteous in spirit, was made visible unto messengers [angels], was proclaimed among nations, was
believed on in the world, was taken up in glory."
(1 Tim. 3: 16, Rotherham) It was not J ehovab God
himself, but was his beloved Son Jesus Christ that
was thus "made manifest in flesh". He was a fleshly
descendant of King David with whom a covenant
for an everlasting kingdom had been made. By his
devotion to Jehovah as God and Universal Sovereign, Jesus held fast to that kingdom covenan t
as its Heir. Hence when raised from death he was
"declared righteous", or was justified, vindicated.
But this justification or vindication was given him
in the spirit by rewarding him with spirit life at his
resurrection. When he returned to the spirit realms
from which he descended to earth, Jesus Christ was
again seen in the midst of God's holy messengers or
angels in heaven. This paved the way for fulfilling
the scripture: "And when he again bringeth in the
firstborn into the world he saith, And let all the
angels of God worship him." (Heb. 1: G, Am. Stan.
Ver.) At his resurrection he was muue so much
better than the angels. His godliness on earth under
test in the flesh was the heallhful means of this
great gain.
~ For the three and a half years of ministry in the
flesh Jesus confined his preaching and miracles
almost exclusively to the Jews. For three and a half
years after his resurrection from the dead his disciples preached 111m exclusively to the Jewish nation
and their relatives, the Samaritans. At the end of
that time Jehovah God sent Peter the apostle to
preach the good news of Christ to the Gentile
nations. Shortly afterward the apol5tle Paul began
having a large part in preaching this profoundly
great "mystery of godliness" to the Gentile nations.
Paul, writing to the Colossians about A.D. GO, shows
how widely the gospel-preaching had expanded,
when he speaks of the "gospel, which is come unto
you; even as it is also in all the world ... the gospel

6. 7. How was this mystery solved? and with what reward?

MYSTERY SOLVED
6

8. How was he made manifest. justlfled. Rnd ,~en of anllels?

To whom wlUl he preached. ily wbom bdl.ve<! 011, lind how I:lorlfied?

SEPTEMBER

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SheWATCHTOWER

261

which ye heard, which was preached in all creation brethren and before the ruler Pharaoh and all Egypt.
under heaven". (Col. 1: 5, 6, 23, Am. Stan. Fer.) (Ex. 3: 13 to 4: 9; 7: 1 to 12: 30) If, now, Jesus
There was a response by the Gentiles to this expand- Christ was the pr0II!ised Prophet greater than
ed preaching, and consequently Jesus Christ "was Moses, he must likewise be sent by Jehovah God and
believed on in the world" as well as "proclaimed be able to prove it by signs even greater than those
among nations". Finally, A.D. 19140, he was "received performed by Moses. Otherwise, Jews loyal to
up into glory" by being placed upon the heavenly Moses would never let go of him and go over to
throne to act as "King of kings" for Jehovah God, Jesus as the Greater Moses. Jesus furnished proof.
to rule in the midst of his enemies. This glorious He persistently claimed to be sent by JellOvah and
elevation of him was pictured prophetically at Reve- to have come in Jehovah's name. To back up this
lation 12: 1-5. Since then the preaching of this good claim, as Moses had done, Jesus did many more
news of the Kingdom has been expanded to all miracles than Moses did, and more marvelous. He
nations, to fulfill Jesus' own prophecy on how to not only cured leprosy, but also raised the dead and
recognize the near end of this world: "This gospel freed his disciples from the whole world, of which
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world ancient Egypt was once the dominant part.
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
12 In proof of being the Greater 110ses sent by and
come."-illatt. 240: 14.
in the name of Jehovah God his Father Jesus said
to the Jews who professed loyalty to Moses: "I have
SENT "IN THE FLEsn"
greater witness than that of J aIm: for the works
which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
10 Godliness means service and devotion to God
and his universal sovereignty. When manifesting works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father
this important trait in the flesh Christ Jesus hath SENT me. And the Father himself, wllich hath
preached the good news of God's kingdom. He also SE~T me, hath borne witness of me.... I am come
arranged for his disciples after his resurrection and in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. ...
ascension to heaven to expand the preaching by mak- There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom
ing disciples not only of the Jews but also of all ye trust. For had ye believed :Moses, ye would have
nations. He was "manifested in the flesh" for the believed me: for he wrote of me." (.J ohn 5: 36, 37,
purpose of bearing witness to .J elJovah God and his 43,45,46) In spite of the hardhearted refusal of
kingdom. When declaring his godly separateness most of the natural Jews to receive him as the
from this world, Jesus testified to Governor Pilate: Greater Moses, Jesus proved his godliness by re"My kingdom is not of this world: ... Thou sayest maining loyally devoted to his Superior, his Sender.
that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for Down to his death as God's great Martyr he carried
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear out the earthly mission upon which he was sent. In
witness unto the truth." (John 18: 3G, 37) On coming his earthly life in the flesh he found godliness to be
into this world, even to the Jews, his brethren the way of gaining his heavenly Father's approval
according to the flesh, it was highly necessary for amI blessings and all the privileges of acting as Ilis
Jesus to proye he was sent from heaven by his witness and minister. But when he \vas resurrected
Father, Jehovah God. Why 1 In order for men to from the dead he found that godliness on earth haJ
been the means of gaining vindication in the spiri t
receive him as God's Seed of His "woman".
and
gaining all the heavenly blessings to which this
11 The apostle Peter declared Jesus Christ was the
Prophet whom :Moses had foretold and who was to vindication introduced him. His godliness proved to
be a prophet greater than ~loses. (Acts 3: 20-23; be the most profitable course, both in this life and
Deut. 18: 15-19) When Jehovah God was commission- in the life to come. It was, indeed, the means of evering :Moses to go down into Egypt, :Moses said: lasting gain. It has always been SUCII, and Jesus'
"Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, gain recommends that way of life also to us.
and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers
MORE HEALTHFUL THAN BODILY TRAINING
hath SE~T me unto you; and they shall say to me,
13 A.D. 1914 was the time when the perfect ExemWhat is his name' what shall I say unto them f"
Jehovah's angel then told :r.ro1::es to declare Jehovah plar of godliness was "received up into glory", for
sent him and that he came in Jehovah's name. To then he was installed as acting "King of kings and
prove this :Moses was given power to perform Lord of lords". This means we are living in the
miraculous signs, even curing leprosy. Hence, in "latter times" of this world. For that reason what
order to furnish more than human proof that he was Paul writes after describing the "mystery of godlisent by Jehovah God and came in His name, 110ses ness" has a peculiar application to us living thirtyperformed miracles both before his own Israelite four years since 1914. Paul warns us that in later
10, 11. Why must he proye he was sent, and how must he prove It?

12. How was his I';odllness a me..ns at I';aln on earth Rnd attel'WRrd?
13, 14. What did the SPIrit distinctly say as to our tlmes, and why?

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times many would not follow the "mystery of godliness", but would revolt against faith in it and in its
profitableness. So Paul referred to the Holy Scriptures which had been given by inspiration of the
spirit and he also wrote under inspiration of that
same spirit of God and said: "The spirit distinctly
says that in later times some will turn away from the
faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits
and the things that demons teach through the pretensions of liars-men with seared consciences who
forbid people to marry and insist on abstinence
from certain kinds of food."-l Tim. 4: 1-3, An
Amer. Trans.
14 So, look about you today for men that fit that
description in Christendom. They have a sickly or
morbid craving for religious arguments and quarreling and try to dictate in the lives of God's people.
They follow the "mystery of iniquity" instead of that
of godliness. They expose themselves to the demons
by going contrary to the Bible and giving themselves
over to worldly teachings opposed to godliness. During Jesus' days in the flesh those demons and evil
spirits opposed him, and he cast out many of them
from demonized people. He has freed us from their
power. Let us not be like men who lose faith and
become enticed by the demons.
15 Seeing we are in the time when the demons are
expanding their power over mankind, we must heed
what Paul advised us for our lasting good. He wrote
Timothy, who was a young overseer in the Christian
congregation and who was to be an example to his
brethren. Keeping in mind the lesson taught by the
"mystery of godliness", Paul told Timothy: "Have
nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train
yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of
some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it
holds promise for the present life and also for the
life to corne. The saying is sure and worthy of full
acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because
we have our hope set on the living God, who is the
Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."
(1 Tim. 4: 7-10, Rev. Stan. Ver.) Timothy's father
was a Greek, and in his day the Greeks were much
addicted to physical training surh as gymnastic
exercises, athletics and field sports. Contrary to that
popular form of worldliness, Paul gave no instructions to Timothy as overseer to build gynasiums
alongside of Christian meeting-places, and to organize youth movements in order to keep children off
the streets and prevent juvenile delinquency; and to
establish organizations of "lmights" with militaristic
training and exercises to keep the physical bodies
of the mature and aging Christians in good health.
No; Paul set no example for Christendom's bishops
to do so.
Ii>. 10. (a) How did Paul differ from this world on bodily exercise?

(b) lIol\' is bodily training shown of amall service to Christendom?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

18 Paul was not shortsighted spiritually. He did

not natrow his view down to our brief life in this
unhealthy world. He looked to the eternal future
also, as of more importance. He honestly admitted
that bodily exercises were of some physical value,
but just a little, for a little while at most. Statuary
of ancient times reveal what beautiful bodies the
athletic Greeks and Romans developed by physical
training. Much earlier, Nimrod king of Babylon
introduced athletic exercises to build up a strong
army of aggression. (Gen. 10: 8-10) But such physical training did not throw off the condemnation of
death. It did not stop the dying processes in the men
exercising and training. Today Christendom's leading religious organizations go in strongly for athletics, gymnastic exercises, and religio-military
societies and orders. But at the same time we have
increase of juvenile delinquency, general godlessness
and sexual diseases. 'Ve have the prophecy for the
"last days" fulfilled in a crop of religious "lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God". Isaiah's prophetic description finds a greater fulfillment in
Christendom than in ancient Israel: "Why will you
earn fresh strokes, for holding on in your revolt 1
Your whole head is sick, your whole heart is diseased; from the sole of the foot to the head, no part
is sound; nothing but bruises and gashes, and raw,
bleeding wounds, unsqueezed, unbandaged, unsoftened with oil. Your land lies desolate, your towns
are burned, and foreigners ravage your soil under
your very eyes." (Isa. 1: 5-7, Moffatt) Ah, ye8,
bodily training is only of some small service to
Christendom.
11 Paul's wisdom is better than that of this world
in urging us to train in godliness. This, too, is strenuous. It calls for activity just the same as bodily
exercise does, but the benefits are greater and more
lasting. It does not mean living a retired sanctimonious life like a hermit or walled up in monkerie~
and nunneries, shunning contact with the daily flow
of human life and dodging opposition and persecution. Out of his own experience Paul said to
Timothy: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3: 12) If
we do not want to give up our devotion to God under
pressure of persecution it certainly requires training to make us strong in godliness as Jesus was. He
showed godliness in a very active way, acting as
God's minister, prophet and witness. He got right
out among the people, visiting their homes, preaching the good news of God's kingdom to them, healing their sicknesses, protecting them against religious frauds, and building up a missionary school
of gospel-preachers. There was nothing lazy or weak
about his godliness. Regardless of the bitterest per-

17.

Wh~t

traimng did Paul ndnse. llnd how Is it strenuous?

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1, 1948

1flieWATCHTOWER..

263

secution from the religious leaders of Israel, he held

fast to his devotion and service to God and resisted
all compromise with the opposing world. Under the
conditions of the flesh he trained in godliness by displaying faithful endurance and loving obedience.
Paul trained to be like Jesus. So he followed Jesus'
example and kept very active as a gospel-preacher,
continually trying to expand his Christian ministry
as an apostle or "sent one". He said, "To this end
we toil and strive."-l Tim. 4: 10, Rev. Stan. Ver.
18 Take notice that "godliness is of value in every
way, as it holds promise for the present life and also
for the life to come". If it is as profitable as that,
then it is a means of gain, indeed. And it really is.
By what other way could we gain the forgiveness of
sin and the peace of mind this brings? Also the relationship with God as his children and servants, and
the joy, the knowledge, the protection, care and provision, and the privileges of service, all due to godliness. These are all things of the present life.
19 Do not think, though, that godliness does not
profit ns also physically now. It safeguards us
against all the ills, excesses, expenses and dangers
to which worldliness exposes us. 'Ve read: "Fear
.J ehoyah, and depart from evil: it will be health to
thy navel, and marrow [refreshing] to thy bones."
Of the benefit of words of godly instruction we read,
as follows: "Keep them in the midst of thy heart.
For they are life unto those that find them, and
health to all their flesh." "Pleasant words are as a
honeycomh, sweet to the soul, and health to the
bones." (Prov. 3: 7, 8 and 4: 21, 22 and 16: 24, Am.
Stan. Ver.) Pursuing godliness we avoid the way of
::iexual sins and all the physical disease and deterioration it means; for we read: "'VllOSO committeth
adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he
that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and
dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not
he wiped away.... Till a dart strike through his
liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth
not that it is for his life." (Prov. 6: 32, 33; 7: 10-23)
Undeniably, godliness is a means of gain in physical
health.
20 As for physical exercise, with all the benefits

this brings the body, think of all the motion in Jesus

and his apostles' lives as they traveled from place
to place, and from one end of the land to the other,
afoot, entering into the temple, synagogues and
homes, using out-of-door settings, mountainsides,
seasides, and grassy plains as locations to preach
the gospel. If a person craves physical exercise he
has merely to enter the ranks of publishers of the
Kingdom, going from door to door and from house
to house, climbing stairs or hills, tramping the city
sidewalks or country roads, carrying a load of lCingdom literature to distribute, entering into the homes
and lives of the people, observing their conditions
and ways of life and thought. It is more interesting
and exciting than listening to the radio, or watching
the movies or television, or taking in a theatrical
performance or a circus. Before the Kingdom publisher it lays bare, not just artificial stage play, but
real life. Physically and mentally, there is nothing
better than such practical godly exercise. If it does
not cause chest expansion, it does bring expansion
of the mind and of one's gospel service.
21 All that has to do with the present life. But
there is also promise for the life to come. The consecrated Christian that is begotten by the spirit of God
to a heavenly inheritance with his Son, Jesus Christ,
has "exceeding great and precious promises" of
eternal life in the Kingdom. Godliness in this present
life is the healthful means of realizing those promises at the resurrection to life immortal in the world
to come. Then there are also the consecrated persons
of good-will whom Christ Jesus the Good Shepherd
is no,.. enfolding as his "other sheep". They have the
delightful promises of eternal life on the paradise
earth, with God's kingdom ruling above, Satan the
Devil fully bound, and God's will being done on
earth as in heaven, and peace, prosperity and true
knowledge and worship of God encircling the globe.
Godliness now in our perilous times neal' this
world's end is the healthful means of gaining realization of those promises. It is the only way to gain
God's protection amid the battle of Armageddon and
to be carried through alive into the righteous new
world to come.

18. In. How is godliness IJI'0!itable for our Ufe JlO".

:!O How do,,~ It bring beneficl.!1 ph~'Mcal exercIse?

21. How does godliness have promise at the life to come?

ph~'sicaIly?

A WAY OF LIFE WITH CONTENTMENT

AR from being a sanctimonious garb worn by
religious clergymen or a pious front worn on
Sundays and when going to religious meetings,
O'odliness is an everyday way of life. It takes hold
~n all of life's relationships, whether one is a father,
mother or child, an old person or young, a slave or

1. To whdt days and relationships does godliness apply,

freeman, an employer or a laborer, an appointed

servant in a Christian company or just an average
member. It tries to copy Jesus Christ, who unfolded
the "mystery of godliness". It strives to do all things
as if they were being done directly to God. The
apostle Paul showed how godliness is something for
all to practice now, when he took notice of economic

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9heWATCHTOWER

slaves and wrote: "Let slaves who are under the

yoke account their masters deserving of all honor,
that the name of the Lord and his teaching be not
blasphemed. And when they have masters who are
believers, let them not despise them because they are
brethren, but let them serve them all the more
because they who share in the benefit are believers
and beloved."-l Tim. 6: 1, 2, Oath. Con/rat.
In apostolic days half of the Roman Empire was
slave population. :Many of these slaves, such as
Onesimus, came to a knowledge of the gospel, consecrated themselves to Jehovah and became followers
of his Son Jesus Christ. (Philem. 10-12) But this
did not give slaves the license to run away, on the
plea that they might gain a more direct part in God's
service. The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen and
freeborn, but he did not enter worldly politics and
try to make himself the prototype of Abraham
Lincoln and emancipate the slaves by a costly,
sanguinary war. The slaves had heen bought, paid
for, and brought into the establishments of their
legal masters and directed to work. Those who heard
Paul and Timothy preach the gospel and teachings
of godliness must have had some time off from work.
Paul told Timothy to instruct these slaves in the
way of true godliness. A godly slave regards llis
legal master as deserving all the honor and respect
due him. He will not run off to gain his freedom
selfishly, but will continue on in his place as a slave
doing the work laid upon him. In that way God's
name and the teacllings of godliness would not
become defamed. The Christian organization would
not get a bad name as though it tanght disrespect,
disobedience and social disruption, and as though it
operated an "underground" to help the e:;:cape, of
runaway slaves.
3 If they used their yoke of slavery as an opportunity to show what Christian slaves aIe, they could
impress their masters and could advantageously
talk Christianity to them. If their masters became
Christian believers, that made no change with the
master and slave socially. The slave should respect
him just as much as when his master was an unbelieving Jew or pagan. Slavery, under that name, does
not exist in Christendom today, but Paul's words to
Timothy still show the right relations between
employers and employees, regardless of whether
employers associations or trades and labor unions
may agree or not. Paul was talking godliness and
showing it is not a way of taking selfish adYantage
of another person, whether Christian or not. There
is no reason for us to begin to disesteem a person
in certain social relations just because that individual with whom or under whom we work should
come into the truth.

N. Y.

4 Suppose we work in an office or a factory and we

interest the person we call "the boss" in the truth.
If "the boss" comes to our meetings, gains the proper
knowledge of the truth, consecrates to God and then
goes out into the field service as an active witness
of Jehovah, no reason has come into being why we
should disrespect him, now that he has become our
Christian brother. lIe holds the same place over us
as before. We may not lose our appreciation for his
position in the commercial, industrial or other
organization. We should not take liberties with him
or presume upon him, thinking he should now be
indulgent because he is now one of us as a Christian.
We should render him all the service for which the
job paJ-s us. Paul told the slave to render all the
better service because now the one getting the benefit of his good workmanship was a believer and
hence a beloved brother. Love of our Christian
brother and neighbor would be shown by not taking
advantage of his Christlike mildness and rendering
less service than was due. It is our employer that
gets the advantage of our good work. and if he is
now a Christian brother we should be all the more
eager to deliver good service. In fact, the whole
organization or enterprise benefits by our good service; and this means improved returns for us indirectly. So let us give good service returns for our pay,
and not take unfair, selfish advantage of anyone
because' he is closely related in the truth. Neither
our godliness nor that of others is to be used as a
way of making selfish gain.

HEALTHFUL TEACUINGS

The principal theme in Paul's first letter to

Timothy was godliness, and he explained to Timothy
what this was in practice. Timothy must, in turn,
explain to other Christians what it meant and must
insist upon it. Said Paul to the young ovel seer:
"These things be teaching and exhorting :-1 anyone doth otherwise teach and doth not adhere to
healt hful discourses-those of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the teaching that is according to godliness, he is beclouded, knowing notlling rigJllIy, but
is diseased about questionings and word-bat llesout of whicll spring envy, strife, defamations, wicked
surmisings, incpssant quarrellings of men wholly
corrupt in their mind and bereft of the truth, ::mpposing godliness to be a means of gain! Now it is n
great means of gain-godliness with a snl1il'lency of
one's own; for nothing brought we into the world,
neither to take anything out are we able; and having
sustenance and covering we shall be content."
-1 Tim. 6: 2-8, Roth.
6 The Lord Jesus Christ by his faithful course on
earth unlocked the "mystery of godliness". The
5

4 How do the l:odlv treat their employer., whether Chrlstlan or 1101"

G In) Who ga\'e healthful cllscourse~. and how .. 01 (b) Those opposlnl'
such ,1Iscourses are how diseased beyond hldlnl: It?

1),

2, 3, 'Vhy "ere slaves Instructed to lin godly, and how?

BROOKLYN,

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things he taught by word and action were ''healthful

discourses"; they were teaching which accords with
godliness. They lead to spiritual health which both
profits us in this life and works for our profit in the
life to come in the righteous new world. If Christendom had followed such healthful discourses of Christ
during the sixteen centuries of her history, she
would not be in her spiritually bankrupt state today.
By word of mouth her religious leaders, politicians
and social guides agree with what Paul says all
through his letter about practical godliness, but the
facts show they do not teach and practice what he
says. They are not spiritually healthy, but are
mentally "diseased about questionings and \vordbattl-es". It must be so, because Christendom is filled
with envy, strife, defamations, wickpd suspicions,
incessant quarrelings, corrupt minds. The~3 are the
symptoms of something wrong inside, and Paul says
they spring from a diseased mental and spiritual
condition. Christendom has fooled herself into thinking a mere "form of godliness" has power to save
and give health. It does not hide her corrupt, dying
condition any more. Everybody can see she uses her
"f~nn of godliness" as a means of selfish worldly
gam.
T When professed Christians get to thinking that
their adoption of godliness pro';ide~ ways ann mpam
for selfish worldly gain, their minds have gone bad
and have become corrupted. Such persons become
lost to the truth. Sometimes people will associate
with the truth thinking they are going to get some
personal material gain from the individuals in God's
organization. A doctor may get closely acquainted
with a few of God's people and find it convenient to
drum up a patronage among them and so find business coming from the congregation. Further to
attract business from the congregation, he may
adopt an appearance of activity and go out with the
brethren in various forms of field activity. He puts
up a front of godliness for selfish gain. He may not
take undue advantage of the brethren while doing
so. That is, he may give proper, yes, excellent treatment for the money he accl?pts from them, even
better treatment than other doctors would give at
the same rates. But the question is, 'What is the
motive behind carrying on his practice among God's
people, getting patronage and financial returns for
himself f If he is using godliness as a means of
selfish gain, then his motive and ml?ntal attitude
will injure him spiritually. His mind will grow corrupt. He will become bereft of the truth, lost! The
Watch Tower Society does not co-operate with any
such doctors, nor with others who commercialize
their association with Jehovah's witnesses. It does
not drum up trade for them, or advertise their serv7, How rna, one try to make godliness a menns

or

selfish gain 0

ices or products, or otherwise help in selling these

to God's people.
S The \Vatch Tower Society operates printing
plants and produces and ships out tens of millions
of books, booklets, magazines and tracts each year.
However, this is no effort to make godliness a means
of gain. The Watch Tower Society and all its subsidiaries have sprung up since 1881. They were not
organized and established to make personal material
gain for any individuals or groups of persons. They
were founded originally to spread the knowledge of
God and his purpose of salvation through Christ.
From the first publication of the Watch Tower
magazine, in July, 1879, to this date this modern
organization of Jehovah's witnesses has stuck to this
unselfish purpose. The establishment of printing
plants from 1920 forward to produce its own magazines, booklets, bound books and other printed
releases was not resorted to for the purpose of making money. It was to expand the great educational
campaign for Christian knowledge by providing the
literature most economically, reducing the cost of
production and distribution, and so produce more
and make it available to a larger number of people
in as many languages as possible. The literature is
always placed on a minimum contribution, that the
rontriblltnr may valuE" IDo-rc what he i;s ge:tting aIJ(]
also haV"e a part in financially helping in the making
and circulating of more literature.
9 But from the beginning, particularly from 1881
on, when 1,400,000 copies of the 164-page book Food
for Tl/inking Christians were distributed absolutely
free at church doors and by newspaper circulation
lists, the Society has given away hundreds of millions
of pieces of literature free to whosoever was interested to read it. Even since the installation of publishing houses and Kingdom farms the Watch Tower
Society's operations have not resulted in the financial
enrichment of any of Jehovah's witnesses, including
the president of the legally incorporated Society. All
contributions to the Society, whether made directly
or through the placing of literature, have been unsparingly used to maintain and continually expand
the Christian educational work throughout all the
earth. At great expense the Society operates WBBR,
a noncommercial radio station on Staten Island,
New York, solely to penetrate into millions of homes
with the Kingdom message. Under the great persecution and opposition against Jehovah's witnesses
in all lands the Society has gone into the courts in
their behalf, freely providing legal aid, but this at
tremendous expense to itself.
10 Trusting in Jehovah God to provide the funds,
the Society has never advocated and authorized the
8, 9. What pro,'e. that the Society a. a publl.her and printer has not
been making godliness a menna of selfish gain?
10. How also does the Society tender free services and education?

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N. Y.

passing of mone)" collection plates around at any with the lot his Father provided for him. We do not
meetings of Jehovah's witnesses. Besides supplying have to go to some worldly college and take up a
pioneers and company publishers with excellent course in psychology to learn how to be in that
educational literature for distribution free or on mental state of contentment.
nominal contributions, the Society instructs these
12 If we are following in Christ's steps, we need
witnesses to make return visits on the friendly only to keep in mind what he always had in mind.
people to stimulate their interest in regular Bible He never put himself ambitiously ahead of his
study and to open and conduct home Bible studies. Father. He was always ready to be sent, to be put
All this is at no charge to the persons visited in service, and always ready to take orders from his
and accepting weekly Bible-study help. The Society Father. He was sent to accomplish a work here. He
operates a missionary training school, the Watch- received a commission from his Father, and he fultower Bible School of Gilead, at South Lansing, N.Y., filled it. He proved his love for his Father by being
to which full-time Kingdom publishers from all parts obedient. Jehovah God, his heavenly Father, made
of the earth are brought and given an intensive all arrangements for him. He did not figure these
course of study and training, and all their traveling out for himself. He did not come of himself. He wafO
and tuition expenses, board, lodging, etc., are pro- sent. He was content to be here on earth for the time
vided free. In more than ninety lands around the appointed for him, and he did not think his Father
globe the Society supports missionary homes, had made a mistake. No matter what God told
Branch offices and literature supply depots. This him or taught him, he fulfilled his Father's words,
calls for great outlay of money, buf this is gladly because it was an act of true worship. It was a joy
tendered so as to teach the peoples the way of godli- to him, because he was doing his Father's will. He
ness. In every way the Society seeks to provide the was not ashamed of being sent into the world as a
means for all men and women accepting the truth subordinate and servant of God. He was glad to
and consecrating themselves to God to become his be an obedient minister.
active and efficient ministers. Vl e are interested in
13 If we profess to be followers and imitators of
helping all Watchtower readers to be God's minis- Christ Jesus we properly ask ourselves: Are we.
ters, but not to make any selfish material gain either like him, willing to be sent T Are we willing to take
for themselves or for us.
orders from God's \Yord and through his Theocratic
organization Y Jesus was a perfect man, but because
"A SUFFlCIE.~CY OF ONE'S OWN"
of our imperfection we his.followers need orders and
instructions all the more. He went whithersoever
11 It betrays a corrupt mind to view godliness as
a way and means of personal material gain. Yet the sent, and are we following his example by willingly
inspired apostle does say "it is a great means of going whithersoever sent in the great field, the world,
gain 0', that is, provided one combines godliness "with to take part in the great expansion of Christian edua sufficiency of one's own". Feeling a sufficiency of cation T A servant is not greater than his master,
one's own means contentment. The Greek word that neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
Paul uses means literally "self-sufficiency". So it A servant should be satisfied to become like his
means being satisfied with one's lot or provisions, master, and a pupil like his teacher; and we should
having enough to suit one, thus being independent not be afraid or ashamed to be ambassadors and
and grabbing at no excuse to complain and find fault. servants of God any more than our Master and
The person who does not have godliness with con- Teacher Jesus Christ was. Being ~ent, we ought to
tentment goes after other gain than that which true comply gladly with orders, because we have them
devotion and service to God now brings. He goes from the right source. We ought to be willing and
after something selfish, something to his own per- satisfied to do the work we are commissioned and
sonal advantage and enrichment, but not for God's sent to do. In sending forth his followers, Jesus
glory and the good of his brethren. Persons who take assured us we shall be treated just as he was. But
up godliness but who let their minds grow corrupt why should we find fault at that' When we make our
ar.e the ones who become discontented. How mis- consecration to God, we know it will not be a simple
guided they are, beclouded through selfishness, matter to carry out. We start out willing to endure
diseased mentally! They do not look to Jesus Christ, trials, hardships and privations for his name's sake.
who summed up the "mystery of godliness", to see \Ye must persist in doing so. That is godliness ,vith
what worth-while gains he made both while being in contentment.
U Through persisting in godliness because of the
the flesh and after being vindicated in the spirit.
Why did he make such gains Y Because he was con- satisfaction, joy and peace of mind it now gives us,
tented while in the flesh on earth. He was satisfied 12. How was Jesus contented and unashamed on eartb?
11. Whllt does a "sufficiency of one's own" mean? and how docs It act?

13. How do we Imitate him in being wllUng and contented, and wby"
14, 15. How did Paul learn contentment? and how do "e now?

SEPTEMBER

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~eWATCHTOWER

267

we learn contentment. Paul the apostle did. If his

brethren of their own free will contributed materially to his support in his missionary work out in the
field or when he was in prison, he rejoiced at their
show of Christian love and assistance to God's work.
But if he did not receive such material support, he
was just as glad to serve God. Then he used whatever means and resources he found at hand, to make
himself independent and self-sufficient. He did not
let shortages impede the Lord's work. To the
Philippians who sent him some supplies for his use
in prison at Rome, Paul wrote: "I rejoice in the Lord
greatly that now at length you have revived your
concern for me; you were indeed concerned for me,
but you had no opportunit)'. Not that I complain of
want; for I have learned. in whatever state I am, to
be content. I know ho\.... to be abased, and I know
how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have
learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and want. I can do all things in him who
strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my
trouble. . . . Not that I seek the gift; but I seek
the fruit which increases to your credit."-Phil.
4: 10-17, Rev. Stan. Fer.
15 Likewise, Jehovah's witnesses in war-torn parts
of the earth did not let postwar conditions hold them
up in preaching the gospel. They were content just
to serve the Lord God, despite the hard conditions
prevailing. However, they did appreciate the relief
supplies of food, clothing, and printing materials
and means that their feIlo\\! witnesses in other lands
lovingly sent them.
16 When we have true godliness with all its blessings, we have reason to be content with all we have.
We brought nothing into the world. At death we can
take nothing out. As Job said, after he lost all his
material possession and all his ten children: "Naked
came lout of my mother's womb, and naked shall
I return thither." So, what selfish gains we try to
make at the expense of losing godliness are merely
temporary. \Vhy heap up material riches for others
after we pass on T The gain we make by means of
lwlding fast our godliness through contentment

endures, to eternal life. in the new world. God took

care of his Son Jesus when He sent him into this
world. If he never left his Son alone but was always
with him to care for hiin, then we can expect the
same attention of God, for Jesus asked his Father to
bless his followers whom he sends into the world.
Having God's care, we can be content. If we have
food and also clothing and shelter to cover us, "we
shall be content." We do not want money. We want
godliness with contentment, because this protects us
from all the many kinds of evil which find their root
in the love of money. The love of money makes men
slaves to the commercial organization of this world.
-1 Tim. 6: 9,10.
11 Having stated the case so plainly, Paul gave this
closing exhortation to Timothy, and to us as well:
"But thou, 0 man of God, flee these things; and
follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness." He said we should pray "that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty". (1 Tim. 6: 11; 2: 2) At this stage
of world developments, it behooves us to do what
the apostle here says. There are some prophecies
yet to be fulfilled completely before this world
reaches its accomplished end. A great gathering of
the Lord's "other sheep" must yet be done. Meantime, we shall have to endure many hard things; but
this should not be permitted to rob us of our godliness. Peter says: "Add to your faith ... patience
[endurance]; and to patience godliness." (2 Pet.
1: 5, 6) If we endure, we shall live a life of devotion
and service as Jesus did. "For the grace of God hath
appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing
us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world." (Titus 2: 11, 12,
Am. Stan. Ver.) We can now live this way, because
we have what the world does not have, namely, contentment in the Lord. He is our All in all, everything to every one of us. By our faithful devotion
and service to him in this present world, we shall
shortly enter into the enduring gain of the new world
under his glorious King Jesus Christ.

16. What renson do we haye for being content?

17. What way are we exhorted to llve now, and how Is It pos.lble?

NEARING THE PORTALS OF THE NEW WORLD

HE righteous new world of God's creating is just
ahead of us now. It will be under the government
of his kingdom by Christ Jesus, and multitudes of
persons of good-will are now traveling over the "highway
of holiness" that leads them into harmony with that kingdom of the new world. Both the anointed remnant of heirs
of that heavenlr kingdom and larger throngs of persons
of good-will are together marching oyer that holy highway
in the light of God's fayor and under his protection in this

evil day; and the sublime language of the prophet Isaiah

speaks of it with inspired words: "And a highway shall be
there and a road, which shall be called the Holy ,Vay; no
unclean one shall pass over it-but it shall be for his people
as they go along the way-and no fools shall wander there.
No lion shall be there, no ravenous beast shall go up it;
they shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk
in it, the ransomed of the LORD shall return by it; they
shall come to Zion [Jehovah God's organization] with sing-

2GS

SEeWATCHTOWER.

ing, and with everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall
attain to joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighinl7 shall
'"
fl ee away."
- Isa. 35: 8-10, An Amer. Trans.
The laws of Jehovah God are unchangeable. His fixed
rules apply to all his intelligent creatures. He lays down
in his Word, the Bible, the general rules that govern all
those who enter upon the highway to Zion. His prophet
addresses
us, to say: "He hath shewed thee ' 0 man , what
.
IS good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?" (Mic. 6: 8) This means that creatures on the holy
highway are required to do justly, that is to say, do that
which is right. They will be taught what is right, so that
they cannot mistake which is the right way to pursue. No
rebellious fools of this world will stray onto this highway,
and none of those who are unclean and unjust will get onto
it and pass oyer it into the new world. God's requirement
means that the remnant and the persons of good-will on
the highway must love mercy and practice it. If anyone
of them sees his fellow creature struggling along the highway because of hindering weaknesses, he must have a sincere and honest desire to help him to rise up from h:s
unwilling yielding to weakness, and must be kind and
considerate with him. The requirement upon all of them is
that they must walk humbly with their God; that is to
say, they must gladly be obedient to the laws of God in
all submissi\'tmess. Acting according to these requirements
of the Most High God, all travel along together over the
highway in unity, peace and mutual helpfulness.
The good news of the new world of righteousness as now
Ileal' is being preached among all nations of the world, and
thousands with hearing ears are taking heed to the information concerning the holy highway that conducts those who
walk in it into harmony with the kingdom of the new world.
As the people of good-will learn of the highway and the
way of holiness that leads to life they think 'not only of
their own interests but also of that of their neighbors, and
hence the prophecy of Isaiah 2: 13 is being fulfilled, which
predicts: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that
the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills; and all nations shall fiow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain
of the LoRD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for
out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem."
One of the titles of the Lord's King of the new world
is "the Prince of Peace". He shall rule the world to come
in peace and will establish it forever. (Isa. 9: 6, 7) And
because he stands for peace, all those traveling over the
high\vay from all nations are now striying to get along in
peace regardless of race, nationality, color, or language.
They are all learning righteousness, because the Prince of
Peace is now judging the nations and the judgments of
the Lord God are being proclaimed throughout the earth
by the followers of the Prince of Peace. They say: "With
my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my
spirit within me will I seek thee early [at this dawn of
the new world] : for when thy judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." (Isa.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

26: 9) All are looking forward to the new world when men
will learn peace and have no more war, in fulfillment of
Isaiah 2: 4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more." Whereas the United Nations has failed and will
continue to fail in bringing about this peaceful accomplishment, the Prince of Peace will succeed gloriously. Under
him everyone on earth will dwell in peace, and nobody
will make earth's inhabitants afraid. They will have peace
for evermore.-Mic. 4: 4.
One of the curses resulting from sin and human selfishness and greed has been poverty. The houses and lands
have been held by the few who possess sharper wits or more
power than others. The weaker ones have built houses,
while the stronger and unscrupulous have owned them. The
weaker have been crowded into inadequate and even filthy
quarters, and have been pinched by cold and hunger
because they could not provide things needful for themselves and their loved ones. Ah, but under the l\Iessiah's
reign it will not be so. Leviticus 25: 23 declares that the
land belongs to the Lord God, and the Meek One Christ
Jesus has become His heir of all things and has inherited
the earth. (Heb. 1: 1.4) He will see to it that the earth
is properly apportioned among the people so that all may
have some place in which to live. Every man shall then sit
under his own vine and spreading fig tree, and will build
his own house and live in it with those closely related to
him.-Isa. 65: 21, 22.
One part of the curse upon man was that he should
earn his bread in the sweat of his brow. From man's
expulsion out of Eden until now he has had to fight with the
thorns, thistles and weeds and many other vexations, while
trying to produce food for himself and his family. Dy his
marvelous Kingdom agencies the Lord God will teach man
how to eliminate the weeds, briars and thistles, that his
crops ma J: grow and yield an abundance, and that without
laborious effort. What God accomplished in Israel at their
restoration from captivity back to their desolate neglected
homeland, he will also accomplish for mankind under the
Kingdom; as it is written: "Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." "I will plant
in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle,
and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and
the pine, and the box tree together." "The wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert
shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the
glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of
Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD,
and the excellency of our God." (lsa. 55: 13; 41: El;
35: 1, 2) "Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God,
even our own God, shall bless uS."-Ps. 67 : 6.
PLENTY AND HEALTH

All hovels of poverty, vice and ignorance will then be a

thing of the past, and plenty will be the portion of obedient
mankind j and they shall rejoice. tlod's kingdom by Christ
Jesus was established in the heavens A.D. 1914 to rule
among his enemies and to clear the earth of them completely

SEPTEMBER

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mieWATCHTOWER..

at the battle of Armageddon. And already, while the misrule of the wicked over the earth is fast nearing its end in
disaster, those who walk over the holy highway to Mount
Zion are experiencing the fulfillment of the prophecy:
"And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto
all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,
of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of
the co ....ering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread
over all nations. lIe will swallow up death in victory; and
the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and
the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth: for the LORD hath spoken it."-Isa. 25: 6-8.
Pestilence and blight \.ill be removed, and the land that
once lay desolate will become a place of joy and delight.
That God's kingdom by Christ can do this Jehovah God
showed by accomplishing this very thing for his chosen
people after their return from captivity, to fulfill the
prophecy: "Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I
shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I \'till also
cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be
builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it
lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they
Ehall say, This land that was desolate is become like the
garden of Eden; and the waste, and desolate, and ruined
cities are become fenced, and are inhabited." (Ezek.
36: 33-35) nut no fenced or fortified cities will be needed
in the Paradise earth under God's kingdom as protection.
The Kingdom will care for the health of each and every
individual among the people. Why are the asylums full of
the insane, and the hospitals overcrowded with the sick and
dying? necause of disease of mind and body, the result of
siil. On earth the loving heart of Jesus was moved with
compassion when the sick and the afflicted came to him,
and he healed many of them. Now Jesus was born under
the :Mosaic law and fulfilled it perfectly, and the notable
thing about that law was that its provisions foreshadowed
better things to come under the Kingdom. (Gal. 4: 4; Matt.
5: 17; lIeb. 10: 1) Therefore when Jesus Christ healed the
sick, opened the eyes of the blind and gave strength to the
infirm, it foreshadowed the greater work that he will do
during his llIillennial reign. He will teach the people the
ways of perfect health, how to cat, how to exercise, how
to sleep, how to think, and how to love and obey righteousness. Ile will heal all the obedient and faithful ones and
at last bring them up to perfect soundness of body and
mind. In a typical way the Lord God accomplished these
things for his chosen people in fulfillment of his promises
to Jerusalem and her restored inhabitants: "Behold, I will
bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will
reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth."
(Jer. 33: 6) "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick:
the peop1e that dwell therein shall be forgiven their
iniquity."-Isa. 33: 24.
Jesus said he came to earth that God's sheep might have
life, and might have it abundantly. (John 10: 10) Life
means existence, coupled with the right to exist and to
enjoy all the blessings incident to existing. Jesus said to
his Father concerning his sheep: "This is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." (John 17: 3) By his death and

269

resurrection Jesus Christ redeemed mankind's right to life,

and under his righteous government he will bestow that
right upon all his loyal subjects. .As mankind progresses
in righteousness, he will multiply to them the blessings of
peace, prosperity, health and physical vigor. The wicked
work of Satan, resulting in a depraved, crooked state of
mind and inclinations, the King Christ Jesus will undo
for all those who are willing to have it undone. If these
onetime slaves of sin turn away from the practice of sin
and walk in harmony with the Kingdom and its righteousness, they will steadily be improved in body and mind.
Continuing on toward the close of the thousand years of
reformation work, the faithful adherents of righteousness
will be granted the right to live forever in the earthly
Paradise. The principle then followed will be as stated at
Ezekiel 18: 27, 28: "When the wicked man turneth away
from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth
that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his
transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live,
he shall not die."
Yes, the obedient are the ones that will be given the
right to eternal life and that will live, for Jesus stated:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death." (John 8: 51) Then those who live
and believe on the Lord Jesus, showing their belief bJ"
obedience to him as King, will live and not die. (John
11: 26) The battle of Armageddon at this end of the world
will wipe out of existence all of Satan's organization,
demonic and human, invisible and visible, and thus rid
mankind of these enemies and opposers of all reformation
and progress in truth and righteousness. But the great
enemy, death, due to our inheritance from the sinner Adam,
will remain. Hence Christ must reign until he has also
accomplished the destruction of this mortal foe of humankind. "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under
his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
(1 Cor. 15: 25, 26) And the start of destroying this enemy's
control over mankind is the payment of Jesus' ransom
price and the resurrecting of mankind from the graves.
During the entire time of the progress of mankind under
the heavenly kingdom, Satan the Devil will be incarcerated
in the abyss that he may not deceive anyone during all that
thousand-year period. (Rev. 20: 1-3) It is a fixeq. rule of
God's purpose that he will grant eternal life to no one
without first having that one prove his loyalty and integrity
under a conclusive test. So at the end of the thousand years
the wicked one will be turned loose that he may try his
hand once more at deceiving earth's inhabitants and turning them from God as he did in the original paradise on
earth. Jehovah God evidently proceeds upon the rule that
anyone that has received full knowledge of Satan's course
and the great wickedness and sorrow he wrought in the
earth in the past, and then has also learned of God's lovingkindness under the Kingdom, does not deserve to live if,
after all this, he deliberately turns away from truth and
righteousness and yields to Satan then 011 the loose. All
those who thus follow him will be everlastingly destroyed,
with no future resurrection in store, and Satan the Devil
will himself be blotted out of existence. That destruction
of the willful followers of Satan the Devil will be the

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SEeWATCHTOWER

"second death", not death traceable to Adam. Those who

remain faithful and true to God and his King will be justified to everlasting life in the new world, and that will,
indeed, mean the destruction of the enemy, the Adamic
death. for them. In this manner the scripture is fulfilled:
"And death and hell [the grave or abode of the dead]
were .cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20: 7-15) The glorious
and eternal result of this destruction of Satan the Devil
and all his deliberate followers will be a clean, pure and
holy universe. As we near the portals of the righteous
new world we are nearing the going into fulfillment of all
these blessed promises of God. May we therefore not faint,
but keep our faces turned in the right direction and march
forward in faith.

HOSEA PROCLAIMS JEHOVAH'8 MERCY

OUNG Hosea, Beel'i's son, was filled with pity every

time he saw his fellow Israelites indulge in false
worship and wallow in the luxury of Jeroboam's
prosperous reign (852-812 B.C.) and completely ignore
.Jehovah God, his law and his purposes. He was determined
to remain faithful and true to Jehovah his God and had
a burning desire to serve him actively. As Hosea was
meditating on these things one day Jehovah said to him:
"Go, and take to yourself a harlotrous wife, and harlotrous
children." Hosea could hardly believe that he was hearing
right; but Jehovah's next words cleared up the matter for
him: "For the land has committed great harlotry, turning
from following the LORD [Jehovah]." (Hos. 1: 1, 2, An
.-lmer. Trans.) Now Hosea understood; the unfaithfulness
of hi., wife would illustrate Israel's unfaithfulness to Jehovah. How apt! In obedience to Jehovah's command he went
and married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim.
Later, when Gomer bore Hosea a son, Jehovah said to
him: "Call him Jezreel; for but a little while, and I will
demand the blood of Jezreel from the house of Jehu; and
I will bring to an end the dominion of the house of Israel.
And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will break
the bow of Israel, in the valley of J ezreel." (Hos. 1: 3-5,
An .-lmer. Trans.) What a relief! At last Jehovah would
put an end to the dominion of the wicked reigning family.
Hosea remembered Jehovah's promise to Jehu, King Jeroboam's great-grandfather, that his children of the fourth
generation would sit on the throne of Israel. Now that
meant Jeroboam's son would sit on the throne and then the
dominion of that family would end.
The words which Jehovah gave to Hosea from time to
time brought him comfort, but his family affairs did not.
Gomer became unfaithful and even gave birth to a daughter
that was not Hosea's child. Hosea was grieved; but again
Jehovah spoke to him: "Call her name Lo-ruhamah [Not
having obtained mercy]; for I will no more have mercy
upon the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon
them. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and
will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them
by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by
horsemen." (Hos. 1: 6, 7, Am. Stan. Vcr.) Hosea found
further consolation in the knowledge that young Uzziah
who had ascended the throne of Judah to the south was a
stickler for God's law. He also found strength in preaching
to his wayward neighbors in Israel, calling their attention
to their unfaithfulness to God, which his own family life
so fittingly illustrated.
Hosea saw little Lo-ruhamah grow with her half-brother
Jezreel, his own son. Finally his faithless wife Gomer
weanell Lo-ruhamah and continued with her unfaithful-

ness. Again she bore a child, a son that was not Hosea's.
Then Jehovah said to Hosea, "Call his name Lo-ammi
[Not my people]: for ye are not my people, and I will
not be your God." Hosea's unfaithful wife had now borne
two illegitimate children; Jehovah had disowned his faithless people; Hosea was feeling very low. Then he heard
Jehovah say mercifully: "Yet the number of the children
of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be
measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in
the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my
people [Lo-ammi], there it shall be said unto them, Ye are
the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah
and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint
themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the
land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel."-Hos. 1: 9-11.
With such a loving message of mercy from .Jchovah
Hosea just could not hold it back from his fellow Israelites. Even after his wife left him altogether, he' would
speak to them and under inspiration say: "Argue it, arguc
it with your mother (for she is no wife of mille, and I
am not her husband), bid her clear her face of harlotry,
and her breasts of adulterous charms; or ... I will make
her like a land forlorn, ... On her children I will have
no mercy, for they are born out of wedlock; ... she who
conceived them has been shameless; ... (none shall save
her from my hand). I will lay waste her vine and fig-trees,
. . . I will bring all her gaiety to an end, her festivals,
new-moons, and sabbaths, to punish her for all the days
when to the Baals she offered incense, decking herself with
rings and jewels, running after her lovers, and forgetting
me, says the Eternal lJehovah] . . . . she will pursue hcr
lovers and miss them, seek them and never find them. Then
at last she will say, 'Let me go back to my first husband,
I fared better with him than today.' ... then I will restore
her the vineyards, and make the dale of Trouble a door
of hope; then shall she answer me as in her youthful days,
when she came up from Egypt's land."-Hos. 2: 1-15,
Moffatt.

Then with a brightening of his eyes and greater warmth

in his voice, Hosca continued, quoting Jehovah's words
addressed directly to Israel: "I will betroth thee unto me
for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and
thou shalt know .Jehovah." \Vith increased enthusiasm and
tendcrness Hosea went on: "I will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy [Lo-ruhamah] ; and I will say
to them that were not my people [Lo-ammi], Thou art my
people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."-Hos.
2: 16-23, Am. Stan. Vcr., margin.

SEPTEMBER

1, 1948

SflieWATCHTOWER

God's word and its proclamation were Hosea's only comfort during the long days that his wife Gomer was indulging in her unfaithfulness. Then, finally, one day Jehovah
said to him, "Go again and love an adulterous woman, in
love with a paramour, as the Eternal [Jehovah] loves the
Israelites, although they turn to other gods and love their
idolatrous raisin-cakes." Obediently Hosea went out and
looked for Gomer until he found her. Then he bought her
for fifteen pieces of silver and sixteen bushels and twentytwo quarts of barley. He said to her, as Jehovah God had
commanded him, "For many a day you must remain mine,
you must not play the harlot, you must have nothing to
do with a man-and I will have nothing to do with you."
Why? Jehovah explained: "For the Israelites shall remain
for many a day without king or chief, without sacrifice or
sacred stone, without ephod or oracle; after that, the
Israelites shall turn to seek the Eternal [Jehovah] their
God once more, and their Davidic king, and at the end
come eagerly to the Eternal [Jehovah] and his goodness."
-Has. 3: 1-5, Moffatt.
In spite of Hosea's sad family life he faithfully proclaimed Jehovah's message throughout his life. Hosea was
fillcd with pity when he saw his fellow Israelites given over
to death-dealing false worship led by lmfaithful clergy
who refused to teach them God's law, and who even
threatened God's prophet Amos who had come up from
Judah and accused him falsely of conspiracy before King
Jeroboam. (Amos 7: 10-17) He saw Israel persist in curs
ing, lying, murder and theft. To the clergy Jehovah
inspired Hosea to say: "'With you is m~r quarrel. 0 priest;
and you shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall
stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your people.
My people are destroyed for want of knowledge-because
you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being
my priest. Since ~'ou have forgotten the law of your God,
I likewise will forget ~'our children."-Hos. 4: 1-6, An
Amer. Trans.
Hosea had noticed that his and Amos' preaching had
already put the faithless clergy to shame in the minds of
those few who heeded Jehoyah's word. Concerning this, too,
Jehovah had inspired Hosea to say: "The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; they have exchanged their glory for shame." But the majority was
wholly given over to demon-worship. Hosea saw nauseating
idol-worship practiced everywhere, on mountains and hills
and under green trees, all because of lack of knowledge of
God.-Hos. 4: 719, An Amer. Trans.
Hosea prophesied to the end of Jeroboam's 41-year evil
reign and through the 22-year interregnum which followed.
(2 Ki. 14: 23) He kept right on prophesying through more
evil reigns and interregnums right into Hoshea's reign

271

(748740 B.C.) (2 Ki. 17: 1) Though by that time Hosea

was a very old man, the fire of his zeal for Jehovah's
worship had not been quenched. Throughout those troublous
times, with Assyria's mounting power ever threatening,
Hosea had faithfully kept proclaiming Jehovah's message
to the unfaithful clergy, to the unfaithful house of Israel
and to the unfaithful royal house, and even to the princes
of Judah.-Hos. 5: 1-15.
With all the judgment and reproof Jehovah always gaye
him a messagc of mercy to strengthen the hope of the few
who had regard for His word: "Come, and let us return
unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he
hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will
he re.:. ,rjve us: on the third day he will raise us up, and
we shall live before him. And let us know, let us follow
on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the lattcr
rain that watereth the earth." (Has. 6: 1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.)
Through Hosea Jehovah counseled Israel, too, to exercise
mercy: "I desired merc:r, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." "Sow to yourselvp~
in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow
grolmd: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and
rain righteousness upon you."-Hos. 6: 6; 7: 1; 10: 12.
In spite of all Jehovah's reproof and mercy Israel was
unfaithful to its covenant and relied upon worldly powers
such as Egypt and Assyria. (Has. 11: 12; 7: 11; 12: 1)
Finally Jehovah through Hosea decreed their captivity'
''I\:1y God will cast them away, because they did not hearken
unto him: and theJr shall be wanderers among the nations."
-Hos. 9: 17.
Hosea may have lived to see the fulfillment of that
prophecy in the three-year siege of Samaria and the taking
of Israel captive by Assyria, in 740 B.C.
Hosea also looked forward in hope to the fulfillment
of the prophecy Jehovah had caused him to utter before:
"They shall walk after Jehovah, who will roar like a
lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling . . . as
a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to
dwell in their houses." "1 will heal their backsliding, I will
love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall-blossom as the
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches
shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and
his smell as Lebanon." With love and gratitude in his
heart Hosea cries out to Jehovah: "In thee the fatherless
findeth mercy."-Has. 11: 10, 11; 14: 4-6, 3, Am. Stan. Ver.
Likewise today Jehovah has his faithful servants proclaim his mercy for all who heed his reproofs and comply
with His requirements.

AN INTERESTING LETTER IN RE MEMORIAL

Dear Brother:
Before us is :rour letter of April 27 in reference to the
Watchtower article of February 15, 1948, on the ''body
of Christ" and the yearly Memorial of Christ's death.
The Scripture \'erses :rou quote concerning the "body of
Jesus Christ" and "flesh and blood", namely, Hebrews
10: 5, 10 and 2: 14, and Luke 22: 19, were treated in detail

last year in the February 15, 1947, Watchtower article

entitled "A Memorial of Integrity for God's Kingdom".
We need not repeat what is there said.
In 1904 the Watch Tower Society published the sixth
volume of Studies in the Scriptures, specifically entitled
"The New Creation". In Chapter XI of that book the
explanation was given that the bread and wine of the

272

SEeWATCHTOWER..

Memorial represent more than Jesus' literal flesh and blood.

Under the subheading "'Ne, Being Many, Are One Loaf",
it says (page 4(6) : " . . . the cup represents his blood,
which seals our pardon. But now, in addition, he shows
that we, as members of the Ecclesia, members of the body
of Christ, the prospective First-Borns, the New Creation,
become participators with our Lord in his death, sharers
in his sacrifice, ... the elect, the New Creation. are counted
in as parts of that one loaf, 'members of the body of Christ';
and hence, in the breaking of the loaf, after recognizing
it as the sacrifice of our Lord on our behalf, we are to
recognize it, further, as the breaking or sacrificing of the
whole Church, of all those consecrated to be dead with him,
to be broken with him, to share his sufferings." Under the
subheading "Who :Hay Celebrate 1" the same chapter says
(page 413) : "Furtlier, none should commune unless he is
a member of the one body, the one loaf, and unless he has
reckoned his life, his blood, sacrificed with the Lord's, in
the same chalice, or cup." But ten years earlier than this
book, The Watch Tower of April 1, 1394, made the like
explanation as the above in its article "The Import of the
Emblems" (pages 99, 100).
In the Watchtou..er article "The Ransom", of May 15,
1939, it was clearly stated that the church is no part of
the sin offering with Christ, saying or 41,42) : "It has been
repeatedly said that the church, that is, the glorified
members of the body of Christ, by reason of their sacrifice,
have a part in the sin offering; and in support of that
theory the follo\\ing scripture is offered: ... Lev. 16: 15.
Neither the foregoing nor any other scripture sustains the
conclusion that the body members of Christ have any part
in the sin offering. It is the lifeblood of the man Jesus
alone that is the valuable thing, the purchase price, and
which price is presented and paid over as a sin offering."
(See also the book Salvation, published that same year of
1939, page 19i, ~ 1,2.) This fact must have a bearing upon
the significance of the Memorial emblems: They could not,
in the same picture, symbolize two things, both Jesus'
flesh and blood and his church as well, so indicating that
the church or body of Christ has a part in the sin offering
or ransom. Hence The IV atchtower has come out exclusively
for the explanation of the Memorial emblems as given by
the apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 10: 16, Ii, and as commented upon in The Watch Tower since 1894.
In the Memorial celebration of April 4, 1939, the Memorial emblems of bread and wine were, for the first time,
served together, in compliance with instructions from the
Society's president, and the following year direct instructions to that effect were published in the January 1, 1940,
issue of The Watchtower (page 2), namely: "ME::IIORIAL:
... '. Since the breaking of the bread and drinking of the
wine both picture the death of Jesus, it follows that both
emblems should be served together at partaking, and not
separately."
Prior to the 1939 Memorial The Watchtower, in its issue
of :March 15, 193!), pages 92-94, published an article entitled
"Memorial" in paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8 of which it said:
" ... All who get life on earth must exercise faith in the
lifeblood of Christ Jesus poured out for the remission of
sins, but at the institution of the Memorial he was inviting
his disciples alone to be broken with him and to be dead
with him to thus share in his death and in his resurrection.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

... It will be conceded that Jesus' words meant: This

bread represents my body.' .The bread was merely a symbol,
and the breaking of it discloses what must be done to those
of the body of Christ. The 'fruit of the vine', or wine, represented his lifeblood about to be poured out, and to the
disciples he said: 'Drink ye all of it.' His words clearly
mean that all who will be as..~ociated with him in his house
must first be broken and die and therefore share with him
in his death. That his words meant that his body members
are partners in his suffering and death is fully supported
by the apostle, who under inspiration of the holy spirit
wrote: ... 1 Cor. 10: 16, 17... Jesus took the loaf of
unleavened bread and broke it and said to his followers:
'This is my body.' Then his words were in substance these:
'You must eat, that is to say, partake with me and thereby
beeome my partners or fellow sufferers, and as this bread
you see me break represents the body of Christ, or the
members thereof, all of such must be broken together.' Such
breaking of the bread or body and the drinking of the blood
must take place after those partaking are justified and
spirit-begotten, and therefore only such properly partake
of the emblems.
"Jesus then proceeded to instruct his di~ciples concerning
the cup. The wine in the cup referred 'to his blood, and his
words, in substance, meant this: 'This represents my blood,
which blood makes good the new covenant, which covenant
my Father h!lS made with me. Also, it is the price of
redemption for the human race.' Jesus knew drinking the
blood meant death, according to the law of Jehovah. (Gen.
9: 4; Lev. 17: 11) He was therefore inviting his disciples
to perform an act that meant their death, and thus inviting
them to participate in his death."
The foregoing article on "Memorial" was merely a condensation of a longer article on the same subject published
in the previous year in The Watchtower of March 1, 1938,
and particularly paragraphs 24-48. Paragraph 33 thereof
said: " ... Jesus was instructing his disciples and, through
them, all of those who shall thereafter follow in his steps,
and thus doing he took a loat of bread, which was unleavened, symbolizing a sinless or justified condition, and
then he said to them, in substance: 'As we break this bread
you will observe that it represents my body [the body of
Christ, which is pure and without_ sin]. Each one of you
must eat thereof [that is, partake with me, and thus become
my partner and share with me in being broken}.' His words
'This is my body' could not have referred to his human
organism, because of Jesus it is written: 'Ile keepeth all
his bones: not one of them is broken.' (Ps. 34: 20) 'For
these things were done, that the scripture should be fUlfilled, A bone of him shall not. be broken.'-John 1936."
From the foregoing paragraphs, brother, you will see
that the Watchtower article of 1948 on the Memorial did
not suddenly break out with, as you say, "an eceentric train
of reasoning." Either you have forgotten what The Watchtower has previously published or you were not acquainted
with them on account of the years of World War II and
its direct effect upon your country. We trust that you will
have access to all the above publications referred to, in
your local Kingdom Hall, and will check up on all the
foregoing references.
Faithfully yours in Kingdom service,
WATCH TOWER BmLE AND TRACT SOCIETY

2lieWATCHTOWER
Pum.rSH!:D SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y.. U.S.A.

N. H.

TRACT SOCIETY

OPPICERS
KNORR,

President

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." I.rlJi,zn 54:I.s.

gre~t

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVA.H is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of
life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent in creating ali other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and rafsed
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully dlsobe)'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong aet all men
are born sinners and without the rIght to lIfe;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In .order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and eltalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of G1>d's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CA.PITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called
ZIon, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege it
Is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as eltPressed In the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed b)' Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
vindIcate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehol'ah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
ne:ll..1: great act is to destroy Satan's organization and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will surviving Armageddon wlll carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves wlll be raised to opportunities
of life on earth.

.ITS MISSION
HIS journal is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as e:s:pI"eSllE!d
In the Bible. It publlsbes Bible Instruction specl1lcally
designed to aid Jehol'ah'.ll wltnesses and all people of COod-will.
It arranges systematic Bible study for its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes
suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means
of public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible IU5 authority for its utterances.
It is entirely free IlDd separate trom all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizatioD& It is wholly and without reservation
tor the kingdom of Jehovah God under ChrIst his beloved Kln~.
It is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination
of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not indulge
In controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

Notke to S,&lmlrilJera: Rem'ttallCel should be aeat to oftlce In your

country in compUllDce with regulations to gnarantee IIAfe deliver}' of
money. Remittances are accepted at B1'OOIdyn from countriell where no
office is located, by international money order ouly. Subaerl.ption ratea in
different countriell are lItated below in local currency. Notice of e:rpirat.....
(With renewal blank) is Bent at least two lsauea before ,ubsC11ptlon
exPires. 01lange of a4dru. 'When sent to our office IIlll1 be expected
elfeetlve within one month. Send your old as well as new address.

Pleaae addreaa the Watch Tower Society In every caae.

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ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BmLE who by reason of in
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have Tile Watchtower free upon written application to the publlsher>l,
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Entered cu .econdcZa8s matter at the post oUlce at Brooklvn, N. Y.,

""der the A.ct of March 3, 1879.

ANNUAL MEETING
OF WATCH TOWER BmLE AND TRACT SOCIETY

"KL.'iG FOR ALL EARTH" TESTIMONY PERIOD

For a world-wide testimony to the one "King for all the earth"
the month of October has been set aside. During that favorable
season all subjects of Jehovah's King, who now reigns despite
Ills enemies, will join in special efforts to advertise the King
and his kingdom. The Awake! magazine will be the principal
offcr to the people, a year's subscription for $1.00. For those
who are readers of Awake! already, the offer win be three bound
books on a contribution of $1.00. The books to be offered are
({Let God Be Tnte", ({The Kingdom Is at Hand", and ({The
Truth Shall Make You Free", besides the latest booklet, Permanent Governor of An Nations. This is not book-agency work,
but is ambassadorial work for winning subjects to the new
world's King. Viewing it that Scriptural way, Watchtower readers
will appreciate the honor of it and will want to show their allegiance to the ''King for all the earth" by sharing in this special
work of October. We anticipate that many will write for references and instructions and supplies. We want to put aU such
in happy contact with the organized active subjects of the King.
We close with a reminder of your reporting at the end of this
Testimony Period.

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, a nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation, will hold the annual meeting of its members
on Friday, October 1, 1948, at 10: 00 o'clock, forenoon, at the
registered office of the Society, Wabash Building, 410 Liberty
Avenue, Pittsburgh 22, Pennsylvania. Regular business of the
corporation will be then transacted.
This announcement merely supplements the regular notices
of the meeting, which are being mailed to the members together
with proxy forms. Every member, whether attending the meeting
in person or not, should mail his proxy to the office of the secretary of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, New York, by September 15, 1948.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

1f

Week of October 11: "Gifts According to Measure,"

1f 1-111 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1948.
Week of October 24: "Gifts According to Measure,"
1f 11-20 inclusive, also "The Cultivating of Gifts",
11" 1-11 inclusive, The Watc1ltower September 15, 1948.
Week of October 31: "The Cultivating of GifJ:.s,"
12-18 inclusive, also "The Gift of Persevering in Singleness",
11" 1-8 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1948.

grfieWAlC1HIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

SEPTEMBER

15, 1948

No. 18

GIFTS ACCORDING TO MEASURE

"And desire earnestly the better gifts."-1 Cor. 12: 31, Young.

EHOVAH is the Father of heavenly lights, from

whom every good gift and every perfect present
come down. (Jas. 1: 17) All of us are constantly
receiving of his beneficence, whether we realize that
fact and are thankful for it or not. The most of
mankind pass it over lightly and do not show the
right appreciation. But that does not make Jehovah
go sour. His generous disposition does not shrivel
up in bitterness and grieved feelings. It is a mark of
his perfection that he is love, even to the unthankful.
He enjoys making provision for mankind, giving
them reason to be happy and to know he is a loving
Creator. When he made this great earthly ball, he
had in mind, not a desolate planet, but an earth
filled with creatures finding pleasure in his goodness
while he in his lofty heavens rejoiced at their happiness and welfare. His own Word to his faithful
people says: "Jehovah increase you more and more,
you and your children. Blessed are ye of Jehovah,
who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the
heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to
the children of men."-Ps. 115: 14-16, Am. Stan. Ver.
2 The whole earth is God's gift to mankind, so far
as their privilege of living on it is concerned. And
now God's meek Son, Jesus Christ, has inherited it
and will see to it that mankind uses the privilege of
living on earth aright, to their Creator's pleasing.
His thousand-year rule over the earth is near, and
the day is at hand when the human race occupying
the earth everlastingly will comprise only those
who recognize the Fatherly gift of the Creator and
who tremble at his goodness and gratefully live
for him.
3 To begin with, man's life on earth was a gift
from God. All right-minded persons would like to
hold on to it forever. But, soon after man and
woman were created, they threw away their perfect
chance to gain an everlasting right to the gift of
earthly life. They sinned. The opposite of life is
death, and death is the wages that sin or disobedience
to the Creator pays. All of us born into this earth
came into it with these wages being paid to us. 'Ve
1, 2. (al What comes down from the Father of 14;hts, even to the
unthankful? (b) What will his Kingdom give to the chlldren of men?
3. Why must God make a new ol'fer of the gift of !lfe? By whom?

could not escape receiving such wages, because we

were born as offspring to a man and woman in the
service of sin. Our common inheritance of death
proves the truth of the Scripture statement: "Thus,
then, sin came into the world by one man, and death
came in by sin; and so death spread to all men,
inasmuch as all men sinned." (Rom. 5: 12, Moffatt)
Those wages of sin are paid us in full when we cease
to live. But before that, the measure of existence
that we enjoy is a gift from the Creator. However,
for the past nineteen centuries the good news has
gone forth that Jehovah God the Creator has a gift
of etern.allife for men and women who are at present
dying. In order to offer this gift to them, he had
to make special arrangements, unusually loving
arrangements, and these he made with the co-operation of his Son, the Messiah, who gave his life for us.
That is why the heart-cheering announcement can
be made: "The wages sin pays is death, but the gift
God gives is eternal life through union with Christ
Jesus our Lord."-Rom. 6: 23, An Amer. Tmns;
Human life, at its start, was an outright gift to
man, but eternal life for him did not prove to be
such a gift. Eternal life was measured according to
man's eternal obedience to God, and that in the
smallest matters, such as not eating of a forbidden
fruit tree. Just so, too, the new gift of eternal life
through Jesus Christ the Lord is not an outright
gift, without conditions tied to it. Common sense,
aside from the Bible, should show us that. Men are
suffering death because they are serving sin, and
sin pays death as its wage. Certainly, then, to cease
experiencing death we have to quit the service of
sin. We have to serve the One who has a different
return to make, the gift of eternal life to offer,
namely, Jehovah God the Creator and Life-giver.
This is the simple argument that the Christian apostle Paul uses before mentioning the gift of eternal
life through Christ, saying: "I am speaking in human
terms, because of your natural limitations. For just
as you once yielded your members to impurity and
to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your
members to righteousness for sanctification. When
4. How 18 the gift of 11fe

27ti

meaaur~?

Whom must we serve for It?

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~eWATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to

righteousness. But then what return did you get
from the things of which you are now ashamed' The
end of those things is death. But now that you have
been set free from sin and have become slaves of
God, the return you get is sanctification and its end,
eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord."-Rom. 6: 19-23, Rev. Stan. Ver.
s It is plain that we must cultivate this gift of eternallife. Not, of course, that we earn it. In that case
it would no more be a gift but a due. Proving worthy
of it is not earning it; and we prove worthy of it
by showing we will use eternal life properly if God
gives it to us through Christ. To that end we culti.
vate the friendship of Jehovah God and Jesus
Christ, and we devote our full attention, time, energy
and faithfulness to the matter of making that gift
our own. That explains why Paul says that before
eternal life in the future comes san'ctification now.
Sanctification means getting away from the slavery
of sin that pays death, and so becoming separated
to the righteous service of the life-giving Jehovah
God. If we stick to this sanctification for the rest of
our life in this world, then the end or outcome of it
will be eternal life as a gift from God. His Son, the
Messianic Jesus, died for the sake of making this
gift of eternal life possible to us. In the face of that
fact it always remains true that our faithful service
of righteousness does not earn eternal life for us
but proves we are proper ones upon whom to bestow
it. It is never forced upon the unworthy.

All those who then resist his seductions to rebel

against God and his King will be justified to the gift
of eternal life in the earthly paradise. They will be
the human children of God. Those who fall away
from righteousness to the Devil will be destroyed as
unworthy of eternal life. As it is written: "And
death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any
was not found written in the book of life, he was
cast into the lake of fire."-Rev. 20: 14, 15, Am.
Stan. Ver.
T There is a privilege greater than that of thus
becoming an earthly child of God. It is that of now
becoming a spiritual son of God. This made the apostle John exclaim: "Think what love the Father has
had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for
that is what we are. This is why the world does
not know what we are-because it has never come to
know him. Dear friends, we are God's children now;
it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We
know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for
we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3: 1, 2, An Amer.
Trans.) This makes it certain that such spiritual
sonship is a special gift. Again it is John that calls
attention to this, saying: "But as many as received
him [the Word of God], to them gave he the right
to become children of God, even to them that believe
on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
(John 1: 12, 13, Am. Stan. V er.) It is due to the continual giving on the heavenly Father's part that any
of us become his spiritual sons, In the first place,
he gave us time to repent of our sinful worldly
THE PRESENT TO HIS SONS
course. How' In not destroying all possibility of a
e In the righteous world to come Christ Jesus the
race from Adam by snuffing out the lives of Adam
King will rUle over the earth for the first thousand and Eve immediately when he brought them to judgyears, and, in order to enter at last into the gift of ment and pronounced sentence of death upon them.
eternal life on the paradise earth, men and women He let the human race descend from them till now,
of good-will must serve righteousness during his in this way affording us "time to repent".-Rev.
reign. In OUr twentieth century, and particularly 2: 21, Moffatt.
a That we might realize our sinful, undone condisince A.D. 1918 when the message "Millions now
living will never die" began to be preached, people tion and might repent and turn to God's way of life,
of good-will have been devoting themselves to the he sent us the message of truth telling about recovery
service of God's kingdom. The end they have in view from sin and death through Christ Jesus. "For God
is to gain his gift of eternal life on this earth, which may possibly let them repent and acknowledge the
he has "given to the children of men". If God spares truth, and they may yet return to their senses and
their lives through the coming battle of Armageddon escape from the toils of the devil, who has caught
they ])lust continue to do his will on earth to the end them to make them do his will." (2 Tim. 2: 25, 26,
of Christ's thousand-year reign, the same as the An Amer. Trans.) Unless God thus imparts the
others of mankind who will be resurrected from the knowledge of the truth, the persons seeking eternal
graves. In that case they will never die but continue life from God can never find His way and come to
living in perfection on earth. There will be a final Christ Jesus, through whom he bestows eternal life.
test of the fixedness of men's devotion to righteous- It is by the gift of the knowledge of the truth that
ness when the tempter, Satan the Devil, is released God draws men to his Son in repentance and builds
for a short season from his millennial imprisonment. up their faith. That is why Jesus said: "No man
5. Why must we cultivate this gift of eternal life, and how?
6. How will many persons of good-will now living never die?

7. How does John show God has a gift greater than human sonshipl
8. By what gift does God draw men to Jesus in repentance?

SEPTEMBER

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

can come to me, except the Father which hath sent

me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto
me.... No man can come unto me, except it were
given unto him of my Father."-John 6: 44,45,64,65.
8 For three and a half years after Jesus' death,
resurrection and exaltation to God's right hand the
disciples of Jesus confined their preaching to the
circumcised Jews and Samaritans. This gave such
ones the favored opportunity to repent, and the
apostles called this to their attention when they
pointed to Jesus and said: "Him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,
for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of
sins." At the close of that special Jewish opportunity
God opened the opportunity to repent and be forgiven to the Gentile peoples by sending Peter to
preach the truth to an uncircumcised Italian and
his household. Because they accepted the gospel
truth God poured his holy spirit down upon them,
imparting to them the gift of speaking with strange
tongues. This was satisfying evidence that God was
now adopting non-Jews as his children, and the J ewish disciples said: "Then hath God also to the
Gentiles granted repentance unto life."-Acts 5: 31;
11: 18.
10 By begetting these repentant, converted Jews
and Gentiles with his holy spirit Jehovah God made
them his sons. Because he drew them to his Son
Jesus, God was giving these children of his to Jesus
as their elder brother. Jesus acknowledged this gift
of God's children to him for brethren by quoting
the prophetic words of Isaiah 8: 18. We read: "For
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in
the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
And again, ... Behold I and the children which God
hath given me." (Heb. 2: 11-13) In the last prayer
with his apostles Jesus prayed for all the children
God gave him and said: "Father, I will that they
also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I
am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation
of the world." (John 17: 24) No power in heaven or
earth will be able to steal these faithful sheep from
the fold of God under the Good Shepherd. Jesus
said: "lIy Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand." (John 10: 29) In every way,
then, it is a great gift to be of the class of heavenly
sons. Since no one has a natural right to it or claim
upon it, God is within his own right to bestow this
favor upon any on whom he wants to do so. None
9. How did God give repentance to the Jews and then to Gentiles?
10. How did God give children to Jesus, and how rightfully?

277

of us has any reason to complain over what Almighty

God does with his own. In any case, it is a privilege
to be a child of God, whether in heaven or on earth.
We should each use well what we get, and be happy.
CONFERRED UPON THE CONGREGATION

Before Christ Jesus left his disciples and ascended to heaven he promised to send down upon them a
special gift, namely, the holy spirit. When he ascended to his heavenly Father's presence he received the
promised spirit and, on the feast-day of Pentecost,
he poured this spirit out upon his waiting disciples
on earth. By filling them with the spirit he bestowed
upon them special powers, such as speaking with
tongues, interpretation, prophesying, ability to
teach, healing, and managerial ability. Disciples thus
gifted he raised up in the congregation of his brethren. He gave the disciples with such special capacities to the congregation. In that manner the prophecy of Psalm 68: 19 was fulfilled, which reads: "Thou
didst ascend on high, lead away captives, receive
gifts among men, yea, even the rebellious, to dwell
among them, 0 LORD God." (Leeser) Or, as rendered
by another translator from the Greek Septuagint
Version: "Having ascended on high thou hast led
captivity captive; and received gifts in the manner
of men." (Thomson's LXX) Thus God now gave to
Jesus the disciples as his spiritual brethren, begotten
of God and gifted with special powers and abilities.
Jesus did not at once take these to heaven to have
them with him. No; but all these new creatures with
their new powers Jesus conferred upon his congregation of brethren on earth for its benefit. We read:
12 "But each one of us is granted his own grace,
as determined by the full measure of Christ's gift.
Thus it is said, When he ascended on high he led
a host captive and granted gifts to men. What does
he ascended mean, except that he first descended to
the nether regions of the earth 1 He who descended
is he who ascended above all the heavens to fill the
universe; he granted some men to be apostles, some
to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to shepherd and teach, for the equipment of the saints, for
the business of the ministry, for the upbuilding of
the Body of Christ, till we should all attain the unity
of the faith and knowledge of God's Son, reaching
maturity, reaching the full measure of development
which belongs to the fulness of Christ."-Eph.
4: 7-13, Moffatt.
18 Christ Jesus knew the congregation of his brethren needed gifts in the way of such men with special
powers and capacities. But to produce such men as
gifts for the congregation he had to pour out the
spirit upon them. The gift of the holy spirit makes
11

11, 12. (a) What gift did Jesus bestow upon his disciple>! atter bJs
ascension? (b) How did he give gifts of men to the congregation'
13. How Is the grace granted us determined by the full measure of
Cllrlst's gift?

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ZfieWATCHTOWER

us able in many fields of service. It is an expression

of God's grace or undeserved goodness to us through
Christ. The special abilities and aptitudes that his
spirit awakens wit:H.n us are a grace from God. God
can do with his own property what he wills. So he
does not confer upon all Christians the very same
abilities and qualifications. Each one has his own
gracious gift to the extent that Christ Jesus measures it out to each individual in the church.
U Jesus did not measure out the spiritual qualifications for apostleship to the women in the church.
No, he measured out that privilege and power to
twelve men, "the twelve apostles of the Lamb." They
were favored with that gift of grace, and accordingly
they had the authority to forgive sins, to perform
miraculous cures, to lay their hands upon newly
baptized believers and to impart the marvelous gifts
of the holy spirit to them, and to serve as twelve
foundations for the Christian congregation. To these
apostles and other mature men Christ Jesus measured out the privilege and responsibility of acting as
teachers inside the congregation. He withheld this
gracious gift from the women believers, so that the
apostle Paul justly said: "I suffer not a woman to
teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence." (1 Tim. 2: 12) "Let your women keep
silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto
them to speak: but they are commanded to be under
obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will
learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home:
for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."
Women's privilege of teaching is not within the
congregation to the male members of it.-1 Cor.
14: 34, 35.
15 To the men also
the glorified Christ Jesus
measured out the gracious gift of serving as overseers and assistants, "bishops" and "deacons" as the
religionists mistitle them. Hence Paul says: "This is
a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop
[or overseer; superintendent], he desireth a good
work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband
of one \yife, ... Let the deacons [assistants; ministers] be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well."-1 Tim. 3: 1, 2, 12.
16 The gracious gift of prophesying was measured
out to the women as well as the men in the congregation, so that we read concerning the evangelist
Philip: "The same man had four daughters, virgins,
which did prophesy." (Acts 21: 8, 9) That illustrates
the prophecy of Joel 2: 28, 29, which Peter quoted
on the day of Pentecost after the first descent of the
holy spirit, saying: "I will pour out of my spirit upon
all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, . . . and on my servants and on my
14. To whom did he measure out apostleship and teachlnl:?
lG. What other responsible offices were measured out to the men?
l6. Upon whom was the gift of prophecy bestowed, and how?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my

spirit." (Acts 2: 16-18) To the apostle John was given
the position of prophet in a very special way, by
communicating to him the visions and messages that
make up the Revelation, or Apocalypse. (Rev. 1: 1)
Prophets were active in the early church; but today
men and women, filled with the spirit, have the privilege of explaining to others the prophecies written.
VARIETY
11 Seeing that the spirit and its manifestations are
a free gift through Christ, none of us has a reason
to complain because one manifestation of it is given
to us and it differs from that given to others. The
women believers have no reason to complain because
of the manifestations exclusively given to the men.
Some women of the female politician and Christian
Scientist type may brand this as unjust; but the God
of creation has measured the women better than
they themselves can. He took their measure in Eden
and created Eve accordingly, after Adam. The
Christlike attitude is for us to be thankful for whatever manifestation of the spirit is conferred upon
us as individuals. Then cultivate such gifts of the
spirit as you have, making the fullest use of them.
What if others do have manifestations of the spirit
that you do not yet have or may never have T Such
gifted brethren are Christ's present to the congregation for its edification and equipment for the
ministry. So, try to get the most benefit from such
gifted brethren. Enjoy their services. They were
given for your profit.
1S Therefore do not begrudge others the measure
of grace that has been imparted to them. It is
free. For that reason the outward expressions of
the spirit are different with different individuals,
according to the wisdom of God. But all the operations of the spirit through the various ones is for
the common good. God appointed some to be apostles,
others prophets, others evangelists, others spiritual
shepherds, others teachers. Why all this variety!
In order to train, coach and fit the entire congregation for its work of ministering God's Word to other
people; yes, in order to build up the entire congregation in faith, hope and love. The very variety of
gifts makes for the broadening and enrichment of
the congregation, and for the proper balancing of
its various members that it may not lack in any part
but be able to meet any particular need or emergency. Is it necessary to hold public meetings T Then
there are brothers capable of delivering public talks.
Is it necessary to hold Bible studies in the general
meeting-place or in the home~ opened up for such
purpose f Then there are brothers qualified to conduct such study meetings. Are overseers and super-

17. How should we act toward gifts measured out to Individuals?

18. Why 18 au the variety of the manifestations of the spirit?

SEPTEMBER 15, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

279

intendents needed for organized companies of Jeho- prophets' Are all teachers' Are all mighty works T
vah's witnesses 1 Then there are brothers with spirit- Have all gifts of healings' Do all with tongues speak T
ual endowments to meet that need. Is it necessary Do all translate' Be envious, however, of the greater
to preach the gospel in the homes of the people! gifts; ... So then, my brethren, be zealous to prophThen there are brothers and sisters to act as com- esy."-1 Cor. 12: 4-11,27-31, and 14: 39, Rother-ham.
pany publishers or as full-time pioneers to go wit20 By remembering that the holy spirit is not a
nessing from house to house. Is it necessary to open person but is the active force or invisible energy
up new fields or better organize work in foreign coming from God through Christ, we can see that
lands 1 Then there are trained brothers and sisters the gifts of the spirit are conferred on each person
giving full tinle to act as missionaries and be sent with due respect to his inborn abilities or uncultito such lands.
vated talents. Then this spirit or invisible energy
19 The apostle Paul understood this matter and
can move upon him and awaken his innate abilities
observed it as much as any other apostle. He said: to life. It can help and improve his uncultivated
"Distributions of gifts there are, yet the same spirit, natural endowments and so make him more useful,
and distributions of ministries there are, and the more capable, more productive. God, who r'eads our
same Lord, and distributions of energies there are, hearts, can detect these endowments in us. No doubt,
and the same God, who energiseth all things in all. too, the Lord Jesus, when measuring out to a person
But unto each one is given the manifesting of the the gracious gift of the spirit, takes into consideraspirit with a view to that which is profitable; for tion the use to which that person is to be put or the
unto one indeed through the spirit is given a word office he is to fill. Paul said: ''1 thank my God, I
of wisdom, but unto another a word of lmowledge speak with tongues more than ye all." (1 Cor. 14: 18)
according to the same spirit; unto a different one Why should Paul be given this large gift of tongues T
faith in the same spirit, and unto another gifts of Most likely because Paul was the particular apostle
healings in the one spirit, and unto another energies to the Gentiles, that is, to the nations of many
of mighty works, and unto another prophesying, and tongues. The Lord said to him: ''Depart: for I will
unto another discriminations of spirits, unto a send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." (Acts 22: 21;
different one kinds of tongues, and unto another Rom. 11: 13) Paul could speak Aramaic to the Jews,
translation of tongues; but all these energiseth the but he wrote all his letters to his brethren in the
one and the same spirit, distributing unto each one then international language, the common Greek
peculiarly even as it is disposed. Now ye are the Christ Jesus lmew what measure of gift Paul needed
body of Christ and members severally; and God or could take, and bestowed it upon him to match.
hath indeed set certain in the assembly, first apos- We may all be sure he can do the same as to us all.
tles, second prophets, third teachers, after that
See The Watchtower as of J nne 15, 1944, pages 179-187;
mighty works, then gifts of healings, helps, guid- August
15, 1944, pages 247-252; :March 1, 1948, pages 67-76;
ings, kinds of tongues. Are all apostles T Are all June 1, 1948, pages 165-172.
19, At 1 CorlUthlnns 12 what does Paul say on gift distribution?

-20. In bestowing

gifts what is taken Into consideration about us?

THE CULTIVATING OF GIFTS

ECAUSE of being called to the apostleship,
Paul was gifted in many ways. It was the invisible energy of God that operated through him.
There was doubtless some natural foundation for
his being used in the way he was. There was something already in him upon which the spirit or active
force of God could work, something it could develop
to larger uses. Of course, this does not mean that it
was all natuml ability upon his part. No; but first
God had to show mercy to him, a one-time persecutor.
God next called him and opened to him the opportunity to serve, and then bestowed the all-necessary
spirit upon him. Had it not been for this, Paul could
not have been used as he was, despite all the natural
ability that he had as a Jew, the son of a Pharisee,
educated at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem.

~far did natural ability and the spirit operate in Paul?

2. To what purpose did Paul use his Pit {If apostolic powers?

280

~e WATCHTOWER.

recognized the purpose for which it was given.

Under incitement he said: "Even supposing 1 were
to boast somewhat freely of my authority (and the
Lord gave it to me for building you up, not for
demolishing you), I would feel quite justified!'
(2 Cor. 10:8 and 13:10, Moffatt) True to the purpose of the gift, he sought to build up the church,
to strengthen it, to increase its abilities in various
ways. As an apostle he was used as a channel to
impart gifts of the spirit to. baptized believers, for
example, to those twelve men at Ephesus. (Acts
19: 1-7) It delighted him to be used that way as a
vehicle to bear these gifts of God's grace to others.
In fact, he was anxious to impart these to the
believers to make them stronger and more useful in
God's service. Note his anxiety to impart spiritual
gifts to his brethren as he writes the Christians at
Rome and says: "1 long to see you, to convey to
you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you;
in other words, that you and 1 may be mutually
encouraged by one another's faith." He had been
used to found the congregation at Corinth, Greece,
personally baptizing a number of them, and he later
wrote them to say: "So your experience has confirmed the testimony that I bore to Christ, and there
is no gift that you lack even while you are waiting
for our Lord Jesus Christ to reappear."-Rom.
1: 11, 12 and 1 Cor. 1: 6, 7, An Amer. Trans.
8 However, before Paul could convey those spiritual gifts, he first had to preach God's Word to them
and prepare them for it, building them up in faith
and in desire for that which is spiritual. It was not
just as simple and easy as raising up the first two
fingers of his right hand, making a motion, and saying, "God bless you," or laying his hand upon people
and letting the spirit flow through. There must be
some cultivating first. Paul helped to build up faith
in the Jewish grandmother Lois and her daughter
Eunice. Afterward, when their offspring Timothy
believed, Paul laid his hands upon the young man
and imparted a gift of the spirit to him. (2 Tim. 1: 6;
1 Tim. 4: 14) Realizing the work for which Timothy
was useful as his companion, Paul doubtless prayed
for the particular gift that God might be pleased to
grant Timothy through Christ.-See Acts 8: 14-17.
In the article preceding we have noted that a
measure of the spirit was poured out upon the varioUiS believers from the day of Pentecost forward,
and in many cases they were endowed suddenly,
miraculously, with powers and abilities not possessed before then, such as speaking foreign languages, translating, healing the afflicted, making
predictions, etc. Prior to this, though, they had to
repent of sin, turn from the world to faith in God,
and consecrate themselves to him through Jesus
3. What had to precede the betltowing of gifts by the apostles?
4. What Iunds of gifts were not determined upon by the receivers?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Christ as their sin-atoning sacrifice. Miraculous

manifestations of the spirit were given to them, but
what these should be was not decided upon by themselves. They had no control as to what should be
conferred upon them. Note, nevertheless, that after
Paul describes the variety of the gifts of the spirit
he adds: ''But desire earnestly the greater gifts,"
and then makes a specific designation of such greater
gift by saying: ''Wherefore, my brethren, desire
earnestly to prophesy." (1 Cor. 12: 31 and 14: 39,
Am. Stan. Ver.) What does that mean' This:
5 Some gifts, such as prophesying, supervising,
ministering, managing, organizing, must be cultivated or worked at with a purpose. Then they will
be mastered or the person become proficient in them.
It does us no good to desire and long for these
greater gifts earnestly, and lazily do nothing for the
sake of realizing our longing desire. "The soul of
the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul
of the diligent shall be made fat." Otherwise said:
"The lazy man has longings, but gets nothing: the
diligent man is amply supplied." (Prov. 13: 4;
Moffatt) Merely praying for the desired gift does
not show our full degree of faith. Diligent efforts
and works toward attaining the gift give full life to
our faith and lead to gaining what we desire. As we
work we must trust to the spirit or invisible energy
of God to work with us under the blessing of God.
A man desiring the office of a superintendent or
overseer in a congregation has good desires, but
good wishes do not make him suitable for it. He must
see to it that he qualifies for the responsible position, and hence he must prepare himself to meet the
requirements. He can do this only with the aid of
God's spirit.
ENCOURAGING EXAMPLES
S In going after the "greater gifts" we have to
work with what abilities or aptitudes we possess at
first in their more or less crude, undeveloped state.
We must seek to improve and perfect them according to the instructions of God's Word. As we thus
do, we will pray for the help of the spirit of God.
What can be accomplished if we act thus in faith is
illustrated by many instances in ancient times. Take,
for example, Noah. This God-fearing man was not a
shipbuilder by trade. The Bible does not indicate so.
We have no record in the Bible of large boats prior
to his day. Then God warns him of the coming of
a global flood, and issues instructions to him to build
a large craft 450 feet long, 75 feet broad, and 45
feet high. He was not told to hire shipwrights for
the unheard-of task, if there were any such at that
time, but in display of his faith and obedience to
God he and his three sons must build it themselves.

5. Why and how must gifts we earnestly detlire be cultivated?

6, 7. (al In going after "greater gifts" with what must we proceed
and how? (b) How did Noah get tile iltt of shipbuilding?

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With no experience at shipbuilding, and without

experienced shipbuilders of that ancient world to
consult, how could Noah go about such a thing' On
what basis did he'
1 Whatever the situation, Noah had the constructive faculties that he could develop, the same as
Jesus of Nazareth had who became an expert carpenter and artisan but who really came to earth to
be a Kingdom preacher. God saw the need of an ark
for creatures to survive the Flood. But he did not
pick Noah to build it because this 500-year-old man
was a shipbuilder by trade. He picked Noah because
he would go ahead with building the ark by reason
of his faith and obedience toward God. Whatever
Noah's inexperience may have been in the matter,
he followed instructions and put his abilities to work,
and the spirit of Almighty God assisted him. He was
a prophet, which means he was moved and carried
along by the spirit of God. (2 Pet. 1: 21) It helped
him. Seven days before the great deluge broke, the
ark was all ready according to God's specifications.
Then Noah's family and the animals to be saved
began moving in. The ark in itself must have been
well built; it withstood the mighty forces incidental
to that cataclysm. That ark was an exhibition of
what the spirit of God can accomplish. Consequently
the art of shipbuilding was a gift of the spirit to
Noah. But he had to desire to build the ark because
of what God told him, and he had to work at building it. He became equal to the task.-Heb. 11: 7.
8 Another
example: Eight centuries after the
Flood the Semitic descendants of Noah, the Israelites, were slaves in Egypt under a king that believed
in genocide. Till the time they marched out of that
oppressive country they had been held down to brickmaking and masonry for at least eighty years, under
conditions designed to exhaust their race. That did
not leave most of them free for the fine arts and
crafts which then prevailed in Egypt, giving her an
advanced civilization in that sixteenth century B.C.
But when the Israelites got to Mount Sinai, Jehovah
God gave Moses instructions to build a sacred tabernacle for worship and gave him the pattern of all
things connected with it. Who, now, must take the
leading part in the actual construction work' Bezalel,
and his chief assistant Oholiab. Bezalel and Oholiab
may have been slave brickmakers and bricklayers up
till this. More reasonably, though, they may have
had some experience in the arts and crafts required
to produce the tabernacle and all its furnishings. At
any rate, they could go ahead with what talents they
may have had to some extent. But the primary thing
that insured the successful building of the tabernacle
as God wanted it was his spirit. Also Bezalel and
Oholiab would find enough workers of ability to
8, 9. How were Bezalel and Ohollab gtfted for their assigned work?

281

work with them. Almighty God would see to that by

means of his spirit. Accordingly we read:
D "And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, See, I
have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son
of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him
with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise skilful works, to work in gold,
and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones
for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all
manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have
appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach,
of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all that are
wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make
all that I have commanded thee."-Ex. 31: 1-6, Am.
Stan. Vet'.; 35: 30-33.
10 The spirit of the Lord upon Bezalel and Oholiab
dictated that they should call to their help competent
men and teach them their assignments of work.
Hence we read: "And Moses said unto the children
of Israel, See, Jehovah hath called by name Bezalel
... And he hath put in his heart that he may teach,
both he, and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the
tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of
heart, to work all manner of workmanship, ... And
Bezalel and Oholiab shall work, and every wisehearted man, in whom Jehovah hath put wisdom and
understanding to know how to work all the work for
the service of the sanctuary, according to all that
Jehovah hath commanded. And Moses called Bezalel
and Oholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose
heart Jehovah had put wisdom, even everyone
whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work
to do it: and they received of Moses all the offering
which the children of Israel had brought for the
work of the service of the sanctuary, wherewith to
make it."-Ex. 35: 30 to 36: 3, Am. Stan. Ver.
11 To be sure, while Moses and Bezalel and Oholiab
depended upon the spirit of the Lord to help, they
also exercised what judgment they were capable of
to select persons who, to start with, had qualities
adaptable for the work and which could be developed.
Then as these followed instructions and put their
abilities to work the talent that they built up for the
work under the spirit of God became a gift. It did
not come to them just of itself, miraculously. They
had to put forth effort, follow instructions, and apply
themselves, trusting in God's blessing and relying
upon his spirit.
12 Not only the men had a part in preparing things
for the tabernacle, but also the women. They were
not called to do the work ordinarily performed by
men, but the privilege of tabernacle service that God
measured out to them was according to what women10, 11. How did they pick helpers? How did these get special gifts"
12. How did the Israellte women also come In for gifts to ser,-e?

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BROOKLYN, N. Y.

13 Now a spiritual house is to be built up, not made

with human hands, but one in which Jehovah God
dv;ells by his spirit. In it the members of the Christian church are "living stones", to be "built up a
spiritual house". (1 Pet. 2: 4, 5, Am. Stan. Ver.)
God's help and blessing are specially needed in this
project. "Except Jehovah build the house, they labor
in vain that build it." (Ps. 127: 1, Am. Stan. Ver.)
At this end of the world we are near the completion
of the building of the spiritual house. For this
reason the prophecy of Joel, fulfilled in miniature at
Pentecost A.D. 33, is now undergoing its major and
complete fulfillment, and Jehovah God has poured
his spirit out upon his faithful consecrated remnant,
men and women alike. (Joel 2: 28, 29) But, you say,
if that is the case, where do we see those who have
received the spirit's outpouring suddenly being
gifted with a miraculous power or ability, such as
the gift of strange tongues, healings, miracles,
prophecies, translations, etc. f ,\Ve answer, We see no
such things nor should we expect such things today,
because the miraculous gifts of the spirit passed
away with the death of the apostles by whom or in
whose presence such unusual spiritual gifts were
bestowed upon the baptized believers. (Acts 8: 14-18;
19: 1-7) Says the apostle Paul: "Love never faileth:
but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done
away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.
Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual

gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy."-l Cor.

13: 8 and 14: 1, Am. Stan. Ver.
14 Since, then, we do not have today the miraculous
impartation of gifts to those who have received
the outpouring of the holy spirit from and after
A.D. 1918, where are the various manifestations to
show that Jehovah's witnesses have received the
spirit in fulfillment of Joel 2: 28, 29' Where are the
various operations of the spirit to prove it has been
outpoured , We answer, There are clear manifestations of the spirit today, there are indisputable evidences of its operation through Jehovah's faithful
witnesses. In what way' In that God is now using
these consecrated people to accomplish the work
predicted in his prophecies of old, and he is doing
this in spite of their small numbers, their poverty,
their natural llandicaps, limitations and imperfect
abilities, and also the world-wide opposition and
persecutions against them. To get some glimpse
of the marvelous work Almighty God is effecting
through them we have simply to consult the 1948
Yearbook of Jehovah's witnesses J particularly pages
22-31. Truly in the case of these servants of the Lord
God Jehovah we see the final fulfillment of His
prophecy at Zechariah 4: 6: "'Not by arms, nor by
force, but by my spirit,' says the LORD of hosts."
(An Amer. Trans.) "'Not by fighting, not by force,
but by my spirit!' so the Lord of hosts declares."
-Moffatt.
15 In one way or another all the consecrated ones
whom God calls into service as His witnesses have
some natural abilities. So what is needed is their
willingness to put these to work in His service.
These abilities must be used as the foundation upon
which to build. They must not be left idle and neglected, but cultivated. If we apply ourselves to using
them in God's service according to the instructions
he gives through his organization and Word, then
they will receive development, God's spirit acting as
an energizing force. The thing to do is to get started.
Get going! Take hold of the service, trusting God to
direct the course our efforts should take. In due time
we shall get the gift of the desired ability, whether
it be that of prophesying (that is, telling forth the
written prophecies and their meaning), or teaching,
or acting as an overseer, or house-to-house publishing, or other useful ability.
18 If there is a work to be done in the organization
of God's people, and if those in authority select us
to do it or encourage us to take part in it, then we
should undertake it. We must use what abilities and
knowledge we already have. We can rely upon the
Almighty God to help us by his spirit. He will fulfill
his prop'hecy and do so. Eventually, if we earnestly
persist at the assigned work with a will, His blessing

13. For what constructive work are gifts needed today, but what
feature about gifts has passed away1 and why?

H. What today shows the operation and manifestations of the splr10

1ti. 16. What Is now needed to get the gift of the desired abUlty1

folk might customarily or suitably do. Yet it required

special skill and deserved the superior use of their
talents, and there is where God's spirit could be
expected to come to their aid. And it did. "And all
the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their
hands, and brought that which they had spun, the
blue, and the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.
And all the women whose heart stirred them up in
wisdom spun the goats' hair. The children of Israel
brought a freewill offering unto Jehovah; every
man and woman, whose heart made them willing to
lJring for all the work, which Jehovah had commanded to be made by :Moses." (Ex. 35: 25, 26, 29,
Am. Stan. Ver.) The heart of the women stirred them
up to do the spinning. Also the spirit of the Lord
stirred up the generosity of his people. So sufficient
supplies were provided for the construction project,
and all the needed workers having talents were provided. All through their activities the Lord's spirit
promoted and assisted the abilities of the workers.
The result was that, when the tabernacle was at last
completed and set up, it testified to the spirit of the
Almighty God upon his people.
TO BE STIRRED UP, NOT NEGLECTED

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283

will reward us with the gift of improved or adequate

11 Likewise, we today must not expect the spirit of
ability for the work. Progress will show itself.
God to do it all, while we lazily neglect talents and
11 This was what Paul meant when he wrote
abilities and limply show no initiative and make no
Timothy: "Do not neglect the gift you have, that was plans. The thing to do is to lend ourselves energiven you with predictions of your work, when the getically to the work as those ancient Israelites did
elders laid their hands upon you. Cultivate these to the tabernacle work, purposefully exerting our
things, devote yourself to them, so that everyone abilities to the full for the work's sake. Let us stir
will see your progress. Look out for yourself and up our gifts, such as we have, just as when stirring
for your teaching. Persevere in your work, for if you up a bed of coals with a poker to produce a flame.
do you will save both yourself and those who listen If we have been appointed to a job or if an invitation
to you." (1 Tim. 4: 14-16, An Amer. Trans.) Timothy to share in a work has been accorded us, then let
had a gift by the spirit of God. It was conferred upon us give it our best, whether that requires advance
him for use. He must not neglect it, if he wanted to study, training, practice, rehearsing, or other prepabe faithful and did not want to receive God's grace ration. Enter into the work with faith, with love for
in vain and waste the gift. It must be applied to the it, with self-discipline. Make the effort to please God
work intended, yes, be cultivated, improved, per- in the gift of service. Then his spirit may confidently
fected by practical use. He had to go at the work be expected to work invisibly with us and make up
with faith in God. Paul knew Timothy's grandmother for what we lack, or improve what we have. Paul
and mother had faith and that Timothy also had it. told Timothy: "Do your best to win God's approval
"For this reason," said Paul in farewell, "1 would as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of.
remind you to rekindle the divine gift that you but rightly shapes the message of truth." (2 Tim.
received when I laid my hands upon you. For the 2: 15, An Amer. Trans.) Yes, the spirit of God will
spirit God has given us is a spirit not of timidity never fail us. It will work with our powers already
but of power, love, and self-discipline. So you must possessed, but we must put forth the effort first,
not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, nor be must bestir ourselves mentally and physically and
ashamed of me who am in prison for his sake, but get alive to the work. "Think over what I say. For
join with me in suffering for the good news, through the Lord will help you to understand it perfectly."
the power of God."-2 Tim. 1: 5-8, An Amer. Trans. -2 Tim. 2: 7, An Amer. Trans.
17. Wbat was Timotby exhorted to do as to bUi gilt? How must be?

18. Wbat sbouid we likewise do, and expecting the help of wbat?

THE GIFT OF PERSEVERING IN SINGLENESS

E HAVE to make room for the Lord's work women are given this single freedom and unconcern
in our lives, because, if we consecrated to about marriage simply without any determination
do His will, then that work is laid upon us upon their part whereas this gift is withheld from
and must be done. It falls upon us to clear out of other men and women and hence in their helplessness
our lives other things which would preoccupy our they simply cannot resist the attractions to marriage.
time, strength and attention. In order to give their No; but men and women must determine to have this
undivided, unencumbered selves to the Kingdom gift. Otherwise, Jesus would not have said that some
service, some persons seek the gift that Jesus men- make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom's sake.
tioned when discussing the divorce problem. "The To make oneself a eunuch of this kind is not an
disciples said to him, 'If that is a man's position obligation upon any Christian. If it were, then it
with his wife, better not marry at all)' He said to could not be a gift for us to accept or refuse. But
them, 'True, but this truth is not practicable for as regards the gift, Jesus said some do not accept it.
everyone, it is only for those who have the gift. They do not admit it or make room for it in their
There are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from lives. They do not determine to maintain their
their birth, there are eunuchs who have been made single, unencumbered estate, as Paul did, who said:
eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have "Have we not a right to take a Christian wife about
made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Realm with us, like the rest of the apostles and the Lord's
of heaven. Let anyone practice it for whom it is brothers and Cephas 1" Yes, he had a Christian right
to get married, but he chose instead to admit or
practicable.' "-Matt. 19: 10-12, Moffatt.
make room for the gift of singleness. Why1 To give
2 This matter of 'not marrying at all', Jesus said,
was for those to whom it was given or who have the himself without distractions to the ministry of progift. But that does not mean that certain men or claiming the good news of God's kingdom. Writing
of marriage difficulties, he said: "I should like to
1. Wbat gift do some seek to give tbemselves undivldedly to God's
dlrert servlce?
have everyone be just as I am myself; but each one
2. Wby is this gift of singleness given only to some?

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has his own special gift from God, one of one kind,
and one of another. So the man who marries her
does what is right, and the man who refrains from
doing so does even better.... But she will be happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is, and I
think I have God's spirit as well as other people."
-1 Cor. 9: 5 and 7: 7, 38, 40, A1~ Amer. Trans.
a So, in order to retain his hold on the gift of
singleness, the apostle Paul absorbed himself in
God's work. He did not say, 'I would like to have the
gift,' but at the same time weaken the force of his
wish by interesting himself in a particular one of
the opposite sex and cultivate close intimacy with
that one. No; he went after what he set before him,
the gift, and he accepted all the self-denials and
things required for enjoying it. He made room for
the gift in his thoughts, plans and arrangements for
the future. It is a practicable thing, and he went
after it in a practical way, honest with himself.
Accordingly the gift was given him. In view of his
gift, so many responsibilities were laid upon him
by the Lord that he had no time for considering
marriage. He realized he could not have measured
up to his responsibilities if he had the constant care
and attention of a wife. That was why he went on
to say that, if a married man or woman wants to
take part in certain privileges in the Lord's service,
such person must to that extent act as if unmarried.
, "But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time
has grown very short. From this time on those who
have wives should live as though they had none."
(1 Cor. 7: 29, An Amer. Trans.) If a married person
does this, then a gift of service is given. "Every man
hath his proper gift from God, one after this manner,
and another after that." (1 Cor. 7: 7) Each one gets
this gift by adapting himself to his situation, be he
a married person or a single person, or a slave under
a master, or a person required to work part time to
provide life's needs for dependent ones. Each one
must study and plan how he can arrange matters
under his circumstances so as to do something
directly in God's service. Then God will help him,
and he will have a gift of service. He must cultivate
the gift by taking advantage of opportunities.
USE WHAT YOU HAVE

Therefore neglect no possibility. Use what you

have according to the wisdom God gives you through
his ,Yard and his dealings with you. Do not turn
over to others what privileges of service you may
yourself render, resulting in a joy to yourself that
you have never had before. Do not be foolish in this
respect: "The master workman does everything himself; but the fool hires a passer-by." (Prov. 26: 10,
a

3, 4. (a) How did Paul hold on to his gift of singleness? (b) How
does 'every man have his proper gift from God' In one way or other?
la) What should we do With opportunities and priv!leges?
( ) Why must we look well to the state of God's fiock, and how?

til> 6.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

An Amer. Trans.; Moffatt) If you have a territory in

which to work and give a witness to the Kingdom, do
not call in a pioneer publisher to work it if you can
do it yourself. While the opportunity is there, grasp
it and reap the fruitage of your own personal efforts.
The rich opportunity will not endure always; so
cultivate it. Look after the flock of the Lord's "other
sheep" in your territory by visiting them, inspecting
their condition, taking an interest in them, and offering what help and comfort you can. The Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society follows out this rule,
by sending out its traveling representatives, yes,
even the president and board of directors themselves, to visit the Lord's flock throughout the world,
to observe their condition and their local needs and
problems and to provide for help to them.
e By this course your riches of opportunity are
not wasted or left to pass away, but a rich fruitage
of happifying results is gathered in. As it is written:
"Look well to the state of your flocks, and pay good
heed to your herds; for riches last not forever, nor
wealth throughout the ages. When the hay is cut,
and the aftermath appears, and the grass of _the
mountains is gathered in, lambs will supply you with
clothing, and goats with the price of a field; goats'
milk enough will you have for your food, for the
food of your household, and as maintenance for your
maidens."-Prov. 27: 23-27, An Amer. Trans.
1 In summing up, then, we must say: Do not expect
any miraculous gifts of the spirit today. This does
not mean that there are today no gifts of the spirit.
There are, but these gifts must be cultivated by our
humbly accepting the privileges of serving God that
are given us and then putting to use what ability and
fitness for the service we have. "As the Scripture
says, 'God opposes haughty persons, but he blesses
humble-minded ones.'" (Jas. 4: 6, An Amer. Trans.;
1 Pet. 5: 5) As we humbly and trustfully present
ourselves to the service and go about it with what
we possess, God blesses and helps us by his active
force or energy and we find ourselves equal to this
work and getting it done. We find we have the gift.
s Do not permit your gifts to suffer neglect, no
matter how small they be. Keep them constantly in
use. Stir them up; rekindle the fire of them. Redeem
the time and its opportunities. "The end of all things
is at hand: ... As every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another, as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man
speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any
man minister, let him do it as of the ability which
God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."-l Pet. 4: 7, 10, 11.
7. How, then, are gifts of the spirit obtained today?
8. How do we etir up our gifts? and why should we DOW 7

"BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM"

N THE Holy Bible a tree is used as a symbol of a centuries of growth Christendom's fruitage plainlY visible
creature or an organization of creatures. Accordingly proves she is not that nation. She has never at any time
the fruits borne by the tree symbolically stand for what brought to the people the fruit or Scriptural message of
the creature or organization of creatures holds before the the kingdom of God. On the contrary, she has at all times
people as spiritual food for their nourishment and growth. co-operated with politicians, militarists, commercial giants,
Jesus used trees as an illustration of this kind, saying in and ambitious gangsters to rule and control the nations of
his sermon on the mount: "A good tree cannot bring forth the earth. Instead of bearing before the people the fruits
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. of God's Word, which really sustain the eater, she has
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn bitterly opposed the kingdom under Christ, as is proved by
down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye her continual persecution of Jehovah's witnesses, the only
shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, ones telling the people the Bible facts about God's kingdom
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that under Christ. Every religious system of Christendom
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will indulges in politics and commerce, more or less, contrary
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied to Christ, who said his kingdom is not of this world. They
in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and call him ''Lord, Lord", but do works that are lawless to
in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will Him, or iniquity.
Everyone that is made a member of the "church of God"
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7: 18-23) Despite their call- must faithfully follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and must
ing Jesus ''Lord, Lord", and professing to do many out- therefore do as Jesus did. "For even hereunto were ye
wardly righteous works in His name, those symbolic trees called," writes Peter to the true Christians, ''because Christ
were not producing good fruits, but were producing "evil also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should
fruit" that Jesus called "iniquity". So, in this day, we must follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found
not be influenced by religious leaders' oft repetition of in his mouth." (1 Pet. 2: 21, 22) Jesus said he came into
"Lord, Lord", with reference to Jesus Christ, but we must this world to bear witness to the truth, and then he added:
look at their teachings and works, and then we shall "Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice." (John
positively be able to know whether they are religious 18: 37) Every true Christian, therefore, listens to Jesus'
hypocrites or genuine Christians.
voice of truth and then brings forth the fruitage of truth.
To Jesus Christ and to those who faithfully follow him He is Jehovah's great Prophet, and they must obey him
as members of the "church, which is his body", Jehovah or else suffer destruction. So both Moses and Peter said.
God has covenanted to give the kingdom of heaven. The (Deut. 18: 15-19; Acts 3: 22, 23) For any religious leader
Kingdom will open up the new world of righteousness by on ear.th to lay claim to the office of personally representruling for a thousand years and undoing all the wicked ing and substituting for Jesus Christ and then to take the
work, and its effects, of Satan the Devil. (Luke 22: 28-30) course exactly opposite to what Jesus took on earth, is
The kingdom of God has nothing that is commercial. It wholly inconsistent. It shows that his claims or pretenses
has nothing in common with the harsh, cruel and wicked are false. The pope of Vatican City is much in the limesystem now ruling the world, for this present rule the light these days. His newspaper publicity department
Bible tells us is under Satan the Devil and his representa- forces him and his religious claims upon the attention of
tives invisible and visible. The "god of this world" is the all of us, no matter of what belief, and consequently it is
great blinder of men's minds to the truth, who is also only logical that we discuss what he claims and what he
called "the prince of this world". (2 Cor. 4: 4) Concerning and his religious organization does.
this world Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world."
Neither Jesus nor his apostles owned any real estate,
"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in houses or other property. Of Jesus we read, at Luke 9: 58:
me." (John 18: 36; 14: 30) Hence this present world and "The Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Jesus
its nations will never be converted into the kingdom of and his apostles did not build cathedrals and basilicas at
God, but the Kingdom will be something entirely new and great expense to the people and draw the paying people
distinct from them. The time of his second coming marks into them to serve the clergy, but he and his apostles went
the hour when Christ Jesus takes the kingdom that God about "from house to house" preaching the truth to the
presents to him and begins ruling in the midst of his people and instructing them privately and publicly in the
enemies in heaven and in earth. At this time also he way of God. (Matt. 10: 5-15; Acts 20: 20) All true followgathers to himself the "church, which is his body", that ers of Christ Jesus have ever pursued the same course. But
they may be with him in the heavenly kingdom.-Eph. how about the pope of Vatican City, who is both a political
ruler and a religious head?
1 : 22, 23; 2 Tim. 4: 1; 2 Thess. 2: 1.
That t.he Jl'wish national organization missed out on
The pope pays great deference to Emperor Constantine
the privilege of being the symbolic tree to bear the fruits of Rome. This politician, militarist and emperor of Rome
of God's kingdom to the people Jesus showed, when he said was a pagan or heathen but claimed to adopt Christianity.
to their religious leaders: "The kingdom of God shall be He was rich and influential, and as a clever politician and
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the military strategist he knew how to use his wealth, influence,
fruits thereof." (Matt. 21: 43) But as we look at the and position, to buy the salvation that the Roman Cathorganized religion of Christendom we can see from her olic system of his day claimed to offer. A Roman Catholic
fruits that she has not proved to be that "nation bringing authority is appropriate to quote here, namely, page 134
forth the fruits" of the kingdom of God. After sixteen of The Faith of Our Fathers, by the late Cardinal Gibbons,

285

286

SEeWATCHTOWER

of Baltimore, Md., not far from Washington, D.C. The

<lardinal says: "Constantine gave to the Roman Church
munificent donations of money and real estate, which were
augmented by additional grants contributed by subsequent
emperors. Hence the patrimony of the Roman Pontiffs soon
became very considerable." From that time onward the
Rom\ln Catholic religious sect became very rich in material
things, laying up treasures on earth where moth and rust
corrupt and destroy. Thus it is seen that the Roman Catholic system and its pope pursued a course wholly inconsistent with that pursued by Jesus and contrary to what
he said in his sermon on the mount. Constantine belonged
to the fourth century, and in that century the Roman
Catholic sect had bishops and other ecclesiastical rulers to
a great number, and thereafter the pope of Rome in the
modern sense began to be elected. That was the real beginning of popedom, and this was almost 400 years after the
days of Jesus' apostles.
RELIGIOPOLITICAL FRUITAGE

Soon after this the pope, as the head of the religious

organization, began to exercise political or temporal power.
Pepin, king of France, after defeating the Lombards in
war, placed the pope as temporal ruler of the conquered
provinces. Thus the pope came into existence as a temporal
power by means of a war of conquest; which is contrary
to the word of God for Christians. Says Cardinal Gibbons:
"Charlemagne, the successor of Pepin, not only confirms
the grant of his father, but increases the temporal domain
of the Pope by donating him some additional provinces.
This small piece of territory the Roman Pontiffs continued
to govern from that time till 1870, with the exception of
brief intervals of foreign usurpation."-Gibbons' The
Faith of Our Fathers, page 137.
In the exercise of his political power the pope has kept
his ambassadors at the courts of almost all the nations of
Christendom. Such a course is entirely inconsistent with
and at odds with Christ Jesus, the real Head of the true
"church of God" and who declares he has nothing whatsoever to do with the political affairs of this world because
Satan controls them.
In 1870 the pope refused to come to terms with the king
of Italy. On September 20 that year, after the foreign
papal troops had put up a brief resistance, the troops of
Italy under General Cadorna breached the walls of the city
and entered Rome. The next day Cardinal Antonelli issued
a diplomatic protest against the Italian occupation of Rome.
Several days later the pope added his own protest. On
September 29 he sent a circular letter to his cardinals and
complained of the Italian invasion and of his loss of
liberty as a temporal ruler. Then a plebiscite was held,
October 2, and out of 167,548 votes 133,681 were cast for
Rome's union with the kingdom of Italy. The result of
the plebiscite was sent to the king of Italy, and on
October 9, 1870, Rome and its provinces were incorporated
with the kingdom of Italy by royal decree. Notwithstanding all efforts of King Victor Emmanuel for peaceful relations with the pope, Pius IX sternly persisted in his stubborn protest against the humiliating change of things. He
lived retired in the Vatican and called himself a prisoner. See the book Enemies, pages 256, 257.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

But all through the succeeding years the Roman Catholic

religious organization continued to dabble in the politics
of this world and sought to gain political recognition and
power among the nations. Immediately following World
War I, in 1918, the pope tried to get a seat at the conference of the League of Nations that hc might engage in
dividing up Europe when the League of Nations was
formed. Particularly because of the 1915 Treaty of London
between England and Italy, Benedict XV was prevented
from gaining a seat at that conference, and the League got
started without him. In 1922 Mussolini seized power in
Rome and established himself as a Fascist dictator. He
entered into relations with pope Pius XI, who had become
pope that same year of 1922. In 1929 the treaty was signed
between the two re-establishing the pope as a temporal
ruler and his domain as Vatican City. To quote Gunther's
Inside. Europe, page 195: "In 1929 the Lateran Treaty
adjusted the relations of church and state in Italy. Shortly
thereafter Mussolini and the Pope, strong characters both,
clashed over the education of Fascist youth; in 1932 the
Duce [Mussolini] went to the Vatican, knelt in prayer,
and, it is believed, took holy communion. He was an avowed
atheist, like his father, in youth; latterly he has become
very religious." Following World War II this Lateran
Treaty of 1929 between Mussolini and Pius XI was made
an integral part of the Constitution of the Republic of
Italy, by a vote of 350 to 149 in the Constituent Assembly
that was then drawing up the new constitution. By this
Roman Catholicism was recognized as "the only state
religion" and Vatican City as an independent state with
the pope as its temporal ruler. The Communists, who held
the balance of power in the Assembly, voted with the
so-called "Christian Democrats" to produce this result.
Later the Italian Legislature adopted this constitution.
Regardless of the Roman Catholic organization's sanctimonious claims today, the fruitage she brought forth during the days of Fascist Italy and Hitler's Nazi Germany
give all men to know that she is not the true "church of
Christ". Mussolini's ambition was to become a great war
lord, and he spoke of America's democracy as a "putrid
corpse", and the Roman Catholic organization under
Pius XI worked with him and supported his ambition.
When he began and carried on his blood-spilling conquest
against the poor blacks of Abyssinia, conducting a war
in which many lives were destroyed, the pope and the
Catholic religious system backed up Mussolini and ''blessed''
his murderous assaults. Likewise, in later wars of conquest,
against Albania and against the democratic nations in
World War II, the Roman Catholic clergy of Italy "blessed"
Mussolini's Fascist legions, but with the final result that
all the world now knows. The clergy's course was clearly in
violation of God's everlasting covenant with Noah concerning the sanctity of human blood, and the Roman Catholic
religious sect stands guilty under God's law, although she
expresses no sorrow and repentance over her course. As
the world to this day eats of the bitter fruitage produced
by that sect, does it appear that that religious organization
represents God and his Christ, or that it fraudulently uses
the name of God and of Christ as a camouflage behind
which it carries on its crafty campaign to gain temporal
control over all the earthT
Since World War II Vatican City has outwardly shifted

SEPTEMBER

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER.

its position before the world as if now being pro-democratic,

and she has become bold and aggressive as never before. A
person would have to be mentally blind not to see now that
the purpose of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is to gain
control of the political affairs of the world and rule all
peoples through the United Nations. In harmony with her
public cry that "the United States is the hope of the
,vorld", the Hierarchy puts forth the great effort to gain
control of the United States of America. Gradually awaken-

287

ing to the cunning plot of the Hierarchy, the Protestant

organizations are anxious to safeguard their position and
are trying to consolidate their divided forces and to increase
their political control also in the land.
These are but samples of how organized religion is meddling with worldly affairs throughout the earth, and at the
battle of Armageddon she will be chopped down like a tree
and burned to ashes in the fire.

GILEAD'S ELEVENTH CLASS GRADUATES TO MORE PRAISE

HE rising sun arced higher into the heavens. Hours

ago this created "light to rule the day" had rendered
invisible the myriads of stars that had crowded the
night sky. Gone now was the rosy blush it had cast over
the early morning sky as it rose from its bed over the
eastern horizon. By now its slanting rays had chased the
last lingering chill of nighttime from the earth and brought
welcome warmth to forest and field. By nine o'clock on this
glorious morning of August 1 the sun's beams had drunk
up the last of the morning dew from the grassy lawns that
sloped lazily down from Shiloah to halt at the edge of the
shaded pool cupped in the earth's bosom. Thence the
millions of grassy blades encircle the pond and climb the
hill beyond to carpet in green other beauty spots of Gilead's
rolling campus.
But our interest on this morning of August 1 does not
stray from the sunny greens that stretch from Shiloah to
the shaded pool. Thousands of men and women and children
have assembled on the lawns, some seated in orderly rows
or folding chairs, others comfortably situated on the grass.
All expectantly face Shiloah, the rustically modern library
building of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. All
eyes converge upon the outdoor podium formed by the
landscaping on Shiloah's eastern front, for there Mr. N. H.
Knorr, president of the school, has taken up position before
the microphone that will carry to the thousands of hearing
cars the proceedings of the graduation exercises of the
eleventh class of this school for advanced ministers.
The three-hour program that follows is as delightful as
its setting is beautiful. Choral music by a trained group of
graduates sets events in motion, and the song rendered
holds thrilling meaning for those assembled. As Brother
Knorr announced, it is the Jehovah's witnesses marching
song, composed by one of these faithful ministers who spent
many years in a Nazi concentration camp. Born in the
crucible of savage torture and violent death, the words
breathe the fire of battle and enduring faith. And what
surging emotions of determination, endurance, integrity
and zeal fail to find outlet in weak words burst out into the
powerful beat and movement and rhythm of the music
with its emotional minor vein and jubilant major strains.
Wilen one knows the background events of this throbbing
marching song it throws thoughts back into the black past
when a madman reigned. What a contrast with the idyllic
surroundings of these graduation exercises!
Thankful prayer to God by the Canadian Branch servant
follows the' marching song, and then the proceedings gain
momentum as President Knorr touches on the uniqueness
of this eleventh class of 108 graduates. Gathered in to

attend Gilead from the United States, Canada, Mexico,

Eire, Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark,
Finland, Sweden, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and
some originally from Germany and Austria, this eleventh
class became the second international student body at
Gilead. Each one was a full-time minister praising God
before coming to the Bible school, and the combined total
of their full-time service records is more than 1,000 years.
Their faithfulness in praise has drawn the fiery darts of
Satan's snipers, with one result being that the group has
spent a combined total of 30 years in jail. Language classes
were conducted in English, French and Japanese.
This barrage of information left uncontested the president's claim that the eleventh class was unusual, and he
thereupon gave way to other programed speakers. First
came the Kingdom Farm servant, the one in charge of the
mile-square farm near South Lansing, New York, on which
the Gilead buildings and campus are located. His expression
of appreciation for being associated with the eleventh class
was followed by friendly words of counsel from the four
school instructors present, and the reading of a letter in
similar vein from a fifth instructor. Many of the congratulatory telegrams sent to the class from countries on the
continents of North America, South America, Africa,
Europe, Australia, Asia, and from the isles of the seas,
were next read. Then the secretary-treasurer of the Watchtower Society spoke to the graduates, and brought the program to the scheduled address of the school's president.
He chose to speak to these specially trained ministers that
will be sent to far corners of the earth on the subject of
"Ministers at the World's End". The theme emphasized and
re-emphasized was that the light must shine at this world's
end in more and more praise to Jehovah God. What light ~
That emanating from God and Christ, which must be
caught by ministers and reflected throughout the earth.
The Bible light reveals that in the troubles of our day can
be discerned the signs that we stand at the world's end,
that God's kingdom is established, that Christ has been
made ruler, that this former morning star beams this
enlightenment down to His earthly followers, and that they
must be reflectors of it to shine like stars in the nighttime
of this present dying world. No strange occupation for the
eleventh class, this shining unto Jehovah's praise! They did
it faithfully for years before coming to Gilead. Now,
brightened and polished by advanced training, they will
shine and praise more and more.
False lights in Christendom and heathendom may try to
dim the shining of these missionaries when they take up
service on distant shores. Clergymen of organized, orthodox:

288

~e WATCHTOWER..

religion claim to be guiding lights for the people; but in

seeking position and honor and flattering titles they are
shining for self-glory. They are the fallen stars drawn in
the wake of the Dragon's tail (Revelation 12: 4), they are
'ministers of Satan transformed into ministers of light'
(2 Corinthians 11: 13-15). But let them shine unto themselves and unto Satan. Jehovah's ministers will shine to
God's glory.
Pushing on in his argument, the speaker queries: What
is there in it for ministers of God? Popularity, social honor,
political protection, fat salaries, flattering titles? No; those
are the wages of Satan's ministers. Not wealth and luxury,
but the daily necessities of food, clothing and shelter are
assured God's servants. But of more worth to them are the
privileges of praising Jehovah, and increasing their shining
more and more. Then, with this world's final end past, and
with Jehovah's new world of righteousness established, all
faithful praisers of God will enter into eternal living.
Concluding on this joyous note, Brother Knorr proceeded
to the climax, the distribution of envelopes containing gifts
from the Society and diplomas. Of the 108 graduates, 105
received diplomas indicating completion of the course with
merit. .As each graduate came forward to receive his enve
lope encouraging applau,se from the observing audience
greeted him. Interspersing the distribution Brother Knorr
made comments of interest on the destination of some
of the graduates. Not all have received their foreign assignments, but some are already designated for Mexico, Eire,
France, South Africa, the Malay States, and the entire
group of 22 that studied Japanese will be sent to Japan.
Now the last envelope has been handed out. One of the
graduating students, a colored brother, approaches the
microphone. He represents the student body, and reads on
their behalf a letter addressed to Brother Knorr. It expresses gratitude to Jehovah for the privilege of being
trained at Gilead, and for the greater opportunities of
service now opening up to them. They appreciate the training provisions spread for them at the table of Jehovah, and
resolve not to allow the good benefits to fall into disuse.
Brother Knorr was now closing the program with some
announcements as the student body chorus took up their
positions to again sing the Jehovah's witnesses marching
song. Many in attendance gazed wonderingly at the crowd
spread over the spacious lawns, in the seat sections, under
the trees, by the winding watercourses and still pools, and
they speculated as to the number present. But when
Brother Knorr announced that there were 3,559 persons
attending, the spontaneous "oh's" and "ah's" of the audience and the burst of joyous applause that followed showed
just how happily surprised they were. They listened again
with pleasure to the marching song, and bowed heads in
prayer with Brother Knorr as thanksgiving was offered to
God for His blessings bounteously outpoured.
The fame of Gilead's scenic beauty is spreading far, and
drawing larger numbers to the thrills of its outdoor summer graduation exercises. Why, this time the visitors flocked
not only from all sections of the United States but 'from
Canada, and even some came from Great Britain! Now
these travelers drift in groups away from the lawn before
Shiloah and roam over the campus lawns that cap the surrounding knolls and dip through the intervening swales.
Visitors meander over the picturesque stone bridges that

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

span the streams and pools, some to find their way to the
barns sheltering the farm's livestock, others head off upstream to enjoy the woods and forest glades to be found
there. Many active ones swim in a deep pool, while others
are content to relax in the shade and chat or gaze appreciatively at the flowerbeds that break the green of the lawns
with their splashes of brilliant colors. And if the expression
quickly becomes trite through repetition, it is nonetheless
true, namely, that this is a foretaste of living on the paradise earth of Jehovah's incoming new world.
What makes it more so is the companionship of those
whose eyes see in all this earthly beauty the work of the
heavenly Creator, and praise Him for it all. With this
strong common bond, none are strangers though they have
just met, none feel different though they hail from foreign
nations. This companionable relaxation was apparent during the program Saturday evening, July 31, when a Watchtower study was conducted out-of-doors with 1,535 present.
To fill out an evening of enjoyment graduating students
came on after the study to regale the assembly with songs
and musical renditions. Kingdom songs by the Brooklyn
Bethel male chorus contributed to the evening singing.
Even the music took on an international flavor when some
of the Hawaiian students sang in Japanese and others from
Australia and New Zealand sang in Maori. When this
gathering broke up, at 9: 45, many gazed in wonderment at
the heavenly roof covering their open-air "auditorium".
It seemed that if one more star were crowded in it would
push another one out, so thickly did these heavenly bodies
stud the night sky. Like the psalmist many reflected: "The
heavens declare -the glory of God; and the firmament
sheweth his handywork." And, like him, they wondered:
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is
man, that thou art mindful of himT"-Ps. 8: 3, 4; 19: 1.
Sunday evening, after graduation, crowds once more
gathered on the lawns before Shiloah. It was the final farewell for the eleventh class, and tonight was to be "sister
night". During the school term the sisters did not have
equal opportunity to speak before large groups, but now
was their golden opportunity. Slow only at the outset,
volunteer sister speakers soon were coming in a steady
stream. Gratitude for the course predominated the many
expressions, but woven in were humorous bits, from past
experiences of pioneering, from the school days just past,
about the prospects ahead. Among the last to speak was a
sister from Denmark. She likened the graduating class to
a ripened dandelion, how with the sudden puff of a summer
breeze it scatters in all directions. Now the eleventh class
was about to be scattered to its various assignments. But
when the dandelion scatters it only spreads dandelions,
while the eleventh class will scatter and spread and plant
the seeds of truth, and will water them, and watch the Lord
increase them, as each student continually praises God
more and more.
And like the windblown dandelion that is suddenly dispersed, prayer dismissed the evening assemblers and they
soon scattered to their homeward trails. With them each
took prayerful wishes for the Lord's rich blessings upon
the eleventh class, and in these The Watchtower joins, and
closes out this report with the keynote of the graduation:
"I ... will yet praise thee more and more."-Ps. 71: 14.

VOL. LXIX

SEMIMONTHLY

No. 19

OCTOBER 1, 1948

OONTENTS
291
292
Not Yet in Progress
293
The Day of God Almighty Precedes
294
A REIGN WITH THE DEVIL BOUND ...... 297
The Abyss
297
Kings with the Millennial King
298
MEXICO GoES TO SCHOOL .............. 300
KIXG FOR A THOUSAND YEARS ........

Why the Shift in Viewpoint

MICAH FORESEES OUTCOME OF

DIVINE JUDGMENT ..
FIELD EXPERIENCES .._._..
"KING FOR ALL EARTH"
TESTWONY PERIOD ...

290
290
............................................. 290

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES .......

"AWAKE!"

302
304

$fieWATCHTOWER..
PuBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE D TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

President

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall he taught of Jehovah; and

shall he the peace of thy children." - l!ajah 5"PI.J.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to
everlasting, and is the Maker of ht>ayen and earth and Giyer ot
llfe to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning
of his creation and his active agent in creating alI other things;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelIed against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made pertect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man ~'ielded to unfaIthful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfulIy disobeyed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him With all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATIO~ Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the
rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovah's
organization, and are His Witnesses whose duty and privl!ege it
is to testify to Jehovah's supremacy and declare his purposes
toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended
A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to
Vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blesslDgs of the peoples can come only
by Jeho,ah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His
next great act is to destroy Satan's orgamzatlon and establish
righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom
the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the
divine mandate to "fill the earth" with righteous offspring, and
that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportumties
ot life on earth.
"KING FOR ALL EARTH"

TESTnlO~Y

PERIOD

For a world-wide testimony to the one "King for all the earth"
the month of October has been set aside. During that favorable
season all subjects of Jehovah's King, who now reigns despite
his enemies, will join in special efforts to advertise the King
and his kingdom. The Awake! magazine will be the pnncipal
offer to the people, a year's subscnption for $1.00. For those
who are readers of Awake/ already, the offer will be three bound
books on a contribution of $1.00. The books to be offered are
"Let God Be True", "The Kingdom Is at Hand", and "The
Truth Shall :Make You Free", besides the latest booklet, Permanent Governor of All Nations. This is not book-agency work,
but is ambassadorial work for winning subjects to the new
world's King. Viewing it that Scriptural way, Watchtower readers
will appreciate the honor of it and will want to show their allegiance- to the "King for all the earth" by sharing in this special
work of October. We anticipate that many ,'Vll! write for references and instructions and supplies. We want to put all such
m happy contact with the orgamzed active subjects of the King.
We close with a reminder of your reportIng at the end of this
Testimony Period.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of November 7: "King for a

~ 1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower
Week of November 14: "King for a
~ 21-25 inclusive, also "A Reign with
~ 1-17 inclusive, The Watchtower

Thousand Years,"
October 1, 1948.
Thousand Years,"
the Devil Bound,"
October 1, 1948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
in the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good-wilL
It arranges systematic Bible study tor Its readers and the Society
supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It pUblishes
SUitable material for radio broad<:,asting and for other means
of public Instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority tor its utterances.
It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation
for the kIngdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It Is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical examinstlon
of Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge
In controversy, and Its columns are not open to personalities.

Notice to 8ub.criller.: Rem'ttance. should be sent to omce In your

country In compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of
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"AWAKEI"

This magazine stepped into the field of public service at the

Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses in
A.ugust of 1946, and is published by the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society, Inc. It answers the rousing call for fearless information, not because we have entered the atomic age, but because
the world is fast asleep near the brink of that universal war Scnpturally called "Armageddon" and lovers of life in security need
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''Watching the World", makes note of the latest world news
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mficeWAlCIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

OCTOBER

1, 1948

No. 19

KING FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

"They lived and reigned with the Anointed one the thousand years."-Rev. 20: 4, The Emphatic Diaglott.
EHOVAH, when giving his first prophecy to
mankind, looked forward six thousand years. It
is now about sixty centuries since His power and
wisdom created the first man on earth, and by all the
indications about us our generation has strong assurance from His Word that we shall see the fulfillment of that first prophecy. Logically it was written
down in the first book of the Holy Scriptures. How
it is to be fulfilled in our time is recorded in the last
book of those Holy Scriptures, namely, in the Revelation, written more than sixteen hundred years
after the book of Genesis and more than four thousand years after the first divine prophecy to man.
Truly, Jehovah God does not forget his promises,
but faithfully vindicates his word; "for he is faithful
that promised." (Heb. 10: 23) As far as his own
promises and works are concerned he says: "I am
God, and there is none like me; declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times things
that are not yet done; saying, :11y counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure; ... yea, I have
spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed,
I will also do it." (Isa. 46: 9-11, Am. Stan. Fer.)
Surely, then, what he has told us he purposes to do
in the thousand years next after he fulfills his first
prophecy we can depend on coming to pass. He will
give mankind a king for a thousand years.
2 Nearly six thousand years ago, as the first man
and woman listened, Jehovah God said to the Serpent that had induced them to sin against God's law:
"Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above
all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel." (Gen. 3: 14, 15) One inspired writer speaks
of the lower animal creation as "natural brute beasts,
made to be taken and destroyed". (2 Pet. 2: 12) So,
for the Serpent to be cursed of all beasts, or be the
most cursed of them, meant certainly that he would
be caught and destroyed. The further fact that he
would eat dust meant the same thing, that he would

~an we depend upon God's first prophecy to be fulfilled?

2. \Vhat did that prophecy mean for the Wicked one?

be reduced to death, the same as for the sinner

Adam to return to the dust from which he was taken
meant death and destruction for him. How such
death was to be brought upon the Serpent was
explained to be by bruising his head, and this by the
Seed of God's "woman". This was bound to occur,
even though the Serpent would ever be on watch for
the arrival of the enemy Seed and would eventually
bruise this Seed at the heel. Bruising the heel would
be only a seeming triumph for the Serpent and
would in reality seal his doom, for the bruising
would be a crime far exceeding in enormity and
nefariousness the Serpent's wicked sin in the garden
of Eden.
3 When prophesying about the bruising of the
Serpent's head, Jehovah God was, of course, not
addressing the lowly creature on the ground, or
possibly hanging to the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil from which Adam and Eve had just
eaten disobediently. Actually God was addressing
the invisible person that had used that creature to
deceive Eve into sin, namely, the invisible murderer
whom God describes in a prophecy four thousand
years later as to how the Serpent's head shall be
crushed. The prophecy was vividly given in a vision
to the apostle John on the prison isle of Patmos,
and he recorded it in the last book of the Bible. He
saw the vision about A.D. 96, and speaks of it as
revealing "things which must shortly come to pass",
hence things due to happen after that first century
of our common era. (Rev. 1: 1) With God this word
shortly could mean one thousand years or two thousand years after John saw the vision, for the prophet
Moses said to God: "A thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch
in the night." (Ps. 90: 4) It is now more than eighteen hundred years since John saw the vision, and
by now it is especially high time to interest ourselves
in it. Identifying the very creature whom Jehovah
God cursed and doomed in the garden of Eden, and
showing how the bruising of his head would take
place, John writes:
""And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven,
3, 4. How did John see symbollcally this prophecy fulfilled?

291

292

~eWATCHTOWER

having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his

hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent,
which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and
shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive
the nations no more, until the thousand years should
be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little
time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them,
and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the
souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such
as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and
received not the mark upon their forehead and upon
their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ
a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not
until the thousand years should be finished. This is
the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection: over these the
second death hath no power; but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a
thousand years."-Rev. 20: 1-6, .Am. Stan. Ver.
5 Here believing men and women have the glorious
promise of a King for a thousand years. 'Ve say
glorious, because the Scriptures describe it as a
glorious thousand years or millennium. When we
explain this period as a literal thousand years in
length and as due to start in the near future, it
raises a great storm of protest among the leading
religionists of Christendom. However, we can well
quote here what a widely acknowledged Baptist
authority has to say on this point, namely, Professor A. T. Robertson, internationally known as
the leading scholar of this century in the field of
"New Testament Greek" in America, if not also in
the world. In Volume 6 (page 457) of Word Pictures in the New Testament, published in 1933, the
late Professor Robertson said in commenting on
Revelation 20: 2: "For a thousand years . .. In this
book of symbols how long is a thousand years? All
sorts of theories are proposed, none of which fully
satisfy one. Perhaps Peter has given us the only
solution open to us in II Pet. 3: 8 when he argues
that 'one day with the Lord is as a thousand years
and a thousand years as one day.' It will help us
all to remember that God's clock does not run by
ours and that times and seasons and programs
are with him."
WHY THE SHIFT IN

VIEWPOl~T

Viewing the period as being a literal thousand

years is neither a strange nor a new thing. Prominent professed Christians of the second century
believed the thousand years to be literal, men such
as Papias, Justyn Martyr, and Irenaeus, and also
Tel'tullian (about A.D. 180), who introduced the term
5

5. How IS the protest against a llteral 1,000 years ans"ered?

G. 7, Wben and wh)' did rellglonlsts shift from tbe literal view?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

trinitas (or trinity) into the religious literature of

the time. But particularly from the fourth century
on there was a decided shift away from this literal
view. The fourth was the century when Constantine
fought his way to the emperorship of the Roman
Empire and adopted the popular form of Christianity of the day and called the Nicene Council A.D. 325
for the settlement of the "trinity" dispute. So the
leading religionists who claimed to be Christians
became popular with the political state and became
official servants of the emperor. After that Augustine
and also Jerome, who translated the Holy Scriptures
into Latin, opposed the acceptance of the thousand
years as literal.
1 Says
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopcedia,
Volume 6, page 265, on the literal view: "It was still
common, however, in the time of Jerome, who himself was one of its opponents. But gradually the
tenet which had so widely prevailed became obnoxious and proscribed. One great reason of this remarkable change of sentiment is to be found in the altered
condition and prospects of the Church. Christians
at first yearned for the reappearance of the Lord.
Moreover, it was impossible for them to raise their
faith and hopes so high as to expect the conquest of
the Roman empire by the moral power of the cross,
independently of the personal and supernatural
interposition of Christ. But as the Gospel made
progress, the possibility and probability of a peaceful victory of the Christian cause over all its adversaries, by the might of truth and of the spirit, gained
a lodgment in the convictions of good men. . . .
Augustine's treatment of the subject marks an epoch.
He says (Ooncerning the Oity of God, 20, 7) that
he once held to a millenarian Sabbath; nor does he
consider the doctrine objectionable, provided the
joys of the righteous are figured as spiritual. But.
proceeding to discuss the subject, he advocates the
proposition that the earthly kingdom of Christ is the
Church, WHICH WAS EVEN THEN IN THE MILLEXNlAL
lERA, and on the road to a glorious ascendency over
all its enemies."
8 This view that the thousand years or millennium
meant an indefinite, uncertain period and that the
Christian church was already enjoying it and reigning has proved erroneous and its bad consequences
duly showed up. As one thousand years from Jesus'
birth neared their close, or as A.D. 1000 approached,
many religious folk began to think that the judgment
and fiery end of the world would occur that year.
Excitement became widespread throughout western
Europe because it was feared that God's "day of
wrath" was at hand. When the world did not burn
up that year, the religionists felt it was proof that
the thousand years of Revelation 20: 2 were not
8. How did the bad consequences of the chnn!(ed vie" show up?

OCTOBER 1, 1948

SEeWATCHTOWER..

293

literal but an indefinite period of long duration. now come, and the battle that begins today is to deThey still held to the view that the millennium was cide the fate of the German nation for the next THOUyet in progress and that the Christian church was SAND YEARS. Do your duty now. The blessings of the
already reigning in it. That view obtains among the German people accompany you."
10 According to a telephone message to the New
Roman Catholic Hierarchy to this day.-See footYork Times from Fulda, Germany, December 6, 1941,
note.those blessings included the prayers of the German
9 The Catholic view was long entertained that the
thousand-year reign of the Roman Catholic Hier- Roman Catholic clergy, including the bishops. (New
archy began A.D. 800, when pope Leo III crowned York Times, Dec. 7, 1941) Of curious agreement with
Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the announced aims of Nazi Hitler was the broadand that it ended with the close of the eighteenth cast over the Vatican radio station on June 25, 1940,
century in the days of Napoleon Bonaparte, who that "henceforth Sunday masses will be recited in
took the pope prisoner to France. Hence the "little Vatican grottoes and broadcast, to give the world
time" during which Satan was to be loosed continued through prayer (a new order following the present
from then on. In 1870 the pope was shorn of temporal war-an order inspired by principles of truth,
dominion by the invasion of Rome and the setting justice and charity'." (New York Times, June 26,
up of the Kingdom of Italy with Rome as capital. 1940) Paris had fallen to the Nazis, and the French
Fifty-nine years later temporal power was restored officers had signed an armistice with Germany a few
to the pope by the Lateran Treaty between fascist days previous. In speaking of the next thousand
Mussolini and pope Pius XI, whereby Vatican City years Hitler was either making a back reference to
was established as the pope's political domain. In the thousand-year existence of the Germanic Holy
1933 cardinal Eugene Pacelli signed for Pius XI Roman Empire or to the thousand years predicted
the concordat between the pope and Nazi Hitler, a in Revelation, chapter 20. All Catholic prayers and
baptized Roman Catholic. In a speech at Washing- hope for a Holy Roman Empire after World War II
ton, D.C., February 16, 1940, Dr. Edmund A. Walsh, to end the time of Satan's loosing collapsed with the
of the Jesuit Georgetown University, stated that defeat of Hitler and Mussolini.
the German aims in "'World War II were the reNOT YET IN PROGRESS
establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. He said
11 All peoples can be grateful that Christendom's
he had heard Adolf Hitler say that the Holy Roman
Empire, which was a Germanic empire, must be re- religious interpretations of the thousand-year reign
established. (New York Times, Feb. 17, 1940) Less have proved false, for the long reign of the popes
than two months later, on :May 10, 1940, when the and bishops, who sit upon thrones and talk of their
Nazi armies invaded Holland, Belgium and Luxem- period in office as a reign, has never been marked by
burg, Hitler declared to his troops: "Your hour has the binding of Satan the Devil and the blessings for
mankind that the Bible promises during the true
In the :Murphy edition of the Catholic Douay Version Bible
the footnote on RevelatlOn 20: 2 says on the bindmg of Satan: millennium. The promised millennia:l reign is yet in
"Bound him, &c. The power of Satan has been verv much the future, but near. The King for that thousand
lilIllted by the passion of Christ: for a thousand yearsj' that is
years is not a succession of so-called "vicegerents
for the whole ome of the Kew Testament: but especially fro~
the time of the destruction of Babylon or pagan Rome, till the of Christ", but Christ Jesus himself. That he will
new efforts of Gog and Magog agmnst the church, towards the reign in person is proved by the fact that the faithend of the world. During which hme the souls of the martyrs ful Christians who have part in the first resurrection
and saints live and reign With Chnst in heaven, in the first
resurrectwn, which is that of the soul to the life of glory j as are said to live and reign "with CHRIST a thousand
the second resurrection v;ill be that of the body, at the day of years".
the general judgment."
12 Christ Jesus is the promised Seed of God's
Says the Blitish Jesuit version, "The Westmmster Version of
He is the One appointed to crush the
"woman".
the Sacred Scriptures", Volume oJ: of the New Testament, 1931
edition, on Revelation 20: 2-6: "'A thousand years': not to be Serpent's head, quite contrary to the pope's attitude
taken lIterally, as was done by the Millennianists. The duration to the Serpent, for the pope has said he is willing
thus indicated is that of the long period to intervene between
the restraint placed on Satan at Christ's first advent . . . and to do business with the Devil himself if it will further
'the little tlIDe' allowed to the devil to exert an extraordinary the Hierarchy's interests. So Pius XI did not hesiactivity before the close of time.... Hence, the first resurrection tate to do business with Mussolini and Hitler. For
is the spiritual reign of God's ~aIDts during the long period of
peace (1,000 years) granted to the Church, whereas the second refusing to compromise with the Devil,' the "heel"
resurrection is the phySIcal riSIDg of the dead at the close of time of Christ Jesus was bruised or crushed at Calvary
(e:f. John xi, 25, 26)."
by this Serpent, who used his own wicked seed upon
To the sa.m.e effect are footnotes in "The New Testament"
translated from the Latin Vulgate by the episcopal committee earth, particularly the religious leaders of ancient
of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in 1941. Also in the Israel. To these Jesus once said: "Ye are of your
translation of 1944 by the Bntish ~10nsignor Ronald A. Knox.

9, 10. What about tbe papal millennium and little season after it:

1] \\ hen I. the millennIum, who Is Its kIng, and wby?

12. How was the "heel" of the Seed brul.ed, and how was It bl'llled:

294

1ffieWATCHTOWER

father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will

do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him." ''Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven
against men: ... Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers,
how shall ye escape the judgment of Gehenna 1"
(John 8: 44; Matt. 23: 13, 33, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) Almighty God restored Christ Jesus from the
effects of the "heel" wound by raising him from the
dead on the third day, to immortal life as a spirit
person, divine.
13 Forty days later, when Christ Jesus ascended
to his Father, he did not then begin his reign of
a thousand years, for he had not yet destroyed his
enemies in heaven and in earth nor bound Satan
the Devil and chained and sealed him up in the
abyss. When he appeared in God's presence, the
prophecy began to be fulfilled in which King David
had spoken of Christ as his Lord and said: "Jehovah
saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstooL Jehovah
will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion:
Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." (Ps.
110: 1, 2, .Am. Stan. Ver.) That Christ did not reign
from that first century onward the apostles John
and Paul plainly show. John wrote the Revelation
toward the close of the first century and spoke of
the thousand-year reign as yet future, as one of the
"things which must shortly come to pass". (Rev.
1: 1) John outlived Paul. About A.D. 61, while at
Rome, Paul wrote his letter to the Hebrews and
said: "But now we see NOT YET all things put under
him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God
should taste death for every man.... that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage."-Heb. 2: 8, 9, 14, 15.
H Then, to show that Christ Jesus at his Father's
right hand in heaven did not yet have Satan under
his feet but must wait in expectation for all his
enemies to be made his footstool, Paul went on to
say of the "man Christ Jesus": "But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat
down on the right hand of God; from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool."
(Reb. 10: 12, 13) The promise is that the faithful
Christian overcomers would reign with Christ for
the thousand years, but Paul vigorously denied that
the Christians were reigning in his day. He himself
did not sit upon an episcopal throne and claim to
reign, but he said to the Corinthians who did assume
13, 14. How dLd John and Paul show ChrIst was not then reLgnLng 1

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

to run ahead and reign as kings either politically or

in a spiritual manner: "You are now full; you are
now become rich; YOU REIGN WITHOUT us; AKD I
WOULD TO GOD YOU DID REIGN, that we also might reign
with you." (1 Cor. 4: 8, Dottay) The faithful overcomers reign in heaven with God's Anointed King
after Satan the Serpent has his head bruised, and
therefore Paul showed that the thousand-year reign
was yet future by saying to the Christians at Rome:
"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your
feet shortly."-Rom. 16: 20.
15 Consequently the Catholic Hierarchy, in reigning from the days of Emperor Constantine or from
the start of the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne, have not followed the examples of the apostles Peter and Paul. They have not waited for God
to make the enemies Christ's footstool and to send
Christ's scepter out of the heavenly Zion with the
command: "Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies."
(Ps. 110: 1, 2) So they could not have received their
power and authority to reign on earth from God.
They could only have received it from the one who
offered Christ all the kingdoms of this world and
their glory, but whose offer Christ refused, namely,
from Satan the Devil. Thus the Catholic Hierarchy
have not bound the Devil by their unauthorized
reign on earth, but Satan the Devil has further
deceived Christendom and all the rest of the world
by the religio-political reign of the Hierarchy. Their
reign has promoted the rise of godless communism.
and their fight against it now is in vain.
THE DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY PRECEDES

Down to the days of Emperor Charlemagne the

popes of Rome used to be elected by the people of
Rome. But Christ Jesus would not let the people
make him king: "when Jesus therefore percei\Ted
that they would come and take him by force, to make
him a king, he departed." (Jo1m 6: 15) He waited
upon his Father, Jehovah God, to make him a King
at Ris own right hand in heaven. When he sat down
at his Father's right hand after he ascended to
heaven, he expected to wait there till the end of the
"seven times" of the Gentiles. (Dan. 4: 16, 23, 25, 32;
Luke 21: 24) Christ Jesus knew those times began
in 607 B.C., when the king of Babylon destroyed
Jerusalem and God overturned the throne upon
which the royal line of King David sat as His visible
representatives. Jehovah God said: "I will overturn,
overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, un til
he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."
(Ezek. 21: 27) Christ Jesus is the one "whose right
it is", and Jehovah God gives him the kingdom at
the end of the "seven times" of Gentile domination of
our earth. Those "seven times" equal 2,520 years;
1e

15. From whom did the HLerarchy get PO" er to rclen'! The result '!
16. From whom dLd J eSU8 accept 1.1ngshl P. and \\ hen?

OCTOBER

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

and since they began in the fall of 607 B.C., they

end in the fall of A.D. 1914. Till that year Christ
Jesus in heaven had to wait, and at that time he
came into the kingdom and God sent forth the
scepter of his sway out of heavenly Zion, to rule
amid his enemies. By enthroning and crowning Jesus
Christ as his Anointed King and Royal Consort,
Jehovah God took his power and established his
kingdom with Zion as his capital organization.
17 At that time, A.D. 1914, the year that World
War I began, the vision that John saw of "things
which must shortly come to pass" started fulfilling,
namely: "And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet: and there were great voices in heaven, saying:
The kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and
his Christ's, and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Amen. . . . We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God
Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to
come: because thou hast taken to thee thy great
power, and thou hast reigned. And the nations were
angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, and that thou
shouldest render reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy name,
little and great, and shouldest destroy them who
have corrupted the earth."-Apoc. 11: 15-18, Douay.
18 When the Lord God Almighty thus started his
kingdom of the new world by means of his Anointed
One, his King Christ Jesus, there was reason for
Satan the Devil to stir up the nations of this old
world to anger. The seven times of their uninterrupted domination of the earth had run out, and now
their further stay in power was threatened by God's
bringing his anointed Son to the heavenly throne.
Angry, they refused to accept God's Son as rightfully enthroned King. So God's wrath justly began
against the nations and the time came for him to
destroy those who corrupted and destroyed the
earth; for the earth is God's footstool.-Isa. 66: l.
19 The bringing of Jehovah's Son to the throne of
heavenly Zion is pictured for us in the next vision
that John describes. In it he shows us who God's
"woman" is, whose Seed would suffer a heel-wound
from the Serpent, but would, in turn, crush the
Serpent's head. This "woman" is no woman on earth,
for we read of her: "And a great sign appeared in
heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve
stars: and being with child, she cried travailing in
birth, and was in pain to be delivered. And there
was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great
red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and
on his heads seven diadems. . . . and the dragon
stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might
~hY did God's wrath begin against the nations?
19, 20. Why is Jesus' human birth not pictured at Revelation 12: 5?

295

devour her son. And she brought forth a man child,

who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and
her son was taken up .to God, and to his throne."
-Apoc. 12: 1-5, Douay.
20 This "woman" is no allusion to Mary in any
sense. The babe Jesus was a perfect babe, and when
his earthly mother gave birth to him at Bethlehem
it was a perfect birth and there is no evidence that
it was accompanied by terrific birth pangs, with
Mary crying "travailing in birth" and "in pain to
be delivered". Furthermore, the Roman Catholic
Hierarchy insist that Mary is "ever virgin", but
Revelation 12: 17 says of the apocalyptic "woman"
that the dragon made war with the "rest of her
seed". This shows she had other children, namely,
Jesus' followers. Moreover, the vision fails to show
that the "man child", after his particular birth here,
has his heel bruised by the dragon. Hence the vision
does not refer to the birth of Jesus from :Mary at
Bethlehem nineteen centuries ago.
21 Actually the vision represents the birth of God's
kingdom by the bringing forth of his Son in the new
capacity of acting King to rule amid the enemies.
The woman, arrayed with heavenly light, could not
picture the Christian church, "the body of Christ,"
for Christ Jesus is not a child of the church. Jesus
speaks of the church as the children whom God gave
him and he builds the church upon himself as "this
rock". (1 Cor. 12: 27; Heb. 2: 13; Matt. 16: 18;
1 Cor. 10: 4) So the "woman" stands for God's universal organization of holy creatures, of whom
Christ Jesus is one, the Chief One. The "woman"
has had heavenly existence before ever Mary or
the Christian church existed; and the apostle Paul
points to God's "woman", the holy universal organization, when he says to his Christian brethren: "But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother
of us all. So then, brethren, we are not children of
the bondwoman, but of the free." (Gal. 4: 26, 31)
Due to the opposition and evil designs of the dragon
and his wicked seed, this "woman" (or universal
organization) was putting forth efforts and was in
painful anxiety for the birth of God's kingdom. At
God's due time for its birth the glorified Jesus in
heaven was brought forth from the universal organization to assume the new office of King in the
heavenly Jerusalem or Zion. At his coming forth
from her as her Son by the power of God the Father,
Christ Jesus was "caught up unto God, and to his
throne" and was given the "rod of iron" with which
to "rule all nations".-Rev. 12: 5.
22 Then the kingdom of God for the new world
came! Then Christ Jesus was authorized to rule in
the midst of his enemies and to make them his foot~ is the "woman", and what was done with her man ChUd??
22. How is Christ's ruling amid his enemies next shown in vision

296

~e WATCHTOWER

stool by God's power! This is shown by what next

follows in the vision: "And there was a great battle
in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the
dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: and
they prevailed not, neither was their place found
any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and
Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was
cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown
down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven,
saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the KINGDOM OF OUR GOD, AND THE POWER OF HIS
CHRIST: because the accuser of our brethren is cast
forth, who accused them before our God day and
night. ... Therefore rejoice, 0 heavens, and you that
dwell therein. Woe to the earth, and to the sea,
because the devil is come down unto you, having
great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the
earth, he persecuted the woman, who brought forth
the man child. And the dragon was angry against
the woman: and went to make war with the rest of
her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ."-Apoc.12: 7-10,
12,13,17, Douay.
23 Note, please, that this casting of Satan and his
wicked angels down does not mean binding him for
a thousand years or the bruising of his head. It does
not relieve the earthly nations of the oppressions of
Satan and his seductions. The casting of him down
to the earth leads up to greater woe for the earth
and sea, and also to his persecutions and war against
the remnant of the seed of God's "woman", because
these keep God's commands and deliver the witness
that Jesus Christ is King. There is Scriptural and
factual evidence to believe the ousting of Satan and
his angels from heaven by the battle up there was
fully accomplished by A.D. 1918, in which year
World War I came to an end. In the thirty years
since then Satan, greatly enraged at being ousted
from heaven, has brought terriffic woe upon mankind, including atomic warfare.
2. No, Satan is not yet bound and in the abyss. All
the religious teaching that Christendom's clergy
have given the people for the past sixteen centuries
since Constantine's day has failed to bind and put
restraint upon Satan and his demons. Rather, as the
light of God's Word shines now upon the facts of
history, we see that by such religious teaching Satan
the Devil has deceived and seduced the whole world.
(Rev. 12: 9) Those who claim that Christ's second
coming is post-millennial and that the conversion of
the world to Christianity must occur before he comes
are now faced with Scriptural and factual disproof
23. Was Satan bound when ousted from heaven? Why your answer?
24. Why i3 Christ's commg not post-millennlal?

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

of their false teaching. Today Jehovah's witnesses

intensely preach "this gospel of the kingdom", not
in hope of world conversion, but just "for a witness
unto all nations" before the final end comes upon this
world. (Matt. 24: 14) The casting of Satan out of
heaven by war in the spirit realm precedes the
millennium. It hastens to a climax the "perilous
times" that were predicted to come "in the last days".
Hence, more so since A.D. 1918 than before, we find
Christendom filled with people who are "lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God" and "having a
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof".
(2 Tim. 3: 1-5) This is not due to the failure of true
Christianity, for it was never meant to convert this
present evil world. Yet it succeeds in producing the
144,000 faithful followers of Christ who prove
worthy of reigning with him for the Thousand Years.
-Rev. 14:1,3; 7:4-8.
2~ If we say Christ's thousand-year reign has not
yet begun, why or how can we say he began reigning
A.D. 19147 For these Scriptural reasons: The Gentiles' "seven times" ended then, and the Lord God Almighty took his rightful power over the earth and
began reigning. It was then, therefore, that "the kingdom of God" came. It was then that the great "day of
Jehovah" began for the vindication of his universal
sovereignty and holy name. This "day of Jehovah"
extends from A.D. 1914, when he took his power to
reign, and runs to the end of the coming battle of
Armageddon when Satan the Devil will be bound
in a real way and sealed up in the abyss. Christ
Jesus is Jehovah's Chief Vindicator. On this account
He installs Jesus as King A.D. 1914, puts the "iron
rod" in his hand and bids him rule amid the enemies
and reduce them to his footstool. Hence Jesus puts
Satan and his angels out of heaven and down to the
earth, God's footstool. But he does not at once bind
Satan and start his own thousand-year reign of
peace and freedom from Satanic interference. No,
this preliminary reign is as King David's forty-year
reign of warfare that preceded the peaceful reign of
David's son and successor, King Solomon. During
this "day of Jehovah" the remnant of the "woman's"
seed must be assembled and be set to work preaching
"this gospel of the kingdom", and the "great multitude" of the Lord's "other sheep" must be gathered.
(Rev. 12: 17; 7: 9-17) All this takes time. Also it
must be done amid the opposition and persecution by
the abased Satan and his angels, in order to test the
integrity and devotion of the remnant of the l;ieed
and of the great multitude. This is why Satan and
his demons are left unbound.
Se(~ Isaiah 2: 12 and 13: 6, 9; Zechariah 14: 1; Ezekiel
30: 3-5; J oeJ 2: 1-13; Obadiah 15; ZephanIah 1: 7, 14 in the
Amel'lwn Standard Version.
25. H he began reigning In 1914, why has the millennium not begun

A REIGN WITH THE DEVIL BOUND

ESCRIBING the grand climax of the "day of

Jehovah", the apostle John writes: "And I saw
an angel coming down out of heaven, having
the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent,
which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years." (Rev. 20: 1, 2, Am. Stan. Ver.) This
event is the culmination of the great universal warfare described in the eleven verses just preceding,
namely, at Revelation 19: 11-21. It is universal
because forces in heaven and in earth take part in
it. The 'rider on the white horse', the King of kings
and Lord of lords, Christ Jesus, leads his victorious
hosts against his combined enemies, the dragon and
wicked demons with their earthly lineup of the
''beast'', the "false prophet", and the "kings of the
earth, and their armies". All these are "gathered
together to make war against him that sat on the
horse, and against his army". Is this "the war of
the great day of God, the Almighty'" Yes, the "day
of Jehovah" attains its grand climax with His victory in this universal battle, at the "place which is
called in Hebrew Har-Magedon". This is the place
to which demon-inspired utterances out of the
mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet gather the ''kings of the whole world" for battle
against Jehovah's enthroned King of kings and Lord
of lords.-Rev. 16: 13-16, Am. Stan. Ver.
2 It was foretold that the King of kings would
overcome all those at war with him, resisting his
reign of a thousand years (Rev. 17: 14), and now
he is described as doing it. "Jehovah hath s\vorn,
and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever after
the order of l1elchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand
will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He
will judge among the nations, he will fill the places
with dead bodies; he will strike through the head
in many countries." So says Psalm 110: 4-6, Am.
Stan. Ver.
B While still alive in their resistance to Jehovah's
King, the beast and the miracle-working false prophet are caught and pitched into the 'lake of fire burning with brimstone'. That denotes their eternal
destruction, for this lake "is the second death",
from which nothing can come back into existence.
(Rev. 20: 14, 15; 21: 8)) All those lined up with the
beast and fshe prophet, namely, all the kings of the
whole world and their armies, never survive the
universal war of Armageddon. The prospect is terrifying. It should spur those who love life in the righteous new world to forsake the side of the deceptive
'false prophet" and "beast", and to align themselves
on the side of the sure victor, Jehovah's King.
t WIth what does the "day of Jehovah" come to Its cllmax?

~: 3 What Is the fste of the KIDg'S VIsible enemIes?

4 After the earthly kings and their armies have

been whipped and the false prophet and beast have
been destroyed, the head of the old Serpent, Satan
the Devil, must next be crushed by the Seed of God's
"woman". The fact that the mighty angel comes
down from heaven to catch and bind him shows that
this wicked one is now at the earth, cast down to
Christ's footstool where the Serpent's head can be
crushed under foot. This angel who is mightier than
Satan and who binds and imprisons him is no other
than Christ Jesus himself, for the word angel means
messenger. Christ Jesus is Jehovah's "angel of the
testament", or "angel of the covenant", who is sent
to vindicate Jehovah's sovereignty and name. (Mal.
3: 1, Douay, and Bagster's Septuagint Translation)
Calvary is past for him, and now "Christ being
raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no
more dominion over him"; but now it comes Satan
the Devil's turn to die by Jehovah's Executioner, the
woman's Seed. (Rom. 6: 9) The "great chain" with
which he binds him is not the power of the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel never has bound and
never will bind that wicked counterfeiter of the
gospel. The "chain" pictures Christ's extensive, unbreakable power to restrain Satan completely. So
great is his power that he does not first have to kill
Satan in order to render him p~werless. No, he
catches him alive and enchains him and then he
crushes his head to death.

THE ABYSS

To death' Yes, that is the state that is symbolized by the abyss to which the angel has the key.
Christ Jesus has not only the "keys of hell and of
death" but also the "key of the abyss". (Rev. 1: 18)
At Revelation 9: 1-11 he is pictured as having that
key and, with it, he acted as the Greater Moses and
released a tormenting plague of spiritual locusts
upon Christendom, "which spiritually is called Sodom
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." (Rev.
11: 8) Concerning these spiritual locusts we read, in
Rotherham's translation: "They have over them as
king the messenger of the abyss, whose name in
Hebrew is Abaddon ['=Destroyer'], and in the
Greek he hath for name Destroyer." And Monsignor
Knox's translation from the Latin Vulgate reads:
"Their king was the angel of the abyss, whose name
in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, that is,
in Latin, the Exterminator." (Rev. 9: 11; also Douay)
That is what Christ Jesus, the "woman's" Seed, is
to Satan the Devil and all his wicked seed, namely,
the Destroyer or Exterminator.
a When Jesus died on earth, he himself went into
the abyss. At Romans 10: 6, 7 the apostle Paul
writes: "Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into
5

4 \Vho Is the angel tbat binds Satan? and what Is his chain?
6, G. What Is the abyas, and who has the key to It?
297

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SheWATCHTOWER.

heaven' (that is, to bring Christ down): or, Who

shall descend into the ABYSS' (that is, to bring Christ
up from the dead)." (Am. Stan. Ver.) Before Jesus'
death, on the occasion that he was about to cast a
legion of devils out of an obsessed man at the sea
of Galilee, we read, "they entreated him that he
would not command them to depart into the ABYSS."
They did not want to die then, before it was due for
Satan their prince to be himself cast into the abyss.
So Jesus let them live on.-Luke 8: 31, Am. Stan.
Ver.
T'When Jesus went into the abyss of death, Satan
the Devil had his earthly seed make the sepulcher
sure against breaking in to steal Jesus' body. He
had the stone before the door sealed with a governlllent seal. (Matt. 27: 62-66; see also Dan. 6: 16, 17)
But now, as the final feature of Armageddon, Satan
the Devil is helplessly bound and his head crushed
by being put into the abyss of the death state. John
says the divine :Messenger "cast him into the abyss,
and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should
deceive the nations no more, until the thousand
years should be finished: after this he must be
loosed for a little time". (Rev. 20: 3, Am. Stan. Ver.)
This proves that the thousand-year reign of Christ
begins, not at the close of the Gentile times A.D. 1914,
but after Armageddon is fought and all his foes are
destroyed and are thus unable to interfere with his
righte~us rule of peace.
s The imprisoning of Satan the Devil in the abyss
means the completion of the destruction of the
"heaYens and the earth which are now", and which
are "kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day
of judgment and perdition of ungodly men". (2 Pet.
3 : 7) That is how John's vision is fulfilled: "And I
saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it,
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;
and there was found no place for them." (Rev.
20: 11) That earth has been the visible organization
of the Devil over mankind, whereas the heaven has
been the wicked invisible organization of Satan and
his demons. By the end of this "day of Jehovah"
they will have been fully destroyed as though by fire.
S "What a king for the nations of earth to have for
a thousand years! A king that can do the humanly
impossible, namely, rid mankind of the unrighteous,
oppressive visible organization and destroy the
wicked invisible powers responsible for it and operating it, namely, the mighty dragon Satan and all
his demons! And the "nations" over whom this
Liberator King will begin his millennial reign will
be his "other sheep", the "great multitude" out of
all nations, kindreds, people and tongues. These now
accept the Kingdom gospel and forsake the "beast"
~ next proveR tbe millennium begins after Arma~eddon?
8. What does Satan's being abyssed mean as to the old world?
9. O\'er what "natlOns" does the King begin bis reign, and why?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

and the "false prophet" and all this doomed world,

and they follow the Good Shepherd, God's Lamb,
who can shield and spare them and bring them alive
through the battle of Armageddon. Thus surviving
the final end of this world, just as Noah and his
family survived the flood at the end of the old world,
they will see all the visible signs marking the binding and abyssing of Satan the Devil, and they will
know that not for a thousand years will he be
around again to try deceiving the nations of mankind. (John 10:16; Rev. 7:9-17) They will rejoice
with unspeakable joy at this vindication of Jehovah's universal sovereignty and name by his Vindicator King, Christ Jesus.
KINGS WITH THE MILLENNIAL KING
10 But behold whom the King of kings has reign
with him for the Devil-free thousand years. J olm
says: "And I saw thrones with people sitting on
them who were allowed to judge-saw the souls of
thos~ who had been beheaded for the testimony of
Jesus and God's word, those who would not worship
the Beast or his statue, and who would not receive
his mark on their forehead or hand; they came to
life and reigned along with the Christ for a thousand
years.... This is the first resurrection. Blessed and
holy is he who shares in the first resurrection; over
such the second death has no power, they shall be
priests of God and Christ, and reign along with him
during the thousand years."-Rev. 20: 4-6, Moffatt.
11 Those participating in this millennial reign with
Christ must share in the first resurrection, which is
the resurrection like that of Jesus, who was the firstborn from the dead. "It is sown in corruption; it is
raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it
is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is
raised a spiritual body." (1 Cor. 15: 42-44) John tells
us that 144,000 faithful followers of Christ Jesus
share in this first resurrection to reign with him in
reward for their devotion to God's Word and Christ's
testimony even to a violent death and for overcoming this world and its antichrist agencies pictured
by the "beast", its "statue", and the "false prophet".
The "souls" John saw are not so-called 'disembodied
spirits' of dead Christians, but they are the faithful
resurrected 144,000 themselves, clothed upon with
their house from heaven, clothed upon with immortality and incorruption. (2 Cor. 5: 1-4) These
souls are the resurrected creatures themselves; just
as Paul says of man's creation: "The first man Adam
became a living soul." (1 Cor. 15:45; Gen. 2:7)
These resurrected souls do not reign with Christ on
earth. The earth is God's footstool; and kings do
not reign from a footstool. They reign from the

10, 11. Who reign with Christ, and what are these "souls"?

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SlieWATCHTOWER

299

throne; and heaven is God's throne. There Christ

sits with his Father in His throne, and the 144,000
faithful resurrected souls reign with him.-Rev.
3: 21; Matt. 5: 34, 35.
12 The religious Hierarchy, who
sit on earthly
thrones and claim to rule as Christ's vicegerent and
apostolic successors, reign for a few years and die
off and have to be succeeded by other clergymen.
This fact proves that their reign as priests is a
counterfeit, unscriptural reign. But Christ Jesus
and his 144,000 do not need to have successors to
continue reigning through the thousand years. Jesus
is a king-priest like Melchizedek forever by reason
of the "power of an endless life", and so he has an
"unchangeable priesthood". (Heb. 7: 15, 16, 24, 25)
His 144,000 fellow priests and ldngs overcome the
world, and the promise is: "He that overcometh shall
not be hurt of the second death." (Rev. 2: 11) This
is made possible for them by their being resurrected
with immortality and incorruptibility.-1 Cor.
15: 52-54.
13 Think, therefore, of all the good that such a
royal house in heaven can effect during the thousand
years without a change or an interruption of rulers
through death. Because they are immortal, that
thousand years is as one day to them. (2 Pet. 3: 8)
The King of kings is the "last Adam". God told the
"first Adam" in Eden that he would die in the day he
sinned. Adam lived 930 years and died for his sin,
'which denotes that from God's time-measurement
Adam died within a thousand-year "day", after
begetting the human race in sin and death. (Gen.
2: 17; 5: 3-5; Rom. 5: 12) The "last Adam", Christ
the Lord, also has his "day" of a thousand years,
in which he reigns, but he becomes "the Everlasting
Father" to all that obey him as King. "He must
reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," the
death that the "first Adam" brought upon humankind. (Isa. 9: 6; 1 Cor.. 15 : 25, 26) Under Satan and
his demons the 2,520 years of Gentile dominatIon of
the earth have brought mankind to their present woeful state, and have been a curse. But not so Christ's
continuous reign of a thousand years. He and his
144,000 will make up the "new heavens" which God
promised to establish to displace the Satanic heavens
and to pour down righteousness upon obedient mankind. As Peter has written: "'Ve, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Pet. 3: 13) "The
new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,
shall remain before me, saith Jehovah."-Isa. 66: 22,
Am. Stan. Ver.
14 Satan the Devil will not be able to interfere

with the establishment of the promised "new earth",

where God's will shall be done as it is in heaven. This
will be a righteous visible organization for the governing and blessing of all mankind privileged to live
during the thousand years. The "great multitude" of
good-will surviving Armageddon will be the first to
enter into the earthly, physical blessings of the
righteous new world. With all the destroyers of the
earth exterminated, the earth will be transformed
into an Edenic paradise, blossoming like a rose. But
the apocalyptic vision shows that in due time the
sea, and death and hell (or Hades) will deliver up
the dead that are in them. Then under perfectly
righteous conditions, without a devil to seduce, the
resurrected earthly ones will be privileged to avail
themselves of Christ's ransom sacrifice and to prove
by their works then that they love Jehovah God and
his kingdom by Christ Jesus. Faithful obedient
works will be rewarded with blessings and healing
and finally uplift to human perfection in God's true
image and likeness.
1~ "And when the thousand years are expired,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go
out to deceive the nations." (Rev. 20: 7,8) This
means the resuscitation of Satan the Devil for a
little time to test the absolute stability of the new
world. This resuscitation of him will not be any
unrighteous act, any more so than that there will
be a resurrection of the unjust and those who haye
done evil as well as a resurrection of the just and
the doers of good.-Acts 24: 15; John 5: 28, 29.
16 Those of uplifted mankind who then yield to
Satan's deceptions as the perfect Eve did in Eden,
followed by the perfect Adam, will perish forever
in the "second death". Those who maintain their perfection and sinlessness by unwavering loyalty to
God's King will have their names written in the
book of life. That means their justification, their
being declared unswervingly righteous and worthy
of the right to everlasting life. Thus will be fulfilled
the prophecy: "The rest of the dead lived not again
un til the thousand years were finished."-Rev.
20: 5, 12-15.
11 Satan, who tries to deceive and overturn that
new world, will be punished with "second death", his
everlasting destruction, with no future interruption.
(Rev. 20: 10) Thus Christ Jesus will prove to be
a "king against whom there is no rising up" (Prov.
30: 29, 31), and the new world will go on without
end, proving to be forever stable in vindication of
Jehovah's universal sovereignty. The thousand years
of Christ's reign having served their divine purpose
perfectly to God's glory, "then cometh the end, when
he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even

12. How does mortality pro\'e the Hierarchy's reign a counterfeit?

13. Ho,... ,\'lll the last Adam's day be opposIte or that of the first?
14. During the millennium wbo Will enter into earthly blessings?

15, 16 When will the rest ot the dead live again? Why tben?
17. Row does Christ dispose ot Satan and sbow loyalty to God?

300

~eWATCHTOWER

the Father.... And when all things shall be subdued

unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God

c;'IF

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

may be all in all." (1 Cor. 15: 24-28) Thank God that

the vision of the thousand-year rule of his reigning
King is soon to be realized.

MEXICO GOES TO SCHOOL

YOU know how to read and write, it is your duty to

teach another," says one of the signboards frequently
seen throughout Mexico. A finger points to all passersby, whether citizens or foreigners living in the country, for
it is an all-out campaign against illiteracy. Another announcement seen in public places reads: "If you don't know
how to read and write, you should not be here-you should
be in school." Mexico is coming out of her shell, emerging
from centuries of darkness and ignorance to take her place
among enlightened nations of the earth. But why the necessity for such a campaign in this twentieth century? Let us
look back into history for the educational background of
this great Latin-American country.
Before Columbus landed on the shores of America, many
distinct Indian tribes formed the population of Mexico.
Two outstanding forms of culture flourished, the Aztec to
the north and the :Maya to the south. The ,arious pyramids
and ruins still in existence testify to the fact that a complicated system of hieroglyphics was in use, which were understood only by the priestly caste trained in a seminary-school
known as the calmecac, and a knowledge of reading and
writing was in no wise necessary to be considered part of
the cultured group. Only children of the nobles could
attend the calmecac. There was only one such school in the
city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico city), and this was
annexed to the Aztec temple. Being controlled by the
priests, the training was predominantly religious.
Young men of the middle class began their education at
about fourteen years of age when they entered the telpuchcallis, a military school which did not include reading
and writing in its curriculum. There were between forty
and fifty of these schools in Mexico city to train the war
riors, but the greater part of the population were considered as slaves and were denied any education at all.
Each Indian tribe had a different concept of the world and
life which was reflected in their mode of education. That
of the Aztecs was a traditional type based on the customs
of the past, being a combination of the military and the
religious.
To the south, the Mayas were more progressive. Service
to their people, their religion and their families was their
main object in life. Both men and women were imbued with
four basic qualities: love of work, honesty, sexual continence
and. respect. As in the case of the Aztecs, class distinction
was the basis for public school education. The nobles in
one school learned religion, including astrology, writing,
arithmetic and genealogy, while the middle class received
largely military training. The social stability of the Mayas
and their long existence as an empire have been.attributed
in large part to the emphasis which they placed upon
education.
Then came the Spaniards, in 1521, bringing in not only
the culture of the Old World but its evils as well. Instead
of lifting the moral standard of the conquered peoples

through education, it served the purpose of the Conquistadores to treat them as slaves. The Spanish colonists were
interested mainly in exploiting the rich natural resources
in the newly-discovered land of treasures. With the help
of the Inquisition, which was soon brought to "New Spain",
thousands of Indians were "converted" to the so-called
".Christian religion" and became more subservient due to
the morbid fear planted in their hearts. Far from the
principles of brotherhood and equality, class distinction
became even stronger, and with the ;years new classes came
into existence. The children of the Spaniards who were
born in the new land were called criollos. The mixture of
Spanish and Indian blood by intermarriage produced the
mestizos, the pure-blooded Indian being considered the
lowest class.
During the Colonial era education was grossly neglected.
The Indian school system was abolished, with nothing to
take its place. A school census taken after 273 years of
Spanish domination revealed only 10 elemental schools in
the entire country. In the city of Mexico, of 1,400 pupils
only 73 were Indians. According to the laws, the Spanish
were not permitted to live in Indian towns. Usually only
one person in each town knew the Spanish language, the
Indian nobleman who was selected to represent the government.
This condition continued until the independence from
Spanish rule was won, in 1810, which marked a bright spot
in national education. In 1822 Lancasterian schools which
had been begun by the public school system in New York
were started in Mexico. They provided for basic education
in large groups, and, while not very successful, this method
awoke public interest in free schools for the poor. In 1833
a government office was created for the inspection and
governing of educational activities. For the first time educa
tion was put in secular hands. In 1859 the great revolutionary, Benito Juarez, said to be the "George Washington
of Mexico", framed the famous Reform Laws which disestablished the church and provided for the suppression
of religious education. However, his rule was interrupted
by the reign of Maximilian and Carlota, sent by Napoleon III of France, who dreamed of establishing a great
Catholic empire in Mexico. During the few years of French
intervention religion once more came to the fore and
Mexico suffered another setback in its educational life. But
with the defeat of the French forces Benito Juarez again
became president and things took a turn for the better. A
law was passed which made elemental education free and
obligatory and abolished religious teaching. Some progress
is seen from the fact that.in 1871 there were 5,000 primary
schools in operation, but in 1877 an estimate showed Mexico
with an illiteracy rate of 93 percent, second only to
India's 98 percent.
From 1877 to 1911 was the regime of Porfirio Diaz.
While he ruled with the iron hand of a dictator, he was

OCTOBER

~eWATCHTOWER

1, 1948

interested in public education and entrusted matters of

education to able men such as Justo Sierra, who still lives
in the memory of the Mexican people as the "Beloved
Teacher". A good start ,vas made in establishing schools
for the native Indian population, but again a political
crisis bringing ten years of revolution interfered. Rural
schools were discontinued during this period until, following the revolution, the new Constitution of 1917 was put
into effect providing for the free education of all and prohibiting religion from entering into the realm of education.
The declared purpose of the revolution was to throw off
the yoke of the upper classes in order to accomplish greater
social, economic and cultural progress in the nation as a
whole. To realize this aim schools were to play an important
part, and rural schools began to function but in the face
of tremendous odds--lack of teachers, inadequate facilities,
and, above all, the great difference among the people. Of
the native Indian population even now only 1,225,136 speak
Spanish more or less ftuentlr, while about 3,000,000 rural
inhabitants speak a little Spanish but retain the forms of
life and culture of the aborigines. Many others speak only
their native dialect. So the struggle against the darkness
of ignorance goes on, seemingly endless in view of such
obstacles.
But the Great Educator, Christ Jesus, had said, "I am
the light of the world." In spite of the fact that some men
would fight against that light, preferring the darkness
(John 3: 19), he commanded his followers to let their light
shine before all men. In harmony with that in :Minneapolis,
Minnesota, U.S.A., on August 21, 1943, a declaration was
adopted by an assembly of about 12,000 of Jehovah's
witnesses which said in part:
"That all 'men of good-will', without distinction as to
race, creed or color, must be located and prepared for
life in the new world; and that the educational work with
the Kingdom truth is the most ei>sential instruction to such
ones now and in the postwar period, as it makes them
ready for life eternal; ... That the textbook of freedom
is Jehovah God's Word, the Bible, and that the truths
he has revealed therein by his Son and King at the temple
make the people free, without which all freedoms announced by men are passing and illusory; . . . That in
obedience to our commission we will endeavor now and in
the postwar era to extend more widely the publication of
Kingdom truth and to increase the number of free Biblestudy classes in the homes of 'men of good-will' throughout
the earth, using the educational means which the Lord has
provided for our use. . .. "
INSTRUCTION IN

READI~G

A.ND WRITING

When the attention of Jehovah's witnesses in Mexico was

called to the great educational campaign under way, they
went to work as one man. All became education-conscious.
An Awaket subscriber who had previously been a director
of federal rural schools in the state of Veracruz writes that
he has met many people with no desire whatsoever to read
and write, but upon becoming interested in searching the
Scriptures by means of the Watchtower publications, they
develop a real desire to learn. The clergy have encouraged
the people to live in ignorance, and this has resulted in
an apathy on the part of many to attend the reading and
writing centers established by the government. :Many who

301

began with good intentions showed a lack of perseverance,

for in many parts of Mexico the climate is conducive to
a passing interest in things. Reading is only a means to
gain knowledge; there must be an incentive to learn before
a great effort is made. Jehovah's witnesses, knowing that
people of good-will are hungering after knowledge of God
and his purposes, carry them the Bible and the Watchtower publications containing that spiritual food. Those
who attend Bible studies only to listen find themselves
with a keen desire to be able to read for themselves and
readily accept the help of those who offer to teach them.
The results have been gratifying. They did not confine
their activities to those who met with them for study.
From door to door they contacted other persons who had
a desire to read and made regular visits for the purpose
of teaching these people freely. A large percentage of
those associated with Jehovah's witnesses have learned to
read by using the Bible and Bible helps as textbooks.
From Nogales, Sonora, a subscriber writes that many
persons who did not know how to read and write, on
coming in contact with the Bible studies of Jehovah's witnesses there, were impelled by a love of God's Word to learn
and are now helping others in the educational campaign.
Such is the case with another of Jehovah's witnesses in
Mexicali, Lower California. She writes: "A representative
of La Torre del Vigia [The Watchtower] came to my home
with some very interesting books, as he explained. I told
him that it would be for the people that can read. He
replied that all the people had that privilege and that if I
wished he would teach me to read and study the books.
That was about two years ago, and now, by means of those
books, I not only can read but write, and I also co-operate
in this educational work of teaching others."
On the 21st of August, 1944, just one year to the day
after the announcement of the free educational campaign
by Jehovah's witnesses, the National Campaign Against
Illiteracy was established in Mexico by presidential decree.
It was a person-to-person teaching work which was obligatory upon everyone who knew how to read and write.
Special books and notebooks were provided by the government to anyone presenting the name of a candidate for
instruction, and at the end of the course a government
inspector examined the student and awarded a certificate
of merit to the teacher. Of course, Jehovah's witnesses were
quick to avail themselves of this help, and several study
halls were recognized as instruction centers, provided with
the special books, and they were granted certificates of
merit for their work.
Typical is the experience of Jehovah's witnesses in the
city of Jimenez, Tamaulipas. Upon contacting a group of
persons in the rural section who were eager to study the
publications brought to them but who could not read, the
witnesses set about to teach them. The school inspector
furnished the necessary books and notebooks and the lessons
were begun. After twelve visits all the group could read
and write and were enjoying a regular Bible study. The
school inspector expressed his appreciation of the good
work of these instructors and promised his co-operation in
their future efforts.
In November, 1947, the UNESCO, the educational and
cultural organization of the United Nations, met in Mexico
city to discuss the many problems in connection with the

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fulfillment of their pledged purpose, namely, 'to help member states who desire such help to establish a minimum
fundamental education for all their citizens. To stimulate
and co-ordinate fundamental education throughout the
world.' An extensive report of their work in Mexico was
printed November 28, 1947, in which basic education was
defined as "the process of transmitting a minimum of knowledge, preparation and attitudes which man needs to live,
enjoy good health, take advantage of opportunities that are
offered to him of higher education, and prepare himself
to fulfill the duties and exercise the rights of a free citizen
of the world". They recognized the need of lifting the
general standard of life of the Mexican people, and the
value of education as the ideal medium to realize this
purpose. After a thorough study of the educational history
of Mexico, Doctor Kuo-Yu-Shou stated that an effort much
greater than the reading and writing campaigns is needed
to supply the necessary culture. Mention was made of the
millions of primitive natives who are still living in the past,
as is the case not only in :Mexico but in other Indo-Latin
countries. Attention was called to their living conditions
and customs, such as the "cures" by witch-doctors to cast
out evil from their patients, the "evil eye" so much feared,
the terrible force of "curses" which overtake and follow the
accursed one, the worship of images and statues in their
religious practices, the religious rivalry between neighboring towns and communities which often results in bloodshed, human life meaning very little.
These are problems which greatly disturb the leaders in
the field of world education. As we have seen, religion has
been largely responsible for this lack of progress and the
retention of superstition in Mexico. The Roman Catholic
Hierarchy has always claimed that the education of the
people rightfully belongs under and should be under the
charge and super,ision of the Vatican. Even now when the
government in its Constitution has prohibited the teaching

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

of religion in the schools, the influence of the Catholic

Hierarchy has stealthily crept into many schools. Religious
services and teachings are included in the program and no
opportunity is missed to inject the religious viewpoint.
As recently as May 7, 1948, the daily newspaper Tema
de Hoy of Jalapa, Veracruz, published an account which
reveals the true attitude of the Hierarchy toward public
education. The village priest of Cosautlan, a little town
near Jalapa, installed a microphone in his pulpit with four
loudspeakers on the outside of the building, and in a loud
voice which was heard even in the neighboring communities
he forbade all the "faithful" to send their children to
school. He incited them to rise up against the schoolteachers
and the members of the school board, even authorizing them
to plant ambushments against 'anyone they might choose'.
In the face of the demonized mob the teachers and the
authorities were forced to flee for their lives, and order was
restored only when the state government intervened. As
usual, the Catholic system was shown to be against the
spirit of education and progress.
But the greatest educator of all time pronounced the
only real remedy when he said, "The truth shall make you
free." In obedience to his command his followers in Mexico,
as in other parts of the world, are carrying on a real educational work. Soon every study hall all over Mexico will
be converted into a classroom for several hours a week in
a vigorous effort to teach all who will to read and write.
The government has promised to co-operate by providing
necessary textbooks. People of good-will who have been
kept in ignorance for so long are grateful for the help
provided for them to gain the life-giving knowledge in the
Great Textbook of instruction, the Bible. Equipped with
such knowledge they look forward to life in the new world
of righteousness, when all the earth shall be "full of the
knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea". (Isa.
n: 9) Further report will be made in due time.

MICAH FORESEES OUTCOME OF DIVINE JUDGMENT

!CAH the prophet is sitting in his little adobe

house in l\Ioresheth-gath in the shepheldh of
Judah. He has been writing for some time and he
realizes that his hand is not as steady as it used to be
and that his eyes tire more quickly. But, then, he has
almost finished his writing. When he finishes, he closes his
eyes to rest them and in his mind he sees the many occasions
on which he has preached, in the good reigns of King
Jotham (774-759 B.C.) and King Hezekiah (745-716) and
in the wicked rule of Ahaz between them. Hezekiah is now
nearing the end of the twenty-ninth year of his reign.
:Micah remembers his trips to Jerusalem to celebrate the
feasts Jehovah has commanded. How he enjoys the songs
of praise to Jehovah! His heart rejoices to see God's
worshipers come irom far and near to worship at the
temple. He always feels refreshed at Jehovah's feasts,
especially after talking with the prophets Hosea and Isaiah.
He remembers, too, his trips to Samaria to deliver God's
message against it. How full of idols the land had been!
Now its inhabitants have been exiled by Assyria. Assyria!
"Who is like Jehovah T" is the meaning of the name Micah.

He can almost hear again the tramping of the armies which

he has watched on more than one occasion from his
shephelah hills. How foolish of Assyria, he thinks, to
imagine she could take Judah from the hand of Jehovah,
the Supreme Ruler of the universe! Who is like Jehovah1
His eyes rested, he reads over his record of Jehovah's
message that he has seen over the years concerning Samana
and J erusalem.-Mic. 1: 1.
His reading brings back many memories. He thrills anew
as he did originally many years ago when Jehovah first
inspired him to call the whole earth to divine judgment:
"Hear, ye peoples, all of you j hearken, 0 earth, and all
that therein is: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against
you, the Lord from his holy temple." (Mic. 1: 2, Am. Stan.
Ver.) How fearful had been the vision!-"1I10untains melt
away before him, valleys split asunder, like wax before
a fire, like water pouring over a fall." (Mic. 1: 4, Moffatt)
Then Jehovah had given him the reason: "For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house
of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not
Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they

OCTOBER

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER..

not Jerusalem 1" (Mic. 1: 5) Micah remembers how full of

Baal-worship were the city and kingdom of Samaria; the
God-dishonoring calf-worship at Bethel; its conspiracy with
Syria against Judah. With pleasure he remembers how
good King Hezekiah of Judah purged the land of false
worship, including the high places. (2 Ki. 18: 4) He
remembers going throughout the land and with his own
hands helping the rest of Jehovah's worshipers throw down
the high places, right after the memorable first celebration
of the Passover and feast of unleavened bread after the
cleansing of the temple.-2 Chron. 31: 1.
He is pained when he comes to the part of the prophecy
that mentions Judah's loss of his home town, l'rIoreshethgath. (Mic. 1: 14) Another passage reminds him that he
often deplored Israel's willful breaking of God's covenant.
How glad he was when J eho.ah inspired him to say: "Woe
to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their
beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because
it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and
seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they
oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family
do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your
necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil
time" !-"i\1ic. 2: 1.3, Am. Stan. Ver.
He remembers how his and his fellow prophets' persistent
obedience to God in proclaiming the doom of the covenant
breakers irritated the false priests and their unfaithful
backers. They used to say to him and his fellow proclaimers: "Do not keep on harping." "One should not be harping upon such things." (Mic. 2: 6, An Amer. Trans.) But
he and his faithful brethren had kept right on preaching
and the efforts of the unfaithful objectors did not succeed
in protecting them from the reproach and shame that was
due them. (lIIic. 2: 6, Young) He clearly remembers the
counsel Jehovah inspired him to give to those faithful
souls he found living among the false worshipers: "Arise
ye, and depart; for. this is not your rest: because it is
polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction."
-Mic. 2: 10.
How stubbornly Israel had refused to heed the message
Jehovah had inspired him to deliver to them! They preferred false prophets. No wonder Jehovah had inspired him
to say to them: "The prophet for such folk would be some
empty fellow and a liar, who promised to prophesy of wine
and spirits!"-Uic. 2: 11, if/offatt.
The next part of the prophecy makes Micah remember
that he had wondered about God's faithful people after
His final judgment. One day Jehovah inspired him to utter
a prophecy concerning them: "I will collect all Jacob,
gather Israel's survivors, all together like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture, with the stir and noise of num
bers." (Mic. 2: 12, Moffatt) As he recalls the occasion
when Jehovah made him see that message it seems that the
noise was not that of disorder but of harmonious activity
in praising Jehovah, as at a temple celebration in Jerusalem.
Reading on, he remembers the grief he had felt on seeing
officials in Israel refuse justice to the people and treat them
as a beast does its prey. He rejoiced in the message Jehovah
caused him to see and proclaim: "Hear, I pray you, ye
heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not

303

for you to know justice' ye who hate the good, and love
the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their
flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my
people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their
bones. and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh
within the caldron. Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but
he will not answer them; yea, he will hide his face from
them at that time, according as they have wrought evil
in their doings." (Mic. 3: 1-4, Am. Stan. Ver.) Often
Micah's stomach has been turned by the highly commercialized false worship of the misleading clergy in Israel. How
aptly Jehovah describes their racket!-""\Vhen they have
something to bite with their teeth, [they] cry, Peace; but
[they] prepare war against him who putteth nothing in
their mouth." (Mic. 3: 5, Leeser) How thankful Micah is
that throughout his long and faithful ministry he has
always been able to say: "I am full of power, even the
spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare
unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin"!-Mic.
3 : 8, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.
As he reads on he remembers the proper response of King
Hezekiah to the word from Jehovah that he, Micah, spoke
to all the people of Judah: "Thus saith Jehovah of hosts:
Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become
heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places
of a forest." (Jer. 26: 18, Am. Stan. Ver.; Mic. 3: 12) Heze
kiah immediately showed fear of Jehovah and entreated the
favor of Jehovah, and Jehovah repented of the evil which
he had pronounced against them. (Jer. 26: 19) Micah offers
a silent p.rayer to' Jehovah that He has let him live to see
such righteous reign.
Micah always delights in reviewing the glorious vision
Jehovah gave him of the temple mountain being elevated
till it is the highest mountain and of the long streams of
people flowing up to it from every direction, from every
nation. Again he hears them say: "Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the
law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem."-Mic.
4: 1, 2, Am. Stan. Ver.
He continues reading slowly, for every line brings back
many memories. Then he comes to a part that has always
deeply interested and puzzled him. How he wishes he knew
just what its fulfillment would be like! "Thou, Beth-Iehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that
is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from
of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up,
until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth:
then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the
children of Israel." (Mic. 5: 2, 3) The fulfillment of that
must be a blessed time, he concludes. "And he shall stand,
and shall feed his flock in the strength of Jehovah, in the
majesty of the name of Jehovah his God: and they shall
abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth."
-Mic. 5: 4, Am. Stan. Ver.
Micah reads on to the end of the writing. His thrilled
heart is full of joy and thanksgiving to Jehovah for his
continuous assurances that the outcome of His divine judgment will prove that He is the supreme Sovereign, that

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there is none like Him in the universe. He is impelled to

write a final prayer: "Who is a God like unto thee, that
pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage' he retaineth not his anger
for' ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn
again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue
our iniquities; and thou 'wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

unto our fathers from the days of old."-Mic. 7: 18-20.

Micah foreshadowed Jehovah's witnesses who today keep
on preaching that Jehovah is the rightful Sovereign of
the universe, and that he will ultimately destroy all who
oppose his righteous rule. As Micah did, so they too continue to obey Jehovah's command to preach, no matter what
His opposers say to them; and they too rejoice in Jehovah's
precious promises and say to him in prayer, '''Vho is a
God like unto thee'"

FIELD EXPERIENCES
GOD ANSWERS REQUEST FOR INSTRUCTION

GOD'S WORD BRINGS PEACE

Jehovah God uses his faithful witnesses to instruct those

who sincerely wish to know him and serve him. One of
such sincere ones tells how her prayer 'was answered.
"I'm very proud and glad to have the world know that
I've become a witness for Jehovah and His glorious kingdom. I've received so many lovely cards and letters the
past few months from church members of the Presbyterian
Church 1 belonged to practically begging me to come back
to church; but that I can never do, go back to shallow
religion. What hurts them is that they all knew in our
adult Sunday-school class that I was really studying,
searching and seeking in the Scriptures for the truth, and
I'd ask so many of the older members about things and they
didn't seem to know anything about the Bible and they'd
gone to that church all their lives.
"You see, I'm 27 and have 5 small children and am just
a farmer's wife, but I've always believed in God and never
could get that 'trinity' stuff through my head. 1 was
brought up to be a Lutheran and went to Lutheran Bible
school summer after summer, and still 1 refused to be confirmed. 1 used to tell Mom that it was too foolish to think
that if little babies weren't baptized God would let them go
to a burning 'hell'! When in high school 1 used to read
every book I could find in hopes of finding out or solving
the mystery of life. Then I got married at 17 and became
so rushed for several years with the little ones that I didn't
have time to do much reading; but my baby is 2i now,
and about Ii years ago I began to really study the Bible
and it seemed to contradict itself all through, but I knew
it ,vasn't God's ,Vord, it was me that didn't understand
it and rightly divide the words. The minister couldn't
answer my questions either or anyone else, and then I
began to think, Why would God have a book written in
His name that no one could make sense out of? It says,
'Knock, and it shall be opened unto you,' and 'Blessed are
those that hunger and thirst after righteousness' j so I
thought, Well, I'm knocking and thirsting; so 1 asked God
to please open it unto me and let me be a doer of the
Word 100, not just a hearer, no matter what it might
require of me.
"That very evening one of Jehovah's witnesses came to
my door and I asked him in. He could answer all my
questions, and I never had known anyone with such zeal
for the Lord. It took me about six weeks to realize this was
all the real truth at last; so I quit church and have been
studying all winter. I've gone witnessing now two Sunday
mornings and it is truly the most interesting, thrilling
work I've ever done!"

The truth of God's Word and the spirit manifested by

Jehovah's faithful people awakens a response in honest
hearts. One who had in vain searched for peace outside
God's Word says:
"In July, 1942, 1 enlisted in the United States Navy
because I wanted to stop the slaughter of millions of
innocent Jews; because 1 wanted to stop the book.burning,
the plunder. I wanted to see democracy reign the world
over. I played a very small part in the war. I was dis.
charged on December 2, 1943. Back once more in civilian
life I found things different, much different than I had
expected. I saw the same things happening here that we
were fighting against in Germany. More subtle, less vicious
perhaps, but here nevertheless. I was astounded.
"Then came VE-Day, then VJ-Day, flagwaving, rejoicing, celebrating, and of 'long live democracy'. The dreams
of the returning veterans of a home, a family, security and,
yes, the four freedoms, did not materialize. . . . I saw
conditions and became nauseated at the sight of them. I
became depressed and discouraged.
"1 went to churches, to American Legion meetings, and
saw the same things. Then I met a communist. The more
I heard about communism the more interested I became.
I read all of Marx and Engels I could find. I went into
communism then with all the energy and force I could
muster. All the pent-up fury that had been stored in me
in the past years of depression and war added fuel to my
energy and force. I became a member, an active one. I
was overflowing with enthusiasm in the 'cause'. But soon I
began to feel the lack of something. It couldn't be religion.
I saw the farce of religion and condemned it with the rest
of them. Yet I upheld man's right to worship whomever
he pleased and denied him the right to condemn another
for his beliefs. But still. this lack of something.
"Just recently I eame to live with my sister and brotherin-law whom 1 let talk me into attending some meetings
of Jehovah's witnesses. At last I see what has always been
lacking-brotherly love! the truth! the truth of the Bible,
the Word of God!
"To say the least, I am relieved of a burden. I feel free.
Peace is at last settling on my shoulders where the burdens
of hopelessness and despair were carried. In the light of
the truth I have given up communism and have accepted
God's Word as the truth. I have rejected :Marx and have
taken the truth of the Bible. I truly thank God for His
guidin~ hand He has so graciously given me through
Jehovah's witnesses."

J .

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"They shall know that ram Jehovah:'

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-{

-tze!m135:15,

VOL. LXIX

SEMIMONTHLY

No. 20

OCTOBER 15, 1948

CONTENTS
.'

307
308
Wide-open Door
310
WHAT Is THERE IN IT FOR MINISTERS T .. 311
Not Up for a Price
313
What It Takes
314
THE LIE ABOUT THE DEAD
316
ISAIAH LIVED Up TO HIS NAME
318
FIELD EXPERIENCES
320
MIXISTERS AT THE WORLD'S EXD
Fullen Stars

!'

"KING FOR ALL EARTH"

TESTIMONY PERIOD
I,

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES
"THE WATCHTOWER"

30G
306
306

!--

ifJieWATCHTOWER
P1.-nUSHED

SE:lturo:>THI.Y By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE

117 Adams Street
N, R.

f)

TRACT SOCIETY

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A

OFFICERS

KNORR,

P.res/dent

GRANT

SUITER, Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau9ht of Jehovah; and

reat shall be the peace of thy children." - lJaialz 5 ';:.l3.
'l'f-m IHHLE CI.EAHLY TgACIIBS
THAT JEHOVAH Is the onl~' true Gou, from everlastln~ to
eYerlastin~, anI] is the :lInker of hpa\'en lind earth and Gh'er or
life to his cr~atures: that the Word or Logos was the hel,dnning
of his creation amI his ncllye n;.:ent III creutlng all othel' thln~s;
antI that the creature Lucifer rebelled a;.:nlnst ,Tehovah anll raised
the issue of His uni\'ersal so\'ereil!nty;
THAT GOD created the eurth fOl' mnn, marle perfect mnn for
the earth anll placed hllil ullOn it; that mun ~'ielde<1 to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satnn, and willfull)' disohe)'ed God's law and wns
sentencell to rleath; tl.nt h)' reason of Allam's wrong nct nil Olen
are born sinners anu without the rl;.:ht to life;
THAT THE LOGOS wus llIatle hlllllun us the man Jesus and sur
fered dellth In 0/'111'1' to prOllnce the rnnSOID or rellemptl\'e pril'e for
ohedient men; that God mised up Christ ,lesus divine lind exalted
him to heaven above eYer~' olher creature and clothed him with all
power amI authorit)' as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT (lOIYR CAPITAL OItGAXIZATIO:-;' is a Theocrllcv clllled
Zion, lind tlw t (;hrist ,Tesus is the Chief Ollicer thereof nnrl is the
rl~htful Kin;.: of the new worlll; that the faithfUl nnollltel!
followers of Christ .Tesus ure Zion's children, memhers of ,Tehomh's
ol'u:aniwtfon, unl! lire IIis witnesses whose l!uty and jlr!\-iJe;.:e it
Is to testlf~' to .TehoYah's SUjlrelllllC~' nnll declure his purposes
toward IIl1lnldnl1 as expressed in the BiuJe:
1.'1 \.\.'1' TEl:: OLD WOltLD, 01' l:iatnn's uninterrupted rUle. ended
A.D. lOH, anll ehrist .Te::.us has been plneed by Jeho\'nh upon the
til ronI', has ousted ::>,Han from hea \'I.'/l, nnll now proceeds to
"indicate His nallle anI I est.lbllsh the "new eurth";
TH.\.'!' THE ImLIEF and blesslIl;':s of the peoples can come only
by ,Teho\'ah's kin;':llolU unller Christ, which has be;.:un: that IIIs
n..xt great nct IS to I!PStlOY ~lItan's or;.:anil:ntlon and est"iJlish
rightl OU5Iless clllllPletei~' In the eUl'th . nnd that unller the Kin;':l~olll
the peuple of ;':OOIJ\\ ill ~I1l'\ i\ Ill;; ArlJl.lu:e!ll]on will C.IIT,\' out Ihe
di\'lne lJIanliate to "lill the eal'th" \I Ith rl~hteous 011"111'1/1;':, anl!
thnt the 1i1llllan dend in the j!raves Wlil he WIsed to oppol'tunlties
at ILe ull earth,

"KIXG FOR ALL EARTH" TESTDIOXY PEnrOD

Fo!' a world-WIde testllllony to the one "King for all the earth"
thc month of Octobcr has been set aside, DUl'lng that favorable
')cason all subjects of J eho\'ah's KI/lg, who no\\' rClgns despite
Ius enellllCS, WIll jom In sp~ciul efforts to ad\'el t1se thc King
and Ius kingdom. The Awake! magazine will be the pnnclpul
offer to the people, a ycar's SUbSCI'lpt' on for $100, For those
who are readers of Awake! alrcady, the oiTer Will be three bound
books on a contl'lbutlOn of $1.00, The books to be offcred ure
"Let God Be True", "The Kingdom Is at Halld", and "The
Trl/th Shall Jlal.e :rOll Free", bcsllles the latest booklet, PermalIellt GOI'prllor of All Nl/tio'7S, This is not book-agency work,
but is ulllbassaconal work for winning subjects to tbe new
world's Kmg. Viewing It that Scriptural way, Watchtower readers
Will apprecIate thl' honor of it and Will want to show their alleg:anec to the "King- for ail the earth" by sharing In tillS special
work-or- Oerober, IVe antiCipate that Illany will wnte for refcrenees and I/Istructlons and supplies. ,Ve want to put all sueh
In happy contad With the orgall1zed aerive subjects of the King.
We clo~e with a reminder of your reporting at the end of thiS
Te<;tilllony Period,
"W ATCHTOW~R" STUDIES
Week of Xovember 21: "~ll,l1isters at the World's End,"
~ 1-19 mclusive, The Watchtower October 15, 1948.
Week of Xovember 28: "What Is There in It for Ministersf"
1-:21 inclusive, Tlte Watchtower October 15, 1948,

ITS ~rr~~IO:"l'
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~ceWAICIHIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

OCTOBER

15, 1948

No. 20

MINISTERS AT THE WORLD'S END

"There shall be a time of tt'ouble, Sllch as ne'L'er was since there was a nation even to that same time:
and . . they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."-Dan. 12: 1,3.
EHOYAH marks the end of this world by setting
up his kingdom for the blessing of all earth's
inhabitants of g-ood-will. '1'hat is why the establislul1ent of His kingdom means, to begin with, a
hitherto-un heard-of time of trouble for all the present kingdoms of this world. No sensible person will
deny we have entered such a trouble, even though
he lllay deny it marks the time of the setting up of
God's kingdom. By his written Word God says this
trouble does mark just that; and even if the brainy
men of this world, including Christendom's clergy,
may disbelieye and scoff at that fact, the teachable
people of good-will are trustful enough to "let God
be true, but every man a liar". (TIom. 3: 4) The
worldly-\vise scoffers and unbelievers are the ones
that get hurt, fatally, by the trouble, but the people
of good-will are the only ones permitted to survive
this worst of troubles and aftenvard to receive the
lasting blessings of God's kingdom of righteousness,
o It is his chief son in the heavens that Jehovah
God mal;:es the royal TIuler in his newly established
kingdom. This One bears the nearest image or
ciosest resemblance to his Father. '1'he name Michael
well befits him, for it means "Who is like God f' He
\Vas one of the "morning stars" that sang, while "all
the sons of God shouted for joy", at the time that
God founded our planet, the earih. (Job 38:4-7) In
the days of the prophet Daniel, in the seventh century
B.C" :Michael was "one of the chief princes" in the
im-isible heavens: and Daniel was told that :Hichael
was "your prince", yes, "the great prince which
standeth for tlle children of thy people." (Dan,
10: 13, 21 and 12: 1) At that time he was glorious
like a morning star, hut now since ascending the
throne of God's kingdom he is more glorious still.
King Da"dd 'of ancient Jerusalem was a glorious
king on the visible "throne of Jehovah", but J ehovah's newly installed King on the heavenly throne
is the One whom David prophetically called "my
Lord" and is far more glol'loUS than David. (1 Chron.
29: 23 and Ps. 110: 1, Am. Stan. Fer.) The angel that

1 "'hal does tlus wile or trouble IlIIlll;? and \\ ho sUCllve It?

2, 3

\\ hut

wa~

lJalll~l

lululllled about !\hcllael? aud who IS he?

gave Daniel the marvelous prophecy on the "time

of the end" spoke of the time when Uichael should
ascend the throne that Jehovah provides for him
in the heavens, and regarding it he says:
3 "And at that time will Michael, the great prince
who standeth for the children of thy people, sb.nd
forth; and there will be a time of distress, such as
hath never been since the existence of any nation,
until that same time; and at that time shall thy
people be delivered, everyone that shall he fonnel
written in the book. . . . And the intelligent shull
shine brilliantly like the brilliance of the expanse
(of the sky) ; and they that bring many to righ teousness shall be like the stars, for ever and ever. But
thou, 0 Daniel, close up the words, and seal the bool;:,
until the time of the end: many will roam about,
yet shall knowledge be increased."-Dan. 12: 1-4,
Isaac Leeser's translation.
The promise here is that at the time of the
world's greatest catastrophe in its history there \nll
be some to shine like the sun of our fil'll1ament by
day and like the numberless stars by night, that the
people amid the gloom of the trouble might ha\"e
light. These shiners would be the intelligent, who
succeed in furning many people to righ teousness
despite the low moral ebb of humanity at the time
of the end. These intelligent worl,ers for true righteousness must certainly be the ministers of Jehovah
God and the earthly representatives of his princely
Son on the heavenly throne, for they are likened to
the sun and stars of God's creation.
S By ministers here we can not mean the religious
clergy of Christendom, for in the deepening darkness of this time of global trouble since A.D. 1914
these clergymen have proved to be utterly without
any light for mankind. This does not exclude even
the politico-religious ruler of Vatican City, for his
hopes for the future rise and fall according to the
fortunes of the political nations of this world, and
now he is filled with great pessimism. Hesitantly the
pope now plans to declare 1950 a "holy year" with
4. Who are the ones thnt It IS promIsed will then slIme?
5. 6. ny the term """.. tors who are meant. and \\110 !lot?

307

308

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

1ffieWATCHTOWER.

big things projected, such as Vatican City Airlines

und a Vatican Landing Field and provisions for a
million pilgrim~ to Rome. But that gives the world
no light, for the pope also decreed 1933 a holy year
and declared that a tide of religion would arise and
sweep the nations into peace and prosperity'. History shows the pope held forth a false light, for,
instead of being swept into peace and prosperity,
the glohe was swept into World War II by Hitler,
who became the Nuzi dictator in Germany and signed
a concordat with the Vatican throngh Cardinal
Eugene Pacelli that smne year of 1933.-Neither the
pope nor the other reli.gious clergy of Christendom
rejoice in the meaning of the signs of our times,
nalllel~', the end of this old world ano the establishment of God's kingdom by his Son, Christ Jesus. The
dergy olTer mankind no light upon this subject, to
show them tIle way to escape from the final battle
of Armageddon with \vhich this "time of trouble, such
as neyer was", ends up. Deflpite their religious titles,
the clergy are not Jehovah God's ministers at the
world's end, becanse, the facts show, the~' are not
fulfiIling the prophecy of Daniel 12: 3.
6 By ministers, then, we mean those who are in
truth now serving J ehoyah God and letting his
heavenly light concerning the kingdom of God shine
upon the people that they may thus turn these people
to Goel's kingdom and his righteousness. ~Ian can
serve only one master at a time, either Jehovah God
or Satan the Devil, and \Ve now must decide to be
ministers of either God or the Devil.
1 The Dible says Satall the Devil is "the god of this
world", and the religious clergy of Christendom who
involve themselves so deeply in this world'~ affairs
and strive to keep thehe affairs going sho\v plainly
thev are his ministers. 1"01' a clonk they 111 av call
the;l1selves "apostolic successors" or' Otller UllBilJlicul names, but the genuine apostle Paul warns
us, saying: "Such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness; who::ie end shall be
according to their works." (2 Cor. 11: 13-15) Of
cour::ie, f::iatan has his ministers at this end of the
wodd. How he captures them is pictured for us in
the last book of the Bible, Revelation. There God's
unh-ersal organization is pictured as his handmaid,
his "woman", arrayed with heavenly light, whereas
Satan the Devil is pictured as a seven-headed, tenhomed dragon. God's universal organization, his
"woman", gives birth to his kingdom, for out of this

organization of his sons, his ministers, God brings

forth his Son as newly-made King of the ne\.". world
of rio-hteousness. Until the birth of that Idngdom
A.D.1914 it had been a time of anxious waiting and
praying by the members of Jehovah's universal
organization, his "woman". 'Ve read:
"And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars: and being
with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in
pain to be delivered. And there was seen another
sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his heads
seven diadems: and his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and
the dragon stood before the woman who was ready
to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered,
he might devour her son. And she brought forth a
man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron
rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his
throne... And there was a great battle in heaven,
1Iichael and his angels fought with the dragon, and
the dragon fought and his a.ngels: and they prevailed
not, neither vms their place found any more in
heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who
seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the
earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of
our God, and the power of his Christ: because the
accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused
them before our God day and night."-Apocalypse
12: 1-10, Douay.
9 K ote that Satan the dragon gets a t11ird of the
stars of heaven in his coils and that his tail throw~
them down to the earth. But the t\velve stars in the
crown upon the woman's head are not included
among them. The third of the stars picture Satan's
ministers, who profess to shine with heavenly light.
but whom Satan has entrapped and made a part of
his visible earthly organization of commerce, politics
and religion. As he deceived Eve with a lie in Eden,
so he deceives these by lies through his world organization. "The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the
tail." (Isa. 9: 15) The apostle Paul \varns Christians
against such deception by Satan the Serpent's "tail".
-2 Cor. 11: 3, 4.
10 Being "stars" that Satan has cast down to th!:'
earth, they could not be those foretold at Daniel
12: 3 who shine with heavenly wisdom like the sun
and turn many to righteousness and gleam lil,e the
stars at the "time of the end". Those whom the
dragon casts down from heaven must be Satan'~
ministers at the "time of the end" when God's king-

7, 8. How Is Satan pictured as capturing his star\lke ministers'

9, 10. How does be

FALLE:\' STARS

~ntrap

these. hut treat God's true ministers?

OCTOBER

15, 1948

9UeWATCHTOWE~

309

dam is born. These religious ministers of Satan edge of God's law and other divine information, and
masquerade around as "apostles of Christ" and as would have set the example and led them in keeping
"ministers of righteousness", to mimic Satan, who God's commands and doing God's will. Likewise
himself tries to appear as an "angel of light". These Adam's sons and grandsons, when growing up and
ministers Satan uses to seduce the whole world. It marrying Adam's daughters and granddaughters
i~ for this reason that they are respected highly and and raising families of their own, would have been
receive great honors and reverence in this world. ministers of God in further passing on the knowledge
However, all those who are God's true ministers of God's law, mandate and instruction to their chilSatan the dragon keeps on fah::ely accusing and dren and leading them in the way of obedience to
causes them to be persecuted in all lands, democratic God. Lucifer as the anointed cherub that covereth
and totalitarian. Jesus himself, God's chief minister, might have helped to this end. But neither he nor
,vas put to death under like false accnsation by the Adam chose to stay ministers of God, and Adam
dr3gon Satan, and yet J aIm, the writer of the Apoca- abandoned the ministry of God and became Satan's
lypse, calls him "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful minister. Adam joined Eve in disobedience to God.
witness", ,the Amen, the faithful and true witness." Re acted as Satan's agent to bring sin into this \vorld
(Apoc. 1: 5 and 3: 14, Douay) Hence it is not amaz- and upon all of humanity: "By one man sin entered
ing that the other ministers of Jehovah, his wit- into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
nesses who follow in Jesus' footsteps, should like- upon all men, for that all have sinned."-Rom. 5: 1~.
13 The faithful Son of God, by becoming the man
wise be falsely accused in this ,vorId that Satan has
seduced.-1 Pet. 2: 21.
Jesus Christ and dying to redeem Adam's offspring
11 Satan the dragon is not satisfied with casting
from sin and death, became "the last Adam". "Anel
"the third part of the stars of heaven" to the earth. so it is written, The first man Adam was made a
He ,,,auld like to regiment all people on earth to be living soul; the last Adam was made a qnic1;:ening
his ministers. By seducing the whole world he has spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the
quite succeeded in doing this, according to the rule: second man is the Lord from heaven." (1 Cor. 15: -:1-5,
"To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his 47) To become thus "the everlasting Father" to the
servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin faithful and obedient ones of Adam's fallen offunto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." spring, Jesus Christ held fast to his ministry of
(Rom. 6: 16) :Many religionists in Christendom God, down to a martyr's death. For the sake of God
think they serve God, but their activities show and his Father Jesus Christ died as "the faithful witprove they are ministers of Satan, for they obey ness", but when God raised him from the dead to
him through his world organization. The spirit crea- heavenly life he became the "first begotten of the
hue who is now called "that old serpent, called the dead, and the prince of the Icings of the earth".
Devil, and Satan," was originally Jehovah's minister -Rev. 1: 5.
in the garden of Eden. Isaiah's prophecy (14: 12)
14 Jehovah's
witnesses, if they would l\eep on
gives him the name "Lucifer, son of the morning". following in Jesus' footsteps, must likewise hold
Adam and Eve were under the protective covering on to their ministry toward God. They must pal'ticnof Lucifer as "the anointed cherub that covereth". larly do so now, at this end of the world, when Satan
(Ezek. 28: 14-16) Rather than help Adam and Eve and his angels have been cast out of heaven, They
continue to be ministers of God, Lucifer the covering must do so, for a special ministry is laid upon them,
cherub schemed to make them his ministers. By now that Jesus Christ has been enthroned in the
deceptive, seductive speech through the serpent tha"t newborn kingdom of God. Now, in fulfillment of
he used, Lucifer transformed himself from a minis- Daniel 12: 3 they must be wise and shine as the
ter of God into the Satanic adversary of God and brightness of the firmament, and must remain rightmisled the woman into the service of God's adver- eous and turn many others to righteousness and thus
sary. Before this, God's universal organization was shine as the stars. They must watch to avoid the
coils of the dragon's tail that has cast a "third part
made up of all his creatures as his ministers.
1~ Adalll_ might have remained God's minister on
of the stars" down to this defiled earth. Instead of
earth. God used Adam to declare his law to Eve. joining in with Christendom's religious clergy and
If both Adam and Eve had continued faithful under saying, "Now is come the United Nations and with
test and had obeyed the divine mandate, "Be fruit- it the salvation and only hope of the earth," they
ful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it," must shed light upon God's kingdom and must join
Adam would have been God's special minister to his the heavenly throng in saying: "Now is come salvafamily of children. (Gen. 1: 28, Rotherham) He tion, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
would have imparted to his young children the knowl- the power of his Christ." (Rev. 12: 10) In doing so,
11. How was the attempt begun to draw al1 men from God's ministry?
12, What minlstry could .\.dam have enlo),..d, but why did he not?

13, In contrast. how did God's beloved Son become the last Adam?
14. Why and how must Jehovah'. witnesses hold on to the ministry?

310

~eWATCHTOWER

J ehovn.1l's witnesses fulfIll Jesus' prophecy which

said that one sign of the world's end would be: "This
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then ::ohall
the end come." They decline to take np the United
Nations or any other political alliance as the gospel
or good news for our time, the end of the world.
They refuse to accept it and to recommend suc.h
U.N. and political alliancGs as the man-made substItute for the kingdom of God. Let the clergy go over
to the ministry of the U.N. Jehovah's witnesses hold
fast to the mi~istl'Y of "this gospel of the kingdom".
-:llatt. 24: U.
WIDE OPEN DOOR
15 Today the Bible-producing societies tell of the
crvin'" ne'ed for Bibles and of the huge delnand for
them.'" nut today there is the need, not only for
Bibles, but also for men and women to explain the
Bible to tlle people. Already there are hundreds of
millions of copies of the Bible spread all over the
earth, not oniy in the outof-date King James Yersion and Douav Version of the seventeenth century,
but also in n{odern, up-to-date speech. But when
readin rr even these modern versions, how many
'"
.
.
understand what they are reading and dl::ocern Its
presen today message. "this gospel of the kingdom" f
There are hundreds of religious denominations all
claiming to be Christian, and there are hundreds of
thousands of religious meetin?;-houses, yet in such
buildings the clergy of those religious denominations
do not explain the Bible truth to churchgoers and
hell) tllem to see "this gospel of the kingdom". How
cOl;ld such clergymen do so while at the same time
they falsely accuse, oppose and persecute Jehovah's
wit~esses for preaching this Kingdom gospel to the
people "publicly, and f10m house to hou~e" ?-Acts
:20: ~O.
16 Consequently,
there is a wide-open door set
before those who want to be true ministers of the
Kingdom gospel. Everyone \vho wants to b~ God's
minister at this wodd's end must tal,e up tlllS foretold ministry. God made a covenant with King ~aYid
of Jerusalem, promising that the One to rule 111 the
everlasting ldngdom of God would be a descenda~t
of David. Jesus Christ, DaYid's descendant by IllS
son Nathan, was the One that became the heir of
this kingdom covenant and he was called "the Son
of David". To his human mother the angel from
heaven said: "The Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father David: and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom
there shall be no end." (Luke 1: 32, 33) Therefore
the power and authority symbolized by "the key of
David" was given to Christ Jesus. In this day of

~\\hnt Ie; there n crnn~ need tortny, and why'?

Wlty (10e8 Cb1l8t lln\'e the "key of Davld"1 and for whom does
he use In

in:

BItOOKLYN,

N. Y.

world tension the church of Christ is not split by

international hatreds and political disco:d.s th~t set
men of different nationalities and rollh~al Ideas
a""ainst one another in mortal combat, but 111~ chu.rch
tl~e world over puts Christianity above natlOnallsm
and is cemented together by brot,herly love. T~~e
Greek word "Philadelphia" mean~ 'bro.therly love ;
and to his church, which is filled Wlth tins l~ve, J eS':ls
Christ the Heir of the covenant made WIth DaVId
for th~ Kingdom, says: "These things saith he that
is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of
David, he that openeth, and no man shuttetll; and
shutteth and no man openeth; I know thy works:
behold,
have set before thee an open door, and
no man can shut it."-Rev. 3: 7, 8.
17 This open door signifies the opportunyy to enter
into the ministry of the gospel of the h . mgdo:l1. by
tellin rr it out to others by all means of pUblJClty.
It is
an "open door" set only before men, o~ ?nly
before O'raduates from worldly colleges and rellglOus
theological seminaries. It is set before all ll1elllber~
of Christ's true church at this world's end who are
filled with that Philadelphian quality of brothelly
love and who keep what Christ tells them to do ami
who do not deny his name by going in for some
worldly reli<rio-political
arrangement that is opo
posed to his kingdom. N~netee.n ce~tUl ies ago the
apostle Paul at Ephesus 111 ASIa ~I111or had such a
wide-open opportunity to preach good new.s about
God's King and kingdom, and he wrote: "I WIll tarry
at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a gleat door and
effectual is opened unto me, and there are many
adversaries." (1 Cor. 1G: S, 9) It was effectual
because it promised good results; and so Paul stayed
longer at Ephesus to tali:e advantage of the great
door opened. (Acts 19: 1-20) Today the enthroned
King, Jesus Christ, with the "key of David", ancI
hence with authority over all the interests of thl'
Davidic covenant for the Kingdom, lIas unlocked the
door for those who follow him. Happy are all tho:::e
with discernin rr eyes who see the opportunity opened
and who enter'" the Kingdom gospel ministry.
IS The Kinrr with the "key of David" has opened
the door and assures us that no man can shut it.
But this does not mean there are not or will not be
opposers to our entering through the door into the
opportunities of proclaiming the Kingdom gospel
in all the inhabited earth and to all nations. As 111
Paul's case, there are many adversaries, demonic
and human. The adversaries are as numerous now
as thirty years ago, or in 1918, if not more numerous
due to worsening world affairs. In 1918, when WorI.d
War I reached its climax, the adversaries CatholJe
and Protestant practically persecuted Jehovah's
witnesses out of their field of activity and shut down

;ot

17, \\ hnt does the "open door" signlt v , nnd for wholll Is It open;
ill. Wilen was tbe door opened, and with what enCOUla;;elnent to enter.

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15, 1948

3fieWATCHTOWER.

their free and open work of preaching that the

Gentile times had ended A.D. 1914 and that God's
kingdom by Christ had been set up. This shutdown
was in fulfillment of J eSl1S' prophecy on the world's
end. (Matt. 24: 7-13) nut in the spring of the following year (1919) Christ Jesus used his "key of
David" and opened the door of opportunity before
Jehovah's witnesses. He bade them to be fearless
and enter as his followers into the great postwar
onpol'tunity for giving the witness to God's established Jdn~dom before this world comes to its final
end at the battle of Armageddon. In the July 1, 1920,
issue of The Watch TOKe)' he showed thm that now,
since A.D. 1914, is the time when "this gospel of the
kllltidolll" must be preached to a wide-open world as
he had foretold at Matthew 24: 14. He called' especial
attention to the opened door of ministerial opportunity in 1922, when the electrifying slogan was introduced at the biggest international assembly till
then of Jehovah's witnesses, "Advertise the King
and his kingdom!"
19 Since entering through the open door Jehovah's
ministers have had innumerable adversaries continue
19. !low is the door belDg kept open, and for llow much longer?

311

to rise up against them and try t~ shut th~ do,or.

Catholic Action organized world-wIde, totalltanan
dictatorships, and World War II, all these the adversaries have used to try to shut the door upon J ehovah's witnesses. But our King with "the key of
David" has miraculously kept the door open, and
the ministry of this Kingdom gospel has gone forward, with more gospel ministers at the close of
World War II than before. The door still stands
open to the most glorious opportunity because the
gospel ministry by men and women is not yet finished, but the invitation into this blessed privilege
is more urgent now than ever before. Have you
answered the invitation and entered through the
door in brotherly love T \Vill you T The opportunity
will close'with the battle of Armageddon, now drawing near, when this gospel of the Kingdom will have
been preached adequately and the final end of this
world will have come according to God's due time.
Then Jehovah will arise to give his own testimony
before all the universe by winning the fight at
Armageddon. As a result, "the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the
waters cover the sea."-Hab. 2:14, Am. Stan. Ver.,.
Zeph. 3: 8, LXX; Ps. 68: 1.

WHAT IS THERE IN IT FOR MINISTERS?

" H A S Job feared God for nothing? Hast thou
not hedged him round about, and his house
and all that belongs to him? Thou hast
blessed the labor of his hands; and his wealth has
spread abroad in the land." With such words the
great accuser, Satan the Devil, accused the leading
minister of Jehovah God in the earth in the seventeenth century D.C., namely, Job of the land of Uz.
lIe lived in the days before the setting up of the
priesthood in the family of Aaron the Levite for the
nation of Israel. Hence Job, as head of his family,
pe\ formed priestly duties at the altar for his household. He prayed to God for them and was an example
of godly fear and uprightness before them. Jehovah
called him "my servant Job", with "none like him
in the earth, a man perfect and upright, who fears
God and shuns wickedness".-Job 1: 1-10, An Amer.
Trans.
2 Anxious to turn Job away from the ministry of
the living g.nd true God, Satan accused him of serving God selfishly because his "bread was buttered
on that side". With everything going in his favor,
why should not Job serve God under total divine
protection What, Satan asked, is there to show Job
is not guilty of "supposing that godliness is a way
of gain" (1 Tim. 6: 5, Am. Stan. Ver.) So God let
I, 2,

\Vh~t

fnlse accusation did Job nu<wpr, nnd how'

Satan reduce Job to abject poverty by the loss of

everything earthly that material-minded men think
makes life worth living. But Job still held fast his
ministry to God and acted as Jehovah's leading witness of the day. By God's mercy and grace, Job
proved Satan the accuser a base liar. He gave proof
that there will always be true ministers of God on
earth that will hold fast their ministry to Him,
although the Devil makes it the hardest way of
life on earth. Job's chief reward was to be God's
vindicator.-Jas. 5: 11.
3 The accusing question that Satan the dragon
raised concerning God's ministers must still be met
and answered for the further vindication of J ehovah God. For this reason he has not shielded the
way of his ministry in such manner as to mahe it a
way attractive to softies and to worldlings who look
for a life of popularity, public esteem, social honors,
political protection, ease, comfortable salaries, flattering titles, and other things that would draw a selfseeker. Such things Satan the Devil pays his ministel's. When he tempted Jesus Christ in the wilderness, he offered Jesus these things, even "all the
kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them", if
Jesus would only become his minister. Jesus' reply
was: "Begone, Satan! For the Scripture says, 'You
3, 4. Why does God not sllleld ministers? Why did Jesus become one?

312

~e WATCHTOWER

must do homage to the Lord your God, and worship

him alone!' "-11att. 4: 1-10, An Amer. Trans.
f Up till then Jesus had been a carpenter at Nazareth and earning a good wage. Compared with what
Satan offere,d him on earth, what did God his Father
offer him for being His minister on earth 1 God paid
Jesus no money salary. God gave him no parsonage
or episcopal mansion as a place "where to lay his
head". What God promised Jesus on earth was prophetically written in the holy Hebrew scriptures,
namely, a life of hardness, of unceasing activity
amid discomforts, opposition and persecution by
religious priests and clergymen, and at last a most
tihameful and painful death under false charges of
blasphemy against God and of sedition against law
and order. Jesus read all those thiI1gs as in store
for him. He understood them, and yet he left the
money-paying job of carpentering and took up the
preaching ministry of God. Why1 To give the most
complete answer to Satan's charge against Jehovah's
true ministers and witnesses and so vindicate Jehovah God as the only ~laster worthy of serving. Also
he ,,,,auld lay down his human life as a ransom for
all on earth who would become God's ministers and
remain such forever in the new world of righteousne:5s.-Luke 24: 25-27, 44-48; 11att. 20: 28.
~ God did not let Jesus walk blindly into the ministryon earth during this present evil world, without
knowing what it was to cost. All the tenor of the
Bible is to inform us what it now costs to be a real
witness and servant of God, now while Satan's
challenge to God's ministers must still be met. This
frank information keeps us from being surprised by
the enemy. It forearms us by forewarning us. Just
before his own violent death Jesus told his faithful
apostles: "If the world hates you, remember that it
hated me first. ... If they have persecuted me they
will persecute you too.... I have told you this to
keep you from faltering. They will exclude you from
their synagogues; why, the time is coming when
anyone who kills you will think he is doing religious
service to God. They will do this because they do not
know the Father or me. But I have told you about
these things in order that when the time comes for
them to happen, you may remember that I told you
of them."-John 15: 18, 20 and 16: 1-4, An Amer.
Trans.
6 As in Jesus' case, Jehovah God pays no money
salary now to any man or woman to be his minister.
True, he promises faithfully to provide for them, and
he does so; and they have the right to pray to him,
"Give us this day our daily bread." But nowhere in
all his written Word does he promise his true servants wealth and worldly honors and positions. The
5. What u(!\'ance warning Intormatlon does God's Word gn'e us? Why?
G, 7, Does an a\'ocatlon deny a minister'. true ~ocatlon? and why?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

challenging accusation of Satan forbids it. True also

it is that, while one is actively serving as God's
minister, a man or woman may have an earthly occupation bringing in some financial or material returns.
A person's earthly responsibilities to family or other
obligations might require him to work thus part-time
at secular employment. Or his desire not to burden
any other person or congregation with financing him
full-time in the ministry may prompt him to do secular work part-time. But that is merely a side-line, an
honorable avocation, for him. His main obligation,
his true calling and vocation, is that of being a minister to teach and preach the truths and principles
of Christianity both privately and publicly, and to
do so regularly. This a person must do if he has
consecrated himself to God to follow Jesus.
T At times the apostle Paul worked as a tentmaker, but he preached regularly every sabbathday
in the synagogue although it was not his pulpit. He
said to the congregation at Corinth, where he did
such tentmaking: "I would not permit myself to be
a burden to you.... I do not intend to be a burden
to you now; for it is not your money but yourselves
that I want; for children are not expected to lay up
money for their parents, but parents for their children." (Acts 18: 1-4 and 2 Cor. 12: 13, 14, An Amer.
Trans.) But while working with his hands as a tentmaker, Paul had not laid aside his vocation, his
apostleship, even temporarily. He could not layoff
his apostolic investiture without being unfaithful to
his Master. In fact, to the congregation at the city
where he made tents Paul wrote his strongest arguments that he was an apostle. So he did part-time
work in order not to make his active apostleship a
material burden to any Christian congregation.
8 So it is today with Jehovah's true ministers,
Most of His witnesses are, by one Scriptural obligation or another, compelled to do secular work parttime, but this does not mean they are not ordained
ministers and primarily preachers of the gospel.
They are still ministers, but are paying their own
way honorably rather than choosing the soft way of
financially burdening fellow Christians. In the days
of the Theocratic organization of ancient Israel, the
tribe of Levi was set apart to furnish the temple
ministers and priests, but, except for the high priest,
those Levites (24 courses of them, in rotation) served
only two weeks out of a year, besides at the three
annual feast times, directly at Jerusalem's temple.
The remainder of the year they spent at their Levite
cities, doing garden work in the outlying suburbs
and caring for their families and also doing some
local teaching and judicial work on the law of God.
For the main support of these Levites God commanded the entire nation of Israel to pay tithes of
S. How al e .eculariy empioyed mini.ters like the Levites of old?

OCTOBER

15, 1948

$1ieWATCHTOWER

all their substance, and a proper part of such tithes

went to,the Levites. In turn, the Levite ministers
paid a tithe to the priestly family of Aaron the
Levite. (Num. 18: 20-32; 1 Chronicles, chapters
24-26; Ezra 6: 16-18; Neh. 13: 5; Luke 1: 5-9) The
activities of these priests and Levites while away
from the temple at Jerusalem did not deny they
were Levites and deserving of the provisions and
exemptions accorded to the Levites.
9 Since Jerusalem's destruction by Roman armies
A.D. 70, all records of Levite families have been lost,
and now no Levite group is kept and supported even
by the Jews. Christ Jesus and his apostles set up no
Levite group among Christians. Hence Christians do
not take up tithes in order to support Levites or any
other group of ministers. Among true Christians,
true"witnesses of Jehovah, all are under a solemn
vow of consecration, dedicating their lives to the
ministry of God, and this solemn vow they have
publicly symbolized by being baptized in water. God
has recognized this consecration by putting his spirit
upon those who pay their vow to him: Thus it is
that, without any tithing arrangement for support,
most of Jehovah's witnesses have to work at secular
occupations to provide the necessary things honorably in the sight of men and God. But this does not
mean at all that they are not actually by vocation
fully ordained ministers of God and of his gospel
and under all the responsibilities of the ordained
ministry.
10 Said Paul to the Corinthians among whom he
made tents on weekdays: "Neeessity is laid upon me;
yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel I"
(1 Cor. 9: 16) Jehovah's witnesses today, as ministers and preachers of the gospel, imitate Paul by
working as necessary in order not to burden their
Christian brethren with financial support of them as
preachers. But necessity is laid upon them to be
ministers and preachers. By reason of their consecration vow they have a relation to the Supreme
Almighty One that involves duties higher than those
duties springing from any human relations, so that
they may not love father or mother, son or daughter,
or marriage partner more than God and Christ.
(Matt. 10: 37; Luke 14: 26) As ministers they all
take a leading part by going forth and spreading the
gospel message in their community. Also each one,
as he has opportunity, may baptize another in water,
may preach a funeral service, may secure a license
to perform marriages, may administer the emblems
at the Lord's supper, and may do other services in
a congregation. Because there are more ministers
than can all render such services at one time, only
some render these services at a particular time, just
9. What makes them ordained ministers despite secular work?
10. (a) Row do they have duties higher than those owed to humans?
(b) How do they act as leaders, do public service, enjoy exemption?

313

as with the Levites who, because of numbers, could

serve only in rotation, one week every six months
at ,the temple. In ancient Israel the Levites were
exempted from military duty in Theocratic warfare.
Likewise today, Jehovah's witnesses, who are all
devoted to God through Christ for divine, Theocratic
service, are entitled to military exemption by nations
that claim to be Christian.-Num. 1 :.-45-54.
NOT UP FOR A PRICE
11 Despite' the hardships connected with it, the
ministry of God is the greatest privilege a creature
on earth could enjoy. It is an office, a service, that
cannot be bought with money. Simon Magus of
Samaria tried to buy the apostolic power of imparting gifts of the holy spirit to baptized believers, but
Peter refused the bribe and said: "Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money." (Acts 8: 20)
And yet simony has been practiced by the wealthy
religious organization that claims to be built upon
Peter as its first pope. Ecclesiastical history shows
that a number of popes got the popedom by simony.
In a religious organization an ecclesiastical office
can be bought by a secret gift of money, but not so
the true ministry of Jehovah God. It is not like a
cardinalate, for which a clergyman must pay the
pope a sum of many thousands of dollars and must
undertake to support financially one of Rome's scores
of religious meetinghouses, just to ,get the red hat
and title. As for the influence of money in this
matter, note the case of pope Leo X, of the notorious
De Medici family of Italy and who excommunicated
Martin Luther. He was the second son of Lorenzo
"the Magnificent" and got his religious tonsure at
the tender age of seven years, thus becoming a
clergyman, after which the pope gave him the rich
living of the wealthy convent of Passignand. As if
that was not young enough to become a clergyman,
this same Giovanni de Medici, when just thirteen
years old, was presented with the rank of cardinal
by his sister's father-in-law, pope Innocent VIII,
and at seventeen yeal'S he was installed fully as
cardinal. Twenty-one years later he became pope.
12 However, boys. and girls yet in their teens do
not have to buy their way into God's ministry with
money. Neither does their youth debar them from
becoming His bona fide ministers, any more than
Giov;:tnni de Medici was barred religiously from
becoming cardinal at thirteen years of age or a
tonsured clergyman at seven years. A child on reaching the age of intelligence and appreciating God's
requirements can obtain the privilege of the ministry by making a vow of consecration to God with
full faith in Christ Jesus as our ransom sacrifice

11. Can a share in this ministry be bOUght with money? Illustrate.

12. Why and how can children not in their teens become ministers?

314

SEeWATCHTOWER

and our Exemplar. Je~us said: "An that the Father

giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise ca::;t out." (John 6: 37) Today
many boys and girls not yet in their teens, when
not at public school, are preaching the gospel from
house to house and also distributing the Kingdom
message in print on the sidewalks and other public places. When God accepts anyone's consecration and puts his spirit upon him, God subjects
such accepted 011e to all the obligations of Ilis minister and he becomes an ordained minister of the
gospel and must discharge the duties of his office.
l'he Bible is tIle rule for his conscience and it provides him the subject matter for preaching. From
then on his privilege, yes, his obligat~on is to render
a faithful ministry and prove God true and Satan
the false accuser a liar.
la It is not ecclesiastical titles nor sanctimonious
garb different from that of ordinary people that
mark us as being genuine ordained preachers of the
gospel. In ancient Israel the priests and Levites
outside of the temple were not commanded to wear
any official garments to show them off from the
common folk. When Jesus and his apostles preached,
they did not adopt thp official garb of the templepriests and Levites to display themselves as ministers and to have the people doff their head-covering
or boy,: and scrape to them and give them special
favors. It would have been contrary to God's law
through Moses for Jesus and his apostles to adopt
the holy official garments of Israel's high priest,
underpriests and Levites. (Ex. 2S: 1 13; Num. 4: 1
49; Ezek. 44: 15-20, 10-14) Without even a prophet's
rough hairy garment, but in the ordinary dress of the
common people, Jesus on earth carried out his ministry as Jehovah's high priest, prophet and witness.
When he died on the tree as our ransom sacrifice,
his garments over which the Roman soldiers cast
lots did not include any long robe or coUar that
buttoned to the rear or vest that zipped up the back.
(:Mark 12: 38; Luke 20: 46; 2 Ki. 1: 7, 8; Zech. 13: 4,
5; John 19: 23, 24) Jesus' ministerial capacity was
proved, not by mun-made titles nor by Levite or
prophetical dress, but by his preaching, his works,
his constancy in God's service, his keeping integrity
till death. The ministerial office of Jehovah's witnesses today is proved in the same Christm:e way.

BnOOKLYN,

N. Y.

Every person professing to be a Christian

should consider it his first obligation to be God's
minister of the gospel. If his Christianity is more
than just being enrolled on a church register, and
if he has really consecrated himself through Christ
to God's service, then there is no escaping it: he

must now earn out his ordination to preach God's

message. What he is required to have to minister
with is not a college education and a complete course
in a theological seminary with an ecclesiastical title
of "reverend", "parson," "doctor of divinity," or the
like. No, but he ministers with the written Word of
God, which contains His good news 01' gospel. Hence
the apostle Paul spoke of himself as "ministering
the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the holy
spirit". (Rom. 15: 16) So, if you do not have a college
degree or theological seminary diploma and religious titles, do not be afraid to introduce yourself
and speak of yourself as an ordained minister and
preacher of the gospel. Prove it by your knowledge,
works and adherence to God's Word.
15 \Vhat everyone must have to be a complete and
qualified minister is the Scriptures and an understanding of them. "The holy scriptures ... are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim.
3: 15-17) Certainly to help others to become wise
to salvation we ourselves must study the holy Scriptures and know and understand them in order to
impart the meaning of them to others. God has not
made ignorance the way to salvation, and does not
sanctify us by ignorance. "Sanctify them through
thy trutlJ: thy word is truth," Jesus said. (John
17: 17) Hence we must study tIle Scriptm-es \vith the
help of all that God provides through his Theocratic
organization to aid our understanding. Of the blessed
man it is written: "His delight is in the law of the
LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and
night." (Ps. 1: 1,2) Our study and meditation are
not merely to gain our own salvatIOn. but also to be
teachers of others, that they too may win salvation.
We should definitely purpose to be teachers as a
result of our study and meditation. After a time of
such study and meditation God expects us to be
teachers and preachers.
16 Said Puul to the Hebrew Christians: "For the
time ye ought to be teachers." His expression of
disappointment shows that all Christians are expected to develop into teachers of others, for Paul said
to them: "When by reason of the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach
you the rudiments of the first principles of the
oracles of God." (Heb. 5: 12, Am. Stan. Ver.) At this
end of the world, what we should study to teach
others is that 'increased knowledge' which Daniel

13 Whal shows whether O\1r mlnl.trv Is pro'l"ed by dre~s and titles?

14 Whal must a true Christian be, and WIth what must he be such?

15. To I>e complet~, qualified ministers wbat must ''I"e hlwe? Why'
la, Why must we be n soclet~ teachlng others to become mlmster.:

WHAT IT TAKES
U

OCTOBER

15, 1948

1ffieWATCHTOWER

12: 3 said would mark the "time of the end". That

knowledge means the present-day facts about God's
kingdom now established, and the approaching day
of His vengeance at the universal war of Armageddon, and the thousand-year reign of Christ that is
to follow for the blessing of all persons of good-will.
Before this "time of the end" began, one of our main
objectives was to teach others, that they might carry
on in our stead after we had finished our earthly
course. As Paul told Timothy: "The things that. thou
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
teach others also." (2 Tim. 2: 2) But now our teaching others is not merely to have others succeed us as
teachers and preachers after our death. It is to help
others become God's ministers now, that they may
by God's mercy live through this "time of the end",
survive the destruction of this world at Armageddon
and keep on ministering to God forever in the righteous new world to follow, without a break in their
ministry. The Scriptures show that the organization of Jehovah's witnesses is a society of ministers
that teaches others to be His ministers of the gospel.
Only his ministers may have any hope of surviving
Armageddon. Remember Noah and the flood.
17 "I cannot undertake such service," someone says.
No, YOU cannot; not of your own natural ability.
But with the divine gift you can, if you do not hold
back fearfully, but are willing. As Peter said:
"According as each hath received a gift, ministering
it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; if any man speaketh, speaking as
it were oracles of God; if any man ministereth,
ministering as of the strength which God supplieth:
that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus
Christ." (1 Pet. 4:10,11, Am.Stan.Ver.) God can
develop the gift in us, and he will supply the strength
and ability needed that we may render the required
service. This new strength and ability he imparts by
means of his spirit or invisible active force upon us.
18 We need not fear for lack of God's spirit to help
us now. Are we in the "time of'the end", "the last
days"~ Yes! Then his spirit is due to be poured out
upon his anointed remnant, in fulfillment of Joel
2 : 28, 29 and Acts 2: 16-18. The activities of J ehovah's witnesses world-wide since A.D. 1919 prove
the spirit has been poured out upon the anointed
remnant. Hundreds of thousands of persons of goodwill have since associated themselves with the spiritbegotten remnant of Christ's bride and are also partaking of the spirit of God and sharing with the
small remnant in this ministry of "this gospel of
the kingdom" for a witness to all nations.
19 The invitation now goes forth to all seekers of
17, 18. With what gift and ablllty can we render this ministry?
19, 20. (a) Who or what is the "spirit" that now says, "Come"?
(b) Who take up this mlUlstry and extend thlS invitatlOn, and why?

315

life in the new world to take up the gospel ministry

that they may gain life eternal in that glorious world.
The throne of God and of his Christ has been set up
in the heavens~ and streams of life-giving Kingdom
truth like a mighty river are issuing forth from this
established kingdom. Now the apocalyptic picture
applies: "And the spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that
is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." (Rev. 22: 1, 2, 17) By the
word spirit here we need not understand any person,
either God or Christ Jesus, but simply the active
force of God. The spirit or active force from God
acted upon the holy men of pre-Christian centuries
and they spoke and wrote as moved by that holy
spirit. Thus they produced the inspired Hebrew
Scriptures. Then God anointed Jesus with his holy
spirit, and at Pentecost of A.D. 33 Christ Jesus,
having returned to his heavenly Father, poured out
the holy spirit upon his faithful consecrated followers. A number of apostles and disciples wrote the
inspired Greek Scriptures by that spirit, to make
up our complete Bible of today. From that spiritproduced Book the life-giving waters of truth from
the throne of God and of Christ flow out. That spirit
searches the deep things of God, and by it we have
revealed to us today the Kingdom gospel for this
time of the end. It brings an increase of knowledge
and a grasp of things never before seen, heard or
perceived by man.-1 Cor. 2: 9, 10; 1sa. 64: 1-4.
20 That same spirit has been poured out upon the
remnant in the flesh of the Bride class, and with its
help they extend the invitation to all nations to come
to the Kingdom water of life. From the spiritunfolded Word of Gdd the remnant see the prophetic
pictures that disclose the "great multitude" of
people of good-will who must now be gathered to
the fold of the Good Shepherd, Jehovah's King. To
those of good-will who answer the invitation to the
water of life and consecrate themselves to do God's
will a share in this precious gospel ministry is
assigned in the words: "And let him that heareth
say, Come." And as the good-will persons obediently
enter this gospel ministry, God imparts his spirit
to them to give them strength and ability as his
gospel ministers.
21 Thus by the anointed remnant and their great
multitude of good-"YYill companions, the spirit of God
is saying "Come" to all who now thirst for life-giving
waters. By persisting in this blessed ministry till
the final end comes upon the world, they share with
Christ Jesus in vindicating Jehovah's name and
word. For their share in this vindication all these
faithful ministers gain the gift of life eternal in the
world of the "new heavens and a new earth".
21. What is there in it at last for all these ministers?

THE LIE ABOUT THE DEAD

EOPLE generally shrink from speaking disrespectfully
about the dead. Hardly at any point are they more
touched than about their dead. And ;yet, in the name
of religion, a great lie about the dead has been circulated
throughout the earth for thousands of years. This lie has
worked great injury to the living. That lie does not emanate
from the sacred Bible, for Jesus said of it: "Thy Word is
truth," and his apostle John said: "No lie is of the truth."
(John 17: 17 and 1 John 2: 21) A lie is a false statement
made by one to another person who is entitled to hear and
know the truth, and which false statement tends to work
injury to that person. A false statement that is made for
the direct purpose of deceiving and working injury to
another is a deliberate and malicious lie. The lie abo~ut the
dead was intentionally started to injure the good name and
sovereign rule of God the Creator, and the Bible as the
vehicle of truth faithfully exposes that vicious lie.
How did the lie begin 1 Who fathered it? The Bible tells.
Jehovah God appointed Lucifer the cherub as man's overlord in thc garden of Eden. Faithfulness to God and also
duty to man required the covering cherub to tell the truth.
Eve, the man's wife, was entitled to know the truth. Lucifer,
bJl the use of the serpent, stated to Eve that the eating of
the forbidden fruit would not result in death to her and
Adam, as .Jehovah God had warned, but it would result in
godlike wisdom to them. (Gen. 3: 1-5) Through that false
statement Eve was deceived, and it resulted in her death
and brought suffering and death upon all her offspring.
Lucifer's statement to Eve was therefore a deliberate,
wicked and malicious lie. It was the beginning of lies and
aha of rebellion against God's sovereignty.
Now known as Satan the Serpent, Lucifer is the most
fertile of liars. From the moment he became Satn.n or God's
adversary he was a liar. I-Iis first lie resulted in murder
upon the human family. The great Truthteller, .Jesus, s.aid
of Satan the Devil: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth
in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8: 44) The
title "father" means "originator or life-giver"; and being
"the father of it" means that all lies originate with Satan
the Devil. Those pen,ons who indulge in telling lies are
the children of the Devil. For this reason .Jesus said to the
religious leaders of the Jews who lied about him and tried
to murder him: "Ye are of ;your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do." In the same way that he
that is of God seeks His Word and obeys it, those who repeat
Satan's lies are children of the Devil.--John 8: 44, 47.
Jesus' words make a clear distinction between truth and
lies. Replying to a question propounded to him by one of
Satan's representatives, Jesus said: "To this end was I
born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I
sholild bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of
the truth heareth my voice." Jesus thus showed he was a
Sua of God, for "God ... cannot lie", and it is "impossible
fol' God to lie". (John 18:37; Titus 1:2; Reb. 6:18)
Since God is the true and righteous One and his Word is
the truth, it follows that all doctrines or teachings of men
that are contrary to God's 'Vord are false teachings. If
such doctrine or doctrines tend to do injury to others, then
lSuch doctrines. or teachings are lies. If you find that a

316

doctrine or teaching is a lie, you should quickly forsake it.

regardless of who teaches it or how long you have believed
it to be true. Your own welfare and ~;our duty to the God
of truth demand that you abandon lies, no matter who
teaches them, for the reason that the end of the maker and
of the supporter of lies is eternal death.
Among the seven things that are named as specially
abominable to God is the speaker of lies. Hence, "a false
witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies
shall perish." (Prov. 6: 16-19 and 19: 9) The De\'il lied
to the perfect woman Eve and deceived her. It is certain.
then, that the majority of imperfect human creatures are
lied to and deceived by the Devil's agents. There is only
one possible way to tind safety, and that is to learn the
truth of God's Word and to follow that and keep away
from teachings of men which are contrary to God's Word.
If you tind that you have been for some time in a religiolls
organization called "the church" and that it teaches what
is contrary to God's Word of truth, then you will have to
choose whether you will remain a member of that so-called
"church" organization and uphold its teachings or will
forsake the same and rely upon God's 'Vord. As we now consider the lie about the dead, ask the God of all wisdom and
comfort to let you see the truth in the light of His Word.
The American poet Longfellow said: " 'Dust thou art, to
dust returnest,' was not spoken of the souL" Besides. :rou
often hear some religious teachers say: "There is no death:
when a man is taken away in what is called death, he is
not in fact dead but passes on to live; his body of dust
dies, but his soul lives on forever." That, in brief, is the
teaching of practically all the religious sects of Christen
dam. The question now up for proof is, Is that teaching a
lie or is it true? The Holy Scriptures, which means to say,
God their Inspirer, emphatically answer that such teaching is a lie from Satan. By God's creative power man
"became a living soul" and God said to him: "Thall shalt
not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die." Satan the liar said to the man's wife;
"Ye shall not surely die." (Gen. 2: 7, 17 and 3: 4,) \\"hom
are you to believe? Jesus our Exemplar said he belie\"ed
God, because Satan "is a liar, and the father of it". Follow
Jesus, and not some religious clergyman who accept,.
Satan's lie. Romans 6: 23 plainly declares: "The wages at
sin is death." If there is no death, then the sinner must
be immortal, which means that the sinner cannot die. You
see, one lie is called to support another lie. IIence another
doctrine taught by the religious organizations is that the
soul of man is immortal and lives on forever. That is
another lie. But two lies added together do not make a truth.
Is the human soul immortal? God made man to be a
human soul. God did not insert in man's body a soul that
is separable from the body and endowed with an independent, intelligent existence. Even the Roman Catholic Bible
translation says : "And the Lord God formed man of the
slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath
of life, and man became a living soul." (Gen.2:7,Douay)
This description of man's creation proves that man's body
and the breath of life together make up the soul or living.
moving creature.
Not when the soul is separated from the body, but when
the breath of life is separated from the body the creature

OCTOBER

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

man dies, and hence the soul dies. On that basis Ezechiel
18: 4 (Dottay) says: "The soul that sinneth, the same shall
die." ~\.ll human persons are souls, and because of inherited
sin we human souls die. Unless a sinner soul is saved, it
dies; for James says: "He who eauseth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from
death." (Jas. 5: 20, Douay) And Revelation 16: 3 says
that, at the plague of God. "every living soul died in the
sea." (DoHay) Even angels ha,-e sinned, and they too shall
die. Angels are not immortal. They come within the statement that "the LORD preserveth all them that love him:
but all the wicked will he destroy". (Ps. 145: 20) The
father of lies, Satan the Devil himself, is not immortal,
because, among other scriptures, we read, at Hebrews 2: 1:1::
"As the chilJren arc partakers of flesh and blood, he also
himself lH;:c\vise took part of the same; that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil." Jehovah God is incorruptible, and when he
raised Jesus and made him the "firstborn from the dead"
God gave him immortality, and he can never die again.
lIenee the apostle Paul said of Jesus at that time: "The
King of kings, and I.Jord of lords; who only hath immortality." (1 Tim. 6: 15, 16) Some years after Paul wrote that,
.Jcsus said in the Revelation to John: "I am he that liveth,
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." (Rev.
1: 18) At the resurrection of the faithful followers of
Christ, Jehovah God will give them immortality, and will
gh'e it to no others but these 144,000. The scriptures at
Revelation 2: 10, Romans 2: 7 and 1 Corinthians 15: 53, 54
prove that.
WHERE ARE THE DEAD!

The clergy of the great religious systems of this world

teach and thereby induce millions of professed Christians
to 'believe that when a person dies, if good, he goes immediately to heaven; otherwise, if a noman Catholic, to
a "purg;tory", and, if not, to eternal torment in a fiery
hell; and that he is fully conscious after his death and has
kno\'iledge of what is being done with him. Now, if you
find from the Bible that the dead person is not conscious
and has no knowledge whatever, then you will know that the
teaching about purgatory and a hell of torment is a gross
lie of Satan made and taught to deceive and injure others.
We will be blunt at the beginning and say, Purgatory
anQ eternal torment do not exist. Those who are dead are
not conscious anywhere: "For the living know that they
shall die, but the dead know nothing more, neither have
they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten. 'Yhatsoen~r thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly:
for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge
shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening." (Eccl. 9: 5, 10,
Dotwy) "The dead shall not praise thee, 0 Lord: nor any
of them that go down to hell. But we that live bless the
Lord." (Ps. 113: 17, 18, Douay) In view of these scriptures
it is certain that those who have died are not suffering
anywhere. Being an honest person, you have, no doubt,
found it difficult to love a god who would torture a living
creature in fire or in any other manner. You would not
torture a dumb brute even. The doctrine of eternal torment
makes God appear a fiend rather than a God of love, and
that is what the Devil desires. The doctrine of purgatory
with various kinds of fiendish tortures is another one of

317

Satan's lies, manufactured and told to deceive men and

women and cause them to hate, disobey and reproach
Jehovah God.
As an attempt at supporting their doctrine of the immortality of the human soul and its passage to another
realm of life at death, the religionists refer to the thief
that was impaled alongside of Jesus. The record of it is
found at Luke 23: 39-43. One of the two malefactors impaled
on both sides of him said to Jesus shortly before he died:
"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
The emphatic translation of Rotherham punctuates the
answer of Jesus correctly, in harmony with the rest of the
Scriptures, and reads: "And he said unto him-Yerily I
say unto thee this day: With me shalt thou be in Paradise."
(Luke 23: 43 j see also Lamsa's translation) The superscription over Jesus' head said he was the King of the
Jews. Manifestly the thief believed Jesus to be God's
appointed King of the new world and that in the future
Christ Jesus would come into his kingdom at the end of
this world, and so the thief wanted to be remembered by
the enthroned Christ Jesus at that time. Jesus did not come
into his kingdom the day that he died. For three days he
was dead and in the grave, and at the end of that time
God raised him out of death, and fortj' days later Jesus
ascended into heaven. Almost nineteen hundred years
later, namely, A.D. 1914, Jesus came into the Kingdom and
was placed upon his throne by his Father and was sent
forth to rule.-Pss. 2: 6; 110: 1, 2; Rev. 11: 15-18.
The thief will never be in heaven, because the promise
to him is that he will be with Christ in Paradise, because
Christ's kingdom will restore paradise to this earth. It is
certain that the thief did not go to heaven or paradise the
day that he died. If he did, then he got there long before
Jesus did; and we know that such a conclusion is entirely
unreasonable. The thief died and was put in a criminal's
grave. He is still in the grave awaiting the time when
Christ the King will utter his voice and all that are in
the graves shall hear his voice and come forth unto a
resurrection, The thief will come forth to a "resurrection
of judgment".-John 5: 28, 2D, Am. Stan. VeT.
Hence, even Jesus' words on the tree to the thief cannot
be used to support the doctrine of a purgatory. That
doctrine is a lie because it is false and it has worked great
injury to millions of Roman Catholics and others. Religious
teachers in the TIoman Catholic sect have induced millions
to believe their dead friends are conscious and are suffering
in purgatory and that the prayers of men called "priests"
can relieve them of their sufferings. The people are thus
induced to give up their money to the priests to say prayers
for those supposed to be in purgatory. Many an honest
man has been influenced to pay a large sum of money for
such prayers. Certainly this clerical manner of obtaining
money is getting it under false pretenses and to the inJury
of those who pay. How terrible it is to lie about the dead
in order to get money from the living! The greatest injury,
however, is the inducing of the living to believe that their
dead friends are suffering in purgatory at the hands of
God himself; for that is a defamation of God's name and
tends to turn millions of honest persons away from God
and to make Communists of them or any other kind of
atheist. That is what the Deyil is trying to bring about.

318

1ffieWATCHTOWER..

Do not be disturbed because those who are dead are not

existent, for &11 those who are in the graves will hear the
voice of the Son of God and come forth. The hope for them
is that of the resurrection of the dead, and not the supposed
immortality of the human soul. The apostle Paul said;
"There shall 'be a resurrection of the just and unjust."
"Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge
the world in equity, by the man whom he hath appointed;
giving faith to all, by raising him up from the dead." (Acts
24; 15 and 17; 31, D01lay) The resurrection of them means
the bringing of them back to life. If the person were alive
in a purgatory or in a hell of torment, he could not be
resurrected to life, because he would already be alive.
Resurrection of the dead is sure and certain, because
Jehovah God has so provided; and that in itself proves

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

that the doctrine of purgatory and human immortality is

a Satanic lie.
Have those who are faithful Christians gone immediately
to heaven at death? No; because the resurrection does not
take place until the second coming of Jesus Christ and the
establishment of God's kingdom. (2 Tim. 4: 1) The faithful
apostle Paul declared he would not receive his resurrection
until at the second coming of Christ. (2 Tim. 4: 8) Such
faithful followers like him are the ones having part in
the chief resurrection, "the first resurrection," and they
become members of the royal house of Jehovah God in
heaven, and their number is limited to 14-1,000. The hope
of all other persons is in a resurrection for an opportunity
of life everlasting on the earth with paradise restored to it.

ISAIAH LIVED UP TO HIS NAME

SALUI had rushed to the tcmple to offer to Jehovah
his heartfelt thanks for His salvation of His people
in their time of trouble when he had heard the welcome
news that Jehovah had destroyed Sennacherib's 185,000
troops at Libnah (732 B.C.). (Isa. 37: 36; 33: 2) After
his prayer of thanksgiving and praise he lingered in the
temple courts. As he looked westward and saw the temple
house with its lofty porch he remembered the vision Jehovah had given him the year King Uzziah died (775 B.C.).
It had seemed to him that he was im.ide the temple and
that he saw Jehovah sitting on a high and lofty throne.
his trailing robes spreading ovcr all the temple floor. Then
he had seen six-winged seraphs hovering round Him and
had heard them calling to one another over and over again:
"Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is
full of his glory." (Isa. 6: 1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.) So loud
was their voice that the foundations of the thresholds shook.
Then the house filled with smokc. The heaviness of the
realization of the holiness of the sight made Isaiah cry
out: "\Yoe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips: for mine eycs have seen the King, Jehovah
of hosts."-Isa. 6: 4, 5, .t1m. Stan. r er.
Ko sooner had he spoken than one of the seraphs flew to
the altar and took a red-hot stone from it with tongs and
flew over to Isaiah and touched his lips with it and said:
"See! this has touched your lips; so your guilt is removed,
and J'our sin forgiven." (Isa. 6: 6, 7, An Amer. Trans.)
That removed Isaiah's anguish and brought him great relief.
Then he heard the voice of Jehovah, saying: "Whom shall
I send, and who will go for us?" Whereupon Isaiah said:
"Here am I; send me." So Jehovah said; "Go, and tell this
people, Ileal' ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye
indeed, but perceive not. :Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest
they see with their eyes, and hear \vith their ears, and
understand with their heart, and turn again, and be
healed." Then the prophet asked, "Lord, how long?" He
answered: "Until cities be waste WIthout inhabitant, and
houses "ithout man, and t~e land become utterly waste,
and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken

The name Isaiah means Salvation of Jehovah.

places be many in the midst of the land."-Isa. G: 8-l~,

Am. Stan. Ver.
As Isaiah reviewed the intervening 43 years, he reali7.ed
that, just as Jehovah had said, his preaching had fallen
on heavy ears. The prophet thought of wicked King Ahaz'
refusal to trust Jehovah's word, in spite of the direct
messages from Jehovah that he had conveyed to Ahaz.
With a grateful heart Isaiah remembered that for Da\'id's
sake Jehovah had not permitted the conspiratory eonfederacy of Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel against
Judah to succeed. The memory of IIezekiah's accession to
the throne of Jehovah and the restoration of true wor~hip
throughout the land brought a smile of pleasure to Isaiah's
lips. How sharply Judah's subsequent prosperity had contrasted with Israel's weakening and ultimate exile
(740 B.C.) because of the latter's refusal to worohip .rehovah and heed his commandments! How he hnd rejoiced
when he had seen some God-fearing Israelites, who had not
forgotten the God of their salvation, settle in Judah, where
His pure worship could be carried on '-Isa. 17: 10.
Isaiah thought of the many messages Jehovah had ghen
him to deliver and of how he had enjoyed speaking them
forth, often accompanied by his children. lIe recalled With
delight the time Jehovah had in!>pired him to proclaim the
song of praise to Jehovah, which ascribed sah-ation to IIim:
"I will give thanks unto thee, 0 Jehovah; for though thou
wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou
comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will tn~st,
and will not be afraid: for Jehovah, even Jeho\'ah, is my
strength and song; and he is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Give thanks unto J ehovah, call upon his name, declare his doings among the
peoples, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto
Jehovah; for he hath done excellent things: let thi!> be
known in all the earth. Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great in the midst of thee is the lIoly
One of Israel."-Isa. 12: 1-6, Am. Stan. Ver.
Isaiah remembered the oracle on Egypt that Jehuvah
had given him. How it had intrigued him, especially that
part that said: "In that day shall there be an altar to
Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at

OCTOBER

15, 1948

~e WATCHTOWEBv

the border thereof to Jehovah. And it shall be for a sign

and for a witness unto Jehovah of hosts in the land of
Egypt; for they shall cry unto Jehovah because of oppressors, and he will send them a saviour, and a defender, and
he will deliver them." (Isa. 19: 19,20, A.m. Stan. Ver.) IIe
had inquired and sought diligently to understand more concerning that savior Jehovah would provide.-1 Pet. 1: 10.
As his eyes surveyed the mountain of Jehovah's temple
he remembered another prophecy of sal vation: "And in
this mountain will Jehovah of hosts make unto all peoples
a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that covereth all peoples, and the veil that is spread
over all nations. IIe. hath swallowed up death for ever; and
the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces;
and the reproach of his people will he take away from off
all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it. Arid it shall
be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
for him, and he will save us: this is Jehovah; we have
waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."-Isa. ~5: 6-9, 11m. Stan. Ver.
Then Isaiah remembered the song Jehovah had inspired
him to foretell would be sung in Judah, the one that started
out, ""\Ye have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for
walls and bulwal"ks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous
nation which keepeth faith may enter in. Thou wilt keep
him in perfcct peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because
he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in Jehovah for ever; for in
Jehovah, even Jehovah, is an everlasting rock." (Isa.
2G: 1-4-, Am. Stan. Ver.) l\;ow they had just seen a manifestation of the strcngth of Jehovah's salvation. Jehovah
had truly come and saved them for his own sake and for
his servant David's sake.-Isa. 33: Gj 35: 4; 37: 35.
A few days later Isaiah receind word that King IIezekiah ,vas dangerously ill. Jcho"ah revealed to the prophet
that Ilczekiah would die; so Isaiah went to the palace and
entered the room where the king was lying. On IIezekiah's
face he ~aw a look of pain and supplication. Then Isaiah
said to him: "Thus saith Jehovah, Set thy house in order;
for thou shalt die, and not live." With a look of anguish
IIezekiah turned his face to the wall. Isaiah heard him
pray to God. "Remember now, 0 Jehovah, I beseech thee,
how I have wallwd before thee in truth and with a perfect
heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight."
Then Ilczeldah wept profusely.-Isa. 38: 1-4, Am. Stan.
rer.
Isaiah, moved by the sight, slowly walked away, but
before he had gone out of the middle courtyard, the word
of Jehonlh again came to him, saying: "Go, and say to
IIezekwh, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father,
I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold,
I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver
thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria;
and I will defend this city. And this shall be the sign unto
thee from J eho\"11h, that Jehovah will do this thing that he
hath spoken: behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps,
which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, to

319

return backward ten steps." Isaiah quickly turned around

and walked briskly to Hezekiah with the good news.
-2 Ki. 20: 4, An Amer. Trans.; Isa. 38: 4-8, Am. Stan. Ver.
Shortly after Jeho"ah healed Hezekiah Isaiah saw a
delegation being escorted to the royal palace. He could
tell from their dress and general appearance that they
were Babylonians. Later he sa,v Hezekiah taking them
about the city. Isaiah was puzzled; but then Jehovah made
it all clear to him by the message He gave him to deliver
to IIezeldah. Isaiah went to the palace to deliver it. "\Yhen
he reached the king, he noticed Hezekiah seemed strangely
elated. Isaiah said to him: "What said these men? and
from whence came they unto thee?" Hezekiah answered
in a proud tone: "They are come from a far country unto
me, even from Babylon." Isaiah questioned him further:
"What have they seen in thy house?" Hezekiah continued
in his haughty tone: "All that is in my house have they
seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not
showed them."-Isa. 39: 1-4, Am. Stan. Ver.
Then Isaiah said solemnly to him: "Hear the word of
Jehovah of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all
that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid
up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon:
nothing shall be left, saith Jehovah. And of thy sons that
shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, shall they
take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of
the king of Babylon." As Isaiah spoke, he noticed the look
of pride fade from Hezekiah's face and one of humble grief
take its place. When Isaiah had finished, Hezekiah said in
a contrite voice: "Good is the word of Jehovah which thou
hast spoken."-Isa. 39: 5.8, Am. Stan. Ver.
Isaiah was glad to see Hezekiah repent of his pride, the
only haughty pride Isaiah had ever seen in him. The
prophet also rejoiced to see the inhabitants of Jerusalem
humble themselves when they learned the facts. (2 Chron.
32: 2G) From then on Isaiah saw God prosper Judah, saw
Him exalted in the sight of all nations for the salvation
He had wrought for His people. (2 Chron. 32: :23) Isaiah
had the privilege during that prosperously blessed time of
being inspired to utter sublime prophecies, many of them
relating to Jehovah's salvation. (Chapters 40 to GG) "Lift
up your eye's to the heavens, and look upon the earth
beneathj for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and
the earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell
therein shall die like gnats: but my salvation shall be for
ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished."-Isa.
51: 6, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.
Isaiah in his steadfast course of upholding J ehoyah's
sovereignty and ascribing all salvation to him prefigured
at times Christ Jesus himself, who at all times has upheld
the sovereignty and saving power of Jehovah. Just as
those who heeded Jehovah's message through Isaiah
received His protection and blessing, so likewise today
those who heed Jehovah's message coming through the
greater Isaiah, Christ Jesus, receive Jehovah's salvation.
Multitudes now who heed that message are saying: "It is
to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,
that we owe our salvation!"-Rev. 7: 10, Weymouth.

Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his
arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is With him, and hu
recompe1lSe before !lim.-Isaiah 40: 10, A.S. V.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
THE POWER OF GOD'S TRUTH OVER ERROR

A pioneer publisher of Jehovah's kingdom who used the

power of God's truth to overcome opposition in Piotrk6w
Trybunalski, Poland, says:
"While working from house to house on one ~f the streets
the people told me with indignation that they were not
interested in the message of God's kingdom and that I
immediately leave the home. I began to wonder why all
the people answered the same way and 1 decided to try
to uncoyer the reason therefor.
"1 asked the people who taught them to so answer. In
one home it was explained to me that a mis'>ionary monk
had been there an hour bcfore, collecting money for rebuilding the church.
"In connection therewith he warned them concerning
J ehoyuh's witnesses, who go from house to home turning
the people away from the Catholic church, and who have
books that are conuemneJ by the church. He urged them
to chase Jehovah's witnesses out of their homes with a
broom because God's kingdom had already come long ago
on the earth together with the Roman Catholic Church.
"The work was indeed difficult because of going to the
homes after the people had been so warned predously by
this mO:lk. I:!oweyer, I continued to work patiently, only
a bit faster. After an intensiYe hour's work I ran into the
monk. going from house to house.
"I immediately went into the same home with him and
stood by him as if I were his friend. He did not know
who I was. He began to speak to the people as formerly,
and when he finished I kindly asked him to sit down a
while and rest. This he did. I then began to give a witness
to the people, telling them of the Lord and his purposes.
"As a result, the whole family became sincerely interested
in the truth. These people understood why I did not come
to collect money, but rather bring them something of much
greater yalue than all the material riches of this earth,
such as how they might obtain perfect health, happiness
and everlasting life. These people understood the difference
of my mission and that of the monk's, and took some of
our books.
"I left this home together with the monk and kindly asked
him to go with me to the next home, to whieh he agreed.
But here I went into the home first and the monk with me.
"I immediately presented myself as one of Jehovah's
witnesses, and, with convincing words, told them about the
message of the truth. After giving them a broader witness,
this family also became interested in the truth. They took
some booklets. I took note of the number of the home so
as to visit them again and help them to a better understanding of God's truth. The monk stood quietly as if
dumfounded, not uttering even a word, betraying half disappointment and half defeat from his perplexity. He was
a witness as to what Jehovah's witnesses preach and how
they make glad the hearts of the afflicted people.
"Startled by hearing such a wonderful message, he no
longer collected money for building his church and likewise no longer incited the people against me.
"After leaving the second home the monk turned to me
on the corridor and stated: 'Please excuse me, as I have
to interrupt our work. Henceforth I will not interfere in

your preaching, and the beautiful words that 1 heard !la:e

deeply impressed me and 1 will tell others about tillS m
the monastery.' !Ie parted very politely and left.
"1 did not have any further difficulties in the work, and
many of the people were of good-will. 1 rejoiced greatly
in the spirit, because of the .Lord's removing ?iff1<:ulties
and giving His servants the VIctory after endurmg III the
work."
GOSPEL PREACHED THROUGH

PERS~CUTIO:-;

The following letter was written by a young man to two

of Jehovah's ministers on their release from a :Mon treal
jail:
"I have read today of your arrest and of others before
for distributing pamphlets. 1 believe that if your members
are willing to suffer arrest, then your ideas must be sincere
and worthy. 1 would like to know more about them. Would
you please mform me how I may do so?"
FALSE WORSHIPERS UNABLE TO WITHSTAND GOD'S WORD

The faithful preaching of the gospel from door to door

by Jehovah's witnesses in a town in Poland made a clergyman hide for fear of being exposed publicly.
"'Ve started to work from the east, and when we finished
half of the village, school was let out and the children
began to pour out into the street. Among them were also
some grown-up persons. 1I10st of them began to laugh and
scoff at us, and one of them cried out: 'Two faiths ha\'e
now met in our village and we will see which one is the
stronger.'
"'Ve did not know what this was to mean, but we saw
the church minister coming out of a yard into which our
two sisters had entered a little while before. I sta~'ed out
in the street on guard in case any help was needed.
"Our sisters came out of the home and stated that they
did not come in contact with the priest. We went to the
next home and the priest was not there either. IIoweyer,
here we saw the housewife hastily clear away the priest's
sprinkle.r from the table but she did not manage to clear
the 600 zlotys from the plate prepared for the priest.
After presenting the message here to closed ears, we left.
"Outside we were confronted by a crowd of young people
who anxiously asked us: 'What happened to the priest?'
They wanted to hear our discussion with the priest, who
was unfortunately nowhere to be found. The priest's altar
boy stared at us in astonishment and then started to run
to different places in search of the priest, evidently not
knowing where he had hid himself. It turned out that some
woman had locked the priest up in her 'nice' room to hide
from us, because the priest was ashamed and did not want
to be disgraced in front of his parishioners.
"In a conversation with the crowd of young people, they
declared: 'We see that victory is on your side and that the
priest is bold only when he deals with us, but not so with
you people.'
"\Ve gave them a good witness. After working the whole
village, we gathered together to leave. Many people watched
us as we left and continued to comment on what they had
seen and heard.
"The Roman Catholic priest was ashamed of his mission
among his parishioners."
320

2lieWATCHTOWER..
PUIlLTSHED SEMU10NTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street

Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A

OFFICERS

N. H.

KNORR,

President

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall be the peace of thy children." baiall 5 :I.J.
THE BIBLE CLEAHLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH is the onl~' true Gou, from everlasting to
evt'rlasting, und Is the :lInker of hpa\'en and earth and Giver of
life to hIs crt'atures; that the ',,"ord or Logos was the be;:lnning
of his creation and his aCli\'e agent in ctelltlll~ ail other thin~s;
and that the creatut'e Luci fer rebelled a;:ainst ,Teho\'ab unu l'ai~eu
tbe Issue of His unh ersal so\'ereignt~:
THAT GOD created the ellrth for man, made perfect man for
the em'th and placed him upon it; that mall ~'ielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satnn. anu Willfully disohe~'ed Gou's law and was
sentenced to death: thut h~' reason of Adam's wrong act ull men
are born silllwrs and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS WliS lua<le human us the man Jesus und suffert'll death In order to pro<luce the ran"Olll or re<lelllllth'e prit'e for
ohedient men; that God mised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above e\'er~' other creature and clothed him with all
power amI authorit~ as head of Gou's new capital organization;
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL OltGA:\IZATIO:\ is a Theocrllc~' calleu
Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Ol1i('er thereOf and is the
rl~htful Kln~ of the new worhl; that the faithful anointc<l
followers of Christ Jesus are ZIOn's thlillrcn, memhers of .Teho\'lIh's
or':;lI111zution, and are Ilis witnesses who~e duty and /ltll i1t'!:e it
is to testify to Jehovah's SU/lrt'ulUC~' and declare his purposes
towal'li mankind as expressed in the BillIe;
THAT TIl1'~ OLD WOHLD, or SaWn';, uninterrupted rule. ended
A.D. 101-1. and Christ Je..us has been placed b~' ,Tehomh upon the
throne. has ousted Sutun from heal'l'n, ant! now proceeds to
vinrllcate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE HELIEF ami bies~lll;;s of the peoples can cOllie only
by Jeho\'ah's Idn;;dolll und!'r ChriSt. Wilidl has be!:un; that llis
nt'xt great act is to dpstroy ~atan's or!:anlzatlOn an(1 e"talJlIsh
rl~ht('ou~ness eompleteJ~' III the eal'th, unt] that unller the Kill;:,;u\U
the people of ~oo(l," III SI1I'\'I\ In~ AIlIla"et!<Ion II 111 cal ry uut tIle
divine mandate to "fill the eal'th" \\"lIh 1'1<:1Itl>0\1" ot"L:.prlll~, and
that the hl1llJan dead in the gra\'es \\"111 lJe nll~rt! to 0PIlortunltles
ot li:e on earth,
"SETTING THE )lARK"

TESTDlO~Y

PEIUOD

Humane persons interested III the eternal life of people of

good-Will in God's nghtrous new world will II llllt to make an
Illdelib!e mark in their intellect by means of the Kingdom truth.
That is why the month of December has been set aSide as a testimony pel'lod of speewl effort, as mdrcated by the abo\'e-gll'en
nallie. To help in setting the mark upon gOOd-\\'lll foreheads, ab
foretold III Ezekiel, chapter 9, the offer that J ehol'ah's \\"ltnes~~s
will popularize during this closing month of 19.,18 \\'111 be the
lalest book, "Let God Be True," and the booklet Pe/manent
Governor of All NatIOns (or The Joy of All the People) to all
contributors of 35c for the combinatIOn, Every reader of The
WatChtower can actively a"sociate himself With thiS marking
work which leads to our bemg spared by God's executioners
during the oncoming battle of Armageddon, IVe welcome the
co-operation of aU, and assure you of our best sen'ices III helping
to establish your contact with experienced Kingdom publishers,
Your report filled out on thc form supplied by the Society Will
greatly mterest us at the end of December's work.
SAVE

personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower.

Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer
or on library shelves. At the end of each year, in its Deeembel' 15 issue, The Watchtower contains an index of subjects and an
index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in
all the leading articles throughout the year. By saving your copie"
IOUI'

ITS MtS~tO~
HIS journal Is puhlfshed for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jeho\'ah God and his purposes lIS expresst!<1
1 In the Bible. It publishes Bible Iusu'uetlon speeillcally
designed to aill Jeho\"llh's wltnes~s and ulI people of goodwlll.
It uI'rllngt'S s~'stemutie llIble StUd)' for Its reuders anu the ~odety
supplies other literatUre to uid In such studies. It pUhlb,hes
snltable luuterllli for ruulo bl'oudt'l1sting and for other means
of public instruction In the Scriptures.
It a<lheres strictly to the Bible as uuthority for Its utternn<'eS.
It is entire!)' free and separate from all religion, palties, sects or
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It is not dogmatic, but In\'ltes careful anll crlti('al eX11l1linatIOn
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and keeping them in date order you WIll ha\'e an illl'alunble reference library tor consultatIOn m your study of the Bible. Ol'galllzed
('OlllpatlleS should preserve copies in tile liLll<1ry of thclr local
Theotratic ltll1lbtry course school.
"WATCIITowr:n" STUDlr:S

W cek of December 5: "The :JIarringe m Heaven,"

1-7 inclUSive, also "The Wedding m Prophetic Drama
and m neality",
11 1-13 inclusive, Tile Watchtower Kovembcr I, ID-!S,
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and in neality",
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ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

VOL.

LXIX

NOVE:;\IBER 1, 1948

No. 21

THE MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN

"Let us rejoice and be exceedin,fJ glad, and let us gi'l.'e the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and his t.cife hath made herself ready."-Rev. 19: 7, Am. Stan. Ver.
EHOVAH has prepared a great joy for heawn
and earth. It is like the joy that overflows at the
marriage of a dear son to his bride. X 0 creature
can know the depth of joy that Jehovah experiences
when he unites his chief Son, his first born, with the
beloved bride that He promised and provides for
this Son. Yet all in heaven and earth who are the
friends of God and of the marriage principals will
rejoice at the delightsome eyent in heaven.
2 Jehovah
God is himself the "hu:oband" of his
universal organization of faIthful creatures. In Ids
sacred ",Vord he speaks of her as his "woman". Once
this holy organization ,,-as like a wife that seemed
unable to bring forth the son desired. So she ,vas
like a woman cast off from motherhood. But at the
right time her "husband" made her fruitful and told
her to sing for joy. Assuring her he is still her failhful Spouse, God said: "For thy :Jlaker is thy husband; Jehovah of hosts is his name: and the Holy
One of Israel is thy lledeemer; the God of the whole
earth shall he be called. For J eho,-ah lmth called
thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even
a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saitl! thy God."
(Isa. 3-1: 5, G, Am. Stan. Fer.) The fact that Jehovah
is her ":JIaker" shows she is His creation, his uni,-ersal organization of loyal creatures. lIe redeemed
her from her :oeeming barren state when he brought
the promi~ed Son for his purpose forth from her
midst. Her name is "Zion", or "Jerusalem", a name
once borne by a typical organization on earth; and
when Jehovah fructifies her to produce the longawaited Son he rejoices over her as a newly married
man exults over the bride who has now become his
wife. Comfortingly Jehovah says to her: "No more
shall you be named 'Forsaken,' nor your land be
named 'Desolate'; but you shall be called '11y delight
is in her,' and your land '~larried'; for the LOUD
delights in you, and your land shall be married. As a
young man marries a maiden, so shall your Builder
marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his
bride, so shall your God rejoice over you."-Isa.
62: 4, 5, An Amer. TrailS.

1. \\ haT great marl'1age joy does Jeho\ah provide for The umyerse?
:!, 110\\ doe. Jello\ah hlm.elf hold II marrIage relation.hlp?

3 The sublime words of prophecy just quoted do

not apply to some human organization or national
organization, for centuries later an inspired writer
qnoted this prophecy of Isaiah and applied it heavenward, saying: "But Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
llC:'joice, thou barren that barest not; break forth
and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate
hath many more children than she which hath an
husband. ~ow we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
cl1i.ldren of promise. But as then he that was born
after the Oesh [Ishmael by name] persecuted him
that was born after the spirit, even so it is now.
Kevertheless what saith the scripturef Cast out the
lJondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free'"Yoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of
the bondwoman, but of the free."-Gal. 4: 2G-31; Isa.
51: 1 j Gen. 21: 8-10.
It was near the site of ancient Jerusalem that
Abraham, God's friend, proceeded to offer up as a
lilunan sacrifice Isaac, his loved son by his longbarren wife Sarah. (Gen. 22: 1-18) It was under
such circumstances that faithful Abraham acted as
a prophetic picture of Jehovah God the hu::,band,
and Sarah the freewoman served as a picture of
"Jerusalem ,vhich is above". Isaac, the sacrifice, was
used as a picture of God's only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, whom God gave in sacrifice for the ble~sing
of all the nations of good-will. This unselfish Son of
God is the great antitypical Isaac, and all his faithful footstep followers become his brothers, children
of his mother, God's "woman", who is "Jeru:oalelll
which is above" and which is free of all earthly
bondage. It is to these footstep followers, hi~ Christian brethren, that the inspired apostle writes: "N ow
we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise."-Gal. 4: 28, An Amer. Trans.
5 In due time Abraham arranged for a wife to be
bestowed upon his beloved son Isaac. So, too, J ehovah God has arranged for the great antitypical
Isaac, Christ Jesus, to have a wife. As a man on

3, -! ''"hom did Abraham, Rarah and Isaac typIfy?

5, Q, Uow '" Je;us a brldegroom'l Who Is his bride. llDd wbo Is bls frleud?
323

324

mieWATCHTOWER,

earth Jesus died unmarried and childless. Hence the

bride that his heavenly Father provides for him is
not and can not be an earthly woman, and the
promised marriage of him to his "bride" did not take
place when he was on earth. The facts show it must
be and will be a marriage in heaven. Remember that
Jehovah's "woman" is not a woman of flesh and
bl~od, but is his holy organization of devoted servants throughout the universe, over all of whom he
is the Head. Likewise, the wife that he creates for
his beloved Son is an organization, a "new creation",
composed of the faithful number of Jesus' footstep
follo\vers. Fully aware of his heavenly Father's
purpose, Jesus on earth referred to himself as a
bridegJ;oom. In proof it is written: "And the disciples
of John [the Baptist] and of the Pharisees used to
fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the
disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy
disciples fast noU And Jesus said unto them, Can
the children of the bridechamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them 1 As long as they have the
bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the
days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken
away from them, and then shall they fast in those
days:'-~Iark 2: 18-20; :Matt. 9: 14,15; Luke 5: 33-35.
6 John
the Baptist was not one of the abovementioned "children of the bridechamber". He died
before Christ Jesus was taken away in death. John
was like a "friend of the bridegroom" who in Oriental fashion arranges for the bride and brings about
the contract between the parents of the bride and
those of the bridegroom. John was first to speak of
Christ Jesus as a bridegroom, and he shows also that
Christ's bride is the organization of his faithful
footstep followers. John had the extreme pleasure
of being the one to introduce the first of these disciples to Christ Jesus. He was privileged to get them
ready for Christ's first appearance, After he had
acted as a "friend of the bridegroom" and had put

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Christ Jesus in touch with these first disciples, John

said: "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I
am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He
that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend
of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him
[that is, when he talks to his bride], rejoiceth greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled." (John 3: 28, 29) It was not by his
own ingenuity that John spoke of Christ Jesus as a
bridegroom. He was moved to do so by the power
of the holy spirit with which he was filled "even
from his mother's womb". In turning many belieying Israelites to Christ Jesus John was in effect
turning them to Jehovah God, for Christ Jesus was
the Son and Representative of God. (Luke 1: 13-17)
In all this marriage transaction as hereafter described watch how God's spirit works.
7 John's joy was great over having only an initial
part in this matter. But joy will reach its peak at
the consummation of the great marriage in heaven.
Many others are due to jubilate over it, and an
unusual celebration is due to take place then. All
this is described for us symbolically in the last book
of the Bible, in these words by the apostle who saw
the vision : "And I heard as it were the voice of a
great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying,
Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let
us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for
the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath
made herself ready." (Rev. 19: 6,7) The consummation of the marriage is here shown to be in the time
of the kingdom of Jehovah God Almighty. That time,
marked by this joyous event, is here! Let us all
rejoice! You may ask, As this is a marriage in
heaven, just how can I on earth appreciate it to
rejoice at itf Let us, then, make this our study in
the article next below.
i. Wllere and how is the marringe jo)" descnhed' and ,,"hen Is it'

THE WEDDING IN PROPHETIC DRAMA AND IN REALITY

BRAHAM'S son Isaac was a dramatic type of
Christ Jesus, God's only begotten Son. Abraham's line ran through Isaac, and we read:
"Now the promises were made to Abraham and his
line. It does not say, 'and to your lines,' in the plural,
but in the singular, 'and to your line,' that is, Christ."
(Gal. 3: 16, An Amer. T7ans.) This means a blessing
to all nations of good-will. This blessing is certain,
for at the time that Abraham showed complete
willingness to offer up his son Isaac on the altar
as a sacrifice to God, Jehovah's angel from heaven
said to Abraham: "Thy seed shall possess the gate
of his enemies; and in thy seed [line] shall all the

1. Wily should all natIons rejoice at the wedding of Abrallam's Seed'

nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 22: 17, 18)

Since this is true, why should not all nations of
good-will rejoice at the wedding of the anti typical
Isaac, Christ Jesus, in whom they are all des tined
to be blessed? The wedding that was arranged and
consummated for Isaac of old must have furnished
us a drama prophetic of the marriage of Christ
Jesus, the Lamb of God. This doubtless accounts for.
it that Isaac's marital affair is set out in such detail
in the sixty-seven verses of Genesis, chapter twentyfour. Suppose, then, that we now consider this prophetic drama in its main features, as told in Gene~i::
24: 1-67.

.NOVEMBEB 1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

325

: It happened when Abraham was 140 years old.

RIS wife Sarah was dead now for three years. (Gen.
23: 1-20) Also Isaac was a mature man of forty
years. (Gen. 25: 20) Years previous he had offered
himself for sacrifice and was delivered from death
by God's intervention. (Reb. 11: 17-19) I.saac's
mother Sarah was not a picture of :Mary the virgin
mother of Jesus, but was a picture of God's "woman"
Jehovah's universal organization. Sarah"s death doe~
~ot pictur~ that God"s "woman" (or universal organlzah.on) dies or ceases to exist. But when Jesus
attamed manhood and was baptized and the holy
spirit came upon him, God confessed him as hi~
beloved Son. Three and a half years later he laid
down his human life, but God r~ised him from the
dead as a spirit Son. There God's "woman" had
served His particular purpose successfully. She had
brought forth the antitypical Isaac nameiv the Son
of God, Christ Jesus, perfected in 'the spi;it. (Matt.
3: 13-17; 1 Pet. 3: 18; Acts 13: 33) i::ihe had finished
that feature, and now the bride class ,vas due to be
called.
3 In those ancient patriarchal times the father
selected the bride for his son, usinO" a servant or a
~riend to act as the go-between for the two fami1ie~
mvolved. Abraham summoned his oldest slave. Evidently he was Abraham's ste\vard named Eliezer
who would have become heir to all his property if ~
son had not been born t~ Abraham. (Gen. 15: 2.4)
But now Abraham had given all he had to his true
heir Isaac. Th~s fact c?rresponds with the apostle's
\\'ords concermng Chnst .J esus, that "God ... hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, wholl!
he hath appointed heir of all things'.-Gen. 2-:1:: 36;
Heb. 1: 1, 2.
Abraham made his sIan swear by "Jeho'l;nh, the
God of heaven and the God of the earth", that he
would not take a wife for his son Isaac from the
daughters of the Canaanites among whom he had
been dwelling for sixty-five years. He and Isaac
were descended from Xoah's son Shem, but those
Canaanite daughters were descended from Xoah's
grandson Canaan and hence they were under a curse
and condemned to he servants of Abraham's family.
After the Flood, when Koah had been treated di;.
respectfully by his son Ham, he prophesied of Ham's
son Canaan, saying: "Cursed be Canaan: a senant
of seiTants shall he be unto his brethren. : .. Blessed
be Jehovah, the God of Shem: and let Canaan be his
~ervant. God enlarge J apheth, and let him dwell in
the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."
(Gen. 9:20-27, Am.Stan.Ver.) :Moreover those
9anaanites worshiped devils and were given'over to
Idolatry and other unclean practices, and they could
contaminate a worshiper of Jehovah God or make

great difficulties for him. So Abraham strictly forbade yoking his son Isaac up unequally with a
pagan worshiper of false gods.-2 Cor. 6: 14, 15.
6 Abraham wisely sought to marry his son to someone that was of the faith in the true and living God,
Jehovah. Shem's descendants, represented in the
families of Abraham's brothers Haran and Nahor
then living in northern Mesopotamia, were the ones
still holding on to faith in Jehovah. Abraham thus
set up a precedent for the rule stated by the apostle
Paul, for believers to marry "only in the Lord".
(1 Cor. 7: 39) Furthermore, the bride for Isaac must
be willing to travel from her land and her parent's
household to Isaac in the Promised Land. So Abraham's steward was distinctly charged not to bring
Isaac to the land from which Abraham had come out
at God's command, in order to procure Isaac's bride.
If no woman from Abraham's relationship up north
would come away to the Promised Land to join
Isaac as his wife, then Abraham's servant would be
clear of his oath.-Gen. 24: 1-9; 12: 1-7; 15: 18-20.
6 This fits the fact that Jehovah God arrano-ed for
the bride of his Son Jesus Christ to be mad~ up of
those who believe in him and consecrate themselves
wholly to his worship. Christ Jesus, the an titypical
Isaac, was forbidden to become a part of this world
in order to get followers, but he must look for his
company of followers from among those who worshiped the same God. Therefore Jehovah sent him to
earth, not to the Gentile nations of devil-worshipers
but to the Jewish nation. These were natural deseend~
ants of Abraham through his son Isaac and pro
fe,,::ed to worship Jehovah God. To prepare a class
among these in advance of Jesus' public appearance
to the Je"dsh nation, God the Father sent ahead
.J ohn the Baptist, and for the next seven veal'S the
offer ,,'as held out exclusively to the J ewi~h nation
to become members of the bride of God's Son.
7 As in the case of Isaac's bride, the bride of Cll rist
must agree to forsake this world and all human
relationships in order to join Christ Jesus in the
spiritual estate pictured by the Promised Land.
Incidentally this shows that when Christ Jesus
comes to claim his bride he does not come again into
this world in the flesh as he did at his first advent
but his bride class must leave the flesh underrro
change, and become spiritual and ente~ the s~irit
realm. The bride class knows Christ after the flesh
no more. As we read: "Know ye not that he which
is joined to an harlot is one body f for two, saith he,
shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is ONE SPffiIT." (1 Cor. 6: 16, 17) Thus in a most
complete sense the bride class forsake worldly and
fleshly relationships.

2 Whom did Sarah picture, and so what did her death picture?
3, 4. To what dId Abraham malte E1lezer hwenr, and why bO';

5, 6 To whom was Eliezer sent to procure Isaac's wife and why?

7 What must Christ's bride forsake, and wby and how?'

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8 Fully pledged to
obedient action, Abraham's
servant got on his way: "and the servant took ten
camels, of the camels of his master, and departed,
having all goodly things of his master's in his hand
[or, for all the goods of his master were in his
hand] : and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto
the city of Nahor." He, of course, had other men
along vdth him on the caravan journey. (Gen. 24: 10,
32, .A.m. Sta.n. TT er.) As it appears that Abraham was
at that time living at or near Beer-sheba in the south
of Palestine, this journey was one of more than five
hundred miles through much dangerous country.
Here the question is asked, 'Whom or what does this
servant, Eliezer presumably, picture'
9 He does not represent the holy a~gels, for Abraham told him Jehovah would send his angel before
the servant, thus denoting that Jehovah's angelic
company co-operate with what Abraham's servant
pictures. The part that the servant play's matches
well with the operation of Jehovah's holy spirit or
active force. And if the servant was, in fact, Eliezer,
then his name means "God is help", and it means that
God uses the holy spirit to help in the securing of
the bride class for the antitypical Isaac. True to fact,
God has sent his spirit to the bride class, and it continues with them till they are united with their
Bridegroom Christ Jesus. The angels co-operate
with this active force of God: "Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Eeb. 1: 14) The
"ten camels" represent the perfect or complete "Yord
of God, by which God extends the invitation and imparts much of his holy spirit and other spiritual
gifts.
10 Outside the city of Nahal', at a well, Eliezer
asked for a sign to indicate Jehovah was directing
his course and also to speed up the selecting of a
bride suitable for Isaac. Eliezer prayed in his heart.
(Gen. 24: 11-14,42-45) He showed he was a man of
good-will toward Abraham's God. As a male member
of Abraham's household he was circumcised the
same as Abraham and Isaac and thus was consecrated to Jehovah God. In these respects he was a
suitable picture of the holy spirit that serves God's
purposes. "And it came to pass, before he had done
speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was
born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahal',
Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a
virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went
down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came
up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Give
me to drink, I pray thee, a little water from thy
pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord: and she
hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and

8, 9, On the journey what do Ellezer and the camels picture?

1U. For what ai!!=n did Eliezer pray, and how did Rebekah tuUm it?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

gave him drink. And when sbe had done giving him
drink, she said, I will draw for thy camels also, until
they have done drinking. And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto
the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. And the
man looked stedfastly on her, holding his peace, to
know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not:' (Gen. 24: 15-21, Am. Sta.n. Ver.)
Rebekah's conduct met the details of the sign for
which Eliezer had asked.
RESPONDING TO THE SPIRIT

Eliezer served Abraham, to whom Jehovah had

promised: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed." Fittingly, Rebekah kindly ministered to Abraham's servant and men and camels,
and this depicted that those who respond to God's
invitation to become the bride of his Seed entertain
favorably the great Abrahamic promise concerning
the Seed. They do not resist God's holy spirit, as the
rebellious Jews did who rejected Christ Jesus and
his apostles. No, they are willing to be at the service
of his spirit, desiring that it may rest upon them and
operate through them. They lovingly consider the
\Yord of God which bears much of his spirit to them.
They take an interest in his written "Vord, serving
it and freshening it up by attending upon it and displaying a sincere concern for its message and purpose, seeking to believe it. Thereby they show the
qualities to be desired in members of the bride of
Christ. At the time that Rebekah served cool wellwater to this servant of the Abrahamic promise,
Abraham's son Isaac had already been upon the
altar of sacrifice and had been raised up from it
alive. Hence what here takes place pictures more
particularly what occurs after the death of Christ
Jesus and his resurrection from death and his ascension into heaven to appear in the presence of God
his Father. From then till Pentecost, ten days later,
his faithful disciples waited in Jerusalem to receive
the holy spirit. Their receiving it and being begotten
by it to spiritual life would mean the invitation to
them and their betrothal to become the bride of
Christ J esus.-Luke 24: 45-52.
12 Eliezer asked if he might be entertained at
Rebekah's parent's home, and at his request Hebekah
identified herself to him as a grandniece of his
master Abraham. At this evidence of divine guidance in this matter, Eliezer worshiped Jehovah God
and blessed him. Then in appreciation of Rebekah's
willing ministry to him and his caravan at the well
he adorned her with two heavy gold bracelets and
a golden nose ring. (Gen. 24: 22-27,45-48, Am. Stan.
Ver.) This pictures that on the feastday of Pentecost the first members of the bride of Christ began
11

11. Wh'lt does Rebekah's ministry to Ellezer and his camels picture?
12. What do Rebekah's identification and giving ber gifts picture?

NOVEMBER

~eWATCHTOWER.

1, 1948

to be identified by the imparting of God's holy spirit

and its gifts, which adorn their appearance in this
world. On that day, when the holy spirit descended
upon them, the faithful apostles and disciples of the
Bridegroom began to be begotten of God's spirit to
become his spiritual children. In that way they
became true spiritual relatives of Christ Jesus and
hence as such they could be invited and betrothed
to him as the Bridegroom. They became new creatures, for whom all old things have passed away and
who no longer know Christ Jesus as a fleshly creature such as he was when on earth. (2 Cor. 5: 16, 17)
Being now begotten of water (the truth of God's
Word) and of the spirit, they could see and enter
into the kingdom of God, which flesh and blood cannot inherit. (John 3: 3, 5; 1 Cor. 15: 50) They say
regarding God their Father: "Of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth, that we should be a
kind of firstfruits of his creatures."-Jas. 1: 18.
BETROTHAL

At Rebekah's 11Ome, before ever he would take

any of the food they set before him, Eliezer insisted
on explaining his errand and determining whether
it would succeed at her home or not. It seems that
Rebekah's father Bethuel was dead, and that her
brother Laban and a younger brother named Bethuel
handled for her. (Gen. 24: 28, 50, 55; Josephus'
Antiquities, Book 1, chapter 16, 'f 2) Having told
his mission, Eliezer concluded: "And now if ye will
deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and
if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand,
or to the left." "Then Laban and Bethuel answered
and said, The thing proceedeth from Jehovah: we
cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah
is before thee, take her. and go, and let her be thy
master's son's wife, as Jehovah hath spoken.... And
the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels
of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he
gave also to her brother and to her mother precious
things." (Gen. 24: 49-53, Am. Stan. V er.) That transaction con::,tituted the betrothal of Rebekah to haac.
She was in effect his wife from then on, as far as
obligations to be pure and faithful were concerned.
The jewels of gold and silver and the raiment that
Eliezer gave her were a foretaste of the coming
marriage with Isaac. On the other hand, the precious
things given her brother Laban and her mother were
a dowry -in payment for the bride. From then on
Rebekah belonged to Isaac, who bought her through
his father's servant Eliezer.
14 It was at Calvary that the antitypical Isaac,
Jesus Christ, laid his life down for his "little flock"
of sheep who make up the bride class. "The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep," but first of
18

13. How wa. the betrothlDg of Rebekah brought about?

H, 1;;. How doe. ChrIst's bride get bought nnd keep her

V1rg1Dlt~?

327

all for the "sheep" to whom he says: "Fear not, little

flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom." (John 10: 11; Luke 12: 32) 'When
he ascended to heaven and appeared in God's presence for these he paid over the price for them. He
redeemed them from the earth, or from among those
of mankind who will be saved, just as Rebekah was
purchased from the land of Mesopotamia and from
her parent's household for Isaac in the Promised
Land. To compare with the virginity of Rebekah,
these keep themselves from defilement with this
world, not violating the intended relationship ,vith
Christ and not creating ties of bondage to this
world. They do not let this world use them according
to its pleasure, but recognize the fact: "Ye are
bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men."
(1 Cor. 7: 23; 6: 19, 20) When completed the bride
class will be the full number that Jehovah God foreordained, namely, 144,000, respecting whom we read:
"The hundred and forty and four thousand, which
were redeemed from the earth. These are they which
were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among
men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."
-Rev. 14: 1, 3,4.
15 That the bride is a company, of virgin purity
and devotion toward their beloved spouse, is further
illustrated in the Bridegroom J eSl1s' parable in
which the remnant of them on earth at the end of
this world are "likened unto ten virgins, which took
their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom".
-:Matt. 25: 1.
16 At Pentecost of A.D. 33 was really when the
betrothal of the bride class to Christ began. Then
the faithful footstep followers of the Lamb of God
could really be invited or called to the Bridegroom
who is heavenly and spiritual. Why T Decause God
then sent his holy spirit down upon them and begot
them to be his spiritual children with a heavenly
inheritance. Now they were in the same condition
that Jesus was after he was baptized and the holy
spirit came upon him and God's voice from heayen
was heard to say: "This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased." They were each a "new creation",
and the marriage of the heavenly Bridegroom and
his bride is one of new creatures. The imparting of
the spirit from Pentecost forward with its varied
manifestations in the form of miraculous gifts was
a foretaste of the coming marriage estate in heaven,
to compare with the gifts bestowed by Eliezer upon
Rebekah.
17 The gift of the spirit was an assurance that God
has accepted the merit of Jesus' ransom sacrifice
and that they were bought with it and belonged to
16, 17, Wilen did her betrothal really take plnce, and how?

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N. Y.

the Bridegroom. It was a mark or authentic sign

that they had been espoused or betrothed to Christ
in heaven. (Eph. 1: 13, 14) The Bridegroom himself
was used to give this spirit of betrothal, as the apostle Peter said on that very day of Pentecost: "This
Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted,
and having received of the Father the promise of
the holy spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye
see and hear." (Acts 2: 32, 33, Am. Stan. Fer.) This
spirit was to abide with them for the full time of
their betrothal to Christ until the marriage is consummated.-John 14: 16, 17.
18 Thus we discern how Eliezer well represented
the holy spirit and the service it renders. Certainly
the betrothal of a Christian to the heavenly Bridegroom is not by any man, such as a religiou~ clergyman. It is by God and by means of his holy spirit
which he sends forth. However, just as Eliezer was
a human creature, so, too, human creatures can be
and have been used in connection with the betrothal
of consecrated believers to Christ. The apostle Peter,
after he himself and his more than a hundred fellow
believers were espoused to Christ by the holy spirit
at Pentecost, was used in behalf of the betrothal of
thousands of others that later believed that same
day and that were baptized. "And Peter said unto
them, Repent ye, and be baptized everyone of )ou
in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of
your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the holy
spirit." (Acts 2: 38, Am. Stan. Fer.) Peters fellow
apostles were also used thus that day and after. This
was particularly so, because through the laying on
of the hands of all these apostles the gift of the holy
spirit was besto\ved upon the baptized believers.
-Acts 2: 41-43; 8: 14-19.
19 The apostle Paul speaks of himself as taldng
part in the work of betrothing Chrbtians to the
heaYenly Bridegroom. Defending his jealous care
over those at Corinth, Greece, he said: "I am jealous
over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you
to one husband, that I might present you as a pure
virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the
serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds
should be corrupted from the simplicity and the
purity that is toward Christ." (2 Cor. 11: 2, 3, Am.
S tan. V er.) He was anxious that they continue in
their virgin purity to one husband, keeping their
ties boly toward him, that they might prove worthy
of finally being joined with him in marriage. Paul
was no less jealous for these Christians whom he
speaks of as betrothing than Eliezer was over
Rebekah after betrothing her to Isaac.
20 Paul was speaking, not strictly to Jewish believers, but also to Gentile believers of Corinth, of whom

Respecting those of the bride of Christ it is

written: "These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth." Did Rebekah faithfully
dramatize that feature about them! Yes. The morning after her betrothal Eliezer asked to be let go
at once to his master hundreds of miles away. When
her brother and mother wanted to keep her for at
least ten days longer, Eliezer said: "Hinder me not,
seeing J eho~ah hath prospered my way; send me
away that I may go to my master." Then her brother
and mother decided to submit the matter to Rebekah's decision. "And they called Rebekah, and said
unto her, 'Wilt thou go with this man [that is, immediately] ~ And she said, I will go." (Gen. 24: 54-58,
Am. Stan. Ver.) Like Eliezer, Rebekah recognized
Jehovah's hand in the matter, and she would not try
to delav or interfere with the divine will. She added
to her "beauty of form and feature by setting her
affections on her future husband, whom she had
never seen, being willing fo go at once to him far
from home ties and associations. Possibly the psalmist had her in mind when he penned the beautiful
words of Psalm 45: 10, 11 about the bride of the
King Christ Jesus. Those who prove worthy of
marriage with the heavenly Bridegroom exercise
faith and follow the leadings of God's holy spirit and
promptly seek to go to him. How f By bending all
their efforts to get ready for his Son, who promised
to come at an undisclosed day and hour and receh'e
them to himself as his bride. They redeem the time
by faithfully following his example on earth and
seeking to be his suitable companion.
22 The prophetic drama moves forward as we read

18, l!l. How were men used In conncction With her betrothal?
20. Wh' make up tile betrot bed ones? Wilen do tbe remnant appear?

21. Iu lIer deciSIon to go to Isaac wbat did llebeJ<ah picture?

22, Wby was tbe blos"lOg pronounced upon Hebckab ,'cry fitting?

he baptized a few. This was about twenty years after

God had sent the apostle Peter to the home of the
Gentile Cornelius and had poured out his holy spirit
through Christ upon the first Gentile believers, thus
calling or inviting Gentile believers to become members of the bride of Christ. (Acts 10: 1-48) Hence
those who are called to become "the Lamb's wife"
are not exclusively Jewish but are in large number
Gentile in extraction. Paul could speak of espousing
these consecrated ones at Corinth, not just because
he had first preached the gospel truth to them and
founded their congregation, but also because he, as
an apostle, had been used to transmit the holy spirit
of espousal to them. (Acts 18: 1 to 19: 7; 2 Cor.
12: 12) At this end of the world God promised to
espouse the remnant of the bride class to his Son
by the instrumentality of the holy spirit. (Joel
2: 28, 29; Acts 2: 16-18) They become the remnant
of the seed of God's "woman", from and after
A.D. 1918, as the facts show.-Rev. 12: 17.
ON THE WAY TO MEET THE BRIDEGROOM
21

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1ffieWATCHTOWER

329

its script: "And they sent away Rebekah their sister,

and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our
sister, be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let thy seed possess the gate of those that
hate them." (Gen. 24: 59, 60, Am. Stan. Fe?'.) This
blessing was fitting for the wife of Isaac, for it
agreed with God's promise to Abraham when Isaac
yielded himself up for sacrifice: "By myself have I
sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,
that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens,
and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
(Gen. 22: 16-18, Am. Stan. Ver.) That was said typically concerning Sarah's seed Isaac. But now Sarah
was dead, and so Rebekah was accounted worthy to
have the divine promise renewed to her as an ancestor of Christ, the great Seed, in whom all nations of
good-will should be blessed. At the coming universal
war of Armageddon Christ Jesus the Seed will conquer the strongholds of all his enemies and will
destroy them. And his beloved bride \vill share the
victory with him.-Rev. 17: 14, Am. Stan. Ver.
n The script of the prophetic drama next says:
"And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode
upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way." (Gen. 24: 61)
The journey before them being more than 500 miles,
it must have taken a number of days by the use of
camels as transportation. In the Near East swift
camels are able to run from eight to ten miles an
hour, and to keep this up for eighteen hours of a
day, thus covering at the best estimate 180 miles a
day. But with the women along, it is hardly likely
that Eliezer and his men drove the camels that hard
each day, so that the return trip consumed a considerable number of days. On this basis the time of
Hebekah's betrothal to Isaac ran from the day of
her meeting Eliezer and through the days of her
journey to Isaac, a journey which the conditions of
those days made very perilous. Jehovah, who sent
his angel ahead of Eliezer on his search for Rebekah,
now sent him on the return journey to deliver the
espoused virgin to her husband.
24 The bride of Christ is a composite one, the members of which began to be called and made ready over
nineteen centuries ago. So, the time of her betrothal
has extended over all these hundreds of years. Her
journey to meet the heavenly Bridegroom has been
under the guidance of the spirit of God and attended by his angels. It has been, indeed, a perilous
one through this wicked world, with Satan and all

his wicked demons opposed to the marriage. By

A.D. 1918 the majority of the members of the bride
class had finished their earthly course and "fallen
asleep", to "sleep in Jesus". They waited for his
coming to rouse them from the sleep of death and
to unite them with himself in heavenly wedlock.
-1 Thess. 4: 13-17.
25 The second coming of the antitypical Isaac, the
Bridegroom, is portrayed in the ancient prophetic
drama, as follows: "Now Isaac had come in at the
entrance, of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was dwelling in
the land of the South [or, the Negeb]: and Isaac
came forth to meditate in the field at the approach
of evening,-so he lifted up his eyes and looked,
and lo! camels coming in." (Gen. 24: 62, 63, Rotherham; An Amer. Trans.) For God's ancient people
the new day began at evening, or sunset, and hence
Isaac's strolling out into the field at evening's
approach points to the time of the antitypical fulfillment, namely, the time just preceding the thousand-year reign of Christ. "One day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day." (2 Pet. 3: 8) It is therefore the time running
from A.D. 1914, when Jehovah God enthroned Christ
Jesus to rule amidst his enemies, down to the battle
of Armageddon, where Christ Jesus destroys all
those enemies. After that he rules for a thousand
years for the reconstruction of mankind of goodwill. Previous articles in The Watchtower have
explained how Christ Jesus came to the spiritual
temple A.D. 1918 and 'judgment began at the house
of God'. (Mal. 3: 1; 1 Pet. 4: 17) It was then that he
awakened the faithful sleeping members of his bride
class and they were changed. They were "raised a
spiritual body" to be united with their Bridegroom
at the temple. Thus the marriage in heaven began
for the Lamb and his bride. (1 Cor. 15: 44, 51-54)
But a remnant of the bride class still remains on
earth to make ready for union with him to complete
the marriage.
26 In the light of the prophetic Scriptures made
understandable by the holy spirit the anointed remnant of Jehovah's witnesses discern that the B ridegroom has come to the temple for judgment work
and for the dealing out of the rewards to his faithful
followers. To correspond with this we read: "And
Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and saw Isaac,-so she
alighted with haste [literally, fell] from off the
camel; and said unto the servant, Who is this man
that is walking in the field to meet us 1 And the servant said, That is my lord. So she took the veil,
and covered herself." (Gen. 24: 64, 65, Rotherham,
margin) With this meeting the marriage of Isaac
and Rebekah began taking place. We note the
absence of any priest or religious clergyman to

23, 2.1. Ho\\' long \\,us l\ebckah's betrothal, and wbat does it picture?

:W.

25. How was Christ'. comln!; for his bride pictured lind fulfilled'
~7. On .epmg l"lilic what did Hebeklib do, lind to plclllle \\hat'

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SheWATCHTOWER.

carryon a man-made ceremony and to validate the

marriage, the same as with the marriage of Adam
and Eve in Eden. But doubtless the uniting of the
two was registered or entered into the legal documents of the times. ~Iost certainly it is registered at
great length in the Holy Bible, and thus honorably
publicized for all to know. The veil with which
Rebekah then covered herself enveloped her whole
person. It does not correspond with the veil or
curtain that hung in the temple and which was rent
in two when Jesus died. (Luke 23:44-46; Heb.
9: 3-8) Rebekah's veil was a sign of her husband's
authority over her. Veiling herself thus showed she
completely submitted herself to the headship of
Isaac us her accepted husband.-1 COl'. 11: 9, 10,
Am. Stan. Fer.
27 Such a veil later concealed Leah's identity at
the time of her marriage to haac's son Jacob, vnd
a veil hid Tamar's identitv when Jacob's son Judah
had marriage relations \~ith her. (Gen. 29: 21-25;
38: 13-18) Xot with a literal veil, but by faithful
obedience to Christ's example and his commandments, the remnant of his bride class today submit
themselves to him as their beloved Bridegroom,
whom they discern to be present at the temple.
NURSE DEBORAH AND THE DAMSELS
28 Eliezer identified Isaac to
Rebekah with the
words, "That is my lord." This corresponds with the
thrilling cry in Jesus' parable of the virgins at the
end of the world: "Dehold, the bridegroom cometh;
go ye out to meet him." (Matt. 25: 6) Rebekah's
veiling herself and approaching Isaac has a parallel.
It is when Ole wise virgins, the remnant of the bride
cla~s, respond to the awakening cry and go forth
\yith lighted lamps to meet the Bridegroom and to
enter in with him to the marriage. Since A.D. 1918
this movement has been proceeding, and it is a
time of joy and happy anticipation for the bridal
remnant.
29 DoubtlesR as the virgin Rebekah, beneath her
veil, drew neal' to her espoused bridegroom, Isaac,
she was not alone. Her nurse Deborah and the
dam~els, who had attended her on all the long journey from her parent's home to Isaac's presence,
now follo\yed in her train. They added dignity to
the occasion, as Eliezer led Rebekah to her lord and
head. "And the servant told Isaac all things that he
had done." (Gen. 24: 66) It is now easy to recognize
in the nurse and damsels in Rebekah's train another
delightful picture of the Good Shepherd's "other
sheep", the people of good-will whom he is now
joyfully gathering to the fold of divine security in
company with the remnant of his "little flock'? of
Kingdom sheep.

2,. Wh.lt 'lid Ellezer's ldentlfYlnp; of Isaac to Rebekah picture?

2U. :In. (a I How (hd RelJekah appr<lach Isaac? (b) Whom dId ber
d.UlI~el. pIcture, and what did their Journey "'th her foreshadow?

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

80 The damsel bridesmaids, of course, outnumbered

the bride Rebekah, and nicely pictured the "great
multitude" of good-will people who were previsioned
to the apostle John, at Revelation 7: 9-17. They
already outnumber the 144,000 anointed Christians
who are rewarded with membership in the heavenly
bride class. They are the same as those pictured
by the virgin companions appearing in Psalm 43,
which describes the marriage of Christ Jesus in
kingdom power since A.D. 1914 to his bride class:
"The king's daughter is all glorious within: her
clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought
unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins
her companions that follow her shall be brought unto
thee. 'With gladness and rejoicing shall they be
brought: they shall enter into the king's palace."
(Ps. 45: 13-15) The facts show that since 1918 this
virgin-companion class has been accompanyin~ the
remnant of the bride class as these go forth to meet
the Bridegroom. They have lovingly and courageously shared all the hard experiences and faced the
same foes and perils together with the remnant. For
their loyal attachment to the King's interests this
virgin-companion class will be spared through the
fight at Armageddon. After that victorious fight he
will become "the Everlasting Father" to humankind,
and they will become his prized children, with hope
of eternal life on a paradise earth.
31 As for Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, this respected
woman was older than Rebekah and ministered to
her to prepare her for the marriage and her wifely
duties. Anciently nurses held an honored position.
(Gen. 24 : 59 ; 35 : 8; 2 Sam. 4: 4; 2 Ki. 11 : 2) Debo 1'0. h
therefore appears to picture persons of good-will
toward Christ, but those of such who preceded his
death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, namely,
the faithful ones from Abel to John the Daptist.
(Heb. 11: 1-40) :Many of these ancient persons as
prophets performed a ministry which proved to be
in behalf of Christ's bride class. (1 Pet. 1: 10-12) A
number of these were earthly forefathers of Jesus.
Many of this class will be made "princes in all the
earth" as visible representatives of Christ Jesus
among mankind during his thousand-year reign after
Armageddon. By being resurrected from the grave
due to the virtue of His ransom sacrifice these also
will become his earthly children. As the prophecy
of the King's wedding says: "Instead of thy fathers
shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make
princes in all the earth." (Ps. 45: 16) Deborah's
presence at Rebekah's marriage suggests that tho:"e
who will be made princes in all the earth will be
resurrected from death and be brought in personal
contact with the remnant of the bride class before

31. What did nurse Deborah and her part at the weddlDl; plctUle?

NOVEMBER

1, 1948

these finish their life

Jesus in heaven.

2fieWATCHTOWER..

Why should not all persons of good-will toward

a bridegroom and bride be unusually glad at the time
of their union f So, with gladness and rejoicing the
antitypical damsels of Rebekah, the virgin companions, are brought into company with the bridal remnant. Unquestionably they are included in the "great
multitude" reported at Revelation 19: 6-9, whose
voice is heard saying: "Alleluia: for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is
come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to
her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Jehovah took power and began
reigning toward our earth A.D. 1914, but this "great
multitude" have raised their Hallelujah song only
since A.D. 1918, by which time the war in heaven
had been won by Jehovah's Bridegroom Son and
Satan the ruler of Babvlon had been cast out of
heaven. Then the Son cai'ne to the temple and began
pronouncing judgment upon Satan's system of
organized religion, Babylon the Great, the mother
of harlots. (Rev. 12:7-13; 17:1-5; 19:1-3) The
expose of this harlotrous system of organized religion with forehead bare and under no veil of virgin
subjection to Christ as King, and also the judgments
upon her, stand in awful contrast with the joy that
now comes to the Lamb's wife.-Rev. 19: 7; 21: 9.
33 The "fine linen, clean and white", which the bride
class is now rermitted to wear, pictures, not their
justification from sin by Christ's blood, but the
"righteous acts of the saints", or "upright deeds of
God's people". (Rev. 19: S, Am. Stan. Ver. and An
Amer. Trans.) 'What are these approved acts and
deeds? They now consist of the remnant's privilege
of acting as ambassadors for Christ the King and
preaching "this gospel of the kingdom in all the
world for a witness unto all nations" before the end
of this world comes at Armageddon. With such a
mark of divine approval upon them the remnant are
clothed with a "robe of righteousness", and they
faithfully perform their acts and deeds until the

end. (2 Cor. 5: 20; Matt. 24: 14; Isa. 61: 10) In

virgin purity they continue true and obe~ient to
their Bridegroom that they may "know 111m, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death j if by any means [they] might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead", and thus appear in his
heavenly presence.-Phil. 3: 10, 1I.
a. John concludes the marriage account with the
words: "And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are
they which are called unto the marriage supper of
the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the
true sayings of God." (Rev. 19: 9) The ones thus
"blessed" are sho\'m in Jesus' parables of the supper,
at Matthew 22: 1-14 and Luke 14: 15-24, in which
those invited to the supper are the ones \vho are
invited to become members of the bride of the King's
Son, Christ. Not only are these called or invited,
but thev are unspeakably blessed in finally being
chosen 'as worthy of bridehood with Christ. The
faithful remnant on earth now enjoy a foretaste of
this heavenly blessedness by anticipation, by the
"earnest of the spirit".
3$ The successful union of Bridegroom and bride
is pictured for us in the prophetic drama: "And
Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mol her;
thus he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, und
he loved her,-and Isaac consoled himself for tllr
loss of his mother." (Gen. 24: 67, Rotlzerham) This
scene calls up Paul's sublime words describing when
Christ Jesus presents himself with his complete
bridal company in heaven before his Father, saying:
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church. and gave himself for it; that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, that he might pre.sent it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing j but that it should be holy and
without blemish." (Eph. 5: 25-27) As servants of
Isaac's beloved wife Rebekah, her nurse and her
damsels became in effect the honored servants of
Isaac, Abraham's son. And in pleasing similarity the
damsel class of good-will of today and the coming
"princes in all the earth" will become the honored
servants on earth of Jehovah's wedded Son, Christ
Jesus the King.

32. Whom do those rejoicing o\"er the nUll rla!'c include? Since w!,en?
33 With \\ hat is it granted to the brIde to be nrra~ ed, and llow I

34. Hvw are the ones called to the marriage supper bIe"sed ones?
3;;. What does the successful union of Isaac and Rebekah Illctu, e '

III

the flesh and join Christ

331

''LET US BE GLAD"

az

1948 DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES

0!lIETHING new-district assemblies for 1948! In the
closing speech of the Pacific Coast convention of Jehovah's
witnesses held at Los Angeles, Californla, in August, 1947,
N. H. Knorr, president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract
Society, stirred his vast audience to loud applause by announcing
the new thing. During the followmg year district assemblies would

be arranged for in the United States and Canada and throughout

all the world and he ,vould try to attend the six district a~sem
blies in the United States, the four that would be arranged in
Canada and the one in Alaska. The Society's Branch officcs in
the yar;ous parts of the earth were to arrangc district assembhcs
to acco=odate Jehovah's witnesses in thelr respective placc~.

332

~eWATCHTOWER

This announcement gave the brethren plenty of notice as to

the assembly arrangements for 1948. Expectancy ran high as
March 12 approached, for that was the date for the opening
of the first district assembly in the United Statcs, to be held
at Atlanta, Georgia. AIl puhlishers in the United States had their
eyes on this gathering. While they would not all attend, knowing
it was for U. S. District No.2, they were wondering what it
would be like and what the certain hlessings would be that Jehovah
would bring to His servants, faithfully assembled at this time.
Kingdom publishers from Florida to Virginia and from the
Atlantic seaboard to "Western Kentuch-y and Tennessee duly came
to Atlanta for their district assembly on March 12-14.
The fine Municipal Auditorium of the city was used, but by
the close of the assembly it proved to be too small. All of J ehoyah's witnesses who came were fully satisfied because their feeling
of anticipation was soon replaced with that of pleasant satisfaction as each succeedmg feature of the program was presented.
The talks and demonstratIOns as planned met the problems of
the publtshers in that particular part of the country. Because
all the advice given in the di~courses was 50 practical, it made
the hearts of the hearers swell with appreciation to Jehovah.
Such helpful instructions coming from the Lord's table must
not be wasted. Thev must use these instructions. So notebooks
were quickly put t~ use, and during the entire llssembly you
could see the brethren writing down suggestions, ready to take
them home and put them into practice and to help the brethren
not in attendance to get thcse same ideas. The publishcrs of the
assembly got II better appreciatIOn of what it meant for a ChriStian to love his brother and how he could assist his brother in
carrying out his covenant relationship with God. They learned,
too, how very much mterested the Society was in every one of
the publishers and how it came to the aid of thc publisher in
helping him in his ministry. Thcy saw clearly how thcy were part
of a great world-wide organizatlUn that God is sending forth to
preach this gospel in all thc world and that this preachlllg dcpends
on thc individual. They baw, too, that they were sent to do
this work.
The brethren were shown that our modern civilization could
be a real handicap to the mmlstry If we allowed It to be Hence
the splendid instruction of Christ Jesus and tile apostles was set
along<;ide the actual thmgs that e::-ast m our lives today. Our
problems today must be tackled in a practical manner. There
must not bc just theory; wc must follow thc plam, truc statements
set out in God's "'ord and try to make our lives fit m Wlth
those words.
In Di,trlct ~o. 2, which 10 m the southern part of the Umtcd
Stutes, they have color or raCial problems that do not face Kiugdom publishers in other places. AuditOriums and halls will not
be rented if mIxed audiences endeavor to meet together. However,
this dl\lsive force which splits the old world hopelessly did not
cause any lack of unity at thiS distrIct asscmbly of Jehovah's
witnesses. True, in order to rent the Auditorium we had to
conform with the rulings to ha\'e the willte and colored brethren
sit 1ll different parts of the hall. But as to divisIOn' No. One
had but to watch the assembled audlCnce, They smiled togcther,
laughed together, applaudcd at the same timc, sang in umson
and with equal fervor. They were united by the bond of truth
and appreelation for the proviSIOns of Jehovah. They were um ted
as one people in their deSire to laud the name of their Creator
and to make known to all men of good-will the Kingdom which
will completely remove such divisive forces, and this they did
with good effect in the city of Atlanta.
The problems of pioneer mimstry were also dealt 'with by the
president of the Society and other speakers. Many from the dIStrict sent in their pioneer applications immediately following the
assembly. This evidenced that those in pOSition to do 50 had
already begun to apply the instructions and admonition given,

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

With many of their questions answered and a practical plan of

operation outlined for them, these ministers had seen the pIOneer
ministry become, not a hope for the distant future, but a treasured
reality. Without question, the practical instruction gIven on the
field ministry proved to be a real benefit to the entire distriCt.
Undoubtedly this contributed toward the new peaks of puhllsher,
subsequently reached in the United States country-wide.
Sunday morning 73 were baptized in water. The Sunday after
noon public meeting was well advertised by all the Kmgdom
publishers at the Atlanta assembly. The president's talk. "The
Kingdom Hope of All Mankind," was heard by 6,665 person~
in three different auditoriums. You see, the main auditorium Wll'
packed out and two overflow rooms had to be used.
All too quickly this first district assembly came to n clo"l'
Not alone Jehovah's witnesses had benefited. Citizens of Atlantll
attended many of the sessions, especially the public meetmg on
Sunday, and they were delighted. They had also opened theu
homes to the witnesses and now extended invitations for return
visits. After the eonvention these were taken Cllre of by the local
company. Tbis first district assembly was not "just another convention". As so many expressed themselves, there was somethmg'
different about it. The program was disereetly planned, the Witnesses were satisfied and refreshed, and they were able to return
to their territories, whether elty or rural hamlet or isolated farlU.
hetter equipped and determined to be ministers to Jeho\ah as
long as He would have this witnessing earried on. Yes, it e:o;celled
a circuit as~embly. Not as large or lIS long a~ thc general conventIOns, but it was rich with food convenient for those who love
to sit at the Lord's table. This assembly, then, set the pattern
to be followed at the subsequent district assemhlies to be held
in the United States.
On the following day, Monday, March 15, all of the cil'C\llt
servants, district servants and the brethren wbo attended the
assembly from the Brooklyn office met with Brother Knorr at
a special meeting. From 8 o'clock in the morning untIl 6 III
the evening, with an hour out for lunch, the brethren di,cussed
the qucstions of the South. It was a free, open diSCUSSIOn. Beforehand the brethren had turned in questions thcy wanted answered,
Tbese were propounded and everyone was allowed to express
lllmself and comment was made by the preSident of the SoelelY
The practical side of Organizatton I nstructwlls was thO! oug-hly
gone into, and where we saw improvements could be made, these
were noted. Tbe circuit servants and all who attended thiS meeting thought it most profitable and went away thoroughly lIubuc<1
with the Idea that their prinCIpal work in visitmg compame<; IS
to help the brethren fully appreciate the need of preachmiS thiS
gospel of the Kmgdom in all the world for a witness. ~o. th..
Important thing 15 not the keeping of records in compames
While these are good to have, still the great work that everyonp
must be cngaged in is that of assisting his brother and sistel
in getting out m the field, going from door to door and conductmgback-calls and book studies. It is in this way that we can pro\'<
to the Lord our love for Him and gam salvatIOn not only fOl
ourselves but for others also.
HOUSTO:-', TEXAS

The next district assembly for the Ulllted Statrs was scheduled
to be held in Houston, Texas, May 7-9, but it was not a~ ea~y
as all that. For months previously the brethren were worklllg
hard to find a place in Houston to have the assembly. They were
finally able to obtain an outSide stadIUm callrd the Buffalo
Stadium, a ball park, nnd this proved to be very satl,factory
How the spirit in Texas had changed over a perIOd of a fe,,"
years 1 Go back to the early 1940's and the Texan's Idea all
Jehovah's witncsses was to crush the life out of them, cut thcllJ
off from existence, mob them, hang them, shoot them, burn do\\ 11
thcir homes and halls: they mUbt hI' stopped from preachll1g their

NOVEl\IBER 1, 1948

gneWATCHTOWER.,

message. So reasoned the human tools of Satan the Devil in

southern United States, and Jehovah's witnesses became the target
of such violent, demonic assault which waxed hotter day by day.
Would Jehovah's witnesses give in, Stop the expansion of true
worship in Texas or any other part of the world' Allow Satan's
dupes to run them out of the territory' By the Lord's grace,
No I In Texas Jehovah's witnesses stayed, kept on working against
odds and great opposition, and continued to proclaim the truth.
Now in Texas they had come together in a district assembly at
Houston. Behold now how the tide had turned. Houston, the
center of a one-time hotbed of hatred and persecution, now
welcomed Jehovah's witnesses.
So District Ko. 4 had its district assembly, and with what joy
and gratitude! To Jehovah God goes the praise and honor, and
we fully appreciate that "no weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper". The enthusiasm for this second district assembly
held in the United States mounted weeks before the sunny morning of May 7, and before the district assembly was over you
could hear the expressions, "What an outstanding occasion I"
"One of the grandest yet!" "I am so g1:ld I came!" Here again
4,812 ministers of God received thc finest Thcocratic education
anyone could get in three short days. Scarcely a single feature of
the minister's life and service remained untouched. Improving
company meetings, bettering individual ministry throughout,
handling every difficulty prone to arise; on these vital topics
and many more, sound counsel was offered by mature ministers.
"But how little the mind will grasp through the ear alone I"
:Many silently observed this as they made wise use of the divinely
prOVided art of "I\-nting. Write down, review, discuss; that is the
way to hold these profitable pomts ill mind and apply them. .As
Jehovah's witnesses, coming from every walk of lue, mingled
together, they showed their neighbor love, their profitable tolerance, their patience and kindness toward all, and they were
determilled by God's grace as new world ambassadors to display
these continually' in their daily service unto the Lord. So into
the field serVIce these puhlishers of the Kingdom went as they
called upon the people of Houston. The Texans were glad J eho,-ah's witnesses were in Houston and calling upon them. There
must be many in Texas who are interested III the truth, for 6,451
attended the public meeting, which indicates that there were about
1,600 persons from Houston who came out to hear "The Klllg<1om
Hope of All :'Iankind" given by the president. Also, 113 were
immersed Sunday morning.
The day following the assembly the circuit servants and their
'wives, the district servant, and the Bethel brethren met for a
diSCUSSIOn on Kingdom problems of that district. ThiS proved
to be most profitable, and the advice given at that meeting should
reflect Itself in the good work of thc circuit servants in the distriCt.
SAN FRA.'ICISCO, CALIFORNIA

The third in the 1948 senes of distnct assemblies to be attended

by the Society's president was to be held m San FranCISco
May 28-30. It was advisable then for huu to fly back from
Houston to Kew York, where the expansIOn program was gOing
on in the building of the new Bethel home. So he returned by air
and stayed here until the last minute, and then flew to Califorma
in time to be With the brethren who lIVe m the Sixth distnet in
the United Stat!!s, which meluded parts of 17 western states.
The difficultie-s encountered and the many obstacles that had to
be oyercome m securing a SUitable place would take too long
to relate, but it was only by the Lord's grace and a consistent
effort on the part of the brethren that the Society was able to
obtam the Cow Palace, a modern auditOrium that seats 11,000
persons. There are always some indiVIduals who do not like
Jehovah's witnesses, and some of them sit in places of high
authonty. But if it is necessary to go higher than that in order
to obtain a place, Jehovah's \\'ltuesses do It. They had to go to

333

the top officials of the state in order to obtain this public

auditorium. It was the only place in San Francisco large enough
to house Jehovah's witnesses for their three-day district assembly.
The Lord blessed their efforts to secure it.
The California brethren certainly set up a beautiful convention
arrangement. The platform was distinctive. They had erected a
colorful platform decorated with multicolored lights and crepe
paper, and it was dressed up with beautiful California flowers.
The Auditorium being built in a bowl arrangement, the arena
section ,vas turned over to the various departments, such as
rooming, bookroom, volunteer service, etc., for the first two days.
So there ,vas no reason why anyone in the Auditorium could
not find his location. By Sunday morning there was no need for
these departments any more, and all of this was cleared out and
seats were set in the arena in readiness for the public meeting.
The district assembly followed the same pattern as that at
Atlanta and Houston. Emphasis was placed on not neglecting our
meetings, the Watchtower study, the service meeting, and the
Theocratic ministry school. At this assembly Brother Knorr gave
for the first time the talk on "Our Common Salvation". This
material has already appeared in The Watchtower, and there
you have the complete discussion of the book of Jude. In his
talk Brother Knorr did not spare anyone who was morally
delinquent. He was straightforward and to the point, and the
brethren understood just what he meant and appreciated the
wise counsel that Jude set forth in his epistle.
The brethren who had traveled great distances to attend the
assembly at San Francisco were anxious to have a share in the
advertising of the public meeting, and they did well at it. This
is shown by the fact that there were more than 3,000 persons
of good-will and public in attendance at the public lecture. On
Sunday afternoon there were 13,299 present, very nicely fililOg
the entire auditorium, the Cow Palace. That moming, as was
the arrangement at all the district assemblies, an immersion was
held, and there were 272 i=ersed. These wanted to expand their
ministry too, and therefore symbolized their consecration by
water immersion. Before Brother Knorr and Brother L. A.
Swingle, who was traveling with him, went on to British
Columbia they met with the circuit servants and their wives
and discussed the district activity in the western part of the
United States.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

The trip by train northward from San Francisco offered the

two travelers, Brothers Knorr and Swingle, very fine scenery,
One of the outstanding beauties of God's creatIOn that was seen
was Mount Shasta, 14,380 feet in elevation. For more than two
hours the tram wound along the side of the mountam, cluubing
and climbing, and passengers could continually see Mount Shasta
from different angles. It was an exceptionally clear day, and
this mountain, a symbol of the Kmgdom, was certainly worthy of
one's attention. As the day wore on and they traveled northward,
stoppmg at the various cities, information was soon gatheled
that the bridges across the Columbia river at Portland, Oregon,
were either washed out or closed to traffic, due to the flood On
reachmg the suburbs of Portland we learned that our tram could
not go into the main station; but it was unloaded at a place
called Brooklyn. The travelers arrived at about 10 o'clock at
night and were met by the company servant of Portland who
was previously 'phoned to arrange for plane passage if that
were necessary to get out of Portland, on to Vancouver. However, the railroad promised they would get us through and that
the trains were running. We were taken to the railroad statIOn,
and the main floor of the statIOn was kept dry by plhng sandbags
around the station to keep the river out. ~ate that night we
started by bus from Portland to Kelso, and we went around the
outer edge of the Columbia nver. Sometimes the road we traveled
was under water, and finally we crossed the only bridge that

334

SheWATCHTOWER..

was still open. At 3 a.m. we an'ived at Kelso and were told

that the train would be down from Seattle shortly. However,
w'e had to sit around in the bus or station for six hours before
the train came in. The travelers arrived at Seattle nine hours later.
A brief stop was made at the Soeiety's depot at Seattle, and
then we boarded a train for Vancouver. We wondered if we were
getting on the right train, because there were only a few coaches
attached to what we thought was a freight train, but we learned
then that the Frazier river was also on the rampage, due to
floods, and that very little traffic was moving north into Vancouver. Thi~ train ,vas hauling emergency foodstuffs and perishables on the regular passenger run. In fact, it was the only train
that pulled into the Canadian National railroad station at Vancouver that day. As we approached the bridge that crossed the
Frazier river, there were thousands upon thousands of sandbags
holding back the water. and even then the water was lapping
at the rails on which our train was traveling. We moved across
this section very slowly, and we could easily see that the Frazier
was in flood stage and reaching out for new grounds to eonquer.
It was a very happy group of Canadian brethren that greeted
Brother Knorr and Brother Swingle after waiting anxiously at
the depot for their delayed arrival. The Forum in the Hastings
Exhibition Park had been engaged for this district as~embly in
Canada, which was to be the first of foul'. The program that
bad been arranged for the previous distrIct as~emblies was dupli-

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

cated here in Vancouver. The sad thing was the reports that were
coming in of how the raging floods, due to the exceSSIve meltmg
of snow in' the Canadian Rockies, had prevented many of the
brethren from gettmg into British Columbia to attend the assembly. Practically all of the bridges were washed out, mcluding
the railroad bridges. The only way to get into Vancouver was
by air from the east, or by traveling by car east of the Frazier,
then south to the United States and then coming north agam
via the only bridge that entered Canada in the west. Despite all
these hardships, there were 2,735 who attended the Vancouver
assembly. The brethren who were able to attend at Vancouver
not only enjoyed the blessings of the assembly, but did wonderful
advertising throughout the city itself for the public meetmg.
The big event on Sunday afternoon, the public meetmg, found
an attendance of 5,552 persons. This meant that nearly 2.000
strangers were present to heal' the public address by the Society's
president.
June 4-6 in Vancouver were blessed days, and it was good to
see these Canadian brethren so interested in helping their clllidren
to learn the truth, too. Practically every child, whether young or
in his teens, quietly sat down and paid close attention to what
was being said at all the sessions. This was as it should be, for
the children need the instruction as mueh as the parents. After
:Monday's meeting with the servants to the brethren, the two
travelers started their trip to Juneau, Alaska; hut about thiS
we make a report in our next issue.

11:ANASSEH'S DEMON-WORSHIP GETS HIM INTO TROUBLE

ANASSEII, during his impri'ionment in Babylon,

had much time in which to reflect on his past course.
In the hot, stuffy weather of low-lying fiat Babylon
he often longed for his beloved Judean hills. Sometimes he
would think of his mother, Hephzibah. and his father, King
IIezekiah of Judah. He remembered that when he was a
child Isaiah and l\Iicah had spoken in the name of Jehovah
but that what they said had not always interested him. He
could not forget ho\y his father had tried to teach him J ehovah's law, right up to his death (in 717 B.C.). There in
pl'i&on every now and then strains of the temple songs
which as a child he had heard the Levitc chorus sing came
to mind.-2 Ki. 21: 1; 1 Chron. 3: 13 j 2 Chron. 33: 1, 11 j
Matt. 1: 10.
lInnasseh remembered his father's death and burial and
the honor that the people paid him when he died. (2 Ki.
20: 21: 2 Chron. 32: 33) He recalled that after becoming
king of Judah he had felt he was free from his father
Hezekiah's restraint and constant preaching, free to do as
he pleased, and not have to conform his every step to the
law of Jehovah. He felt he could then decide for himself
what was proper or improper to do. IIe was attracted to
the manner of worship practiced by the Amorites who had
lived in Jerusalem before Israel came into the land, and
decided to reviye that religion. (2 Ki. 21: 2, 11 j 2 Chron.
33: 2j Ezell:. 16: 3, 45) "He rebuilt the shrines which his
father IIezekiah had demolished, he erected altars to Baals,
made images of Astarte, and worshipped all the stars and
did homage to them." (2 Chron. 33: 3, Moffatt) He recalled
admiring Ahab, a former king of Israel, and in imitation of
him ordering sacred poles and images of Astarte to be
carved. (2 Ki. 21: 3, 7, An Amer. Trans.) Encouraged by
the success of his vigorous revival of Amorite worship he
finally determined to invade the courts of Jehovah's temple

with itj "he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two
courts of the house of Jehovah."-2 Ki. 21: 4, 5; 2 Chron.
33: 4. 5, Am. Stan. Ver.
"lIe also made his children to pass through the fire in
the valley of IIinnom," as his greatgrandfather had donc.
(2 ehron. 33: 6, A.m. Stan. Ver.; 28: 3) Every time he
recalled that, he could hear again the screams of his cilIldren, and each time he remembered it he fclt more remorse.
He often thought of his observing times, using cnchantments, and his going into trances while dealing with famIliar spirits. He remembered the odd muttenngs of the
wizards and their ambiguous interpretations of such mutterings. (2 Ki. 21: 6) He recalled his first practice of
augury, sorcery, and witchcraft, and his instituting mediums and wizards. IIow proud he had been of IllS dreams
and how carefully he listened to their intcrpretation~ by
the idolatrous diviners and followed such interpretations!
He remembered giving himself up to the l>tudy amI pI aetlce
of magic arts, for which purpose he had constantly had
with him magicians, or magi. :lHagi! That made him recall
the reverential esteem in which he had held Bal.>} lon, as
the fountainhead of the religion of the nations, even of the
Assyrian world power. How different he felt towaru it,
new that he was a captive there!-2 Chron. 33: G, JIoffaUj
Douay.

Nearly all the people of his kingdom were taking to the

world religion hc had instituted. Encouraged thereby and
at the instigation of the familiar spirits and fello\\" re1JglOnists he set up a carved image of Astarte inside the tcm pIe
of Jehovah. But there were some in Judah whom he could
not get to fall in line with his religious policy for the state.
Some of these dared call attention to the words Jehovah
addressed to David and Solomon: "In this house, and in
Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel,

NOVEMBER

1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER.

will I put my name for ever: neither will I make the feet
of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave
their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to
all that I have commanded them, and according to all the
law that my servant Moses commanded them." Manasseh
had rejoiced that none of his supporters, the majority of
his subjects, paid any attention to such complaints. He
merely intensified his propaganda campaign in favor of
the state religion, and sponsored and subsidized more showy
idolatrous processions and lewd religious orgies.-2 Ki.
21: 7, JIoffattj 2 Chron. 33: 79; 2 Ki. 21: 7-9.
Then the prophets of Jehovah, whom Manasseh had been
unable to ,vin over by flattery or threats, declared Jehovah's mes'Sage to him in the presence of all the people:
"Because .Manasseh king of .Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites
did, that were before him, and hath made Judah also to
sin with his idols; therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of
Israel, Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah,
that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And
I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the
plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem
as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside
down. And I will cast off the remnant of mine inheritance,
and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they
shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; because
they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have
pro\'oked me to anger, since the day their fathers came
forth out of Egypt, even unto this day."-2 ehron. 33: 10;
2 Ki. 21: 10-15, Am. Stan. Ver.
Such words had made l\Ianasseh furious; he made up his
mind to execute everyone who would not support and practice the state religion. He set afoot an investigation into
each one's loyalty to his state religion and had everyone
slain of whose loyalty there was any doubt. He would not
stop until he had purged the land of Judah of all non
conformists. ~ow, captive in Babylon, which he had learned
to detest, his conscience hurt him every tim2 he recalled
that purge.
As he was carrying on his blood purge in Jerusalem he
heard news of Emperor Esarhaddon's setting out with his
army to put down a rebellion against him in Egypt. Other
reports had it that Esarhaddon had left crown prince
Asnapper in charge of the Assyrian government. )Ianasseh
had wondered whether or not Judah would be required to
~UPPOl't the expedition with men and supplies. Hi'S worries
seemed over when word reached him that Esarhaddon had
died on the way. But he had raised his hopes too soon. Not
long thereafter the captains of the host of the king of
Assyria invaded Judah and captured i\Ianasseh and chained
him and shackled him in bronze fetters and started out
with him toward Babylon. He recalled how distasteful the
crossing of t!le hot, dusty desert had been, and how the
fetters had rubbed off his skin and made sores in his
fiesh.-2 Chron. 33: 11, .Am. Stan. Ver.j Roth.
There in Babylon he had been in trouble, nothing but
affliction and distress. The more he thought about his past

333

deeds and compared them with what he could remember

of Jehovah's law his father had taught him, the more he
realized how wicked he had been. At last "he besought
Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the
God of his fathers. And he prayed unto him." (2 Chron.
33": 12, 13, Am. Stan. Ver.) As he daily prayed to God
and thought on His law, which he had learned as a child,
more and more of God's righteous statutes and ordinances
came back to him.
Then one day Manasseh was informed he was to be freed
from his captivity in Babylon and was to be restored to
his throne in Jerusalem. The homeward trip did not seem
nearly so long to Manasseh as his trip to Babylon had.
'Vhen at last he caught his first glimpse of his beloved
Jerusalem he gave fervent thanks to Jehoyah. He wondered
how he could ever have worshiped anyone aside from Jehovah. As he got nearer he noticed the city walls were in
a ruinous state.
Once again established on his throne, "he built an outer
wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in
the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he
compassed Ophel about with it, and raised it up to a very
great height." He did not neglect the other cities in Judah,
but "put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of
Judah".-2 Chron. 33: 14, Am. Stan. Ver.
He was not content yet; there was something else he must
do. "He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of
the house of Jehovah, and all the altars that he had bmlt
in the mount of the house of Jehovah, and in Jerusalem,
and cast them out of the city. And he bUIlt up the altar
of Jehovah, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace-oITerings
and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve
Jehovah, the God of Israel."-2 Chron. 33: 15, 16, A.m.
Stan. Ver.
He related all that happened to him during his absence,
the trouble into which his former demon-worship had gotten
him, and his prayer unto his God; and he gave thanks to
God before all the assembly for his deliverance from Babylon. (2 Ki. 21: 17 j 2 Chron. 33: 18, 19) .\.t last he felt
content and at peace, knowing that now tllC people of
his kingdom sacrificed "only unto .Je]:ov;1 11 thclr (: od".
-2 Chron. 33: 17, .1m. Stan. Ver.
God had warned his people in his law against the false
worship of the land, saying: "Neither shalt thou scrve the1r
gods; for that will be a snare unto thee." (Deut. 7.16)
Manasseh failed to heed that divine warning and got Into
trouble, becoming a captive in Babylon. Likewise today,
all who, like Manasseh, practice false worship get into
trouble and are emlaved in the Devil's religious orgalllz1tion pictured by Babylon. Just as Jehovah's servants the
prophets gave true and proper warning to nrana~sl'h, so
today Jehovah's servants his witnesses give warning to all
that false worship leads to trouble and not to life. Tho~e
who today humble themselves before Jehovah Gael and
comply with His requirements will he delivcrcd. by Him,
as lIIanasseh was.

As for God, his way is perfect: the wor,l of Jehovah is triedj

he IS II s/neld unto all them that take refuge in him. For who is
God, .'ut'e J ehot'ah f-Psalm 18: 30, 31, A.S.V.

LETTERS
AN INQUIRY AND FRANK REPLY

Oslo, Norway, August 27, 1948

Dear Brethren:
In the Norwegian Watchtower for April 15, 1947, we
had a very fine article about marriage. The only reason a
brother had to divorce his wife in accordance with this
article was unfaithfulness from his 'wife's side-if she had
sexual intercourse with another man or men.
Specially since 'Vorld War II a rather peculiar phenomenon occurs here in Korway: married women are seeking
other married women, no doubt with the intention to seek
sexual pleasure with each other. The doctors have much
to write and say about the matter.
:May I ask you: What does the Bible say about this? Is
it counted as great a sin as if a man has sexual intercourse
with another man, just as the inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah?
If it can be proved that the wife of a brother has been
seeking such pleasure, has he the right to divorce her in
accordance with the Bible? I thank :rou in advance if you
would be so kind as to let me have ;your answer to this
question.
The work in Korway is progressing as never before, and
now has come the happy time when all the friends are
united as one man in proclaiming the grace and goodness
of our heavenly Father. This week we are glad to have
the servant to the brethren among us here in Oslo. We
rejoice in the marvelous articles in our dear Tower.
Yours in the Kingdom's service,
[Signed]------ ------Dear Brother:
In answer to your inquiry of August 27:
'Vhen women, as is now reported in ::'-Jorway, seek sexual
pleasure with other women, committing masturbation among
themselves, it is not the fornicatIOn for which, 01' adultery
for which, Jesus said a husband could divorce his wife. But
it is an unnatural vice of the female sex, and it is gross
uncleanness and is sinful in God's sight. It eventually
results in great degradation mentally and physically, and,
thgugh it may not constitute Scriptural grounds for a
husband to divorce hi" wife, yet he should warn hcr of the
serious consequences of mch a practice, not merely in body
and mind but particularly spiritually. According to what
God's 'Yord says about related sinful practices' debarring
a professed Christian from inheriting the kingdom of God,
such a vile sin, if persisted in after due warning from the
Scriptures, would debar the woman from life in God's new
world.-1 Corinthians 6: 9-11.
In parallel fashion, where a man commits sexual filthiness with another male, in other words, sodomy, it does
not constitute the Scriptural grounds for his wife to divorce
him. A man cannot be married to another man, neither can
a woman really be married to another woman, no matter
what the sexual abuses each one commits with the same

sex. But sodomy is named in Scripture as a very vile sin,

a praetiee which debars the sinner from inheriting God's
kingdom and also life on earth in the new world. (Romans
1: 24-32) Sodomy by a husband shows great disrespect of
the man for his wife, just as masturbation by a wife with
other women shows similar disrespect for her husband. The
wife, on learning of her husband's guilt with EOdomy,
should warn him of the end result to him, especially as to
his relations with God and Christ and his prospects of
eternal life in the new world. If he quits the praetice,
seeking God's forgiveness through Christ, she also in godl:r
manner may forgive him.
Faithfully yours in Theocratic service,
[Signed] \VATCH TOWER BmLE A~'D TRACT SOCIETY
AN INTERESTING REPLY

Dear Friend:
In reply to your inquiry of June 29:
The dates, A.D. 29 and 1931, are particularly mentioned
because of what they mark. The "day of salvation" is first
mentioned at Isaiah 49: 8. This prophecy applies primarily
to Jesus Christ, as the preceding and subsequent verses
show. The salvation here meant refers to salvation to God's
heavenly kingdom, and hence the "day of salvation" began
A.D. 29, when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river,
for immediately afterward he was begotten by God's spirit
and God's voice was heard saying: "This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased."-Matt. 3: 13-17.
However, at 2 Corinthians 6: 1, 2 the apostle Paul
applies the prophecy of Isaiah 49: 8 also to the followers
of Jesus Christ who are to be joint heirs with him in the
heavenly kingdom. This fact shows that this particular day
of salvation continued down to the time Paul wrote
2 Corinthians 6: 1, 2 and down to all Christian followers
of Christ since who become prospective heirs of God's
heavenly kingdom. This day continues till now, but
A.D. 1931 is a marked point in this day; as "Let God
Be Tl'ue" says [page 298, ~ 11] : "God having a fixed time
for every purpose (Ecclesiastes 3: 1), his time to gi ve
creatures on earth the opportunity to get in line for a
heavenly reward has been from A.D. 29 until, chiefly,
1931, called the 'day of salvation'. (2 Corinthians 6: 2)"
By referring to various 'Yatchtower publications from and
after 1931, you will find that in that year Jehovah God
revealed by his spirit that the heavenly class was nearly
completed and that now he was opening up to men's minds
the grand opportunity to devote themselves to God in hope
of obtaining, not the heavenly kingdom, but everlasting
life on earth in human perfection under the established
kingdom of Christ. Thus God began revealing more fully
than ever before that now the way was being opened up
to men of goodwill to gain an everlasting destiny upon
earth.
Sincerely yours in God's service,
[Signed] WATCH TOWER BmLE AND TRACT SOCIETY

Rejoice In Jehovah, 0 ye righteous: praise is comely for the

upTIght. Give thanks unto Jehovah .. smg praises unto him
. . . Szng unto him a new song j . . . For the word of Jehovah
is rlglttj and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loveth
righteousness and justice: the earth is full of the loving kindness
of J ehovah.-Psalm 33: 1-5. A.S. V
:l:J1l

~eWATCHTOWER
PUBLISHED 'SEMUION'1'HLT

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE e TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S.A.
N. H. KNORR, President

o FFTCERS

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall be the peace of thy children." - lJaiah 54:zJ.
THE BIBLE CLEAItLY TEACHES
JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlnstlng to
everlllstIng, and Is the Maker of hpaven and earth and Gh'er of
IIfe to his crt'lltures; that the Word or Logos was the be/rlnnlng
of his creation and his acUve agent In creutlng alI other thln:...'5;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the Issue of His universal sovereignty:
THA'l.' GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon It; that man ~'Ielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully dlsobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to deuth; that by reason of Adam's wrong act alI meo
are OOI'n slnnl'rs and without the right to life:
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and sur
fered death In order to prolluce the ransom or redemptive prlee for
obedll'nt men: that God raised up Chl'lst Jesus divine and exalted
him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital organization i
THAT GOD'S CAPITAL OItGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called
Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the
rl~htful Kln~ of the new world; that the faIthful anOinted
followers of Chl'ist Jesus are Zion's children, members of Jehovuh's
org11nl7oatlon, and are His witnesses whose duty and privlle/re It
Is to testify to .Jehovah's supremacy lind declare his purposes
towllrd mankind as expressed in the Bible:
THAT THE OLD WOULD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule. ended
A.D. 1014, and Christ Jesus has been placed b~' Jehomh upon the
throne, has ousted SatRn from hea,en. and now proceeds to
vlnrtlcate His nalle and pstablish the "new earth";
THAT THE UELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jehol'ah's kingdom under Christ. which has begun; that Ills
next great act Is to deatl'oy Satan's orgnni7oatlon and establish
rlghtl'ousness complptely in the earth: nnd that untler the Kingdom
the people of gooll-wlJl SUl"l'ivlOg Arma;.;ellllon Will carry out the
dll'lne lll11ndate to "fill the earth" with rtghteollS offsprln~. anll
thnt the human dead In the grn\es will be raised to opportunities
of life on ealth.
THA~

"SETTING THE MARK" TESTIMONY PERIOD

Humane persons interested in the eternal life of people of
good-will in God's righteous new world will want to make an
indelible mark in their intellect by mealls of the Kingdom truth.
That is why the month of December has been set aside as a testimony period of special effort, as indicated by the above-given
nallle. To help in setting the mark upon good-will foreheads, as
foretold in Ezekiel, chapter 9, the offer that Jehovah's witnesses
will popularize during this closing month of 1948 will be tbe
latest book, "Let God Be True," and the booklet Permanent
Governor of All Nati0118 (or The Joy of All the People) to all
contributors of 35c for the combination. Every reader of The
Watchtower can actively associate himself with this marking
work which leads to our being spared by God's executioners
during the oncoming battle of Armageddon. We welcome the
co-operation of all, and assure you of our best services in helping
to establish your contact with experienced Kingdom publishers.
Your report filled out on the form supphed by the Society will
greatly interest us at the end of December's work.
"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Week of December 19: "When Immortality Came to Light,"

11 1-24 inclusive, Tile Watchtower November 15, 1948.
Week of December 26: "When Immortality Came to Light,"
11 25-46 inclusive, The Watchtower Novembpr 15, ~948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is pUblished for the purpose ot enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the Bible. It' publishes Bible Instruction specifically
designed to aid Jehomh's witnesses and alI people of good-will.
It arrangt'l! s~'stelllatic Bible study for Its readers nnd the SocietY
SUllplles other literature to aid In such studies. It pUblishes
SUItable material for radio broadcasting and for other menns
ot public Instruction in the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority tor Its utternncea.
It Is entirely free and separate frolll alI religion, parties, sects or
other worldly organlzlltlons. It Is wholly. and without reservation
tor the kln/rdolD ot Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King.
It is not dogmatic, but ID\"ltes careful and critical eXUlulllution
of Its contents In the light of the Scriptures, It does not IndUlge
In controversy, and Its (.'olulllns lire 110t open to personullties.

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1949 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

With gratitude to God for accomplishing through his servnnts

the greatest service achievement during this past year, the Society
now releases the 1949 Yeaf'book of J ehovali's witnesses. It will be
really a stirring experience, and not a dull review of data and
figures, for you to read the president's report at length on the
year's activities of Jehovah's witnesses in more than ninety lands.
Also, introduced by his own special comment on the 1949 yeartext,
the tel:ts and comments drawn from the latest Watcht010er issucs
provide you with a choice thought for each day of the year. Orders
for copies of the 1949 Yearbook, bound in peach-color cloth, with
more than 350 pages, should be accompanied by remittances at
50c a copy. Companies should send in combined orders to nllnWllZC
our work of handling and shipping.
1949 CALENDAR

Again the Lord provides ns with a new service calendar, for the
year 1949, the text for which is, "1 will ... yet praise thee more
and more." (Ps. 71: 14) The picture embellishing it steps into the
field of realism by exhibiting under the year's tel:t a bird's-eye
view of that now world-famous missionary school, Gilead, in its
environs, in four colors, and which is mightily aiding today in
praising Jehovah more and more. Under the picture the date pad
presents the six special testimony periods of 1949 and the alternative months, together with the service theme for each such month.
Orders may now be sent in, with remittance to cover, at 25c a
calendar. or $1.00 for five maill'd to one address.

ghceWAlCIHIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

15, 1948

NOVEMBER

No.

22

THE GIVER OF IMMORTALITY

"Who hath destroyed death, and hath brought to light life and incorntption by the gospel."
-2 Tim. 1: 10, Douay Version.
EHOVAH God was the only one to possess immortality originally. Infinity of existence belongs
to him, -as it is written, at Psalm 90: 1, 2: "A
prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, a place of
refuge hast thou been unto us in all generations.
Before yet the mountains were brought forth, or
thou hadst ever produced the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."
(Leeser's translation) In an expression of praise to
.Jehovah God the inspired Jewish-Christian writer
Paul says: "Now unto the King of the ages, incorl'uptible, invisible, alone God, be honour and glory
unto the ages of ages." Because he is "from everlasting to everlasting" he can have such honor and glory
ascribed to him "unto the ages of ages", or for all
eternity to come. To identify Jehovah God and show
he is different and distinct from his Son, who is the
~lessiah or Christ, the apostle Paul continues on to
say: "For there is one God, one mediator also
between God and men, a man-Christ Jesus: who
gave himself a ransom in behalf of all." (1 Tim.
1: 17 and 2: 5, 6, Rotherham) Jehovah's being incorruptible denotes his immortality, that is to say, his
indestructibleness, his imperishableness, the impos::;ibility for him to decay or waste away. Because he
is from everlasting or from all past eternity and so
is without beginning, he stands out alone above every
other intelligent person in the universe, without
even the exception of his beloved "only begotten
Son", the :Messiah. It is because all these others are
creatures, Jehovah's creations.
2 Being immortal in all past eternity, Jehovah God
is the source of all life throughout the universe. "0
.Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast. For with
thee is the fountain of life." (Ps. 36: 6, 9, A.m. Stan.
V e1".) Aside from the :Most High God, no one
possessed immortality and incorruptibility from all
past eternity, not even his beloved Son, Jesus Christ,
as we shall show by the Holy Scriptures. According
to the Scriptures, Jehovah did not create a single
creature with the gift and power of immortality
and incorruption. Time was when his only begotten
Son Jesus Christ did not have immortality. It was

only when he had shown his mortalness by being

faithful to God his Father down to a martyr's death
and God resurrected him from the dead that Jesus
Christ gained the supreme prize of immortality and
incorruptibility. Since all the above-mentioned faets
can be proved by the inspired Scriptures, the apostle
Paul is correct when he tells us there was a time
when incorruptibleness for certain favored creatures
of God came to light. And when was that time 1 In
Moses' day, when he wrote the first five books of
the Holy Bible~ No; but about sbcteen centurie:;
after ~loses, in the days of Jesus Christ. As the
apostle Paul says: "Grace which was granted to us
in Christ Jesus before this world exis.ted, but-is no\v
manifested by the enlightenment of our Savior
Jesus Christ. He has destroyed death and brought
to light life and incorruption by the gospel, of which
I have been appointed a preacher and an apostle."
-2 Tim. 1: 9-11, Catholic Confraternity translation.
S Relirrionists who follow the "vain philosophy" of
this wo;ld can be expected to object to Bible truth.
They will point to the parran Grecian philosophe~'
Pythagoras, born 608 B.C. and who taught that
every human creature has a soul that is separate and
distinct from his fleshly body and that is immortal
and so able to transmigrate from one fleshly body to
another. A century and a half later another pagan
Grecian philosopher rose up, Socrates, born 468 B.C.,
and who through his foremost pupil, Plato, popularized the theory of the "immortality of the human
soul". Looking for some appearance of Scriptural
support for following Plato's teachings, the Roman
Catholic theologians will point to the books The
Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticu::5 (or the
Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach). To sho\v that
the words "immortal, immortality, incorruptihle, and
incorruption" occur before Christ and his apostles,
they will make the following quotations from those
two books, which they call "deutero-canonical" books
but which others call "apocryphal" books.
"For justice is perpetual and immortal." "For
God created man incorruptible, and to the image of
his own likeness he made him." "But the souls of the
339

:J.O

~e WATCHTOWER.

just are in the hand of God, and the torment of

death shall not touch them. And though in the sight
of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of
imm01tality." "0 how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal:
because it is known both with God and with men."
"And the care of discipline is love: and love is the
keeping of her laws: and the keeping of her laws is
the firm foundation of incorruption: and incorruption bringeth near to God." "Moreover by the means
of her I shall have immortality: and shall leave
behind me an everlasting memory to them that come
after me. Thinking these things with myself, and
pondering them in my heart, that to be allied to
wisdom is im.mortality:' "But thou, our God, art

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

gracious and true, patient, and ordering all things

in mercy. For to know thee is perfect justice: and
to know thy justice, and thy power, is the root of
immortality." (Douay Version of Wisdom 1: 15;
2:23; 3:1,4j 4:1j 6:19,20; 8:13,17; 15:1,3) "A
faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality: and they that fear the Lord, shall find him."
"For all things cannot be in men, because the son
of man is not immortal, and they are delighted with
the vanity of evil."-Douay Version of Ecclesiasticus 6:16; 17:29.
6 For what the great Giver of immortality has to
say upon the subject by means of his authentic Scriptures about the inspiration of which there is no dispute, we refer our readers to the'next article below.

WHEN IMMORTALITY CAME TO LIGHT

HE inspired apostle Paul plainly declares that

our Savior Jesus Christ brought incorruption
(or immortality) to light by the gospel which
Paul preached. His declaration is one of the proofs
to show that the books The Wisdom of Solomon and
Ecclesiasticus are not inspired or canonical, but are
apocryphal. It, of course, needs no proof to say that
the teachings of the pagan philosophers Pythagoras
and Plato are uncanonical, unscriptural, uninspired,
and unchristian. The books The Wisdom of Solomon
and Ecclesiasticus were written centuries after
Pythagoras and Plato and were produced by Jews
who lived and wrote after the conqueror Alexander
the Great made Palestine subject to Greece; and so
those Jews became tainted with Platonic teachings
about the human soul. Even the Roman Catholic
Jerome, who translated the Holy Scriptures into
Latin, disputed that Solomon wrote the book The
Wisdom of Solomon. And the great Synagogue of
Jerusalem never did accept it or Ecclesiasticus as
canonical, belonging to the inspired Hebrew Scriptures. Paul's words show he as a Christian did not
accept such books as a part of the inspired canon,
and for that reason neither he nor any other disciples of Christ who wrote the inspired Christian
Scriptures make any quotation from Wisdom and
Ecclesiasticus.
2 Look again carefully at the above-quoted verses
from those two books. Note that they do not once
mention such a thing as an immortal soul, nor say
that any man has immortality or ever had it. Even
they speak of immortality as something future,
for only certain ones. So. even in those so-called
"deutero-canonical" books or apocl'yphal writings
we find no support for the pagan doctrine of "immortality of the human soul". Turn, now, from dis1. Whnt pro\ es the boo1,s Wisdom lind Ecclesiasticus not canonical':
2. Why uoes mention of lmmortal (lt~) not bUpport Immortal soul?

puted books to the true inspired Scriptures. Scan

them minutely with the help of an exhaustive concordance of the Holy Bible. Then you will demonstrate to yourself that not once in all the Holy Scriptures does the expression "immortal soul" occur,
neither any other expression to say that the human
soul is immortal. To the contrary, all the Scriptural
expressions from :Moses onward pointedly declare
that the human soul is mortal and dies, ceasing to
exist. In agreement-,vith-that, and in harmony \\;th
what the apostle Paul writes under inspiration, the
words immortal, immortality, incorruptible, incorruptibility, and incorruption are found in the Holy
Bible for the first time in the writings of the disciples
that follow Jesus Christ.
THE SOUL

In a Questions and Answer Bookt the title page

of which says it is an "expose of Jehovah witnesses"
the Roman Catholic priests that produced it answer
the question, "Is it revealed doctrine that the soul
of man is immortal T" and say: "The account in
Genesis of man's formation proves it. God is immortal, and cannot die. He made man in His own
image and likeness. But our bodies are nothing like
God in appearance, and are mortal. Therefore the
real image of God is in our soul, and it resembles
a

In the Chnstian Greek Scriptures the Roman Catholic

Douay Vers~on eontams immortal just once and lmmortallty just
three times, whereas incol'ruptible occurs five times, incorruptibility once, llnd tncorruptton six times. (See 1 Timothy 1: 17 ;
1 Corinthians 15: 53, 54; 1 Timothy 6: 16 j Romans 1: 23 j
1 Corinthians 9' 25 and 15: 52; 1 Peter 1: 4, 23 i 3: 4 i Romans 2: 7; 1 Corinthians 15: 42, 50, 53 j EpheSians 6: 24; and
2 Timothy 1: 10.) In the King James Version see also 1 Corm~5: 54, for an extra occurrence of incorruption.

t Radio Replies in Defence of Religion, by the Rev Dr. Rumble,

~LS.C.,

and Rev. C. M. Carty, With the Impnmatur of Archbishop ~. G. :lIUlTay, of St. Paul, MlIlll., of February 11, 1938.
(9th prmtmg)

3, 4. Unde,' what rule do we examine

prlestl~

\\ ntln~s on tbe soul'

NOVEMBER 15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER.

341

God by immortality. Both Old and New Testaments

insist upon the immortality of the souL"
4 Priests of religious organizations are men, and
with regard to them we are bound by the words of
the apostle Paul: "But God is true; and every man
a liar, as it is written, That thou mayest be justified
in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art
judged." (Rom. 3: 4, Douay) We will therefore let
God be true by going direct to his inspired written
'Vord rather than accept outright, without proof,
what religious priests say. We dishonor God if we
accept what men say in contradiction to God. :Men
can be liars.
5 These priestly would-be exposers of Jehovah's
witnesses say "the account in Genesis of man's formation proves it". So we turn to Genesis 2: 7 in the
new 19-:1:8 translation of the book of Genesis of the
Holy Bible by the episcopal committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and, there we read:
"Then the LORn God formed man out of the dust of
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living being." The Douay
Version reads: "And man became a living soul." The
cross-reference of this verse points us to 1 Corinthians 15: 45, which reads: "So also it is written,
'The first man, Adam, became a living soul'; the last
Adam became a life-giving spirit." (Confraternity
translation) "The first man Adam was made into a
living soul; the last Adam into a quickening spirit."
(Douay) Let everyone here notice that the apostle
Paul shows a distinction between soul and spirit.
6 Notice, too, that the episcopal committee of the
Confraternity tries to conceal the truth by using the
expression "a living being" instead of "a living soul"
at Genesis 2: 7. But when the apostle Paul quotes it
he renders it "a living soul". If now we study Genesis 2: 7 and Paul's quotation of it, we see that God
does not say he breathed or put into Adam's lifeless
form an "immortal soul". God breathed into the
man's form the "breath of life", and the result of
combining the human body and the breath of life
from God was that "man became a living soul" ; "the
11rst lDan Adam was made into a living soul." Here
we have in God's own words the simplest explanation
of what a human soul actually is. It is not something
invisible, like an unseen vapor, but is the living human creature himself, the live man with the five senses of seeing, -hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting.
1 Refusing to accept this simple Bible explanation,
but arguing for Plato's pagan teaching, our priestly
critics say (Question 29) : "That breath of life was
either a definite something, or it was nothing. But
you cannot tell me that nothing vitalized that body.
It was a definite something, that something was a

created human intelligent soul. ... A body, of flesh

and bone, could never become a living soul. :Man was
but named after the superior element of his being."
B Very well, then. If the "breath of life" which God
breathed into Adam's body of flesh and bone was
itself the "human intelligent soul", then, instead of
"breath of life", let us read "human intelligent soul"
at Genesis 2: 7 and see whether it makes sense: "And
the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth:
and breathed into his face [the human intelligent
soul], and man became a living soul." (Using Douay
Version) An honest person will choose to let J ehovah God be true although it makes Pythagoras,
Socrates and Plato liars, and such a person will
admit that Genesis 2: 7, if read with -the priestly
perversion of it, does not make sense; it is not
reasonable. God is reasonable, because he is true.
8 'Ve must
remember that Moses, who wrote
Genesis 2: 7 under inspiration, wrote more than nine
centuries before the above Grecian philosophers.
Moses did not borrow his ideas about the human soul
from those pagan worshipers of false gods. Hence
we deceive ourselves if we think Moses and those
pagan philosophers agree as to what the human soul
is. They did not teach by inspiration of God, but
Moses, by the inspiration of God, taught the truth
about the human soul without waiting for any philosophical guesses from them. The fact is, most of the
inspired Hebrew Scriptures was written before
those philosophers were born, and only the last five
books of the Hebrew Scriptures were written during
the lifetime of Socrates and Plato. Those pagans are
liars, but God is true.
10 All the inspired Scriptures support the truth
that "man became a living soul". Yes, the human
creature is a soul and does not have an intelligent
soul that is separable from the body and able to leave
it at death and carryon a separate, independent conscious existence in the spirit realm. But our priestly
critics rebel at this Bible truth and go on to say
(Q. 29): "Again, if man has not got a soul, then
instead of being composed of body and soul, he is a
body. And if that body is a soul, then a soul wears
boots!" Exactly so. The living body, the body animated by the breath of life from God, is the soul; and
such a human soul can wear boots, and also wear
pants underneath skirts. That is why the apostle
Paul speaks of it as a "psychical body". or a "soulical
body", at 1 Corinthians 15: 44. (Rotherham, marginal reading; The Emphatic Diaglott, interlinear
reading) The Bible says the soul can do many things.
11 At Genesis 2: 7 the Hebrew word :Moses used for
soul is nelJhesh. :Moses' writings and the rest of the
inspired Hebrew Scriptures say that the soul can eat
flesh and blood (Lev. 7: 18, 20, 27 and 17: 12, 15) ; it

5. 6. (a) How does the 1948 Catholic translation ot Genesis 2: 7 hide

the truth about the soul1 (b) SCrlpturally, what Is a human soul?
'i. 8. How do we answer the prIestly argument about naming man a soul1

9 Why should we preter Moses to those pagan Greek phllosophers1

10, 11. Why is it not ridiculous that "11 soul wears boots"?

342

~eWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

can dry away (Num. 11: 6); it can touch unclean

things (NUIll. 19: 13-22) ; it can be torn as by a lion
(Ps. 7: 2); it can go into a pit or grave (Job 33: 18,
22, 28, 30; Ps. 30: 3); it can be laid in irons (Ps.
105: 18, margin); it can abhor all manner of meat
(Ps. 107: 18; Prov. 27: 7) ; it can be brought out of
prison (Ps. 142: 7); it can suffer hunger through
idleness (Prov.19: 15) ; it can thirst and be refreshed
by cold water (Prov. 25: 25); it has blood which can
be shed (Jer. 2: 34); it can shed tears (Jer.13: 17);
it can be relieved with food. (Lam. 1: 11, 19; Hos.
9: 4) God's Word of truth thus speaks of the human
soul in such terms because the soul is the human body
with its brain and organs made alive by' the breath of
life which God breathed into it. It would be very
enlightening to our priestly critics to take a concordance of the Hebrew words of the Bible and see all
it says about the human soul (11el)hesh).

given to you-every herb yielding seed which is on

the face of all the land, and every tree wherein is
the fruit of a tree yielding seed,-to you shall it be
for food; and to every living thing of the land-and
to every bird of the heavens and to every thing that
moveth on the land wherein is a living soul, every
green herb for food." -Gen. 1: 27-30, Rotherham.
13 Further speaking of the lower animals as living
souls, God's Word says: "And when any man smiteth
the soul of any human being, he shall be surely put
to death. And he that smiteth the soul of a beast shall
make it good, soul for sou!." (Lev. 24: 17, 18, Rotherham, according to the margin's more literal reading of
the Hebrew) After the Israelites fought against the
Midianites and carried off hundreds of captives, God
said to Moses: "And thou shalt separate a portion
to the Lord from them that fought and were in the
battle, one soul of five hundred as well of persons as
of oxen and asses and sheep." (Num. 31: 28, Douay)
ANIMAL SOULS
Furthermore, Proverbs 12: 10 says: "A righteous
12 It is not Scripturally true, therefore, that the
man regardeth the soul of his beast, but the compassoul is the superior element of man's being and that sions of the lawless are cruel." (Rotherham, margin)
"man was but named after the superior element of Referring to marine animals, Revelation 16: 3 says:
his being". :Man is a human soul. :Man is not a "soul "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the
incarnate", with a separable soul living inside his sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and
flesh. Nor is the soul the breath of God or the breath every living soul died in the sea." (Apoc. 16: 3,
of life. But when God by an invisible process like Douay) Since the lower animals are souls, man's
breathing infused the breath of life into the human being in the likeness and image of God is not because
form that he created in Eden, man became or was 'man has an immortal soul', but is because man is
made into a living soul. All of us are fleshly souls, endowed with the Godlike qualities of wisdom, jusjust like the lower animals, the birds, land beasts and tice, love and power and was given dominion over
fishes. Why, our priestly critics are obliged to admit the lower animals. Man as a soul is no more immortal
that the lower animals are souls. They say so by than the beasts.
saying that "sane l)hilosophy admits a vegetative
lG In recognition that lower animals are souls like
soul, a sensitive animal soul" (Q. 28) ; but Jehovah's us humans wise Solomon wrote, at Ecclesiastes
witnesses say so, not on the basis of worldly philoso- 3: 18-21 : "I said in my heart concerning the sons of
phy, but on the basis of God's Word of truth. In the men, that God would prove them, and shew them to
account of creation we read:
be like beasts. Therefore the death of man, and of
beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal:
13 "And God said-Let the waters swarm with an
abundance of living soul, and birds shall fly over the as man dieth, so they also die: all things breathe
earth, over the face of the expanse of the heavens. alike, and man hath nothing more than beast: all
And God created the great sea-monsters, and every things are subject to vanity. And all things go to one
living soul that moveth-with which the waters place: of earth they were made, and into earth they
swarmed after their kind and every winged bird- return together. Who knoweth if the spirit of the
after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And children of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit
God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply of the beasts descend downward '" (Douay) Note
and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multi- here that the inspired Solomon speaks of the "spirit
ply in the land. So it was evening-and it was morn- of the beasts". However, our priestly critics, in
ing, a fifth day. And God said-Let the land bring answering the question, "Do the words spirit and
forth living soul after its kind, tame-beast and creep- soul mean the same thing?" (Q. 20), say: "The word
ing thing and wild-beast of the land after its kind. spirit acquired a transferred sense, becoming a subAnd it was so."-Gen. 1: 20-24, Rotherham's empha- stitute for the word soul. ... The soul, therefore, is
the living principle which makes the difference
sised translation.
between a living man and a corpse, and spirit and
a After God created man in His own image and
likeness, then, as we read, "God said-La I I have soul in this sense mean the same thing.... The soul
12-14. Why do we admit that the lower animals are "souls"?

15 r. man above beaS!:8 and like God In having nn Immortal Boul1

16, 11. In this matter, doel! ~nt Hubslltute tor 80fll' Ano why?

NOVEMBER

15, 1948

SEeWATCHTOWER

is a spirit, and is called the breath of God merely

because caused or created by God in its spiritual or
breathlike nature." (Q. 31) However, our priestly
critics should know that in Latin anima is not the
same as spiritus; and in Greek pneuma is not the
came as psyche; and in Hebrew rttach is not the same
as nephesh. In the Holy Scriptures spirit is not used
to mean a human soul, for when God breathed into
man's face the breath of life, the man of /lesh and
bones did not become a living spirit. He "became a
Jiving soul".
17 Instead of making spit'it and soul the same in
meaning, God's Word of truth distinguishes between
spirit and soul. The apostle Paul, in proof, says:
"The first man Adam was made into a living soul;
the last Adam into a quickening spirit." (1 Cor.
15: 45, Douay) Paul also says: "For the word of God
is Jiving and effectual, and more piercing than any
two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of
the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow." (Heb. 4: 12, Douay) And when writing to the
whole church at Thessalonica Paul pronounced this
blessing: "May the God of peace himself sanctify
you in all things; that your whole spirit, and soul,
and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ."-l Thess. 5: 23, Douay.
18 It is therefore manifest that the human soul is
not meant when God's Word says concerning man's
death, at Ecclesiastes 12: 7: "Then shall the dust
return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it." The human soul was
never up in heaven with God and so could not return
to him; neither do wicked human souls go up to
heaven at death. In harmony with the rest of the
Holy Bible, the spirit that returns to God at man's
death is the invisible active force or energy from
God that animates or enlivens man and causes his
various mental and physical functions to operate.
That same spirit animates the lower animals; and
so Ecclesiastes 3: 19 says: "1'01' as regardeth the
destiny of the sons of men and the destiny of beasts
one fate have they, as dieth the one so dieth the
other, and one spirit have they all."-Rolherham.
MAN NOT CREATED FOR HEAVEN NOR IMMORTAL
19 We still have on file a letter dated April 30, 1930,
written on the letterhead of Catholic University,
Washington, D.C., Caldwell Hall. In it one Rev.
A- E. B- writes: "Regarding the questions you
sent to the National Council of Catholic Men, and
which lack of time prevented Dr. Sheen's answering,
Catholic theologians teach as follows: 1) that Adam
and Eve originally enjoyed the gift of immortality
of body, and that this privilege was lost by their

18. Therefore, according to EectesllUltell 12: 7, what retnrns to God?

19, 20. Wltb what dOeR tbe Catholle lettpr say God made Adam and Eve?

343

sin; 2) if they had never sinned they would never

have died, in the sense in which we understand death;
3) if they had never sinned, they would have been
immediately transferred to heavenly blessedness,
without the violent separation of soul and body
which they after sinning experienced, and which we
now experience, in death."
20 Note that this official Catholic letter states that
God created Adam and Eve immortal in both body
and soul, and that they continued immortal in soul
although they lost "immortality of body"; and that
if they had not sinned, their immortal soul would not
have been separated from their immortal body, but
their immortal body of /lesh, bones, and blood would
have been transferred to heaven for all eternity.
These teachings deserve comparison with God's
Word of truth, and in making the comparison here
we follow the apostolic rule, at Romans 3: 4: "God
must be found true, and 'every man a liar'."-The
TVestmillster Version (Roman Catholic).
2' Never could Adam and Eve have gone to heaven,
no matter how long they refrained from sinning
against God. They were both of flesh and blood, and
the apostle Paul states it as an unchangeable rule:
"Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of
God: neither shall corruption possess incorruption."
(1 Cor. 15: 50, Douay) They were of the earth,
earthy, and their everlasting destiny was, not heaven,
but a paradise earth, if they remained faithful. God
did not give them a single heavenly promise. He
set before them an eternity on earth as a reward for
faithfulness, saying: "Increase and multiply, and fill
the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishel'l of
the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth." (Gen. 1: 28, Douay)
If they had not sinned, the Son of God would not
have come down to earth as a man and died as a
ransom sacrifice. Furthermore, Jesus Christ the Son
of God showed the way by which his followers gain
access to heaven, saying: "Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the Idngdom of God... , Except
a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3: 3, 5) It is
necessary to die as human creatures in faithfulness
to God in order to inherit heavenly life with the Son
of God, for he said to his followers: "Be thou faith
ful until death: and I will give thee the crown of
life." (Apoc. 2: 10, Douay) No opportunity was
extended to Adam and Eve to be born again, of
water and of the spirit; nor was there any reason for
it for this perfect human pair.
22 There was no need for Adam and Eve to die in
order to prove their faithfulness to the limit. Death
was mentioned to them, not as a thing to test their
self-sacrificing faithfulness to God, but as a penalty
21. Why could Adam and Eve never have gone to beaven?
22. Wbat proves God gave Adam and Eve 110 hnmortallty at all?

344

$lieWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

for unfaithfulness and disobedience. God did not beginning" and "speaketh a lie, ... for he is a liar,
appoint man to die once until Adam had proved and the father th~reof". (John 8: 44, Douay) Any
unfaithful and sinned. (Heb. 9: 27, 28) Hence it was sensible man who accepts God as true, can see that
that first of all God commanded Adam: "Of every Adam and E~e never had immortality, and that God
tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of did not create them "indestructible souls", and that
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For God did not "endow us with an immortal nature",
in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt because we were born from sinner Adam. For sindie the death." (Gen. 2: 16, 17, Douay) This proves ning willfully, God pronounced the sentence of death
that Adam and Eve did not originally enjoy the upon the human soul Adam. About 930 years later
gift of "immortality of body", for, if God had given God destroyed the soul Adam.
them this, he would not have given such a command
THE HUMAN SOUL MORTAL. DESTRUCTIBLE
to Adam. Neither would he have given such a com25 In answer to the question (687), "Is it revealed
mand if he had endowed Adam with an immortal
doctrine that the soul of man is immortal T" our
nature an immortal soul. God's command showed
priestly critics say: "Yes. . . . Both Old and New
that j~st because he created Adam it did not give
Testaments
insist upon the immortality of the soul."
Adam the right to exist forever. In saying this, we
We
have
already
shown (page 339 ~~ 3,4) that in
clina- to God's Word, and not to religious theologians.
the
Roman
Catholic
"Old Testament" the words
OUl~ Catholic critics say in answer to the question, immortal( ity) and incorr'uption
occur in only the
",Vhv should the fact of our being born give us the
two
apocryphal
books,
The
Wisdom
of Solomon a~d
right to exist foreved" (Q. 4~) : "It is no~ the mere
Ecclesiasticus.
The
occurrences
of
these words 111
fact of being born, but of bemg born wlth such a
the
so-called
"New
Testament"
we
shall
examine in
nature. The soul is fitted by its very nature to live
paraa-raphs
to
follow.
Like
the
pagan
philosophers
on forever, for a spiritual entity cannot disintegrate
critics
and die.... God had the right to create indestructible Pyth~goras, Socrates and Plato, our priestly
d say "h
speak
of
the
human
soul
as
immorta.l
an
t e
souls if He wished. He did so. And our right to live
body
is
naturally
mortal;
the
soul
by
ItS
very
nature
on is vested in His will to endow us with an immortal
nature." But God's 'Va I'd does not agree with that. immortal". But in answer to the question (34),
"What indications i have you that the soul is im23 Catholics and Protestants will agree that Satan
mortan" our religious critics \vrite six paragraphs
the Devil is a "spiritual entity". Yet, in the Apoca- of a total of thirty-two lengthy lines but do not prolypse the apostle J aIm says Satan the Devil will be duce a single inspired scripture from God's Word,
cast into the "pool of fire and brimstone" at the end As for ourselves, to prove that the human soul is
of Christ's thousand-year reign, and that this "pool mortal and destructible and that the inspired Hebrew
of fire" "is the second death". (Apoc. 20: 9, 14 and Scriptures and Christian Greek Scriptures do not
21: 8 Douay) Hence the spiritual entity Satan the "insist upon the immortality of the soul", we shall
Devii will be destroyed and die, and will be no more. herewith produce scriptures from God's written
God's own ,Vord says so, at Hebrews 2: 14 and Word and thus let him be true, but men liars.
Ezekiel 28: 12-19. The reason for the destruction of
2S Since the religionists cannot produce one scripthis spiritual entity Satan the Devil is that !le re- ture to sav that the human soul is immortal, it onght
belled against God in Eden and slandered hun. to to be ena"ugh if we produce just one scripture to
make God appear a liar. Since man is made a little prove that the human soul is subject to death a;lld
lower than the angels and since Satan the Devil is destruction. First, we take this onc necessary scnpnot immortal and indestructible, then certainly ture from Ezechiel 18:4,20,27 (Dollay). We quote:
lesser man could not be an immortal, indel::!tl'uctible
2T "Behold all souls arc mine: as the soul of the
soul. It was Satan the Devil that led Eve to eat the father so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul
forbidden fruit by telling her: "N 0, you t;hnll not that si~neth, the same shall die. The soul that sinneth,
die the death. For God doth know that in what day the same shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity
-soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be of the father, and the father shall not bear the
opened: and you shull be as Gods, knowing good and iniquity of the son: the justice of the just shall be
evil."-Gen. 3: 4,5, Douay.
upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be
2' Here the Devil, "that old serpent," was persuadupon him. And when the wicked turneth himself
ing Eve to believe she and A.dam possessed "im- away from his wickedness, which he hath wrought,
mortality of body" as well as immortality of soul and and doeth judgment, and justice: he shall ~a\'e his
that Jehovah God could not def::itroy the soul. Because soul alive."
the Devil brought about the death of Adam and Eve,
28 Notice that repeated stntclllE'llt, "the soul that
Jesus said the Devil was a "murderer from the ~7.hoth Old and New Testaments" 10s',1 UVUli human Imruurtahtr:
2~,

24, What proves spiritual entities can die, and wb)' also man 'I

20. 27. Why does one scripture suffice to pro\ e 80ul death'
28. How do our crltlps dodge the truth of E7el<l.! l~' 4, 20 '.

NOV&MBER 15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

sinneth, the same shall die." Showing that the soul

is not the same as the spirit, the inspired Scriptures
nowhere say that the spirit dies, but they repeatedly
say that the soul dies. When confronted with this
plain scripture, our priestly critics say (Q. 694):
"The word soul here does not refer exclusively to
the immortal part of man's nature." To what part,
then, does it refer' Where do the inspired Hebrew
Scriptures from Moses to Ezekiel say anything about
an immortal part of man's nature! Ezekiel wrote the
words, "the soul that sinneth, the same shall die,"
before ever Pythagoras the pagan philosopher
began to write and teach and before the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books were written. If
Ezekiel did not mean what he wrote, then why did
he not say: 'The man that sinneth, his body shalJ.
die'! However, God is true in what he says. By his
spirit he inspired Ezekiel to write the truth, and no
dodging by religious clergymen can disprove it.
2P When we accept the Bible for what God says
in it, then the truth becomes simple. Adam became
a living soul when God breathed the breath of life
into his human form. Consequently when the sinner
Adam died, the human soul died. It ceased to exist.
God nowhere threatened to torture Adam's soul in
fire and brimstone after his death. God did not thus
threaten, Adam, because God knew that the human
soul Adam was not immortal and indestructible.
Instead of eternal torment of the soul, the apostle
Paul says: "The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6: 23)
There is no life everlasting for the wicked: "The
Lord keepeth all them that love him; but all the
wicked he will destroy." (Ps. 144: 20, Douay) To
observe the unchanging insistence of "both Old and
New Testaments" upon the mortality and destructibleness of the human soul, note the following inspired
scriptures in the Catholic Douay Version (Murphy
edition) :
80 "Let my soul die the death of the just, and my
last end be like to them." (Num. 23: 10) "His soul
fainted away, and was wearied even until death. He
said: Let my soul die with the Philistines." (Judg.
16: 16, 30, marginal reading) "Deliver our souls
from death." (Josh. 2: 13) "Their soul shall die in
a storm, and their life among the effeminate." (Job
36: 14) "He spared not their souls from death, and
their cattle he shut up in death." (Ps. 77: 50) II "To
deliver their souls from death; and feed tllelll in
famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord." (Ps. 32: 19,
20)- "Turn, a my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord
hath been bountiful to thee. For he hath delivered
my soul from death: my eyes from tears, my feet
from falling." (Ps. 114: 7, 8) "He hath delivered his
In the King James Version Psalms 78: 50; 33: 19, 20;
116: 7, S.
211, 30. How does our Boul die? And what scriptures Insist upon this?

345

soul unto death, and was reputed with tHe wicked."

(Isa. 53: 12) "My soul is sorrowful even unto death."
(Matt. 26: 38) "He who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul
from death." (Jas. 5: 20) "And the third part of
those creatures died, which had life [psyche] in the
sea." "And the second angel poured out his vial upon
the sea, and there came blood as it were of a dead
man; and every living soul Lpsyche] died in the sea."
-Apoc. 8: 9 and 16: 3, Douay.
81 Jesus Christ is authority for it that Almighty
God is able to destroy the human soul and does so.
Hear Jesus as he says: "Fear ye not them that kill
the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather
fear him that can destroy both soul and body in helL"
(Matt. 10: 28, Douay) In the original Greek text the
word for hell here is not Hades, but is Gehenna.
Hence the word does not mean the Hades to which
Jesus' soul went at death. (Ps. 15: 10, Douay; Acts
2: 24-31) Confronted with this full saying of Jesus
Christ, our priestly critics reply: "But God cannot
only destroy the body; He can condemn the soul to
an eternal existence which is destruction indeed-the
wreckage of all one's hopes and desires. It is simply
a living death forever." (Q. 695) Where, please, does
God's Word speak of a "living death forever"! To
the contrary of everlasting living for the souls that
are destroyed in Gehenna, the truthful apostle Paul
says: "The wage::; of sin is death. But the grace of
God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Rom. 6: 23, Douay) The souls destroyed in Gehenna
do not enjoy that "grace of God, life everlasting".
'l'hey are dead as sinners, out of existence.
8' It is a dodging of the facts to say that death
means everlasting life in misery and torment. The
Scriptures nowhere teach that the difference between
death and everlasting life is happiness, and that
death means life without happiness. God's Word of
truth does not present such a contradiction of terms.
Jesus said: "Be not afraid of them who kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do.
But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye
him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast
into hell [Gehenna, Greek]." (Luke 12: 4, 5, Douay)
After men have killed our bodies and so put us to
death, they cannot prevent our resurrection from
the dead, from Hades, at Christ's second coming.
But when God destroys the human soul by casting it
into Gehenna (pictured by the "pool of fire and brimstone"), it means there will be no future life for ::;uch
soul. 'rhere will be no resurrection from the dead
for it. It is blotted out of existence. No destroyed
souls are resurrected from Gehenna, for it means
"second death".-Rev. 20: 14, 15; 21: 8.
83 Hear God's own word that he can destroy and
31. How do our critics explain Matthew 10: 28, but unscrlptUlally?
32, 33. How does God destroy soul? What other texts prove It?

346

SEeWATCHTOWER

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

does destroy souls: "Every soul that is not afflicted

on this day, shall perish from among his people:
and every soul that shall do any work, the same will
I destroy from among his people." (Lev. 23: 29, 30;
Douay) "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise
up unto you of your brethren: ... And it shall be,
that every soul which wiII not hear that prophet,
shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts
3: 22, 23, Douay; Deut. 18: 18, 19) Other scriptures
which speak of the destroying of souls are Joshua
10: 35, 37; Proverbs 6: 32; Psalm 40: 14; and Ezekiel
13 : 19; 22: 27.

hydrogen until released from the union. Soul and

body make one human being. And both elements
must be fit to co-operate in the activities of a bodily
human being. The soul cannot operate separately as
a distinct unit whilst still united. But once released,
it can operate independently every bit as much as
hydrogen when released from its essential union with
..
oxygen to form water."
37 The priests do not produce a smgle BIble .te~t
for this religious argument, but the force of. It IS
this: Seat a man at a piano, and he can play plano;
take the piano away from the man, and l~e can an.d
does still play piano and produces better plano mUSIC
ILLUSTRATION
than befor-e, when he had the piano. Silly! you say;
S4 The Bible speaks of dead souls, at Leviticus
and just as silly is the attempt to illustrate by the
19: 28; 21: 11, and Numbers 5: 2; 6: 6, 11; 9: 6, 7, 10, use of water. Hydrogen and oxygen indeed unite
in the original Hebrew text. And at Aggeus 2: 14 chemically to produce water. But if we separate the
(Douay) it is written: "If one that is unclean by hydrogen from the oxygen, t~e hydrogen cannot
occasion of a soul touch any of all these things, shall operate as water and by itself It does not have the
it be defiled~" The TIoman Catholic footnote on this properties of water. You cannot drink gaseo~s h~'d~o
verse reads: "lly occasion of a soul. That is, by gen; you cannot wash with hy~rogen or SWIm In It;
having touched the dead."-l\Iul'phy edition.
you cannot extinguish a fire WIth hydrogen. If ?ou
35 At Psalm 104: 29, 30 we are told how a soul dies
apply hydrogen to a flame, you produce an explOSIOn.
and is brought to life again: "When thou hidest thy In the explosion the hydrogen unites with oxygen
face, they are worried; when thou takest away their and produces water. \Vhen hydrogen is separated
breath they die, and turn again into dust. When thou from the oxygen, the water ceases to be and the
sendest forth thy breath, they are created; and thou hydrogen and oxygen do not retain the properties
renewest the face of the earth." (An .Amet.. Trans.; of water.
also Moffatt; Ps. 103: 29, 30, Douay) At Psalm
ss Rather than show that the soul survives after
145: 2-4 (Douay) we also read: "Put not your trust death this illustration well pictures soul death. The
in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is combining of the human body with the breath of life
110 salvation. His spirit shall go forth, and he shall
by God's power produces the human soul. :Man thus
return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts becomes a living soul. But if the spirit or breath of
shall perish." Further, as to the unconsciousness of life is separated from the human body, the living
dead souls we read: "For the living know that they soul ceases to be. The soul ceases to live; it dies,
;;hall die, but the dead know nothing more, neither just as God's Word everywhere says. The breath of
ha'\e they a reward any more: for the memory of life does not retain the properties of the living
them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand is able to human soul. Neither does the dead human body, for
do do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor it cannot see, bear, feel, taste, smell, tlJink, love, hate,
wi~dom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou or work. It is nonsensical, hence unscriptural, to say
art hastening."-Eccl. 9: 5, 10, Douay; also Ps. 6: 5, G. that a soul inside man's body operates by man's
36 However, the pagan doctrine of immortality of
organs and sense faculties while in his body, but,
the soul presupposes consciousness after death. In when it is separated from those organs and faculties
that case, the soul should be conscious when the body at death, such independent soul can stm carryon
is under chloroform or when it is knocked senseless those same operations.
in an accident. To this argument our priestly critics
say (Q. 43) : "The soul whilst in a state of union with
HOW BROUGHT TO LIGHT
the body operates by using the faculties of the body.
39 We have by no means exhausted all the Bible
If the sense instruments are incapacitated, the soul proof, but enough has been produced in the above
can no longer operate adequately whilst united to paragraphs to prove that Pythagoras, Socrates and
the body. But once released from the body, its intelli- Plato did not bring life and immortality to the light
gence and will and power to love at once assert of men, for their teachings about immortality of the
themllelves. Hydrogen and oxygen unite to form a human soul are false. Satan the Devil did not bring
drop of water. They can operate as water only whilst light upon the subject when he lyingly said to Eve
united. Hydrogen is there, but it cannot operate as
:H 3:; Are there dead souls, and ..hnt 1s their state?
36: 37: How d~ tbe illustration on .oul Rurvlvnl proTc fall!C'

38. How d~ the illustration rather picture soul death?

39, 40. (a) When anel how was 1I1:ht tbrown IIpon Ilte? (b) WhPD an"
hO'W "non Ineor~"ptl\J'!lIt:"

NOVEMBER

15, 1948

tflieWATCHTOWER..

in Eden: "No, you shall not die the d-eath." (Gen.

3: 4, Douay) What the apostle Paul states at 2 Timothy 1: 10 remains standing as the unshakable truth,
namely ~ "Our Saviour Christ Jesus, who indeed hath
abolished death, and hath thrown light upon life and
incorruptibility through means of the glad-message.'~
(Rotherham) Not before Christ Jesus died as a
human sacrifice, and was resurrected, and ascended
to God's presence to present the value of his sacrifice
for us, was there any basis for eternal life for any
of Adam's offspring. By accepting the b-enefits of
his sacrifice "men of good will" may gain eternal life
on this earth perfected under God's kingdom; and
even the human dead will be resurrected to this
gracious opportunity._The prophet Moses brought in
a "ministration of death", for by the Ten Commandments and all the rest of the law of God Moses
carried on a "ministration of condemnation" so that
all mankind, Jew and Gentile, stood condemned
before .Tehovah God.-2 Cor. 3: 7-9, Douay.
40 On the other hand, Christ Jesus as Meq.iator of
a new covenant performed a "ministration of justice", a ministry by which righteousn-ess is gained
through faith in his sacrifice, and thus freedom from
divine condemnation. Rence his is a ministry of everla::;ting life for mankind in general, to be gained
under his kingdom for blessing all the families of the
earth. Moreover, Christ Jesus made it possible for
his faithful body of footstep followers to enter
heaven and there be rewarded with immortality,
incorruptibility, indestructibility. No creature from
earth ever entered or could enter heaven before the
resurrected Christ Jesus. As the forerunner of his
body of 144,000 faithful followers he was first to
enter heaven: "where the forerunner Jesus is entered
for us, made a high priest for ever according to the
order of Melcl1isedech." (Reb. 6: 20, Douay) At his
resurrection from the dead Christ Jesus was the first
of God's creatures to be clothed upon with immortality, deathlessness, so that now he is an immortal spirit person. 'rhe resurrected Jesus himself
stated this for us to the apostl-e John, when he said:
"I was dead, and behold, I am living forevermore;
and I have the keys of death and of hell [hades]."
(Apoc. 1: 18, Oath. Oonfrat.) "Because Christ also
died once for sins, the Jus t for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God. Put to death indeed in the
flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit."-l Pet.
3: 18, Oath. Oonfmt.
"WHO ALONE HAS IMMORTALITY"

The apostle Paul blesses Jehovah God the

Father with the words: "Now unto the King of the
ages, incorruptible [aph'thartos], invisible, alone
God be honour and glory unto the ages of ages."
(1 Tim. 1: 17, Rotherharn; also Young) Because this
41

41. To Timothy how does Paul descrlbe God and then Jesus Christ?

347

incorruptible God the Father bestowed the prize of

immortality in heaven first upon his only begotten
Son, Jesus Christ, the apostle in the same epistle
to Timothy says the following about the Son of God:
"Keep the commandment '\vithout stain, blameless
until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This coming he in his own time will make manifest, who is the
Blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and
Lord of lords; who alone has immortality [athanasia] and dwells in light inaccessible, whom no man
has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting dominion. Amen."-l Tim. 6: 14-16, Oath.
Oonfrat.
42 The resurrected Christ Jesus is the "image of
the invisible God". (Col. 1 : 15) As such, Christ Jesus
dwells in light that is unapproachable for human
creatures, and no man has seen him in such heavenly
glory, nor can any man 'see him thus. Saul of Tarsus
on the road to Damascus saw only the reflected glory
of Christ by means of a miracle, as if Saul had been
born from the dead in the first resurrection. (Acts
9: 1-7; 1 Cor. 15 : 8) On the isle of Patmos the apostle
John saw only a symbolical representation of the
glorified Christ in an apocalyptic vision. Hence John
later wrote to fellow Christians: "It doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he
e;hall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see
him as,he is." (Rev. 1: 10-18; 1 John 3: 2) John also
speaks of the glorified Jesus as "King of kings, and
Lord of lords". (Rev. 19: Hi and 17: 14) Paul says
that Christ Jesus in his own time makes manifest
his second coming, to reign as King of kings; and it
is at that time that Jehovah God confers upon him
honor and everlasting dominion. (Dan. 7: 13, 14) As
a Potentate or Mighty One he exercises Kingdom
power, acting as the chief representative of the great
universal Sovereign, Jehovah.
43 In the first century, when the apostle Paul wrote
Timothy, none of Christ's footstep followers that
had fallen asleep in death had yet been resurrected
to life in the spirit in heaven. Correctly, then, Paul
wrote of our Lord Jesus Christ as being at that time
the One "who alone has immortality". In now having
the prize of immortality Jesus Christ was especially
like his heavenly Father, who is "the incorruptible
[aph'thartosJ, invisible, only wise God". (1 Tim.
1: 17, Young) His "immortality" cannot be explained
away to mean just "everlasting happiness" or a
"happy immortality", as opposed to a miserable
immortality. Our priestly critics argue so (Q. 697) ;
but that would mean that the faithful holy angels
of heaven were not then also enjoying everlasting
happiness. According to the Scriptures of truth,
however, Christ's immortality means his deathlessness, unable to be "hurt by second death" and unable

42, Why has no man seen the glorified Jesus Christ?

43, Why 'did Paul say Jesus Christ "alone has lmmortalit3'''?

348

~eWATCHTOWER.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

to be destroyed by any other creature. (Apoc. 2: 8, 11,

Oath. Oonfrat.) From his resurrection onward he is
immortal.

are clothed upon with incorruptibility. To these who

participate in Christ's resurrection Paul writes: "So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown
OTHER SOULS THAT GAIN IMMORTALITY
in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weak.. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not remain alone ness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body;
in possessing the prize of immortality from his it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural
heavenly Father. That prize is also held before his [psychical] body, and there is a spiritual body.
body of 144,000 faithful followers, his "bride". For Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
this reason it is written to them, at Romans 2: 5-7 : inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption
"The righteous judgment of God, who will render inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery;
unto each one according to his works :-unto them We shall not all sleep [in death], but we shall all be
on the one hand who by way of endurance in good changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
work are seeking glory, honour and incorruption the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
[aph'tharsia] , life age-abiding." (Rotherham) The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
fact that these are spoken of here as seeking glory, changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruphonor and incorruptibility proves that not even tion, and this mortal must put on immortality. So
faithful Christians possess immortality on earth. If when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
they did, they could not die, "faithful unto death." and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
Certainly what a person possesses and has, he does shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
not seek to gain. But now the true Christians have Death is swallowed up in victory."-l Cor. 15: 42-44,
been begotten again by God's incorruptible Word 50-54.
48 In conclusion, then, we note that there is no
and they have an "incorrnptible inheritance" in
heaven set before them and yet to be gained.-1 Pet. immortality for the Christians in this mortal human
body of flesh and blood, but it is only as a spiritual
1: 4, 23, Cctth. Con/rat.
body that they win the prize with Christ of immor4~ After proving their faithfulness to death on
earth these genuine followers of Christ enter into tality in heaven. True, the prize of immortality,
immortality and incorruptibility with him in heaven incorruptibility, indestructibility, is not set before
only at his second coming, when Jehovah God sets redeemed mankind outside of Christ's "bride", but
up the Kingdom with him on the throne. At that faithful men and women on earth will gain everlasttime the King Christ Jesus raises his faithful fol- ing life on the paradise earth under God's kingdom.
lowers from the dead. Thus it is only by a resurrec- Almighty God win keep these obedient, faithful
tion from death to life as spirit creatures in heaven earthlings alive everlastingly by his life-sustaining
that these faithful ones enter into immortality and provisions through the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Jesus Christ our Savior.
44. What u<) Christ's followers on earth .eek, and why so?
45. When do Ill.., .. attain ImmorTaliTy. and how?

46. If not Immortality, what do faithful humans gain. and bow'

OTHER NORTH AMERICAN DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES

N ORDER to go northward to Alaska from Vancouver,

B.C., it was first necessary for the Watch Tower president, N. H. Knorr, and his colaborer, L. A. Swingle,
to go south to Seattle. Due to the uncertainty of train
travel, brought about by the June flood of the Frazier
river, it seemed advisable for them to fly from Vancouver
to Seattle, Wash., where a Pan American plane was
boarded for the flight to Juneau, Alaska. The course that
was followed traveling north was the inland water route
along the rugged western coastline of the North American
continent. Here travelers will see some of the finest scenery
in the world. The sky was exceptionally clear except for a
fe\v cloudy spots that we ran through. The pilot chose an
altitude of between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, and this gave the
travelers a good opportunity of observing the dense growth
of evergreens, the islands, and the ever-changing interesting scenery. Far to the east were the jagged, white peaks
of the British Columbia Rockies which rose abruptly out
of a blanket of snow. The inlets from the sea, it seemed,

tried to reach back to the very base of these snowy heights.

When looking directly below us into the channel we could
see the V-shaped wakes of the salmon trawlers, and as we
continued north we saw the icebergs that were breaking off
of the glaciers where the sea inlets and mountains met.
Our first landing was at Annette island. The travelers
could taxi by seaplane from this island to Ketchikan. In
about twenty minutes our Pan American Clipper was off
again for Juneau, the capital of the Alaskan territory.
Before landing at the airport at Juneau the passengers
were given a very rare treat. Our pilot flew low over the
famous Mendenhall glacier, a thing that can be accomplished by an aviator only about two or three times a year,
so we were told. Usually the air currents over the glacier
are too treacherous, but on certain clear days the air seems
to be quiet and smooth. It was on such a day that we were
coming into Juneau, and our pilot flew so low that we could
see down into the thousands of gaping crevasses that sliced
the top of this beautiful glacier. This is probably one of

NOVEMBER

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER.

the many glaciers that were formed back there in the days
of the Noachian flood when great changes took place in
the surface of the earth. Just a few minutes after this aweinspiring scene, we landed at the airport at Juneau, and
there to welcome us were some graduates from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. We were certainly happy to
see them. OJlr fellow workers in Alaska have done good
service in that cold country for a number of years, and
this was a happy occasion to see them again.
We traveled by taxi for twelve miles in to the city, where
we met more of our fellow workers from Gilead, and there
were many things that we had to talk about. Alaska has its
problems, for it is twice the size of Texas and has a population of only 60,000 to 70,000 people. The Society felt, however, that even these should learn and know of the truth
if they could be reached. There are some railroads that can
be used for travel, fishing boats that comb the coast, and
airplanes. These are the principal means of transportation
to the little villages that are scattered many miles apart.
Many years ago a pioneer Kingdom pubHsher from the
United States traveled throughout Alaska and placed a lot
of literature. The persons who obtained the literature have
since been reached again by Gilead graduates and they have
been stimulated to take up a more careful study of the
Lord's Word. Brethren came from Anchorage, Ketchikan,
Wrangell, Skagway, Seward and other places to Juneau
and brought with them very interesting experiences which
they related at the assembly. They indeed have their problems because everyone up there in that northern country is
interested in money and getting rich, whether by fishing,
lumbering or mining, and the brethren must be very patient
with these people and try to have studies with them at their
convenience. But the seed sown years ago and that which
is being sown now are bearing fruit. One of the graduates
from Gilead school, in working an old Indian village,
talked to an elderly man about the Bible. This man knew
the difference between religion and the truth. He soon
recognized that the Gilead graduate was preaching what
he had read and heard many years before from this early
pioneer, and now, because the message rang true and lined
up with the Lord's Word, he was glad to accept the minister
of the gospel and learn more.
One of those who recently became interested in the truth
was an old "sourdough" from Anchorage. ~ow in Alaska
a sourdough is looked upon as a very respectable person.
He is one of the old-timers, one of those who went up to
Alaska 30 or 40 years ago in the gold rush and opened up
the country. These got their name because of carrying a
little sour dough from one day to the next with which to
make their pancake batter. If they ran out of sour dough,
they borrowed some from another "sourdough". This "sourdough'"from-Anchorage heard we were to have an assembly
of Jehovah's witnesses at Juneau, and he wanted to attend.
It did not matter to him that he was nigh to eighty years
and was so crippled up that it was hard for him to get
around. He insisted on going; so he came to the Juneau
assembly and was immersed on June 13.
Immersion took place that Sunday morning in one of
the most unique pools that has ever been used for such a
service. Years ago when the Mendenhall glacier was on the
move it carved out holes in the terram over which it flowed.

349

Now that the glacier is receding, these depressions are made

bare. It was in one of these little pools of fresh, clear snow
water made warm by the sun, which was located less than
half a mile from the face of the glacier, that the baptismal
service was held. A few days before the immersion the sun's
rays were very warm on this water pool, and they made
this snow water just the right temperature for a baptismal
service. So it was out there under a radiant sun, with the
deep blue sky above and green-covered hills on either side,
with the huge blue-white glacier as a backdrop, that our
Alaskan brethren had arranged for their first baptismal
service. There were six consecrated brethren who symbolized
their consecration to serve God in that country.
It was not expected that there would be a large crowd
at this. three-day assembly, because not very many were
interested, but the brethren who were there needed the
spiritual food and the advice and counsel that the Lord
always brings forth at an assembly of His people. This
district assembly in Alaska followed the same outline of
program as those being held in other parts of the world.
Saturday evening, June 12, we had 48. These were breth
ren who are devoted to the Lord along with some of their
good-will persons. On Sunday, at the public meeting, which
was held at the Masonic Temple, there were 68 present.
Among the crowd were some native Alaskans who belonged
to the local tribe of Tlingit Indians. Some of the prominent
Masons stayed in town purposely to hear the lecture. We
also had present at our assembly a sister from Los Angeles
who had flown there, and two sisters from Ohio. They
chose Alaska as their dilltrict assembly after it was announced at the Los Angeles assembly the previous summer.
The district assembly in Juneau, Alaska, was certainly
an enjoyable one because we were one big family of about
40 persons. \Ve ate together; we went out in the field service together, and we had our meetings together. We knew
everyone and we got acquainted in the short time that we
were there. It was small enough that one could talk to
everyone present at the assembly. 'When it came time to
leave practically the whole convention moved out to the
airport by a bus that we rented, and there all of us saw
some of our brethren get away to Anchorage. Then a little
later Brothers Knorr and Swingle started off for the south,
mal~ing their way to Winnipeg, Canada. All of the breth ren
in Alaska expressed their hope that Brother Knorr would
return again, and soon. Little did they know, though, that
we would touch foot on Ala&kan soil before they expectrd.
Five minutes after we had taken off and had flown past
the city of Juneau, the number 4 engine on the big ship
stalled. Thus we were forced to return to the airport and
make repairs. It was a matter of two hours to get the plane
ready for the air again, and then we were off, the next
stop being Annette island, and then on to Seattle, where
we arrived safely.
WINNIPEG. MANITOBA, CANADA

In Seattle a number of the brethren were out to meet us.

There was work next day at the Society's depot, and then
we flew on to Vancouver, where we were joined by the
Society's Branch servant of Canada. Arrangements had
been made to fly the next day from Vancouver to Winnipeg,
Manitoba. When it was learned that Brother Knorr was in
Vancouver overnight, it did not take the brethren long to

~e WATCHTOWER..

350

draft him to talk at one of the service meetings that evening. Grapevine communications went into operation about
two hours before the meeting was held, and therc werc
425 present at the Kingdom Hall. They were all very glad
to hear a report on Alaska. The flight the next day from
Vancouver to Winnipeg was uneventful. We were traveling
in a -to-passenger, North Star Sky Liner, powered by Rolls
Royce engines, and we flew at an altitude of about 17,000
feet. The clouds covered the Canadian Rockies and all the
land below. The monotony of the trip was broken only by
landing at Calgary, Alberta, for refueling. When we arrived
at Winnipeg, a huge crowd of brethren were on hand to
welcome us. There wc saw a number of automobiles with
beautiful overhead signs advertising the public lecturc for
.June 20 at the Amphitheatre.
So as to save time, the meeting of the' servants to the
brethren and their wives was called for Thursday previous
to the assembly, because Brother Knorr was anxious to get
back to Brooklyn as quickly after thc assembly a~ possible
to do a little work at home before going on to Ottawa. The
convention opened on Friday, June 18, and it was good to
see the Canadian brethren feeding well upon the food
provided for them at this assembly. Again it was observed
that there was no difference made in ages. The Lord's
people did not have an old men's class and a children's
group, feeding them different food because of their ages;
but they were all suved the same things spiritually. They
all enjoyed the same blessings in service, advertising the
King and the Kingdom.
There were 3,508 brethren who came to the assembly.
Some of these came from the far west because they could
not get to Vancouver. Sunday morning 118 symbolized their
consecration to God, and at the public meeting the auditorium wa:; packed out with 5,524 in attendance. During
these three days in Winnipeg the brethren were heard
expressing their joy and happiness at the things that they
had been learning at the a~sembly. All agreed that it was
the finest and most helpful assembly they had ever attended.
They were refreshed and contented and were happy now
to return to their local companies, there to aid the brethren
in whatever capacity they could.
The travelers left Winnipeg early th!:: next morning,
~Ionday, for a trip to Toronto and on to New York. On
arriving at Toronto the Branch servant, Brother Knorr
and tho::,e traveling with him found the Bethel family out
to meet them. It was a pleasure to talk with them for just
a few minutes before taking off to New York.
OTTAWA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY

The third district assembly to be held in Canada was set

for June 25-27; the place, Ottawa. This city is situated on
the bluffs overlooking the majestic Ottawa river and is
Canada's beautiful capital city. It has a population of
225,000 people. Just across the river is that province known
as Quebec. Pioneers had come into the city early to do preconvention work a:; was done at all other large assemblies.
They worked well in advertising the meeting and getting
things ready for the grand assembly. The entire Bethel
family from Toronto attended, and several of the directors
of the Society, H. C. Covington, M. G. Henschel and
G. Suiter, were also present. Brother Knorr arrived by
plane the day the convention opened. The Coliseum was

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

used. This is located in Lansdowne Park and ,vas just flne

for the gathering of the Lord's people. By Saturday evening 4,200 of the brethren were in attendance, and at the
public meeting Sunday afternoon there were 5,380, who
paid rapt attention to the president's public address. That
morning 150 brethren symbolized their consecration, and
a number of these were from Quebec.
Canada, as everyone knows, has had its share of persecution. During the war it was not uncommon to find the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police gathering in some of Jehovah's witnesses or breaking up some of their meetings just
because they were being good Christians and carrying on
true worship. But now that persecution has ceased, except
in Quebec, and Jehovah's witnesses are again a free people
in Canada and have the right to carry on their worship.
It certainly was interesting to see the 75-automobile parade,
each automobile having a large advertising sign on it,
going through the streets of Ottawa and being led by the
Royal Canadian :Mounted Police on their motorcycles. What
a change in just five years!
An even greater change has taken place in Quebec. Many
of our brethren from this province had come over to the
Ottawa assembly, and they certainly were encouraged to
hear that the work is moving along rapidly in that Catholicrun province. In September, 1946, there were only 20
companies in Quebec, with 334 company publishers and
64 pioneers, trying to carryon the preaching of the gospel.
Since then much has happened. The leaflets pointing out
the burning hate of Quebec clergy against Jehovah's witnesses were distributed; other pamphlets were put out;
thousands of arrests were made; in fact, it has been a real
battle for freedom of speech. Within just a short space of
time, up to :May, 1948, the companies had increased to 27,
the company publishers to 513 (or a 51percent increase
since September, 1946), and 110 pioneers were now in
the Quebec province, many of these graduates from Gilead.
There are not many countries in the world that could show
a record of an increase of 51 percent in publishers in a
little more than a year and a half. The brethren who have
stood fast and stayed in their assignment in Quebec have
been richly blessed of the Lord. The fight for freedom of
speech in the Quebec province is not yet over. It was at
this district assembly that a petition was presented fol' the
brethren to circulate throughout all of Canada, beginning
September. This petition is addressed to the House of
Commons of Canada. Its object is the protection of minority
rights against deprivation of inherent freedoms, which
protection would, in the end, result in good for the majority.
The petitioners, which have since run into hundreds of
thousands of Canadian citizens, humbly pray "That J'ou
[Parliament) do address the House of Commons of His
Majesty's Commonwealth Government at London, England,
to amend the British North America Act, incorporating into
that statute constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech,
pre~s and worship and due process of law, so as to make
these rights enforceable by the courts against legislative
and executive abridgment".
The report of the president to the district assembly Oll
the great increase in work accomplished in Quebec and the
announcement of the petition that would be circulated
throughout Canada hrought the conventioners to their

NOVEMBER

15, 1948

mi.eWATCHTOWER

highest point of enthusiasm during the assembly. They were

stimulated to greater action, and the brethren in all parts
I)f Canada were anxious to come to the aid of their fellow
workers in Quebec so that they, too, may have freedom if
this can be accomplished through the legal manner proposed
in the petition.
HALIFAX. NOVA SCOTIA

The fourth and final district assembly for 1948 in Canada

was arranged for in Halifax. The president along with some
of the brethren from Brooklyn headquarters and the Toronto office traveled by car from Ottawa on to Halifax, a city
of approximately 100,000 persons. This district assembly
served the Maritime Provinces. The work in this vast territory is surging forward, and arrangements were made
l1uring this trip and visit in Halifax to continue the expansion work in this territory. Saturday evening there \vere
667 persons in attendance, and the audience reached its
peak on Sunday afternoon at the public meeting, when
1,106 were present. Sunday morning 34 were baptized.
Having such a large assembly of Jehovah's witnesses in
Halifax was certainly an eye-opener to the citizens of that
territory. They had no idea that so many of Jl!hovah's
witnesses were in the country. During the three days,
.July 2-4, a splendid witness was gh'en throughout the
district. The faith of many newly interested persons was
firmly established in the way of the truth.
Summarizing the four Canadian district assemblies, we
find that there were 11,166 in attendance at the largest
meeting of the brethren on Saturday evening, and the total
at the public lecture was 17,917. Those immersed totaled
405. This indeed was a splendid witness for Canada.
DES MOINES, CHICAGO AND PROVIDENCE

Our previous issue made report on the assemblies in

Atlanta, Houston and San Francisco. The last three of
the 1948 district assemblies for the United States were
arranged for September. Des :Moines took the first position,
September 3-5. The Coliseum was engaged for the occasion.
It is an old building, but served the district assembly
purposes well. The brethren in Des :Moines arranged a
beautiful platform, giving it a farm and field setting; and
part of the background of the stage was a large cornucopia,
the horn of plenty, out of which were flowing The Watchtower, Awake! magazine, books, Bibles, songbooks, and all
the literature of the Societ;r in grcat quantity. It was a
splendid setting for this han'est season-not only a harvest
of the crops and the material things of the year, but a
harvest of the spiritual things provided by the Lord at the
close of the Society's service year. The brethren from this
part of the country, District No.5, came with one purpose
in mind, and that was to get out of the assembly everything
they could. It was really interesting to see the large attendance ever~' morning for field service. Practically half of
the conventioners were therc for the morning text and
comment, the experiences that were related, and the demonstrations given. On Saturday evening the attendance had
grown to 6,221, and these had done excellent advertising
throughout the city. The newspapers were friendl)'; l'adio
stations announced the public meeting daily, and one of
the important stations in Des Moines asked two of thc

351

directors of the Society, Brothers G. Suiter and T. J.

Sulliyan, to take part in a 15-minute interview.
For the Sunday afternoon public meeting, the hall was
much too small, but adjoining the auditorium was a park
which could be used for overflow, and, in addition, we could
use the cafeteria tents that were set up across the street.
Ever)'thing was connected by loud-speaker. A splendid
crowd assembled for the public meeting: 7,633 were present.
That morning 151 symbolized their consecration to sern>
God continuall~'. The program was the same, in the main,
as at all the other district assemblies in North America
and was followed by a meeting of the circuit servants.
From Des Moines the representatives of the Society
traveled to Chicago, illinois. The day before the assembly
at Chicago a circuit servant's meeting was held for District
No.3. A large amphitheater in Chicago was engaged for
the assembly itself, and the brethren did a splendid work
in organizing the acthities for the convention in thiR
amphitheater. There was ample room. We expected to fill
the main auditorium throughout the assembly, and this was
easily done, and the crowd was able to overflow into the
spacious wings on both sides of the auditorium. There were
12.662 brethren in attendance at the Saturday evening
meeting. On Sunday morning 294 were baptized. The big
surprise came at the public meeting. 'Ve never expected
to have 17,859 corning out to hear the lecture, "The Kingdom Hope of All Mankind." This meant that there were
over 5,000 of the public and people of good-will who heard
this enlightening message, and the brethren in Chicago
and vicinity will have a lot of work to do in following
up the new interest. From Chicago the brethren from the
Society traveled eastward, stopping off for a few days at
the Brooklyn Bethel home to take care of some work, and
then the entire Bethel family moved on to Providence,
Rhode Island.
We had had difficult), in arranging for this aS5embly. It
was hard to find a place at this time of the year and one
sufficiently large to take care of District No. 1. It was
necessary, therefore, to get the Arena in Providence as
well as the Armory a block and a half away. The brethren
in Providence before the convention made every arrangement possible to have these two places in suitable condition
for an assembly. They really had their problems as to
housing, because Providence is not a big city for the kind
of convention that was going to move in. By Saturday
night there were 10,907 of Jehovah's witnesses assembled
in the Arena and the Armory. Thousands of brethren werc
sta)'ing in the homes of the people of Providence, many
others at hotels, and a great number were kept in barrack!'>
belonging to the National Guard. It was impossible to find
sufficient accommodations in the homes of persons in Providence to care for our colored brethren, and therefore we
finally arranged with the Armory to give us barracks that
we could use. Spec.ial bus service had to be arranged
between the barracks and the Arena. But it was a joy to
see all of these uncomplaining brethren associated together
at Providence, enjoying the good food that the Lord is
providing through His organization. They especially
enjoyed the president's Saturday night speech on Psalm 71,
foretelling the wonderful work of the Christian organiza-

352

mieWATCHTOWER

tion in its old age toward the rising, new generation of

good-will, and from which Psalm he announced the coming
1!)49 yeartext, "I will ... yet praise thee more and more."
(Ps. 71: 14) His farewell speech on how the patience of
God toward us and the nations since 1918 means salvation
for us and multitudes of others was also powerful in effect,
and was a good send-off to the work yet to be done.
On Sunday morning early 312 brethren presented themselves in the Arena to hear the talk on baptism and later
were immersed in water. In th!! afternoon the Arena was
filled; the Armor:r was packed out; people were standing
outside in the street listening to the lecture, and two tents
that had been erected immediately in front of the Arena
were also filled. It was a sight to behold. 14,423 had
gathered together to hear this lecture. It was the biggest
thing, as far as conventions were concerned, that Providence
had had in its history. When it came time for the brethren
to go home, it was reported that the bus terminal announced
that the traffic moving out of Providence Sunday night
was like the Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year, and
Labor Day all rolled up into one day.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

From all of these assemblies no one went home disappointed. They had heard about the first assembly at
Atlanta and what blessings were poured out upon the Lord's
people, and often anticipation is greater than realization,
but in this case the half was never told. All of the brethren
came to the assemblies anticipating much, and they received
all they anticipated and much more. Many were the expressions that "this is really the best assembly we have
ever attended". It was not because it was the most recent
and the most fresh in their minds, but because it really
was a most practical, most helpful assembly and brought
them so much spiritual food upon which to feed. There
being six district assemblies throughout the United States
afforded many of the brethren the opportunity of getting
to one of the assemblies. The figures show that at the Saturday night meeting, which was the largest meeting of the
brethren held at each assembly, there were a total of 49,819
brethren in attendance. At the six public meetings in the
United States there were 66,330 present.
Report on like district assemblies in other lands throughout the earth will appear in our next succeeding issue.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
ALERT ADVERTISING Of<' GOD'S MESSAGE

"Going out in the service prior to the public lecture one

Sunday in 1947, I offered a leaflet advertising the lecture
to a :young man on my stand opposite a big United Church.
He smiled and accepted it, saying, 'Thank you, but I am
going to my own church,' indicating the United Church.
As our Watchtower study was on the true church that
night, I decided to use the lesson; so I said: 'Do you know
j'our Bible sufficiently well to know what God says about
Ilis true church~' He looked surprised; so I told him that
it was not made of stone and wood, but was made up of
people, living stones. He looked puzzled and said, 'But
they are all going the same way, surely.' I told him that
Jehovah God certainly did not say so. He then said, 'I
think I will go to your lecture.' We went in together. During the lecture, 'The Truth About Jehovah's witnesses,' I
found for him the various scriptures quoted so he could
read them. At the close he said, 'My! this is great; I've
got a lot to learn. I invited him to stay for the Watchtower
btudy, got his name, and introduced him around in the
interval j he stayed.
"That was in July. Since then he has been back to the
United Church ollce to compare. He is now a regular
publisher of Jehovah's kingdom."
THOSE OF GOOD-WILL ARE ATTRACTED BY GOD'S MESSAGE

That the oral expression of God's message by his witnesses reaches even those not directly addressed is shown
by the following experience of one of Jehovah's witnesses
in a city in Greece.
"I was working together with another brother in a territory previously covered. We found quite a number of goodwill people, gave the witness and distributed many publications. At one door where we knocked, an aged woman
opened the door and said: 'I am not interested in those

books. Go away.' At that very moment a visitor came out

of the house and said: ,\-Vill you please give me some of
those books of Jehovah's witnesses? I also wish to discuss
them with you.' We gave him a WatchtlJwer and a set of
booklets. and asked where he lived and when it would be
possible for us to meet him at home. He gave us his address
and told us that he would be at home half an hour later.
"We managed to spare the time and call on him half an
hour afterwards. We had an interesting and instructive
discussion, and answered many questions; we also arranged
for a home study. He became very much satisfied and began
to understand the message of truth; he asked to attend
Watchtower study meetings, and his joy is indescribable.
He is a man of large conception, and has much love for
the Lord and the truth. During the. Memorial campaign
we went out together to the field work from house to house,
and he became enthusiastic. During the present month he
was one of the Kingdom publishers of our company, with
16 hours of service.
"The above experience shows that the Lord's 'sheep' hear
the voice of the Good Shepherd and come to his flock."
ALERT PREACHER

A minister of God, one of Jehovah's witnesseb, b) being

alert and making use of every opportunity to preach on
the way to conduct some Bible studies with perbOllS of
good-will, made arrangements to help still more to learn
of God and his purposes. That minister reports:
"Last week on my way to two studies in Beverly Hills,
Calif., I placed a 'Let God Be True' book and a booklet
with the taxicab driver, who had at first told me he didn't
believe in the Bible. As I got out of the taxi, he asked:
'You say you have a study here. I wonder if you would
come to my house and have a study with my wife and me.
My wife has always wanted to understand the Bible.' Right
there we made the arrangements for a study in his home."

'.

~eWATCHTOWER
P"(.'llLTSHED

SEMurONTnLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.SA
N. H.

OFFICERS
KNORR,

President

GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be tau~ht of Jehovah; and

~reat shall be the peace of thy children." - lJiZial1 S~:I.J.
THE BIllLE CLlUHLY TEACIlES
THAT JEHOVAH is the onl~' trlle God. from e\'erlasting to
everlasting, and is the ~lakel' of hplI\'en and earth and Gh'er of
life to his Crl'lItures: that the Word or Logos was the hel-tinning
of his creation anu his acU\'e al:ent in creatm!; all other thin~s;
and that the creature Lueifer rebelled a;:alust ,Jeho\'uu uml I'ulseu
the issue of His unh ersai sO\'ereigntr:
'fH.\l.' GOD cI'eateu t1)e earth for man, malle perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it: thut man ~'ie\(led to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and w\llfull~' disoberell GOlI's law and was
sentenced to death: thut h~' reason of AlIam's 'wrong act all men
are born sllllH'rs and without the right to life:
THAT TIlE LOUOS was malie human as the man Jesus and suf
fered death in orllel' to prolluce the ransom 01' redemptive pril'e for
obedient men: that God raised up Christ .lesus dh'lne and exalted
him to hea\'en above ever~' other crealUl'e and clothed him with all
power and authorlt~' as head of Gou's new capital organization;
THAT UOO'S CAPITAL OItGA;>';IZATIO:\ Is a Theocracs calleu
Zion, and thnt Christ ,Jesus Is the Chipf Ollicer thereof and is the
rl;:htfui Km~ of the new worlu: that the faithful anointed
followers of Christ .Jesus are Zion's chiltlren, memhers of ,Jehovah's
or;.:anl:t.ution, UIH.! are llis witnesses whose dut~ ami )lrh iie;.:e it
Is to testif~' to .Jeho\'ahs SUll1'l'nlllC~' and declure his purposes
toward Il1anldllll as expressed In the Bible:
THAT '1'1 mOLD WOItI.D, 01' Satan's uuinterrllpted rule. enued
A.D. Ullo!. and Christ .Je;.us has been placed b~ .Jeho\'ah upon the
throne. has ousteO Sntun from hea\'pn, anu now proceeus to
Villllicllte lIis name amI establish the "new earth":
'l'llA'l' THg m':Ll1';F uml blessings of the peoples can come only
by Jeho\'ah's ldn;.:dom \Imler Christ. which hns lJe:.mn; that Ilis
nl'xt great act is to destroy Satan's or;:nnl7.11tlon nml e;,talJllsh
rightt ousness cOlllpletei~ in the eanh: nnd that unller the Klngdolll
the people of ;:0011-\\ III sur\ 1\ Ing .-\1'1u,l~elhlon \\ Iii Cal'l'." out the
Ul\ ine llI11n(lnte to "till the earth" With 11;.:hH>OUS offsprin;.:, alllI
that the hunilln lienl] In the g'IUYl)S wili be rUlsed to opportunities
of We on earth.

ITS MISSIO~
HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enahlln~ the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed
In the llible. It publlsl1es Bible Instmction specihcully
designed to aId Jeho\'ah's witnesses nnd ull people of good-wIll.
It Ul'I'ungps s~'stewatlc Bible stUU)' for Its reuuers IInu the ~ociety
supplies other lite1'l1ture to uld In such studies. It puhlishes
smtulJie materlul 101' rudio hl'OUUl'ustlng alHl for other means
of public Instructloa In the SCI'iptures.
It lllIheres stl'letl)' to the Bible as uuthority for Its utterances,
It is entlrel~' fl'ee and sepllrute from all I'eligion, purtles, sects or
other \\'orll1l~' orgunir.atlons. It Is wholl~' und without reser\'lltion
for the kln~lIolll of .Jehovuh Goli under Chl'lst his belo\eU KIIl~.
It is not dogmatic, but Invlt&l careful anu crltlcul eXlIlllinatlOn
of Its ('ontents In the light of the ScrlptuIes. It tloes not indulge
In controVel'8)', uuu Its l:olullJUS nre not open to personalities.

Notice to 8ubcrlber: RemIttance. ebould be sent to office In ~ our

country In cOIIII.llance with re",ulatlons to J:I1n1'lllltee safe dell "en' of
mOlle~', Helllltlllllcell are ac,:epted at "rookl)'11 frOIll rOUlll1'1e. \\ hel e 110
olhce Is located. by International money order only. Subscrhltlon rales In
difierellt countrle. are sluted below In local curreucy. 11 ollce Of Upll of",,,
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expires, Chullge 01 addre.. when sent to our office IIIn~' be e~pecled
efIectl\e wUhln one month. Send your old IU well as new address.

Please address the Watcb Tower Society In every cnRe.

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"SETTI;'o1G THE MARK" TESTlMO)/Y PERIOD

1949 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WIT:-.IESSES

Humane persons interested in the eternal life of peoplc ot

good-will in God's nghteous new world "'ill want to D1ake an
indelible mark in their mtellect by means of the Kingdom truth.
That is whv the month of D>cpmbcl' hns been set aside us It te~ti
mony period of speCial efforl, as mdlClttcd by the ubol"l'-gl\CD
nallle. To help in settmg the mark upon good-will forehead~, as
foretold in Ezekiel, chapter 9, the offer that Jeho\'Uh's wltncsscs
will popul!lrize dUl'lng thts closing month of 19"*8 Will be tbe
Intest book. "Let God Be True," and the booklet Pelmallellt
Governor of All Nations (or The Joy of All the Peoplc) to all
contributors of 35c for the combination. Every reader of The
TVatchtower can actively a%Oclllte hImself With this IIIUl'king
work which h'ads to our bemg spared by God's executioners
during the oncoming baltle of Armageddon. We welcome the
co-operation of all, and assure you of our best servICes in helping
to establish your contact with cxpcl'lcneed Kmgdom publishers,
Y our-rcport filled out on the form ~upplied by the SoclCty will
grcatly Interest us at the end of December's work.

With gratitude to God for accomplislung tbl'ongb bis senanb

the greatest service achievement durmg this past year, the SOlie!,\'
now relea~es the 1949 Yearbook of Jehovah's tvlt/lesses. It \\'111 I.e
really a stirl'1ng expericnce, and not a dull revIew of data and
figures, for yOll to read the president's report at lenglb Oil the
year's activitIes of Jehovah's witnesses 1D more than nmety land;..
Also, introduced by his own special commcnt on the 19"*9 yearte:tt,
the texts and comments druwn from tbe latest Watchtower ISSUPb
provide you with a choic~ thought for each day of the year. Orders
tor COPICS of the 1949 l' earbook, bound in peach-color clolll, With
more than 350 pages, should be accompnnied by remlttllllces at
5Uc a copy. Compames should seud in combined ordcrs to lllillllUIZP
our work 01 hundling lind shipping.

"w ATCHTOWEW'

Ti

STUDIES

Week of January 2: "Not a Slow God."

~ 1-7 inclusive, also "Divine PatIence Means Salvation",
11 1-9 inclusive, l.'he TVatchtower December 1, 19,18.
Week of January 9: "Divine Pattence Means Salvation,"
~ 10-23 inclusive, The TV atchtower December 1, 1948.
Week of January 16: "DiVine Patience Means Salvation,"
24-32 indusive, also "Hastening the Coming of the Day of God,"
11 1-10 inclnsive, The lV (ltchtowcr D>cl'mbeJ' 1, 1948,

1949 CALENDAR

Again the Lord provides us with a new 5erviee calendlll', for tile
year 1949, the text for which is, "I .. , will yet praise thee more
and more." (Ps. 71: 14) The picture embelhshmg' It ~tepb mto th>
field of realism by exhibiting under the year's text a blrd's'e~ e
new of that now world-famous mu;;,ionllry scbool, Gtlead, m Its
enVirons, in four colors, and whICh IS mightily llIdmg today 1ll
praising Jehovah more and more. Under the picture the date pad
presents the r:.ix special testimony perIOds of 19-19 and the alternattve months, together with the service theme for each such month.
Orders may now be sent tn, with remittance to cover, at 25c R
clll~ndnr, or $1.00 for five mmled to on> acldl'es~.

%eWAIC1HIIO

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

vOL.

LXIX

DECE1\1BER

1, 1948

No. 23

NOT A SLOW GOD

"The Lorri iij '/lot slow about his promise, in the sellse that some men think"
-2 Pet. 3: 9, An Amer. Trails.
EHOVAH God is not slow. The impatience of happiness is tlle salvation that the Almighty God
short-lived men makes them think He is. He ~ets provides. He appointed the times of the nations.
his good purposes and accurately times them, and They have now had their day. They are on their way
then proceeds to accomplish them without loss of out! The efforts of leading men of the world to maintime, effort 01' motion. But how few men realize that tain a United Nations organization or to form a
fact and trv to harmonize their course in life with world federation of nations with a central governthe times a~d seasons of God's purposes! His proph- ment in order to change God's times and seasons and
et wrote: "For everything there is a season, an<.l a to block his purposes will fail. Before giving the
time for every pursuit under the heavens: I looked prophecy telling how all these nations will be broken
at the employment which God hath given to the sons to pieces by God's promised Government for munof men to work therein: Everything hath he made kind, the prophet Daniel said: "Blessed be the name
heautiful in its own time, also intelligence hath he of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are
put in their heart, without which men could not find his: and he changeth the times and the seasons: he
out the work whieh God hath wrought from the begin- removeth kings, and setteth up ldngs: he giveth
ning even unto the end." (Eccl. 3: 1, 10, 11, Rother- wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that
ham) We find that first in all his purposes comes the !mow understanding: he revealeth the deep and
work of vindicating his f;overeign power over all the secret things." (Dan. 2: 20-22, 44, 45) The nations
universe which he created. Thi~ vindication will be will never be able to take the credit for the salvation
ueautiful in its time, because it will renal .Jehovah that He brings mankind by his kingdom. Because it
to all intelligent creatioJl in his rightful place al:; the is hil:i time for a change, he will remove the umatisone God and Supreme Ruler over all the universe. factory rulers of this world and set up his perfect
Dependent upon that vindication, and so in second Ruler of a hrand-new world.
place to it, is his purpose to liase meu and women
I Nearly six thousand years have passed since on l'
of good-will to lasting peace, plenty and joy in a new first parents were driven from the paradise garden of
world. This salvation is also something beautiful to Eden out into a wild earth. Think of the selfish course
contemplate now, while we wait in hope of its early that the offspring of Adam and Eve have taken to
realization.
this day. This has meant sixty centuries (a long time
~ .Jehovah's purposes take all nations under con- indeed to our thinking) for .::rehovah God to exercise
sideration, and there is not a nation that he has shut long-suffering and patience toward self-willed munout of his pmpose of i':alvation. "He himself gives all kind. As Judge in Eden he might at once have exemen life and breath and everything. From one fore- cuted that pail' of willful sinners upon whom hi~
father he hus created eyery nation of mankind, und death sentence justly fell. 1I10re than that: sixteen
mude them live all over the face of the earth, fixing centuries later, when their offlipring had greatly
their a]Jpointed time~ and the limits of their lands, multiplied and filled the earth with violence and co!eO that they might search for God, and perhaps grope
ruption, he might have wiped out every last Olle.
for him and find him, though 11e is never far from Instead, he gave manl,ind a new start through eight
any of us::-Acts 17: 25-27, An ~l/11er. Trans.
:mrvivors of the Flood. In either of t1lOse ca:::e:-:,
a In the thousands of year::; of their troublecl existwhere would we have been today except for his longence the nations have provided no ~alvation for the suffering and patience 7 Nowhere!
masses of mankind. The perplexing situation of all
~ It is now more than forty-three centuries since
nations today proves they cannot provide us salva- the Flood, and human existence becomes ever more
tion, but that the only hope for lovers of life and perilous. Human selfishness increases to the pomt

~ mnln purpoo,e and depen,lpnt olle \\111 be beaulliul "hen due'

:!, 3. Ho\\

4, .). How hth

mnny nation" cOllle nll,l!\, ,alnHI')II? WIth cre,ht to whom?

.');;)

(JO(!

heen

!Oll~"UltCllllg

till

1I0W,

nne! r'll' whnt gooe!'

~eWATCHTOWER

356

where practically every man's hand is against his

neighbor. What is the divine purpose in all the
unusual patience and long-suffering that the God of
righ teousness keeps showing to our sinner race T
X othing else than the work that he set before himself at the beginning. What 7 To vindicate his own
universal sovereignty and to save men and women
,\"110 are unbreakably devoted to the sovereignty of
God their Creator. It was originally his expressed
purpose that the humall creatures springing from
Adam and Eve should live forever in a paradise
garden enveloping a completely subdued earth. God
has not changed from his purpose. Hence his patience
with the sinful offspring of Adam and Eve has been
with the aim of saving un unnumbered multitude of
them to everlasting life on a peaceful earth in a
restored world of righteousnesf:. Almighty God will
vindicate his patience and his purpose by successfully accoll1plishillg that very thing.
e Since mun's eXl,nl::;ion from Eden it has been
almost six thom;and v(',us. It will be at least another
thousand years bef~re the salvation of those who
prove worthy of mankind will be effected. Because
mankind's life-span has been reduced from a once
possible eternity to 'threescore years and ten", or in
G

Wily due" the time seem

10110:

and >low to us. hut not to God?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

some cases "fourscore years" with labor and sorrow,

those thousands of years in the divine process of
bringing complete salvation seem to us as a long
time, and we seem to have been slow in getting there.
But, when measured by. the divine time-unit, it is not
so. To the eternal God the six thousand years till no,,'
are as but six of man's weekdays; so that the prophet
Moses said to Him: "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. For a thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday "\-",hen it is past, and as a watch
in the night"; and the ancient Jews divided a single
night into three watches of four hours each.-Ps.
90: 2,4,10.
T It is God's arrangement that those who share in
His salvation shall take some part in His vindication
by displaying their integrity to him. The testing of
their integrity takes time. Thus the thousands of
years in which he has exercised patience to,'mrd
human sinners has allowed time for children to be
born and to grow up that they might prove their
integrity to God and have a share in vindicating him,
for this means everlasting life to them. It has not
been wasted time at all with God, but blessed are all
those persons who have taken advantage of the
opportunity granted them.
7. For wilat vital reason has It not been wnsted tuue "lth God"

DIVINE PATIENCE MEANS SALVATION

D. 1914 l11arkeJ the end of the "sen--n times"
that God appointed to the Gentile nations a::;
their opportunity to dominate the earth. That
generous allotment of ~,3~n year::; hegan at Jern:5alem's destruction ill GOi B.C. and shonlcl han let
the nations gain much politieul C'xperience and make
conect observations us to their ability to rule the
earth. But the fruitage of tlwir lJolitiral growth of
2,5~0 years proycd to be, 110t international brotherhood, peace and prosperity, but ,,"odd War 1, which
began exactly in the year that the "seven times"
ended, to be followed in 1939 by a second and more
costly, more deadly global war. As far hack as its
issue of r.Iarch, 1880, The TVateh Tower notified its
readers til at the "times of the Gentiles" would end
A.D. 1914. After the close of World War I, and
particularly from and after 1921," Jehovah's witlJe~ses lIave raised the cry world-wide: "The kingdom
of hp.a'-en is at hand." They have continued to point
out that the Kingdom was established A.D. 1914.
2 Duling the years since then lovers of peace, truth
and righteousness have yearned for God's l;:ingdom
to fight the final battle of Armageddon and break the
Gentile nations to pieces, thus clearing our globe for
the blessed reign of a thousand years by Christ

See The Watch TOicel' November 15, 1921, page 342.

L\\cl;en dId the Gentlle tImes end. and w,th "hilt fruitage?

\\"hy Ln\e "'orne gro\\n lmpatlent'! aud w1t11 \\hat

~llCl

result':

.Tesus. Thcy see the oppression by the Devil's organization increasing upon the people. They undergo
continuous persecution and meet up with bitter
opposition while preaching the Kingdom go::;pel to
all the nations. And so they have felt something of
the impatience of James and John when the Samuri.
tan villagers refused Jesus hospi tali ty. ".\nd when
his disriples James and .Tohn saw tllis, tlley suid,
Lord, wilt thou that we bid Hre to come down ft om
heaven, and consume them? But he tUlned, and
rebul;:ed them. And they went to another village."
(Luke 9: 51-56, Am.Stan. Ver.) Indeed, bome Christians have grown weary at God's seeming slowness
in bringing on the battle of Armageddon and destroying all the enemies and bringing in the millennium
of peace and righteousness. So they have fallen away
from actively serving Jehovah God and proclaiming
the message of his kingdom. In the above cases there
has been a luck of appreciation of the purpose hellind
Jehovah's seeming slowness. But if we discern the
loving ends tllnt he has in view in this apparent
slowness, we will be glad for it and will take full
benefit of it.
3 We do not want to be like many people at this end
of the world who are willfully ignorant about God's
works and purposes for this momentous time .
3. 4 Ho\'l' do

8011le

fool and hurt

th~ll1selves.

fulfilling 2 Peter 3. 10"

DECEMBER

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER.

Because of ignorance they are not taldng advantage

of the patience that a merciful God is exercising toward them, but they are wasting their opportunity in
this day when human destinies are being shaped and
fixed. For decades now they have heard Jehovah's
witnesses preaching that Christ Jesus came into
power in 1914 when Jehovah God enthroned him,
thus setting up the Kingdom. But they keep on scoffing at the message and do not seriously consider the
evidence to which Jehovah's witnesses call attention.
Hence they keep on in their hatred and antagonism
to the witnesses. They accept every other explanation for the world's situation than the Bible's explanation for it. In thus conducting themselves they furnish one more strong proof that we have reached the
world's end, because they are fulfilling the prophecy
uttered by the apostle Peter respecting the end of
the world.
4 'Writing to those of us who believe, Peter says:
"This is the second letter, dear friends, that I have
now written to you, in the effort to arouse your unsullied minds to remember the things foretold by the
holy prophets, and the command of the Lord and
Savior through your apostles. First of all, you must
understand this, that in the last days mockers will
come with their mocli:eries, going where their passions lead and saying, 'Where is his promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained as it was from the beginning of
creation !' For they wilfully ignore the fact that long
ago there existed heavens and an earth which had
been formed at God's command out of water and hv
water, by which also that world was destroyed,
through being flooded with water. nut hy the same
command the present heavens and earth are stored
up for fire, and are kept for the day when godless
men are to he judged und destroyed. But do not overlook this one fact, dear friends, that with the Lord
one day is like a thousand veal'S and a thousand vears
are lil~e one day. The L~rd i" not ~low abot;t hi~
promise, in the sense that some men think; he is
really showing his patience with you, because he does
not want any to perish, but wishes all Ulen to be
brought to repentance."-2 Pet. 3: 1-9, An A.mer.
Trans.
5 Not informing themselves upon God's important
purposes at this end of the world, those willfully
ignorant mockers persuade themselves that God is
slow. They guide themselves, not by God's Word and
its sound principles, but by their selfish passions.
Desiring to satisfy these for as long as they can, th~y
postpone in their minds the coming of the Lord's
kingdom and the coming of the full end of this world
in a global catastrophe. They refuse to see in the
happenings since A.D. 1914 any evidence that God's
5. How do they show wl1lful Ignorance and so fall of what benefit?

357

kingdom has come and that Christ Jesus has been

enthroned in the heavens and is now ruling amidst
his enemies, preparatory to breaking all the nations
to pieces with the iron rod of Armageddon. Because
thirty-four years have now passed since 1914 they
think the meaning of world events as explained by
Jehovah's witnesses is proved untrue. For them
Armageddon is yet a long way off; it will not come
in their day. They do not reason that we are that
many years nearer Armageddon and that all those
years of God's extended patience with men were a
merciful opportunity for them to lay hold on his
salvation and that that much less time now remains.
In place of taking the benefit of God's seeming slowness for availing themselves of his salvation, they
presume upon it to follow the selfish COUl'se of their
passions. Consequently they willfully choose destruction for themselves, with the Gentile nations. They
fail to appreciate that the willful ignorance of tlIe
people in Noah's day at the end of the pre-flood world
prophetically pictured their own willful ignorance
at the end of this present evil world.
CHOICE BETWEEN TWO IJI:STI:-IES
6 Destruction and
salvation, these are the two
destinies between which men and nations must
choose today. That Almighty God would destroy
nations, yes, that he would destroy the wicked worldorganization from the face of the earth, seems too
colossal for people today with an intense nationalistic spirit, especially in Christendom. But God is
\vithin his right and power to destroy all the nation~
of this world. Why t Because tIley all stem from tlll'
one common forefather whoUl God created and, a<the Creator who mercifully let them come into existence, he can rightfully destroy them if they do not
act according- to the purpose of God's mercy with
tllell1. Nations are of small cOllsequenee to GoJ.
"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and
are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold.
he tal,eth up the isles [whether the British Isles, the
Japanese islands, or the island continent of An.,.tralia] as a very little thing. All nations before him
are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than
nothing, and vanity." (Isa. 40: 15, 17) When worlul~
nations fight against God's kingdol11, they are le:'~
than nothing. They are worse than nothing, for nothing gives no interference to Hi~ purpo:;(~:' ttnd wOl'k~.
Since 607 B.C. he has given them "seven tillll?:--'
(2,520 years) and uninterrupted domination of tht,
earth; and now, for their antichristian resistance to
his established kingdom, he has appointed all the
nations to destruction. He will vindicate his suuremacy by annihilating them.
.
1 The nations, particularly the ruling powers of

6. Why Is It God's rh;ht and of little concern to destroy nations?

7. Who are the "hl~iler powers", and with what ngilt 10 <Iet!troy?

358

~e WATCHTOWER.

Christendom, claim to be the "higher powers". The

religious clergy tell all souls to be subject to these
political states in their decrees, even if it means the
violation of a Christian's conscience. (liOln. 13: 1, 2)
But there are Powers higher than even the government of the United Nations; namely, Jehovah God,
the Supreme Ruler, to whom we must first render
the things that are due him, and also his now installed King, Christ Je::,us, the Chief One in God's
capital organization over the nniYerse.Tehovah God
has the power and right to destroy all nations at
Armageddon by his King, Christ Jesus, with the
"iron rod", and this fact he illustrated throug-Il his
prophet Jeremiah shortly before Jerusalem was
destroyed in G07 B.C.
S "Tile word which callie to Jeremiah from J ehovah, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house,
and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I
went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was
making a work on the wheels. And when the vessel
that he Inade of the cluy was lllalTed in the hand of
the potter, he made it again another vessel, as
seemed good to tile potter to make it. Then the word
of Jehovah came to me, saying, 0 house of Israel,
cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah.
Behold, as the day in the potter's !ltmd, so are ye
in my hand, 0 honse of Israel. At what instant I
shall speak concE'l'l1ing a nation, and concel'l1ing (l
kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to
destro~' it; if tl1[(t nation, concerning which I have
~poken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil
that I thought to do unto them, And at what instant
I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
l;:ingclolli, to build and to plant it; if they do that
which is evil in my sight, that they ob::y not my
voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I
~aicl I would bel1f~fit them.
9 ,.~ ow therefore, l:ipl'al, to the men of Judah, und
to the inhabitants of Jernf,alem, ~ayiJlg, Thus ~aith
J ehovuh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and
<1eyist' a device against you: return ye now everyone
from his evil way, and amend your ways and your
doings. Dut they say, It is in vain; for we will walk
after our own devices, and we will do everyone ufter
the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore thus
saith Jehovah: . . . I will scatter them as with an
east wind before the enemy; I will show them the
back, and not the fact in the day of their calamity."
-Jel'. 18: 1-17, Am. Stan. Ver.
10 God t}le Creator classes the nations as a potter's
vessel, for all of them are made up of creatures "of
the earth, earthy". He forewarned that he would give
all the enemy nations to his anointed King, Christ
Jesus, for destruction, saying to him : "Ask of me,
and I will give thee the nations for thi.ne inheritance,

8,

lJ. now waR J<.>hovnh's rIght to destroy Illnstrnted to Jerermnb?

10. To "hat destiny <lId God foreordnln tb'e nation., and why?

BnoOKLYN,

N. Y.

and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possesSlOn. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Ps.
2: 8, 9, Am. Stan. V er.) At 1914 God did give the
nations to his then enthroned Son to break to pieces,
as when an iron rod strikes a frail earthen vessel.
He forelmew that the nations, under the spiritual
guidance of the blind religious leaders of' Christen.
dom, would oppose his kingdom and fight against his
sovereignty over all the universe, including our
earth. In all the prophecies and the historical types
he foretold this. Hence he foreordained them all to
be destroyed, and with full foreknowledge of j heir
final outcome he let them come into existence and
rnn their course. He shows he has a just right to
foreordain them to destruction and to dispose of
them accordingly, in the argument of the apostle
Paul. At Romans 9: 14-24 Paul writes:
11 "'Vhat do we conclude7 That God is guilty of
injustice~ Dy no means. He said to 11oses, 'I will haye
mercy on the man on whom I choose to have mercy,
and take pity on the man on whom I choose to take
pity.' So it depends not on human will or exertion. but
on the mercy of God. The Scripture says to Pharaoh,
'I have raised you to your position for the yery purpose of displaying my power in dealing with yon, and
making my name known all over the world.' So he
has mercy on anyone he pleases, and hardens thp
heart of anyone he pleases. "Vhy, then,' you will
ask, 'does he still find fault 1 For who can resist his
will r On the contrary, who are you, my friend, to
answer bacl, to God ~ Can something a man shapes
say to the man who shaped it, 'Why did you make
me like thisr Has not the potter with his clay the
right to make from the same lump one thing for
exalted uses and another for menial ones? Then \\ hnt
if God, though he wanted to display his unger and
show lJis power, has shown great patience toward the
objects of his anger, already ripe for destruction, so
as to show all the wealth of his glory in dealing with
the objects of his mercy, whom he has prepared from
the beginning to share his glory, including us whom
he has called not only from among tile .Jewg but from
among the heathen ?"-A1/ Amej'.l'mlls.
12 Paul justifies God's right to destroy some ereutures and to mercifully save otl1('1'S on the grounds
of his right as a Creator. God mercifully let all mell
come into existence from one original man despite
the imperfection and sin which they would inllerit,
He thus made all mankind of the same human lump,
It is a mercy by him to let us come into existence.
No man tasting this mercy can complain against the
Creator because of the condition in which hE' was
born or because of the opportunities either denied
him or set before him. God owes no creature any
11, 12. !low does Pall I justify God In tlluij

d~nlln[:

with the lIntion-"

DECEMDER

1, 1948

1ffieWATCHTOWER

thing. He can dispose of any creature the way he

wants in harmony with his own justice. With relation
to God, is any man superior to the lump of clay in
the hands of the potter? Does he have any more right
than that lump of clay to demand that he be fashioned this way or thaU No! And as a potter dashes
to pieces a vessel that does not please him, in the
same way ,Jehovah God the Creator can da~h to
pieces all those nations and organi~ations~hat do ~ot
please him after they have heen gIVen fUll' warnmg
and full opportunity.
NOT SUBVERSIVE
lJ Although we declare that the worldly natiow:;
will all he destroyed by the "iron rod" of Jehovah's
Kino'I:> at Armtureddoll. we are not nihilists and
anarchists. 'Ve are not teaching lawlessness and
rebelliousness against constituted order and governments, any more than the prophet Jeremiah was
guilty of such by foretelling Jerusalem's debtruction
and the overthrow of the nation of .Judah in 607 B.C.
We are exalting the right and supremacy of Jehovah
God of hosts and are sounding to the nations the
warning that he gives us to sOlLnd forth. 'Ve do 1I0t
teach men to disrespect the man-made governments
that have assumed the respon:-;ibility for law und
order over various tenitoriei:i of the eurth. But at
the same time we are forhidden by God's 'Vord to
teach men to worship the political institutions or to
give them what helongs to God. We cannot bring
worldly politics into our prayers to God and pray
him to prObper and preserve the nations that he has
foreordained to destl'Uction. ?\T O, hut we pray the
pruyer of Jesus' sermon on the mount: "Our Father,
which art in heaven, Hallo\Yed he thy name. Thy
ldn(rdom
come. Thv will be done in earth, as it is in
I:>
heaven." platt. G: 9, ] 0) In harmony with that
prayer, we now preach since A.D. UJl4 'this go:-;pel
of the kingdom" in all the \Yorkl, in fulfillment of
Jesus' prophecy of the signs that would lJrecede the
tinal end of the world and of all its nations.
H'1'o show our intentions arc peaceful anJ beneficial to the nations and are not subversive, Jehovah
God has sent us as his ambassadors to the nations.
We remind om readers that in Bible times amba"stldol'S served a different pnrlJose from what they do
today. In modern times ambassadors and other diplom;tic ministers are exchanged between natiom; in
times of peace for cultivating' and strengtllclIing
cordial relations between nations. Only ill times of
war and when disagreements are buch that relations
are ruptmed are they recalled. However, in the times
of Christ and his apostles ambassadors were sent by
one nation to another when war threatened or had
broken out and one nation was menaced with defeat
~.

359

and destruction by another. After centuries of

exclusive favor from God the ancient nation of Israel
turned to enmity against him, whereas the Gentile
nations were always at enmity with God. They have
alwavs been "without Christ, being aliens from the
comI~onwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without
God in the world". They were God's 'enemies in their
minds by wicked works'. (Eph. 2: 12; Col. 1: 21) It
was in view of such enmity toward him that Jehovah
God sent his witnesses as his ambassadors on a goodwill mission and on an errand of divine mercy. This
is described by the apostle Paul, when he writes:
lS "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himself hv Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of 'reconciliation; to wit, that God was in
Christ, reconcilinO" the world unto himself, not imputing their trespas;es unto them; and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteoumess of God in him. '\Ve then, as workers togethel
with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the
grace of God in vain."-2 Cor. 5: 18 to 6: l.
As his witnesses and ambassadors acting for
Christ, Jehovah God has given us a ministry of
reconciliation to God, and not one of subyersion to
promote political rebellion or to undermine the constitutions and framework of worldly governments.
Under this responsibility we do not go only to the
people by bearing the Kingdom message from house
to house. (Acts 20: 20) We go also to tlle world
rulers, either willingly or under constraint. In a
prophecy on the elld of this world Jesus fOre\Hll'lled
those who would be his faithful followers after
World \Var I: "But take heed to yomselves: for they
shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synuO"oO"ues ye shall he beaten: and ye shall he bronght
'" ,.,
f
.
before rulers and ldngs for my sake, or a testmlOny
against them. And the gospel must first be published
among all nations." (ilIarl;: 13: 8-10) For this reason,
when we are hefore rulers and judges who are ignoran t of the coming day of Jehovah's vengeance and
who are cJI(langering themselves hy lighting against
Him and his King, we are charged to deliver tllis
friendly warning: "Now therefore be wise, 0 )'1'
kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve
Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kis:-the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way.
for his wrath will soon be kindled. messed are all
they that take refuge in him." (Ps. 2: 10-12, Am.
Stan. V er.) Hence our mission is a peaceful one, a
godly one. It spells salvation to all who hear th0
lij

360

SheWATCHTOWER..

divine word of reconciliation through Christ. We

exhort rulers, rather than subvert their earthly
organizations.
17 A.D. 1914 the "seven times" of permitted Gentile
domination of the earth expired. Since then the
nations have no further assurance from God that he
will not interrupt their control of this planet and
destroy them at some un revealed time. That day of
destruction is so concealed from the nations that its
arrival will be like that of a thief in the night. Yes,
"when people say, "Yhat peace and security!' then
suddenly destruction will be upon them, like birthpains upon a woman about to give birth to a child,
and there will ue no escape."-l Thess. 5: 1-3, An

Amer. Trans.
18 Mark again God's patience, a patience which
those who are wise may take advantage of to their
8alvation: When the Gentile times ended, in 1914,
the Universal Sovereign enthroned his King, his
tion Jesus Christ, upon the throne in the heavens.
He gave him all the nations for his inheritance and
the extremities of the earth for his possession, so
that now all the earth belongs to him. Although some
Christians expected all Gentile nations to be completely destroyed at that date, Christ Jesus did not
thell wield the iron rod and crack such nations to
pieces with weapons worse than atomic warfare.
True, he let them ('ripple themselves in a global war
for world domination; but he did not himself interfere and destroy them. He did start war np in heaven
against Satan the Devil and all his demons, and he
won the fight and forced that invisible enemy organization down to this earth. 13nt he did not then
destroy Satan the Dp\'il, IJPither did lIP destroy the
nations of this world of whieh Satan is the god and
prince.-Rev. 12: 1-12: ~ Cor. -1: -1; .John H: 30.
19 Evidently by A.D. 1915 Christ .Jesus had Satan
and all his organ'zation, vh,ihJE' and invisible, down
at this Earth, which is his footstool, hut he did not
keep on pressing the battle. He did not force the
final war of Armageddon and make a complete end
of the old world in that year, but let World War I
give way to a shaky peace. It is now thirty years
since that year, and, after having survived a second
world war, the nations are still going concerns.
Though no longer permitted up in heaven, Satan the
Devil and his demon h08ts still continue active about
OUT earth, bringing indescribable woe to the earth
and sea in his great wrath. All these wicked forces
Jehovah and his King haye permitted to survive till
now, eyen though they knew that Satan and his
demons would line up all the nations in opposition
to God'i" kingdom, would cruelly persecute His witnesses and would form an international organization

17, Gentiles times o\'er, how "Ill de'trurtloll come upon natlons?
18 1" !low ,lid God ~how patience to nations In 1914" In 101R',

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

to perpetuate their selfish, oppressive control of thE'

earth and its inhabitants.
20 During all the years since 1918 Jehovah's wit
nesses have obeyed him. They have cried out to warn
of impending destruction for the nations at Armageddon. But the nations of Christendom have heard
the cry so repeatedly that they attach no value to it
and credit it with no truthfulness. They say God is
slow and will never do it in their generation. Some
impatient Christians, feeling deeply the reproaches
against God's name and grieving at all the abominable things being done in the earth, especially in
Christendom, are inclined to grow weary and to say:
"Why is God so slow about bringing an end to this
miserable state of the world 1 Why has he not wiped
out the wicked world organization before now r'
21 The reason why is this: God is exercising still
further patience with the nations in order thai he
might save his anointed remnant and all the peoplp
of good-will that are to be found among the nations.
Many persons have become consecrated Christian:::
since 1918. Let these reflect on where they would
have been if Christ Jesus the King had then and
there applied the iron rod and dashed all nations to
shivers. Since 1918, also a younger generation has
grown up. :Many of these,have accepted "this gospel
of the kingdom". But where would they be in this
day if Almighty God had. ordered Christ Jesus into
the final battle of Armageddon at 19181 Certainly the eternal salvation of all these would not have
been possible in that case. Back in 1918 the remnant
of anointed witnesses of Jehovah in all the earth
numbered but a few thousand. Today the remnant
and all the consecrated people of good~will now associated with them numher more than 2GO,756 active
throughont the world. No, not many, in comparison
with thE' more than two billion of the world population; but nf>ither were the eight flood-survivors in
Noah's ark very numerous in compari~on with thl'
population of that old world of the ungodly. Xevertl)('less, God's patience and long-suffering toward the
nations with all their aggravated godlessness since
1918 have meant the salvation of all these hundreds
of thousands. If this has been the gratifying result
of God's forbearance and patience up till now, what
will his further extended patience mean but the salva tion of other thousands 1
STUBBORN~ESS

AND

RESPO~Sl\rENESS

Although God continues patient with the nation~

despite their hostility to his kingdom by Christ, the
result is that the stubbornness of the world rulers,
political, commercial and religious, becomes morE'
22

the 1949 Yenrbook of Jehovah's witnesses, page 22

20 II,ow doe8 ChrIstendom treat our warnmg of Armnj;cddon'l

21. \\ In since 1918 hRs nod not let destro\'ed thl. old world?
22

\YllY

110\

non':::

p'ltJf>nrC'

j\1lo1tiftp,<l

thOllJth' many harden themselve~"

DECEMBER

1, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER

361

pronounced, portending their certain destruction at

Armageddon. But what is wrong with that! Jehovah
the Creator has the sovereign right to let all such
human creatures harden themselves ngainst him to
their own destruction. As the great Potter he can
justly and rightfully destroy all those human yessels
that turn unsatisfactory. God's merciful patience and
goodness are not designed to harden them, but the
hardening of the opposers is the result of their own
pride and selfi~hness. l:nmerciful persons want to
see the instant destruction of others; and Paul savs
to them : "And do you suppose, when you sit in jud"gment upon those who do such things and yet do them
yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God 1
Do you think so lightly of his wealth of kindness.
forbearance, and patience, and fail to see that God's
kindne:5s ought to induce you to repenH But in your
olJ:::dinacy and impenitence you are storing up wrath
for yourself on the Day of 'Wrath, when the justice
of God will burst forth." (Rom. 2: 3-5, An Amer.
Trans.) While some abu:,:e God's patience and harden
themselves, others take advantage of hi:; werc)" and
yield themselves to his arrangements for salvation,
and receive his mercy. \Yho, then, can complain or
find fault f Because of these who accept his mercy,
his patience is not wasted or in vain, even if the vast
majority harden themselves for destruction.
23 Thus it is that "he has mercy on anyone he
pleases, and hardens the heart of anyone he pleas\':5".
(Rom. 9: 18, An Amer. Trans.) In Moses' day Jehovah did no injustice to Pharaoh of Egypt by letting
him grow hard in stubbornness against Goc1'l; just
demands. God was patient with Pharaoh, although
he was ready to display his anger and show his
power before he finally did destroy him and hi::: hosts.
Before bringing the seventh of the ten plagues upon
the Egyptians Jehovah said to Pharaoh by :Moses:
"Dv now I could have stretched out mv hand and
str~1Ck you and your people with pestile~ce, so that
you would have been effaced from the earth; but this
is why I have spared you: to show you my power,
and to have my fame recounted throughout all the
earth." (Ex. 9: 15, 16, An Amer. Trans.) Likewise in
1914, after "seven times" of Gentile misrule of mankind, or in 1918, at the end of World \Var I for
continued Gentile domination of earth, Almighty
God could justly have wiped out the nations. In
Pharaoh's case the didne forbearance made room
for God to demonstrate more of his power right there
in Egypt. Next came his mightiest demon:,:tration of
power by engulfing the military hash,; of Egypt in
the Red sea. So, too, since A.D. 1918, by patience
toward the greater Pharaoh, Satan, and all his
nations, Jehovah has been able to raise up His witnesses on earth to publish his fame throughout all

the earth und to make a fuller display of his power

over Satan's embattled hosts at the coming Armageddon.
24 The apostle says such divine long-suffering has
allo\\'ed for God to "show all the wealth of his glory
in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he
has prepared from the beginning to share his glory,
including us whom he has called not only from among
the Jews but from among the heathen". (Rom. 9: 23,
An Amer. Trans.) 'When 'World War I ended, in
1918, the 14-1,000 whom God had foreordained for
glory with Christ Jesus in the Kingdom had not all
been completed. A remnant needed to be prepared
for the promised share in the heavenly glory with
the enthroned King, Christ Jesus. This remnant
needed Yet to be full v taken out from the nations and
all be ~s~igned their work to finish on earth and
thereby proye their integrity and their worthiness of
the glory above. For the sake of their full salvation
God had to exercise patience with the nations after
1918, even if their "seven times" of world dominatioll
had already expired. His holding buck from destroying the nations is pictured for us at Hevelation 7: 1-4.
There the apostle John says:
25 "After this I saw four angel~ stunding at the
four corners of the earth. holding the four winds of
the earth, that no wind f'hould blow on the earth, 01'
on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another
angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of
the living God: and he cried with a great voice to
the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the
earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither
the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the
servants of our God on theIr foreheaus. And I heard
the numLer of them that were sealed, a hundred and
forty and four thou:5und, sealed out of every tribe
of the children of Ismel."-Arn. Slan:Ver.
26 The "four angels"
represent the angelic hosts,
the complete organization of them. They are nnder
the command of Jehovah's great 'angel from the sunrising', Christ Jesus, and fought with him in the
"war in heaven" in order to oust Satan and his
demons. They have it within their power to do vast
injury to the sea and the earth and its trees, namely,
all nations. The "four winds" of the earth, not yet
let loose by them to blow simultaneously, cOlllLining
to produce a destructive whirlwind raging from one
end of the earth to the other, picture the l;uttle of
Armageddon. But in 1918 Christ Jesus, .)e\lovall':)
Field Commander, could not let that battle take place
and bring about the final end of this world. There
was vet a remnant of the 144,000 joint-heirs of Christ
that"needed to be sealed and approved for heavenly
glory with him. On this account Christ Je::::us COlllmanded the angelic forces under him to halt fro111

23 Why hs; Ood thus far spared tho,e who have hardened themse!\es"

24 How since lll18 has he sbo\\ ed mercy on all jJrepnreu for ;;101')'"
25, 2G How rall we explain tillS b)' the pictnre at He\ elation I: 1-1 "

3G2

SEeWATCHTOWER..

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

following up Satan's ouster from heaven in 1918 for which God shortened the tribulation in 1918 and
by at once fighting the final phase of the warfare, spared the remnant of the elect was that these might
Armageddon. This interruption meant that God bear the divine message of salvation to this "great
would have to show further patience toward the host" who are to be saved to eternal life on earth.
29 So, since 1918, God's prolonged endurance of the
"vessels of wrath", the enemy nations. But it was
well worth it. That way he could show mercy on the worldly nations doomed to destruction has worked
"vessels of mercy", namely, the remnant of the to a twofold effect, namely, the salvation of the
144,000, that these might be "prepared unto glory". remnant and that of the "great multitude". God holds
back the destructive forces that are reserved for
27 This divine patience toward the worldly "vessels
of wrath" required a shortening of the days of tribu- Armageddon until after {his great multitude has
lation upon thh; world, but this lull in the tribulation gotten the benefit of the Kingdom gospel proclaimed
at its middle served for the salvation of the rem- bv the remnant.
30 Whereas the remnant are sealed in their forenant who were yet on earth in the flesh and who yet
needed to 'make their calling and election sure'. heads with the seal of the living God, the "great mul(2 Pet. 1: 10, 11) TIefel'l'ing to the tribulation at this titude" are marked in their foreheads by the remnant
"time of the end" and which begun with the "war in as earthly worshipers of Jehovah and as supporters
heaven", Jesus said: "Then shall be great tribula- of his King, Jesus Christ. The holding back of the
tion, such as was not since the beginning of the world forces of Armageddon until after the sealed remnant
to this time, no. nor pver shall be. Ann except those get the work done of 'marking the foreheads' of the
days should be ::;hortened, there shou}d no flesh be "great multitude" is pictured in a vision Ezekiel had
:-;uved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be just a few )"ears before Jerusalem was destroyed
shortened." (Matt. 2-l: 21, 22) Thus by this merciful in G07 B.C. God's executional forces appointed to
intervQntion on God's part the remnant of the 1-1-4,000 destroy the nations at Armageddon are pictured as
have the opportunity after 1918 to be sealed in. their six men with slaughter weapons, while the elect
forehead with the seal of the living God. '1'0 this remnant with sealed foreheads are pictured us a
day they are active in Jehovah's service as hi::; wit- seventh man clothed in white linen with a writer's
inkhorn at his side. In great patience toward those
nesses and ambassadors to the nations.
committing abominations throughout the land JehoOPPORTUNITY FOR GREAT MULTITUDE TO BE SAVED
vah God sends first the man in linen to his work,
29 Since 1914 Christ Jesus reigns in the midst of
ahead of the six executioners. We read: "And Jehohis enemies; and \'lith Satan's ousting from heaven vah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city,
he now has all his enemies at his feet, at his footstool through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon
the earth. Following up his victory in the "war in the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over
heaven" he could have crushed them at once at the all the abominations that are done in the midst t hereearth in 1918. We have seen how halting further of. And to the others [the executioners] he said in
battle action in 1918 and thereby sparing the nations my hearing, Go ye through the city after him, and
resulted in the salvation of the remnant of the elect smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity;
14-4-,000. Well, then, what about the salvation of that slay utterly the old man, the young man and the
"great multitude" out of all nations whom John saw virgin, and little children and women; but come not
after the sealing of the 144,000'1 God'f:> enduring with near any man upon whom is the mark."-Ezek. 9: -loG,
much long-suffering since 1918 the vessels of wrath Am. Stan. Ver.
fitted to destruction has also worked out for the
31 Seeing the loving, noble ends that God has in
salvation of this "great multitude" of earthly wor- view in setting the time for the outbreak of Anna:;hipers of .Jehovah God. This great host of persons geddon yet in the future, we ought not to fret because
of good-will recognize that, by God's mercy and fore- the organized forces of wickedness in the vi~ible and
hearance since 1918, God's salvation has come to invisible realms are still permit ted to operate and
them through Christ. Hence John dei>cribes them in bring untold woe upon the people. We should not
the f.ollowing way: "After that I looked, and there become lil,e the prophet .Jonah. Due to a measure of
wus a great host whom no one could count, from self-righteousness and fear for his own reputation
every nation and trihe and people and tongue, stand- as a prophet, .J onah was unwilling that the same
ing before the throne and before the Lamb, clad in ldnd of mercy that he himself had experienced should
white robes, with palm-branches in their hands; and be extended to the heathen inhabitants of the city of
they cried with a loud voice, 'Saved by our God who Nineveh. Jonah had run away from duty and God
is seated on the throne, and by the Lamb!'" (Rev. had had infinite mercy upon him by rescuing him
7 : 9, 10, 1110 ff att) The fact is, one of the purposes from the belly of the seamonster und restoring him
:!7.

H.,,,,How
lias the trlhulatlon been Rhorteneti, anti w\tll whnt
hn:i another C'la.::q nenefitp.et hy ShOI"tf'lllng: the

:,!l...:. ~q.

ben~t1t?

trouhlt~?

30. Wherena the remnant are sellled, how nre the mult\tuoc Ilente,l?
31, 32. Why ought \\e not to fr'n at God'. patience, as Jounh d.d?

DECEMnER

1, 1948

mieWATCHTOWER

to his service as a prophet of .TellOvah. So .J onah

had now preached to the Ninevites that forty days
from the time he had begun preaching to them their
city of more than 120,000 inhabitants would be
destroyed.
32 These Ninevites showed faith in the message of
doom and repented, and God mercifully spared them
because of this. But Jonah was displeased that God
continued to show them patience and long-suffering
beyond the forty days. He wanted their instant
destruction. However, God's mercy meant the salvation of more than 120,000 persons that could not
"discern between their right hand and their left

3G3

hand". (Jonah 4: 11) In the second century following

Jonah Nineveh's doom was pronounced by Nahum
and Zephaniah and then her doom was executed by
Jehovah God; but the Nihevites of Jonah's day were
spared by God's tender regard for their repentance.
:rllOse repentant Ninevites pictured the "great multitude" of good-will of today. In Jehovah's sparing
the ancient Ninevites we can see a reason for his
sparing Christendom and the rest of the nations
since 1918. It magnifies his qualities of merciful selfrestraint. His wisdom so directs his actions that
these qualities of mercy, patience, and forbearance
toward the wicked are not misspent, but result in the
salvation of some.-Jer. 18: 7, 8.

HASTENING THE COMING OF THE DAY OF GOD

NOWING that God's patience means salvation
for men of good-will, we come to the following
conclusion: If God can l,eep on enduring the
Ilntions in their oppressions of mankind and their
schellles of further ,,-orld domination against his
King, Jesus Christ, then we too can endure these
nations. The times of the Gentiles have indeed run
out, but we as Christians and witnesses of Jehovah
will take no subversive action to overthrow any of
these nations. Such action would never hasten the
coming of the great day of God Almighty. So we
llUlllble ourseh'es undC:'r the mighty hand of God, and
we yield all to llilll as the great Potter who makes
and who breaks. Grateful ulat he has not broken us,
\\'C say, in Isaiah's words: "uut now, 0 .Tehovah,
thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our
]Jotter; and we all are tIle work of thy hand." (Isu.
(i4: 8, AIII.S/cw. Ver.) 'Ve are grateful that he has
spnrrd us since 1918 and that he has cOll1mitt(d to us
the precious treasure of his ministry in our eartllen
vesse!!;. (2 Cor. 4: 7) Yes, we regret to seC' how
organized religion continues to hoodwink the people
and to make gains among men and to bring reproach
upon Jehovah's name. 'Ve regret to see Satan bring
increasing \\"oes upon the people by his visible agents
on earth. But while we have no pleasure in these
things, yet if Almighty God continues to let the
nations remain and rage against him, we are content.
We find no fault. In fact, we are thankful for it. We
know it. has meant our own salvation and will mean
further the salvation of countless others.
2 Perceiving the divine purpose of God's forebearance with the wicked "vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction" since 1918, we act in harmony with his
purpose. We take advantage of his shortening of the
cla YS of tribulation. We redeem this time of divine
gr;ce, by applying it in the way that God wants, ful-

filling the commission that he has laid upon us as llis

witnesses, his ambassadors, sent forth to mark all
foreheads of good-will. We bend all our energies,
we devote all our resources, to the great educational
work upon the people who sigh and cry, to comfort
them with the knowledge of Jehovah God and his
blessed Kingdom purposes. We know that this educational work and this training of people of all
nationalities to worship the living a.nd true God
requires time and patience. We are thankful for the
time allowed, and, by Jehovah's grace, we will not
fail in patience with his own marvelous example of
patience before our eyes. While organized religion
of Satan's world makes its own enorlllOUS gains, why
should we fret1 'Ve, too, can get our own work in.
Hence we will keep on steadily preaclling as Goel
commands. 'Ve will expand his tme worship, due to
the increase that he gives to anI' efforts. We will
also continue to preach the day of his ,'engeance,
warning rulers and subjects alike that Armageddon
approaches, when God by Christ his King will dash
the nations to shivers like a potter's vessel smashed
with an iron rod.
3 We will not sit in the seat of the scoffers, nor follow selfish passions, nor walk with the worldly moc1,ers who have scoffed and mocked since A.D. 1914,
saying: "Where is His promised advent? Since the
day our fathers fell asleep, things remain exactly as
they were from the beginning of creation." (2 Pet.
3: 3, 4, Moffatt) We will not count God as slow and
never getting to the performance of his promises.
We know there is a limit to his patience, and thaL
he has appointed a definite time for the battle of
Armageddon. When the time for this final featnre of
the days of tribulation arrives, then his patience
toward the "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction"
will end. As long as he yet pleases we will endure the

1. De.plte contllllllnl: wlrkedneBB, \I hy be content at God'. patience?

lIow <10 \Ie tal.e a<l\lUltll!'e lie the ~hOI telllD[: of the trlblll"tIOD?

~ What popular Course of today foretold bY Peter \\,11 we not

follow'/ (b) What worus of Jehovah to li:zeklel will be rPlllemhe, cd ,

~.

:164
~coffing

and mocking at our hopes and our warnings

to the world, remembering his words to the prophet
Ezekiel:
""Son of man, what is this proverb that ye have
in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged,
and every vision faileth 1 Tell them therefore, Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah: I will make this proverb to
cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in
Israel [type of Christendom]; but say unto them,
The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every
vision. For there shall be no more any false vision
nor flattering divination [by Christendom's clergy]
within the house of Israel. For I am Jehovah; I will
speak. and the word that I shall ~peak shall be performed: it shall be no more deferred: for in your
<lays, 0 rebellious house, will I speak the word, and
\vill perform it, saith the Lord J ehoyah.... Son of
man, behold, they of the hou!"e of Israel say, The
dsion that he seeth is for many days to come, and
he prophesieth of times that are far off. Therefore
:-;ay unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: There
~hall none of my words be deferred any more, but
the word which I shall speak shall be performed,
:-;nith the Lord .Jehovah."-Ezek. 12: 21-28, Am. Stan.
Vel".

; Xu, we will not take the :::.hortsighted human yiewpoint allli ~ay Goel is slow. To speak that way shows
lack of Bible intelligence. We accept inspired Peter's
pxvlanation that "the Lord is not ~low \vith what he
promif:'es, according to certain people's idea of slowness; no, he is long-suffering for your sake, he does
not wif'h any to peri"h hut all to betake them to
repentance". (2 Pet. :3: 9, MOl/11ft) For those who
sincerely repent by tumillg' from this doomed world
and taking up the purl' worship of God and sen-ice
of his King this repentan~e leads to salnttion. We
of the remnant knO\v we must yet mak(~ our calIiIl~
und election sure. But, in fact, all of Jehovah's witnesses today must abide in the saved condition into
whicIt tlley have beell brou~ht, and in that conditioll
they mnst seek to help others to salvation. Understanding thi~ purpose of God in not yet having
brought on the great day like a thief when the present wicked heavens and earth of Satan's organization
will he consumed as by fire, we accept Peter's counsel
and we "con:>ider that tIle long-suffering of our Lord
meallS salvation".-3: 15, Moffatt.
., "\Vha t the many mockers call God':; slowness docs
not af all shake our confident expectation of that day
of destruction for this old unsatisfactory, Goddishonoring world. We keep looking forward joyously to the new heavens and new earth that he ha~
promised. In this gracious time of divine patience
toward the "vessel::; of wrath" we follow what the
apo:>tle Peter draws as a conclusion in view of the
~"
<;

BROOKLYN, N. Y,

SheWATCHTOWER

\\'hat VIew by Peter do we take of the SItuation since 19181

\\'hat rlo we ~onfidenllr PXP""! lind whll~ lend!n!: wba! kllld flf lives!

dissolution of this old world in the coming day of

wrath: "If all these things are to be dissolved in this
way, what holy and pious lives you ought to lead.
while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of
God, which will cause the heavens to burn up and
dissolve and the heavenly bodies to blaze and melt.
In fulfillment of his promise we expect new heavens
and a new earth, where uprightness will prevail."
-2 Pet. 3: 11-13, An Amer. Trans.; Moffatt; Roth.
HOW?
7 How can we both await and "hasten" the coming
of the day of God Jehovah? We cannot hasten it in
the sense of bringing it sooner than the time that He
has originally fixed for it. No, we cannot alter 'the
times or the seasons, which the Fatller hath put in
his own power". (Acts 1: 7) His D-day is dated
unchangeably; it is immovably fixed. We cannot
shift it forward, as some have tried to do in their
studies of chronology by fixing dates in advance for
certain events predicted in divine prophecy. How,
then, can \ve "ha~ten" the coming of Jehovah's day of
del;truction upon this old world withont any subversh-e action hy us against the nations 1
9 'Ye can do so by not joining with the mockers and
~coffers who postpone that day into the indefinite future, "not in our day," as they say with the idea God
is slo\\'. They delay it in the minds and viewpoint::,
of men. We hasten it by pointing out from the Bible
and from prophetic fulfillments that it is near, taking
the same viewpoint as Paul, when he said: "KnO\ving
the time. that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believflcl. The night is far spent, the day is at hand."
(Hom. 13: 11, 12) We therefore avoid presUllling
upon God's seeming slowness, but act promptly and
efficiently in view of the shortness of the time that
we know remains. \Ve well know that Satan also
kllOWI" that "he hath but a sllort time" before thebattle of Armageddon bursts forth.-Rev. 12: 12.
9 'Ve know what God's work for now is, and \ve ~ef'
it progressing, moving ahead irresistibly on earth.
'Ye know it will be a short work, because of the rigorousness, the dispatch and the zeal with which God
cau::;es it to be carried out. As the apostle Paul say:" :
"And Isaiah cries out about Israel, 'Although th(
sons of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the
sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for thl'
Lord will execute his sentence rigorously and SWIftly
on the earth."-Rom. 9: 27, 28, An Amer. Trans.;
Isa. 10: 22, 23.
10 God is "from eternity and to eternity", and, by
the way he counts time, he is now moving very speedily. His time of merciful patience, already exercised

7, 8. How can we not and yet cnn we hasten the coming of God'8 da~'
9. Whose work do we Se<! progressln~, and "hy will It be short '!
10 What chmax I. near, nnd to wbat shoullj we make every pfrort

DECEMBER

1, 1948

365

1ffieWATCHTOWER..

thirty ~Tears since 1918, will expire shortly. The day

of the final outburst of divine wrath will be upon
this world like a thief for suddenness, and it shall
pass out forever. The new heavens and new earth
will be here, and those who have appreciated God's
goodness and taken full advantage of his patience

will enter into the enjoyment of that new world.

"Therefore, dear friends, while waiting for this,
make every effort to be found by him unstained,
irreproachable, and at peace. Look upon our Lord's
patience as salvation:'-2 Pet. 3: 14, 15, An .eimer.
Trans.

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES

HE president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract

Society would have liked to drop in on all of the
district assemblies throughout the world if that had
been at all possible, but it seemed well for him in 1948 to
pay attention to the work in the United States, Ala5ka and
Canada, as reported on in our last two previous issues.
It was with real intcrcst, howcver, that hc watched the
reports as they came in from all parts of thc world, from
the South American countries, from Central America, from
Australia and from Europe. As these reports were read
it was noted that the same interest was shown in the district
assemblies by the brethren in other countries as was shown
by the publishers of the Kingdom in the Unitcd Statcs and
Cunada. It appears that the United States 5tarted off first
with its initial assembly in :March, but closcly thereafter
the asscmblies began in other countries.
:Mexico cit)' had a fine assembly in April. There were
1,760 in attendance at the public lecture, and 99 were immersed. Other assemblies were arranged at Yeraeruz and
Tuxtla Gutierrez. These were more in the form of circuit
assemblies, aceommodating the brethren in those areas.
Toward the end of April Panama had arranged for a
speeial meeting in Boeas del Toro. This was away from
the center of population, but many of the brethren from
Panama city traveled there by boat in order to give this
district a good witness.
Then came May, and our few brethren in British Honduras were convention-minded and they were gathered
together in Belize 'in the number of 66. The British West
Indies had a splendid gathering at Port of Spain, Trinidad;
3,623 attcnded their public lecturc. Guatemala city was
not to be left out of the enjoyment of having a convention,
and the publishers assembled in that city to advertise a
public lecture, which 252 attended. In this same month, for
the convenience of the people of good-will in El Sah'ador,
assemblies were held in Santa Ana and San Salvador, At
these fh'c assemblies there were more than 65 persons of
good-will immersed, symbolizing their comecration to the
Lord. Away on the other side of the earth a district assembly had been arranged in New Zealand. The first one was
held in Auckland, where 400 of the brethren were able to
come together at the Town lIall. The second assembly was
at ChristclUlreh, 111 the southern part of New Zealand, and
260 witnesses were present. :More than 1,200 persons were
in attendance at the public meetings.
As the days flee by, the month of June brings in another
group of district assemblies. In Australia, due to the vastness of the country, six district assemblies were arranged,
and it is reported that the good-will persons attcnded these
with boundless joy. The spirit of the brethren is now very
good, and, as fSome ~xpressed it at the assemblies, "The

wound has healed." The publie talk attendance from one

end of the country to the other for the six di!';trict assemblies
was 6,353.
EUROPE

Continuing around the world, we come to Denmark,

where we find 3,286 brethren assembled, and at the public
meeting, 4,148. Thcre were two new releases for our Danish
brethren, the new book "Let God Be True" in the Danish
language and also ~he Song Book. These were enthusiastically aecepted by everyone. In Switzerland the Branch offiee
had the responsibility of getting the district assembly information to the publishers in three different languages, and
the first assembly was held early in June at \'evey in the
French language. The next week-end was at Lucerne in
a German-speaking seetion, and the latter part of the month
the brethren assembled at Lugano, an Italian-speaking
section of Switzerland.
While in all the other parts of the earth Jehovah's witnesses were meeting in peace and quiet and attending to
their own business of carrying on true worship, the Catholic
clergy in Poland were determined to break up the district
assemblies of Jehovah's witnesses in that land. The place
selected was Lublin, and when our brethren began to arrive
at the city Catholic mobs began to form, and they charged
our brethren and beat them severely. The police of Lublm
came to the assistance of Jehovah's witnesses and tried to
break up the mobs. The interesting part of it all was that
the Catholic priest stood right there with the ruffians and
directed the affair. The brethren tried to go out into the
field service, but it was almost impossible, and the police
requested us not to engage in house-to-house wi tnessing,
but to stay in our hall. The only protection that the police
were able to give Jehovah's witnesses was at the hall and
along the streets leading from the hall to the raJlroad
station and at the railroad station at the time the brethren
departed. At times they had to call out the fire dcpartmen t
to use high-pressure water hoses to keep the mob back from
carrying on their nefarious work. The Catholics were determined to break up the assembly, but they failed. It was
held for the three days. There were approximately 2,GOO
brethren present at the last day of the a5sembly. A number
of these were hurt because of action on the part of the mob,
but even these terrible conditions did not scare the newly
interested persons associating themselves with .Jehova!l'5
witnesses. There were 124 immersed at Lubllll at that
district assembly.
The week previous there was a district as'iembly at
Poznan, and there were 4,600 puhlishers in attendance;
6,000 came to the public meeting. It was at the first district
assembly in Poland that 278 persons s:-rmbolized their consecration b~' water baptism. These u5semblie'i will be long

BG6

~eWATCHTOWER

remembered in the minds of the brethren in Poland, as well

as by the inhabitants of these cities.
In the Netherlands a fine district assembly was held, and
the brethren from the entire country were able to come
together. On Sunday afternoon at the public lecture there
were 8,000 in attendance; 188 were baptized. These meetings
were very practical and instructive and were an encouragement to all. In the country of France, ten cities were
selected so as to make it convenient to all. The last one in
France was held at the end of ,June, in Lille. It was good
to observe that at these 10 assemblies there were 5,795
attending the assembly !:>essions, and at the public meetings
a total number of 9,235 attended. Also, 54: were immersed.
A goodly number of brethren inquired about and filled out
applications for pioneer service. The work in France is
moving along very well despite the difficult times within
the country itself. The report from France concludes saying, "These district assemblies contributed to the further
expansion of the work in France."
Four district assemblies were held in the British Isles,
two in .June and two in .July. The cities selected were
Brighton, Birmingham, Blackburn and Glasgow. The
Brighton assembly was the largest by reason of its close
proximity to London. The largest attendance of brethren at
the four assemblies was 9,729, whereas at the public meeting the grand total came to 18,200. The first assembly at
Brighton was held in a very pleasantly situated open-air
stadium. It took a lot of work to prepare this ground for
the assembly, but the brethren were delighted to do it. The
success or the assembly, of course, depended on good, sunny
weather. Days before the assembly and the days after saw
heavy rainstorms, yet not a single drop of rain fell during
the three days of the assembly at Brighton. The whole
series of district assemblies in Britain was a real fillip to
the Bl'itish brethren. A number of them are now considering the pioneer work who have \lot been in it before, and
the WOl k in those blnnus is certainly on the increase, which
can easily be seen by the year's report for 1948.
AU5tria was not to be missed in this great feast or district
assemblies throughout the world. There was one arranged
at "nenna, and it pro\'('d to be very encouraging. Outstanding at this assembly was the relea~e of two new publications, the booklet The Jov of ~1ll the People and the new
Song noah. With money very scarce in Austria, it was still
possible for 823 brethren to assemhle by Saturday. The hall
was overcrowded on Sunday when a few less than 2,000
came to hear the public talk. :i\Iore than l,-lOO remained for
the concluding sessions because of the interest aroused
through the public meeting. The convention was held in the
same place where Johann Strauss played his first waltzes.
'rhe present owner is a direct descendant of this family
which long ago established the place. The owner and his
wife were so pleased with the fine organization that had
gathered there that, without any request, they reduced the
rent by 20 percent for the three days.
An assembly was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, from
September 10 to 12. Because of the national mourning
decreel1 by the government upon the death of the former
president, Dr. Beneseh, they could only begin their sessions
on Saturday morning, but the brethren were active in the
fi.eld all day Friday. The assembly was attended by almost

BnoOKLYN,

N. Y.

500 brethren more than last year. Saturday evening we had

2,135 at the hall, and at the public lecture Sunday afternoon, 2,8G2. There were 254 immersed. The witness work
goes on in Czechoslovakia because the ministers of the Kingdom are determined to praise Jehovah yet more and more.
Sweden, too, was delighted by the district assembly held
there at Orebro August 13-15. Orebro is not a very lar~c
city. It has a population of only about 62,000, but it is the
so-called center of free churches in Sweden. Some of the
leaders of the religious bodies in this town were stating that
Jehovah's witnesses were dying out, and now all on one
week-end thousands of them moved into the city and more
or less took over. A wonderful witness was given, and even
the newspapers had to take note of the action on the part
of the ministers of God. On Sunday at the public meeting
there were 3,025, and on Sunday morning there were 123
who symbolized their consecration. There were released at
this assembly two new booklets, The Joy of All the People
and "The Kingdom of God Is Nigh", and during the assembly 22,979 of these booklets were distributed. Before the
assembly at Orebro, there were approximately 20 of .Jehovah's witnesses meeting together regularly studying 'l'h
Watchtower. The Sunday following the convention ..fO were
present. We hope this means expansion in Orebro, as well
as continued expansion in all of Sweden.
Three assemblies were held in Norway. At a time when
the sun shines there 24 hours a day the first assembly was
held in Harstad, far to the north, with 103 attending. Two
weeks Jater the assembly at Stavanger drew together 24-1
brethren. The next week, the assembly at Drammen proved
to be the largest, with 470 attending. The total for the
public meetings at all three was 1,408 present, and, all
together, 21 were baptized. The Branch servant ministered
at all three assemblies.
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEmSPHERES

Simultaneously throughout the world other countries

have had their district assemblies. Chile had a small gathering. Cuba ealleel its publishers together at Havana, and
there at the public meetin~ they had 2,5GD. Brazil had fine:
gatherings at Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The island of
Jamaica, at its pl'incipal city of Kingston, playeJ ho:-.t to
Jehovah's witne~:-,es, and at the public assembly there were
5,250. Costa Rica had a most successful assembly. There
950 heard the publiC' talk and G50 brethren were pt'esent
the opening nillht. Thl' work in this Central Amet ican
country is movin{.t ahead fast. In August II new peak in
publishers was reached totaling 9lG. This is a wont1erful
peak and the btethren will surely have to keep busy to
surpass that in 194\l service year. So, from one end of the
world to the other many of the Lord's people were able
to come together and receive the blessings of these district
assemblies.
Two of the outstanding as~emblies of the year were the
assemblies of our Germall bl ethren. For their convenience
two district assemblies were arran~ed, one in Kassel and
one in Berlin. Probably among the most wonderful things
that .Jehovah's witnesses ever experienced in the way of
assemblies were these two in Germany. Considering the
hardships and difficulties through which the brethren have
gone and observing the growth since the second world war
has ended, one cannot fully appreciate the joy and enthu-

DECEMBER

1, 1948

3G7

mieWATCHTOWER

siasm of these German brethren unless he has seen them

and been with them. The one hope of the many brethren
was to get to Kassel, there to assemble with Jeho\'ah's
witnesses. They did get there, and they were blessed. It
was just after the currency reform had taken place, and
most of the brethren were depleted as far as cash was concerned, when the time for this assembly arrived, but still
they came. What a blessing it was to all of these 18,000
in attendance when the announcement was made that everyone there could obtain free the clothbound book "The
TrlLth Shall Make You Free" and the booklet The Joy of
All the People. It was a pleasure for the Society to be able
to give these publications to our German brethren. The
report from Germany says, "Without doubt, the distribution of the valuable books and booklets, free of charge, will
have reminded the happy receivers of the fact, how much
they are being favored above their brethren abroad in this
respect." The high-light of the whole feast of the com'ention was reached on Sunday. At three o'clock in thc afternoon there were 23,150 persons, by count, in the Karlswicse.
There were many more of the eitizens of Kassel standing
at the approaches to the grounds who were able to hear
hy loudspeaker.
The German people are hearkening to the truth, and
many of them are desirous of symbolizing their consecration. They know it is not a matter of just joining some
organization. It means working and preaching, so that is
just what the German brethren arc doing. On Sunday
morning at the baptismal service there were 1,200 brethren
who symbolized their consecration at Kassel. During the
day 85 company publishers reported for pioneer service,
and they are in hopes that sometime they will reccive
sllfficient literature so they can take it to the people. An
old pioneer brother who has been standing for the truth
for more than thirty years ,:aid that he had witnes~ed
many conventions during the past years but everything
had been eclipsed by what the Lord was granting him here
at Kassel: new power, new joy, and indescribable blessings.
This, probably, was the innermost feeling of practically
all of the brethren in attendance.
The second district assembly for Gel many was to be
held in Berlin. This cit~, as everyone knows today, i~ the
focus of the grcatest political decisions. There is a blockade around Berlin as far as the western sector is concerned,
and the "cold war" carries on. But even with all of these
hardships and difficulties going on in Dcrlin and in the
Russian section, it did not stop Jehovah's witnesses from
arranging for a district assembly. There are no potatoes,
very few \'egetables, no milk, and very little electricity,
gas and fuel and lights available in the western sector of
Berlin. Every day the difficult circumstances become more
confused, and every day the people's cry for deliverance
from their tattered condition and undesirable misery is
sounding louder and louder. But, despite this, the district
assembly went right ahead. The public meeting was well
advertised. Handbills were distributed and beautiful,
printed posters were put up advertising the talk. Even a
car with a Loud-speaker was allowed to go through the
streets, announcing the lecture. As a result, the greatest
witness for the truth ever given in Berlin was given on
Sunday afternoon. August 29. More than 25,000 people

filled the seats of the huge arena of the Waldbuhne, which

is an openair theater. Brother Frost, the Branch servant,
delivered the public lecture, and people were indeed impressed with the good message of comfort that was brought
to them. This climaxed the service year for our brethren
in Germany. Here a city filled with turmoil was to Jehovah's witnesses a city of refuge, a haven of peace and
harmony, a place where people could gather together to
study the Lord's Word and make plans to carry comfort
to the nations of the earth. They not onl~' have planned it,
but will do it, by the Lord's grace.
There were 16,000 brethren who were able to attend this
Berlin district assembly. These had come to Berlin on nine
special trains. Of course, they came by other means of
travel, too. It was impossible to make provisions for hot
meals at the assembly. The brethren could not even prepare
hot meals for themselves, because of the shortage of elec
tricity and gas, but neither this difficulty nor the financial
troubles within the city itself due to currency reform held
up the brethren from coming. They were prepared to receive
a meal of fat things at the Lord's table, and this they did.
At this assembly there were 1,069 brothers and sisters
immersed. Due to all the marvelous outworkings of the
arrangements for this assembly, the brethren could certainly shout, "God is with us." They knew that their king was
marching on to victory and that they were on the right l>ide.
By the Lord's grace, the German brethren along with Jeho
vah's witnesses throughout all the world are determined to
earry on the true worship of the 1\1ost High and to do it
better and more efficiently than ever. As the Bl'anch servant reported on the convention, in his closing remarks, "A
new service year has now begun in which specially the inner
construction of the organization shall be furthered. It is
now up to everyone to prove his gratitude and appreciation
by putting in practice what we have heard at the~e bles::,ec1
district assemblies."
AND FOR 1949

It would be difficult to sum up the blessings of all of

these assemblies, except to say in the words of the yeartext
for 1949, "I ... will ~'et praise thee more and llIore." That
would be a natural feeling of everyone wholly devoted to
God, and each one can look forward to the new ~'ear with
joy and gladness. As was announced by Brother Knorr at
the Providence assembly, more district assemblies will be
held during 194D. It appeared that in most places the con
vention grounds or halls were too small, and therefore more
assemblies will be held in some of the countries than during
this year. For example, in the United States there will he
twelve district assemblies arranged for in locations com'enient to more of the brethren. Other Branches will make
similar arrangements, and, if necessary, will have more
than one district assembly, so as to accommodate all the
brethren during 1949. The district assemblies have proved
very helpful, and we are grateful to the Lord for this
arrangement.
If it is the Lord's will in 1950, an international assembly
will be arranged for, and in most countries one large,
central convention will be held for the ble~sing of all within
the country. The true ministers of God will joyfully sing
"I ., will yet praise thee more and more".-Ps. 71 14.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
IN CATHOLIC QUEBEC

"Much interest is manifested by the French-speaking

people here. I find in my experiences that the blessings of
the New World seem to be most striking to the people. Even
strong Catholic people have expressed their dissatisfaction
with this present condition existing on earth.
"As I was calling from house to house, just with a Bible,
of course, I came across a lady who could speak English. I
introduced myself and the message that I presented, but
she, being very busy, could not speak long at the door. We
made an arrangement for me to call back that same evening
when her husband would be horne. When evening carne I
called at the house and was invited in. After a few minutes
I learned that this man was the mayor of the town. I felt
stiff for a few seconds but quickly overcame this, and then
I introduced myself as one of .Jehovah's witnesses engaged
in the ministry work of announcing the perfect Government. Immediatel~' he expres:;ed interc:-.t, although stating
'I am a Catholic'. I got on eommon grounds with him and
then explained the rightrous government and its blessings
and also gave him eonclmive proof that we are now living
in the time of the end of the world. He seemed to have
gotten completely absorbc(l in the subject and so began
asking nil' intrresting (111f'~lions. That ga\'e me a chance to
explain the Gentile tinlt'~, that cnlled in 1914, and many
other proofs. as in ~[atthc\\' ~4. He ~ecmed quite interested
in my French Bihle and. on looking through its pages, said,
'Everything that you have told me from this Bible is a fact.
I think I should <.10 more Bible reading.' An hour went by
quickly anJ I had to lea\'('. As I was leaving he expressed
his appreciation of m~' ('all and asked me if I could raIl
again ,"
A.\ EXPE\{IF;:"CF.

in Swiss rUIal::. dllring' V:J.(utilll!

A brothel', rnembel' 01' the Bethel family at Berne, told
allot her member the [ollo\\ing experiences, which might
interest our readers. He <;prnt his whole vacation in thc
field sen'ice and canle ba(k halJpier than ever. lIe visited
espfcially scattered rurals 111 thc mountainous Jura section,
and told her how the Lord Ill'ovided for ~helter and food:
"Once a Cdtholil' woman Jld not hm e money but offered
him 11 freshly bakE'd bread, which he gladly accepted. Soon
after that h~ was looking for a place where to stay overnight. He was told to walk about an hour and there he
w~uld find a hig houM' with sleeping quarters. This he did
and the people accepted him for the night. A brothel',
however, was with him who wanted to accompany him in
ol'tler to learn by his method.,. A second bed was 1I0t ready
for this second publisher. But the people were so nice to
them that they filially improvised a bed. alld so both could
stay, When the;y invited them for supper and the boys
brought the bread with them, these kind people were very
glad. because they said they ,just did not have enough bread
for all. After supper Bro. Schlitz asked the family-there
were quite a few at the table-if they would be interested
in hearing a Biblical theme treated. All were willing to
stay and listen, and he was able to give a talk about 'the
end of the world'. In the morning, when he wanted to give
thrm a hook. as they clid 110t accept anything in the way

of pay for his accommodation, they insisted to give him

2 francs and asked him to be sure and corne back.
"At another place he had a similar experience. Only this
time the man of the house invited him into the house after
supper and by and by one member of the family after the
other turned up, and finally he had a gathering of nine
people. He asked them what about treating a Biblical
subject, and they were glad. to hear something. He spoke
over an hour but they would not leave the room yet. So
he went on speaking until eleven in the night, and everybody seemed to be highly satisfied. In the morning again
they would not accept anything for lodging and food, and
furthermore took 3 books and some booklets, and a guest
who had just happened to be among them asked him to
be sure and call back as this house was so far away from
any church and the housewife needed such admonition
Kreatly."
Bro. Schlitz has placed during vacation 76 books and over
200 booklets and over 100 magazines in about 105 hour!',
and he told me how the other boy had liked to be with him
telling him: now he saw the secret preaching in a mannel'
of reducing expenses.
THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD DISSOLVES OPPOSITIO:-<

The following experience shows the power of Jehovah's

truth to break up opposition to His witnesses. (2 Cor. 10: 4)
By the kind but firm statement of the truth God's faith ful
servants commended themselves to the consciences of men.
"At the assembly for Illinois Circuit 6 we learned in the
early part of Sunday that the American Legion were to
come to the public talk, and therefore we prepared oursel ves
to receive them. About 3 p.m. nearly one hundred of
them with their wives came strutting in with their caps on
They approached the main entrance to the high school audio
torium, but they were politely told that every seat wa~
taken. They were invited to go into the balcony in a gymnasium which was right behind the stage, where they coultl
see all the proceedings, sillce the dividing doors were open
They accepted the escort provided by .Jehovah's witncsse"
and sat down with their caps on, After listening to the
Scriptural argument, most of them changed their attitude
Some took off their caps, sat on them and listened atten
tively with some even taking notes. Later they began to
smile and even applauded when Jehovah's witnesses did.
No disturbance was created, but all became more alert. They
all remained for the entire talk, then left quietly and had
a short confab on the front lawn of the school, after which
they got into their cars and went away.
"The police, who had been notified, were all hand as well
as the head of the board of education, who stood for freedom.
The police chief said they did not come to take care of us,
whom they could trust, but they came to take care of their
own! There were other favorable remarks too. One member
of the American Legion, as he was leaving with his cap
i~ his hand, said he was going to throw it in the drawer
and begin to do a little thinking.
"All of us as servants of the Most High were thankful
that Jehovah's guidance and protection was on us and that
a grE'ater witness was given to His name."
3M<

~eWATCHTOWER.
PtrnLISRED SEMIMONTHLY

By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE b TRACT SOCIETY

117 Adams Street
N. H. KNORR, President

Brooklyn I, N.Y., U.S.A.

OFFICERS
GRANT SUITER,

Secretary

"And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and

shall be the peace of thy children." - balah 54:I.J.

~reat

THE BIBLE CLEAnLY TEAOHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to
e\'erlusting, and Is the :lInker of hpaven and earth and GII'er of
Ufe to hIs creatures; that the Word or Logos was the be~inning
of his creation and his llclh'e agent in creating all other thin~s;
and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised
the issue of His universal so\'ereIgnts';
THAT GOD created the earth for man, mnde perfect man for
the earth and placed him upon it; that man ~'Ielded to unfaithful
Lucifer, or Satan, and wIllfully disobe~'ed God's law and was
sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam's wrong act all men
are born sinners and without the right to Ufe;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suf.
fered death tn ol'der to produce the ransom or redemptive price for
obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus di'l'ine and e:l::alted
him to heaven abo\'e every other creature llnd clothed him with all
power and authority as head of God's new capital ol'go.nization;
'I'HAT GOD'S CAPITAL ORGANIZATIO:'< IS a Theocrac~' called
Zion, and that Chl'lst Jesus is the Chief Oflicer thereof and Is the
rH!htful King of the new worl{]; that the faithfUl anointed
followers of ChrIst Jesus are Zion's chIldren, members of Jehovah's
organizatIOn, and are His witnesses whose dutJ' nnd privilege it
is to testify to Jehovah's suprelllacJ' and dectal'e his purposes
toward mankind us expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD "'OULD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule. ended
A,D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by ,Jehol":lh upon the
throne, has ousted Satan from heal'en, and now proceeds to
vindicate His name and establish the "new earth";
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come onJ.r
by Jeho\'ah's kIngdom under Christ, which has begun; that Ilis
next grent nct Is to destroy Satan's or~nnjzation nnd estnblish
righteousness completely in tile earth, and tllat under the Kingl!om
the people of good-will sUI'\'il'ing Arma;;edtlon will carry out the
divIne mandnte to "fill the earth" With righteous offsprIn~. nlld
that the human dead in the graves will be raispd to opportumties
of Hfe on earth.
"SETTI~G THE MARK" TESTI:IIO::-iY PEIUOD
Humane persons interested in the eternal life of people of
good-will in God's l'lghteous lIew 1\'orId Will want to llJake an
indelible mark in their intplled by menns of the Kingdom truth.
That is why the month of December has been set aside as a testimony period of special effort, as indIcated by the abo\'e-given
nllme. To help in setting the mark upon good-will foreheads, as
foretold in Ezekiel, chapter 9, the offer that Jehovah's witnesses
are populanzing during this closing month of 1948 is the
latest book, ((Let God Be Tnle," and the booklet Fermallellt
Gover1lor of .All Nations (or The Joy of .All the People) to all
contributors of 35e for the combination. Every reader of l'lle
TVatchtower can actively associate himself with this marking
work which leads to our being spared by God's executioners
during the oneoming battle of Armageddon. We welcome the
eo-operati()n of all, and assure you of our best services in helping
to establish your contact with experienced Kingdom publishers.
lour report filled out on the form supplied by the Society will
greatly interest us at the end of December's work.

"WATCHTOWER" STUDIES

Weck of January 23: "Praise to the Nations Yet More and :More,"
'I 1-23 inclusive, The Watchtower December 15, 1948,
Week of January 30: "Praise to the Nations Yet More and More,"
1]' 24-29 inclusive, Itlso "The 1949 Yeartext,"
'I 1-16 inclusive, The Watchtower December 15, 1948.

ITS MISSION
HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the
people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as a",pl'esse(\
In the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specIJ:lcally
designed to aid Jehovah's witnesses and all people of goodwill.
It al'ranges s~'stematic Bible study for Its readers and the :::ioc[ety
supplies other Ilternture to aid in such studies. It pUblishes
suitable muterlal for radio broadclISting and tor other meaus
ot public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible lIS authorIty tor its utterances,
It is entirely free and separate from aU religion. purtles, sects or
other worldly organizatlons. It is wholly and without resen'ntion
for the kin~dom of Jehomh God under Ohrist his beloved I.. lnlr.
It [s not d~gmatIc, but invites careful and critical exuminution
of Its contents in the light ot the Scriptures, It does not indulge
In controversy, and Its columns are not open to personulit[es.

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1949 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

'Yith gratitude to God for accomplishing through hiS servnnts
the greatest service achievement during this past year, the Society
non'releases the 1949 Yearbook of J ehouah's witnesses. It wlll be
really a stirring experience, and not a dull review of data Hnd
figures, for you to read the president's report at length on the
year's actidties of Jehovah's witnesses in more than ninety lands.
Also, introduced by his own special eomment on the 1949 yeartext,
the texts and comments drawn from the latest 1VatcMolcer Issues
provide you with ll. choice thought for each day of the year, Orders
for copies of the 1949 l"earbook, bound in peach,eolor cloth, \\'lth
more than 350 pages, should be accompanled by remittances at
50c a copy. Companies should send in combined orders to minimize
our n'ork of hundling and shipping.
1949 CALENDAR

Again the Lord provides us with a new service ealendal', for the
year 1949, the text for which is, "I .. , will yet praise thce more
and more." (PB. 71: 14) The picture embellishing it steps into the
field of realism by exhibiting under the year's text a bird's,eye
'l'iew of that now world-famous missionary school, Gilead, lD its
environs, in four colors, and which is mightily aldmg today in
praising Jehovah more and more. Under the picture the dute pad
presents the six special testimony periods of 1949 and the a!tcrnlltive months, together with the service theme for each such month.
Orders may now be sent w, with remittance to cover, at 25c II
cnlendar, or $1.00 for five mailed to one address.

gficeWAICIHIIO
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
VOL.

LXIX

DECEIIIBER

15, 1948

No. 24

PRAISE TO THE NATIONS YET MORE AND MORE

"1 . . . will yet praise thee more and more."-Ps. 71: 14.

EHOVAH God is the sure trust of all those who

seek deliverance from the great danger in the
world. From our buoyant, vigorous youth on into
feeble old age he can be relied upon to rescue us
from mighty enemies plotting our ruin and destruction. When our life forces and bodily powers fail
because of our advanced years, he will prove loyal.
He ,,,ill never fail those who have kept their trust
in him throughout life. This rule of divine dealing
holds true, not only with respect to individual persons, but also with respect to organizations devoted
to him.
2 The great organizations
of this ,vorld which
claim to serve God and Christ fail to accept and
rely upon that divine rule. So-called "Christendom"
professes to see in godless communism a real threat
to her existence and her political, commercial and
religious institutions. On certain money coins she
stamps the words "In God we trust", but, contrary
to this, she turns her back on his kingdom and pins
her faith to the powerful, heavily armed democracies
of this world to save her. At the same time, to keep
peaceful relations between countries, she leans
heavily upon a United Nations, a hodge-podge of
nations pagan and professedly Christian, communistic and democratic, socialistic and capitalistic.
Those few people who keep their trust true and
blameless in Jehovah God Christendom considers not
up to the times and against the public welfare, and
she persecutes and discriminates against them. Her
religious hypocrisy will shortly lead her to ruin, but
those Christians who genuinely make Jehovah God
their refuge will praise him more and more. They
will be delivered and will prosper in the new world.
3 The foregoing statements get strong backing and
great emphasis in the inspired prophecy of Psalm 7lo
In the original Hebrew in which the psalm was written, it appears with no heading or superscription and
starts out at once with the words, "In thee, 0 J ehovah, do I tal;:e refuge." (Ps. 71: 1, Am. Stan. V er.)
What is more, these opening words tie in smoothly
with the closing words of Psalm 70. For these rea1. How " Jehovah loml both to Indlvllluolls nnd to orsunlzutlons?
2. JIow does Clu"telldulll behe her chum to trust m God'l
4. How Ilo \\e u.celtum tlle nutholbhljl or l'.ulm 71 .aI/til. Ver.t

a,

sons Psalm 71 is understood to be one with Psalm

70, the two constituting in fact one psalm. That being
so, Psalm 71 was produced by the aged King David
of Jerusalem, since Psalm 70 has the superscription:
"For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; to
bring to remembrance." (Psalm 70, Am. Stan. Vet.)
Supporting David's authorship we have the Greek
Septuagint Version, the first translation of the
ancient Hebrew Bible. In it this psalm, listed as
Psalm 71 in non-Catholic translations, appears as
Psalm 70, and it has this superscription: "By David,
a Psalm sung by the sons of J onadab, and the first
that were taken captive." (Ps. 70: 1, LXX, Bagster
translation) The Roman Catholic Douay Version
follows the Greek Septuagint, and so it reads: "A
psalm for David. Of the sons of J onadab, and the
former captives."-Ps. 70: 1, Douay.
~ David of Bethlehem was anointed by the prophet
Samuel at Jehovah's command to be the king of the
nation of Israel. He died as king in his seventy-first
year,. after a reign of 40t years. He could well have
written this psalm in his old age. But in the actual
fulfillment of Psalm 71 the psalmist speaks prophetically for an organization of God's people in its
old age.
5 Religious prejudice should not blind anyone, Gentile or Jew, Catholic or Protestant, to a special fact:
Regardless of the translation that the reader uses,
the original Hebrew of Psalm 71 makes it plain that
the psalmist confesses devotion to Jehovah as God
and acknowledges Jehovah as his Lord. For this
very reason the psalmist makes repeated appeals for
deliverance and relief in his old age, and just so, too,
God's visible organization and all those associated
with it today send up repeated appeals for deliverance and relief in the midst of today's world developments. They both rely upon God's righteousness and
talk and sing about it amid this corrupt world. Right
at the start the aged psalmist confesses without
shame where his trust and hope rest, and sings out:
"In thee, 0 Jehovah, do I take refuge: let me never
be put to shame. Deliver me in thy righteousness,
and rescue me: bow down thine ear unto me, and
5. On what busls does the psalmist appeal tor dellverllnce?

371

372

~e WATCHTOWER..

save me. Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my
fortress."-Ps. 71: 1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.
B Now we ask you merely to examine facts bearing
on the modern fulfillment when we ask: 'Whom do
we find taking refuge in Jehovah in 1949 and calling
upon him for deliverance and salvation ~ Show us a
religious organization of Christendom or of Jewry
doing so. You cannot; but only those are doing so
\vho are known world-wide under the name of the
.Most High God, namely, Jehovah's witnesses. Continually they suffer the persecution and antagonism
of all the religious systems of Christendom, and
their use of the name is challenged by these systems,
who ask sarcastically: "'Where did Jehovah invite
them to be His witnesses "
7 This magazine, The Watchto1cer, is now in its
seventieth year, a fairly old age. So since .r uly, 1879,
the witnesses of the ::'10st High God have used this
journal as one means of publishing Bible truth and
serving spiritual food to the people. As early as its
third issue (that of September, 1S79) the Watch
Tower magazine began calling attention to Jehovah
as being the name of the ::'10st High God, the Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just read the article "The
Day of Judgment" on pages 7 and 8 of that third
issue of this magazine to verify that fact. In the
issue of October, 1881, the divine name begins figuring in the titles of articles. In that issue we find the
article entitled "Jehovah's Feet", which uses as its
text the following: " 'This saith Jehovah, Heaven is
my throne and earth is my foot-stool.' Isa. 66: l.
[Literal Hebrew trans.]" That article describes J ehovah as setting up the kingdom of his Son Jesus
Christ and points to A.D. 1914 as a marked date
in the "time of trouble". The worst of all earthly
troubles being anticipated, the need of the Lord God
as a refuge was keenly felt then.
8 In a particular sense in 1925 we went to tah'ing
refuge in the 110st High God, who exclusively bears
the name Jehovah: "That men may know that thou,
whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high
over all the earth." (Ps. 83: 18) In that year the Lord
God called our attention to the startling fact that his
purpose at the battle of Armageddon is to make a
name for himself, for he himself will fight that battle
for his people. So in the Watch Tower issue of
J annary 1, 1926, the leading article was "Who Will
Honor Jehovah~" Paragraph 38 said: "The time
approaches when God will make for himself a name.
God will have somebody to be his witnesses in the
earth. And who could we expect would have the privilege of filling that place ~ Surely none other than
l> Who on1v tak~ retu~e in Jehovah toelay?
7. Sll1ce \\ ben has The WatchtOlocr exalt"el J"hovoh?
8, O. Why .mee 192;; dId \\e speCIally make .r"ho,uh our refuge?

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

Zion, God's organization, some members of which

are on earth. To such Jehovah says: 'Ye are my
witnesses, saith the Lord, ... therefore ye are my
witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.'-Isaiah
43: 10-12." To this, paragraph 43 added: "Now only
a remnant of those professing to be followers of
Jesus will be faithful and true witnesses of our God.
Now all the nations calling themselves Christian
have defamed God's holy name; and he will bring
upon the world a great time of trouble 'in that great
and terrible day of the Lord', and will make for
himself a name that the people may know that he is
God. He will have a \vitness of this fact given now,
and this witness he has privileged Zion to give."
9 Two years later The Watchtower (January 1.
1928) published the lc~ading article "Honor His
Name", and in this
26) it stressed the truth of
Proverbs 18: 10: "The name of Jehovah is a strong
tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."

or

-Am. Stan. Ver.

10 Under such stimulation from the sacred Scriptures and through The Watchtower God's consecrated people bent their energies as never before to
delivering a testimony to His name to all nations
of the globe. James had long ago declared that God"s
purpose in this "Christian era" was to take out a
people for his name (Acts 15: 14), and in the years
following 1928 Jehovah's people brought his name
into prominence before the world. By force of historic facts and of fulfilled prophecy, and not with
any self-assuming presumptuousness, on Sunday,
July 26, 1931, at an international assembly in Columbus, Ohio, they declared themselves to the world by
the Scriptural name "Jehovah's witnesses". "\Yorthiness of the name was to be proved, not merely by
what they had done in bygon years, but by their
faithfully measuring up to the name in the future.
On that account the name has stuck to them ever
since, despite all the public reproach, religious persecution and judicial discrimination that have been
heaped upon them. To this day they keep on "announcing Jehovah's kingdom", as stated on the front
page of this magazine since its issue of lIIarch 1,
1939. The open adoption of the name "Jehovall's
witnesses", and their faithful activities in harmony
with it, have demonstrated beyond any denial by
opposing religionists that these witnesses of the
Most High God are the only ones on earth today
who have taken refuge in Jehovah and made him
their "rock of habitation", as the psalmist prophesied.

"MY ROCK," "MY CRAG"

Especially since the Vatican's "holy year of

1933", after Hitler came to dictatorship in Germany,
the religious systems of Christendom, spear-headed
11

DECEMBER

15, 1948

373

~e WATCHTOWER..

by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, have been trying

to exterminate Jehovah's witnesses by all manner of
means, in totalitarian lands and in democratic lands
as well. Opportunely 'World War II was taken advantage of to try to throttle these Christian witnesses
of the Lord God and wipe them out. Their survival
to this postwar year, with tens of thousands of
persons of good-will associating themselves with
them, proves that Jehovah has been a sure refuge
for them. He has not let them be put to shame nor
let their trust in him be disappointed. In his righteousness he has delivered them from their oppressive
foes and rescued them from the threatened extenninati~n. He has bowed down his ear to their cries
amid the persecution by combined enemies. He has
saved them for the further ,vitness he wants given
on the earth before Armageddon. They are a living
example today of the truth that men and ,vomen of
faith ,vho resort continually to Jehovah as their God
of worship will find him to be a "rock of habitation".
They can use the psalmist David's words to Jehovah: "Thou art my rock [my crag] and my fortress.
Thou hast given commandment to save me."
12 Defore being exalted as king over Israel, the
giant-killer David was being pursued by the unfaithful ruler Saul and his military forces. We read:
"\Vhen Saul and his men went to seek him, they told
David and he went down to the crag which is in the
Desert of ~Iaon. When Saul heard it, he pursued
David to the Desert of ~Iaon. Saul went on one side
of the mountain. and David and his men on the other
side of the mOl~ntain; and David was in desperate
straits to escape from Saul, for Saul and his men
were at the point of surrounding David and his men,
to seize them, when a messenger came to Saul, saying, 'Come quickly, for the Philistines have mad~ a
raid upon the land.' So Saul returned from pm'smng
David and went to meet the Pllilistines; therefore
the\' called that place the Crag of the Divisions.
Th~n David went up from there, and dwelt in the
strongholds of Engedi."-l Sam. 23: ~5-29, An Amer.
Trans.
13 There is no question that Jehovah God in whom
David trusted ordered such pressure to be put upon
King Saul to pull away his forces just when he all
but hall the fugitive David within his clutches there
on that crag or rock in the Desert of ~Iaon. By a
quick maneuver Almighty God kept that crag or
rock behveen David and his persecutors, so that tlle
pursuers did not overtake this anointed worshiper
of Jehovah. It was not the mere crag or rock, but
his God, that made it safe for David. For good
reason, then, David called Jehovah "his rock [crag]"
and always sent up his prayer to Jehovah when
danger appeared. He was never shamed with dis12, 13. How did J ehovab prove to be a "rock" to Da\'id and to us?

appointment. Likewise, the fact~ sho:v it to h?,ve been

with the witnesses of Jehovah In thIS twentIeth century. The name of the Lord God has been upon them
for their protection. Time and again in overwhel~
inO' numbers and with superior material powers theu
fo~s have been about ready to close in upon them to
destroy them. But Jehovah has stood ~s a ~ra91ike
rock in between the wicked foes and theu obJectlves.
This has only strengthened the trus! of his ~aithf~l
anointed remnant and their good-WIll assocIates 111
him as their rock and fortress to which always to
resort.
FRO:\l YOUTH ON

The psalmist expected Jehovah never to change

from being his deliverer. This was becaus~ ~he
psalmist himself never changed from worslllpmg
Jehovah as God and obeying him as Sovereign-Lord.
So with confidence he prayed: "Rescue me, 0 111)'
God, out of the hand of the ,vicked, out of the hand
of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my
hope, 0 Lord Jehovah: thou art my trust from my
youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb;
thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels:
mv praise shall be continually of thee." (Ps. 71: 4-6,
A Stan. V er.) The aged psalmist did not name the
wicked enemy, the unrighteous man that was so
eager to destroy him that he did not stop at violence
and cruel falsehoods.
15 Jesus was known as the "son of David", and,
like David his royal forefather, he put his hope and
trust in the Lord Jehovah as his God and Father. In
his case the religious priests, scribes and elders
corresponded to the wicked, the unrighteous and
crnel man, whom the psalmist mentioned. Even these
religious enemies testified to Jesus' hoping and trustin oer in Jehovah God, for we read concerning Jesus as
he was hanging upon the torture stake: "Likewise
also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribe~
and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot
save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come
down from the cross, and we will believe him. He
trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will
have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." (Matt.
27: 41-43) Because Jesus, as God's High Priest, must
die for mankind's sins, God's rescue of him did not
come until after he had lain in the grave for three
duys. For this his rescue was all the more remarkable.
16 Even when Jesus was a young child, the great
enemy Satan the Devil tried to destroy him by means
of the soldiers whom wicked, cruel and violent King
Herod sent to Bethlehem. Jehovah his Father rescued the young child by forewarning his earthly
14

;n.

14 "'Ily could David

pray to be rescued by God, and from

15 Corrc:ipondll1gly, how \\fiR Jesus thus rescued 'I

IG-IR la) Ifuw was Jel:o\ah made Israel's tru.t

whnru?

from ehlllJIlood or
YOUlh? (b) When "as the Cbristian orgamzation thus taught to trust
Him!

374

~eWATCHTOWER.

parents and sending them down to Egypt till after

Herod's own death. "\Ve read that he was there "until
the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out
of Egypt have I called my son." (Matt. 2: 15) However, the prophecy from which :Matthew quotes to
apply part of it to the young child Jesus reads in
full: ""\Vhen Israel was a child, then I loved him, and
called my son out of Egypt." (Has. 11: 1) The complete fulfillment of Hosea's prophecy is therefore
upon the spiritual Israel, the Christian congregation
of Jesus' footstep followers. They were foreshadowed by the natural Israelites whom God brought
up ant of literal Egypt under the leadership of the
prophet Moses. Then the~' were but a youthful Theocratic nation. "\Yhen )'Ioses appeared to them as God's
prophet in Egypt to lead them, he declared that the
name of the God who sent him was Jehovah. All
through the wilderness journey of forty years that
followed their coming out of Egypt he taught them
to fear God's name and trust in it. At ),Iount Sinai
he gU\-e them God's Ten Commandments, the first of
which reads: "1 am Jehovah thy God. who brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
And in his farewell song to Israel Moses sang: "I
,dll proclaim the name of J ehovah."-Ex. 20: 1-3 and
Deut. 32: 3, Am. Stan. Ver.
17 In likening natural Israel at that time to a child,
God's Word speaks of the youth of that typical
Theocratic nation. Looking hack over the continuous
persecutions upon that people for being Jehovah's
chosen nation, the psalmist says: "~Iany a time have
they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now
say: many a time haye they afflicted me from my
youth: yet they have not prevailed against me." (Ps.
129: 1, 2) And the prophet Jeremiah says to Israel:
"Thus saith Jehovah, I remember for thee the kind
ness of thy youth, . . . Israel was holiness unto
J eho,ah, the firstfruits of his increase: all that
devour him shall be held guilty." (Jer. 2: 2, 3, Am.
Stan. Fer.) So, too, with the true Christian organiza
tion of which Christ Jesus is Head: it had its youth
in the days of Jesus and his twelve apostles. Jesus,
who was foreshadowed by the prophet :Moses, taught
this holy nation of spiritual Israel to fear the name
of Jehovah, and he led it ant of the antitypical Egypt,
this oppressive world with its false religions. In a
last prayer with his faithful apostles Jesus said to
Jehovah God: "I manifested thy name unto the men
whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they
were, and thou gayest them to me; and they have
kept thy word.... Holy Father, keep them in thy
name which thou hast given me, that they may be one,
even as we are:'-John 17: 6, 11, Am. Stan. Ver.
18 Thus in its youth the Christian organization

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

under Christ the Head was taught to lean upon J ehovah God and to stay itself upon him for all the
centuries to follow.
a The mother of the Christian organization under
Christ the Head' No, she is not the virgin J ewess
:Mary, who bore Jesus. Jehovah God has a universal
organization of creatures united and faithful to Him
as Head and Lord, and this organization is given the
symbolical name J emsa,lem. He speaks to it as his
wife and says: "Thy Maker is thy husband; Jehovah
of bosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is
thy Redeemer." (Isa. 54:5, Am.Stan.Ver.) Out of
the womb of this universal mother, this organization
married to him, God as Father takes the Christian
organization whose Head is Christ Jesus. The
mother organization is the one meant when Paul
says to his Christian brethren: "But the Jerusalem
that is above is free, which is our mother." (Gal.
4: 26, Am. Stan. Ver.) The true organization of Jehovah's children who follow Christ Jesus as 1Iaster
has held on to its hope and confidence in J ehovalt
from the very day of its birth, namely, the day of
Pentecost, when Jehovah poured down his holy
spirit through Christ Jesus. Today, after nineteen
centuries, it can still say: "Upon thee have 1 leaned
from birth; from my mother's womb thou hast been
my stay; in thee is my hope continually." (Ps. 71: G,
An Amer. Trans.) A number o~ religious organizations in Christendom claim to have descended without a break from the original apostolic organization
of the first century. But where do any of them demonstrate that apostolic devotion to Jehovah and
reliance upon Him ~ But the facts about J eho,ah's
witnesses of the nineteenth and twen tieth cen turies
prove them \vorthy and entitled to take up and repeat
the psalmist's words. They have stayed upon J eho
vah, and their hope continues to be upon him throngh
Christ.
"IN THE THfE OF OLD AGe"
20 In 1931, when the name "Jehovah's witnesses"
was adopted, all the world wondered at them and
thought they were just "another religious sect". In the
years since then the world has been given more cause
to wonder at them. This agrees with the psalmist's
next words: "I am as a wonder unto many; but thou
art my strong refuge. :My mouth shall be filled "'itll
thy praise, and with thy honor all the day. Cast me
not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when
my strength faileth."-Pr-:. 71:7-9, Am.Stan. Fer.
21 Even Christ Jesus, t he Head of the Christian
organization, was a cause ur wonderment, a prodigy,
to the unbelieving religionists in his day. This was as
the prophecy had foretold, for he is Jehovah's great

19, lIow has Jeho\'ah been Its Btay nn,l hope [10m ltB motber'B \Vomu'
20. 21. Like JeBuB, whnt mUBt we be to mnny torla) , aB prophe"leu"

DECEMBER

15, 1948

1ffieWATCHTOWER.

Prophet who was prefigured by Isaiah. Isaiah's

prophecy is quoted and applied to Christ by the
apostle Paul, who says: "For which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ... Behold
I and the children which God hath given me." (Heb.
2: 11-13) The full prophecy of Isaiah 8: 18 speaks
prophetically of Jesus and his followers, his Godgiven children, as being wonders in the religious
world and says: "Behold, I and the children whom
Jeho,-ah hath given me are for signs and for wonders
in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in
mount Zion." (Am. Stan. Fer.) Therefore Christ's
true followers today must be wonders as ,vell as
signs to the modern religious world.
2Z Jehovah's witnesses are just that. To the religious systems of Christendom that have become a
part of this world and conformed themselves to it in
thonght and action, the witnesses of the :Most High
God are a ,vonder for their finn refusal to compromise with this world. They are a marVEl for openly
confessing Jehovah's name and preaching his Kingdom in the same way that Christ Jesus and his
disciples did, "publicly, and from house to house."
(Acts 20: 20) Christ J esulO> was a marvel in his dav
for the religious persecutions and the terribl~
sufferings and reproaches that he underwent. His
faithful imitators today, Jehovah's witnesses, are
marYelous, too, for the persecutions and hostility
they endure from combined Christendom and Jewry
and for the afflictions and false accusations and
shame they have endured till now, so that Christendom is astounded because they still keep on going
and increasing. Their continuous preaching of this
gospel of the kingdom of God in all the ,vorld for a
witness to all nations is part of the great sign of the
end of this evil \vorld and of the presence of Jehovah's King Christ Jesus on the heavenly throne to
rule in the midst of his enemies.-},Iatt. 2-4:: 14;
Ps. 110: 1, 2.
23 However, Jehovah's wi tnesses know they must be
exposed as a wonder, a prodigy, a portent, before the
world's eyes and what this position must cost them.
In order to endure it they make the Most High God
their strong refuge, and thus they keep their integrity unhroken toward him. In their strong refuge
their mouths fill up with his praise and pour it out
fearlessly. Christendom's religious systems make
Jehovah hideous, saying he is a God who fiendishly
delights in eternally tormenting human souls after
death in literal fire and brimstone and who is responsible for all the woes that have come upon mankind
since A.D. 1914. But Jehovah's witnesses describe
him to the people of good-will according to the Bible
teaching and they show forth his beauty and virtues
all day long.
22. How are Jehovah's witnesses today a wonder to ChrIstendom?
23. How do they endure thIS posltlon, and WIth mouths filled how?

375

2. Measured from the day of the feast of Pentecost

A.D. 33, when Jehovah God by Christ Jesus poured
out the holy spirit upon the faithful disciples, this is
the twentieth century of the life and wonderful
experiences of the Christian organization. It is now
in its old age, for the Bible foretells the time when
this organization of spirit-anointed Christians must
pass from the earthly scene to their heavenly inheritance, and that time is evidently near. 'Vhen complete,
the organization under Christ Jesus the Head numbers at most only 144,000; and after all these centuries in which God has been picking out this people
for his name, there is only a small remnant of those
144,000 now left in the flesh among men. Hence in
this period of old age the visible organization is
numerically weak; strength of great numbers fails
it. At this stage of growth will the Lord God cast
this remnant off? Will he forsake them because their
strength fails numerically and because their fewness
in number invites persecution 7 No. The name of
Jehovah is called upon them; and because his name
is involved, the anointed remnant pray he will not
forsake them. They want to remain his people.

ADVERSARIES DESTINED TO REPROACH AND DISHONOR

25 There is a special reason for this appeal not to
be forsaken now. The sacred prophecies show that
at the end of this world, when the Theocratic organization of Jehovah's anointed people should be in its
old age, Satan the Devil would be cast out of heaven
and to the earth and he would persecute God's organization and "make war with the remnant of her seed".
(Rev. 12: 7-17) In the language of the psalmist this
anointed remnant now says: "For my foes say concerning me, and those who watch for my life make
plans, also, saying, 'God has abandoned him; pursue
and seize him; for there is DO one to rescue him.' 0
God, be not far from me! Hasten, 0 my God, to my
help! lIay they be put to shame and destroyed who
are hostile to me; may they be covered with alm::::e
and shame who seek to injure me." (Ps. 71: 10-13,
An Amer. Trans.) Our enemies would like to believe
that Almighty God has forsaken his devoted witnesses. In fact, God lets it appear so in order to let
the enemies become bold and reckless and show the
wickedness of their hearts behind their hypocritical
religious front. God even permitted his beloved Son
on the torture stake to cry out, in fulfillment of
Psalm 22: 1: ":My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me1" (Matt. 27: 46) It puts a test of faith and
devotion upon his faithful followers to come into a
like outward appearance of being forsaken of J ehovah God.
26 The psalmist mentioned to God that the enemies

24. How and why does strength fall. and so

25 Why do they appeal not to be forsaken
U, 27. (a) As to attempts to Injure. how
plot against our Hfe? (b) How do we refute

what do they prny God?

of God now"
does the Catholic pre"
the maHclou" he I

376

mleWATCHTOWER

spoke against him and plotted against his life. Now

when it comes to hostile speech with a sinister design
against Jehovah's witnesses, we charge that there is
a conspiracy inside the Roman Catholic press to
misrepresent these faithful Christians. As a recent
disclosure of this we cite the religious monthly,
Father Baker's VICTORIAN :Uagazine, published at
Lackawanna, N.Y. On page 65 of its issue of June,
1)48, under the heading "Attention, Americans!"
and in between brief articles on Communism and a
final article about the German people corrupted by
Hitler, the Victorian publishes in bold type the following article:
THE CATHOLIC PRESS tells us that the atheistic government of Poland is financing sects like the Jehovah's
,yitnesscs in order to destroy the Catholicity of the
people. "\Vatchtower" salesmen are making the rounds
of homes with pamphlets reviling the Church. Sunday
lectures ab.o are organized, denouncing CatholiC'ism
and glorifying Communism.
21 At a time when the United States government is
taking all precautionary meaRures against Communist infiltration into the political structure and is
conducting a Commnnist clean-out the Catholic press
publishes propaganda like the above in order to
inflame the minds of Roman Catholics and of as
many Americans as it can against Jehovah's witnesses. Responsible officials of the American government, however, have in recent years informed themselves too well on Jehovah's witnesses to be now
deceived by such lying propaganda of the Catholic
press. The 1949 Yearbook of Jeho1.Jah's witnesses

Of the same stl'lpe and mtent as that of the above-quoted

piece of Roman Catholic propaganda i~ thC' following broadcast
of Catholic ~C'ws ol'er rarho statIOn WIlKC, Columbus,
Ohio, October 16, 1948. at 6: 43 p.m., m an attempt to mlsrC'present the relIef work that .J ehol'ali's witnesses are carrymg on
among their own brethren m Poland:
"J.W. Offer to Poles: $15 For Your Sonl.
"WARSAW -You (an sell your soul for $13 or $20 hereif that's yonI' idea of its vulue. But Poland's loyal Catholics
value It higher.
"J chovah's witnesses cruelly taking advantage of the
people's poverty, are gl\'mg an American food package and
n $10 coal order to anybody, who leaves the CatholIc Church
and joins their seet. There are few takers.
"The SOI;et satellite government encourages and financially
aids the 1,V Itnesses, whose free literature hears clear traces
ot' Communist propaganda."
This broadcast was made by Monsignor Herman E. Mattingly,
editor of the Columbus (Catholic) Regzster. ThiS was a publicinterest presentation of the United Broadcastmg Company.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

shows that the WATCH TOWER BIDLE AND TRACT

SOCIETY conducts a Branch office in Lodz, Poland, as
well as in sixty-six other countries. It is a deliberate
lie of the Catholic press to publish that our Branch
in Poland and the activities of Christian companies
under it are financed by the "atheistic government of
Poland". "That our brethren in Poland and other
lands publish and circulate is simply faithful translations of what our Society first publishes here in
America; and the public lectures delivered by J ehovah's witnesses throughout the world follow the
pattern and printed outline of lectures openly ginn
here in America. In none of our publications and in
none of the public lectures by our representative
spokesmen do we glorify any political ism.
2B In sharp contrast with Roman Catholics and
other religionists, Jehovah's witnesses do not take
part in the politics of any land. They glorify only
Jehovah's kingdom by Christ Jesus as the rightful
government of all the earth. The Catholic press is in
this case found to be spitting out its venom and
writhing in chagrin and vexation because Jehovah's
witnesses in Poland as every,vhere else are following
the apostle Paul's example and preaching the Kingdom gospel "publicly, and from house to house",
(Acts 20: 20) For what Jehovah's witnesses are
doing in Poland and how they are financed we refer
honest Catholics to our 19-19 Yea1-book report.
29 The enemies issue orders to their religio-political
dupes to pursue and seize Jehovah's witnesses, in
wishful thinking that these are forsaken by the God
these worship and are without anyone to delinr
them. But God's holy spirit has already interceded
for us by having inspired the psalmist to record the
prayer for God not to be far from us but to hasten
and help us. Under inspiration of God's interceding
spirit the prayer is already written down for us in
Psalm 71 for the adversaries of our soul or life to
be disgraced and destroyed. Just as certainly as
that inspired prayer stands written against those
who set out to injure us, such enemies are destined
to be covered with insults, reproach and dishonor.
The rest of God's prophetic \Vord shows all this
coming to them.
28. Will' doeB the Catholle pre.s thus "pit out venom and writhe?
20 How bas Go,l s Spillt already Intereeded for Us in Psalm i1?

THE 1949 YEARTEXT

NOWING the faithfulness of his God, and
confident that God will answer his prayer, the
psalmist says: "But I will hope continually, and
will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall

1, 2. As sbown by the 101() ~earte"t.

what haye we resoh"ed to do?

shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all

the day; for I know not the numbers thereof."
-Ps. 71 : 14, 15.
2 With the same hope that the living and true God
will beat back the enemy and uphold them in preach-

DECE1!BJ,<:R

15, 1948

377

~eWATCHTOWER..

ing his gospel, Jehovah's witnesses have adopted as

their yeartext for 1949 the psalmist's words, and
these appear on their 1949 calendar, namely: "I ...
will yet praise thee more and more." This sums up
their fearless determination for 1949 and all years to
come until Armageddon: "I ... will add more to all
thy praise." (An Amer. Trans.; Douay) "I praise
thee more than ever." (Moffatt) "I ... praise Thee,
the longer the more." (TV ellhausen) While the inspired psalm prays for the shaming and reproach
of all our presumptuous opposers, Jehovah's witnesses do not seek self-praise, nor praise from any
men. Jesus said: ",Voe unto you, when all men shall
speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the
false prophets." (Luke G: 26) Wisely we organize
and equip ourselves to praise Jehovah God and his
Christ. 'Ve cannot now take our ease, leaning back
on the past years of praising Jehovah. No; and
neither do we fear ,..hat the enemies threaten and
may attempt to do. We resolve to praise yet more
and more the God who preserves and delivers us,
yes, to add more praise to all the past years of praise
to him; to praise him more than ever, and, the longer
we praise him, to praise him all the more.
3 No matter how long we live, we can never tell the
number of his acts of deliverance of us individually
or as an organization. We can never tell to the full
all about his righteousness and the salvation that he
performs for us and for all who turn from this world
and give their faithful allegiance to Jehovah's kingdom by Christ J esus. Nevertheless, although we can
believe with our heart and have righteousness result
to us for this, we open our mouths in confession of
Jehovah God and his kingdom, knowing that this is
the least we can do and that it results in salvation
to us. So for 1949 and all succeeding years we are
decided that our mouths shall tell of His goodness
and faithfulness all day long.
Resolved to praise the Lord yet more and more,
the psalmist speaks for us today, saying: "I will
come with the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah: I
will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. 0 God, thou hast taught me from my
youth; and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous
worl,s." (Ps. 71: 16, 17, Am. Stan. Ver.) Go on, Christendom, with your hero-worship and your praising
and exalting of political systems and ideologies; but
we us Jehovah's witnesses will do as the psalmist
and come forward with only God's mighty deeds and
acts and will recite these to all nations. We know
there is no righteousness in this world and its backers, and as for righteousness, we have only that of
Jehovah to tell.
5 From the youth of the Christian organization in
3. or "hat do we not know the numbers. and so what rlo we decide?
4. With \\ hnt do we come nnd of what do we make mention?
5. Where and since when haye we looked for our teaching?

the first century Jehovah has taught his people.

Back there Jesus said no one could come to him as
a disciple except Jehovah God taught him: "No man
can come to me, except the Father which hath sent
me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last
day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be
all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto
me." (Jolm 6: 44, 45) The religious Pharisees held
to the traditions of their fathers that made God's
Word void and so they refused to be taught by God
through his Word, and consequently they did not
come to Jesus. No one could become one of Jehovah's
witnesses except by being taught by him through his
Word. In its youth the Christian organization remembered its Creator and accepted Jehovah as
Teacher and was drawn to Jesus as the Christ by
Him. All through the centuries to the organization's
old age now, Jehovah by Christ Jesus has taught his
witnesses, not only doctrine, but also his righteousness and his wondrous works. And these things of
God we have declared persistently to this day. In
recognition of Jehovah as our only Teacher by Christ
Jesus this magazine The Watchtower quit publishing
on its second page (top) of each issue an editorial
committee of five men, but with the issue of October 15, 1931, it started publishing instead the prophecy to which Jesus referred, namely: "And all thy
children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall
be the peace of thy children." (Isa. 54: 13, Am. Stan.
Ver.) We continue to look to Jehovah for teaching
by Christ Jesus.
THE RISING GENERATION
8 The true Christian organization is now old witll
an antiquity of nineteen centuries and is, figuratively
speaking, "gray-headed," but it does not want to
quit, go on a pension and retire from declaring J ehovah's wondrous works. The remnant of the anointed
Christian organization look forward in the light of
Bible prophecy and see a new generation, the next
generation of servants that will take over completely
after the remnant have passed off the earthly scene.
They want to expand the worship of the living and
true God over all the earth. Hence they want to pass
on to this rising generation of people consecrated to
God all the instruction that Jehovah God by Christ
has taught them, that this next generation may be
saved to eternal life on earth under God's kingdom.
So the anointed remnant of the Theocratic organization take up the psalmist's words: "Even now therefore that I am old and grey-headed, 0 God! do not
forsake me, until I tell of thine arm unto a new generation-unto everyone that is to come thy might."
(Ps. 71: 18, Rotherham) "That I may tell the rising

G Old.

gra~.ileaderl.

why does the remnant not want to quit now?

378

mieWATCHTOWER

generation of thy strength and thy might." (Moffatt)

'What an inspiring motive for living!
1 This "new generation", this "rising generation",
is made up of those people now consecrating themselves to Jehovah through his Christ. Jesus spoke of
them as his "other sheep" whom he would add to his
flock of sheep in this day under him as the One Shepherd. These sheep began to manifest themselves from
and after the year 1918, in which year (on February 24) the public speech was delivered for the first
time, "The World Has Ended-Millions Now Living
:May Never Die." From then on, the fact that such a
class of "sheep" was foretold to show up at this end
of the world began to appear in Bible prophecies.
It is now evident that one of the reasons for which
Jehovah God spared the anointed remnant alive
after 1918 was for them to minister the Kingdom
truth to this rising generation of consecrated people
of good-will. This class of "other sheep" was foreshadowed by numerous persons and groups in
Hebrew Scripture.
s 'Ye have already called notice (page 371, ~3) to
the superscription of Psalm 71 as it appears in the
Greek translation, the SeZJtllagint (or, the Seventy
Hebrew translators). We repeat it: "By David, a
Psalm sung by the sons of J onadab, and the first that
were taken captive." (Bagster; also C. Thomson)
In the Sept1lagillt the psalm is listed as Psalm 70,
and the Catholic Douay Version follows this numbering. There Psalm 70: 1 reads: "A psalm for David.
Of the sons of Jonadab, and the former captives. In
thee, 0 Lord, I have hoped, let me n\er be put to
confusion." In a footnote of the DOllay Ve1'sion
O,Iurphy edition) the comment on verse 1 says: "Of
the sons of J o'lIadab. The Rechabites, of whom see
J er. 35. By this addition of the seventy-two interpreters, we gather that this psalm was usually sung
in the synagogue, in the person of the Rechabites,
and of those who were first carried away into
captivity."
9 The Rechabites were the sons of J onadab the son
of Rechab and joined themselves in good-will to the
Israelites and worshiped the God of Israel, Jehovah.
Just before Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 B.C. and
the few thousands of surviving Jews were carried
captive to Babylon Jehovah sent this promise
through the prophet Jeremiah to the sons of J ona<.lab: "Thus says the LORn of hosts, the God of Israel:
'Because you have been obedient to the charge of
J onadab your ancestor, and have kept all his instructions, and have done just as he charged you, thus
says the LORn of hosts, the God of Israel: J ondadab,
the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand in
my presence forever.' "-Jer. 35: 18, 19, An Amer.
Tmns.

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

10 In previous issues of The Watchtower it has

been explained how these Rechabites or sons of
J ondadab foreshadowed the "other sheep" of goodwill. Jonadab (or Jehonadab, meaning Jehovah is
liberal) first puts in appearance in Scripture when
King Jehu of Israel drives up to him in his chariot
and says to him: "Is thy heart right, as my heart is
with thy heart f" J onadab replies: "It is." King J elm
then said: "If it be, give me thy hand." "And he gave
him his hand; and he took him up to him into the
chariot. _>\.nd he said, Come with me, and see my zeal
for Jehovah. So they made him ride in his chariot."
(2 Ki. 10: 15, 16, A m. Stan. Ver.) To display his zeal
for Jehovah, King Jehu took Jonadab along to the
temple of the false god Baal at Samaria. There King
Jehu made all the apostate Jews put on the garments
of Baal-worship to identify them, and then he sent
in his executioners and slaughtered all such breakers
of the First and Second Commandments. J onadab
and all the other worshipers of Jehovah were spared
alive. Jonadab, as related in earlier issues of The
Watchtower (August 1, 1932, onward), prefigured
the consecrated people of good-will who give their
allegiance to Jehovah's King Christ Jesus since 1918
and whom Jehovah's executioners spare alive clear
through the battle of Armageddon, during which all
the Baal-worshipers or worshipers of false religions
will be destroyed. Thus Jonadab and the Rechahites
or sons of J onadab picture the same modern-day
class of good-will.
11 During the years of World War I (A.D. 19B1918) the anointed remnant of Jehovah's witnesses
went into captivity to great mystic Babylon, this
world under its false religions. But in 1919 Jehovah
God by his King Christ Jesus began bringing these
spiritual Israelites out from their unwilling captivity to Babylon. Thereafter, too, the modern J onudab
class began to show up in ever-gro\ving numbers and
to associate themselves with the remnant, particularly from 1932 forward. Seeing, as we now do, the
application of Psalm 71 here discussed, we can now
appreciate how fitting it was for it to be sung at the
synagogue in the presence of the Israelites who were
once captives to Babylon and also of the sons of
J onadab. Today both the remnant of spiritual Israelites and also the modern J onadab class can enjoy
the understanding of this fulfilled psalm.
12 Certainly, then, although the anointed remnant
is in the old and gray-haired stage of the Christian
organization, they will keep on praying that Jehovah
God will not forsake them until they have declared
His arm, that is, his strength and activities, to the
next generation, the J onadab class, for their salvation through Armageddon into the righteous new
world. The remnant want to reach with the Kingdom

11. Dy what one-time captives Is Psalm 71 al.o now Gun/:?

12. Whom do they not "ant to rail to tell about Jeho\ah's arm?

DECEMBER

~eWATCHTOWER

15, 1948

message "every one that is to come". In Jehovah's

due time he by his reigning King will bring forth
the faithful prophets and other overcomers of preChristian centuries from the grave to make them
"princes in all the earth". (Ps. 45: 16) Then the faithful remnant, who also expect to sumve the battle
of Armageddon, will have the privilege of telling
these princes of the "new earth" about the arm and
strength of Jehovah God at this end of the world.
Tllese princes will constitute part of the next or new
generation.-Ps. 71: 18, Am. Stan. Ver.; Rotherlzam.
13 Old age and gray hairs do not cause Jehovah
God to dismiss his faithful remnant from service or
to forsake them. His prophecy on the last days of
this world assures the Christian organization: "I
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh [young and
old]; ... your old men shall dream dreams." (Joel
2: 28) In Bible times the old men were made ambassadors, so that to be an ambassador meant to be
old. (2 Cor. 5: 20; Eph. 6: 20) Quite so, God canses
the remnant of the Christian organization in its old
age to see fulfilled the dreams his prophets saw in
ancient times, and also to be his ambassadors to
deliver the final message of reconciliation at this end
of the world. He has honored his anointed organization in its old age with serving as ambassadors of
his established kingdom, the Theocratic Government
now in power under his reigning King Christ.

379

H The faithful remnant, to whom Jehovah God has

shown such mercy and honor since 1918. can now see
the psalmist's prayer fulfilled in them: "Thy power
and thy righteousness extend, 0 God, unto the high
heavens. Thou who hast done great things, 0 God,
who is like thee? 0 thou who hast made us see many
dangers and disasters, do thon quicken us again, and
from the depths of the earth bring us up again. Do
thon increase my greatness, and turn and comfort
me!" (Ps. 71: 19-21, AnAmcr.Tluns.) 'Yhereas the
political, commercial, judicial and religious elements
of this world continue dealing very unrighteously
with Jehovah's witnesses, the Lord God has magnified his righteousness toward his devoted remnant.
It is as high as the heavens, God's throne. Who can
be like Him ~ He has let his remnant see many a sore
trial. In 1918, at the climax of World 'War I, it looked
like a disaster for them, a disaster from which they

would never rise. They were then under oppressions

and captivity by the murderous powers of this world,
so that they were like the pile of dry bones in the
deep valley that Ezekiel saw in vision after J erusalem was destroyed and the Jewish captives were
displaced. (Ezek. 37: 1-14) But in the vision God
quickened that valley of dry bones to life again, and
he did so with his faithful remnant in 1919. He
brought them up from the depths of captivity and
restraint under earthly rulers. He turned his favor
again to them and increased their greatness as his
witnesses and ambassadors. He has comforted them
also by raising up at their side a great multitude of
consecrated companions of good-will, the new, rising
generation.
15 Thus comforted, and with strength renewed by
Almighty God, the remnant sing forth the final lines
of Psalm 71, and the increasing multitude of the rising generation join in with them: "1 also will praise
thee with the lyre, I will sing of thy faithfulness, 0
my God, with the harp. 0 thou holy one of Israel.
My lips shall joyfully shout when I sing praises to
thee, and my life which thou hast redeemed. :My
tongue, too, shall tell of thy righteousness all day
long; for they shall be put to shame, they shall be disgraced, who sought to do me harm."-Ps. 71: 22-24,
An Ame1.. Tmns.
16 By his dealings \"ith us since 1918 Jehovah God
by Christ has redeemed our life. Now if we faithfully
use our days that are left before the battle of Armageddon breaks, it means our eternal life in the new
world following that battle. On emerging from World
War I, which marked the beginning of the end of this
world, the nations came forth to a course of shame
and contempt, as their career for thirty years since
then now shows. For continuing to resist God's kinp:dom and seeking to harm his ambassadors they will
go down to destruction in the greatest shame antl
disgrace at Armageddon. But the remnant, followed
in due time by the rising generation of good-will.
have come forth to a life of praise to Jehovah God
and his King. They fearlessly shout his praises.
They hold fast their resolve to make joyful confession of him with their mouth till the great act of
righteousness occurs, the vindication of Jehovah's
sovereignty at Armageddon by his victorious King
Christ Jesus.

13. How hns God honored the remnnnt of the ChrIstian orgamzatlon
In It, old nge ~
14 lIow hns He I1lcrea,ed t ':elr greatness and comforted them?

15, 16. How does their red..emetl life lesult

upon which the na tlons entered since 1918?

OUR

GREAT~ESS I~CREASED

(lIn:er~ntll

f,om the rolU'p

BRINGING FORTH FRUIT IN OLD AGE

E ARE no,v in the thirty-fifth year of the "Day
of Jehovah". Quite a number of those who were
in the Kingdom truth movement back there at the
beginning of this momentous day, which was visibly marked

by the outbreak of World War I, are today well advanced

in years, but are still holding on to the service of the now
established Kingdom. The physical hardships of old age
are now making themselves felt in their bodies, as described

380

SheWATCHTOWER..

by the ancient wise man, whom Jehovah God raised up and

inspired to be a preacher, or a "K04eleth", as he was called
in the Hebrew language in which he spoke and wrote. These
aging servants of the 1.10st High God can now well appreciate the wisdom of their course in taking up the service
as witnesses of Jehovah in the days decades ago when their
vigor and vitality were greater and they could thus render
their best to a deserving God; and they can also appreciate
the solemn admonition contained in the wise man's words
for the youth of these days, as he writes:
"TIejoice, 0 young man, in your youth, and let your
mind be glad in the days of your vigor, and walk in the
ways of your mind and in the sight of your eyes; but know
that for all these things God will bring :rou into judgment.
And put away worry from your mind, and remove evil
from your fte!'h; for :routh and the prime of life are vanity.
TIemember your Creator in the days of your vigor, before
the evil days come, and the years approach of which J'ou
will say, 'I have no plea,:ure in them.' "-Eccl. 11: 9 to
12: I, An .timer. Trans.
The world, particularly Christendom with her millions
of religionists who are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers
of God", ollers its pleasures to the young men and women,
who snatch at the delusions; but advanced age has again
and again proved them all empty bubbles. This world, now
in its "time of the end" since A.D. 19B, has nothing substantial to offer for very much longer, and therefore, unless
the human mind has found its satisfaction in the living and
true God Jehovah and in his Son Jesus Christ, there is
indeed no pleasure in old age. The wise man, Koheleth or
Preacher, presents us a vivid pen picture of old age-"the
evil days" of physical decline and infirmity, "of which you
will say, 'I have no pleasure in them.' " He then proceeds to
tell us why, saying:
"Before the sun becomes dark, and the light, and the
moon, and the stars; and the clouds return after the rain;
on the day when the guardians of the house tremble, and
the strong men are bent, and the grinding-mlllds cease
because they are few, and the ladies peering through the
windO\ys are darkened."-Eccl. 12: 2, 3, lln .lmer. Trans.
Here we can recognize how Koheleth, in poetical figurative speech, refers to the dimness of vision of old age, both
mental and physical in most cases, and to the fact that
clouds of trouble of onc kind or another quickly succeed
one another following every experience refreshing like rain
which for a time brings hope of succeeding sunshine of
prosperity. But the guardians of the house, namely, the
arms and the hands of our earthly bodies, give way to
trembling on the day of old age; and those figurative
"strong men", our lower limbs, bend with difficulty in try
ing to support the weight of the body. Along with this the
"grinding.maids", our natural teeth, cease to perform their
office because of decay or loss of them, and our powers of
vision and perception which look through the windows of
our bodies, our eyes, are dimmed and the need of stronger
glasses increases.
But this is not all: "And the doors into the street are
closed; when the sound of tbe mill is low, and the sound
of the bird is faint, and all the notes of song sink low;
also, he is afraid of a height, and terrors are on the road;
and he rejects the almond, and the locust is burdensome,

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

and the caper-berry is ineffectual; because man is going to

his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the street."
-Eccl. 12: 4, 5, An Amer. Trans.
Yes, when working possibilities of life near their end,
and the door of the mouth finds talking difficult or a
burden, then there is liable to be little in common between
the old person and the rising generation, and therefore
there is less and less communication through the outlet of
the mouth and vocal powers. The powers of hearing with
which he once rejoiced at the sound of a bird or the notes
of song are weak. Being unable to sleep well, he will rise
up disturbed at the faint call of the bird, and his failing
powers cease to catch the strains of earthly enchantments,
"the daughters of music." It is only when he has the ear
of faith that he catches the far sweeter strains of heaven's
melodies noted on the pages of the Bible and of which
Solomon in all his glory never knew. But still he must
face the great burden, labor, fears and sorrows of extreme
old age with all its infirmities, loss of appetite or of taste,
and mournful groans and sighs, until all earthly desires fail
and he goes to his long home, the grave. Fortunate he is
if he has hopes and desires of God's righteous new world
now so near, and has Scriptural reasons for awaiting the
morning of the resurrection with which the new world
breaks over this world.
As the old person approaches death it is but a short
time, as Kobeleth says, "before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl broken, and the jar shattered at the
spring, and the wheel broken at the cistern; and the dust
returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to
God who gave it." "'Vanity of vanities,' says Koheleth,
'all is vanity.''' (Ecel. 12: 6-8, An Amer. Trans.) Yes,
collapse within the body takes place at death. The silver
cord of our attachment to life in this world, or the spinal
cord which attaches to our brain, is severed and no longer
transmits impulses. The golden bowl of the brain is broken
as this precious organ of intelligent life disintegrates, and
also the human body, which like a vessel holds the golden
content of life, begins its dissolution. The jar or pitcher of
the heart which receives and transmits the blood stream
no more receives the life-sustaining fluid any more than a
jar shattered at the cistern can receive and hold living
waters; and as a consequence the wheel of blood circulation
in the human organism stops revolving. TheIl, as the body
can no longer perform its offices, the dust of which it is
composed returns "to the earth as it was", to be now mere
inanimate dust; and the spirit, or power of life, returns to
God, who gave it to man, and the man's breath empties
out into the great reservoir of air, the surrounding atmosphere. That human soul thus dies, it is no more, except as
it may be engraved indelibly upon the tablet of God's
memory to be reproduced again in the day when, as Christ
Jesus foretold, "all that are in the graves [memorials,
representing God's memory of them] shall hear his voice,
and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have donl' evil, unto the
resurrection of [judgment]." (John 5:~S, 29; Am. Stan.
Ver.) If we faithfully remember Jehovah God while enjoying this life, we can be sure be will remember us then.
The conclusion of the whole matter of a life's experIence.
if such life bas not been used with continual remembrance

DECEMBER

15, 1948

~eWATCHTOWER,

of God, is that to which all men come sooner or later.

"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity."
(Eccl. 12: 8) After a wasted life, this is the poor world's
dying refrain, when they see it would have been better to
fear the living and true God and to keep his commandments. It is for us to decide now, if we have not already
done so, that our life shall not come to such a vain disappointing end as that. And to help us in deciding 'upon
the sure way of present living to avoid such an outcome
the wise man gives us his conclusion, inspired by the spirit
of God: "The conclusion of the matter, all having been
heard: Fear God and keep his commands; [why7] for this
:oncerns all. mankind, that God brings every work into
Judgment w1th regard to everything concealed, whether
it be good or evil."-Eccl. 12: 13, An Lime,.. Trans.
AN ACTUALCASE HISTORY

For the righteous who persist in serving God there is no

such regretful old age, but the:r find that God still has use
for them in spite of their old age, and they can keep on
bearing witness to him down to their last breath. Concerning them it is written: "The righteous &hall flourish like the
palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Thev are
planted in the house of Jehovah; they shall flourish i~ the
courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old
age; they shall be full of sap and green: to show that J eho\'ah is up.rightj he is my rock, and there is no unriO'hteousness in him." (Ps. 92: 12-15, Am. Stan. Ver.) There are
many examples to be had of the truthfulness of these comforting, reassuring words; but as a case history drawn from
actual life we quote for our readers a letter recentlv
received from Sweden. The lady writing li,es with h;r
husband aboard the small boat "Doric" in which they
pioneer. She says:
"By the Lord's grace, I have had the privilege of being
a whole-time worker in the Kingdom service for -10 years.
For nearly 20 years I tramlated the American Watch"tower
and other literature from the American office for the
Branch here in Sweden. After that I was a pioneer and
"till am. :I1Iy age is now 71.
"Before I got in contact with the truth (the first book
reached me 1899, Millenni Dagning, translated and printed
in U.s.A.), I thought the best way to use my life in order
to please God and serve him would be to be a missionary
and to go where there was none before, and so I intended
to go to West Central Africa to the Vey-people on the
farther side of the Free State of Liberia. But I was always
anxious to see the Lord's way clearly that I might not take
a single step without being sure that he was guiJing. I
was then in a bank and I left it, fully trusting in God for
everything. I did not go into a missionary society, because
I was afraid to be bound in one way or another so that
I should not be able to follow the Lord's way and do his
will as it might please him to reveal it to me step by step.
?lIy relations and my acquaintances thought I was foolish.
Then it pleased the Lord to open up the way for me to go
to Doctor Grattan Guinness' Training I-lome for Missionaries in London without charge; and it was unsectarian.
"Coming back from London I got an opportunity to
~tudy the truth more thoroughly with the Bible, and I
For a full discussion of Ecclesiastes 12: 1-13 see The Watch
November 15, 1945.

lower

381

kne!t down many a time while studying and wept and

pra1sed the Lord. And then my greatest desire and my
prayer was: In what way can I serve in the truthY By
and by I came to know that there was an office in Sweden
and I went to see those living there, as I had never met
anyone that knew the truth. After that visit I got a letter
from the Office, and request that I do the translation work
of THE 'VATeH TOWER, because the one who had done that
formerly was going to do it no more, and they knew none
to do it. So they had made it a matter of prayer and now
they asked me. I had gotten chronic sciatica in both my
legs, so that was really the only way for me to serve the
truth then.
''Later on I wrote to Brother Russell [then president of
the WATCH TOWER] about my intention to go to West
Central Africa as a missionary, but that I had gotten the
truth and now wished to use my life in harmony therewith.
A small sum of money was given to me of a few friends
to be used in West Africa when I went there. That sum
of money was partly taken back when those friends got
to know that I would like the money to be used to further
the truth. What was left I sent to Brother Russell to be
used when God's time would come to send his truth to
'Vest Africa. Never did I think then that the messag<.'
would go there this side of Armageddon. You know,
Brother Knorr, at that time it had not pleased the Lord
to let us see farther than 1914. You can imagine that J
have read in the Yearbook with great interest of the work
in West Africa, Never could the Lord's people durinO' the
Elijah work dream of the world-wide work that has "'gone
on after 1918.
"I had the privilege of meeting personally Brother
Russell here in Sweden and also Brother Rutherford
["".\TCH TO\VER president 1918-19-12] when he was here,
and I can still remember how anxious he was to wait upon
the Lord so that everything might be done in harmony
with the Lord's will. Specially was this the case when h<.'
was here in 1925, I shall never forget that day when there
was a change in the office here and how thankful we were
to Jehovah, all that waited upon him in this matter. I said
to Brother Rutherford: 'I don't see how we can get all
any longer in this way.' I had to give him a list of all
the articles in the American Watchtower that had been
withheld from the friends and which did not get into the
Swedish lVatchtower, and this Brother Rutherford read
to the whole audience at the convention in (jrebro and that
very day the change came.
'
"After that I worked as a pioneer. Still later I married
a pioneer younger than myself who had been a sailor. We
have used a boat in the work for 12 years. It pleaf>ed the
Lord to give us this boat wholly without our own doing,
and we got it with the express word that no man, but Jehovah, had given it. And this I took as an answer to my
heart's desire that I might be able to continue in the service
also in my late years, as my feet and legs are not very good,
"We have been working many isles and especially the
West Coast of Sweden. We are there just now, A sister
of mine who was a sick-nurse became interested and symbolized; and she went out as a pioneer in 1911. She also is still
in the service. Her age is now 69 years.
"You can imagine how thankful we are to .Jehovah fat

~eWATCHTOWER.

382

the great privilege we have had and still have to use our
lives in the Kingdom service. Much of our strength is used
up now, but we are anxious to do all we can, even unto
the last. And our prayer is that we might be kept and used
by Jehovah as long as it pleases him to uphold and strengthen us by his holy power. :Many a trial was met in the past
in different ways to turn us a,vay from the Kingdom service, but many a joy and great blessings we have experienced
in the service all the time, and the Lord's loving-kindness
without measure. "\Ve can witness in truth that never does
Jehovah leave or forsake those who obey and trust him.
All glory be to him! It is all by his grace!
"What a privilege to live in this time and see how Jehovah, the Sovereign of the whole universe, and his King
Christ Jesus majestically are marching forward in all the

BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

world! We hail Him in unity and harmony with all hi.;

faithful witnesses everywhere."
Old age is no reason or sign for any consecrated witness
of the Most High God to resign from his service. Moses
served God till he was 120 years old, and John till he was
100 years old, Abraham till he was 175, Enoch till he was
365, and Noah till he w'as 950. As in the case of the abo\'e
letter-writer, there are many other aged ones among Jehovah's witnesses today following in Jesus' footsteps who are
not seeking to resign or retire from active duty because
of old age. Because of this proper obedience to the divine
command and this proper appreciation of his blessed
service, God makes them to be fruitful even in their old
days. Considering the issue of their life, imitate their
faith."-Heb. 13: 7, Am. Stan. Ver.

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments tvith thee; so as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, and
apply thy heart to understanding j yea, if thou cry after discernment, and lift up thy 'l:oice for lLllderstandingj if thou seek her
as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures: then shalt
thou understarld the fear of Jehot'ah, and find the knowledge
of God.-Provel'bs 2: 1-5, A.S.V.

FIELD EXPERIENCES
GOD'S WORD ATTRACTS A PASSER.BY

CONVENTION PHOTOGRAPHS AWAKE.'1 INTEREST

The conducting of a Bible study out on a porch resulted

in the truth's reaching a passer-by. One of Jehovah's
witnesses in the state of :\Iississippi, U.S.A., writes:
A few days ago I stopped at a lady's house to conduct
a study. She and I decided to sit on the front porch and
do the studying there. While we were studying the chapter
'Resurrection' on page 268 in the 'Let God Be True' book,
a man passed by, riding on a bicycle. He heard me reading
that part of paragraph 2 which says: '''If a man die,
shall he lh'e again? all the days of my appointed time will
I wait, till my change come." , He brought his bicycle near
the porch and said: 'Tell me! If a man die, shall he live
again? That is what I want to know!' I explained it to
him and pointed out the scriptures in that same paragraph,
which he could read in his own Bible. A few days later
I met him on the street. He gladly took the 'Let God Be
True' book. Since then I have had studies with him. his
wife, and some of the children. His \vife has gone with me
to hear one of the lectures given by Jehovah's witnesses."

One of Jehovah's witnesses in California is using visual

aids to further help those to whom he ministers. He says:
"In presenting the Permanent Governor of .till Nations
booklet and at back-calls and book studies I am using a
complete set of convention photographs to help the people
of good-will to ,\"lsualize the organization and see that J ehovah's witnesses are not just another religion. A number of
times they have gotten me in where the statement has often
been, 'I am too busy today to ask you to stop in.' To this
statement I have replied, 'Well, I did have something I
wanted to show you, some pictures of the big conventIOn
held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.' Then I take out the
pictures with the one of Wrigley Field full of people on
top. On sight I have had women exclaim, '"\Yon't you eomc
inside? I want my husband to see them too.' An excellent
back-call has always followed, in which I have briefly discussed Jehovah's witnesses and have given some high points
of the assembly and the literature that will give them God's
message. People are impressed ''lith the size of the organization that Jehovah is using to publish his message."

SCRIPTURE INDEX FOR THE LEADING ARTICLES, 1948

GENESIS
2: 11
115. 299
3H
198. 200 3: 4
100,3ll
1: 1
202 3: 4. 5
116.
1: 1.2
200 8' 14, 15
29}
1: 12.1
202
99. 260
201 3: 15
1: 131: 2
115
201 3: 1619
1: 15
52
342 4: 13. 28
I: 2024
150
1:27,30
342 4: 6. 1
1: 28
3.149. 4:16,11
198
809, 843 4: 21, 22
198
149 5: 1
1: 31
195. 200
2:4
200.202
201
2: 5-5: 2
202
202
2: 1
298.341 5: 1. 2
232
5:
1-24
2: 1. 8
149
200
2: 11-14
203 5.2
200
2: 16, 11
U9, 5: 3
299
8U 5: 8-5

5: 36: 9
5: 1821
6:4
6.9
200,
6: 9. 10
6: 910' 1
1: 1-8: 19
7: 1~20,
2123
8: I
9' 2021
201,
10: 1

202
150
218
201.
202
202
202
198

202
191
825
202,
203
10: 211' 10 202
10.810
262
11: 14
197
11: 10
201
11: 1011' 21 203

11' 26
825
203 22: 11. 18
111. 24: 86
321
20:)
11' 26. 21
324 21: 4953
11:27
828
201. 20J 22: 18
102, 150 24: 5458
330
11: 27-25. 12
23: 1-20
203. 21: 59
328
203
325 24: 59. 60
829
12: 13
150 23: 1119
203 24: 61
329
12: 11
825 23: 19
203 24:62,63
829
12: 1
116 21: 19
325 24: 64. 65
14.2.8.3,1,
330
21: 161
324 24' 66
15, 17
831
203 24: 24
52 24: 67
15: 1-5
116 21: 10.32
326 25: 12
201.203
15: 2
52 24: 1114.
25: 13-25: 19
15' 24
925
826
4245
203
15. 18-20
325
203
326 25: 11.18
19 49
219 24: 1521
25:
19
201
24.22-27.
19: 1030
219
45-48
326 25.1936: 1 203
21: 610
323
22: 1,16
2~' 20
325
323 24: 28. 50. 55
330
32i I 29: 2125
22' 16-18
329

29: 35
35: 8
35: 19
35' 2226
35 2326
Chap. 36
36: 1
3G' 2-9
36: 8
36: 9
36: 10-81: 2
36.13
37: 1
37: 2
201,
38- 13-18
42: 25
13: 19-2(
U:4

211
830
203
204
204
204
201
203
203
201
203
203
20~

204
330
52
52
52

203 11 15. 16
19: 5. 6
Chap 20
EXODUS
198. 202 20 1-3
202 ~O. 4~6
1: 16
261 21: 16
3: 134 9
261 24 4.7. 8
7: 112: 30
9: IS, 16
301 21 13
12: 18
81 28' 143
12: 6
87 29 10,20
12: 22
89 31: 1-6
13: 3-1
39 31: 18
13' 11
2li 33' 11
119
106 33.20
17: 6
17.14 195, 199. 31. 27.28
200 35 25.26 29
11: 14-16
21 35: 30 33
11: 15
21 35.3036 3
47:28

22
213
151
374
19
136
199
85
31l
133
2~1

199
85
166
199
2~2

281
281

DECEr.IBER
LEVITICUS

7: 18. 20. 27
8: 22-21
Chop 14
H: H. 25
17: 12 15
18.22-25
19: 2S
21: 11
2S' 5. 6
23: 15-21
2S: 29. 30
23: 32
24: 17. 18
27: 34

198
3n
133
132
132
3H
219
346
346
3S
i3
346
37
342
201

15, 1948
I

~eWATCHTOWER.

1 CHRONICLES 1127
202 129
202 130
313 142
57 144
307 145

1: 1-9: H
Ch'llO.2i-26
29: 11. a
29: 23
EZRA

1.2
5
7
20
2-4

282
374
123
342
345
346

PROVERBS

6: 16-18
6: 18

313 1: 20-33
138
198 3: 1
213
3: 7. 8
263
NEHEIiIAH
13 : 13. 16, 17 %'3
8: 1
198 ::
22
9: 30
136 6' 32 33
263
13: 5
313 ' 7: 10:23
263
148
8: 36
JOB
NUMBERS
12: 10
342
198 1: 1-10
311 13: 4
280
313 12: 11
134 15: 3
169
1: 45-54
20 19: 23. 24
195 15: 7
279
1: 52
31: 35. 36
195 15: 31. 32
136
2: 13. 5.7.
33: 18. 22.
10.12. H.
16: 24
263
28.30
372
342 18: 10
17. 18. 20.
34: 3
22 25.21,
134 18: 15 185. 137
20 36: a
3i5 18. 16
55
29. 31. 3t
20 38: 4-7
307 19.2
148
2: 1-34
204
19:6.8
55
3: 1
85
3: 6
19' 15
342
PSALMS
314 1:1.2
i: 1-49
20:
12
131
314
340 2: 612
5: 2
138
28 21: 13
346 2: S. 9
6: 6. 11
138
15i. 358 22: 17. 18
42 2: 812
9:2
139
135 23. 9
346 2: 10-12
9:6.7.10
137
359 23' 12
10: 14. 17.
25:
12
136
6: 5. 6
346
22. 25
21 7: 2
342
342 25' 25
11: 4
106 8'4.5
284
120 26: 10
11' 6
342 S: 4-8
342
72 27: 7
11: 2S
85 8: 5
284
21S 27: 23-21
14: 11. 22. 23 105 14.1
136
3.4 28: 9
18:1.2
85 14:3.7
135
151 29: 12
18:20-32
31S 15: 10
299
345 30: 29. 31
19.1322
342 21: 1-6
69
20: 11
106 22. 1
ECCLESIASTES
375
21: 59
21
1: 4
51
ChJ.!I$ 22 ..2-1
202 ~;;
IS
3: 1. 10. 11 ~55
22: 124' 25 2S0 30:3
312
342 3.18-21
22: 18
102 31: 23
313
58 3 19
345
23: 10
7' 20
132
25: 1-9
230 ~;:
9' 5. 10
346
28: 16
3~
12: 7
343
36:
6.
9
339
31S.16
230
6-8 137.152
31: 28
342 40:
WISDOM
40:
14
316
33:.2 3
3i
339. 340
6. 7
69
36: 13
201 45:
340
45: 10. 11
132. 1: 15
2: 23
340
DeUTERONOMY
i5: 13-15
3: 1. 4
340
340
~~~ 45. 16 330. 378 4: 1
19. 20
340
~;
67 ~g; ~O:12
1~~ G:
8.13.17
340
67 57:9
6 i.5
61019 15: I, 3
340
6: 1012
58 6S' 1
31i
6' 13
i3 68; 19
277
ECCLESIASTICUS
12' 32
19 5 I fS. 70
371
339, 310
136 ,0.1
13 12-17
2IT
371, 37816'16
310
102 Ps.71 376Sh 17.29
340
18: 1519
201 71: 1
371
ISAIAH
31~5' 19
346 71: 1-3
372 1: 5-7
262
21~.:
"
230 71: 4-6
373 2: 12
296
24: 1
200 71: 6
37t 5' 8. 9. 25
58
32. 3
374 71. 7-9
374 Chap. 6
247
32: 4. 5
148, 71' 10-13
3-- 8' 18
2-7 3-229 1 it; 14
34 5. 6
9: 6
I
JOSHUA
71: 14. 15
376 9. 1;;
30S
1:1
8571:16.17
3i1 10'22.23
364
'
.
S
71:
IS
377.3i9
11:
10
26.2,
1
243 171: 19-21
379
117
345 171: 2224
2' 13
379 11: 10-14
24
10: 35. 37
346 77: 50
345 Chaps 13.
24: 13
58 78. 1. 2
132
46.47
22
78: 24. 25
106 13: 6. 9
296
JUDGES
169 78: 50
345 14' 12
309
6: 22. 23
34~
~~:
~
2
74.76
18:
3.
7
2;;
10 10.30
8
20: 16
19
148
18
68 ~~;
~~~
83.18
372130: 17
21
i: 18 RUTH 204 90' 1. 2
339 35: 5. 6
139
90' 2. 4, 10 356 40: 15. 17
357
90: 4
291 42: 1-4 71.117
1 SAMUEL
94.20
5 42' 23
131
2: 30
228 Ps.95
168 43' 8-10
139
88 95: 3. 7
2: 34
134 43: 10
23
4: 4-11
88 95: 7-11
168 43: 10. 11
5
I~: 22. 23
136 97' 7
27 43: 10-12
372
I~: 23
4 101: 6-8
59 43: 10. 21
54
16: 13.14
169 103' 29. 30 346 45: 12. 18
51
IS: 12
169 104: 29. 30 346 46: 9-11
291
23. 25-29
373 105: 18
342 52: 11
216
107: 18
342 ;;2: 13
71
2 SAMUEL
110.1
69. 119. 53.7
74
i: 4
330
307 53: 7-10
35
7' 12-17
117 110: I, 2
294. 53: 11
71
23: 2. 3
167
375 53. 12 104. 345
110: 1-6
260 54: 1
323
1 KINGS
110: 4-6
297 54: 5
374
19' 1921
85 114' 7. 8
345 54: 5. 6
323
115: 14-16 275 54: 13
371
116: 7, 8
345 55: 3
137.235
2 KINGS
314 Ps.119
123 55: 8, 9
3
1: 7. 8
85 119: 74. 81.
57: 20. 21
232
3: 11
378
114. 147
123 60: I, 2
228
10: 15. 16
330 119: 165
243 61: 1. 2
86
11: 2

i'

g:gg

gig

ir lLs

iT:

299

4: 24. 25
5: 34
7: 3%-35
9: 37
10: 38.39
10: 39
11: 7-11
12: 26
12: 36. 37
12: 38
13: 3-14
13: 8-10
13: 13
13: 27
14: 12-14
14: 22-26

n
m

371

ZECHAIIAH
61: 1-3
5
61: 4-6
86 3: I, 2
229
61: 10
331 4: 6
282
62: 4.5
323 9: 9
25
62: 6. 7
23 13: 4, 5
314
62:8.9
22 H: 1
296
62: 10
21. 22
62: 10. 11 19. 22
MAUCH I
62: 11. 12
24
25.297.
64: 1-4
315 3: 1
329
64: 4
139 3: 1-5
216
64: 8
363 3: I, 5
65: 20
182 3: 1-5, 10-12 228
22
66: 1
295. 372
66: 22
299
EIIOCH

232.233

JEREMIAH

2: 2. 3
2: 34
7: 16
7: 22-24
13: 15
13: 17
14: 7. 8
18: 1-17
18: 7. 8
25: 3. 4.
17.18
17
~r

374
342
187
136
132
342
116
358
363

137
103
139
76
43
36
24
198
167
314
28
359
105
183
38
39

LUKE

1:
1:
l'
2:
3:

MATTHEW

1:
1:
2:
3:

200.204
1-17
203
15
374
13-17
152.
325
1-10
312
8-10
73
14
246
34.35
299
9. 10
358

4:
4:
5:
136 5:
~gg 6:
Chap. 35
378
~~-33
35: 18. 19
378 7: 21-27
136
39: 11-18
58 8: 20
52.247
44: 4-6
136 9: 14. 15
324
50: 7
116 9: 21. 22
103
Chs-r 50,
22
25
1~1
10: 27. 28
138
LAMENTATIONS
10.28 137,345
1: 1l. H
342 10: 37
313
10: 40
76
EZEKIEL
11: 4. 5
132
2:4.5.7139 12: 15-21
117
9: 4-6
362 12: 17-21
71
12: 21-28
364 12: 24-27
164
13: 19
346 12: 27. 28
186
18' 4. 20
154 1~: 31. ::2
185
18: 4 20.27 3;4 13: 16. 17
139
~1. 27
294 13: 24-43
216
22 27
346 13: 38
9
23 25
136 13: 55
211
~8. 12-19
341 15: 1-9
68
2S' 14-16
309 16' 16
76
30. 3-5
296 16: 18
295
37: 1-14
379 16. 19
154
44: 15-20.
16. 21-26
104
10-14
314 16' ~6
259
19. 10-12
283
DANIEL
19 16-24
58
2 20-21.
19: 21
57
44. 45
355 19' 27-29
58
4' 16. 23.
20. 21-23
25
25 32
291 20' 27
212
6' 16. 11
298 20. 28 104. 1;;3.
7 9-14
70
312
7' 13. 14
347 21'1-5
24
10. 13. 21
2~9. 22: 1-14
331
307 22 21
3. 4
11 27-12' 1 135 22: 32
76
12' 1
229, 307 22: 43. H
167
12 1. 3
307 23. 13. 33
294
12 1-4
307 23. 37, 38
183
12' 3
~32. 308. 24' 3-15
28
~09. 315 24, 7. 8.
12. 4
179
23-25
133
24: 7 -13
311
HOSEA
24. 12. 13
233
9: 4
342 24. 13
105
11.1
374 24. 14
26. 122.
212. 246.
JOEL
261. 296.
2' 1-13
296
310. 311.
2' 28
379
331. 375
2: 28. ~9 7.70. 24 15
28
166. 278. 24' 15. 16
26
28~. 315. 24 21. 22
362
328 24. 29-31
25
2: 2832
101. 21'31
183
234 25' 1
327
2: 32
102 25: 6
330
25 31. 32
233
AMOS
23: 3t
35
8: 11
89 25 41-46
233
9: 11. 12
171 26' 17. 18
38
26' 38
345
OBADIAH
26' G3
76
15
296 27: 39-42
lot
JONAH
27' 41-43
373
4' 11
363 27' 46
73. 375
27: G2-66
298
HABAKKUK
28: 18 70, 119.
2: 4
184
166
2: 14
311 28: 19
6, 9
2. 20
27
MARK
ZEPHANIAH
152
1:7.H
296 1: 4
1:
2327
218
3: 8
311
132
3: 9
6.9 1. 40-45
2' 3-12
15i
2: 18-20
324
HAGGAI
186
2: 8
57 3: 29. 30
2: H
346 4: 23-25
133

H-

383

t8: it

5-9
13-17
32. 33
42-49
21. 22
3: 38
4: 1
5: 33-35
6: 39
6: 19
6: 26
7: 3-5
7: 37-39
7: 47-49
8: 2. 3
8: 11. IS.
18
8: 18
8: 31
8: 48
8: 50

313
324
310
7
185
115
185
324
40
153
377
58
153
154
85

137
137
298
103
103
9: I, 2
85
9: H
133
9: 48
76
9: 51-56
356
9: 52
85
9' 62
104
10: 1-5
85
11: 27.28
139
11: 39-41
57
12: 3-5
138
12: 4,5
345
12: 32
51. 327
12: 42-44
54
12: 42. 44
52
12: 45-48
54
12: 50
36
14: 15-24
331
14: 26
313
15: 11-32
56
16: 1
52
16.2
52
16' 3-7
55
16: 8
55
16: 9 51.52.56
16. 10-12
58
.16: 13
56
16: 14
56
16. 15
59
17: 11-19
132
17: 19
103
17:37
183
18: 8
215
18: 18-30
104
18: 28-30
58
18: 42
103
19: 1-10
57
19: 35-38
24
20: 46
314
21: 7-26
28
21. 17-19
105
21' 20. 21
27
21: 24
294
22: 7-11
38
22: 8. 13
85
22 15. 16
38
22: 19. 20
40
21
71
23: 35-39
104
23: 44-46
330
24: 20. 21
118
24: 25-27.
44-48
312
24: 45-52
326
24: 49
166

22:

JOH.

67
1: 1
75.76
1: 1.2
75.76
1: 1-3
152
1: 3
76
1: 6. 12.
13. 18
76
1: 12. 13
276
1 14
120
1 14, 18
76
1 29
35
1 29-36
152
1 29. 36 74.217
1 32. 33
75
1 3234
71
1 49
76, 118
2 10
40
3 3. 5 327, 343

3: 3-6
H. 15

3:
3:
3:
3:
3:
4:

1%1 J: 32. 33

21
76
152
324
70
85
4: 22
73
4: 24
71. 119.
165
5: 23
86
5: 27-29
233
5: 28. 29
122.
156. 299
5: 36
186
5: 36. 37, 43,
45. 46
261
5: 43. H
228
6: 15
294
6: 26. 27
232
6: 29
76
6: 37
314
6: H. 45
377
6: H. 45.
64.65
277
6: 46
119
6: 60. 68. 69 132
6: 63
121
7: 5
212
7: 37-39
169
7: 39
169
8: 13.
39-42
71
8: 23. 24
156
8: 28. 29
72
8: 41-49
153
8: H
294.314
8: 58
72
10: 3-5. 27 134
10: 10. 11
153
10: 11
327
10: 11.14.
28-30
U
10: 16 122. 298
10: 25. 37. 38 74
10' 29
72, 277
10: 30
74
10: 33
76
10: 34. 35
76
10: 37. 38
186
11: 25. 26
293
11: 27
76
12: 14-16
24
12' 31 134, 164
12: 44
76
13: 1. 2
38
13: 16
71.165
13: 20
76
13: 2729
39
13: 30
39
14: 2. 3
51
14: 12
73
14: 16. 17 8.328
14: 16. 17.
25. 26
165
14: 26
71
14: 28
72
14: 30
4.134.
360
15: 18. 20
312
15' 19 134. 155
15: 20
139
15: 20. 21
72
15: 26
71
15: 26, 27
165
16: 1-4
312
16: 7, 8.
12-15
165
17: 3
9.10,70
17: 6. 11
374
17: 14. 15
8
17: 17
314
17. 18. 25
11
17: 20-23
74
17' 22
228
17: 24
277
18' 36 6.88.134
18: 36. 37
261
19. 23. 24
314
19' 32, 33
38
20: U. 23
154
20: 31
73,76
16.
22.
28.
34,
8

18
23
29
35

ACTS

67
1: 6
118
1: 7
364
1: 8
166
1:16
167
1'17.25
90
Chap. 2
101
2: 1
43
2: 1-4
70.166
2: 4
167
2: 16-18
218.
315, 328
2: 16-18.
38. 39
166
2: 16-21
101
2' 17, 18
7
2: 21
102
2: 22-24
101
2: 24-31
345
2. 25-36
101

70. 5: 13. 11
150
166. 328 5: 20
151
2: 32-36
119 6: 3.4
43
2: 33
71 6: 9
297
2: 37-40
102 6: 16
309
2: 38
328 6: 19-23
276
2: 40
101 6: 23
154. 186.
2: 41-43
328
275. 345
2: 41. H, 45 67 7: 7
151
2: 46. 47
U8 7: 13
183
Chap. 3
102 8: 3
148
3: 13. 26
71 8: 16, 17.
3: 17
185
23-27
172
3: 20-23
261 8: 16-24
120
3: 22, 23
346 8: 18-25
115
3: 25. 26
117 9: 14-24
358
4: 7-12
103 9: 18
361
4: 8-12
36 9: 23
361
4: 19, 20
135 9' 27. 28
364
4: 25
167 10: 6. 7
297
4: 26-28
71 10: 10
219
4: 27
27 10: 13-17
138
4: 34-37
57 11: 13
90, 2i9
Chap. 6
169 12.2
3.6
5: 1-10
57 13: 1
212
5: 3. 4. 9. 10 169 13: 1. 2
3.8
5: 31
277113: 11. 12
36i
5: 32
168 14: 21
40
7: 22
198 I 15: 1-3
72
7: 41-50
161 IS: 4
121
7: 51
186 15: 8
85
7: 55. 56
70 15.9-12
26
8: 9-20
57 15: 12. 13
117
8: 14-17
280 15: 13
115
8: 14-18
282 15: 16
314
8: 14-19
181. 15: 25-27
90
328 16: 17. 18
135
8: 20
313 16: 20
294
8: 26. 29, 39 169
8: 27-37
71
1 CORINTHIANS
9: 1-7
347 1: 6. 7
280
10: 1-4
58 1: 13-17
101
10: 1-48
323 1: 18. 20.
10: 3-7
170
21.25
138
10: 3. 19.20 170 2.9,
10 139.315
10: 38
168
10
181, 279
10: 44-46
170 2.
2
10-13
172
11: 12. 15.
3: 5-8
74
16
110 R: 9
74
11: 13
170 3: 16. 17
167
11: 18
277 4:1,2.7
59
11: 22-26
170 4' 1-5
53
11: 27. 28
170 4:
8
294
11: 2730
90 4< 16
53
12: 25
90 5:
7
217
13: 1-4
170 5.7,8
36
13: 9
170 5'
12. 13
88
13: 33
325 6: 9.
10
215
13: 34
235 6: 11
217
14: 23
171 6: 16, 17
325
15: 13
211 6: 18-20
227
15: 14 182. 372 6.19.20
167.
15: 14-17
171
327
15: 28, 29
171 7: 7
284
16: 6-10
171
7. 38 40 284
16: 9. 10
138 7:
7.22.23
212
16' 16-30
100
23
327
16: 30
99,100 7:
7:
29
284
16: 3134
100 7: 39
3~5
17: 11
68 9: 5
284
17: 24
167 9' 16
31~
17: 25-27
355 9.25
340
11: 30. 31
H8 9.26,27
106
17.31
2J3
lOG.
18: 1-19: 7 328 10: 1-12
218
18.1-4
312
4
29.
19: 1-7
181. 10:
10. 9-11
21
280. 282 10:
13. 14
107
19: 1-20
310
43
20: 20
26. 10.16.17
11. 1
53
310. 339-, 11.3
71
375. 376 11: 7
H9
20: 22. 23
170
330
20' 24
90 11: 9. 10
38
20: 28
171 11. 20
40
20: 28-31
135 11: 23-26
11' 26
43
20: 29, 30
215 12'
4-11,
21: 4
170
27
-31
27~
21: 8. 9
278
279
170 12' 8
21: 10. 11
IG6
22: 21
279 12' 13
~93
24' 15
299 12' 27
26: 9-11
185 12: 31 275.280
13:
8
282
28: 25. 26
168
13' 9-11
180
14: 1
282
ROMANS
138
1'11.12
280 14: 1-11
279
1: 18-23
3 14: 18
278
1: 23
340 14: 34. 35
2.3-5
361 14: 39 279.280
15:
8
347
2: 5-7
348
120
2: 7
340 15: 17-22
15: 20
41
2: 12. 14
151 15:
24-28
69.
3: 1. 2
199
300
3: 4
307, 341.
299
343 15: 25. 26
298
3: 10. 19. 20 151 15' 42-H
3: 19. 20
183 15: 42-H.
3. 23
149. 152
50-54
348
4: 18-21
116 15. 42. 50.
5: 1. 9,
53
340
15-21
154
341
5: 12
115. 149. 15 44
275. 299. 15' H.
309
51-54
~29

~eWATCHTOWER

384
87
13.14
19
211
151
8.9
8. ]6.
27-29
172
117,324
3: 16
151
3: 16. 19
3: 19
151
201
3: 29
52
4: 1-3. 28
152
4: 4. 5
120
4: 4-7
374
4: 26
4: 26-31
323
2 CORINTHIANS
29:;
26. 31
73 4:
1: 3
323
2: 17
10.53 4: 23
10
3: 1-3
EPHESIANS
347 1: 3
3: 7-9
73
228
3: 18
35
3. 4
90. 223 1:
4: 1
73
1:
3.
17
4: 4 4. 76. 134. 1: 13. 14
328
164. 360 2: 12
359
363 2: 20-22
4' 7
167
43 3: 6-8
4: 10
87
298 4:
5: 1-4
277
7-13
211. 5' 8. 9
6: 16. 17
66
327 5: 18
40. 166
6: 18
87 5: 18-40
166
359 5: 25. 26
5: 18-6: 1
121
6: 20
331. 3i9 5: 25-27
331
1:;3 5: 26
5: 20. 21
te8
6: 1-9
91 6: 20
379
6: 3
83 6: 24
~40
6.14.15
325
216
6: 17
PH rUPPIANS
6: 17-7: 1
155 2: 5-7
69
8: 4
90 2: 5-8
152
9: 1. 2. 12. 13 90 2: 13
167
9' 15
181 3: 10
43 235
331
10: 8
280 3: 10. 11
267
11: 2. 3
328 4: 10-17
11: 3. 4
135.
COLOSSIANS
214. 308
261
5. 6. 23
11: 13-15
83. 1:
86
1: 7
308 1: 15
347
11' 22. 23
85 1: 15-17
76
152
12: 12
328 1: 15-18
359
12: 13. 14
312 1: 21
87
13: 10
280 1. 23
1: 24. 25
87
2:
16.
17
40
GALATIANS
4: 17
90
1: 3.4
155
1: 6-9
214 1 TN ESSALON IANS
1: 11-17
87 2: 12
212
298.
341. 313
15: 45. 47
309
51
15: 47-53
69. 119.
15: 50
327. 343
121
15: 51-63
340
15: 52
15: 52-54
299
340
1:;: 53. 54
340
15: 54
310
16: 8. 9

15: 45

1
1
3
3

3
4
5
5
6

2
13-17
1-3
8.9
23

86
329
860
107
143

2 THESSALONIANS

2:
2:
2:
2:

3-7
40
3-12
67
13
107
15
195,204

1 TIMOTHY
1: 1
117
1: 8-10
161
1:12
91
1: 13-15
185
1: 15
153
1: 16
185
1: 17
339,310.
347
2: 2
267
2: 5. 6
339
2: 12
278
3: 1. 2. 12
278
3: 1-14
111
3: 16
260
4: 1-3
262
4: G
86
4: 6. 7
87
4: 7 -10
262
4: 10
107. 263
4: 12
7
4: 12.15
243
4: 13
213
4: 14
280
4: 14-16
283
I: 16
6.248
5: 22
155
6. 1.2
264
6: 2-8
264
6: 5
811
6: 5. 6
259
6' 6-10
249
6: 8
248
6: 9. 10 259. 267
6: 10
56.241
6' 11
267
6 14-16
347
6' 16
340
6: 17-19
58
2 TIMOTHY

1: 5-8
l' 6
1: 9. 10
1: 9-11

283
280
214
339

839. 340.
347
815
2:2
88, 156
2: 3.4
283
2: 7
90
2: 9
2' 11. 12 43,154
283
2: 15
276
2: 25. 26
3: 1.2.4.
83
5.7.13
296
3: 1-5
259
3: 1-5. 13
88
3: 1-13
262
3: 12
3: 15-17
87.
172.314
4: 2-4
133
4: 5
90
90
4: 13
1: 10

TITUS

1:
1:
1:
2:
2:
3:

4
5-9
7-9
11. 12
13
7

214
171
63
267
123
123

PHILEMON

10-12

264

HEBREWS

1: 1. 2
1: 3. 4
1: 6
1: 8. 9
1: 14
2: 1-5
2: 3. 4
2.8.9.
14. 15
2: 9
2: 11-13
2: 13
2:14
2: 14-16
3: 1
3: 7-11
4: 2. 3
4: 12
5: 4-6
5.7
5: 10-14

214. 325
72. 119
27,260
69
326
138
214
294
72, 120.
218
277.
375
295
344
118
71
168
131
343
73
104
179

5: 12
6: 1
6: 1-8
6: 4-6
6: 7-9
6: 10
6: 10. 11
6.20
7: 7
7: 15. ]5.
24.25
7: 21. 22.
26
7: 26. 27

814
179
180
180
182
69
90
347
69
299

84
118.
153
84
8: 1. 2. 3. 5
9: 3-8
360
9: 8
168
9: 11,12
84
9: 19
199
40
9: 23
120
9: 2\
9: 24-26
164
41
9: 25. 26
844
9: 27.28
40
10: 1
10: 4-7 36. 162
10: 5-9
137
10: 11
41
10: 12, 13
260.
294
10: 15-17
168
10: 16-18
182
10: 23
291
10: 23-31
183
10: 38, 39
184
Chap. 11
H
330
1: 1-40
232
11: 5. 6
11: 6
131
11: 7
281
11: 17-19
117.
32:;
12: 1
184
12: 29
184
JAMES

1: 1
1: 17
1: 18
4: 6
5: 11
5: 20

56.
121.

1 PETEa

1: 3

1]9
1: 8-9
1: 3. 23. 25 12\
340.
1: 4. 23
148
106
1: 9
1: 10-12
260.
330
153
1: 18. 19
120
1: 22-2: 2
282
2: 4. 5
35
2: 4-6
214
2: 9
6
2: 9, 10
109
2: 21
153
2: 22-24
140
3: 4
123
3: 16
3: 18
61.72.
326.347
119
3: 18, 19
72
3: 21. 22
4: 7. 10. 11 284
4: 7-11
63
4: 10. 11
316
329
4: 17
284
5:6
1:
1:
1:
1:
1:

2 PETEI
1
5.6
10.11
11
20, 21

214
267
362
61
165.
195
281
1: 21
2: 6
219
229
2: 10. 11
2: 12
291
2: 14
216
3: 1-4
234
3: 1-9
357
3: 3. 4
363
3: 7
298
3: 8
292,299.
129
3:9
355. 364
3: 11-13
364
299
211 3: 13
365
275 3: 14. 15
364
327 3: 15
279
311
345
1 JOHN
&7
66
1: 6
35
73 2: 1.2

"'1' ' ' '

BROOKLYN,
147,154,
2: 2
214
8
2: 15-17
2: 20. 27, 28 169
8: 1. 2
Z75
347
ll:Z
121
3: 2. I
148
3: 4
150
3: 8. 12
121
I: 9. 10
230
3:12
230
3: 15
163, 16\
4:1
164
4: 2. 3
167
4: 12. 13
168
5: 6-9
76
5:7
75
5: 7. 8
164
5: 15
187
5: 16-19
148,186
6: 17
6
6: 19
2 JOHN

&'1

JOHI

57
1. Z
3
4
6
5-7
7
8

g.9

12
12.13
14
14,15
16
17-19
20.21
22.23
24,25

JUDE

212
211,213.
234
215
105
217
219
228
227
229
232
231
233
150. 227.
233
233
234
234
235
235

REVELATION
(APOCALYPSE)

1:1
1: 6

67
278. 291.
294
309

1: 5
73
1: ]0-18
347
297,347
1: 18
2: 8. 11
348
Z: 10
343
187, 299
2: 11
2: 14
230
2: 21
276
2: 26.27
154
3: 7. 8
310
3: 13
73
3:14
76. 152.
39
3: 21
119. 299
4: 5
70
5: 6
24
6: 5
69
Chap. 7
122.
123
7: 1-4
861
7: 4-8
296
7: 9 10 69. 362
7: 9-15
87
7: 9-17
122.
123. 214.
296. 298.
330
7: 15
216
8: 9
315
9: 1-11
297
9: 11
297
11: 8 106.217.
297
11: 15-17
70
11: 15-18
28.
58. 295
Chap. 12
229
25.
12: 1-5
251. 29';
308
12: 1-10
360
12: 1-12
68.29';
12: 5
12: 7-9
229
12: 7-10.
12. 13. 17 296
12: 7-13
331
12: 7-17
375
296
12' 9
309
12: 10
12: 12
364
12: 12-17
216
12: 16
231
12: 17
296.WS
Chap. 13
215
13: 8
35
13: 10
215

N. Y.

14: 1
14: I, 8

24

119.
296
327
14:1.3.4
342. 345
16: 3
16: 12-16
163
164
16: 13
297
16: 13-16
Chap. 17
231
17: 1-5
331
17: 9. 12.
16.17.18 231
17' 12-18
68
297.
17: 14
329. 347
187
18: 1-6
155
18: 3-8
19' 1-3
331
324
19' 6 7
331
19: 6-9
323. 331
19 7
331
19: 8
331
19: 9
19: 11-19
231
297
19' 11-21
347
19: 16
219
19 20
Chap. 20
293
218.
20: 1. 2
297
292
20' 1-6
20 2
292. 2"3
293
20: 2-6
298
20.3
20' 4
291
20: 4-6
298
20: 5. 12-15 2q9
20: 7. 8
299
20' 7-10
186
3H
20: 9.14
20: 10
299
20: 10, 14.
15
219
20.11
298
20: 14
187
20: 14, 15
2i6.
297. 345
1';6
21' 4. 5
21. 8
219.
297.344.
315
21: 9
331
22 ), 2. 17 315
22' 16
24
22' 17
121
22: 18. 19
195

SUBJECT INDEX FOR "THE WATCHTOWER", 1948

Abusive Speec'! Against the
Holy Spirit Deadly
Advance to MatUrity or Relapse
into Sm. WhIch?
.. .
Ahaz Fears Man
. . ..
"A Living Hope"
.
"All NatIOns Advance" Testimony Period
Amos Prophesies Amidst OpposItion '"
Are You Saved?
"A Root of All Kinds of Evil"
Attempt to Cathohclze ChristianIty. The
Bringmg Forth Fruit In Old Age
.....
"By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them"
Calendar. 1948

g~~~~lt~g

\b4; R~c~;d' 'fro~'

Orl"inaJ Source~ .,
Contendmg for the Faith ............
Cultivating of Gifts The ...........
District Assemblles in North America ...
District Assemblies In Other Countries ..
District Assemblies in the United States.
D,"trlct Assemblies. 1948 .. .
'"
District Assembly In Atlanta ....
DI\'lne Foreknowledge and

185
179
238
118
66
175
99
126
173
379
285
2
338
198
215
279
114
365
146
331
18

Dlvl~~~i..~,e~~:t~1~a;';'S';lva: tio'~ . : : :: : ::
Divine Prohibition of DemonIsm .... 44
Exodu" to Temple-480 Years ... 92
Expandin~ Your Ministry ............. 245
Fl)'lng Convention Tour Through
South Africa. A ... ... . ...... 77
For Whom the Bible Was Written
110
Galnin" Entrance to Permanent Dwelllngs 51
Gift of Persevermg in Singleness. The . 283
Glft~ According to Measure
275
Gilead Graduates MissionarIes for Africa 96
Gilead's Eleventh Class Graduates
to More Praise . . .. ...... . ... 287
Giver of Immortality. The '"
339
"God's Ministers" Testimony Period '" 194
HallIng the New World's King . . . ... 107
Hastening .the Commg of the Day of God 363
Healthful Means of Gain. A ....... 259
Hearing Ears ................. 131
Hearing to Salvation . ,
135

Hezekiah Trusts Jehovah ...... 254

Hosea Proclaims Jehovah's Mercy
270
Ignorance of Sin
147
In a Denominational College ........ 95
Increasing Praise in the Dark Continent 60
Interestmg Letter. An
ere "
480 Years"]
191
Interesting Letter in re Memorial, An 271
Isaiah Lived UP to His Name .... 318
Jehoahaz. Possessed by a Foreigner .... 47
Jeroboam II Misuses Prosperity ... 94
Joel Foresees Jehovah's Avenging...... 13
Jonah Foreshadows Jesus and
His Followers
.
111
Jotham Becomes Powerful ... 223
Keeping m the Love of God ...... 233
"King for Ail Earth" Testimony Period 258
King for a Thousand Years ....... 291
"Let God Be True"
.
160
Letter. A ["In re the 144.000 Singers"] 224
Letters ere sex perversion; also
re "day of salvation"]
336
Lie About the Dead. The
316
Making the Earth Glorious .. 159
!leakmg Your Salvation Sure ..... 103
Manasseh's Demon- \Vorship
Gets Him into Trouble ... 334
Marriage in Heaven. The
323
Memorial and the 19-Year Cycle
91
Memorial Date, 1918
18
Memorial of Foundmg the New World.. 35
Mexico Goes to School
300
Micah Fore~ees Outcome
of Divine Judg-ment
302
Ministers at the World's End ...... 307
Nearing the Portals of the New World . 267
"Neighbor Love" Testimony Period .... 130
Not a Slow God
..
355
Not Ransomed AgaInst Your WlIJ . 187
Operations of the Holy Spirit
165
Other North American
District Assemblies ...... 348
"Our Common Salvation" ..... 211
Paying Respect to the Judge ......... 227
Pekah. a Conspirator Among Conspirators 189
"Permanent Governor of All Nations" . 162

PoIltlc~

and Demonlsm .
.
219
Praise te the Nations Yet More and More 371
Reign with the DevlI Bound. A ,.
.. 297
ReIlglon of This World a Snare. The . . , In
Removal of the "Sin of the \Vorld" ... 148
Rescue from Race Degeneracy '"
. 59
Resolution .......... ............
28
Scripture Index tor the
Leading Articles, 1948
382
"Setting the Mark" Testimony Period .. 322
Sheeplike and Goatlike People.
.
IS
ShOWing Forth Jehovah's Praises Publicly 48
SI~al to the Peoples. The ..
.
19
"Song of Praise" Assembly at Philadelphia 29
"Song of Praise" Testimony Period.
.
2
Testing the Spirits In the World Cnsls .. 163
"That the MInistry Be Not Blamed" .. ,
83
"The God of Hope"
, . .. ...
. ..
115
"Their Rock I~ Not as Our Rock" ... 12
"The Joy of All the People" . . .
18
Tomb Of the ftesurrection. The
235
To Whose BeneClt Doeq
the Ransom Reqult?
.. , 156
Transmitting the Sacred Record
....
195
"Trinity" Opposed to God's Klng-dom. The 67
Uplifting Mankind to Perfection
251

Uzzlah's Presumptuousness

Annuls His Faithfulness .

..
Vacation
Way of Life with Contentment. A ..
Way of Pleasantness and Prosperity. The
'WBBR Lifts Up Its Voice
Wedding In Prophetic Drama
and in Reality. The
What Book Is Like It?
What Is There In It for Ministers?
When and How to Celebrate Memorial.
When Immortality Came to Light .....
Where the Money Comes from
for Kingdom Work ....... .. ......
Why the Holy Scriptures
Teach No TrinIty
.. , ..
Why Thpy Are So Dirrerent in 1918 .. ,
Why WlIJ Satan the DevlI Die? . . . . .
"Yearbook of Jehovah's witnesses." 1948
"Yearbook of Jehovah's witnesses." 1949
Yeartext. The 1949

127
194
~63

243
204

324
143
311
39
310
139
70
J
123
2
338
376