November 8

Page Two

Prayers are offered for many reasons and in many ways. Some persons sincerely believe that their prayers are heard. Others view it all as empty ritual. Does it pay to pray? How can you know for sure? Consider the evidence in these articles

5 PRAYER​—EMPTY RITUAL OR MEANINGFUL COMMUNICATION?

6 WHY AND HOW YOU PRAY​—DOES IT MATTER?

10 DOES IT PAY TO PRAY?

Have You Ever Wondered—

Will Man Destroy Himself and the Earth?

PERHAPS you’ve seen newspaper headlines such as “Doomsday Weapons,” “Enough Bombs to End World,” “Earthquake Bomb,” ‘Germ Warfare, the New Threat.’ Or, maybe you have heard world leaders say that ‘global war would mean global suicide’ and that “the human race is at stake.”

Are these reports mere exaggerations or . . .

CAN MAN NOW DESTROY HIMSELF AND THE EARTH?

An atomic bomb dropped 35 years ago in Japan blasted the world into the Nuclear Age. That one bomb eventually killed an estimated 140,000 persons. But that was a “mini-bomb” compared to those now available. Some today are over 4,600 times as powerful!

Stockpiled in just the arsenals of the United States and Russia is reportedly destructive force equal to five tons of dynamite for every person on earth! Man is truly capable of destroying himself many times over.

Some feel that man will soon use these “Doomsday Weapons” in another world war, bringing all life and this earth to a tragic end. Why do they feel this way? Because they think it is predicted in the Bible.

DOES THE BIBLE PREDICT THIS?

No. The Bible clearly says that God “has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, or forever.” “The earth abideth for ever.”​—Ps. 104:5; Eccl. 1:4, Authorized Version.

Jesus Christ said: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5, AV) How could the meek “inherit the earth” if it were destroyed or had been turned into a burned-out cinder?

However, some Bible readers say, But doesn’t the Bible speak about a coming “end of the world”?​—See Matthew 24:3, AV.

WHAT DOES THE “END OF THE WORLD” REALLY MEAN?

It means the conclusion of the present system of things, culminating in destruction of a world of wicked people, not of the earth itself. The Bible compares the coming destruction to another historical event. Over 4,300 years ago the earth was likewise filled with violent people. God acted to preserve the earth and righteous Noah and his family. “The world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water,” records the Bible. It adds the warning: “But . . . the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.”​—2 Pet. 3:6, 7; Gen. 6:5-12.

Naturally the literal ground was not destroyed. We’re still standing on it. It was a world of “ungodly” people that was removed. A world of violence that displeased God ended.

This makes sense. For instance, if you owned a fine house and let it out to tenants who proved to be rowdy and who damaged your property, would you destroy the whole place or simply oust the bad tenants? The answer is obvious. So now, God, the Owner of our “house,” this beautiful earth, will not destroy it simply because many of the “tenants” are “rowdy,” but will remove the “tenants.”

This will mean the end of a very dangerous world that stockpiles the most frightful weapons of mass destruction but fails to feed the starving or undernourished millions in many countries. A very dishonest world, full of hypocrisy. A very wasteful world that pollutes the earth and sky. Rather than letting man finally destroy the earth, God purposes to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” This shows that man will not completely ruin this earth!​—Rev. 11:18.

WILL THERE BE ANY SURVIVORS?

Yes, there will be many. As a contrast to man’s wars, where both good persons and bad perish, God’s war will be selective. The Bible gives this comforting assurance: “Jehovah is guarding all those loving him, but all the wicked ones he will annihilate.” (Ps. 145:20) Notice that the survivors will be persons who ‘love God.’ Other verses indicate that these will be persons who are meek and obey God’s laws.​—Ps. 37:10, 11, 34.

Would you not enjoy living in a world filled with people like that? Would it not be a time of security? Though “the world is passing away,” we can have the hope that those ‘that do the will of God remain forever.’​—1 John 2:17.

Moreover, this glorious new order is now very near. To live in it we need to know and do God’s will now. Jehovah’s Witnesses will be glad to help you, free of charge, to learn what is God’s will and more about this marvelous hope.

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TONS TONS TONS

Prayer​—Empty Ritual or Meaningful Communication?

JANUARY 1 to 3 is the most important holiday in Japan, lasting several days as everyone seeks to start the new year right. Well over half the population of Japan visited a shrine or temple during the first three days of 1979 to pray for success and good luck during the coming year.

If you had gone with them, what would you have seen?

Here is a person ceremonially cleansing his mouth and hands at a fountain by the entrance gate to a Shinto shrine. Now he walks up to the shrine and puts something into a large offertory box. Next, he reaches overhead and grasps a thick multi-colored cord. As he whips it, a wooden block clashes against a bell, making a dissonant “Clank! Clank!” He releases the cord and claps his hands together several times, then holds them together as he makes a number of deep bows. Turning, he leaves. Thus a prayer has been said.

But who heard it? Was it merely empty ritual? This worshiper sincerely believes that his prayer was heard.

Before leaving the shrine precincts he will jostle his way over to a booth to buy a talisman or amulet, perhaps a simple piece of paper with Chinese characters written on it, or an arrow with good-luck charms dangling from it.

What did he pray for? Most likely peace, security, happiness and wealth. As one Shinto priest put it: “They offer 100, 1,000 or 10,000 yen [$.50, $5, $50, U.S.] but they pray for hundreds of thousands, even millions. They give little but want much.”

While many Japanese visit temples only at the beginning of the new year, just as certain nominal Christians visit churches only at Easter, the devout make regular visits. Many homes feature a kamidana, a shelf for Shinto images, and/​or a butsudan, the family Buddhist altar. Here family members can offer up prayers by lighting a candle from which they light incense. Kneeling before such an altar, they first strike a chime with a small wooden stick and then recite over and over again a written prayer or some memorized words such as “Namu-Amida-Butsu” (Glory to Amida Buddha). This may be repeated in singsong monotony for 20 minutes, even for hours.

What of those Japanese who profess Christianity? They might be found going into a church building where they kneel for a few minutes, praying silently or perhaps in a whisper. Some read their prayers from a book. Among them are persons who pray here frequently, while others come only at times of special trial. Others, with a string of beads, recite a memorized expression each time a bead is advanced in their fingers. At intervals during this ritual they may fix their gaze on a crucifix or the image of a particular saint.

There are so many ways that people offer up prayers! Without doubt they are participated in by devout and sincere persons. But regarding all such prayers we do well to ask: Is meaningful communication taking place​—or is it just empty ritual?

[Picture on page 5]

Written prayers tied to branch at a Shinto shrine

Why and How You Pray​—Does It Matter?

“OH, KAMI-SAMA,a please help me pass the exam. Because I haven’t prepared for the test well enough, I’m depending solely on you.” Written prayers like this are offered at religious shrines all over Japan as highly competitive exam time draws near. Concerned grandparents of students make offerings of 10,000 yen ($50, U.S.) so that daily prayers will be said for a year in behalf of the scholastic efforts of their grandchildren.

Many of the students who flock to shrines at this time of year have little faith in God. “No, I don’t usually believe in God,” one said. “But I pray for divine help only in times of trouble.”

Their attitude illustrates the Japanese proverb: “Lean on God when in trouble.”

But what happens when the crisis is past? God is usually forgotten until the next crisis.

What Do People Pray For?

Usually, people pray because they want something. A Western magazine article cited the prayers of children, most of which were requests: “Dear God: I need a raise in my allowance. Could you have one of your angels tell my father? Thank you.” “Could you please send our family some money?” “Please help me in school.”

In Japan it is customary to visit shrines at the beginning of the new year and offer prayers to Ebisu, the God of Wealth. Vast numbers of Japanese did so last year, with over three million people visiting certain shrines in Kyoto and Tokyo alone, to pray for money in the coming months.

Persons desiring protection from accident or disaster visit Japanese temples for Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, as well as Shinto shrines.

Philippine Catholics may pray to the “Santo Niño,” or “Holy Child,” for good luck. One man bought a 14-karat gold crown studded with real rubies and diamonds for his statue of Santo Niño in gratitude for the financial help he believed the image had given him.

Some prayers express appreciation, but far more are requests​—for almost anything.

Will the Prayer Be Answered?

For each person who feels that his prayers for success or money have been answered, there are many who are disappointed. Vast numbers of Tokyo students pray for help during exams to enter private high schools, but only 22 percent score well enough to be admitted. Most lose out. Why weren’t their prayers heard?

A family of five visited a Shinto shrine to have their car exorcised to protect it from accident. Driving away from the shrine, they hit a bridge abutment and all five were killed. What went wrong? Consider:

To Whom Are You Praying?

Japanese students often direct their prayers to Michizane Sugawara, long venerated as the “God of Learning.” Mr. Sugawara was a ninth-century Japanese poet and scholar. He has been dead for a thousand years. Is it logical to believe he can really help to improve a person’s test scores?

The truth is that, in Japan’s highly competitive exams, most of Mr. Sugawara’s petitioners evidently do not have their prayers answered. That should not be surprising. On this matter common sense agrees with the Bible. It says of dead persons: “They are conscious of nothing at all . . . there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [the grave].” (Eccl. 9:5, 10) Mr. Sugawara, who is presently in Sheol, cannot help any student whether he has studied well enough or not to pass his exams.

What about prayers offered to images, such as the Buddhist Kannon, or to any other image? Simple observation shows that the world is full of persons who pray to such images for success and happiness, yet who remain unsuccessful and unhappy. Why?

If prayers to a dead person are not helpful, would prayers to a lifeless image be any better? Reasonably, no. Again, the Bible gives a viewpoint of matters in harmony with common sense, saying of images: They are “the work of the hands of earthling man. A mouth they have, but they cannot speak; eyes they have, but they cannot see; ears they have, but they cannot hear. A nose they have, but they cannot smell. Hands are theirs, but they cannot feel. Feet are theirs, but they cannot walk; they utter no sound with their throat. Those making them will become just like them, all those who are trusting in them.”​—Ps. 115:4-8.

“The Hearer of Prayer”

Does this bleak summary mean that all prayer is futile? Not at all. Many sincere prayers are answered every day, as the following article will indicate. What is necessary, however, is to pray to the right person. But who would that be?

Would it not logically be someone infinitely more powerful and wise than a mere inanimate image, or even a dead human being? Should it not also be a person who has shown a sincere interest in humankind and a loving desire to help? Since no human person has the needed power, one would have to pray to a superhuman person, and what superhuman person could be more powerful than the Creator of all things?

Yes, in harmony with the Bible, common sense tells us that we should direct our prayers, not to fellow creatures like ourselves, nor to the lifeless creations of man, such as images, but to the living Creator of the universe.

Which of the many gods and spirits worshiped today fits that description? Notice how clearly this God is identified in the Bible: “For this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it . . . ‘I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.’”​—Isa. 45:18.

But is this mighty Creator truly interested in the prayers of his human creation? Or is he indifferent to man’s plight as are the callous gods of so many religions? Notice this warm description: “O Hearer of prayer, even to you people of all flesh will come.”​—Ps. 65:2.

Thus the Bible describes Jehovah God as the great Hearer of prayer. He invites the sincere prayers of people of all cultures and backgrounds. ‘That sounds good,’ you might say. ‘But does the record bear out that description?’ Yes, indeed!

About 3,500 years ago, long before Confucius or Buddha were born, the historical record tells us that Jehovah God ‘heard the groaning’ of his worshipers who were slaves in Egypt. He answered their prayers by sending Moses to deliver them.​—Ex. 3:6-10.

Five hundred years later his faithful servant King David could truthfully say: “Blessed be Jehovah, for he has heard the voice of my entreaties.” (Ps. 28:6) A thousand years later God’s Son, Jesus Christ, showed that his Father had not changed, by promising: “Most truly I say to you, If you ask the Father for anything he will give it to you in my name.” (John 16:23) This is still true!

‘Ask in My Name’

But why does the Bible indicate that we must approach God in the name of Jesus? Why can’t we pray directly to Jehovah God?

The fact is that Jehovah God has answered the sincere prayers of many persons who did not know that they should approach him in the name of Jesus Christ. Indeed, such persons have often prayed simply to “God,” without even knowing his personal name, Jehovah. They have generally prayed for knowledge of God, indicating a desire to serve him, and their prayers have been heard in countless cases.​—Acts 17:26, 27.

But as these sincere persons have grown in knowledge of the true God, they have adjusted their prayers in harmony with that knowledge. Just as they have learned to make use of God’s name, Jehovah, they have also learned to make use of his channel for prayer, Jesus Christ. This reflects their humility, a quality that Jehovah God approves.

Humility? Yes, because it takes humility for us to admit that we are sinful, imperfect. We would not think of requesting an audience with the ruler of our country if we had only rags to wear and were not washed, would we? Likewise, a humble person realizes that he has no right to a direct hearing with God in an unclean, imperfect state. So humble persons are grateful that the clean, perfect Son of God is willing to represent them before his Father. They are thankful to be able to address their prayers to Jehovah in the name of Jesus Christ.

What counts in prayer to Jehovah God is not necessarily our location or posture, nor our external appearance. It is not necessary to pay money so that someone more “holy” than ourselves can pray for us, since all men are imperfect and unclean in His sight. (Rom. 3:23) What is God looking for? “To this one, then, I shall look,” Jehovah says, “to the one afflicted and contrite in spirit and trembling at my word.”​—Isa. 66:2.

Does this mean that if we want more money or success with our exams we need only to shift our prayers to Jehovah God, praying for these things in the name of Jesus Christ? No. Usually, a policeman would not help you to break the law, would he? Likewise, God logically will not help you unless what you ask for is in harmony with his will. Otherwise, God would forever be contradicting himself.

“According to His Will”

The Bible clearly says this: “No matter what it is that we ask according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14) This is because Jehovah is a God of justice. His natural laws, such as gravity, reflect that, being applied equally to everyone. If you did not study for an exam, would it be just for God to intervene and cause you to score better than others who did study? Really, it would not be fair to the other students, would it?

The basic things God expects us to pray for are contained in the following Model Prayer, given by Jesus Christ. Notice the priorities in it: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth. Give us today our bread for this day; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the wicked one.”​—Matt. 6:9-13.

Jehovah God expects persons who pray to him to be more concerned about his will and purposes than about their own goals and ambitions. That is only reasonable, since God knows what is best for all of us. There is nothing wrong with praying for material things, our ‘daily bread,’ but nothing is said about praying for riches. Rich people are usually not concerned about God. Notice that God is pleased with prayers that show concern for him and his purpose first, and ourselves second. Such prayers are all too rare today.

Is there any evidence that such prayers are truly being heard and answered today? Really, does it pay to pray?

[Footnotes]

Does It Pay to Pray?

GOD has always approved of prayers such as this one: “Teach me your regulations.” (Ps. 119:68) Numerous modern-day examples show that he is very much interested in answering such prayers.

An elderly Japanese woman daily offered up rice, water and incense on her kamidana, or Shinto ‘god’ shelf. One day, as she clasped her hands together, she thought, “If there is a true God, teach me who you are before I die.”

No sooner had she completed her prayer than the door opened (in Japan it is customary to open the door and call out) and a voice cried out, “Excuse me, please!” When the elderly lady went to the entrance of her house the visitor politely told her she had come to talk to her about the “true God.” Her prayer had been heard and answered! She began to study the Bible and has now learned a great deal about Jehovah, the living Creator and Hearer of prayer.

It is not unusual for Jehovah God to answer sincere prayers for knowledge about Him even before the petitioner has completed his request. In Europe a man was in his apartment making such a fervent request when he heard a thump at the door. He ran to the door and threw it open. A person passing his room had accidentally bumped the door with his briefcase and kept walking.

The householder called out to the two men in the hallway. He was not fluent in the language of the country, but the two men spoke his native language. What was more, they were Bible teachers! They had visited that building to call on another person who had not been at home that day. Overjoyed, the householder arranged on the spot to start a regular Bible study. His prayer for knowledge of God had surely been answered. Not all answers to prayer come so quickly, but God does hear and answer those who sincerely want to know him and his requirements.

Have you wanted to know more about the true God, the Creator of all things? Would you be willing to do his will if it were revealed to you? This very magazine may well be the answer to your prayers. By getting in contact with the publishers, or any of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you too may arrange to obtain answers to your questions about God.

Another type of prayer that God approves is for help to do his will. The psalmist David testifies that his prayers were answered: “I earnestly hoped in Jehovah, and so he inclined his ear to me and heard my cry for help.” Why? Consider David’s desire: “To do your will, O my God, I have delighted.”​—Ps. 40:1, 8.

A salaried employee needed time off from his work to attend a school for training Christian elders. It was a very busy time of year for his company and he felt it would be impossible for him to get time off from work, but he prayed to Jehovah God for guidance and went into the manager’s office with his request. He was joyfully surprised when the manager said: “Yes, you may take off the time; it sounds like a good arrangement.”

In Hokkaido, Japan, a Christian man who was an experienced carpenter felt that he could do God’s will by assisting in a Christian construction project. Carpenters were very badly needed on this project at the time, but the man had numerous family obligations. With the encouragement of his wife, he prayed for Jehovah’s help to arrange matters.

This man had a family business, making and delivering tofu (a soybean curd that is very popular in Japan). While he was out of town helping with the construction project, who would deliver the tofu to his customers? That problem was solved when a man came to his house, wondering if the family knew where he might find a job. “Do you have a driver’s license?” he was asked. “Yes,” was the reply. “Then you have a job right here.”

But who would supervise the making and packaging of the tofu? The man’s three children pitched in and made tofu early in the morning during his absence. Even the five-year-old boy helped out by putting the floating curd cakes into plastic packs. In fact, he packed several hundred cakes without breaking one, something even an experienced adult may find difficult to do!

The man’s wife had previously been concerned about some health problems, but these vanished during his absence. In short, as this man prayed to do God’s will and worked in harmony with his prayers, every obstacle was smoothed out.

Answers to Your Prayers

Are your prayers being answered? Do you feel that you have really gotten to know God? Does your life have the deep sense of purpose and meaning that it should? Have you prayed for God’s help to know and do his will? If so, your prayers will be answered.

But what will you do about it? It is one thing to pray to God for his direction. It is something else to accept his direction when your prayer is answered. Jesus illustrated this by saying that a certain man went up to his child and said, “Child, go work today in the vineyard.” In answer the child said, “I will, sir,” but he did not go out.​—Matt. 21:28-32.

Many people today give God lip service, but do not really want to do his will. They want God to serve them, but they are not interested in serving God. They want help on exams, or money, or good luck, not so they can better serve God, but just for selfish reasons. (Jas. 4:3) Answers that God does give in harmony with his will they choose to ignore.

On the other hand, if you are one of the minority of persons today who really do wish to know God, to please him, to see his will done earth wide​—then you may rest assured that he will favorably answer your prayers. Jehovah’s Witnesses will be glad to assist you to learn more about the true God, the Hearer of prayer. And he will prove to you, if you let him, that it does pay to pray.

I Was a Jealous Husband!

WITH THE HELP of two friends I was feverishly removing the seats from a newly purchased old school bus. I was angry, muttering under my breath. When my wife, Cathy, and our three sons arrived home, I shook my fist in Cathy’s face, again threatened to divorce her, and even threatened to kill her!

She showed no fear, but mumbled something like “Jehovah can resurrect me if you do, Bill.” My two friends stared at me in amazement, knowing that it was not really my nature to be violent, especially with my wife. Why was I so upset that I was going to sell our home and move my family in that school bus to a place far away? It was because . . .

Cathy and the boys were coming home from their meeting at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I had been left behind at home. All our married life we had done everything together as a family. We never hired a baby-sitter, but always our goal was to please each other as husband and wife and to live as a happy united family, working and playing together with our sons, Roy 10, Jack 5, and Rick 4. But now we were divided! I was losing my little world to someone named “Jehovah.”

It was true I had been a regular churchgoer all my young life, with perfect attendance badges for some 13 years. But there were things that made me doubt whether there truly was a Creator, a God of love. When my best pal, my grandfather, died, I was told that God took him! To a six-year-old, this sounded like a very unloving God. Years later when my dear mother also died, the only explanation I was able to get was the same thing: God took her and left behind my alcoholic father.

Even as a teenager, I observed my young friends stealing items off the dime-store counters, paying for confession, and never missing Mass on Sundays. Also, I remember grown-ups boasting over “getting away” with immoral acts and yet considering themselves “Christians.” This spelled hypocrisy to me. I could live a good life without church. The church was not for me!

Cathy had grown up in a town in North Carolina; her church meetings were her social as well as religious life. She had been quite active in church, usually teaching Sunday school. I didn’t mind her taking our boys to church, as they might learn a few good things. But she grew more and more dissatisfied with each church she would attend. She especially did not like the gossiping and backbiting that went on. What really upset her was that one Sunday Roy came home with his suit sleeve ripped out​—there had been a brawl right in his classroom. I just chuckled when she said she would try a different church, because I knew they were just about “all the same.”

As the months went by, Cathy began a study of Mormonism and also began a Bible study with Jehovah’s Witnesses who called at our home. I did not mind this, as it was conducted while I was at work. However, when she started attending the meetings at the Kingdom Hall and talking a lot about “Jehovah,” jealousy began to grow within me! Gradually her newly found knowledge was having an effect on her decisions and it didn’t always harmonize with my opinions.

For example, Cathy announced that she no longer wished to visit my friend. When asked why, she said the boys were picking up bad words from his children. Now she was getting picky about who our friends were. I showed her my fist; and my anger rose. Continuously, it seemed to me, she kept trying to tell me things like “there’s no Trinity in the Bible,” and that she had learned to love and worship “Jehovah.” I was beginning to worry about her mental condition. So, something must be done! Put the house up for sale​—move away. That’s it! And that I did, to get away from Jehovah’s Witnesses!

We moved to Melrose, Massachusetts, 600 miles (960 km) away, in that school bus. But nothing was solved. My wife became very depressed, even physically ill, because she could not locate a Kingdom Hall there. I could not stand to see her this way, so I started looking for a Kingdom Hall for her myself. It was located and she became happy again​—but again the jealousy was building up in me. To counteract this, I threw myself into my job and spent night and day at work.

During all of this, she and our sons were gaining more knowledge from attending meetings and studying the Bible. Now I learned she was going from house to house in our neighborhood with the “truth,” as she called it. I quickly put a stop to that and told her that if she was going to do this it would have to be in another place, another city. A lady friend of hers, Mrs. Lappin, took her to a nearby city to make such calls, and she became a very close companion to my wife in going to homes. She even tried to talk to me on some occasions, but I was having none of that​—when Mrs. Lappin came in the front door I went out the back! Now I had someone else to add to my jealousy​—another Witness.

What could I do now? A job offer in New London, Connecticut. “This is the answer,” I thought. Again it was not the solution at all. My new job took most of my time, years were passing and my boys were growing up without me.

One Sunday I shocked my wife when I went right into the Kingdom Hall with her to see what was really going on. I can still see the look of surprise on Cathy’s face!

But the surprise was mine, too, for what I saw and heard was so different from the rituals I remembered from church. I heard a Bible talk describing a land with grapes so large that one cluster had to be carried on a pole between two men. It sounded like a dream, but, sure enough, it was right there in the Bible at Numbers 13:23, which described the promised land for God’s people. A rather stirring discussion followed, orderly and informative.

No wonder my wife and sons could explain the Bible so well. Feeling that I could never catch up with them in knowledge, I wouldn’t get involved. But it always made me angry to get into a discussion and realize how little I knew about the Bible. Why, even Roy, now in his teens, could answer most Bible questions. I really felt inferior and unhappy. My wife would bear the brunt of these feelings and moods.

I had so many hang-ups​—I was jealous of her love for Jehovah, jealous of her knowledge and zeal for telling others what she had learned, jealous of Roy’s abilities to do the same, jealous because she had time to enjoy the boys and I was always at work, jealous of the respect and honor the boys always showed her.

I grew up cursing and drinking beer (though I was not a drunkard), but my conscience was hurting me because I was still doing some of these things​—even more so. My nerves were constantly on edge and my weight went down, with no relief in sight. One day I decided we would move back to North Carolina, where life’s pace might slow down, and I hoped we could once again get together as a family.

Back in North Carolina, about two or three months later, I was asked, “How about a Bible study? Don’t you want to know why your family feels the way they do? It may help you to understand them better. Also, you’ll gain knowledge yourself.” “Well,” I thought, “I’ll find some errors and prove them wrong. In that way I’ll be able to regain my self-respect and get my family back.”

I didn’t allow Charles (my teacher) to come to our home for the Bible study but I went to his home one evening each week. It really burned me up at first to get ready, because I truly didn’t want to go. I angrily threw things around each week, again giving Cathy a bad time.

But, as the weeks went by, things changed. I gradually realized that I could not find one teaching out of harmony with the Bible even though I did not accept it all at first. As time went on I saw that everything I was learning was backed up by the Bible. When a friend asked me a Bible question one day, to my own amazement I was able to answer it and other questions he had. Yes, I, too, was enjoying the good results of my Bible study.

I felt that now all our problems would be over. But not so! This would have been too easy. I was still working on my self-control and I was still smoking (three packs of cigarettes a day, along with drinking some 15 cups of coffee, much beer, and taking sleeping pills). It was bothering my conscience, and I just couldn’t seem to overcome the habit. I would quit smoking every night and start again every morning. I would throw the pack away and go back and hunt it up “to relieve my nerves.” This made me jealous of my wife because she had long ago overcome her smoking habit.

I remember one occasion when I was trying to install a washer in our kitchen and hurt my back quite seriously. My wife came over to help and I was so angry that I bumped into her, pushed her out of my way, and ran out the door to buy some cigarettes. Oh, it was a battle! But through many heartfelt prayers and the help of my Christian friends and Jehovah’s spirit, I was finally able to say truthfully, “I have quit.” This helped me to overcome my hot temper also and to be thankful for a truly Christian family instead of being jealous of them.

I am so grateful that my little family loyally stood by their Bible principles through it all. And what has happened to that jealous husband of long ago? Well, if you happen to live around Louisville, Kentucky, you might have Bill and Cathy visit your congregation, for that is now (at this writing) my joyful privilege, like Paul in the days of the early Christians. We visit 20 congregations where I serve as a traveling minister to assist and encourage, but it also works out as an interchange of encouragement for us.

For other jealous husbands who may feel as I did, we hope their pride will not stand in the way of their family relationship. Instead, we hope they take advantage of the time while the children are young to learn and apply Bible principles in life. Many such husbands have already done this, so that their wives have been able to experience the joy of seeing the result of applying Peter’s inspired words in 1 Peter 3:1, 2: “You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that . . . they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect.”

May your blessings be grander than mine and may you experience joy to the full as a result of overcoming the pitfalls of a jealous person​—husband or wife.​—Contributed.

[Blurb on page 13]

When a man tells his wife to quit studying with the Witnesses, it may be that he has heard something about them that doesn’t sound good. But is what he was told true?

[Blurb on page 14]

One of the best ways to find out what your mate is learning is to study the Bible with the Witnesses yourself. It won’t cost you anything. You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to. But you will know the facts firsthand.

[Blurb on page 15]

A visit to the Kingdom Hall at meeting time is a good way to find out for yourself what goes on there.

Does Exercise Really Help?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

Millions of people think so!

What are some doing to keep fit?

ONE only has to look at the multitudes of joggers, bicycle riders and sports enthusiasts to agree that ours has become an age in which people are aware of physical fitness. In recent years people of all ages have taken stock of themselves and come to the conclusion that more exercise could improve their health, appearance and quality of life.

Why is this? Simply put, in this age of modern conveniences and machinery, many no longer have to exert themselves physically in their daily routine. Many jobs are of a sedentary nature, and in many lands even those that are not, such as that of housewife, have diminished in some of their more strenuous aspects. This leaves much of mankind with bodies that were designed for physical activity but with no way to get sufficient exercise in their normal daily routines.

What Is Physical Fitness?

Physical fitness, as defined by the Japanese Society of Sports Medicine, involves all the qualities of the body, including physique, function and mental ability. A person who is physically fit should be able to do prolonged work or exercise without undue fatigue. Fitness is not dependent on strength but, rather, on the body’s overall health, especially that of the cardiovascular system.

Physical exercise might simply be divided into two basic groups. Aerobic exercises (jogging, tennis and field sports that require oxygen to be delivered throughout the body rapidly to produce energy), and muscle toners (including most calisthenics, isometrics and therapeutic exercise).

The theory is that overall physical fitness is dependent more on the aerobic type of exercise because it utilizes all the body’s resources, sending life-giving oxygen to all parts of the body. However, muscle-toning exercises also have their place in maintaining physical health.

Benefits

Regular exercise is said to improve, not only the work capacity of the heart and lungs, but also the condition of other body organs. Blood circulation and overall health are improved because more oxygen is delivered to body cells. Additionally, in a test study made by the Japanese Education Ministry, it was found that men who regularly exercised had the physical stamina of men ten years younger; and women, that of women five years younger. This led to the conclusion that those who don’t exercise age faster than those who do get regular exercise.

Summing up his own experience and the benefits of exercise, one psychologist said “the physical changes are obvious but, . . . the change in attitude is the big change. Even at work. I’ve got a frustrating job, now I love it. I’ve learned to relax. I can accomplish so much more, get so much more done without worry or fatigue, I can recommend it for anyone who is depressed.” He not only slept better at night but worked better during the day.

Add to this the muscles that gain strength and firmness and the excess pounds that can be lost and you have an idea of some of the benefits of physical exercise.

What Some Are Doing About It

Attention to physical fitness is nothing new in Japan. When doctors in the West were recommending bed rest for ‘that tired feeling,’ the Japanese were out doing pushups to combat fatigue. In fact, the longest-running program on the national radio network NHK is the nationally known and appreciated Radio Taiso (Exercise). The program was instituted in 1928 and, with just a brief lull during the postwar years, has continued daily down to the present, now being supplemented with a daily TV program, also dedicated to physical fitness, called Today’s Health.

Recognizing the need for exercise, many individuals have embarked on some sort of fitness program. Even big business has taken the plunge. For years, many large companies have started each workday with group exercises in which the whole force of employees participate. As one walks down a street in the business district of any Japanese city it is not unusual to see groups of people in company uniform doing calisthenics.

However, in recent years, due to an increased interest in physical fitness and its relation to overall health, some large corporations have introduced additional physical-fitness programs to aid their employees. One such program, called TRIM, was instituted some three years ago by The Mitsui Bank Ltd. Let’s see how its works.

TRIM

The word “TRIM” is taken from Norwegian shipbuilding jargon and means to keep balance on the sea. But, in relation to this exercise program and in keeping with the overall meaning of physical fitness, it means to build a healthy body and maintain physical and mental balance.

With this purpose in mind, a point system was devised to aid all who participate to gain and maintain physical fitness. Along with the point system, there are specific hints to good health given for those of all ages and occupations. It proceeds on the assumption that everyone needs exercise.

For example, the elderly are encouraged to get out and walk. There is a saying in Japan that “aging starts from the feet up,” so to combat this process older persons are told to use their legs as much as possible. Taking up a new sport may be dangerous, but almost anyone can walk. “Above all, just don’t sit home holding the cat,” senior citizens are admonished, “that’s the sure way to old age.”

Those with desk jobs and drivers are encouraged to do at least five minutes of vigorous exercise, until they work up a sweat, both morning and evening, and to use their day off, not to sit in front of the TV, but to get out and walk. Engaging in a sport like golf or tennis as often as possible is suggested as ideal. Also, taking a few minutes daily to jog near home would fill the bill. Jehovah’s Witnesses who regularly make house-to-house calls in their work of Bible education get good exercise in that way.

Individuals with irregular work schedules, whether their jobs are sedentary or not, are told to take a set amount of time each day to devote to strenuous exercise, preferably the same time every day.

The point system devised by the TRIM program suggests that everyone strive for three points a day gained doing what suits him the best. Of course, those points can be increased as the individual sees fit. Some of the suggestions for points are shown on the chart above.

The Mitsui people report that the support given the TRIM program is very gratifying and has had fine results.

A Word of Caution

Along with the point system the TRIM program gives some helpful tips and warnings for the participants. They encourage having a health checkup before embarking on any exercise program and then following the doctor’s advice. If you are sick, in lack of sleep or hungry, they caution not forcing yourself to exercise. Exercise should be balanced with proper rest. Also, warm-up and cool-down exercises are recommended for those who do strenuous exercise. Wear loose clothing so circulation will not be hindered, and choose a program that suits you as to pace and quantity. Remember, exercise should be enjoyable, not an endurance test. Exercise energetically and, lastly, don’t give up!

Therapeutic Exercises

Not to be overlooked are those muscle-toning and repairing exercises. For those who want to strengthen a particular body part or just trim down their waistline, these have their place. Groups of exercises have been devised to help to strengthen nearly every muscle and body part. But persons with an injury or history of health problems should get advice from a doctor as to which exercises they should do.

Since lower-back pain seems to be one of the most common complaints today, we have included here some exercises suggested on the Today’s Health program mentioned earlier. But before attempting them it would be wise to ascertain the cause of your problem.

Whatever benefits you may receive from exercise, it must be recognized that exercise is not a cure-all for disease. Many other factors, such as diet and healthful, balanced living, are also important to maintain health. But it seems that those who do get some sort of exercise just feel better in general than people who don’t.

So, does exercise really help? Yes, answers the evidence. It helps to maintain physical fitness and all-around good health. To put it in the words of one Mainichi Daily News staff writer who rises daily at 6 a.m. and is off to the local park to work out to Radio Taiso, “Apart from a slight muscle twinge every now and then, I’ve never felt better!”

[Box on page 18]

THREE POINTS A DAY

EXERCISE ITEM UNIT POINTS

 1. Stationary running 100 times 1

 2. Brisk walking 2 kma 1

 3. Running 1 km 1

3 km 4

5 km 10

 4. Climbing stairs 100 stairs 1

(two at a time) (2)

 5. Jumping rope 100 times 1

 6. Sit-ups 20 1

 7. Pushups 10 1

 8. Volley ball;

basketball 30 mins. 1

 9. Baseball; softball 1 game 2

10. Table tennis;

tennis 30 mins. 1

11. Golf 1 round 3

12. Skiing 1 day 4

13. Swimming 100 mb 1

14. Cycling 30 mins. 1

15. Catchball;

badminton 30 mins. 1

[Footnotes]

[Box/​Picture on page 19]

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BACK EXERCISES

 1. Stand with feet about 30 cm (12 inches) apart. Keeping back straight and heels on the floor, bend knees to a squatting position.

 2. With left leg in back, bend right knee and stretch arms out to touch the wall. Push on the wall, keeping left leg straight and heels on floor. Alternate with other leg.

 3. Stand with legs crossed. Touch toes, keeping leg in back straight and slightly bending leg in front.

 4. Lie on back and draw knees up to an inverted-V position. Place hands on cheeks and breathe deeply, inhaling through the nose and exhaling slowly through the mouth. This will relax the body. From resting position sit up slowly until back is 25 cm (10 inches) off floor, hold for 5 seconds and then slowly return to resting position. Breathe deeply from diaphragm.

 5. Twisting body, sit up until you can touch right knee with your left hand. Alternate with right hand.

 6. Grab hold of knees and, parting legs, draw knees up under armpits.

 7. Place hands on hip bones. Press backbone to the floor and, pulling in stomach, lift head slightly. With eyes toward the stomach, lift buttocks off floor.

 8. Lie on back, hands on hips. While inhaling, cross leg, keeping shoulders on floor. Exhale as you twist body until knee touches floor. Alternate with other leg.

 9. Sit on edge of chair with hands pressed on hips. Slowly move shoulders back.

10. Sit on edge of chair. Grab hold of one knee with both hands and draw knee up under armpit. Alternate.

Do each exercise 3 to 5 times.

[Picture on page 17]

Persons who get needed exercise sleep better and work better

A ‘Fugitive Tot’ Escapes Unwanted Treatment

By “Awake!” correspondent in Canada

WHEN two-year-old Amy’s fever persisted, her concerned parents decided to have her checked by the family doctor. What thus began as a routine visit soon exploded into a bizarre episode that saw little Amy unbelievably branded a fugitive and the object of a frantic international search.

Her fever apparently was caused by spherocytosis, an abnormal blood condition that can impede growth or activities, depending on its severity.

Amy was already recovering from her fever when her parents, Robert and Sherry Bryant, kept the appointment on January 25, 1980. Their family physician in Owen Sound, Ontario, called in a local pediatrician for consultation.

However, this was not the first time she was before this pediatrician. When just three days old an exchange transfusion had been forced on Amy by the same pediatrician. He had used a court order obtained under Ontario’s Child Welfare Act to treat the newborn’s jaundice with blood transfusions, even though there are alternative treatments for the ailment that she had.

Her parents, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, had objected because blood therapy violates God’s command to ‘abstain from blood.’ (Acts 15:20) The pediatrician had ignored the parents’ protests.

Robert and Sherry Bryant were determined not to let blood be forced on their daughter again.

Yet, again, the same pediatrician immediately began to talk about a blood transfusion and said that if her condition did not improve soon he would get a court order to enforce it. Amy’s father got the doctor to hold off so the parents could seek alternate medical treatment at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The doctor replied that he would notify the Toronto hospital. At the same time he advised the parents that the hospital also might order a blood transfusion for the child.

Amy continued to improve. Her parents decided the trip to the Toronto hospital wasn’t necessary after all​—a decision that they, as responsible parents, had the right to make.

But when the pediatrician learned that Amy did not show up at the Toronto hospital, he moved to have the Ontario Children’s Aid Society seize the little girl and obtain a court order to force blood transfusions on her.

Avoiding Unwanted Treatment

Amy’s parents, exercising their parental rights, took her away so that unwanted treatment would not be forced. However, by the doctor’s high-handed action, they now were denied the right to seek another medical opinion openly. If they showed themselves in public, Amy would be wrenched from their custody and turned over for a forced transfusion.

Without so much as a hearing, a family court judge issued a warrant to police and the Children’s Aid Society for Amy’s capture. On January 30, newspaper headlines blazed: “Missing Girl, 2, Could Die Without Blood Transfusion.” Stories carried the pediatrician’s dire prediction that Amy might die in three to five days if she didn’t get a blood transfusion!

The warrant for Amy’s apprehension was communicated across Canada and to points along the United States border. Newspapers said police in New York State had joined in the “Desperate Search for Hidden Tot.”

While police, Children’s Aid officials and reporters scrambled around in their frantic search, Amy’s family life was turned upside down. Her father left his job to protect Amy, with no assurance his job would be waiting for him when the drama was over. Amy and her parents had to leave home and stay out of contact with their relatives and closest friends. Through it all, her parents obtained medical advice and kept Amy thriving on love, rest and a healthful diet.

At times Amy thought she was on vacation. But it was no vacation for her parents!

Dishonest Medical Practice?

After 10 days, police reported that searches of homes of the Bryants’ friends had “yielded no clues.” Reporters were following the story like bloodhounds on the trail of a criminal.

But then the story took an unexpected turn. A few days after issuing the warrant, doctors and officials pressing for Amy’s capture admitted “there is an alternative treatment”​—something they didn’t reveal until after the family fled the threat to their child.

The contradictions had started. Could Amy live without a blood transfusion after all?

On February 5, the Toronto Star quoted Dr. Peter McClure, chief hematologist at the Hospital for Sick Children, as saying he hoped Amy could make a “spontaneous recovery” without blood transfusions. On February 6, the same newspaper claimed that Dr. McClure had said that most patients with spherocytosis could recover on their own without the aid of transfusions.

Had certain doctors and public officials been less than honest about Amy’s case?

Doctors now were disagreeing over her case in the public press! Surely it was time to call off the hunt and let Amy’s parents seek alternate treatment, if, in fact, she needed medical treatment at all.

Besides, the family’s lawyer assured everyone that Amy was “very well” and “showing fine improvement.” But none of this satisfied the Children’s Aid officials, who refused to call off their ‘tot-hunt.’

By now Amy’s parents were tired of hiding and sick of the unnecessary harassment. So, on February 8, their lawyer released photographs of a radiantly healthy Amy, smiling and happily bundled in her winter play clothes.

This time the Toronto Star headlined: “Amy’s fine, lawyer says.”

Officials still would not call off their hunt. With the warrant out for Amy’s capture, her parents knew that if they came out of hiding even to have a doctor publicly verify her good health they would run the risk of losing her to the police and the Children’s Aid Society.

On February 12, Amy’s parents called reporters and photographers from two Toronto newspapers to a home where they “brought her out of hiding briefly today in an attempt to prove she’s all right.”

The news flashed across the country: “Amy out of hiding to prove she can live without transfusions.” Amy’s picture appeared in several newspapers​—a beautiful little girl with a mildly quizzical expression. She and her story often made the front page.

The Toronto Star said she toddled around the apartment while her parents invited a reporter and photographer to admire her vigor. Her temperature, appearance and energy were back to normal.

“The day she was supposed to have died (about two weeks ago) she was the healthiest she had been in weeks,” her father said.

Yet, as the Toronto Star reported the next day, “Little Amy Bryant is still a fugitive.” With Amy now in her third week of protective hiding, the Children’s Aid Society was in the embarrassing position of stubbornly holding on to a warrant issued on the false claim that Amy might die without a blood transfusion.

The “hunt for the hidden tot” had become a witch-hunt. As Amy’s lawyer said in the press: “This is religious persecution under the pretence of child care. [The officials] only did it [issued the warrant] because they [the parents] are Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Finally, the police and the Children’s Aid officials were ready to call a truce. Continuing a major search for a child publicly known to be in good health was making the searchers look a bit ridiculous.

A Toronto pediatrician examined Amy and reported “no abnormal findings.” “She’s in no danger, and no crisis.” The doctor’s report was made public, and the warrant for Amy’s detainment was dropped.

Once again, the news was flashed across Canada: “Little Amy comes out of the cold.” “Amy ‘in no danger,’ search is off.”

The date was February 14. After three weeks less one day, Amy was going home. As the Bryants put their lives back in order, the news media and others pondered the terrible injustice that had been suffered by a responsible, loving family and their innocent little girl.

Why Did It Happen?

On February 25, a Canadian Press story and picture of bright-eyed Amy warmly hugging her happy parents were sent to news media in Canada. The Kitchener-Waterloo Record gave the story this headline: “MDs Question Transfusions After Tot in Hiding Survives.”

The story was based on an article that appeared a day earlier in the Toronto Star. It had carried the headline: “Bloodless surgery: A trend against transfusions.” The Star article asked: “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses really risk their own lives, and their children’s, by refusing blood transfusions? There is growing evidence that they aren’t taking as big a risk as society and doctors have assumed.” It then cited medical doctors from Toronto, New York, Chicago, Michigan and California to prove its point.

The story confirmed what Amy’s father had said all along: “As far as we’re concerned, blood is bad medicine. . . . It’s not what the Creator advises and many medical men question its use as well.”

If the doctors, Children’s Aid Society and the Ontario Child Welfare Act, however well intentioned, had only respected the Bryants’ informed position in the first place, the regrettable three-week chase never would have happened. Instead, doctors and officials ran roughshod over parental authority and resorted to a provincial law that prejudices the rights of parents who disagree with a popular medical opinion. Because the parents disagreed with one doctor​—a hired medical consultant—​their daughter was declared by a judge, who issued a warrant without a hearing, to be in need of “protection.”

Happily, little Amy emerged unharmed, illustrating that medical opinions, however sincerely held, should not be used as a basis for scare tactics in an attempt to usurp parental authority over a two-year-old toddler!

Amy’s lawyer had charged: “When you get doctors practicing law and judges practicing medicine, the result can be nothing but trouble.” This entire unfortunate episode could have been avoided if those involved had heeded the balanced counsel of the late Dr. A. D. Kelly, former secretary of the Canadian Medical Association:

“Patients and parents have a perfect right to accept or reject treatment offered. No doctor can be positive that a person will die if he doesn’t get a transfusion or live if he does. . . . The principle is an important one relating to the liberty of citizens. The same thing applies to any other medical treatment, and right or wrong, people have a right to decide.”

“People have a right to decide”! How true, especially when parental exercise of that right is founded on God’s perfect law!​—Acts 15:28, 29; Ps. 19:7, 9.

Benefiting from the Energy Crisis

• According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Neil Goldschmidt, as many as 37,500 people in America alone are still alive today because of the energy crisis. He contends that they would have died in auto accidents if the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit had not been introduced in 1974 to conserve energy.

• More and more cities world wide are installing garbage-burning facilities that generate power from the refuse. Not only does this help with electrical needs, but it often solves city garbage-disposal problems, including unsightly dumps and pollution.

• Many people have taken up walking to work. Benefits from this type of exercise are manifold. Says the periodical “Executive Health”: “Walking is the most efficient form of exercise . . . and the only one you can safely follow all the years of your life.”

• Bicycling has similar benefits for the body, and can be used for longer trips. In California a young mother testified to another benefit as she strapped her little one on before heading out on a shopping trip: “The bicycle has a real tranquilizing effect on my daughter.”

Determined to Be Missionaries

DETERMINATION brought 50 young men and women to the 69th class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. They were determined to be missionaries, and the training given at this school is designed to help them toward that end. Like other classes of Gilead, the 69th was an international one. The students came from 10 different lands. Their average age was about 30 years, and they had been serving as witnesses of Jehovah for an average of almost 12 years. For these students, September 14, 1980, was graduation day.

Illustrating the determination of these students is a young man who, along with his wife, had been serving for years in Ireland. “From the time I became a Witness in 1969,” he said, “I had the desire to be a missionary. Even before I was baptized, Gilead was my goal.” Their determination was such that “there was no way we could put it out of our minds.” They kept their goal in their prayers, applied each year to attend Gilead School and worked hard as full-time Bible teachers. Finally, their persistence paid off, and they were called to the 69th class of Gilead.

Determination was shown too by the willingness of students to give up secular careers in order to preach the good news of God’s kingdom full time. One student from Mexico had given up the career of engineering in electronics, even though he had only one year more of training left. A young woman student who had won a nursing scholarship gave up a career in that field because, as she said, “as a teacher of the Bible I could help people permanently.”

Some of the students had made remarkable changes in their lives. One from the United States had been a hippie. He said: “I was on drugs by the time I was about 15 years of age. I could see the futility of this system of things. Like my wife, I got involved in radical movements, also in running weapons to universities during the 1960’s.” However, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses talked to him about the coming destruction of worldly nations by God’s kingdom, explaining the thought in Daniel 2:44. “That was really ‘up my alley,’” he said, “and provided the spark for me to agree to have a Bible study.” As he progressed in Bible knowledge he gave up drugs. Little by little he cut his long hair. “I went to the barbershop seven different times, at $7 a haircut, but it was well worth it.” This couple made an interesting observation: “Most of our friends that we formerly associated with are either dead, in jail or have lost their mind from use of drugs.” How grateful they are that they made the necessary changes to please Jehovah!

Where have they been sent as missionaries? To 19 different lands, including Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Burma, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zaïre, Liberia, Upper Volta, Japan and Hong Kong.

The desire of all the graduates of Gilead’s 69th class is to help others to know Jehovah, to appreciate the benefit of listening to his Word and to serve him with everlasting life in view.

[Picture on page 24]

Watchtower Bible School of Gilead

In the list below, rows are numbered from front to back and names are listed from left to right in each row.

(1) Lightfoot, P.; Toney, M.; Burr, C.; Cropper, C.; Rajan, E.; Dique, C.; Reyna, I.; Lipham, C.; Harriman, L.; Tarver, M.; (2) Toney, L.; Miller, C.; Rajan, N.; Aleman, I.; Cropper, W.; Nilsson, C.; Jones, S.; Vidal, A.; Rainone, G.; Howard, B.; (3) Finch, L.; Aleman, F.; Miller, E.; Trcka, C.; Harriman, R.; Reyna, A.; Rodrigues, K.; Endepohls, B.; Rainone, A.; Miller, C.; (4) Kendall, P.; Somerville, R.; Jones, R.; Van Winkle, J.; Xavier, J.; Maurel, M.; Walmsley, R.; Lightfoot, M.; Dique, L.; Maurel, A.; (5) Finch, E.; Riley, O.; Frohmiller, P.; Nilsson, U.; Thant, C.; Lipham, P.; Trcka, P.; Van Winkle, N.; Gibson, B.; Miller, G.

Crossword Puzzle

Clues Across

1. Faith the size of a ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐ can move mountains (Matthew 17:14-20) (2 words)

7. Esau’s father-in-law (Genesis 26:34, 35)

8. Nehemiah completed Jerusalem’s walls in the month of ‐‐‐‐ (Nehemiah 6:15)

9. “A zebra of a man” (Genesis 16:7-12)

12. A Levite musician (1 Chronicles 15:2, 3, 15-18)

13. Elijah humiliated 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. ‐‐‐‐‐‐ (1 Kings 18:18-40)

14. “Jehovah himself will sustain him upon a divan of ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐” (Psalm 41:3)

18. Of ‐‐‐ virgins, half were discreet (Matthew 25:1-13)

20. Some Israelite women wore such ornaments (Isaiah 3:16-23, RS)

22. Land “east of Eden” (Genesis 4:8-16, AV; RS)

24. Jehovah made them “according to their kinds” (Genesis 1:2-25)

28. Tamar should have married Judah’s son ‐‐‐‐‐‐ (Genesis 38:11-26)

30. Jehu fought the worship of ‐‐‐‐ (2 Kings 10:18-28)

31. Wanted to kill Saul (1 Samuel 26:5-12)

33. Ancestor of Jesus (Luke 3:25)

34. “If we ‐‐‐‐, he also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12)

35. Assyrian king who taunted Jehovah (Isaiah 37:14-20, 36-38)

Clues Down

1. Where Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 28:1-10)

2. Otherwise known as Jedidiah (2 Samuel 12:24, 25)

3. One of King David’s 30 mighty men (2 Samuel 23:31)

4. “How precious your thoughts are! O God, how much does the grand ‐‐‐ of them amount to!” (Psalm 139:17)

5. Greatest cataclysm in history (Genesis 7:11-24)

6. The good Samaritan bound up the ‐‐‐‐‐‐ of a stranger (Luke 10:29-37)

10. Maternal grandfather of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:23)

11. First faithful witness of Jehovah (Genesis 4:1-10)

13. Paul left Titus in ‐‐‐‐‐ ‘to appoint older men’ (Titus 1:5-9)

15. 35-across was slain worshiping his god ‐‐‐roch (Isaiah 37:38)

16. Adam, like Jesus, was a ‐‐‐ of God (Luke 3:22, 38)

17. City destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 10:19; 19:23-25)

19. Father of Joshua (a palindrome) (Joshua 1:1-3)

20. God delivers by his mighty ‐‐‐ (Exodus 6:6-8)

21. Jonah fled toward ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ (Jonah 1:1-3)

23. A Reubenite whose son was appointed chief of that tribe (Numbers 1:4, 5; 2:10)

24. His descendants were haters of God’s people (Exodus 17:8-16)

25. Some Israelites of Amos’ day owned couches with ‐‐‐‐‐‐ of ivory (Amos 6:4)

26. One who put away foreign wives (Ezra 10:26)

27. Son born when Adam was 130 (Genesis 5:1-3)

29. The tribe of Asher failed to drive out the Canaanites dwelling in ‐‐‐‐‐ (Judges 1:31, 32)

32. “The wages ‐‐‐ pays is death” (Romans 6:23)

CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS PAGE 28

Answers Across

1. MUSTARDSEED

7. ELON

8. ELUL

9. ISHMAEL

12. UNNI

13. CARMEL

14. ILLNESS

18. TEN

20. ANKLETS

22. NOD

24. ANIMALS

28. SHELAH

30. BAAL

31. ABISHAI

33. ESLI

34. DENY

35. SENNACHERIB

Answers Down

1. MALTA

2. SOLOMON

3. ABIALBON

4. SUM

5. DELUGE

6. WOUNDS

10. HELI

11. ABEL

13. CRETE

15. NIS

16. SON

17. ADMAH

19. NUN

20. ARM

21. TARSHISH

23. SHEDEUR

24. AMALEK

25. INLAYS

26. ABDI

27. SETH

29. AHLAB

32. SIN

Lesson of Infamous Cities

THEY were thriving cities, each with its own king. Suddenly, in one day, they were destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. This happened about 3,900 years ago.

Nevertheless, one of these infamous twin cities had a name that to this day is preserved in a number of languages by a word that bespeaks depravity​—Sodom. The other city was Gomorrah.

So complete was the destruction of these cities that not even a pile of ruins can be pointed to as marking their respective sites. The New Encyclopædia Britannica says about the two cities: “Probably now covered in the shallow waters south of al-Lisān, a peninsula near the southern end of the Dead Sea in Israel.” It may be noteworthy, therefore, that divers exploring this part of the sea reportedly found what appeared to be a wall. To understand more fully what happened to these cities of ill repute, we must go back to the time that they were flourishing.

Conditions in Sodom

One evening, two strangers entered Sodom. The prosperous men of the city saw them, but no native extended a welcome. Finally, Lot, a God-fearing man who had settled in the area, arrived. Catching sight of them, he insisted on their staying in his home for the night. Before Lot and his visitors were ready to retire, the house was surrounded by a mob. The depraved people of Sodom, from boy to old man, demanded that the visitors be turned over to them. Why? They wanted to rape them.

Yes, Sodom was a place where any visitor might be sexually assaulted. The inhabitants had no regard for the rights of others and were bent on satisfying their selfish desires and passions. Surrounding peoples were greatly distressed about the serious violations of human decency. This resulted in a general outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible states that the complaint was not overlooked by “the Judge of all the earth,” Jehovah God.​—Gen. 18:20, 21, 25.

The presence of the two strangers in Sodom was not a mere coincidence. According to the Bible record, they were angels who had been sent there to warn Lot and his family to get out of the city before its destruction. Lot and his two daughters did escape, but his wife perished because of failing to heed angelic direction for a successful flight.​—Gen. 19:1-26.

The Biblical account fits the available archaeological testimony. During the period in which the Scriptures place the residence of Lot in Sodom, the area was fertile, with “freshwater flowing into the Dead Sea in sufficient amounts to sustain agriculture.” (Encyclopædia Britannica) The Bible says: “All of it was a well-watered region before Jehovah brought Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin.”​—Gen. 13:10.

Moreover, the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot’s daughters, settled territory near the Dead Sea, and this, too, is confirmed by archaeological evidence. Hence, we are not dealing with a myth but with an event of history.

Lessons for Us

This history contains important lessons for us. About 2,000 years after the infamous cities ceased to exist, the Christian disciple Jude wrote: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.”​—Jude 7.

News reports leave no question about the fact that ours is a time when the deeds of Sodom not only are increasing in alarming proportions but are gaining ever greater acceptance. This, too, can be a warning lesson for us. The people of Sodom were proud, well-off materially and felt that they were in no danger of a day of reckoning. They were callous, having no regard for the poor and afflicted. (Ezek. 16:49, 50) Does not this describe many today who lead a life of sexual debauchery?

Lot’s prospective sons-in-law treated the announcement regarding the imminent destruction of Sodom as a joke. (Gen. 19:14) But it was no joke when they themselves perished in the destructive fire.

The Most High simply will not tolerate wickedness to time indefinite. He has set a day of reckoning for all the nations. (Acts 17:31) This day of reckoning is drawing perilously close. As Lot and his daughters had to flee from Sodom, all who desire to escape the destruction coming upon this entire godless system must avail themselves of God’s arrangement for salvation or deliverance.​—Luke 17:28-32.

This arrangement is outlined in the Scriptures and is open to all persons, regardless of their present moral standing, if they desire to bring their lives into harmony with Jehovah’s ways. Jehovah’s Witnesses in your area will be pleased to share this important information with you by means of free home Bible discussions.

Watching the World

Strange Cell Mates

◆ An Italian military court recently declared that Italy’s last World War II prisoner, former Nazi officer Walter Rader, is no longer classified as a prisoner of war. In 1951 he was sentenced to life in prison for ordering the September, 1944, slaughter of 1,830 persons in Marzabotto as a reprisal for killing some German soldiers. The people of Marzabotto were shocked by the court decision, though Rader will still remain “interned” for another five years. “His fellow prisoners in the former Norman fortress,” reports The Guardian of London, are “Jehovah’s Witnesses incarcerated for refusing conscription.” Hence, ironically, those who refuse to engage in war’s slaughter share the same fate as one who zealously engaged in that slaughter.

Canadian Rock Riot

◆ When a crowd of about 14,000 rock fans in Toronto were advised that their idol, Alice Cooper, would not play at a scheduled “concert,” they rioted. The angered crowd tore up bolted-down metal chairs and turnstiles, throwing them about, along with bottles and garbage cans. They set fires and battled hundreds of police. Said a press photographer on the scene: “There are windows broken everywhere [at the Canadian National Exhibition Coliseum and its grounds]. They destroyed several trucks, including a Pepsi-Cola truck that was turned over on its side, and every window was smashed in.” Are these the kind of persons Christian youths should allow themselves to rub shoulders with in the name of “music”?​—1 Cor. 15:33.

Built-in Twin

◆ When Soviet surgeons operated on what they thought to be a benign tumor inside a 40-year-old man’s chest, they found instead the unborn embryo of his twin. Dr. Panakh Alievich Aliev of the Azerbaijan state institute for medical training said the surgeons found “a thick-walled, many-chambered cyst of a very large size,” which proved to be an undeveloped embryo. According to an Associated Press dispatch from Moscow, one of the patient’s lungs was only a third of normal size and he had complained of “a cough, high temperature, breathing trouble, and chest pains.”

False Teeth for Sheep

◆ An Edinburgh, Scotland, dentist reasoned that since sheep’s teeth in his area wear down in about six years, new teeth would assure their getting enough nourishment for an extended breeding life. “Last year, farmer friends allowed 30-year-old Mr. Thomson to fit two pedigree sheep with razor-sharp teeth made of chrome cobalt,” reports London’s Daily Mail. “Now, at the age of six, both ewes have raised twin lambs and, still munching contentedly, look set to breed happily for years to come.” After fitting another 10 sheep recently, Thomson said: “Their teeth cost around £20 ($47, U.S.). I did the job properly, taking an impression in the same way as with human teeth, making a set to fit, then glueing them in.”

Back to “Balloons”?

◆ Britain’s Redcoat Cargo Airlines has decided to eliminate airplane freighters in favor of airships (lighter-than-air craft). According to The Guardian, the company has contracted to buy four 600-foot-long rigid helium-filled craft, each powered by four 1,150-horsepower engines. The “Skyships R40” are said to use 75 percent less fuel per ton of cargo than jumbo jet freighters. Fuel savings are a major reason that Redcoat is basing its future on such airships. The company claims that a transatlantic crossing would take about two and a half days and freight rates could be more than one fourth lower than standard air charges. Expensive landing sites would be unnecessary since the craft require no runways, and some cargoes could be delivered directly to the customer.

A Priest and Voodoo

◆ “Six years ago, the Rev. Francois de l’Espinay, a 61-year-old priest and former French Army chaplain, moved to Bahia, Brazil, to study the multitude of Afro-Brazilian religions that abound there,” reports the International Herald Tribune. “He wound up joining one.” As a voodoo church leader for four years, “he regularly calls up spirits to intercede on behalf of parishioners,” says the Tribune. “But that doesn’t mean he’s abandoned his Roman Catholicism.” Instead, explains the priest, “I always talk with God through Jesus and never through the spirits.” Well, whom does he talk to through the spirits?

Ancient Power Comeback

◆ The first sail-powered ship in many years was launched from Japan’s Imamura shipyard in early August. Besides its two sails, the 699-ton ship Aitoku Maru has the option of using its 1,600-horsepower diesel, of a design said to consume only half as much fuel as ordinary ship diesels. A microcomputer adjusts the ship’s 13-yard (11.9-m)-high, 8-yard (7.3-m)-wide plastic-coated sails for wind direction. At full sail, engineers believe the fully laden ship should reach a speed of 12 knots. It is claimed that fuel savings will cover the vessel’s extra construction costs in two to three years.

“Featherbedded” Clergy

◆ Clergy of the Church of England recently received a 21-percent pay increase to keep pace with inflation. Though the local clergy’s pay remains relatively low, their leaders fare rather well. According to London’s Observer, Robert Runcie, archbishop of Canterbury, received £15,190 ($35,700, U.S.). The archbishop of York is paid £13,260 ($31,200, U.S.) and the bishop of London gets £12,330 ($29,000, U.S.). Ordinary bishops receive £8,060 ($19,000, U.S.). “On top of their stipend,” reports the Observer, “bishops get a free house, a car and a chauffeur, a gardener and generous expenses.” During a General Synod last summer, a church commissioner reportedly admitted that he felt the church leaders were “featherbedded.”

Best Mileage

◆ A three-wheeled Australian vehicle recently set the world fuel-mileage record of 2,236 miles per gallon (0.105 L/​100 km). The new record exceeded the previous one set in Britain by over 800 miles per gallon (0.055 L less per 100 km). Powered by a 10 cc (0.61 cubic inch) model airplane engine, the cigar-shaped vehicle traveled around Sydney’s Warwick Farm motor racing track at a minimum average speed of 25 km/​h (16 miles per hour). The little engine was run steadily in the winning car, while the second-place vehicle used a larger engine that coasted between short power bursts.

Sexual “Leprosy”

◆ It is estimated that as many as 14 million Americans may have genital herpes, and about half a million more get it every year. It is one of the most common venereal diseases. At present there is no cure. It is usually transmitted by sexual intercourse, including oral sex. From 2 to 8 days after sexual contact, small red bumps appear on the victim’s genitals. These bumps rapidly become painful blisters that can burst and pour out millions of virus particles. The sores heal, but the viruses lodge in nerves near the lower spinal cord and remain there for life. They can return without warning at any time. Each year many babies are born with the disease. More than half of them die, and the survivors often suffer permanent damage. Commenting on the problem, Time magazine stated: “One obvious way to control the disease is abstinence from sex.”

Tooth-Decay Vaccine?

◆ Certain sugar-eating rhesus monkeys are reported to have enjoyed 70-percent fewer dental cavities than others fed the same diet, even without brushing with a modern dentifrice. According to New Scientist magazine, they were vaccinated with a protein fragment from the bacteria that causes tooth decay, Streptococcus mutans. Professor Thomas Lehner, who developed the vaccine, says that so far the monkeys have experienced no side effects. What effect will this have on care of human teeth? Only time will tell.

Bird Housing Crisis

◆ So many of Britain’s birds are being made homeless by the ravages of Dutch elm disease that scientists are warning of the depletion of several species, especially owls. The once-prevalent elm trees held the nests of many birds and made particularly good homes for those that nest in holes. “When the trunk or a main bough of an elm breaks off,” explains London’s Observer, “the stub end often rots out inside the tree forming a deep hollow, . . . open at the top but with strong living walls. No other tree produces such suitable hollows.” Barn owls are especially in danger because old farm buildings that could provide alternative dwelling are being modernized or converted to country homes. To help alleviate the crisis, scientists suggest that people refrain from chopping down dead elms.

“Beautiful Rat Race”

◆ A unique beauty contest was announced for the Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur by Governor Vicente Madrang Cerilles. He declared that “the aspirant who submits the biggest number of rodent tails will be automatically pronounced the winner.” According to the newspaper Bulletin Today, Cerilles “explained the ‘beautiful rat race’ was designed to reduce the number of rodents, to help local farmers increase their food production.” All 37 towns in the province were required to enter and support a candidate for “Miss Zamboanga del Sur 1980.” All rat tails submitted would count for one vote each and were to be burned publicly to ensure no duplication of votes. The governor estimated that several million rats would be killed as a result of the contest.

France’s Dog Problem

◆ About 10 years ago, dogs became more fashionable in France, according to Daniel Noury, spokesman for the Société Protectrice des Animaux. He says: “The phenomenon has accelerated rapidly,” and estimates that there are now well over 8 million dogs in France, two thirds of them in cities. This has caused a huge problem in Paris due to the littering by more than 800,000 dogs. Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac appealed to dog owners to clean up after their animals. Officials are hoping that the campaign of persuasion works, but if not are considering taking action similar to that taken by New York city in 1978, where a new law imposed fines of up to $100 (U.S.) for owners who failed to clean up after their pets. In France, about 100,000 dogs are now abandoned each year. And on a recent weekend (2 days) 150 dogs were found dead on Paris roads.

Longest Vehicular Tunnel

◆ The world’s longest, most modern and expensive vehicular tunnel was opened to the public as scheduled on September 5. After 10 years of construction, the 16.3-km (10.1-mile)-long Gotthard Tunnel connects the Italian- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. At the 80 km/​h (50 miles per hour) speed limit, the trip through the tunnel takes 12 minutes.

Sex in College

◆ “Parents of college-bound youngsters should expect that by sophomore year their offspring will probably have engaged in intimate relations with the opposite sex,” declares Parade magazine. Surveys in colleges have shown that the number having sex relations has increased 50 percent in seven years. And more than half of the women reported having intercourse five times a month or more.

Aid to Bible Understanding

Q. Was there more than one Jesus?

A. Page 917, “Aid to Bible Understanding”

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