March 22

Page Two

Prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible foretold the coming of a Messiah that would bring in peace and righteousness. Did Jesus fulfill those prophecies? Why did the Jews of Jesus’ time find him objectionable? What Messianic expectations do Jews entertain today, if any? This series explores all these questions and points to a time of blessing for all nations

The Messiah​—A Blessing for All Nations 3

What Was Objectionable About Jesus? 4

Would the Messiah Suffer and Die? 5

What Happened to Jewish Expectations? 8

The Messiah’s Appearance​—When? 10

The Messiah​—A Blessing for All Nations

THE Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of a future time when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox,” a time when persons “shall not hurt nor destroy.”​—Isaiah 11:6-9.a

But how would such peaceful conditions be attained? Interestingly, Isaiah associated such conditions with a future ruler whom he called “a shoot out of the stock of Jesse [the father of ancient King David of Israel].” This descendant of King David would be an ideal ruler, a man who would not judge matters by any mere external appearance or by hearsay, but who would judge with righteousness, establishing justice and peace. What is more, this future ruler would not be just a ruler for the Jews but, rather, someone to whom all nations could look for guidance. Indeed, as Isaiah foretold, “Unto him shall the nations seek.”​—Isaiah 11:1-10; compare Isaiah 9:5, 6.

While in the years that followed Isaiah’s prophecy the Jewish nation came to refer to this awaited ruler as the Messiah, or anointed one, the identity of the Messiah has long been an issue. History tells of numerous people over the centuries who have claimed to be the Messiah, each one rising and falling in popularity. Jewish anthropologist Raphael Patai noted “the readiness of the masses to give credence to any imposter or self-deluded dreamer who claimed to be the Messiah.” And, as could be expected, those who put their hope in a false Messianic claimant ended up in bitter disappointment. This surely shows how cautious we need to be in identifying the Messiah.

Still, Isaiah indicated that we would need to “seek” the Messiah if we would share in the blessings he would bring. Thankfully there is much we can learn from the history of past Messianic claimants, as well as from the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. Hence, we invite you to consider the following articles.

[Footnotes]

What Was Objectionable About Jesus?

BY THE first century of the Common Era the Jewish people found themselves under the tyranny of the pagan Roman Empire. For the first time, feelings ran high that God would now raise up a deliverer for his people, the promised Messiah. As the modern Jewish historian Abba Hillel Silver pointed out: “The first century . . . especially the generation before the destruction [of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.], witnessed a remarkable outburst of Messianic emotionalism.”

The first-century historian Flavius Josephus also reported this phenomenon, saying the following about a group of men who arose at this time: “Deceivers and impostors, under the pretence of divine inspiration fostering revolutionary changes, they . . . led [the multitude] out into the desert under the belief that God would there give them tokens of deliverance.”

While many of those in the first century who claimed to be the Messiah succeeded in attracting a large following, only Jesus of Nazareth has any popularity today. And yet back in the first century the Jewish nation could not accept him as the promised Messiah. Hence, important questions are: Why did relatively few Jews believe that Jesus was the Messiah? What did the majority find objectionable?

According to Rabbi Hyman G. Enelow, “The ideas associated in the Jewish mind with the Messiah . . . were left unrealized by Jesus.” So, simply stated, Jesus was not largely accepted because he did not fulfill the popular expectations. As we have already seen, the prophet Isaiah described the Messiah as a future king who would establish everlasting peace, justice and righteousness. Scriptural prophecies such as this helped to shape the expectations of the Jews. Since the Messiah was to be king over Israel, whatever Gentile government held dominion over Israel at the time of his appearance could be expected to relinquish its sovereignty.

Eventually, however, it came to be commonly believed that the Messiah would actually lead the Jews in the overthrow of that Gentile government. In the words of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, “The Jews of the Roman period believed [the Messiah] would be raised up by God to break the yoke of the heathen and to reign over a restored kingdom of Israel.”

Traces of this commonly held view are found in writings of the period. For example, speaking of the Jews who revolted against Rome in 66 C.E., Josephus wrote: “What more than all else incited them to the war was an ambiguous oracle, likewise found in their sacred scriptures, to the effect that at that time one from their country would become ruler of the world.”

This is also confirmed by the type of individuals who enjoyed popular support in their Messianic claims. Historically, those who claimed to be the Messiah in that era were, with the exception of Jesus of Nazareth, political revolutionaries. The Book of Jewish Knowledge states: “The extraordinary thing about these first-century claimants for Messianic distinction was that each served as a rallying point for Jewish revolt against Roman rule. Unlike Jesus, . . . the other ‘messiahs’ of that period were, without exception, militant firebrands and patriots.” This pattern was simply a reflection of the prevailing popular expectation.

It is apparent, therefore, that the Jews of the first century did not have the later concept of a suffering or dying Messiah. In fact, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner concluded: “The whole idea of a Messiah who should be put to death was one which, in Jesus’ time, was impossible of comprehension . . . to the Jews.” Even those few Jews who believed Jesus to be the Messiah did not expect that he would suffer or be put to death.​—Matthew 16:21, 22.

Hence, whoever might have been attracted by Jesus’ teachings would certainly have been disturbed by the fact that Jesus did not overthrow the Roman government and rule as king over Israel but was, instead, executed by that Roman government. As Klausner explained, “The crucified Jesus was a disappointment to most of those who followed him in life.” No wonder the early Christian missionary Paul of Tarsus spoke of “Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling”!​—1 Corinthians 1:23.

Yet, in spite of the sharp contrast between Jesus’ life and Jewish expectations, thousands of Jews who lived at the time came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. What accounted for this?

[Pictures on page 5]

Jewish Expectations: THIS? or THIS?

Would the Messiah Suffer and Die?

AS WE have already seen, the Jews of the first century were expecting a leader who would overthrow the Roman government, establish a Jewish kingdom over Israel and bring in an era of peace and blessings from God. Since Jesus of Nazareth never accomplished this, the Jewish nation would not accept him as the Messiah.

Yet many Jews who had been attracted to Jesus’ teachings continued to believe that he was the Messiah, even after his death. Why were they able to do this? If the Hebrew Scriptures indicated that the Messiah would bring in an era of great blessings through a kingdom over Israel, how could these Jews continue to believe in someone who failed to accomplish this, but who, instead, suffered and was put to death?

As their writings indicate, soon after Jesus’ death his Jewish disciples reached the conclusion that some important Hebrew Scripture prophecies had been overlooked, passages that indicated that the Messiah would do a preliminary work before he ruled as king over Israel. What work is that? And where do the Hebrew Scriptures speak of the Messiah’s doing this preliminary work?

Daniel’s Messianic Prophecy

While the Hebrew Scriptures often use the Hebrew word for Messiah, or anointed one, to refer to kings and priests of ancient Israel, qualifying adjectives are always found in the Hebrew text where these lesser anointed ones are referred to. However, there is one scripture where the Hebrew word for Messiah appears without a qualifying adjective, indicating that it here refers to the Messiah. Note what this scriptures says:

“Seventy (year-) weeks have been appointed over you people and over your holy city, to restrain the apostasy and to make an end of sin, and to atone for the error, and to bring everlasting salvation [“everlasting righteousness,”] . . . And you may know and understand: From the going forth of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One [“the Messiah,” Patai], the Prince, there are seven (year-) weeks; also sixty-two (year-) weeks, so market place and moat will be rebuilt and that in the pressure of the times. And after the sixty-two (year-) weeks an Anointed One [“the Messiah,” Patai] will be destroyed [“cut off,” JP].”​—Daniel 9:24-26, Zunz’ translation.

Interestingly, while the Scriptures here speak of the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, this is not attributed to the Messiah’s rule. To the contrary, it is associated with the Messiah’s being cut off in death!

Additionally, we are told that these events are connected with “an end of sin.” This is indeed remarkable, for the Hebrew Scriptures tell us that we all have an inborn tendency to do wrong, or sin. For example, at Genesis 8:21 God is quoted as saying: “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We are also told: “No man is so righteous upon earth, that he should do always good, and never sin.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Leeser) Yet, in spite of this inclination we all have that we cannot completely overcome, the Messiah’s appearance and death actually brings “an end of sin”! No wonder this is spoken of in connection with ‘the bringing in of everlasting righteousness’!

Furthermore, Daniel 9 says that the Messiah’s appearance and death would “atone for the error.” In the Hebrew Scriptures “atonement” refers to the covering over of sins through the offering of animal sacrifices. (Exodus 29:36) But, curiously, Daniel 9 speaks of atonement, not in connection with the death of any animal, but, rather, in connection with the death of the Messiah!

A “Trespass-Offering” for Others

It is noteworthy that while Daniel 9:24-26 alludes to substitutionary atonement, there is another passage in the Hebrew Scriptures that explicitly describes atonement by substitutionary suffering and death. This prophecy specifically speaks of someone’s suffering and dying, and thereby providing atonement for the sins of others. In fact, the scripture actually speaks of his soul as becoming a guilt offering for the sins of others! Notice what Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (Le) tells us about this servant of God:

“He was despised and shunned by men; a man of pains, and acquainted with disease; and as one who hid his face from us he was despised, and we esteemed him not. But only our diseases did he bear himself, and our pains he carried . . . Yet he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement for our peace was upon him; and through his bruises was healing granted to us. . . . The Lord let befall him the guilt of us all. . . . Who could tell, that he was cut away out of the land of life, that for the transgressions of my people the plague was laid on him? . . . When now his soul hath brought the trespass-offering [“offer itself in restitution,” JP] then shall he see his seed, live many days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Freed from the trouble of his soul he shall see the good and be satisfied: through his knowledge shall my righteous servant bring the many to righteousness, while he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the many, and with the strong shall he divide the spoil; because he poured out his soul unto death . . . while he bore the sin of many, and for the transgressors he let evil befall him.”

Note that Isaiah spoke of the bringing in of righteousness by means of a person who is “bruised for our iniquities” as a “trespass-offering,” and who thereby bears “the guilt of us all.” Since Daniel 9:24-26 indicated that the Messiah would provide such atonement, Isaiah 52:13–53:12 must refer to the work of the Messiah also.

A Paradox Explained

But if the Messiah is to suffer and die to atone for the sins of others, how can he rule as king, as Isaiah had also prophesied? Isaiah himself alluded to this apparent paradox when he said of the Messiah: “When now his soul hath brought the trespass-offering, then shall he . . . live many days,” and “with the strong shall he divide the spoil; because he poured out his soul unto death.” How could such an apparent paradox actually occur? How is it possible for a person to “live many days” after having “poured out his soul unto death”?

As another servant of God once asked, “If a man die, may he live again?” (Job 14:14) The Hebrew Scriptures answer with a resounding Yes! Not only are there recorded instances when God’s prophets brought dead persons back to life, but we are also told of the time when “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”​—Daniel 12:2; compare 1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:32-37; 13:20, 21.

So for God’s Word to be fulfilled, the Messiah must also be brought back to life or be resurrected. Only then would he be able to rule as king and bring further blessings to mankind. The words of David could thus fittingly be applied to him: “Thou wilt not abandon my soul to the grave.”​—Psalm 16:10, Le.

Such Scriptural prophecies were eventually so understood by the first-century Jewish disciples of Jesus. Hence, Jesus’ suffering and death were no longer viewed as precluding his being the Messiah. In fact, such events came to be viewed as corroborative evidence that Jesus was the Messiah!

Why So Difficult to Accept?

However, the majority of the Jewish nation back then found it difficult to accept this concept of a suffering and dying Messiah. No doubt this was due to other popular beliefs of the time. For example, many Jews believed it was possible for them completely to overcome their inborn inclination to evil through their efforts to keep the Mosaic Law, the Torah. Such persons hoped to “make an end of sins” on their own, and consequently saw no need for a Messiah to die and thereby atone for their sins.

Another popular teaching was that the Jews would be declared righteous by God simply because of being descendants of Abraham. Here again, if righteousness is automatically ascribed to the Jews, there is no need for a Messiah to “bring the many to righteousness.” Yes, as Klausner said, “The whole idea of a Messiah who should be put to death was one which, in Jesus’ time, was impossible of comprehension . . . to the Jews.”

For perhaps 100 years after Jesus’ death the Jewish people refused to believe in a Messiah who would be put to death. And then something happened to change that. What was this?

What Happened to Jewish Expectations?

THE collection of ancient Jewish writings known as the Babylonian Talmud contains the following comment regarding the Messiah, dating from the early second century:

“‘And the land shall mourn’ (Zech. 12:12). What is the reason of this mourning? . . . R[abbi] Dosa says: ‘[They will mourn] over the Messiah who will be slain.’”

Curiously, this passage speaks of the Messiah as being slain; yet we have seen that such a concept was incomprehensible to the Jews of the first century. What accounted for the change in viewpoint?

The idea of a dying Messiah appears to have gained popularity during the second century of our Common Era, particularly since the death of Simeon Bar Kokhba. Bar Kokhba was a warrior, a political revolutionary. He was widely acclaimed as the Messiah. Even Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph, who has been called “the most influential of all Rabbinic Sages,” hailed Bar Kokhba as the Messiah.

Eventually Bar Kokhba led a Jewish rebellion against the Roman government. After an initial victory against the legions of Rome, Bar Kokhba fought off the returning Roman armies for three years in a struggle that claimed over a half million Jewish lives. However, the rebellion was squashed in 135 C.E. and Bar Kokhba was killed.

The generation that wholeheartedly endorsed Bar Kokhba now found itself in a strange situation. The death of Bar Kokhba brought into question not only the Messianic hope but also the honor of Rabbi Akiba. Dr. Joseph Heinemann of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem explains the impact of Bar Kokhba’s death on his contemporaries:

“This generation must have attempted, by hook or by crook, to achieve the impossible: to uphold Bar Kokhba’s messianity in spite of his failure. This paradoxical position could find no more suitable expression than in the highly ambivalent legend of the militant Messiah who is doomed to fall in battle, and yet remains a genuine redeemer.”

But how could the Jews reconcile this idea of a dying Messiah with the fact that the Messiah was to rule as king? As Raphael Patai notes:

“The dilemma was solved by splitting the person of the Messiah in two: one of them, called Messiah ben Joseph [or, son of Joseph], was to raise the armies of Israel against their enemies, and, after many victories and miracles, would fall victim. . . . The other, Messiah ben David [or, son of David], will come after him . . . and will lead Israel to the ultimate victory, the triumph, and the Messianic era of bliss.”

This motif of a dying Messiah continued to develop in the years following Bar Kokhba’s death and eventually came to be applied to a yet future Messiah who would die in battle. Elucidating this, Patai explains: “One suspects that what one must understand is that . . . [the Messiah] as the Son of Joseph, will die on the threshold of the End of Days, but then will come back to life as the Son of David and complete the mission he began in his earlier incarnation.”

How strangely parallel this is to the beliefs of the first-century Christians! Both groups were claiming belief in a Messiah who would die and be resurrected before the foretold era of peace!

New Objections Arise

In the early centuries of our Common Era, the pagan Roman Empire converted to Roman Catholicism, and anti-Semitism now became popular among those professing to follow Jesus. In the years that followed, Jews witnessed such atrocities as the Crusades and the Inquisition, acts that clearly violated God’s command to “love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Leviticus 19:18) Furthermore, those who professed to follow Jesus acquired un-Christian beliefs, such as the worship of a triune God. Yet Moses had taught, “THE LORD IS ONE.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) So while the original objection to Jesus as a dying Messiah could no longer be viewed as valid, a new objection arose, an objection to the unscriptural conduct and beliefs of those professing to follow Jesus. Hence, Judaism continued to reject Christianity.

The Messiah​—Real or Ideal?

The Messianic hope in Israel continued down through the centuries. For example, when the medieval rabbi Maimonides formulated his Thirteen Articles of Faith, he included the following: “I believe . . . with complete faith that the Messiah will come, and although he may tarry, yet each day I will wait for his coming.”

Yet, in more modern times, the entire idea of a personal Messiah has passed into oblivion among many Jews. For example, a century ago Joseph Perl wrote: “The truly educated Jews by no means picture the Messiah as a real personality.”

Such Jews view the Messiah, not as a real individual, but as an ideal and thus prefer to speak of a messianic age rather than the Messiah. However, without a personal Messiah there could be no messianic age.

But when would this Messiah come? What do the Hebrew Scriptures say?

The Messiah’s Appearance​—When?

THE Babylonian Talmud preserves an interesting legend involving Jonathan ben Uzziel, the translator of the Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew prophets known as the Targums. According to this legend, Jonathan wished to translate the Hagiographa, the final portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, into Aramaic. However, a “heavenly voice” told Jonathan to desist because that portion of the Scriptures contained the date for the Messiah’s appearance.

Interestingly, a prophecy of Daniel (the book of Daniel is a part of the Hagiographa) that we have already seen as specifically referring to the Messiah does contain chronological information regarding his appearance. Consider once again what we are told at Daniel 9:24-27 (Zunz):

“Seventy (year-) weeks have been appointed over you people and over your holy city, to restrain the apostasy and to make an end of sin, and to atone for the error, and to bring everlasting salvation. . . . And you may know and understand: From the going forth of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the Prince, there are seven (year-) weeks; also sixty-two (year-) weeks, so market place and moat will be rebuilt, and that in the pressure of the times. And after the sixty-two (year-) weeks an Anointed One will be destroyed. . . . And he will conclude a strong covenant with many, for one (year-) week, and at the half of the (year-) week he will cancel sacrifice and oblation.”

Notice that this period of time is said to be “seventy (year-) weeks.” The Hebrew expression used here literally means “seventy weeks,” or “seventy heptads.” However, it has generally been understood by Jewish scholars that each week is not seven days long but, rather, seven years long. Accordingly, Rabbi Leopold Zunz rendered the Hebrew as “seventy (year-) weeks” in the translation noted above. (See also Moffatt’s translation rendering, “weeks of years.”) Thus, the entire period of “seventy weeks” runs 490 years.

When does this 490-year period start? According to the prophecy, the starting point is “the going forth of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.” Was such a decree ever made?

Although Daniel lived to learn of a decree by King Cyrus of Persia in 538/7 B.C.E. to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, it was almost a century later before a decree was given to rebuild Jerusalem itself. Nehemiah 2:1-8 records how King Artaxerxes Longimanus gave such a decree in the 20th year of his reign. And when was that? The most reliable historical sources tell us that Artaxerxes began his rule in 474 B.C.E., which places his 20th year and his decree in 455 B.C.E.a Hence, this 490-year period began in 455 B.C.E.

When exactly during those 490 years was the Messiah to appear? Notice that the 70 weeks are broken into three periods, namely, of 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and one week. In addition, the prophecy says that the Messiah would appear after both the 7-week and the 62-week periods passed, or after 69 “weeks of years,” or 483 years. We can therefore conclude that the Messiah was prophesied to appear 483 years after 455 B.C.E., or in 29 C.E.

Furthermore, the prophecy indicates that the Messiah would be destroyed or would die after the 62-week period (which followed the 7-week period), and, hence, during the final period of one week’s duration. This final period of seven years was to run from 29 C.E. to 36 C.E. But when during this final week would he die? We are told that “at the half of the (year-) week” the Messiah would “cancel sacrifice and oblation.” As the prophecy had also indicated that the Messiah’s death would provide true atonement for sin, once the Messiah died, any animal sacrifices at the temple would be meaningless. So the prophecy evidently foretold that the Messiah would die “at the half of the (year-) week,” or in 33 C.E.

Did the Messiah actually appear in 29 C.E. and die in 33 C.E.? As we have already seen, the Jews of that first century were eagerly expecting the Messiah at that time. (Luke 3:15) But of all the Messianic claimants of the first century, only one appeared on the world scene in 29 C.E. and died in 33 C.E., and that was Jesus of Nazareth!​—Compare Luke 3:1, 2.

As we have also seen, Jesus’ first-century followers not only were able to harmonize events in Jesus’ life with Hebrew Scripture prophecies but were also convinced, by Jesus’ appearances after his death, that he was resurrected and would return one day to rule as the Messianic King and bring in the foretold era of peace.

But where does this leave us today? It is now about 2,000 years since Jesus died, and we have not yet seen that foretold era of peace. However, Jesus himself foretold what conditions would exist at the time of the “last days” of this present system of things and the full establishment of the Messianic Kingdom of God.​—Matthew, chapter 24, and Luke, chapter 21.

If this is so, it would mean that we could live to see the time when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox,” the time when people “shall not hurt nor destroy.”​—Isaiah 11:1-10.

[Footnotes]

Evolution, Creation, or Creationism​—Which Do You Believe?

CONFLICT between science and religion is an old story. Up till the 16th century the accepted religious dogma was that the sun and the planets all revolved around the earth. In 1543 Copernicus proposed a new system with the earth and the planets moving around the sun. This aroused strong religious antagonism at first. It took the better part of a hundred years and the support of Galileo’s telescopic observations and Kepler’s mathematical analysis of the planets’ movements to win general recognition.

Until the 18th century, Western religions held that the earth had been created a mere 6,000 years ago. Hutton in 1785 proposed the theory of uniformitarianism, which demanded far longer periods of time for geological changes. Again religious controversy was raised for some 50 years, but Lyell’s field work and systematization of geologic strata finally won common agreement to the idea of a much older earth.

Up till the mid-19th century the Biblical account of divine creation of man was commonly believed. Darwin’s theory of the origin of species by evolution was published in 1859, and quickly stirred intense religious objection. Evolutionists, well over a century later, might like to think that their doctrine had by now won universal acceptance. True, many church leaders have capitulated, but there yet remains vigorous and determined opposition to the theory of evolution. Darwin’s supporters are still awaiting their Galileo or Lyell. Meanwhile, many well-informed people are beginning to believe that evolution is not inevitably destined to repeat the triumphs of earlier revolutions in scientific thought.

An organized crusade is currently seen in efforts to downgrade the teaching of evolution in the public schools through laws requiring that creation be given equal time. In the most recent legal skirmish, a federal judge decided that “creation science” as defined in an Arkansas law did not qualify on an equal basis with evolution. This setback was disappointing to many who hold that evolution does not satisfactorily explain life’s origin. What went wrong?

Flaws in “Scientific Creationism”

From the testimony given in the trial, it is manifest that the scientific evidence for creation was not really presented in clear confrontation with evolution. Instead, it was lost to sight in clashes over side issues, particularly two tenets of creationism that had been written into the law:

1. That creation took place only a few thousand years ago.

2. That all geologic strata were formed by the Biblical Deluge.

Neither of these dogmas is really crucial to the central question of whether living things were created or not. They are merely doctrines held by the members of a few churches, notably the Seventh-Day Adventists, who form the core of the group that sponsored the law. When these sectarian beliefs were written into the law as something that must be taught in public schools, that law was foredoomed to be declared unconstitutional.

Creationist Doctrines Not Biblical

But does the legal defeat of scientific creationism, as this movement is known, reflect unfavorably on the Bible? Are the doctrines of recent creation and a diluvial origin of geologic strata found in God’s Word?

An informed Bible student would answer, No. While the Bible clearly states that the heavens and the earth and everything in them were created by God, it does not say when those things were created. Most of the defense witnesses were shackled by the religious dogma that the six creative days in Genesis were all encompassed in a period of 144 hours. This harks back to an erroneous fundamentalist teaching that was not challenged by the science of the 17th century, but that is no longer tenable in the light of present knowledge. The Bible itself does not set any such time limit on the days of creation.

The first verse of Genesis 1:1 simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we take this to mean the creation of the starry heavens, the galaxies, and the solar system of which the earth is a part, we are talking about events that preceded the first creative day. The description of the earth’s condition in Ge 1 verse 2 also precedes the first day. Not until Ge 1 verses 3 to 5 do we enter upon the activity of the first day of creation.

So no matter how long the days might prove to be, Ge 1 verses 1 and 2 describe things already accomplished, and they fall outside any time frame encompassing the creative days. If geologists want to say that the earth is 4 billion years old, or astronomers want to make the universe 20 billion years old, the Bible student has no quarrel with them. The Bible simply does not indicate the time of those events.

The next point to note is that the word “day” is used in many different senses in the Bible. It does not always mean a 24-hour period. Sometimes it means only the hours of sunlight, that is, 12, more or less. Sometimes it stands for a year. Sometimes it means the years during a certain generation. In several references a day is 1,000 years, and in some even longer. No doubt the days in Genesis chapter 1 were very much longer. But the Bible does not there say how long they were.

So all the argument in the Little Rock trial about the recency of creation and the attention it received in the news media were entirely extraneous to the question of whether man was created or evolved. The time of creation is not the same as the fact of creation. The two should not have been confused.

With the basic point established that the Bible text does not conflict with scientific theories about the age of the universe, we may also leave open the question of the age and origin of geologic strata. The Bible says nothing at all about the formation of sedimentary layers, whether at the time of the Flood or earlier. All the voluminous writings of creationists on this subject, which came under critical examination in the trial, have been motivated by the desire to reconcile the existence of the geologic column and its fossils, dinosaurs and all, with their claim for a 6- to 10-thousand-year age of the earth. If this claim is invalid, all the rest of the argument is beside the point.

Science Supports Creation

As readers of Awake! know, there is a wealth of scientific evidence for creation.a The weight of such evidence has moved many leading scientists of the 20th century to speak publicly of creation and a Creator. Among these have been William T. Kelvin, Dmitri Mendeleev, Robert A. Millikan, Arthur H. Compton, Paul Dirac, George Gamov, Warren Weaver and Wernher von Braun, to name some.

Cosmological arguments for creation have been mustered by Robert Jastrow in his book God and the Astronomers. Speaking of the big bang theory of the origin of the universe, many scientists have freely used the word “creation.” Even scientists whose personal predilections are against the idea of creation reluctantly confess that the convincing nature of the evidence leaves them wondering.

The Bible Versus Evolution

To get the issue between creation and evolution in clear focus, we must strip away the fuzzy shroud of dogma carried over from 17th-century religion. Then let us compare, point by point, what the Bible says with what evolutionists teach and see which agrees with established facts.

First, the Bible says that God is the source of life. (Ps. 36:9) Life did not arise and cannot arise spontaneously from lifeless material. This is in complete agreement with scientific laws and experimental tests. The laws of statistics, the law of entropy, calculations from thermodynamics and kinetics all converge on the conclusion that spontaneous generation of life cannot occur. Older reports of spontaneous generation are given no credence since the experiments of Pasteur. In controlled experiments, it just does not happen. Examination of soil from the moon and chemical tests on the surface of Mars verify that life has not arisen on those planets.

Secondly, the Bible says that every living thing brings forth its own kind of offspring. (Genesis 1:11, 21, 24) Neither the evidence from paleontology nor experiments in breeding or mutation have ever been shown to refute this principle. Fossil remains from ancient geologic strata of species that are still alive are identical with present-day forms. Wide diversity within a given kind may appear both in nature and in breeding experiments, but in no case does it ever pass beyond the limits to produce a new kind.

Thirdly, with respect to man the Bible discloses the time of his beginning, about 6,000 years ago.b (Plants and animals have been here much longer.) With this date history and archaeology are in close agreement. Claims for older human fossils by evolutionists are subject to dispute and do not disprove the Bible record.

Truth of Creation Vindicated

What, then, is the Bible-based position in this controversy?

The fact of creation is clearly stated in the Bible. It is in harmony with scientific evidence found in astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and biology.

The theory of evolution is directly contrary to the Bible. It has failed to give a satisfactory explanation of the facts of paleontology and biology.

The Bible does not set the time of creation of “the heavens and the earth.” The creationists’ position on this is not supported by the Bible, and their theories conflict with the facts of astronomy, physics and geology.

The Christian’s faith in the Genesis account of creation stands firm, unperturbed by current religious-scientific squabbles. That faith is based on “the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (Hebrews 11:1) Above all, it is backed by the testimony of Jesus Christ: “Did you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” Further, in the revelation, which God gave him, we read: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.”​—Matthew 19:4, 5; Revelation 4:11; 1:1.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 15]

BIBLE DAYS​—HOW LONG?

The Hebrew yohm: ‘A day; a long time; the time covering an extraordinary event.’​—Old Testament Word Studies, page 109.

Daylight: “Light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established.”​—Proverbs 4:18.

24-hour day: “The deluge went on for forty days.”​—Genesis 7:17.

Day can include seasons: “It must occur in that day . . . In summer and in winter it will occur.”​—Zechariah 14:8.

Day can mean many days: “The day of harvest.” “In the days of the wheat harvest.”​—Proverbs 25:13 and Genesis 30:14.

Day as 1,000 years and a watch in the night: “A thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday . . . and as a watch during the night.”​—Psalm 90:4; also 2 Peter 3:8-10.

“Day of salvation,” many years.​—Isaiah 49:8.

“Judgment Day,” many years.​—Matthew 10:15; 11:22-24.

Man’s lifetime a day: “Noah’s day,” “Lot’s day.”​—Luke 17:26, 28, The Jerusalem Bible.

Creative days of Genesis chapter 1: “a first day,” “a second day,” and so forth, 7,000 years each.

All six creative days referred to as one day: “In the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.”​—Genesis 2:4.

‘Get Stagnant Waters Moving’

Italy’s medical journal Tempo Medico has considered “the question of whether blood transfusion is always really required” in medical procedures. From its observations, the journal declares: “It can definitely be said that the cases where transfusion is so necessary that the lack of same represents danger to life are fewer every day.”

Tempo Medico goes on to suggest that, because of the significant risks inherent in transfusion therapy, “the question is justified whether it might not be worth while​—as regards treatment in general, quite apart from the requests of Jehovah’s Witnesses—​to reconsider treatments that may have become habitual, and limit transfusions.” The article continues:

“It is with this in mind, and not just to honor the requests of Jehovah’s Witnesses, that Denton Cooley [of Houston, Texas] has performed open-heart operations now for over seven years, limiting transfusions wherever possible by substituting hemodilution, diluting the patient’s blood with a glucose and heparin solution. If this method has given excellent results since then . . . one wonders why it has not been extended to present-day surgery.

“One surgeon, Dr. Cesare Buresta, working in a district hospital at Ripatransone, in the province of Ascoli Piceno, has done so, starting in 1974 by operating on Jehovah’s Witnesses and abiding by their will. . . . According to Dr. Buresta, his results show that it is possible to perform surgical operations avoiding blood transfusions, at least in most cases, without subjecting patients to risks that are greater than normal. Of course, it is necessary to use every surgical technique possible to reduce blood losses to a minimum. It is evident that the employment of these techniques renders surgical operations more delicate and complicated. The possibility, now apparently a reality, of avoiding transfusion is, in other words, paid in labor, preparatory work and equipment.”

“Nonetheless,” concludes the paper, “medicine must honestly face up to the question of whether it is not worth while to make an effort to this end by increasing the number of wards and surgical teams that can employ the above-mentioned techniques. It doesn’t mean just satisfying the wishes of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but considering whether complying with their wishes might not end up being of benefit to all, or at any rate a stimulus to new research. Their position gives an incentive to get the waters of habitual therapy, always a bit stagnant, moving.”​—December 1980.

Young People Ask . . .

“Why Don’t I Like Myself?”

“I DON’T feel very special at all,” lamented Louise. Do you, too, occasionally feel bad about yourself? A recent study of American youths indicated that while the majority “say they feel happy most of the time,” some 20 percent feel “empty emotionally . . . and would rather die than go on living.”

But, really, everyone needs a certain amount of self-esteem. It has been called “the ingredient that gives dignity to human existence.” The Bible likewise acknowledges: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”​—Matthew 19:19.

If you feel bad about yourself, you probably feel bad about others too. Furthermore, when you feel useless or inferior, you turn inward. It becomes hard to get along with others. Criticism or even some gentle teasing can send you into a tailspin.

Who Am I?

Why, then, do so many teens dislike themselves? To some extent it is a normal reaction to growing out of childhood. Just yesterday you were a smiling toddler whose whole world was toy trucks and teddy bears. But now the huggable little child is no more; he is a casualty of adolescence.

So, as Dr. Haim Ginott once put it: “Adolescence is a period . . . in which every teenager has to remake his personality. He has to . . . find his own identity.” You may therefore yearn for independence, yearn for experience.

But your limitations may frustrate you. You may look like an adult, but you really aren’t one​—yet. There’s often a period of awkwardness in which dropping things or bumping into them is a daily embarrassment. And there are emotional limitations. You simply don’t have an adult’s experience in bouncing back from disappointments. Minor mishaps can seem like major disasters! And because your “perceptive powers” haven’t had enough time to be properly trained “through use” you may not always make the wisest decisions. (Hebrews 5:14) At times, you may feel that you cannot do anything right.

There is really no reason, however, to let your self-confidence hit rock bottom. Mistakes and blunders are a part of life. Gradually your self-identity solidifies, your self-esteem grows.

“Nothing I’ve Ever Done Has Ever Been Enough”

Jason’s above complaint reflects the thinking of many youths. “If I make an ‘A minus’ in school,” he says, “my folks want to know why it wasn’t an ‘A’ and tell me I’m a failure.”

It’s instinctive for parents to urge their children to do their very best. Your parents have invested a lot of time in you. And when you fall short of reasonable expectations, you can be sure you will hear about it. But should this get you down or crush your self-respect? The Bible’s counsel is: “Listen, my son [or, daughter], to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.” (Proverbs 1:8, 9) True, it’s discouraging to be counseled. But view such discipline as coming from God himself. Says Proverbs 3:11, 12: “The discipline of Jehovah, . . . do not reject; . . . because the one whom Jehovah loves he reproves.” So take criticism in stride. Learn from it.

True, some complain that their parents are too demanding. And some parents indeed set very high​—perhaps too high—​expectations for their children. They may want their children to be everything they couldn’t be. And it can seem ego crunching if one’s folks make unfair comparisons. (“Why can’t you be like your older brother, Paul? He always was an honor student.”)

Nevertheless such comparisons, hurtful though they may seem at the time, often make a valid point. When you think about it, your folks are probably not supercritical. They just want the best for you. If you feel they’re being too hard on you, why not be brave enough to discuss matters with them calmly? At least they’ll know how you feel and might even meet you halfway.

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”

But what of those who feel inferior because they just aren’t happy with their looks?

It’s easy to see why some might feel this way. For one thing, your appearance changes so rapidly that some youths, according to one psychologist, “feel like strangers in their own bodies.” Girls therefore fret about their hair, face and figure; boys about their developing physique. Each look in the mirror can reveal some new “horror.” Just one pimple is enough to convince a youth that he or she is an ‘ugly duckling’​—hopelessly unattractive.

Don’t mistakenly conclude, however, that self-worth hangs on your looks. While attractive people are seemingly advantaged, beauty is no guarantee of happiness. In the long run it is what you are inside that wins the respect of people.​—Proverbs 31:30.

Remember, too, that you won’t look like a teenager forever. (Look at your parents’ high school photographs to prove this!) Fluctuations in weight and acne are typical of the teen years. You’ll survive! And by being concerned about the person you are inside, you can have peace of mind even if your exterior undergoes a few alterations.

Dead Ends

Can a youth bolster sagging self-esteem? Yes! Beware, though, of lethal dead ends.

For example, one writer said: “Sometimes the adolescent with a weak identity and low self-esteem tries to develop a false front or facade with which to face the world.” The ‘images’ some assume are familiar: The ‘tough guy,’ the promiscuous socialite, the outrageously clad ‘punk rockers.’

Have the insight to see through such ploys. The masks of the insecure are shallow, transparent and useless because beneath the facades they must still grapple with feeling inferior.​—Proverbs 14:13.

Some take another deadly route: They begin dating when they’re scarcely teenagers. Though not ready for marriage they pour tender emotions into doomed relationships. They may even engage in premarital sex and risk pregnancy. Why? Says the author of Coping with Teenage Depression: “Promiscuity . . . is usually a desperate attempt to banish feelings of depression, to increase self-esteem (by feeling wanted), to achieve intimacy and, with pregnancy, to gain the love and unquestioning acceptance of another human being​—a baby.”

The road of promiscuity leads nowhere, however. Wrote one disenchanted young woman: “Immorality masks the real problems for a while until reality surfaces and then you feel devastated. I tried to substitute sexual intimacy as a comfort, rather than trying to build a solid relationship with my Creator. All I built was emptiness, loneliness and more depression.”

The Bible appeals to your desire for self-respect when it commands: “Flee from fornication. Every other sin that a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body.”​—1 Corinthians 6:18.

There are, however, legitimate, productive ways to build up self-respect. Our next issue will focus on some of these.

[Blurb on page 19]

“I tried to substitute sexual intimacy as a comfort, rather than trying to build a solid relationship with my Creator”

[Picture on page 17]

Some adolescents go through a period of awkwardness, dropping things or bumping into them

[Picture on page 18]

Your parents want you to do your best. But if you feel they are being unreasonable, calmly discuss matters with them

I Tried to Kill Myself, I Almost Killed My Son

I’M GLAD I failed on both counts. Success in my search for truth came just in time to save us both. This truth has changed my life, made over my mind, changed my personality, given me a new job, landed me in a new country and plunged me into the throes of learning a new language. Two new languages, as a matter of fact. But only one of them is difficult, the other is a delight.

Before my search began for something better, I descended into something worse. I guess I had to hit bottom before I saw the need to change directions.

I am Jewish, raised in a Jewish family, of parents who were not particularly religious. They did, however, require me to go to a synagogue school, attend Saturday school and be present at high holiday services. By the time I was 10 I noticed much hypocrisy in Judaism. One thing that puzzled me was having to buy a ticket to go to the high holiday services. Why should you have to pay to go to worship God? I also noticed that people who gave more money would get their names written in bigger letters on the synagogue wall. The Saturday school I attended was taught by a Jewish lawyer, supposedly the best teacher in the synagogue. It was just a philosophy class and presented the Bible as a good book written by wise men, but not a book inspired by God.

So when I was 14 and my parents sent me away to a private school, I no longer went to the synagogue and I shunned all religion. I remember when I later went home for a visit and my father wanted me to go to the synagogue, I told him that I was an atheist. I’d seen so much hypocrisy that I didn’t believe in anything. My homelife had never been very good. I felt unwanted. Nothing seemed to matter to me. Often I’d run away from the private school, and the police would find me and bring me back. My parents finally put me in reform school for over a year.

There I was thrown in contact with young women who had been into lots of trouble​—some had had babies, others had stolen cars, many were into drugs, and some had even tried to kill their parents. I was 16 when I got out of there. I left California and went to New York and enrolled at Long Island University in Brooklyn. I majored in political science and economics. By this time I was interested in improving society and thought politics was the way to do it. Previous to this I had gone from door to door trying to get people to vote for Eugene McCarthy for president. But the more I studied and observed politics the more I realized its corruption. I changed majors and eventually quit college.

Thoroughly disillusioned, without hope in anything, I started hanging out in bars, drinking, taking drugs and even worked as a dancer in bars. I fell in love with a man named Jon, started living with him and eventually we got married. He turned out to be an alcoholic, would disappear for days at a time, and I fell into deep despair. My family life wasn’t working out, the political system was corrupt, pollution was ruining the earth, and it looked as if man was determined to blow himself up in a nuclear war. I tried to kill myself.

I really wanted something better. I quit drugs. I tried hard to improve my family life. I began to wonder, Was there a God? Did he exist? I looked into spiritism, bought a whole library on demonism. I was fortunate that I was never bothered by the demons. Jon said that there were prophecies in the Bible about the future. Nothing in my religious training ever taught me that. “Was it in the New Testament?” I asked him. He thought so. He was a Catholic but didn’t practice Catholicism or believe in it. From that time on it was in the back of my mind to find out what the Bible said.

Things now happened fast. I tried to kill myself several times​—slashing my wrists, stabbing myself, cutting my throat—​but they were only halfhearted attempts, a cry for help and done in front of my husband to get him to stop his drinking and barhopping. It didn’t work.

The big turnaround in my life began soon thereafter. One Sunday Jon and I went to see some friends of his, an older couple. They had studied with Jehovah’s Witnesses, had Witnesses in their family and understood the Bible as the Witnesses did. Strangely, I tried to convince them that Judaism was the best religion, even though I had rejected it. Then the man started telling what the Witnesses believe. In 15 minutes he went from Adam to Armageddon. I was overwhelmed! That’s it! That’s the truth!

I went with the woman the next evening to a Bible study. I began going to the meetings quite regularly. Jon encouraged me for a while, but as I learned more truths from the Bible I began to change. Romans 12:2 began to happen for me: “Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” No more marijuana, no more barhopping, no more excessive drinking, no more stealing.

That’s right, stealing. When we lived together in New York we would go out and steal cars and sell the parts. People would have a car they needed parts for, and we would locate one like it and steal it and sell them the parts. When I stopped all of this Jon started opposing my studying the Bible with the Witnesses. But he relented when two Witnesses came to the door and made a good impression on him. The only condition was, “You study with them but leave me out of it. Don’t witness to me. Don’t try to convert me.”

Soon after this, another crisis arose. I got pregnant. He wanted no child, and to save my marriage I agreed to an abortion. I had had two previous ones, so a third did not seem crucial. Then I saw a slide talk at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was on the miracle of birth. I was so impressed with the marvel of this little body developing in the womb. It was living, growing, moving! Arms and legs sprouting, fingers and toes forming and soon it was sucking its thumb! And this is what I’m going to kill? Up until then I had viewed the embryo as just a thing, a part of my body, nothing more. But in Jehovah’s eyes this was a living creature, and it now became such in my eyes also.

After the meeting I went out and cried. I couldn’t go through with the abortion. I went home and told my husband, “I’m having the child.” He stormed out and slammed the door. He didn’t speak to me for three days. But after the baby was born he loved it. It became his whole world. He thought it was the most wonderful thing. He was 37 and he had a son! He softened in other ways too. When I said I was going to get baptized he only said, “Okay, if that’s what you want to do.” This after three years of opposition and threats.

Three days later he didn’t come home that night. Things had been going so well, and now I assumed that his carousing was starting again. I couldn’t go through any more of this, not after learning the Bible truths and having my son Jonathan to raise. I would leave my husband. I packed my bags and waited for him to return so I could tell him. There was a knock on the door. It wasn’t my husband. It was the sheriff. “There’s been an accident. Your husband was killed.” He was coming home from a bar and had driven off the side of the mountain. Just the day before he became upset over something, lost his temper and said: “No one ever gave me a break! I ought to be dead!” Those words kept echoing through my mind after the sheriff told me Jon was dead.

I dedicated my life to Jehovah and three months later started in the full-time ministry with Jehovah’s Witnesses. We were living in Colorado when my husband was killed, now we moved around some to do witnessing where the need was greater. One summer Jonathan and I were able to work with some full-time ministers in Kentucky. We put in long hours​—8, 10, 12 hours a day. Jonathan was about five years old by now, and one Witness thought it was too much for him. “Why don’t you let him have a day off?” she asked. She had three children, so I did let him stay with them. He was excited about it, but the next week he asked, “Is tomorrow my day off?” “Yes, it is.” Then he said, “No, I want to go out in the service with you. I don’t want a day off anymore.”

My father respects my religion because of the change it has made in me, but he wants nothing to do with it. He questions Jonathan about it, however. After my mother died my father showed her picture to him. “Who’s that?” he asked. “Your grandmother.” “Where is she?” “She died,” he explained, “and her soul went to heaven.” Jonathan said, “No, she is a soul, and she’s in the grave.” Impressed, he started questioning Jonathan. “Who is God?” “Jehovah.” “What does he do?” “He is up in heaven,” Jonathan said, “and makes everything work right.” My father won’t listen to me, but he will listen to Jonathan. And Jonathan is able to answer his questions because together we have gone through My Book of Bible Stories, published by the Watchtower Society.

My father believes in God. I remember that when I was about nine and already questioning God’s existence, my father took me outside and showed me a flower. “How did it get there?” he asked, and answered his own question: “Only God could do that.” He explained that plants even had the power to push up through concrete! My father tried so hard to get me to believe in God, but now it’s my little son who is trying to help him know Jehovah and His purpose so that he might live with us in a Paradise earth. Especially at times like this I look at Jonathan and think, ‘If I hadn’t gone to that slide talk at the Kingdom Hall five years ago, Jonathan would not be here now.’ It sometimes scares me to think how close I came to killing my son.

In 1979 I went to Israel. I wanted to see the Bible land. Jonathan didn’t go with me​—he was too young to appreciate such a trip. I returned home wanting to go to Israel to share with people of my own nation the information that had benefited me. I saw the people of Israel, so dedicated, working so hard to make a homeland, so zealous yet so misdirected because of their alienation from Jehovah. I returned from that trip praying fervently for Jehovah to open a way for me to serve him in Israel.

For two years my prayers continued. ‘If I only had another full-time Witness to go with me, especially one who knew Hebrew and could help me learn the language!’ Then, in 1981, I returned to Israel, Jonathan with me this time. We were on tour with a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We were visiting in the Kingdom Hall of the Witnesses in Bethlehem. The tour bus, with the sign “Jehovah’s Witnesses” propped against the windshield, was parked on the street outside.

Two women saw the sign and came into the hall. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses and had just happened by, saw the sign and came in to visit us. One was a young Jewish woman who had settled in Israel from Holland. She was serving full time in Jehovah’s service in another city and just happened to be in Bethlehem on this particular day. She also wanted a roommate to live with her and accompany her in the witnessing work. “Yes,” she responded happily to my inquiry, “You and Jonathan can come and live with me!” The answer to my prayers! And that’s where Jonathan and I now live.

How happy I am that my suicide attempts failed, and that I didn’t snuff out my son’s life before his birth! How wonderful that my search for truth succeeded and it changed my life and caused me to ‘strip off my old personality and put on a new one’! (Colossians 3:9, 10) And while I am in the throes of learning a new and difficult language, Hebrew, I am also continuing to learn a delightful new language, the one foretold in Zephaniah 3:9: “Then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.”

Now my prayers have been answered. I am privileged to serve Jehovah full time, working shoulder to shoulder with the worldwide brotherhood of Jehovah’s Witnesses.​—Contributed.

[Blurb on page 20]

Why should you have to pay to go to worship God?

[Blurb on page 21]

My family life wasn’t working out, the political system was corrupt, pollution was ruining the earth, and it looked as if man was determined to blow himself up in a nuclear war

[Blurb on page 22]

I tried to kill myself several times​—slashing my wrists, stabbing myself, cutting my throat—​but they were only halfhearted attempts, a cry for help

[Blurb on page 22]

No more marijuana, no more barhopping, no more excessive drinking, no more stealing

[Blurb on page 23]

It was living, growing, moving! Arms and legs sprouting, fingers and toes forming, and soon it was sucking its thumb! And this is what I’m going to kill?

[Blurb on page 23]

There was a knock on the door. It wasn’t my husband. It was the sheriff. “There’s been an accident. Your husband was killed”

[Blurb on page 24]

He showed me a flower. “Only God could do that”

[Blurb on page 24]

It sometimes scares me to think how close I came to killing my son

He Tries to Find Where Killers Hide

WALLACE RHODES, scientist-engineer. He probes around in the unknown, where deadly diseases lurk. His professional card lists Ph.D.’s in epidemiology and engineering. His combination of credentials is unique. But so is his work, as you will see.

I am following him up and down a bewildering labyrinth of corridors through countless floors of the CDC​—the Centers for Disease Control, near Atlanta, Georgia. Doors off these white concrete halls lead into laboratories and inner sanctums of scientists devoting their lives to trying to track down and exterminate the elusive killers of man. Sometimes their triumphs, sometimes their failures, make headlines the world over.

Now we are on the roof of an enormously high building. Rain splashes down in huge drops just as we gain the shelter of a penthouse an acre square. Hot, unpleasant air repels us. Our eardrums are overwhelmed by a din of fans and motors. We are dwarfed in a cavernous domain where air ducts are the size of corridors.

“You might say an equipment room like this is part of my laboratory,” Rhodes explains. “While other scientists start shaking test tubes, the engineer part of me starts looking for epidemics in the HVAC​—the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems of buildings. Sometimes an epidemic breaks out in a hospital. Doctors may think they have some disease quarantined, but all of a sudden people come down with it all over the place.”

How did it spread? In all kinds of institutions, from schools to meat-packing plants, in hundreds of places over the past two decades, Rhodes has tracked down causes, generally relating to air conditioning. But he could not find what he’s looking for if he did not know something about bacteria as well as engineering.

“How would you begin to track down a disease?” I asked.

“First, I would put on this mask.”

The black head mask he demonstrates swallows his face. It transforms him into a figure out of science fiction. “This mask is 99.97 percent efficient.” The words come out muffled. “It screens out particles down to three tenths of a micron. One micron is about one 25,000th of an inch.” I try to imagine a germ tiny enough to squeeze through the mask.

The Hunt for Pontiac Fever

Years ago, masks like this helped Rhodes and two assistants escape Pontiac fever. All the other scientists from the CDC who preceded them to Pontiac, Michigan, were struck down by the epidemic. On that memorable weekend 95 out of 100 people who were exposed came down with the unknown but violent sickness.

All you had to do to catch Pontiac fever was to set foot inside a certain building. It was as though the building itself was diseased. Of all places, it was a community health center, a place of medical and dental clinics, an X-ray department, and the like. Along with patients coming to be treated, the doctors and nurses and technicians themselves were taken with violent chills, fever, headaches, acute muscular pains and other pneumonia-like symptoms. But no problem from any of the other buildings.

“I was on vacation in Florida when they called me to Pontiac,” Rhodes recalled. “The epidemic was already several days along. When I checked the data it appeared that the only time people entering the building did not come down with the plague was when the air conditioning was turned off. Come Monday, after it was turned on again, once more people started getting sick.” But not Rhodes and his assistants, with their masks and other safety attire.

The problem, however, was more subtle than just the air conditioner’s blowing air through the building. Rhodes suspected that the water sprayed over the evaporative condenser coils was contaminated. Through a leakage in the duct system, mist from this water was getting into the circulating air. Tests were made, but it took days before his suspicions were confirmed: guinea pigs exposed to that basement water came down with Pontiac fever. Still, what was the culprit? They had yet to isolate the germ from the water.

“For three years,” Rhodes continued, “microbiologists ran tests on the guinea pigs. They were no nearer discovering the cause of the disease than the day they started. Some tests continued over the years. Finally they placed the test tubes of blood serum from the human victims of Pontiac fever in storage freezers and literally put that part of the case on ice.”

Tracking Down Legionnaires’ Disease

Eight years went by. During an American Legion convention in Philadelphia at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, 221 people came down with something as sudden and mysterious as Pontiac fever. However, this time 34 died.

Whatever it was, it was coming from inside the hotel. Doctors at first called it an “explosive outbreak of pneumonia with no apparent cause.” Twenty-three epidemic intelligence officers from CDC, Rhodes among them, worked with scores of state and local health officials in Philadelphia. “The nearest I could ever determine,” Rhodes said, “the source this time was from the cooling towers.”

It took six months of intensive laboratory tests, using techniques improved and advanced over those used for Pontiac fever, finally to turn up the killer bacterium. The cigar-shaped germ was named legionella pneumophila.

Almost a year went by before it occurred to researchers to thaw out some of the Pontiac fever specimens, now nine years old, and compare them with L. pneumophila. They concluded that whatever caused the epidemic in Pontiac caused the one in Philadelphia​—only in the latter case 34 people died.

“Why,” Rhodes ponders, “did people die in Philadelphia but none died in Pontiac?” The question still bothers researchers.

Breeding Grounds for Epidemics

Since legionellosis bacteria were discovered, scientists have concluded that the disease in one form or another has been around all along. “Here in the United States,” Dr. Rhodes said, “there are 2.4 million cases of pneumonia each year. Only about two thirds of these cases can be linked to known viral or bacterial agents. What causes the other 800,000 cases?”

“Legionellosis,” he goes on, “is recognized in only a fraction of the pneumonia-like cases. Scientists wonder if some of the unknown agents are linked to legionellosis but have yet to be detected.”

“Are you saying,” I broke in, “that legionellosis may break out around us at any time?”

He nods. “It might reach us from soil excavation. From water pollution, including our drinking water. From the air. We live and we sicken and die in a polluted world.”

“You mean there are unknown diseases lurking around us wherever we turn?”

“They’re the ones we’re still looking for. They may attack us, and do attack us, at any time. Known forms of legionellosis have been identified in more than 40 states, in Canada, in Australia and in about every country in Europe. But so have the unknown forms of pneumonia and other diseases shown up, and in far greater instances.”

Confronting Earth’s Deadliest Killers

He turns to point in another direction toward an isolated building. “I helped design and test that building for CDC some years ago. It is the Maximum Containment Lab​—MCL. Specimens of the deadliest diseases on earth are being studied there right now. Lassa fever . . . Green African monkey disease (Marburg virus).” He tolls off some of the exotic diseases. “People probably never heard of them when the black plague and influenza were the terrors of mankind. These are violent contagions of our times. Men over there in MCL are risking their lives right now trying to corner these killers.”

I hear myself saying, “Could we take a peek inside that place?”

He grimaces. “You’re about as close to that building as you’ll ever get!”

The CDC is a kind of watchtower on the alert for outbreaks of contagious disease epidemics all over the earth. It probably knows more about what’s going on in this field than any other scientific nerve center.

After 20 years of searching for hundreds of mysterious contaminants in man’s environment, after designing HVAC systems adopted in all kinds of institutions, and while presently studying the possible harmful effects of volcanic ash, Dr. Rhodes makes this observation: “Mysteries keep outnumbering discoveries and probably multiply faster than solutions.”​—Contributed.

From Our Readers

Young People Ask

Thank you, oh, so much for the articles on “Young People Ask.” My daughter, 14 years old, has been cutting them out and making a booklet with these articles. Many times as I have tried to talk to her she would ‘turn me off’ as ‘there-she-goes-again.’ But when she reads your articles I can see the progress. As parents, we need all the help we can get with our young people.

C. H., California

Thank you so much for the article “Young People Ask . . . What if It’s More Than Just the Blues?” (December 8, 1982) Even those of us not considered young people need help in coping with major depression. The article gave an excellent summary of the symptoms. It is encouraging to know that others have successfully combated that horrible hopelessness. I especially appreciated the suggestion to “visualize alternatives or the possibility of a favorable outcome.” Thank you for this sensitive article.

R. M., Texas

I enjoy your articles on “Young People Ask.” Could you please write an article about working in school, because I find difficulty in trying to concentrate because of all the noise the children make in class. The teachers allow the children to make this noise, and this annoys me very much and I can’t do my lessons.

G. A., eight years old, England

We will be happy to consider this matter.​—ED.

Sugar​—How Sweet?

“Sugar​—How Sweet?” (November 22, 1982) An excellent article on a history of the past that the schools I attended left out. I was so impressed by it that I wrote seven prominent news broadcasters in California, telling of the basic merits of this outstanding article.

H. B., California

I really enjoyed the article “Sugar’s Past​—How Sweet Was It?” I would also like to compliment you on your pictures, but I noticed on pages 4 and 5 that the setting took place in the 1800’s, but the slave owners were dressed in clothing of the 1900’s. Why?

B. G., Massachusetts

It seems we forgot to set the clock back.​—ED.

Illustrations

I just wanted to express my appreciation for the illustrations in recent issues of your magazine. They seem to arouse my curiosity about what’s inside each magazine. They are very informative. I find it easier to remember the article in the magazines if I can recall the illustrations that go with them. Your illustrations have proved true the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I really appreciate your efforts in making the magazines enjoyable!

S. T., Missouri

Watching the World

Bishops on War

● The recent U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops’ pastoral letter on nuclear war and peace has stirred up much controversy. Commenting on “the church that we have loved” in a Newsday opinion column, Michael Gallagher, film critic for the United States Catholic Conference, reminded readers that the bishops’ “record has been dismal” in the past on issues of war and peace. He continued:

“Hardly any war in history was more at variance with the ‘just war’ doctrine of St. Augustine than the fratricidal, suicidal World War I. Yet the bishops enthusiastically supported it. Nor was their equally wholehearted endorsement of World War II qualified by much heed to the conditions prescribed in the doctrine. . . . The bishops’ chauvinism finally reached a peak that will never, I hope, be surpassed with the famous photograph of Francis Cardinal Spellman behind a machine gun in Vietnam. During his visit to that tragic land, this prince of the Church not only posed for such a picture but, in explanation, quoted​—not Thomas Aquinas, not St. Augustine​—but Stephen Decatur: ‘My country right or wrong.’”

Religion: Good or Bad for Mankind?

● Many people believe that religion’s influence on mankind generally has been for the good. But H. Gordon Green, columnist for Canada’s Toronto Star, recently wrote that he had a “sneaking suspicion that religion is really a bad thing for man and his world; that it does not bring peace and brotherhood as it professes to do, but on the contrary foments distrust, hatred and wars.” Green goes on to observe:

“The holy wars which reddened so many pages of the history books are still as bloody as ever. In Ireland, Israel and Iran the root of the hatred is still religion, and in each of these countries people are still willing to kill and be killed for the faith of their fathers.” And of recent killings at a refugee camp in Lebanon, he denounced the fact “that an army labelled ‘Christian’ should have perpetrated one of the most horrible massacres of our time.”

Cutting Down on Tobacco

● For the first time, in 1982 fewer cigarettes were smoked in the United States than in the previous year, down about 6 billion to 634 billion​—about 1 percent. Figures from the U.S. Office on Smoking and Health also indicate that almost 34 million have quit smoking. On the other hand, some 200,000 cigarettes are lit each second, costing the average smoker about $400 per year. American business is said to lose about $20 billion each year to employee illness caused by smoking.

“Hooked on Horror”

● “South African women and children are hooked on horror,” declares the Sunday Tribune of Durban. “The best selling video movies in the country​—many of them shown to delighted tiny tots at birthday parties—​have titles like And Now The Screaming Starts, Invasion Of The Blood Farmers, Blood Splattered Bride and Blood On Satan’s Claw.” On the back of one cassette is the promise: “If your taste is jaded and you have an insatiable desire to see blood, flesh and gore, this movie is essential for your video vault of terror.” The manageress of one video outlet described one favorite as being “about a dismembered bleeding hand that strangles or stabs its victims.” How did the customers like it? “That movie is really gruesome,” she answers, “and when we first got it in the shop women would put their names on a list and wait sometimes for weeks to get it.” Happily, true Christians have never been involved in these evils.

First Fiber Optics?

● Plant physiologists at California’s Stanford University say that seedlings use a form of fiber optics to carry light down their stems. They found that the stems could transmit light for at least two inches and even around corners. “The stem acts as an antenna to gather and transmit light to those areas” of the plant that promote growth, notes the report in Science 82 magazine. The seedling fibers “are sensitive enough to collect light that filters down through the soil before the stem has pushed above ground.” And, explains one of the researchers: “A seedling is just like a baby. It’s the most critical time of its life. The stem’s optical properties help it get a jump on things while it’s still underground.”

Vatican on Evolution

● “We are convinced that masses of evidence render the application of the concept of evolution to man and the other primates beyond serious dispute.” Was this a pronouncement from a group of atheists? No; the authors “were members of a seminar arranged by the Pope’s own Pontifical Academy of Sciences,” reports the science magazine Discover. “The academy, an august body of 70 scientists . . . meets regularly under papal auspices to discuss and debate scientific questions.” Thus, “under papal auspices,” comes forth what Discover calls a “resounding verdict in favor of evolution.”

“Ghost Houses”

● “The fear of theft has turned these beautiful villas into ghost houses,” complained an Italian real-estate broker. The International Herald Tribune explains: “Dozens of magnificent villas and large houses on Rome’s fashionable old Appian Way sit empty for months, abandoned by owners or rejected by would-be tenants for lack of security.” A recent European opinion poll found that, among Europeans, Italians had the greatest fear of crime. Over 60 percent of those surveyed said crime was their greatest concern for themselves and their country.

Opulent Oriental Weddings

● At an average cost of $22,000, Japanese weddings reportedly are now six times as expensive as those in the United States. The wedding of a famous sumo wrestler reached $580,000. And at another, reports Time magazine, “the star-struck couple ascended to the ceiling in a makeshift space capsule trailing dry-ice exhaust.” Japanese weddings generally take place in the fall, as religious calendars are then full of days thought to be favorable for weddings.

“School Pride Day”

● When students recently were searched for dangerous weapons at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, New York, hundreds of them “went on a wild rampage,” reports the New York Post. “They tore up classrooms, cafeterias, and hallways, smashed windows, vandalized cars and beat up a teacher because they objected to the search.” According to the report, “the search uncovered an awesome array of weapons, including knives, razors, iron pipes and karate sticks.” How did the community react to their children’s conduct? One community group charged the Board of Education with “provoking a riot” because they did not warn the students ahead of time that they would be searched! The incident occurred on a day that had been designated “School Pride Day.”

Graham Disappoints Lutherans

● After evangelist Billy Graham visited East Germany’s Lutheran Churches, his trip met with considerable criticism in the West German press. According to The Christian Century, a Lutheran official in the Federal Republic of Germany had “urged Graham to meet East German Christians on their terms rather than the government’s. Instead, Graham traveled through the country in a big limousine, stayed at expensive hotels in which one can pay only with Western currency, and appeared on television talking with government officials and not with clergy.”

Turtle Haven Dedicated

● The government of the Seychelles Islands recently dedicated almost half its land area to providing a haven for giant sea turtles and land tortoises. Now viewed by UNESCO as a world heritage site, the Aldabra Atoll has the largest concentration of giant sea turtles and land tortoises in the world. About 150,000 giant land tortoises live on this coral atoll in the western Indian Ocean. Though a related species of giant tortoise lives in the Galápagos, their number is only about 10,000. The tortoises of the Seychelles and the Galápagos islands are the world’s largest, reaching up to 4 feet (1.2 m) long and weighing up to 600 pounds (272 kg).

Immune to Tax

● The U.S. IRS (Internal Revenue Service) recently reported that 198 individuals or couples with earnings over $200,000 escaped paying any federal income tax in 1980, the most recent year for which data is available. This was a 74-percent increase over the previous year. To add insult to injury, eight people with incomes over $1 million also received unemployment benefits during the year.

‘Tea Totaling’ Induces Cirrhosis

● Australian doctors were sure they had an alcoholic on their hands when they found that the 69-year-old woman they were treating had cirrhosis of the liver. An operation was required to remove two thirds of her liver. Yet, to their surprise, the woman proved to be a teetotaler. What, then, had so afflicted her liver? For some 25 years she had been on a tea binge, chewing tea leaves instead of using them for making a beverage! At first she chewed them when she was worried, but in time she was chewing leaves instead of eating regular meals. It is believed that the tannin in tea leaves was what had done the damage. Trying to exist almost totally on tea leaves nearly cost her her life. Excesses with any substance, especially when it is often substituted for regular meals, is bound to bring serious health problems.

Losses by High Rollers

● The gambling center of Las Vegas, Nevada, has reported a lower growth rate​—up 7.3 percent compared with a yearly growth rate of 15 to 20 percent. “In good times,” reported The New York Times, “seven major hotels collectively cater to a pool of about 250,000 . . . ‘high-rollers,’ or people who bet with $5,000 or more on house credit. These gamblers typically lose at least $1,000 on each visit to a casino.”

Attracting Tourists

● Decreasing tourism in Greece moved the Greek EOT (Organization of Tourism) to devise ways of attracting international tourists. One unusual scheme announced by a senior EOT official was reported in Athens News: “Greece will promote development of nudist centers next year [1983] on remote coasts, where local and church authorities raise no objection.”

Lutherans Drop Out

● Some 14,000 members left the Lutheran Church of Finland in one year, according to a poll by the Research Institute of the Church. It was learned that those 25 to 50 years of age most often leave the church, and one in 10 members are planning to leave it. Apparently, even the remaining members consider going to church to be in vain, as only 2.5 percent attend principal church services.

Your Life Depends On It!

Food, water and air keep you alive now. But there is something that can keep you alive forever. Learn what it is in the thrilling new book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. Its 256 pages, the same page size as this magazine, are filled with over 150 teaching illustrations, most in beautiful color. Order now. Only $2.50.

Please send, postpaid, the hardbound book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. I enclose $2.50 (U.S.).

March 29​—A Day to Remember

The evening before he died, Jesus shared a loaf of unleavened bread and a cup of wine with his apostles and said, “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”​—Luke 22:19.

This year the anniversary of his request falls on March 29, after sunset.

As a result, Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world will be gathered this special Tuesday night to repeat this memorial in the manner Jesus requested. You are most warmly invited to join us. Please check with Jehovah’s Witnesses locally for the exact time and place of the meeting.