The Watchtower — November 15, 1950

Paying Back God’s Things to God

“Then he said to them: ‘Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.’”—Matt. 22:21, NW.

JEHOVAH God will in the near future bring to a decisive end his controversy with Caesar over who is to dominate the earth. When that supreme issue of universal sovereignty is settled, everybody permitted to live on earth will pay back everything to Jehovah God, because Caesar will be no more. There will be no division of obligations between God and the political powers of this old world then. This old world with its Caesars will have been destroyed. The righteous new world will be here with Jehovah as the living, true God and with the perfect Governor whom He puts in authority over all the earth.

² But until the universal war of Armageddon removes “Caesar” and all his henchmen and his commercial and religious allies, “Caesar” has to be taken into account even by persons who are no part of this world but who are nevertheless living in it. When on earth as a man in the midst of Caesar’s domain, the Son of God said: “I am from the realms above. . . . I am not from this world.” “I am no part of the world.” Yet at the same time he said: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (John 8:23; 17:14, 16 and Matt. 22:21, NW) As long as this world lasts, Jesus’ words here apply. The question has to be determined, therefore, as to what is to be paid back to “Caesar” and what is to be paid back to God. The question must be determined, not according to “Caesar’s” arbitrary demands, but according to God’s own Book, the Bible, because Jehovah God is the Supreme Authority.

³ The circumstances under which Jesus made his oft-quoted statement reveal one of the things that we must pay to “Caesar”. It was not the matter of worship and devotion or saluting the military standards that they were discussing, but the matter of paying public taxes for governmental administration purposes. This fact is made plain by the Bible account concerning this incident at a time when Herod Antipas was the administrator appointed by Caesar for the province of Galilee and Pontius Pilate was the administrator appointed by Caesar for the province of Judea. The place is Jerusalem in Judea. The time is just two days before Jesus is impaled on the torture stake at Calvary. The account reads:

⁴ “Then the Pharisees went their way and took counsel together in order to trap him in his speech. So they dispatched to him their disciples together with party followers of Herod, saying: ‘Teacher, we know you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and you do not care for anybody, for you do not look upon men’s outward appearance. Tell us, therefore, What do you think? Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said: ‘Why do you put me to the test, hypocrites? Show me the tribute coin.’ They brought him a denarius [equal to 17 cents or 8 pence 2 farthings, a day’s wage for workmen then]. And he said to them: ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said: ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them: ‘Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.’ Well, when they heard that, they marveled, and leaving him they went off.”—Matt. 22:15-22, NW; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:19-26.

⁵ The scheme of the Pharisees, scribes and chief priests of the Jews was to get Jesus in trouble with Caesar’s government over Palestine and lay him open to the charge of sedition. That is why they sent along Jews who were party followers or politically in favor of Herod as a local ruler over them. Luke points that out, saying: “And, after observing him closely, they [the scribes and chief priests] sent out men secretly hired to pretend that they were righteous, in order that they might catch him in speech, so as to turn him over to the government and to the authority of the governor [Pontius Pilate].” They proved unable to catch any subversive, seditious words from Jesus. Yet two days later they deliberately went ahead and accused him before Pontius Pilate of those very things, saying: “This man we found subverting our nation and forbidding the paying of taxes to Caesar and saying he himself is Christ a king.” (Luke 20:20; 23:2, NW) Little wonder that today the religious enemies of Jehovah’s witnesses accuse them before the political authorities of espionage, subversiveness and sedition! Well, Jesus, who is Jehovah’s chief witness, declared that if the enemies accused him, the Master, of such things, how much more would they falsely accuse his followers of the same things to bring them into difficulties with the political powers!

⁶ As we analyze Jesus’ statement we see he was not subversive and seditious but just and fair toward Caesar. Whether the Pharisees, scribes and chief priests liked it or not, Jesus conceded that the payment of tax to Caesar was a due owing to him. It is true that Caesar was the military conqueror of Palestine and held the Jews in subjection, but, just the same, Caesar’s servants were exercising governmental functions. They provided many public benefits from their administration and kept the peace and public order. So for such social, economic and administrative benefits and services, even the oppressed, liberty-loving, independence-seeking Jews were obligated to pay back to Caesar what belonged to him. Part of the tax money paid in Caesar might use in his military ventures; but though the Jews had no sympathy for such military aggressions and did not join his armies, they still must pay the tax, because it was Caesar’s responsibility and not theirs as to what he did with his own money. The denarius coin was of his make, and not that of Jehovah’s theocratic government. The image and inscription on the coin identified the political taxing power, and it was in this coin that the tax was to be paid. So for the beneficial services that Caesar dispensed to them the subject peoples were to pay him back in the coin which he demanded, even if he overcharged them oppressively.

⁷ Jesus himself paid the tax. And that he had no objection to the collection or the payment of the tax by his fellow Jews to a foreign imperial power he showed by his mingling with tax collectors and seeking their salvation. Hence his religious foes said: “Look! a man gluttonous and given to drinking wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” (Matt. 11:19, NW) Jesus came as God’s ambassador to earth, but in a foreign land under administration by the foreign ruling power even an ambassador must pay tax on the real estate he occupies in that foreign land or on the things he buys or services hired. So Jesus was reasonable and righteous as to what was owing to Caesar.—2 Cor. 5:20, NW.

THOSE UNDER THESE INSTRUCTIONS

⁸ Caesar may not have agreed with what Jesus here said, because it placed a limitation upon Caesar. Today modern Caesars and extreme nationalistic patriots insist on payments mainly to Caesar, but they do not like to quote or to be confronted with the other part of Jesus’ statement about paying back God’s things to God. Now everybody must take note that Jesus said these words, not to Gentiles such as pagan Romans and Greeks, but to religious Jews. They were members of a nation consecrated to Jehovah God and which he had chosen and brought into a covenant with him. They were primarily under the theocratic law which God had given to them by Moses, and which governed their personal conduct and their worship. So by this theocratic law they owed the first things to Jehovah God, and not to any human creation such as Caesar. Later on, that same day, Jesus told the Jews this, when one of the Pharisees, versed in the theocratic law, put him to the test by saying: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Thereupon Jesus quoted from the Law at Deuteronomy 6:5 and at Leviticus 19:18 and answered: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”—Matt. 22:34-40, NW.

⁹ It was not according to Caesar’s law that the question was up concerning the lawfulness of paying tax to him. Caesar’s own law required the tax, but the legalness of it was questioned by the Jews according to Jehovah’s law, the theocratic law. The pagan Romans paid worship to Caesar according to his law and also worshiped or paid religious honors to their military standards and ensigns. By the first and second of the Ten Commandments the consecrated Jews like Jesus were forbidden to do this. (Ex. 20:2-6, AS) The Caesars, with a show of tolerance, allowed conquered peoples to worship their own local or national gods, but demanded that they also worship the deified Caesar or emperor as god so as to bind the empire together by a united worship. But Jesus and his faithful followers could never divide their worship. He made this plain in the mount of temptation. Concerning this we read: “So he brought him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time; and the Devil said to him: ‘I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me and to whomever I wish I give it. You, therefore, if you do an act of worship before me, it will all be yours.’ In reply Jesus said to him: ‘It is written, “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.”’” (Luke 4:5-8, NW) Hence when Jesus said to those under theocratic law that they should pay back God’s things to God, he did not mean Caesar deified. He meant Jehovah God, who gave the Mosaic Law to his chosen people. On these things owed to God we can never compromise with “Caesar” and his political henchmen.

¹⁰ A.D. 1914 the “appointed times of the nations” which began in 607 B.C. with King Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem ran out. Since then the nations have been in the “time of the end” of this world. Under the international stress of this crucial time, and particularly now with the cold war between the Eastern and Western blocs of nations threatening to become hot in a third world war, the political state symbolized by Caesar feels under pressure to demand that its citizens pay everything to Caesar, attributing to the state the continued welfare and salvation of its citizens. More and more it is inclined to encroach upon those God-given things which genuine Christians must pay back to the living, true God, and it makes demands in conflict with the ruling laid down by Jesus Christ. The proud, ambitious, self-centered nations never consider that they as nations owe anything to Jehovah God. Nevertheless, they owe it to God to pay back what belongs to him, particularly since 1914. Since then the issue of universal sovereignty has been set before them by the witnesses of Jehovah God. This issue includes the question, Who will rightfully dominate the earth and rule all its people? Who should rightfully do so is clear from the prophecy for our time, at Psalm 24:1, 2, 7-10 (AS): “The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle. . . . He is the King of glory.”

¹¹ No nation owns in absolute right the territory it governs. The earth belongs to Jehovah the Creator, and it is only by his sufferance that nations are occupying His territory, his possession. They are responsible to him for the way they manage the earth. The governments over the various parts of the earth and its people hold a communal responsibility to the Creator, especially those governments which claim to be Christian or which have renounced Christianity. He holds them responsible, just as he did ancient Sodom and Gomorrah upon which he rained down fire and brimstone. The appointed times of the nations for world domination expired in 1914. He has notified them of this by his witnesses who proclaim the setting up of his kingdom by Christ. Therefore it would be the right thing for the nations, especially those of Christendom, to pay back to God his things and yield over their territory and their sovereignty to him and his Christ. But “Caesar” refuses to bow to this right course. All the nations selfishly choose to perpetuate “Caesar” and to exploit Jehovah’s property, the earthly globe, and to ruin it and its populations. As pictured by the “ten kings”, they prefer to fulfill Revelation 17:12-14 (NW): “These have one purpose, and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast. These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also those called and chosen and faithful with him will do so.”

¹² Extreme nationalists, exasperated at the faithfulness of Jehovah’s witnesses to him, want to drive them off Jehovah’s own property and territory. They talk like godless totalitarians and loudly clamor for Jehovah’s witnesses to be deported from the country, as if these witnesses were living on soil where they did not belong. In fact, they would deport them from the face of the earth. Little do they appreciate that the faithful servants of Jehovah are the only ones who now have a right to occupy the earth. God will demonstrate that right in the battle between the Lamb and the worldly nations. There Jehovah will clear the earth of these fanatical superpatriots of this world and will let only his faithful witnesses survive on earth into the new world where all creatures will pay back to God the things belonging to God.

Subjection to the Higher Powers

1. How do the clergy make themselves part of this world, and how do they justify themselves in doing so?

THE clergy of Christendom have made themselves a part of this world. They freely meddle in the politics of this world and drag politics into their religious meetinghouses. In 1929, by means of a concordat with the late Fascist dictator Mussolini, the chief religionist re-established himself as a political ruler over a political state and now receives at his court the political ambassadors, ministers and chargés d’affaires from the various nations. Not only do the clergy pray for the political figures of the state and their policies, but in times of mortal combat between nations they let their religious unity be split and pray for the contending sides, each side praying to the same God in the name of the same Christ to bless their side against the other side, while Methodist sets out to destroy Methodist, Baptist Baptist, Catholic Catholic, Presbyterian Presbyterian, etc. The clergy and their religious flocks justify themselves in such actions by affirming that they must render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.

2. How do they explain Romans 13:1? With what effect on Christians?

² The clergy also quote the apostle’s writing at Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” This scripture, they explain, declares that Caesar and like political authorities are the “higher powers” ordained by God, and Christian souls must be subject to them, rendering full obedience to them. Under such ecclesiastical interpretation of the text it has been easy for so-called Christians to be drawn into political movements and be swung over to Nazi, Fascist, Communist and other dictators who set up a totalitarian state, brutally persecute the true worshipers of Jehovah and the faithful imitators of his Christ and set out on a course of military aggression for dominating the world and subjecting all peoples to their social, political ideologies.

3, 4. What do two newspaper reports show resulting from such clergy construing of the Scriptures?

³ What such clerical construing of the Scriptures has resulted in may be gathered from a couple of news reports. A special dispatch to the New York Times with the date line “Moscow, April 24” stated: “The elaborate celebration of the Russian Orthodox Easter opened last night with the traditional midnight services conducted by Patriarch Alexei at Moscow’s Yelokhovsky Cathedral. The cathedral was jammed to capacity. Just before midnight, Alexei uttered prayers for the Soviet people and for the preservation of peace and a BENEDICTION FOR THE LEADER OF THE SOVIET STATE, JOSEPH STALIN.”—New York Times, April 25, 1949.

⁴ The other dispatch was published by the South German Gazette (Sueddeutsche Zeitung) on December 7, 1945, and tells of the confession of the well-known Pastor Niemoeller shortly after the end of World War II. Bearing the date line “Frankfort on the Main, 6 December (DANA)”, this article with the heading “Criticism of the Evangelical Church” said: “Pastor Niemoeller preached here on the first Sunday in Advent to an audience of a thousand men and women of all professions and ages. He expressed the wish for peace and warned against those who say that peace is unrealizable and impossible. With sharp words Pastor Niemoeller severely criticized the Evangelical Church, which in former years and for hundreds of years has often SANCTIONED WARS AND BLESSED WEAPONS. He held out in contrast with them the courageous fighters who unflinchingly stood up for their ideas, making special mention of the Bibelforscher [Bible Students, or Jehovah’s witnesses] who to the number of thousands had suffered death in the concentration camps for the sake of their faith. The peace that we aspire to, said Niemoeller, and the work which awaits us, will not be made possible by an influential church, but solely by our return to modesty and love of one’s neighbor, the foundation of Christianity.”

NEED FOR RE-EXAMINING THE SCRIPTURES

5. How have many honest-hearted persons been affected by such things?

⁵ Not alone in Germany but in all the belligerent countries the clergy of all denominations asked divine blessings upon the carnal weapons of the destroyers of human lives and valuable property. Their religious flocks approved, applauded and supported the advances that were being made against the foe. But many honesthearted persons saw the excesses to which the clergy interpretation of vital scriptures led the professed followers of Christ Jesus, making them the easy pawns of totalitarian dictators who demanded for “Caesar” the abject subjection of the people to the political state. So they were filled with misgivings. They began to see there was need to re-examine the Holy Scriptures, for certainly God’s sacred Word was not to be interpreted in such a way that it led to such un-Christlike acts. In proof of such misgivings in honest hearts was the news received at the same time as the above dispatch from the American Zone of the then occupied Germany.

6. In proof of this what was the news from Frankfort on the Main?

⁶ The news was to this effect: That “in Frankfort a strong movement within the Evangelical Church is under way which is aiming at a reform in the church also in a theological sense. Nothing has been so detrimental to the Evangelical Church in the last 12 years as the theological principles expressed in the words: ‘Be subject to the higher powers, who have authority over you’—therefore also the Hitler dictatorship—and, ‘Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s—and, according to this, also ‘unto the Fuehrer the things which are the Fuehrer’s’. These teachings had made the crossing over into the camp of National Socialism all too easy and facilitated the further step of blessing cannon for the war. Teachings of this kind which were quite understandable from Luther’s standpoint have been outlived. Here a reform must be made”.

7. When did we re-examine Romans 13:1-7 and publish the conclusions? What has holding to those conclusions meant?

⁷ How far the Evangelical Church of Germany has gone in altering its understanding of the Scripture texts above referred to we are here not prepared to say. But in Pastor Niemoeller’s confession reported above he mentioned the Bibelforscher or Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany and the Christian course of action they took even under stress of dictatorship and World War II. Up till 1928 they, too, had held to the ecclesiastical interpretation of Romans 13:1-7 concerning the “higher powers”. But that year this scripture was taken under re-examination, especially in view of the fact that the “times of the Gentiles” had ended A.D. 1914 and God’s kingdom by Christ had then been established in the heavens to bring in a new world with eternal blessings for obedient men of good will. The conclusions arrived at were published in the June 1 and 15, 1929, issues of The Watchtower in the article, in two parts, entitled “The Higher Powers”. Holding to these conclusions ever since has cost many of Jehovah’s witnesses their personal liberty and even their lives. But persecution, imprisonment, exile, and violent death were also the price which Jesus’ faithful apostles paid for paying back to God God’s things and to Caesar only Caesar’s things and for rendering proper subjection to the true “higher powers”. But such sufferings are not to be compared with the everlasting reward they have received. So, because of the pertinence of the subject, now that totalitarian ideas and practices and the idolatry of the political state and its emblems are spreading, we here take up a discussion of the crucial text, Romans 13:1-7.

8, 9. How have the clergy applied Romans 13:1, and how is this shown in the dedication of the King James Bible Version?

⁸ The King James or Authorized Version of the Bible reads, at Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” The apostle Paul wrote those words to the Christian congregation at Rome when the Caesars were ruling the Roman Empire. The clergy of Christendom have interpreted Paul to mean here by the “higher powers” the political powers of this world. So they have used his words here as inspired instructions on rendering to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar. Understanding that the existing political powers have been ordained by God, the translators of the English Authorized Version were led to say the following in their dedication found in the front of each copy of this version:

⁹ “To the Most High and Mighty Prince, James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. The Translators of the Bible wish Grace, Mercy, and Peace through JESUS CHRIST our Lord. Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Sovereign, which Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, bestowed upon us the people of England, when first he sent Your Majesty’s Royal Person to rule and reign over us. . . . The Lord of heaven and earth bless Your Majesty with many and happy days, that, as his heavenly hand hath enriched Your Highness with many singular and extraordinary graces, so You may be the wonder of the world in this latter age for happiness and true felicity, to the honour of that great GOD, and the good of his Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour.”

10. Romans 13:1-7 are instructions to make payments back to whom? Why?

¹⁰ But rather than being instructions by the apostle to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, Romans 13:1-7 has since 1929 been taken by Jehovah’s witnesses to be instructions on rendering to God what belongs to God. Why? Because the expression “the higher powers” is now understood to mean primarily the Most High God and his reigning Son Jesus Christ. Surely there are no powers or authorities higher than these. As rendered by the recently issued New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Romans 13:1 reads: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God.” Jehovah God is the Supreme and Original Authority. He being the Creator of all things, it follows that he is the source of all authority for doing what is right. Because he is supreme and all creation is dependent upon him, no one has the right to question the Most High God on how he uses his authority, even though for a time we may not understand it. He does what he pleases, but what he does is always for good, since there can never be any unrighteousness or untruthfulness in him. “The Almighty is beyond our minds. Supreme in power and rich in justice, he violates no right.” “There is one thing God has said; ay, twice have I heard him say it: that power belongs to God.” (Job 37:23 and Ps. 62:11, Mo) The fact stands unassailable that Jehovah God is the Chief of the Superior Authorities. Every soul should be subject to him.

11. Why is Jesus’ authority also meant in that text?

¹¹ In saying “there is no authority except by God”, the apostle Paul also meant the authority possessed by God’s only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus admitted that his authority came from Jehovah God when he said: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, according as you have given him authority over all flesh, that, as regards the whole number which you have given him, he may give them everlasting life.” “For just as the Father has in himself the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son to have also in himself the gift of life. And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is. I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative; just as I hear, I judge, and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me.” (John 17:1, 2 and Joh 5:26, 27, 30, NW) After Jesus had proved his complete subjection to his heavenly Father as the Supreme Authority of the universe even to dying on the torture stake, God raised him from the dead to immortal life in the heavens. Then the resurrected Jesus said to his disciples: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.” (Matt. 28:18, NW) Such full authority was God’s gift to him for his perfect faithfulness.

12. From what government do man-made governments till now stem? How is it shown whether this has been with divine authority?

¹² On the clergy interpretation of Romans 13:1 has been based the Roman Catholic doctrine of the “divine right of kings”. Man-made governments since the flood of Noah’s day stem from Nimrod’s government at Babel or Babylon. “Cush [Noah’s grandson] was the father of Nimrod, who was the first person on the earth to be a despot. . . . The nucleus of his kingdom was Babylon.” (Gen. 10:8-10, AT; Mo) A public accusation was recently made in Quebec against Jehovah’s witnesses in these words: “Finally, the witnesses are anarchists, for they consider that all the governments of the world, from Nimrod to our days, have been under Satan’s inspiration.”a But can anybody say that Nimrod had the “divine right of kings” and that his despotic kingdom at Babylon was set up under the inspiration and by the authority of Jehovah God? His own Word, at Genesis 10:8-10, describes Nimrod as setting himself up in opposition to Jehovah, as being mightier than Jehovah. None of the man-made political governments since Nimrod’s day can prove from God’s Word that they draw authority from God for their existence.

13, 14. How does Revelation 13:1-12 show the source of their authority?

¹³ The Bible describes political governments under the form of wild beasts. (Dan. 7:1-24) Revelation symbolizes the worldly political system which has dominated the earth since Nimrod’s day down to the twentieth century as a beast from the sea. It symbolizes the empire that has dominated the world since the seventeenth century as a beast out of the earth. It symbolizes Satan the Devil as the dragon. Showing symbolically the source of worldly political authority it says:

¹⁴ “And the dragon [not God] gave the beast its power and its throne and great authority. And they worshiped the dragon because he gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshiped the wild beast . . . And I saw another wild beast ascending out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, but it began speaking as a dragon. And it exercises all the authority of the first wild beast in its sight.”—Rev. 13:2, 4, 11, 12, NW.

15. Why, then, cannot Jehovah’s witnesses or Jesus himself be rightly accused of being anarchistic?

¹⁵ The Bible is not anarchistic for revealing that fact; and neither are Jehovah’s witnesses for teaching the Bible. They are the most law-abiding, order-keeping people on the earth. Jesus was not anarchistic because he refused to deviate from God’s law to please men and devils. Because he recognized that man-made governments did not derive their authority from God but were under the inspiration of Satan, he refused to meddle in them or take the headship over them. It was Satan the Devil, and not God, who offered him all the authority and glory of the kingdoms of this world if Jesus would do an act of worship to Satan. But Jesus was anointed with God’s spirit to the kingdom of the heavens, and he refused to try to form a fusion government with Satan in order to gain the authority over the kingdoms of this world. Jesus even refused to be elected king by the popular vote of the Jewish people, because he recognized that his appointment and his authority to be king came from God. He did not derive his power to govern from the consent of the governed, that is to say, from the people. (Luke 4:5-8; John 6:14, 15) So he kept subject to the Supreme Authority, God.

ARGUMENTS MET

16. How do the clergy refer to Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus to bolster their argument?

¹⁶ Clergymen who insist that political powers of this world are the higher authorities to which we are to be subject bring forward certain scriptures to bolster their argument. They quote Daniel’s words in interpreting the dream to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.” And on the night that Babylon fell to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, Daniel said to King Belshazzar: “O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: and for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him.” (Dan. 2:37, 38; 5:18, 19) In harmony with this Jehovah God told the Israelites by the prophet Jeremiah: “And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon”; and he told the Israelites to go out and yield themselves in subjection to the king of Babylon. (Jer. 27:5-13, 17) Then, too, there are the words of Cyrus the conqueror of Babylon: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (2 Chron. 36:22, 23, AS; Ezra 1:1, 2) Do not these scriptures prove that the political powers of this world of today draw their authority from Jehovah God and are ordained by him?

17. How do we answer their argument in harmony with Revelation 13:1-12?

¹⁷ The foregoing scriptures must be harmonized with Revelation, chapter 13, and other texts which show the political powers of this world are by and are under the “ruler of this world”, “the god of this system of things.” “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (John 12:31 and; 2 Cor. 4:4 and; 1 John 5:19, NW) So it must be remembered that both Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were used as types. In destroying Jerusalem in 607 B.C. and taking the Jews captive to Babylon Nebuchadnezzar was being used as Jehovah’s executioner against the unfaithful Jewish nation. For this reason Jehovah spoke of him as “my servant” and gave him the domination over other nations of this world. In this capacity Nebuchadnezzar was a type of Jesus Christ. God uses Christ as his executioner of vengeance against Jerusalem’s modern counterpart, Christendom, and God also gives him the domination over all the nations of this world before destroying them at the battle of Armageddon. In conquering Babylon and restoring the exiled Jews to Palestine to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem Cyrus king of Persia was also used as a type. For this reason Jehovah God gave the kingdoms of this world into the hand of Cyrus. This prefigured that God would use Jesus Christ to destroy the Devil’s organization, mystic Babylon, and would use him to restore Jehovah’s witnesses to the pure and free worship of God in this “time of the end” of the world and would make him ruler over all the earth.

18, 19. How, therefore, does this prove political governments are not the “superior authorities”, and how far do we obey them?

¹⁸ It cannot be said of the other political powers and authorities of this world that they were types of Christ as God’s Chief Servant and that therefore God gave such political powers their authority. Certainly Caesar’s government in killing the Son of God and thereafter persecuting his faithful followers was not a type of Christ’s government authorized by God. Jesus told the Roman government: “You would have no authority at all against me unless it had been granted to you from above. This is why the man that handed me over to you has greater sin.” (John 19:11, NW) But God did not approve of the Roman government for executing Jesus at Calvary. Neither did he hold it without sin for doing so. Likewise he does not authorize and give approval to political governments of today in persecuting the Christian witnesses of Jehovah.

¹⁹ The political powers of this world are, therefore, not the “superior authorities” to whom Christian souls are to be subject in every demand they make. Every law and statute that is in harmony with righteousness the true Christians will obey in an exemplary fashion. But any law and demand made in conflict with the superior laws and commandments of God they will not obey, for that would mean to render to “Caesar” what belongs to God.

20. How did Jesus’ apostles take this same position, and why?

²⁰ Jesus’ apostles took this position. In their day the Jewish Sánhedrin at Jerusalem was charged with certain judicial and legal functions by Caesar’s government. But it was not for this reason part of the “superior authorities” among Jesus’ followers. Jesus had separated his disciples from the natural Israelites and had formed them into a spiritual Israel, “the Israel of God.” (Gal. 6:16) So the Jewish Sánhedrin was no longer a governing body among God’s true people, but was an alien governmental body now. Its being a religious body of priests and clergymen added nothing to its power over Jewish Christians. So when it demanded of the apostles that they stop preaching Jesus Christ to the people at Jerusalem, Peter and John answered the Sánhedrin: “Whether it is righteous in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your decision. But as for us, we cannot stop speaking about the things we have seen and heard.” A second time before the Sánhedrin for refusing to obey their court order, Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, . . . And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” (Acts 4:19, 20 and Ac 5:29-32, NW) But for this refusal to obey the anti-God order of the Jewish Supreme Court Peter and the other apostles could not be accused of being anarchists or subversive. God gave them and not the Sánhedrin his holy spirit, thus showing whom he approved and authorized.

21. Hence from what have Christians refrained, from the first century on?

²¹ In view of not recognizing worldly political powers as the “superior authorities” ordained by God, but recognizing only God and Jesus Christ to be such now, the Christian witnesses conscientiously refrain from taking part in the politics of this world, yes, even from voting. This has been true of them from the first century on. Testifying to this fact, Ancient Times—A History of the Early World, by Jas. H. Breasted, Ph.D., LL.D., says, under the heading, “1070. Rome persecutes the early Christians,” the following: “The officers of government often found these early converts not only refusing to sacrifice to the emperor as a god but also openly prophesying the downfall of the Roman State. The early Christians were therefore more than once called upon to endure cruel persecution. Their religion seemed incompatible with good citizenship, since it forbade them to show the usual respect for the emperor and the government.”—Page 663, edition of 1916.

22. How are they to proceed where voting is made compulsory by law?

²² In some countries today the legislature wants to make all the adult citizens responsible for the government. To enforce the democratic way upon them they are required by law to vote in the national elections. Under such circumstances what are Christians to do, since they are under divine command to keep themselves unspotted from this world? By dedicating themselves wholly to God through Christ they have vowed their unswerving allegiance to the kingdom of God, and they cannot divide their allegiance. So how are they now to proceed? Can they register as qualified voters? Yes. The apostle Paul held onto his Roman citizenship and fought for its rights, even appealing to Caesar in defending his right to preach the gospel. In lands where military conscription is in force Jehovah’s witnesses register the same as all others within the age limits, and they write down their relationship to the matter. They remember how Joseph and Mary complied with Caesar’s decree and traveled to Bethlehem-Judah in order to be registered at their home town. (Luke 2:1-5, NW) But it is when these ministers of Jehovah’s Word are called up for induction into the army that then they present themselves and take their stand according to God’s Word and pay to him what belongs to him. Likewise where Caesar makes it compulsory for citizens to vote. After they have registered and when election day comes, they can go to the polls and enter the voting booths. It is here that they are called upon to mark the ballot or write in what they stand for. The voters do what they will with their ballots. So here in the presence of God is where his witnesses must act in harmony with his commandments and in accordance with their faith.

23, 24. What do they do where voting is not compulsory, and why?

²³ It is not our responsibility to instruct them what to do with the ballot. They must act in accord with their conscience as enlightened by the study of God’s Word. In lands where voting is not compulsory, the ministers of Jehovah’s Word remember that his people are theocratically organized. According to the divine law under which they are organized the popular vote of the majority does not put servants in office, but all appointments in the theocratic organization are from God and through those whom he puts in authority in his organization. Even in his visible organization the individual members of the congregation do not vote democratically and put qualified men into positions of overseers and ministerial servants by majority vote. No, but the appointments to all official positions of service are made by the spirit of God and through the governing body according to the Scriptural requirements. Even the governing body which make the appointments are under instructions from the “superior authorities”, God and his Christ. To them it is written: “Never lay your hands hastily upon any man; neither be a sharer in the sins of others; preserve yourself pure.” (1 Tim. 3:1-13 and 1Ti 5:22, NW) So the ministers of Jehovah’s Word do not possess the vote within his organization. As for the governing body, it does not lay its hands hastily upon a consecrated person, lest it should become responsible for his sins in office due to a hasty appointment of an undependable, unqualified person.

²⁴ Since they do not exercise the popular vote to put even consecrated servants into office even within the theocratic organization, they consider it improper to exercise the democratic vote by which unconsecrated persons are put into worldly political offices. They do not choose to share in the responsibility for the sins of such worldlings in governmental offices. They want to preserve themselves pure from this world. They abide by God’s appointments through his theocratic organization, and they accept his appointment of Jesus Christ to the kingship of the righteous new world.

THE AUTHORITIES ORDAINED BY GOD

25, 26. Where are the existing authorities placed in position by God?

²⁵ Paul was a member of the governing body of the congregation of the first century. He gives the reason for being in subjection to the superior authorities, saying: “The existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God.” (Rom. 13:1, NW) How could this be true of worldly political governments? There those in official positions are put in by popular vote, by machine party-politics, by dictatorial seizure of power, by executive appointment, by hereditary law of a dynasty, by legislative action or parliamentary appointment. God is not manipulating worldly politics like a political boss. It is only within his theocratic organization that the existing authorities stand placed in various positions with relationship to one another by God. In the preceding chapter Paul writes: “Just as we have in one body many members, but the members do not all have the same function, so we, although many, are one body in union with Christ, but members belonging individually to one another.”—Rom. 12:4, 5, NW.

²⁶ In an earlier letter to the congregation at Corinth Paul writes concerning the same theocratic body and says: “But now God has set the members in the body, each one of them, just as he pleased. . . . God compounded the body, giving honor more abundant to the part which had a lack, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have the same care for one another. Now you are Christ’s body, and members individually. And God has set the respective ones in the congregation, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then powerful works; then gifts of healings; helpful services, abilities to direct, different tongues.”—1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 18, 24, 25, 27, 28, NW.

27, 28. So who is highest, and who has been placed next highest?

²⁷ Rightfully Jehovah God has reserved for himself the position of Supreme One of the “superior authorities”. He shares that position with no one else, trinitarians to the contrary. Whom, then, has he placed next highest with relation to himself? Jesus Christ, who proved his loyalty to his heavenly Father to a violent death in the midst of Satan’s hostile world. “Keep this mental attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God’s form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave’s form and came to be in the likeness of men. More than that, when he found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake. For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”—Phil. 2:5-11, NW.

²⁸ Further testifying that the Most High God has made Jesus Christ one of the “superior authorities”, Paul writes: “It is according to the operation of the mightiness of his strength, with which he has operated in the case of the Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every government and authority and power and lordship and every name named, not only in this system of things, but also in that to come. He also subjected all things under his feet, and made him head over all things to the congregation, which is his body.” (Eph. 1:19-23, NW) “He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven, and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him.”—1 Pet. 3:22, NW.

29. To whom, therefore, does God rightly command us to be subject? How is our subjectlon to him pictured?

²⁹ Since Jesus has thus been exalted next to God far above every other government in this world or in that which is to come, then God rightly commands us who adhere to his organization to be subject to Christ Jesus as the Head of the congregation which is his body. To picture this theocratic subjection of the congregation to its Head Christ Jesus, the Christian wives maintain themselves subject to their husbands. To show they are subject to the “superior authorities”, they do not usurp authority over the men in the congregation and set themselves up as teachers. (1 Cor. 14:33-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-13) When they receive an appointment through the theocratic organization and temporarily occupy the position of service that a man should carry out within the congregation, they subject themselves to the rule at 1 Corinthians 11:10 (NW): “That is why the woman ought to have a sign of authority upon her head because of the angels.” They are safeguarded through such. subjection.

GOVERNING BODY

30. Who else were superior authorities in the first century? Why?

³⁰ The entire body of Christ is to be associated with Jesus in the heavenly kingdom in the world to come. This Kingdom body with Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords will be Jehovah’s capital organization over the universe. It was during the first century that “God has set the respective ones in the congregation, first, apostles”. (1 Cor. 12:28, NW) Hence in the theocratic organization the apostles, that is, the “twelve apostles of the Lamb”, were next to Jesus Christ the Head. (Rev. 21:14) Hence they formed part of the “superior authorities” to which every Christian soul was to be subject. This is indicated to us by various scriptures.

31. How does Paul further indicate that fact, even in his own case?

³¹ For example, Paul speaks of those then governing within the entire congregation, saying: “Remember those who are governing you, who have spoken the word of God to you, and as you contemplate how their conduct turns out imitate their faith. Be obedient to those who are governing you and be submissive, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will render an account, that they may do this with joy and not with sighing, for this would be damaging to you. Give my greetings to all those who are governing you and to all the holy ones.” (Heb. 13:7, 17, 24, NW) In no way could this refer to political governors appointed by Caesar or by the Roman Senate. Paul says that these holy governors spoke God’s Word to the Christians and their conduct showed faith that is worthy of Christian imitation and they were keeping watch over the souls of the congregation most conscientiously because they had to give an accounting to God. Paul was one of that governing body, and in a number of places he speaks of his authority, which God gave him in the congregation in order to build it up and not tear it down.—1 Cor. 9:12, 18; 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; 2 Thess. 3:9.

32. How about the governing body on earth today?

³² According to the theocratic arrangement today there must be a governing body for the congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth. The facts show these to be associated with the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. However, the twentieth-century governing body are not a part of the “superior authorities” as the twelve apostles were. They are subject to the invisible “superior authorities” and merely represent them on earth.

33. Who is the Head Governor? What class has he now promoted in service, and does this make it part of the superior authorities?

³³ Christ Jesus now is invisibly present in his second par·ou·siʹa and is the acting Head Governor over his congregation. He is the one whose birth on earth was foretold at Micah 5:2, the prophecy which is quoted at Matthew 2:6: “You, however, O Bethlehem of the land of Judah, are by no means the most insignificant city among the governors of Judah; for out of you will come forth a leader who will shepherd my people, Israel.” (NW) In the capacity of Governor with superior authority Jesus in this his second par·ou·siʹa appoints his anointed slave class to a more responsible service and so fulfills his own prophecy: “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics to give them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to you that he will appoint him over all his belongings.” (Matt. 24:45-47, NW) But that does not mean making this “faithful and discreet slave” class a part of the “superior authorities” to wield the sword of execution. Since the appointment of this faithful class is theocratic, they should be respected and their services should be gladly received as from the “superior authorities”.

[Footnotes]

Execution of Judgment upon Opposers

1. To what organization does Romans 13:2 apply? So why must the “authority” be respected and not taken a stand against?

IT IS with respect to Jehovah’s theocratic organization that Paul says: “Therefore he who ranges himself up against the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God; those who have taken a stand against it will receive judgment to themselves.” (Rom. 13:2, NW) Jehovah God has built up a universal organization of his faithful creatures in heaven and earth, and various creatures he sets in positions with special authority. These represent him, and for this reason they are to be respected. They have not assumed this authority themselves. They received it from God in a theocratic way. We are therefore to respect the “authority”, the office which the servant of God occupies, even though personally we might want to take exception to the servant in the office. God set up the theocratic organization of the Christian congregation. He made Jesus of Nazareth Head of it and also stationed unlettered and ordinary men as apostles next to him in the organization. The unbelieving Jews, especially their religious leaders, opposed this arrangement of God, and persecuted Jesus and his apostles. In doing so they were taking a stand against God’s arrangement and really fighting him. Gamaliel, a Law teacher, warned the Jewish Sánhedrin of this, saying: “Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; (because, if this scheme and this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.” (Acts 5:38, 39, NW) Because it is God’s arrangement against which the opposers take a stand and fight, they subject themselves to direct judgment from him. They will surely have it executed upon them by him.

2. Why has the course of the nations since 1914 shown they are not the “superior authorities”? Why cannot we range ourselves with them?

² A.D. 1914 the appointed times of the nations expired. Then God put his Son into authority as King of the new world. Thus the “authority of his Christ” came, and God says now: “Let all God’s angels worship him.” (Rev. 12:10 and Heb. 1:6, NW) The nations of this world, intent on keeping up their own domination of the earth, opposed this theocratic appointment of Christ, and they have since raged and imagined vain things in opposition. Jehovah’s witnesses continue to warn them that they have thus taken a stand against the invincible arrangement of God and will receive adverse judgment from him for it. His fiery judgment will be executed upon them in their utter destruction at the battle of Armageddon. For this special reason the worldly political rulers could not be the “superior authorities” to whom Christian souls are to be subject in everything. Were we to subject ourselves to them in their ideas for perpetuating their political domination of the earth, we would be ranging ourselves with them against Jehovah’s kingdom and his Christ. We would then receive judgment to ourselves with them and would suffer annihilation with them at Armageddon.

3, 4. Are worldly rulers no object of fear to the good deed? Are they God’s ministers to us for good?

³ It is for our good that we subject ourselves to the “superior authorities” and to God’s arrangement of them. “For those ruling are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the evil. Do you, then, want to have no fear of the authority? Keep doing good, and you will have praise from it; for it is God’s minister to you for your good.” (Rom. 13:3, 4, NW) This cannot be said of worldly rulers, who connive at evildoers and praise and eulogize those who practice wickedness in this system of things. The greatest good deed that a person could perform is to serve God according to his commandments and to act as a minister of his Word, bearing witness to his name, purpose and universal sovereignty. But in lands behind the “iron curtain” and in so-called democratic lands where fascistic dictators and totalitarian hierarchies hold control, Jehovah’s witnesses are forbidden to perform such a good deed. In fact, in all lands they are penalized in various ways for serving the living, true God in harmony with his Word. They are hated by all nations and peoples.—Matt. 10:22; 24:9.

⁴ Because worldly rulers terrorize and create fear in those who want to do the good deed, multitudes of people are frightened off from taking their stand openly for Jehovah and his kingdom and associating themselves with his witnesses in worshiping and serving him. So such political rulers are not God’s ministers to us for good. Let such rulers examine themselves and honestly admit it.

5, 6. Who as ruler is God’s minister fearful to evildoers? How does he praise those who do good?

⁵ Concerning Jesus Christ it was prophesied: “There will be the root of Jesse [King David’s father], and there will be one arising to rule nations; on him nations will rest their hope.” Since Jesus’ resurrection from death and his glorification in heaven he is “The Ruler of the kings of the earth”. (Rom. 15:12 and Rev. 1:5, NW) He is indeed an object of fear to those doing evil, but he is an encourager of those doing good according to God’s will. These have no fear of him in his position of authority since 1914, but good-will persons of all nations are led to rest their hope in him.

⁶ For doing good in obedience to God’s Word we do receive praise, so that we know we have the divine approval and blessing. Because the “other sheep” do good to the anointed witnesses who are Christ’s brothers, the King Jesus Christ says: “Come, you who have my Father’s blessing, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation. . . . To the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:34, 40, NW) So in the strictest sense the Ruler Jesus Christ is God’s minister or servant for our highest good. He assures us of his approval despite the scorn, condemnation and persecution by the rulers of this world. And those in the theocratic organization who represent the “superior authorities” in an official capacity will likewise praise those who do good and will encourage them.

7. What does the authority bear, and for what purpose? Where will Christ use it toward the nations, and how?

⁷ “But if you are doing evil, be in fear: for it is not without purpose that it [the authority] bears the sword; for it is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing evil.” (Rom. 13:4, NW) How true this is in this “time of the end” since 1914! The judgment of the nations is moving ahead. It is a time to fear to do evil. Rather, seek righteousness, meekness and godliness, because Jehovah’s authorized Ruler of the new world, Jesus Christ, is on the throne and ruling in the midst of his foes. He is God’s avenger and the vindicator of His universal sovereignty. The sword which the authority bears symbolizes God-given power to execute judgment and cut off those who range themselves against God. Hence the symbolic description of Christ as he rides to execute God’s vengeance at Armageddon tells us: “Out of his mouth there protrudes a sharp long sword, that he may smite the nations with it, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 19:15, NW) So upon the nations practicing evil he will act as the avenger to express the divine wrath. At Armageddon he will not recognize the political powers of this world as the “superior authorities” with absolute control over every human soul. No, but he will destroy them. He will treat them as his footstool, beneath his feet, and he will tread them to destruction in the winepress of God’s wrath. Then there will no more be a “Caesar” to whom anything must be paid. All things will be God’s and be paid back to him.—1 Cor. 15:24-28.

“ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR CONSCIENCE”

8. How did the apostles act with sword-bearing authority?

⁸ In the first century of the Christian congregation the apostles as part of the “superior authorities” exercised considerable power. As inspired spokesmen for God they expressed his judgments against evildoers in the congregation, this in cases being immediately followed by their punishment. Recall how Ananias and Sapphira fell down at once and expired when Peter pointed out that they had played false, not to men, but to God. What effect did this have on others? “Consequently great fear came over the whole congregation and over all those hearing about these things.” When the apostle Paul and Barnabas were preaching before the Roman proconsul on the island of Crete and the sorcerer, the Jewish false prophet Elymas, opposed the divine message, Paul pronounced the divine judgment upon him. “Instantly a thick mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went around seeking men to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, upon seeing what had happened, became a believer, as he was astounded at the teaching of Jehovah.” (Acts 5:1-11 and Ac 13:6-12, NW) It was indeed not without purpose that the divine authority, which the apostles represented, bore the sword.

9, 10. What is the compelling reason for us to be in subjection? Why?

⁹ It is fear-inspiring to contemplate the execution of God’s judgment against evildoing. But not just for motives of fear should we avoid evil-doing and do good. The more powerful driving force in us should be the conscientious love of righteousness. Hence the apostle says: “There is therefore compelling reason for you to be in subjection, not only on account of that wrath but also on account of your conscience.” (Rom. 13:5, NW) It gives us peace of heart and freedom from fear if we have the approval of our conscience. But to be sure that our conscience is a true and safe indicator of the rightness of our actions it should be taught by God’s Word.

¹⁰ If we love life and want divine approval, we, of course, want to do right and escape God’s wrath. Fear of wrath is not the greatest power for right-doing. “The demons believe and shudder.” (Jas. 2:19, NW) But for all their fear of divine wrath they do not break away from evil-doing in the Devil’s organization. However, where we have a conscience trained in righteousness and we want it always to approve us for doing right, we will abandon evil-doing and will devote ourselves to right-doing. Subjecting ourselves to the “superior authorities” because they are the arrangement of God is right. So, not just to avoid God’s wrath, but rather for the sake of our good conscience, we will keep ourselves in subjection to the “superior authorities”. This results in everlasting life to us, for it vindicates the universal sovereignty of God.

11. Why, then, do we primarily pay tribute? And what purpose do God’s public servants constantly serve?

¹¹ With authority Jesus told his followers to pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, including the payment of taxes. And so for conscience’ sake we pay tribute to “Caesar” as long as Almighty God lets him continue on earth. “For that is why you are also paying tribute,” Paul wrote to the Christians who were at Rome, the very capital of Caesar the great imposer of tax and tribute. Then with reference again to Jehovah’s theocratic organization Paul adds: “For they are God’s public servants constantly serving this very purpose.” (Rom. 13:6, NW) Christ and his apostles, clothed with authority from God and thus given superiority within his organization, are and must be his public servants. God keeps a close supervision of them and holds them responsible for the way they use their delegated authority. To him they must in due time render account on how they used their authority in his name. So it behooves these superior authorities under the Most High to serve his purpose constantly for the eternal good of those who subject themselves according to God’s will. Christ Jesus and his associates in heaven will do so.

12. What dues will we render to various ones, as commanded?

¹² The apostle now concludes the discussion, showing that we can pay back “Caesar’s” things conscientiously to “Caesar” while at the same time paying back God’s things to God. In view of Jesus’ words and the apostle’s instructions, this course denotes our subjection to the “superior authorities”. Paul says: “Render to all their dues, to him who calls for tribute [levied on persons and land estates], the tribute; to him who calls for tax [on commercial items], the tax; to him who calls for fear, such fear; to him who calls for honor, such honor.” (Rom. 13:7, NW) The superior authorities within the divine organization call for our proper fear and honor. These due things we will render them. To “Caesar” we will render what is due him for the services he renders us, but we will not let him crowd in upon our worship of the Most High God by decrees against the arrangement of God. We will “be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna”, that is, the Almighty and Most High. (Matt. 10:28, NW) To persons in prominent positions within “Caesar’s” organization we will give due and proper respect, but will do so with fear of God. “Honor men of all kinds,” writes Peter, “have love for the whole association of brothers, be in fear of God, have honor for the king.” (1 Pet. 2:17, NW) In the fear of God we will honor his King whom he has clothed with new world authority.

13. What will we always be paying one another as owing them? In obedience to what command will we be subject to superior authorities?

¹³ Pursuing this course prescribed by the Supreme Authority, we will be paying to everybody what is due him. Our obligations in this world both to “Caesar” and to God we will discharge, so that in the final judgment no unpaid debts can be charged against us. One thing we will always be owing our fellow creature, and that is love, love of our neighbor as ourselves. This we will endeavor to pay always, in obedience to the apostolic instruction: “Do not be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another; for he that loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” (Rom. 13:8, NW) In obedience to the greatest commandment of all, that of loving God completely, we will be subject to the “superior authorities”.

An Answer to “The Baptist Record”

Oct. 11, 1950.

The Baptist Record,

Baptist Building,

Jackson 105, Miss.

Attention of A. L. Goodrich, D.D., Editor

Gentlemen:

In your edition of The Baptist Record of Thursday, August 31, copy of which has been referred to us, you call public notice to the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures released on August 2 at Yankee Stadium, New York city, at the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses. Your page 1 presents verbatim the Religious News Service (RNS) announcement of this new translation, but it is on your editorial page (4) where you make your attitude known toward this twentieth-century translation of the Christian Scriptures from the original Greek into language that people talk and understand today. A Christian work of this kind is certain to make the sacred Scriptures more understandable to the people and more loved by them, with a transforming effect on their lives in these days when godless communism is cutting deep swaths through the ranks of Christendom.

But you find no commendation for it. Your editorial comment is headed “The Cross Is Not A Stake”. First it calls attention to the RNS announcement and then at once declares your lack of confidence in the New World Translation. The prejudice that stamps your editorial is plainly because the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society obtained possession of this Scripture Translation and is publishing it. We observe that on page one your article headed “Georgia Senators Will Oppose Ambassador to Vatican” reflects your opposition to the Roman Catholic religious system. So we wonder whether you are likewise prejudiced against the Douay Version of the Bible and other versions of the Holy Scriptures recently brought out by such men as Monsignor Ronald Knox, Rev. F. A. Spencer, Rev. Cuthbert Lattey, S.J., the Episcopal Committee of the Catholic Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, etc., just because of their being Catholic translators.

In its English publications the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society has made many quotations from all these Roman Catholic translations, quoting all together from upward of 70 different Bible translations. But you discourage the use of the New World Translation by Baptists and any other readers of your paper because of who publishes it. You do this without investigation.

To further bias your readers against the New World Translation you comment sarcastically on the fact that the translators have chosen to remain unnamed, letting the merit of the translation rest, not on names, but upon its faithful rendition of the Scriptures from their original language. You impugn the motives of the translators for doing so. Your second paragraph reads: “Note that the translators ‘wish to remain anonymous even after death.’ We don’t blame them. If the facts as stated in the article mentioned above are true, they deserve to remain anonymous both before and after death.”

Your comment is on a par with that of The Catholic Telegraph Register, of August 18, section two, pages 1, 4, which says: “Although the Witnesses claim that their translation is the ‘product of three years’ research by an international commission of Biblical scholars in New York city’—albeit the identity of the translators is being withheld at their own request—they are not likely to make much impression on either Catholic or Protestant scholars. It is no wonder that the translators wish to remain unknown.” (Monsignor Matthew Smith) Although they disagree violently among themselves on many points of doctrine and practice, how alike in attitude the clergy of the various wings of orthodox religion of Christendom are toward what is unorthodox!

However, is a work of Scripture to be condemned because the producers do not choose to advertise themselves but let all the glory go to the Author of the Scriptures, God? Then The Twentieth Century New Testament is to be condemned without investigation because those responsible for it, “a company of about twenty persons, members of various sections of the Christian Church,” chose to remain anonymous and merely signed their Preface “The Translators”, November, 1898. Likewise any other anonymous translations of the Scriptures. Then, too, the anonymous books of the Bible, such as 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Hebrews, and those which give a name but no details about the one named, are to be condemned, their scholarship is to be doubted and contemned, and their ableness for the task of writing is to be suspected. In its appraisal of the New World Translation Committee, The Baptist Record has shown an absence of scholarship. A true scholar would first investigate and honestly study a newly produced work before passing judgment upon its producers according to his own preconceived notions and indoctrination. A trustworthy scholar will in this case follow the Scriptural rule, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.”—1 Thessalonians 5:21.

There is no excuse for your position. The New World Translation was released August 2 and various news agencies at once published this event. Between then and the date you published your paper you had four weeks in which to procure a copy. But your editorial betrays that you failed to get a copy and make a thorough examination of all its many features which are well documented and authenticated. And yet you presume to pass judgment on the New World Translation and condemn it without investigation to all your readers. For this, your responsibility is great before the Bible’s great Author.

The pitfall into which such a course will lead a clergyman is revealed in your third paragraph, which makes you ridiculous before all true Biblical scholars. You say therein: “It is also stated that reference to the Trinity have been omitted. [sic] Instead of the phrase ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ the new translation uses the words ‘the spirit, the water, and the blood.’ That is just one sample of the unscriptural teaching Jehovah’s Witnesses. [sic] In other words the phrase ‘the spirit, the water, and the blood’ in the place of the ‘The Father, Son and Holy Ghost’ [sic] is not according to the original Greek in which the New Testament was written.”

Of course, The Baptist Record should know that the word “trinity” does not occur in any English edition of the Bible, nor even in the Latin translation of the original Greek, but the equivalents for it, triás and trinitas, were introduced into ecclesiastical writings by Theophilus and Tertullian in the late second century. The Baptist Record should know, too, that the words “Holy Ghost” do not occur in the American Standard Version of the Bible but that it uses the words “holy spirit”; and so do other modern versions.

Hence your statement that “reference to the Trinity have been omitted” is begging the question. Had you been cautious and procured first a copy of the New World Translation and read Matthew 28:19, you would have seen that this translation reads: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.”

But the scripture text to which The Baptist Record particularly refers is the one upon which trinitarians have relied for centuries as their strongest buttress, namely, 1 John 5:7, 8. The New World Translation renders the phrase “the spirit and the water and the blood” because they are there in the authentic Greek text, but it does not render what is not there in the Greek text. So you are absolutely false when you say, “The phrase ‘the spirit, the water, and the blood’ in the place of the ‘The Father, Son and Holy Ghost’ is not according to the original Greek in which the New Testament was written.”

The New World Translation does not substitute the one phrase for the other here, but it translates only what is in the Greek. It refuses to violate the Bible rule: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”—Proverbs 30:6; also Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18.

And when talking of the “original Greek in which the New Testament was written”, we ask you, To which edition of the Greek text do you refer? You are referring to a Greek text from which the King James Version of 1611 was translated, but which is a text now rejected by true scholars because of the many mistakes, additions and omissions which mark it, so that the King James Version has been convicted of containing over 20,000 errors. On page 8 of its Foreword the New World Translation apprizes us that the Greek text it used as its basis was the Westcott and Hort text of 1881, while at the same time it considered three other twentieth century editions of the Greek text by Protestant and Catholic scholars. Dr. Philip Schaff called the Westcott-Hort text “the purest Greek text” and “the last and best edition of the Greek Testament”. So your reference to the original Greek text was indeed a fast play to deceive your readers; for the Westcott-Hort Greek text does not contain the phrase “The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” at 1 John 5:7, 8, but it reads just as the New World Translation has faithfully rendered it.

You show ignorance of the contents of your own Baptist publications. We refer to the translation of The Holy Bible of the American Baptist Publication Society, of 1913. At 1 John 5:7, 8 it also reads: “⁷ For there are three that testify; the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; ⁸ and the three agree in one [testimony].” Is this Baptist rendition guilty of substituting “spirit, water and blood” for “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”? Is this Baptist rendering contrary to the “original Greek in which the New Testament was written”? Your charge against the New World Translation of omitting “reference to the Trinity” you are now obliged to level against your very own Baptist translation.

You call the New World Translation fantastic in its translation, when you say in your fourth paragraph: “Another sample of their fantastic translation is the fact that the terms ‘hell,’ and ‘cross’ have been omitted in favor of ‘hades’ and ‘stake’. There is absolutely no authority for translating the cross as stake.”

You might as well accuse the American Standard Version for fantastic translation, because in the 8 places where “hades” occurs in the Greek text it renders that word “Hades” in English and never “hell”. Your Baptist Bible chooses to render “hades” as “underworld” instead of “hell”. But in the 13 places in the American Standard Version where the word “hell” does appear, it is not translated from the Greek “hades”. It is translated 12 times from “gehenna” and once from “tartaroʹo”; and in its footnotes the American Standard Version is honest enough to admit that these are original words in the Greek text.

The New World Translation is not fantastic but is literal in its translation when it renders the Greek words “hades, gehenna and tartaros” into English as “Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus”. In a 43-page Appendix those words are explained according to their Scriptural meaning. While we are on that point, note the famous text of Matthew 16:18. There the Revised Standard Version of 1946 translates Jesus as saying to Peter “the powers of death” instead of “the gates of hell”; and in its footnote it says: “Greek the gates of Hades.” Does that strike you as fantastic translation? It knocks one prop for your medieval hell from under you.

Your heading says, “The cross is not a stake,” and your paragraph four says it is fantastic to use “stake” instead of “cross”. Infected unwittingly as you are with Roman Catholic doctrine, you could be expected to speak that way. If you had not been so foolish as to blurt out before investigation but had gotten a copy of the New World Translation and read what pages 768-771 of the Appendix say on Matthew 10:38 and “torture stake”, you would have been more restrained in your editorial. You would have learned that the instrument of torture which the Greeks called staurós, and the Latins crux, was originally only a stake without a crossbeam at any angle. Consult your International Encyclopedia or other exhaustive reference work upon the subject for yourself. There is no factual, historical proof that Jesus was nailed to a cross such as Roman Catholics idolize. It is only a fiction that Helena, queen mother of Emperor Constantine, found by miraculous agencies the “true cross”.

The New World Translation is not alone in maintaining that Jesus was executed upon a stake. If you have a copy of The Companion Bible Part V. The Gospels, published by the Oxford University Press, then turn to its Appendix No. 162 entitled “The Cross and Crucifixion” (page 186). After a lengthy discussion of considerable evidence the article concludes: “The evidence is thus complete, that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed at any angle.” Evidently you, in your reading of the Bible, have failed to attach due significance to the fact that the apostle Peter speaks of it only as a “tree” (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 1 Peter 2:24), and the apostle Paul speaks of it also as a “tree”, at Acts 13:29 and Galatians 3:13. It was easy for you to assert that it was not a simple stake upon which Jesus died, but your editorial fails to provide a shred of proof or argument that the New World Translation is fantastic, incorrect and unscriptural on this point.

Your editorial concludes: “But read the article for yourself.” (Meaning the RNS announcement) It might better have read: “But read the New World Translation for yourself.” Then your readers would be getting at the facts uncolored by your prejudicial comments and would be able to reach independent, just conclusions. Even for this adverse publicity we are glad, for, as the apostle Paul says: “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” (2 Corinthians 13:8) We consider it a privilege to serve as publishers of the New World Translation. Nonetheless, we shall continue to print on our presses and to publish the King James Version and the American Standard Version Bibles to aid and encourage the groping multitudes to study God’s Word.

We are handing a copy of this letter over to the Watchtower magazine for publication. In the meantime The Baptist Record has the privilege of publishing in its columns this reply to its editorial. You owe it to your readers to do so, to rectify the misimpression you have caused. But you owe it especially to the Lord God to do so, for you have grossly misrepresented a faithful translation of his inspired Word and thus hindered the cause of his truth with many.

Sincerely,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

Should Christians Worship Relics?

IT HAS been said that “the most precious treasures” of the Roman Catholic Church are its large collections of relics, which are highly esteemed and on which much veneration and honor are bestowed by the faithful. Such devotion was particularly manifest when the right forearm of St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit missionary to go to Japan, 400 years ago, was recently displayed.

In the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, is “the reputed true Crown of Thorns worn by Christ”, and at Bruges, Belgium, is a “relic of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord”. (Denver Catholic Register) A small piece of the “True Cross” sold at auction in London for £600 in 1945, and a couple of months before that the London Catholic Herald told how the supposed relics of Timothy, the apostle Paul’s companion, had been found in a church along the Adriatic coast of Italy. In Prague, Czechoslovakia, there is a church decorated with the bones of 10,000 persons, arranged in the form of shields, crowns, crucifixes, etc. Other churches in Bohemia and Italy are decorated with relics of dead men’s bones, which are worshiped. As the Roman Catholic Hierarchy catalogues this vast collection of antiques, they are aware of the fact that the bones of the apostle Peter are missing. Hence, their fanatical zeal in flooding the public press with stories about how they “suppose”, “assume,” “fancy,” and “suspect” that “perhaps”, “maybe,” or “possibly” Peter’s bones have been found in the pagan cemetery upon which the Vatican is built.

But why are such old bones, blood and other objects worshiped? The Catholic Encyclopedia (vol. 12, p. 734) says: “The teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the veneration of relics is summed up in a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV), which enjoins on bishops and other pastors to instruct their flocks that ‘the holy bodies of holy martyrs and of others now living with Christ—which bodies were the living members of Christ and “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor., vi, 19) and which are by Him to be raised to eternal life and to be glorified are to be venerated by the faithful, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men’.” The writings of early “church fathers”, as Ambrose and Augustine, were cited as justification for the Council’s decree.

As for Scriptural support, the Catholic Encyclopedia says: “Turning to Scripture analogies, the compilers [of the “Roman Catechism” produced by the Council of Trent] further argue: ‘If the clothes, the kerchiefs (Acts xix, 12), if the shadow of the saints (Acts v, 15), before they departed from this life, banished diseases and restored strength, who will have the hardihood to deny that God wonderfully works the same by the sacred ashes, the bones, and other relics of the saints?’”

It is not a matter of having bravery or pluck to defend a theological dogma, right or wrong. Instead of hardihood, who has the honesty to examine God’s sacred and infallible Word of truth on the matter? Those who have will find that the Scriptures do not support the relic-worshiping practice at all. In the particular cases mentioned in Acts 5:15 and Acts 19:12 there is no question that God performed great miracles by the hands of Peter and Paul. Nevertheless, those men did not allow other creatures to bow down to, worship or venerate them as long as they were alive. Why, then, would anyone want to worship their bones after they are dead? (Acts 10:25, 26) The account at 2 Kings 13:21 tells how a dead man came to life after coming in contact with the bones of the prophet Elisha, but there is no record that Elisha’s bones were worshiped either before or after that miracle. It was God that performed that miracle, not the bones; so it was proper that all veneration, worship, glory, honor and praise be given to God and not to the lifeless bones.

LET GOD’S WORD GIVE FURTHER ANSWER

In addition to the above-cited scriptures, the distinguished Jesuit theologian Bellarmine cites 2 Kings 23:16-18, Isaiah 11:10 and Matthew 9:20-22 as “proof” for relic worship. Examination of these texts, however, shows them to be of no weight or consequence. In the first instance, Josiah showed respect for the prophet of the Lord by leaving his bones undisturbed. But he did not bow down to, venerate or worship those bones, nor did he command or allow any religious homage to be bestowed on them by others. Josiah made it his business to clean out pagan idolatry and demonic practices from the land, and he would not defeat his purpose by instituting the worship of dead men’s bones in place of the pure worship of Jehovah.—2 Kings 23:16-18.

Textual examination reveals that the Catholic Douay Version has grossly mistranslated Isaiah 11:10 when it says concerning “the root of Jesse” that “his sepulchre shall be glorious”. The original Hebrew word here rendered “sepulchre” has the thought of “rest” or “resting place” and has no reference to the tomb or grave. Out of the 21 places where the word occurs the Latin Vulgate as shown by the Douay Version translates the word this way only once. In most other occurrences it properly translates the word. For example, look up Ruth 1:9 and see how the Latin Vulgate did not dare to mistranslate the word as “sepulchre” instead of “rest”. The eminent Catholic authority, Msgr. Ronald Knox, in his 1950 translation of the Hebrew Scriptures corrects the mistake in Isaiah and then apologizes for the Vulgate’s blunder. In a footnote he says that “the Latin understands this of resting in the tomb, but this is not suggested by the Hebrew text”. So Isaiah 11:10 in no way supports tomb worship.

It is told in Matthew 9:20-22 how a sickly woman had faith so strong that when she touched the garment of Jesus she was cured. Undoubtedly she, like the others that were miraculously cured by Jesus, gave praise to Almighty God, not to the garment or the one wearing it. (Matt. 9:8; Acts 3:8, 9) There is nothing in the record to the contrary.—Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48.

The Israelites kept certain things, as the pot of manna, Aaron’s budded rod, the stone tablets of the Law, but these were kept as a court record, as a testimony or witness before the people, and on no occasion were they dragged out, worshiped and used to cure ailments of the people. (Heb. 9:4; Ex. 25:10, 16; Num. 17:10; Deut. 31:26, 27) Then there was the mighty sword of Goliath, that had been wrapped up and kept in the Lord’s house as a witness of what Jehovah had done to that proud and haughty boaster. But none of Israel worshiped or venerated that bloodstained relic.—1 Sam. 21:9.

That such “souvenirs” were not to be venerated is shown by what happened to the brazen serpent that Moses raised up. It was kept for many years as a symbol of Jehovah’s saving power, but when the nation turned away from God and began showing devotion and homage to that relic, good king Hezekiah, with God’s full approval, had it destroyed. This is a case bearing directly on the question of relic worship, and it positively, irrefutably and unquestionably condemns such form of idolatry.—Num. 21:8, 9; 2 Ki. 18:4-6.

Furthermore, God’s law at Numbers 19:11-13 clearly defines dead bodies as unclean, not “holy”. The bones of Jacob and Joseph, in due respect to their wishes in the matter, were buried in the land of promise rather than in Egypt. Be it noted, such bones were not hung up in the tabernacle or used to decorate Solomon’s temple or enshrined in some niche in the hope that they would cure ills of those making pilgrimages to see them. No, their bones were buried in the ground. (Gen. 50:5-13, 25, 26; Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32; Acts 7:15, 16) How the Devil would have liked to get hold of the bones of Moses! But the Lord God took care of that matter and buried them in a place no one knew, lest His chosen people should stumble and fall into the heathen practice of worshiping relics of Moses. (Deut. 34:5, 6; Jude 9) Likewise, in the case of Jesus’ human body, it was disposed of by the Lord in such a way the relic collectors never got their hands on it.—Matt. 28:5, 6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:1-3.

There is not a particle of evidence that the body of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, or the bones of the martyr James, were distributed around or sent on a tour as relics by early Christians. To the contrary, the scripture definitely states that Stephen was buried in the ground. (Acts 8:2) These Scriptural facts, therefore, give no comfort or support to those who teach that the bones of “saints” and martyrs should be revered and worshiped, and hence the Hierarchy appeals to tradition and heathen customs for support.

PAGAN ORIGIN OF RELIC WORSHIP

In addition to what God’s holy Word the Bible says on the matter there are other very good reasons why true Christians should not venerate or worship religious relics. The practice and custom did not originate with Christ or his apostles or with God’s chosen nation of Israel. It is clearly a pagan invention and hence of the Devil, pure and simple, and the Catholic Encyclopedia admits as much. It says that the veneration of relics is “a primitive instinct” and is associated with many other religious systems besides that of Catholicism. It goes on to tell how the ancient Greeks superstitiously worshiped the bones and ashes of their heroes, how the Persians “treated with the deepest veneration” the remains of Zoroaster, and how “relic-worship amongst the Buddhists of every sect is a fact beyond dispute”.

Other authorities have shown that the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians likewise venerated the relics of their lords and princes. “In the realms of Heathendom the same worship had flourished for ages before Christian saints or martyrs had appeared in the world. . . . From the earliest periods, the system of Buddhism has been propped up by relics, that have wrought miracles at least as well vouched as those wrought by the relics of St. Stephen, or by the ‘Twenty Martyrs’ [mentioned by Augustine].” (Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons, pages 177,178) In Kandy, Ceylon, a 400-year-old temple contains what is said to be Buddha’s tooth, “venerated by many millions of people.” (The Ceylon Daily News, April 1, 1950) Into the presence of this relic the British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, was brought on January 1, 1950, in the hope it would miraculously cure his ailments.—New York Times, Jan. 16, 1950.

The heathen idea of attributing magical powers to bones, skulls, teeth and skins is so much older than Christianity, the above Catholic authority chooses to call it “a primitive instinct”. In reality it is nothing more than fetishism, concerning which the Encyclopedia Americana (1942 ed., vol. 11, p. 158) says: “It is the lowest of the unsystematic forms of worship found among uncivilized tribes, and exists especially among the Negroes of Africa, but also among the natives of both Americas, the Polynesians, Australians, and Siberians.” When Catholic Portuguese mariners sailed down the west coast of Africa they could see little difference between the worship of “sacred” bones, skulls and charms by the natives, and their own worship of religious relics and amulets which they called feitiços, and from which we get the name fetish.

M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopœdia (vol. 8, p. 1028) well sums up the whole matter when it says: “There is no doubt that the worship of relics is an absurdity, without the guarantee of Scripture, directly contrary to the practice of the primitive Church, and irreconcilable with common-sense.”

Fraudulent Religious Relics

AS AN honest, upright and sincere person you love truth and righteousness. You love those who speak the truth, who are honest and can be trusted. Naturally you hate all liars, thieves and cheats. Fakers of all kinds you despise, and especially so when you discover them to be among your closest friends in whom you have in times past put your implicit trust. And if there are any such masked frauds moving among your circle of associates you are happy and glad if your real friends point them out, in order that you in turn may warn other honest persons like yourself. It is therefore as true friends of the honest-hearted that we call attention to the relic racketeers that operate in the name of religion, and who have for many centuries filched from and plundered credulous people with their fake merchandise. Here are the facts.

Relic worship is of pagan origin and was introduced in the Roman Catholic religion many centuries ago. The Catholic Encyclopedia (vol. 12, pages 734-738) not only admits this, but also discloses other very startling facts about where these relics came from and how. Relic worship among Catholics, it says, “easily lent itself to error, fraud, and greed of gain,” and as a result “many grave abuses” were committed. As early as the fourth century, in the days of Augustine, Catholic monks were going around “making profit by the sale of spurious relics”.

“In the Theodosian Code,” the Encyclopedia continues, “the sale of relics is forbidden, but numerous stories, of which it would be easy to collect a long series, beginning with the writings of St. Gregory the Great and St. Gregory of Tours, prove to us that many unprincipled persons found a means of enriching themselves by a sort of trade in these objects of devotion, the majority of which no doubt were fraudulent.”

From and after the days of Charlemagne, when Church and State ruled supreme, the traffic in bones of “saints” and other so-called “holy” antiques became so riotous that even members of the Hierarchy complained that the church altars were being loaded down with bogus relics. There was a keen competition between various churches to outdo each other in rare relics. Says the Catholic Encyclopedia: “At the beginning of the ninth century, as M. Jean Guiraud had shown, the exportation of the bodies of martyrs from Rome had assumed the dimensions of a regular commerce, and a certain deacon, Deusdona, acquired an unenviable notoriety in these transactions. What was perhaps in the long run hardly less disastrous than fraud or avarice was the keen rivalry between religious centres, and the eager credulity fostered by the desire to be known as the possessors of some unusually startling relic.” “Such was the rage for them at one time that even Mabillon, the Benedictine, justly complains that the altars were loaded with suspected relics, numerous spurious ones being everywhere offered to the piety and devotion of the faithful. He adds, too, that bones are often consecrated which, so far from belonging to saints, probably do not belong to Christians.”—M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopœdia, vol. 8, p. 1928.

WHENCE CAME THESE ANTIQUES?

In later times the huge collections of duplicate relics even embarrassed the Hierarchy to the point that they were forced to do some explaining. To quote again, the Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The practice already noticed of attributing the same sanctity to objects which had touched the shrine as attached to the contents of the shrine itself, the custom of making facsimiles and imitations, a custom which persists to our own day in the replicas of the Vatican statue of St. Peter or of the Grotto of Lourdes—all these are causes adequate to account for the multitude of unquestionably spurious relics with which the treasuries of the great medieval churches were crowded.” When one appreciates how clerical rogues operated with unlimited license “it becomes easy to understand the multiplicity and extravagance of the entries in the relic inventories of Rome and other countries”, says this authority.

Italian churches close to their mother in Rome are especially full of fictitious relics. “The following is only a sample of those in the Church of Santa Croce de Gerusalemme: three pieces of the true cross, the title placed over the cross; two thorns from the crown of our Lord; the sponge extended to our Lord with vinegar and gall; a piece of the veil and hair of the Virgin; a phial full of the blood of Jesus; some of the manna gathered in the desert, etc.” (M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopædia) One observer has commented that “there is in existence throughout Catholicism today enough of the ‘True Cross’ to build several houses”. And besides the phial of Jesus’ blood here mentioned and another at Bruges, Belgium, the Denver Catholic Register newspaper says “other supposed relics of the Precious Blood are preserved in Wurttemberg, Sarzana, Mentone, and Mantua”.

Making a historical footnote on this fake-relic business in his day, Geoffrey Chaucer in his “Prologue to the Canterbury Tales” describes “The Pardoner” who had just arrived straight from the Vatican with his pockets full of pardons hot from Rome. Besides these, in his bag he had a pillowcase which he said was “Our Lady’s” veil; also a fragment of the very sail from Saint Peter’s fishing boat; also a glass full of pig’s bones. These latter “relikes” (relics), Chaucer says, he peddled, making twice as much money in a single day as a working man. And yet, for all of this, “he was in church a noble ecclesiaste”, gibed Chaucer.

A more recent example of a questionable relic being worshipfully bowed down to by thousands of trusting souls was that of St. Francis Xavier’s “right” forearm and hand. Life magazine published a picture of the relic when it toured the United States. Whereupon a doctor’s wife called the editor’s attention to the fact that it was actually a left arm and hand turned over. It can’t be, Life declared, because Xavier’s left arm is still attached to the body in Goa, India, which only proves the relic being circulated is somebody else’s left arm and hand. A blundersome forgery indeed!

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Admitted by high dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and other informed persons, that the majority of Christendom’s relics are fakes—why, then, are they worshiped in this enlightened twentieth century? What reasons, excuses or explanations do the clergy have for not informing the people in general that the majority of their antiques are fraudulent imitations? Their answers to these questions, as set forth in the Catholic Encyclopedia, will shock honest, truth-loving persons.

First of all, in view of the fact that relic worship extends back into remote antiquity, the clergy say they should not be blamed for allowing the practice to continue. But is this Christlike? Did not Jesus at all times speak the truth, even if it exposed and rooted out false teachings and demonic practices of the Jewish clergy that were rooted in remote antiquity? (Matt. 15:1-9; 23:1-5, 16-28) The task of determining which relics are genuine and which are spurious is too great, the “time and expense” too much, the clergy say, and besides it would cause a sensational scandal and disturbance among the peasantry. All right, why not do away with the whole inventory of relics? Why not tell the people that the whole business of worshiping relics is of pagan origin and of the Devil? Why not tell the people the truth? Why try to hide the real facts beneath a refuge of lies or bury them under ecclesiastical falsehoods? Do the clergy not know that soon now Jehovah God will wash away their refuge of lies and falsehoods?—Isa. 28:15-17.

“Supposing it [relic worship] to be in fact spurious,” the Catholic Encyclopedia says, “no dishonour is done to God by the continuance of an error which has been handed down in perfect good faith for many centuries.” How foreign and strange this doctrine to anything written in the Bible! Jehovah is the God of truth! (John 3:33; Rom. 3:4; Heb. 6:18) All error and lies are of the Devil and are certainly a great reproach and dishonor to God. (John 8:44; Rom. 1:25) Consequently, Jehovah is against all such pious frauds that teach lies in His name and He will clean them out at Armageddon.

Questions From Readers

● How does one account for the apparently barbarous treatment that David, a man after God’s own heart, meted out to the Ammonites, as recorded at 2 Samuel 12:31 and; 1 Chronicles 20:3?—J. C., Lisbon, Portugal.

At 2 Samuel 12:31 it states that David “put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln”. At 1 Chronicles 20:3 it says he “cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes”. Modern translations bring out the true sense of these passages, showing that David merely put the Ammonite captives to work. Hence Moffatt’s translation renders these two texts as follows: “He also brought away the spoil of the town, a vast amount, and the townsfolk, whom he set to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them labour at brick-making.” “The townsfolk, whom he set to work with saws and iron picks and axes.”

● Will children who have not reached the age of accountability and who die at Armageddon have a resurrection?—Ohio reader.

We cannot be dogmatic about this matter, as God is the judge. However, if Jehovah God expresses an adverse judgment against certain individuals, and does this through his King Christ Jesus at Armageddon, there must be some sort of finality to God’s decision. If so, those destroyed by the judgment of God in the battle of Armageddon are really destroyed. Ezekiel chapter 9 appears to refer to Armageddon, and verse 6 states, “Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.” Those unmarked by a favorable reception of God’s warning receive no mercy from him. This is no injustice on God’s part. If it were a case of absolute justice he would spare no one, as everyone, young or old, is an imperfect sinner. It is only through the exercise of his love and mercy that anyone is preserved through Armageddon or is resurrected.

Children are affected by the course of their parents, and parents are warned that their iniquity is visited on their offspring unto the third and fourth generation. (Ex. 20:5, 6) Parents are commanded to instruct their children in God’s way, and if in these last days parents refuse to heed the divine instruction and warning they bring destruction upon themselves and their small children at Armageddon. (Deut. 6:6, 7; Eph. 6:4) According to justice God can leave such children dead, for, as Ezekiel showed, all die in their iniquity. (Ezek. 3:17-19; 33:1-6) Parents should remember that their wrong course unfavorably affects their children and may bring their offspring to destruction at Armageddon, just as a right course on the part of parents may put their small children in the way of preservation during Armageddon and opportunity for eternal life in the new world to follow.

Addenda On 1 John 5:7, 8

CUT THIS OUT AND PASTE IT

in your copy of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in the blank space on page 786:

ADDENDA ON 1JOHN 5:7, 8:

Since release of the New World Translation on August 2, 1950, at the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York city, there has been widely published religious criticism over its rendering of 1 John 5:7, 8. Therefore we append the following as a suitable footnote to those verses appearing on page 700:

1 John 5:7, 8: “For there are three witness bearers, the spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement.”

This rendering is according to the Greek texts by Westcott and Hort (1881) and by D. Eberhard Nestle (18th edition of 1948) and by José María Bover, S.J. (1943) and by Augustinus Merk, S.J. (6th edition of 1948).

After “witness bearers” the cursive Manuscripts No. 61 (of 15th or 16th century) and No. 629 (in Latin and Greek, of 14th to 15th century) and Vg ^C.S add the words: “In heaven, the Father, the Word and the holy spirit; and these three are one. ⁸ And there are three witness bearers on earth.” But these words are omitted by אBASy^{most MSS.} Vg^{many MSS.} and the Latin New Testament according to the edition of St. Jerome, by Wordsworth and White, edition of 1911.

Experience in Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom

FRUITS OF NEIGHBOR LOVE IN TENNESSEE

“Here is the heart-warming story of a kind servant of Jehovah and a grateful wayfarer who had with him three little children. Some time ago out here in the mountains of Tennessee a witness was going home from a home Bible study. The evening was coming on and it was raining. As he drove slowly down the road he saw a man leading some little children by the hand and leaning into the driving rain. The witness stopped his car and invited them to ride down the road with him. It was learned that the man and children had come almost one hundred miles in the last few days in the rain. The witness invited them to come in and stay all night and have a meal. The wayfarer declined to stay in the house but did take some warm food and he and the children stayed all night in the barn. Before bedding down for the night the wayfarer got his interest aroused in the new world of righteousness, and received a gift copy of the book ‘Let God Be True’. Next morning after thanking his host for the food and housing and expressing his gratitude for the new Bible knowledge and the book, the wayfarer and his children were on their way. The story now shifts to a little town in Alabama: Keener. The wayfarer had moved on and the book had gone with him. He and his children stayed all night at a house in Keener, and he told his host about the new world of righteousness. His host showed interest, and wanted the book ‘Let God Be True’. But it was the wayfarer’s most prized possession; he could not part with it. But he told his host how to get one: write to the kind servant of Jehovah back in Tennessee. The host wrote the letter; he got his copy of the book, provided by the same servant of God who had first showed hospitality to a wayfarer. Once again it is seen that Jehovah is working in many ways that the ‘sheep’ may be found.”

Announcements

“PREACH THE WORD” TESTIMONY PERIOD

December, the final month of 1950, has been designated as “Preach the Word” Testimony Period. How could this eventful year be more effectively concluded than by taking the word of God upon your lips and heralding it forth to all who will hear? That is what Jehovah’s witnesses will be doing, in harmony with Paul’s counsel at 2 Timothy 4:2. The 320-page book “This Means Everlasting Life” will be offered to those displaying interest in God’s Word, on 35c contribution. We suggest you report to us the results of your preaching.

1951 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Of the increase of God’s government and peace there will be no end. This Scriptural truth is convincingly proved by the report of the 1950 service year as presented by the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society in the 1951 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In addition to this annual report covering more than. 100 regions, the Yearbook contains the president’s comment on the yeartext for 1951 and a daily text and comment for each day of the coming year. Those associated with a group should send in combined orders, as through the servant of a company, to save time and expense. A remittance of 50c per copy should accompany each order.

1951 CALENDAR

Prominently displayed across the top of the 1951 Calendar published by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society is the new yeartext, “They said: ‘Praise Jah, you people, because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king.’” (Rev. 19:6, NW) Beneath this appears a beautiful view of the Society’s newly enlarged printing plant in Brooklyn, New York. The calendar pad attached below this picture presents six different scenes of theocratic interest in pastel shades, overprinted by the calendar for 1951. The calendar pad also furnishes the Scriptural themes for the six bimonthly testimony periods and service themes for the intervening months. This service calendar will be sent to any address at 25c a copy or $1.00 for 5 copies sent to one address, postpaid. Groups or companies are encouraged to order in quantity, through the appointed servant, sending remittance to cover the cost.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of December 24: Subjection to the Higher Powers, ¶1-24

Week of December 31: Subjection to the Higher Powers, ¶25-33; and Execution of Judgment upon Opposers, ¶1-13.