The Watchtower — August 15, 1951

When Christianity Went Underground

SOMETIME in the year 64 (A.D.) a flame rose against the skies of Rome. Spreading, the hungry fire leaped into a rabid blaze that engulfed much of the pagan capital of antiquity and burned it to the ground. The depraved emperor, Nero, who allegedly set the fire himself, sought to divert suspicion by blaming the unpopular Christians of the city for the atrocity. The flame that consumed the city touched off a scorching chain of persecutions against the Christians. Authorities number these persecutions at ten, continuing intermittently from Nero to Diocletian in the fourth century. The attrition opened as Nero filled his gardens and circus in the Vatican with sights of horror: the martyrs being impaled, bound in animal skins and thrown to wild dogs, or covered with incendiary material and ignited to light the emperor’s evening amusements.

Though occasional reigns of indifferent or indulgent rulers permitted rest from the fierce opposition, Christians of those days came to live in a state of perpetual caution, though unrelaxed as a group in the vigorous prosecution of their worship. Much of the time it was impossible for them to meet together in congregational worship and study except in the strictest secrecy. Hence less than a hundred years after the apostle Paul fell victim of the Neronian persecution, Christianity had developed into a well-organized underground movement. This proved true in a very literal way as well, for the sites chosen by them for their meetings were the twisting underground labyrinths of Rome known as the catacombs. Though there are existing catacombs in other cities and locations, those in Rome are the most famous for their association with early Christianity. They furnish us with a remarkably clear description of the history, beliefs and traits of Christian worship during our common era’s first three or four centuries.

Opinion varies as to the time and purpose of the original construction of the catacombs. While most assign the construction of them to the Christians, others believe the passages were there even before Rome was founded. Some think they were abandoned quarries converted by the Christians to their purpose. Ostensibly, of course, that purpose was the burial of the dead, which was done by placing the corpses in niches carved in the rock walls and sealing them with a slab of marble bearing the name of the crypt’s occupant.

The crypts of the catacombs are found in layers usually three, four or five deep. When it was necessary to make more crypts in any passageway, the floor was lowered by digging to allow for the extra wall space necessary. This proved superior to trying to carve the new niches in the area above by raising the ceiling, a most unhandy task. The passages themselves wind like uncontrolled tentacles beneath the city and vicinity. Intersecting avenues occur at irregular intervals to stretch out in opposite directions. Rooms are to be found adaptable to the purpose of assembling for group meetings, adding their now silent testimony to the secrecy once required by those who came together to gain renewed strength for advancing true worship while their pagan tormentors raged above them. Only the imprudent would enter these labyrinths without a guide, like the class of students and their teacher who in 1837 descended into the maze never to be seen again.

UNSHAKEN BY VIOLENCE

While the remains of the primitive Christians filling the catacombs have long slept in quiet, many of them left life by any but a peaceful means, their bodies being torn, burned or broken as they faced a martyr’s death. As wave after wave of persecution rolled through the ranks of the Christians the number of martyrdoms mounted continuously. Though impossible to name all the martyr crypts, the inscriptions that do specifically reveal them provide some sense of the vast number there must be: a young military officer here who embraced the faith and with it death from his government, a man and his entire family there who were foully murdered, a young girl boiled in oil. Rome reddened with innocent blood as some assailants, maddened at their inability to smash the spirit along with the body, sought foolishly to quash the Christian’s resurrection hope by burning the bodies of the slain and scattering the ashes in the river. Further, seeing the increased zeal acquired by those who visited with the resolute condemned ones in their death cells, the mid-third century Valerian persecution against the elders of the Christian church tried to thwart this by marching the condemned straight from the tribunal to the place of execution. This was the fate of the prominent overseer Cyprian, whose brothers followed him along the way exhorting him to steadfastness.

Similarly, to prevent the strength obtained from the meeting together in the catacombs this emperor forbade further entry into the subterranean cemeteries. Enforcement proved vain, however, as the entrances were too many and devious, and few were the members of the guard intrepid enough to wander far into the passages in search. The persecutions raged to their peak and failed.

To the anxious inquirer of this day and age acquainted with the world’s present multitudinous religions and religious alliances, interfaith leagues and the like, the most gratifying lesson from the catacombs comes in their answer on early Christian beliefs and customs. The pagans worshiped gaudily in ornate temples with magnificent idols and accompanied with all the frills of incense and candles. Not so the Christians. The typical pagan view of them was: “Why have they no altars, temples and sacrifices?” The historian Gibbon points to this complete disdain for idolatry by the Christians and of the wit of some of their writers who expressed ridicule of the pagans for their bowing before the works of their own hands. The marked contrast between Christian and pagan then can be seen from the epitaphs of each. Whereas the heathen extolled their lives of indulgence and sounded an “eat, drink and be merry” note, Christians usually engraved the name and a few words denoting the restful sleep into which the dead had fallen and frequently made reference to their hope in the resurrection. One inscription reads: “You, well-deserving one, having left your [relations], lie in peace—in sleep. You will arise; a temporary rest is granted you.”

But these facts will alert one to the realization that those Christians so close to the apostolic church held beliefs markedly different not only from pagans then but from many professed Christians now. Surely if they ridiculed the idolatry of the Romans of the first three centuries, they would not condone the recognition paid to images by the church with headquarters in the same city today, simply because it professes to be Christian. If they believed in a resurrection until which time they would sleep it is unthinkable that they could reconcile their faith to a teaching in an afterdeath “purgatory”, hell-fire or, for that matter, consciousness in any form. But this is only the beginning of the great gulf separating those early followers of the Messiah from modern Christendom’s hundreds of sects and cults.

THE STONES ACCUSE CHRISTENDOM

One will scan the record of the catacombs in vain to find any record of Mariolatry during the first three centuries. In none of the early drawings is the virgin given a position of prominence, nor is any prayer found addressed to or through her. Neither were the Christians of the catacombs fanatical collectors of relics. Though their martyrs were naturally highly respected, there was no effort to worship them or to secure their remains for use as relics by which to exploit the credulous. To the chagrin of Roman Catholic art, William Kip points out that God was never represented in human form. Roman Catholic efforts to do this are rejected by that authority, even when represented “by the genius of Michael Angelo”. Also concerning the delegating of church headship to Peter, the catacomb walls are blank. Note what McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia has to say: “No specifically Romanist doctrine finds any support in inscriptions dating before the 4th century. We begin to trace signs of saint-worship in the 5th century. The first idea of transmission of power from Christ to Peter dates from the latter part of the 5th to the beginning of the 6th, and even then Peter’s figure does not appear armed with the keys, as in the later symbolism.”

The foregoing agrees with the fact that Emperor Constantine inspired the formal adoption of an apostate form of Christianity fused with Roman paganism following the Nicene Council of A.D. 325. From that time date the countless heathen innovations that have since besmirched papal Rome. Undoubtedly the work of iniquity of which the apostle Paul forewarned had begun to influence the Christians of the first three centuries; but, though possibly tainted with some false teachings, their staunch refusal to knowingly cave in beneath the weighty pressure of heathenism has helped distinguish between some of the basic beliefs taught by Jesus and the apostles and the doctrines of fused paganism later emanating from Rome.—2 Thess. 2:7.

Though drawings are frequent no capital is made of the crucifixion or of Jesus in anguish of any kind among those of the first three centuries. Even the heathenish cross, claimed by Christendom as the very symbol of Christianity, is rare in the catacombs and then, as Sheldon tells us, usually appears in some disguised form. He assumes that this was due to the ridicule and reproach that the symbol is supposed to have brought on the Christians by their adversaries. However, in the light of their otherwise very bold and uncompromising attitude before their oppressors, it is not likely that a little added humiliation would prevent them from setting their supposedly sacred symbol to the fore. Far more likely is it that in those times the Christians flatly refused the universal acceptance of the cross. Withering under the fire of repudiation from the catacombs, the Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “Catholic writers have at times found a richer dogmatic content in the pictures of the catacombs than a strict examination is able to prove.”

Interesting is the fact that, though forced to meet underground, those primitive Christians by no means kept their light hidden there. As Christ had commanded, they lifted it high on “lampstands” by a work of public testimony. Though this drew the infuriated malice of many, it introduced untold hope to others who proceeded to associate with the Christian community. Charles Maitland, in The Church in the Catacombs, singles out this proselytizing nature of the Christians as the greatest aggravating factor of their persecution, because of which other charges were trumped up by the authorities. Their harmlessness can be seen in that for the mere reason of secretly celebrating the Lord’s Supper they suffered an official ban. From what can be told by the ancient inscriptions those Christians scorned the hierarchical structure which papal Rome copied from pagan Rome. Authorities find instead of the voice of bishops and doctors the simple hope of such ones as Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus. The illustrations stress this instead of the prominence of hierarchs or of the people’s dependence on such for instruction. The common burial sites for all alike further reflect Jesus’ teaching: “All you are brothers.”

CHRISTIANITY ABOVEGROUND

Simply because friendly comparison between the early church and today’s Christendom is lacking, must we cynically conclude that at this time no truth at all exists? Hardly that, when one considers that without the help of worldly religion, politics, wealth and position, indeed without Christendom, a glad message of the birth of God’s kingdom, the hope of all nations, has been published throughout the world in an intensified way for the past thirty years or more. World-wide the bringers of this good news are known for their unique stand of separateness from the world, their aggressive persistence in pushing ahead with their work, the opposition with which they have been met around the globe. They are known too as the witnesses of the one they represent, Jehovah’s witnesses. The striking comparisons in some of the basic principles of their work and teaching with that of the church of the first three centuries arrest the eye of investigators. And charges raised to thwart their work have been just as absurd in a frantic effort to hide the real reason. Why, in fact, an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses was even interrupted and disorganized in Canada during the wartime ban there at a time when they had come together for no purpose more sinister than to celebrate the Lord’s Supper!

The facts when strung together simply show that the truth has never been welcomed by this old world of wickedness. True of Christ’s time, true of now. Even as he foretold, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) For long centuries men of good will have had to wait while Christianity was driven underground, later engulfed in paganism, and since misrepresented to the world for centuries. But now a program of Bible education sweeps the world and with clearer understanding than ever, to the hope of people everywhere. The truth shines more brightly than in any part of man’s nearly 6,000-year-long history. Though in time denied by every earthly government, though yet banned repeatedly, the truth has burst all bonds, is increasing, and will yet fill the earth.—Hab. 2:14.

Religious News Items

Catholic Views on Religion and Politics

Said Jesus to the Roman governor: “My kingdom is no part of this world.” (John 18:36, NW) What does the Roman Catholic Hierarchy say? Pages 37 and 38 of the authoritative Catholic document, The Liberal Illusion, help answer in these words: “Jesus Christ is the King of the world. He speaks to the world through His Priest [the pope], and the decrees of this Priest, being an expression of the royal rights of Jesus Christ, are eternal. They apply not to one time alone, but to all times; not to one society alone, but to all societies; not to some men, but to all men. The children of the Christ, the children of the King are kings. They form an absolutely superior society, whose duty it is to take possession of the earth and reign over it for the purpose of baptizing all men and of raising them to that selfsame supernatural life, that selfsame royalty and that selfsame glory for which Christ has destined them.”

Ambitiously teaching that Jesus gave Peter the commission of supplanting the political power of this world with the authority of a religious hierarchy, the Catholic Cabinet, pages 160-168, under the section “From Peter to Leo”, declares: “He brings a message to the Caesar, and this is what his message means: ‘Caesar, thy work is done . . . I have come to take thine Empire . . . I will wield thy sceptre. Take down thine eagles from the Capitol. In their stead I will set up the Cross. Upon thy palace I will build my Vatican . . . Caesar, thou mayest go. Rome is mine, for I am Peter. What was Rome’s answer? Rome owned the earth . . . Rome declared war on Peter . . . The world was Pagan then . . . But, the Christian revelation being true, and good, and beautiful, conquered.’”

Hindus Shocked by Catholic Idolatry

India is a land covered with Hindu temples and images, erected to the worship of some 330,000,000 gods, so numerous they even outnumber their worshipers. If any people should be used to and tolerant of idolatry, one would think the Hindus would qualify. However, the publication Protestant Action, in its issue of June, 1950, relates an extraordinary reaction on the part of some responsible Hindu sources to a then current Roman Catholic exhibition in South India of a statue of “Our Lady of Fatima” from Portugal. As usual, cities along the statue’s route of travel were first “softened up” with propaganda concerning its many alleged miracles and answers to prayers.

Though to an idol-ridden land like India this should seem quite commonplace, note the report carried in the above-mentioned publication: “The Hindu editor of a large India-language daily newspaper in Travancore, however, called the Roman Catholic celebrations ‘a manifestation of idolatry in its crudest form’. He was joined by other prominent Hindus in warning their people not to be influenced to go back to a form of idolatry which they have been trying to overcome.”

Jesuit Slave Labor Plagues Bolivia

The January, 1951, issue of Liberty magazine carried a revealing article on the international slave market. Regarding South America, the writer, Rose Slivka, pointed out that an estimated three million people are living under conditions of slavery. After stating that Bolivian landlords customarily manage to enslave their laborers through long-term indebtedness, the article continues: “But the plight of the agricultural laborers in the Bolivian Jesuit missions is most shocking of all. These are organized colonies based on Indian labor. They are completely self-governing and free from controls. The Indians work for the missions without pay and are hired out to private farms like animals, while the mission is paid for their labor. Those, moreover, who have been hired out to the neighboring estates are required to attend the mission house every Saturday for roll call and to attend mass every Sunday. When a recalcitrant Indian fails to comply with these measures he is severely beaten. When Indians try to escape, the missionaries immediately organize a hunt and those who are unfortunate enough to be caught are tortured. Nevertheless, fugitive guarayos, as those who run away are called, are very numerous.”

The Lord’s Prayer Nears Complete Answer

“Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth. Give us today our bread for this day; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the wicked one.”—Matt. 6:9-13, NW.

1, 2. In form of address how does the Lord’s prayer differ from prayers in the Hebrew Scriptures? Why so, and why do we study it?

“OUR Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.” It required the only son of God living on earth at the time, nineteen centuries ago, to teach the people of a nation consecrated to Jehovah God to open up prayer to Him in this childlike way. In the sacred Hebrew Scriptures written before Christ Jesus Jehovah God had been referred to as a Father, at various places.a As the Creator of man and woman he was originally the Father of the human race, so that the Christian historian Luke refers to the perfect man in the garden of Eden as “Adam, the son of God”. (Luke 3:38, NW) But those Hebrew Scriptures taught how these first two humans disloyally broke their heavenly Father’s law and were disowned by him as children and driven out of the garden of Eden to die as willful sinners, so that none of their offspring could address Jehovah God as His children. This accounts for it that in all the prayers recorded in the thirty-nine books of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures none of them opens with an address to Jehovah God as our Father, the father of mankind.

² But now Jesus Christ, the One whom Jehovah acknowledged from heaven as “My Son, the beloved”, was engaged in a sacrificial work that was going to reopen the way for them into the family of God’s children. So in advance Jesus appropriately taught his Jewish disciples this prayer, which has come to be known as “the Lord’s prayer”. He taught it as a prominent part of his “sermon on the mount”. (Matt. 3:13-17, NW; Mt 5:1 to 6:13) Since Jesus taught his followers to pray this prayer, he did so fully expecting an answer to all it asks. Because it is nearing its complete answer in our day, it is so important for us to take up a study of the Lord’s prayer here in order to get at more of its full meaning.

3. Who may address God in prayer in this way, and why these only?

³ How heart-warming, how inspiring to childlike confidence, is the way the Lord Jesus opens up the prayer! “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.” Here the chief son of God is teaching those who are to become sons and daughters of God to pray. Never forget that here the Master is teaching, not pagans, not religious hypocrites, not people of this world, but his disciples, his devoted followers, to pray. To these he said in this same sermon: “Happy are the peaceable, since they will be called ‘sons of God’.” (Matt. 5:9, NW) So the Fatherhood here recognized is not one that is based on our mere descent from Adam, a descent which pagans, hypocrites, antichrists and all other humans have. It is based on becoming an heir of everlasting life from God through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Hence today, not only persons whom God has called to the heavenly kingdom with Christ Jesus may offer this prayer, addressing God as their Father, but also the great crowd of his “other sheep” who hope to get eternal life on the earth to be perfected under God’s kingdom.—Luke 12:32; Rev. 7:9-17; John 10:16.

4. Why do we use the plural pronoun “our”, and why do we address him as “Father”?

⁴ Calling him “our” Father denotes we recognize he is the Father of a family and that there are other members in the family and that we are sons of God along with our older Brother, Jesus Christ the beloved chief son of God. This broadens out our prayer to include lovingly our brother sons of God. Certainly the kingdom of God for which we are here taught to pray is not for our own individual personal benefit alone, but is for all the family. By this form of introduction we recognize God, too, as the original Life-giver, the Fountain of life, not alone the One from whom we received existence through the first man Adam, but also the One who has made provision for us to be rescued from the death we are now dying because of Adam’s sin and to be ushered into the new world of righteousness with its everlasting life. Because we have faith and avail ourselves of these life-giving provisions through Christ we address Jehovah God as our Father, confessing that “the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord”.—Rom. 6:23, NW.

5. What does his being a Father “in the heavens” oblige us to render, and how did Jesus treat His title “Father”?

⁵ Jehovah is infinitely higher than our earthly fathers. He is our Father “in the heavens”. Hence we give him the highest respect and we tender him our childlike confidence and obedience, even under discipline. If we do not accord to God respect and obedience we belie we are his children. For we read: “We used to have fathers who were of our flesh to discipline us and we used to give them respect. Shall we not much more subject ourselves to the Father of our spiritual life and live? For they for a few days used to discipline us according to what seemed good to them, but he does so for our profit that we may partake of his holiness.” (Heb. 12:9, 10, NW) When Jesus taught us to pray to Jehovah God “Our Father”, he meant that Jehovah is also his Father. Jesus tenderly addressed him as Father and thereby confessed that he originally received life from this great Life-giver. He said: “The living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father.” (John 6:57, NW) For this reason he never let anyone address him as “Father” but always reserved that precious title for his heavenly Father. When Jesus told his disciples, “Do not call anyone your father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly One,” he also meant for his disciples not to call Jesus by the title “Father”. What crass unchristianity, then, for clergymen of Christendom to demand that people address them as “father” in a spiritual sense! It is the height of disrespect to the heavenly Father and is contrary to the Lord’s prayer.

HIS NAME

6. What does the Lord’s prayer petition first, and why?

⁶ Jesus reminds us that the heavenly Father has a name and that we as loving children should respect that name. The very first petition Jesus introduces into the prayer is, “Let your name be sanctified.” In this way he shows that the heavenly Father’s name ranks first in importance. Yes, just as the Son has a name, so, too, the Father has a name. The name does not originate with us, but he himself tells us what it is: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images.” (Isa. 42:8, AS) When Jesus preached on earth, Jehovah’s name had been reproached by Satan the Devil and all his offspring for more than four thousand years. The reproaches that had fallen upon Jehovah then fell on Jesus and they have since fallen upon all Jesus’ true followers to this day. So the petition, “Let your name be sanctified,” means more than our merely holding God’s name sacred. It means that his name has to be relieved of all the reproach cast upon it and must be forever vindicated.

7. How do profane men and false prophets take God’s name in vain?

⁷ Even in the Ten Commandments which God gave the Jews by Moses he shows the importance of his name. In the third of these commandments he orders: “Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7, AS) Of course, any using of that name in profane language, in foul cursing by angry men, is a using of it to no good purpose but is degrading it to vile connections. But men take it in vain when they misapply that name to persons or to things that should not bear it or when they attach it to lies and counterfeit messages to which his name does not belong as originator and sponsor. “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah. They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? that think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgat my name for Baal. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.”—Jer. 23:16, 17, 26, 27, 31, AS.

8. How do Christendom’s clergy thus take his name in vain?

⁸ Christendom’s clergy come under this denunciation. Although they avoid using the name Jehovah, they presume to speak for God to whom that name belongs. As religious prophets they make all kinds of false predictions to the people concerning the peace of the world, concerning the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations, and other things of public concern; and they palm these predictions off as being God’s messages, to whom the name Jehovah belongs. Also, they glorify men and women of this world and push God’s name into the background and cause the people to forget his holy name. So when they utter the Lord’s prayer, “Let your name be sanctified,” it only adds to their religious hypocrisy.

9. How did the Jews as a nation take his name in vain, and whose responsibility did it then become not to take his name thus in vain?

⁹ As a nation the Jewish people of old took his name in vain, for they were called by his name, Jehovah’s people, but they did not live up to that worthy name. We do not make this charge, but God makes it through his prophets. Says he to his name people whom he delivered into their enemies’ hands: “They that rule over them do howl, saith Jehovah, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.” “And when they came unto the nations, whither they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of Jehovah, and are gone forth out of his land. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went [as captive exiles].” (Isa. 52:5 and Ezek. 36:20, 22, AS) In the first century A.D. God finally rejected the Jewish nation, after they hanged his Son upon the stake to die in disgrace. The only redeeming feature about the Israelites then was that a faithful remnant of the Jews separated from them and undertook to bring credit to Jehovah’s name and to walk worthily with his name upon them. In a short time they were joined by many Gentiles, and all together they became a people for Jehovah’s name. As the disciple James told the Christian conference at Jerusalem: “Symeon [Peter] has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.” It was then up to these Christians to prove they had not, like the natural Jews, taken Jehovah’s name in vain.—Acts 15:14, NW.

10. How have Bible translators tried to cut out Jehovah’s name, but what have true Christians done about his name?

¹⁰ For years now the effort of Bible translators has been to cut out Jehovah’s name from English and other translations. They try to make him a nameless God who had no exclusive association with the Jewish nation for more than fifteen centuries under the name Jehovah. By this these translators claim to lift him from being a tribal or national God and to make it easier for him to become a universal God. They little appreciate the importance of his name, particularly in the light of his own declaration: “Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered.” “For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent.” (Joel 2:32, AS; Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13, NW; Zeph. 3:9, AS) In opposite fashion, Christians associated with the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society published and exalted Jehovah’s name for many years prior to 1931. In this latter year and in the light of the prophecies of the Bible they publicly adopted the name “Jehovah’s witnesses”. Ever since they have been living up to that name.

11. Why have these witnesses not acted presumptuously in taking his name?

¹¹ But did these witnesses act presumptuously in literally taking His name? No; for a true son is not ashamed of his Father’s worthy name. The name befits the work they did before 1931 and have been doing since. We should not think that the natural Jews who rejected the Teacher of the Lord’s prayer still have Jehovah’s name upon them. Jehovah’s rejection of them culminated in Jerusalem’s destruction in the first century and in scattering the Jews among all nations. At their rejection the faithful Christians became the chosen people “for his name”. Christians are therefore not presumptuous in taking that name and making it famous. If Jehovah’s witnesses have brought reproach upon His name, let their enemies say how.

12. At Jehovah’s rejection of the Jews what became of his name?

¹² The religionists of Christendom claim to be the people for his name, yet they do not confess the name or glorify it, but persecute those who do bear the name and who publish it. Jehovah’s name was not meant to die with his rejection of the Jews. It was transferred to the Christians, who became spiritual Israelites and who received his spirit of adoption, because of which they cry to him, “Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:4-7) His name upon them means his ownership of them; they belong to him. Those who sincerely offer the Lord’s prayer for God’s name to be sanctified will be most careful to bring no reproach upon it nor will they ridicule it just because they do not like the persons who bear it. They cherish it.

13. How has Jehovah sanctified his name in connection with his remnant?

¹³ As God’s children we can, of course, sanctify his name in our lives, but the sanctifying of that name universally will come about by God’s act through Jesus Christ. Jesus once prayed: “Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:28, NW) God assured him he would do so. Since A.D. 1919 the heavenly Father has done so. How? By restoring his faithful remnant of spiritual Israelites to his organization and its work in all the earth, as foretold at Ezekiel 36:21-32: “The nations shall know that I am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.”—AS.

14. How will the decisive sanctification of his name occur shortly?

¹⁴ But the decisive sanctification of his name before all the universe will come at the battle of Armageddon, which now draws closer and closer. There the foes of God’s name in Christendom and in heathendom will make a final concentrated attack upon his remnant and their good-will companions. Then in order to show that his name is holy and may not forever be profaned without punishment the heavenly Father will fight the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” and destroy all who reproach him now, whether men or devils. “And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezek. 38:23; 39:7, AS) We exult that the answer to our prayer for his name to be sanctified is near.

[Footnotes]

“Let Your Kingdom Come”

1, 2. (a) What do the clergy claim the Kingdom’s coming means, and how is their application of Romans 14:17 wrong? (b) What does this verse mean?

GOD’S kingdom is the mighty agency by means of which he sanctifies his holy name and proves to all the creation that he is the Sovereign of the universe. Christendom’s clergy claim that the Kingdom here prayed for is in the hearts of Christians and is a spiritual condition enjoyed by them, and that the Kingdom’s coming means the converting of the people to Christ and putting God in the governments and kingdoms of this old world. They quote in support Romans 14:15-17: “Do not by your food ruin that one for whom Christ died. Do not, therefore, let the good you do be spoken of with injury to you. For the kingdom of God does not mean eating and drinking, but means righteousness and peace and joy with holy spirit.” (NW) Frankly, then, if the Kingdom is to come by converting this world and putting God in its political governments by the influence of the clergy, the prayer for the Kingdom to come will never be answered. Look at Christendom today, not to speak of heathendom. Mark her fear of so-called “godless Communism”. Her only defense against it is the military bulwarks of democratic powers. Roman Catholics are now taught to pray for Russia’s conversion, that is, a conversion to Roman Catholicism, not to Russian Orthodox religion. But Hitler’s Nazi hordes failed to open up Russia for the easy invasion of Roman Catholicism; and now even the fall of the Soviet regime internally or its defeat militarily would never hasten the conversion of the Communist peoples to Catholicism, much less to true Christianity.

² If, according to Romans 14:17, people’s having righteousness, peace and joy with holy spirit means the Kingdom is existing among men, then how much of these things do Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of Christendom have? Certainly not enough to prove that God’s kingdom exists among them. But what Romans 14:17 says is that, if we possess righteousness, peace and joy with holy spirit, this means we will gain a place with Christ Jesus in God’s kingdom. Gaining that kingdom is not by eating and drinking. It is by taking part in these other spiritual things, just as our taking in knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ means everlasting life; it gains everlasting life in the new world for us.—John 17:3, NW.

3. What, then, is that kingdom which is to come, and so what does praying for its coming mean for governments of this world?

³ The kingdom that is to come is the kingdom concerning which God made a covenant with King David and concerning which Daniel the prophet said: “And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” An inspired dream of Daniel foretells, too, that this divine kingdom will be put into the hands of Christ Jesus, the Son of man and Son of David. His faithful body of followers, his little flock of joint heirs, will inherit that kingdom with him. (Dan. 2:44; 7:13, 14, 18, 22, 27, AS) Hence when a child of the heavenly Father prays for His kingdom to come he is praying for God’s kingdom in Christ’s hands to break to pieces and obliterate all the political systems of this world at the battle of Armageddon. If patriots do not like this thought, let them quit praying this prayer.

4, 5. (a) When and how was that kingdom brought to power? (b) What was one mighty expression of its coming to power?

⁴ In 1914, in harmony with Daniel’s vision, the Son of man, Christ Jesus, was brought before the Ancient of days, the heavenly Father, and “there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed”. In this way Jehovah took his great power and began reigning toward our earth and put his Son in power to rule in the midst of his enemies.

⁵ 1914 was the divinely marked year for this assumption of power over our earth, because that year the “appointed times of the nations” ran out. They had begun 2,520 years before with the overthrow of God’s typical kingdom in Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon. Their end in 1914 must mark the setting up of God’s kingdom in the hands of his Heir to the Kingdom covenant, Jesus Christ, and the assigning of all nations to be broken to pieces like potters’ vessels by the iron rod of his reigning King. Thus the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come to pass. One mighty expression of this fact was the “war in heaven” and the forcible ousting of Satan and his demons and the confining of them to this earth for final attention. No wonder we can hear today all over the earth the thunderous voice of a great witness-crowd saying as with the roar of many waters: “Praise Jah, you people, because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king.”—Rev. 12:1-12; 19:6, NW.

6. So should we stop praying for the Kingdom to come? Why or why not?

⁶ Does this mean, then, that our heavenly Father’s kingdom has come, that is, come in the way meant in the Lord’s prayer and that we should now stop making this petition? No; for, as pictured by the prophetic dream which Daniel interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom has been given existence like the rock which was cut out of the mountain without aid of human hands. But this Kingdom rock must still come against the idolatrous image of Satan’s world organization and hit its feet or visible part and knock the image from its base and completely destroy it in the battle of Armageddon. When King David of old was ruling in the midst of his foes in the Promised Land he had to come against all the enemies and subdue them all until he had reached every border of the kingdom’s God-given domain. Likewise Christ Jesus the Son of David, who is now ruling in the midst of his enemies, must yet come like a thief at an unexpected day and hour against these enemies lined up at Armageddon and must break up their organized power and grind them to powder.—Dan. 2:31-35, 44, 45; Rev. 16:13-16.

7. When therefore is the prayer for its coming fully answered?

⁷ The first expression of the Kingdom’s coming was when it began the tribulation on Satan’s world organization and hurled him down from the heavens. The complete expression of its coming will be when it revives this tribulation which has been interrupted since 1918 and wipes out Satan’s organization at Armageddon. There Jesus the King binds Satan and his demons, casts them into the abyss and seals it up for a thousand years. Then Christ Jesus will begin reigning for a millennium without any hindrance from this world. Then, therefore, is when the prayer is fully answered: “Let your kingdom come.”—Rev. 19:11 to 20:3.

8. Where is it to come, and why there? How far is it to extend?

⁸ This earth is the place to which God’s kingdom comes or extends its power and dominion, for it is here that Satan has separated mankind from God. Now since he has been hurled down here, the earth is the center of rebellion, an island of rebellion in all the universe; and God is localizing the war of Armageddon to just this earth and vicinity. God’s covenant with King David for an everlasting kingdom was not for just a spiritual state of religiousness and morality but was also for possession of territory. God held down David’s dominion to just the land God designated in his covenant with David’s forefather Abraham, known as the Promised Land. But the territory that the prophecy assigns to God’s kingdom by Christ will be “from sea to sea, and from the River [Euphrates, Babylon’s one-time seat] unto the ends of the earth”. The stone symbolizing God’s kingdom crushes Satan’s political image and becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. We read further: “Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.”—Ps. 72:8; Dan. 2:35; Isa. 9:6, 7, AS; Gen. 15:18-20.

HIS WILL

9. How is it that God’s will comes to pass here as in heaven?

⁹ From this standpoint we can appreciate more intelligently the petition that immediately follows the prayer for God’s kingdom: “Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:10, NW) This is generally understood to mean that God’s will is to be done by human creatures on earth as it is done by spirit angels up in heaven. But does it mean just that? Or rather that God will do what he wants to do here on earth by means of his kingdom just the same as he does it up in heaven? Rather the latter, although it includes the former thought too. As it is written: “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he pleased.” “Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that hath he done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” Says he: “I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; . . . yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.” (Pss. 115:3; 135:6; Isa. 46:9-11, AS; also Eccl. 3:14; 8:3) At his appointed year, 1914, he brought his kingdom to birth by enthroning Christ Jesus as King in the midst of his enemies. And Jesus, who taught us to pray for God’s will to be done here, is faithfully carrying out his will toward this earth just as he did toward heaven when he fought and cast Satan and his demons down from there. Jesus once came to earth as a man to do his Father’s will here. For so doing he was raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven to continue doing his Father’s will forevermore.

10. Who on earth are now doing God’s will, but how not Christendom?

¹⁰ Now the time for Satan to rage and do his will, bringing woe upon earth and sea and persecuting Jehovah’s people on earth, is very short indeed. That is why he is so angry and is now trying to do his worst, so as to destroy all mankind and especially the remnant of the heirs of God’s kingdom and all their crowd of goodwill companions and fellow witnesses. But the remnant are not terrified by Satan’s anger and his warfare, but “observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus”. They and their good-will companions are wholly committed to doing God’s will. Hence they are now obediently having part in fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy concerning the end of this world: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Rev. 12:12, 13, 17; Matt. 24:14, NW) But not so Christendom! She regularly says her “Pater Noster” (Latin meaning “Our Father”) but does not do God’s will. She fights the true interests of God’s kingdom and fights Jehovah’s witnesses who proclaim that the Kingdom has been set up. She is now divided within herself by hot and cold wars over international communism, and she is inconsistently serving both sides of the conflict.

11. How will the destruction God brings about allow for his will to come to pass on our earth as well as in heaven?

¹¹ As regards God’s will to be done in the heavens, he has installed the new heavenly powers to rule the coming righteous new world and has ousted Satan and his demons and limited their activities now to the earth. His installed King now has all his enemies at his footstool the earth and is ruling among them. Shortly he will destroy Satan’s wicked heavens and earth, Satan’s invisible and visible organization. Following this destruction he will build up a new human society the members of which will love to do God’s will. Thus God’s will to have a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells will be done, in fulfillment of his promise. (2 Pet. 3:13; Isa. 65:17; 66:22) It is not God’s will to destroy this literal earth, no more than to destroy the literal heavens. These shall abide forever. Because his will is to preserve this earthly globe through the battle of Armageddon, his will can and will be done here also as it is done up in heaven.

Daily Bread, Forgiveness, and Deliverance

1. With whom do the foregoing three, and the remaining four petitions of the Lord’s prayer, have to do?

THE first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer have to do directly with God’s interests which are of first importance universally. The remaining four petitions have to do with us creatures individually and personally. Being our heavenly Father, God is lovingly interested in these things which vitally affect his children on earth, and Jesus our Teacher assures us we may present these matters to Jehovah God in prayer.

2. With what regard for tomorrow do we ask for only today’s food?

² “Give us today our bread for this day.” By asking bread or food and drink for no more than today this prayer adopts the right attitude. It does not presume we shall be living tomorrow, mindful of Proverbs 27:1: “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” The disciple James impresses that same thought and tells us we should say: “If Jehovah wills, we shall live and also do this or that.” (Jas. 4:13-15, NW) In harmony with this prayer for just today’s portion of food Jesus a little later on in this same sermon on the mount tells us how God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, and says: “So never be anxious and say: ‘What are we to eat?’ or, ‘What are we to drink?’ or, ‘What are we to put on?’ For all these are the things the nations are eagerly pursuing. For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you. So, never be anxious about the next day, for the next day will have its own anxieties. Sufficient for each day is its own evil.” (Matt. 6:31-34, NW) So we ask today for only our daily bread.

3. How does the Lord’s prayer encourage no greedy spirit?

³ The way Luke 11:3 (NW) words it in the similar prayer reads: “Give us our bread for the day according to the day’s requirement.” This promotes no spirit of hoarding things to the denial of such things to other children of God, nor any getting of a corner or monopoly on foodstuffs so as to command the market, control prices and make financial profits at the expense of the people’s misery. The Lord’s prayer advises no greedy spirit. To the contrary, it advises godly devotion with contentment, which means great gain in a real way, a gain in happiness and blessing now and of eternal life in the righteous new world. “So, having sustenance and covering, we shall be content with these things.”—1 Tim. 6:6-8, NW.

4, 5. (a) How is this daily bread no free, unearned handout? (b) Why need we not fear because it comes on a day-to-day basis?

⁴ This prayer for daily bread does not mean God treats us like infants and brings the food to us without effort by us and puts it before us on the table or right into our mouths. No; this material bread is not a free, unearned handout. God has surrounded us with all the means for providing us with bread, but we must get busy and work to get it deservedly. There is no room allowed for sponging on our hardworking fellows, but God enforces the rule among his able-bodied children: ‘If anyone does not want to work neither let him eat.’ (2 Thess. 3:10, NW) In keeping with our prayer to him for the daily ration for today, we trust him to provide us physical and mental strength to work and deserve it. In the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, God caused the manna to fall like dew all about the Israelites each day of the week except the seventh day. So there was plenty of food about them, but they had to go out and collect the manna and then work it up into baked bread. On the sixth day God caused twice as much to fall, for the seventh day was a rest day and none would fall then, because it would be wasted since they were legally forbidden to go out and do collecting work.

⁵ So our praying for just today’s bread may put us on a day-to-day basis in our dependence on God for nourishment, but he will fatherlike provide it during our journey through this old world, just as faithfully as he provided manna for the Israelites.

6. What assurance has God given as to our bread and water, and what can be done about those having less than we do?

⁶ To those who take refuge under God’s capital organization, heavenly Zion, Jehovah gives this assurance and he has made it good to date: “He will dwell on the heights, his stronghold will be rocky fastnesses; his bread will be given to him, his water will be sure.” (Isa. 33:13-16, AT) For example, during the siege of Jerusalem by the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah was imprisoned, but even there his prison-keepers “gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent”. (Jer. 37:16-21, AS) Likewise, through this troublous period upon Christendom and clear through the war of Armageddon Jehovah will make sure we get our bread and water to meet our need in our faithful service of him. Due to action of the enemy against us, some of our fellow children of God may not have as much as we do. In this case it is our privilege to share with them to strengthen them for God’s work with integrity. We shall always have something so as to distribute equally what God provides. As it was with the Israelites when collecting manna each day in the wilderness, “he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack, they gathered every man according to his eating.”—Ex. 16:18, AS; 2 Cor. 8:14, 15, NW.

7. How does God answer this petition in more than a material way? Why?

⁷ Knowing that “man must live, not on bread alone, but on every utterance coming forth through Jehovah’s mouth”, our heavenly Father will also supply us daily with the spiritual food through his theocratic organization, provided we daily come to his table not only feeding our minds on his written Word but also feeding our spiritual selves by doing God’s will and sharing his Word of truth with others.—Matt. 4:4, NW; Deut. 8:3, AS; John 4:34.

FORGIVING OUR DEBTS

8. What are the debts for which we ask forgiveness, and why so?

⁸ A sin of transgression against God’s law puts us in debt to him. “The wages sin pays is death.” (Rom. 6:23, NW) For our sin God could demand and exact our lives; he could banish us from his holy organization and from fellowship and association with it. He could withdraw his peace from us, breaking off all peaceful relations with us. He could make us turn in to him all that we got from him by his undeserved kindness. We owe him love, expressed in obedience; and when we sin we fail in paying our debt of love to him, for sin is unloving toward God. (Rom. 13:8-10) It is with a view of sin as being a debt to be settled with God that Jesus framed the next petition in the Lord’s prayer: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matt. 6:12, NW) In proof that debt here means sin, Jesus expresses the same petition in the corresponding prayer in these words: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone that is in debt to us.”—Luke 11:4, NW.

9. What is the basis for God’s forgiveness of us, and so what must we believe and accept to pray this petition effectively?

⁹ This petition would not be authorized unless there was some basis for God’s forgiveness of us. The basis for it is not just his love and mercy in an abstract way and without regard to his perfect justice which requires death for sin. The basis for forgiveness is his love and mercy expressed in the human sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ which completely met all the demands of justice in our behalf. When Jesus taught this prayer in the sermon on the mount he had already pronounced the forgiveness of the sins of a number whom he healed. So it was to be understood that God’s forgiveness would be through Christ Jesus, and that by his perfect ransom sacrifice. The apostle Paul, who claimed to be the foremost of sinners, says to God’s children: “The Son of his love, by means of whom we have our release by ransom, the forgiveness of our sins.” “Now he has manifested himself once for all time at the consummation of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself.” So to pray this part of the Lord’s prayer effectively we must sincerely believe in Christ’s sacrifice and accept it.—Luke 5:20-24; 7:47-49; Matt. 9:1-8; Col. 1:13, 14 and Heb. 9:26, NW; Gal. 1:4.

10. Why may we not ignore the sacrifice and priesthood of Jesus?

¹⁰ God does not ignore the sacrifice of his Son for sin. His absolute justice requires this sacrificial arrangement. “He loved us and sent forth his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.” Unlike certain religious sects, as the Holiness sect and Christian Science, etc., we must be honest enough to admit our imperfections and confess our sins. We must recognize the fact of sin in us, just as the apostle Paul did and expressed it. It is absolutely necessary for us to confess our sins to God and to appeal to him for the benefits of the sacrifice of his Son and to recognize Jesus’ office as God’s High Priest. Otherwise, we can have no forgiveness. The Aaronic priesthood of the tribe of Levi in Israel has passed away, but we dare not deny Jesus’ priesthood. He is a priest after the likeness of Melchizedek, and his priesthood lasts forever until he has completely saved all sinners who are subject to rescue, ‘saving them completely, because he is always alive to plead for them.’ We have nothing of our own sinful selves with which to pay the debt. Hence we must apply for the benefits of Jesus’ priesthood.—1 John 4:10; 1:8; Rom. 7:17-25; Heb. 7:24-28, NW.

11. What must precede or accompany our asking to be forgiven? Why?

¹¹ While we may selfishly crave forgiveness of sins for ourselves through Jesus Christ, God reserves to himself the right to withhold this forgiveness if we are mercilessly unforgiving toward others. Hence to our request to God the Lord’s prayer adds, “As we also have forgiven our debtors.” To be forgiven our forgiveness must precede our prayer, or our willingness to forgive others must accompany our prayer. James (2:13, NW) warns us: “The one that does not practice mercy will have his judgment without mercy. Mercy [toward others] exults triumphantly over judgment.” David, who was very merciful to King Saul and who refused to kill him for his persecutions even when he had him in his power, explained why he received God’s mercy to be exalted to the throne of Israel, saying: “With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful.” And immediately after teaching us the Lord’s prayer Jesus, the Greater David, dwelt on this vital point of forgiving others in order to be fit to receive God’s merciful forgiveness. We must be grateful and merciful enough to forgive the same sinner a number of times, seventy-seven times, if necessary. No matter how many times we forgive our fellow creatures, it could never equal the extent of God’s forgiveness and mercy to us through Christ. Jesus paid the full debt for us. Canceling our sins is not a debt that God owes us, but it is a matter of his loving-kindness and mercy through Christ Jesus whom he provided to be a sin-covering sacrifice for us.—Ps. 18:25, 26.

12. Since we call him Father, whom must we prove ourselves to be like as regards forgiveness?

¹² Since we address God as our heavenly Father, we must prove we are his children by being like him, resembling him and showing forth his traits, including this loving trait of mercy with forgiveness. “You will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind toward the unthankful and wicked. Continue becoming compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” “Become kind to one another, tenderly compassionate, freely forgiving one another just as God also by Christ freely forgave you. Therefore, become imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Luke 6:35, 36 and Eph. 4:32; 5:1, NW) By doing this we do God’s will now on earth.

13. How may we be thus merciful to people in our territory, and with what assurance for us regarding Armageddon?

¹³ Remember, too, that those who are merciful now will receive God’s mercy during the destructions of Armageddon and will survive into the new world. Our work now of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom is a work of rescuing lives from destruction at Armageddon. The merciful rescue-workers will be rescued and preserved during Armageddon. We must exercise mercy toward the people to whom we preach, even if they are ungrateful. If we did not forgive the people in our territory to whom we proclaim the good news but who ignore us or mistreat us, we would not go back and work our territory over again with the life-saving Kingdom message. We represent God’s kingdom, and his kingdom is a government of forgiveness toward man, for Christ Jesus the King of kings is God’s High Priest and his followers who will be kings in heaven with him are also to be priests of God with him.—Rev. 20:6; 1 Pet. 2:9.

NOT BROUGHT INTO TEMPTATION

14. In view of what facts regarding Jesus, Abraham and Job is it difficult to understand “Do not bring us into temptation”?

¹⁴ Even as we pray for our sins to be forgiven because we grieve over our sins against God, we also pray for us not to be brought into temptation to sin. So the Lord’s prayer continues: “And do not bring us into temptation.” (Matt. 6:13, NW; Luke 11:4) How could Jesus pray this, when the Scripture tells us that, right after his baptism in Jordan, “then Jesus was led by the spirit [of God] up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil,” and the Tempter came to him to turn him from God? Also Jesus is called the “Son of Abraham”, concerning whom it is written: “It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.” This was by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, his beloved son by Sarah. (Gen. 22:1) And then when Satan challenged God, God turned faithful Job over to him to be tempted, if possible, into cursing God to his face. And on the night of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, he said to his eleven faithful apostles: “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.” (Job 1:1 to 2:13; Luke 22:28) From what standpoint, then, can we pray our heavenly Father not to bring us into temptation? To try to solve the apparent difficulty The Four Gospels, by C. C. Torrey, renders the petition, “And let us not yield to temptation,” whereas The Emphatic Diaglott renders it: “And abandon us not to Trial.”—Matt. 6:13.

15. (a) In what way, then, does God not subject us to trial? (b) Why was he not the one that tempted Eve regarding forbidden fruit?

¹⁵ One thing is certain: Our heavenly Father subjects us to trial, but not with evil or temptation to sin. Hence James writes: “When under trial, let no one say: ‘I am being tried by God.’ No; for with evil things God cannot be tried nor does he himself try anyone. But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:13-15, NW) When Jehovah God faced Adam and Eve with the prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that was not a tempting of them with evil, for the tree was not evil in itself. Jehovah warned them against eating it disobediently and informed them of the evil consequences. Hence they could not be tempted toward it according to ignorance. It was when Eve listened to the serpent’s deceptive talk that she became tempted. God’s warning against eating created no appetite or desire in her for the tree, but the serpent’s false description of the results of eating it contrary to God’s prohibition and warning created in her a wrong desire. This was what worked up a temptation for her, as James says above. Because of not dismissing this desire as wrong and as against God, but entertaining it, the temptation drew her into sin and cheated her.—Gen. 3:1-7; 2 Cor. 11:3.

16. Why does God subject us to trial, but how do we enter into temptation?

¹⁶ However, God subjects us to trial or test, not to cause our downfall, but to prove what we are, to make what we are come to view. He does not tempt us with evil to wickedness, but we ourselves under Satan’s influence create the temptation by thinking how nice it would be to do or to have something contrary to God’s will, and then not dismissing the desire created by this improper thinking, but considering it more and more. In this way we are drawn out and led to ignore God’s counsel and warning. We enter into temptation.

17. Why did God bring Israel into the wilderness, but into what did they turn the occasion?

¹⁷ Jehovah led the Israelites into the wilderness to “prove” them, to know what was in their hearts, but not to cause them to fall. No; for he took them away from the polytheistic surroundings of Egypt and also far from the idolatrous Canaanites, and under these conditions it should have been easier for them to go right since he had given them a witness of his Godship. They could now well show their sincerity and earnestness in worshiping Jehovah and obeying him. But this opportunity to cultivate pure worship they turned into a “day of temptation in the wilderness” for God by putting him to the test. They tried to make him compromise his principles of righteousness and not stick to his spoken word and his Law covenant with them or enforce its penalties. So thousands of them were laid low in the wilderness for yielding to temptations which they created for themselves by letting selfish desire rise in them and then yielding to these desires and rebelling against Jehovah God.—Deut. 8:2, 16; Ps. 95:8; Heb. 3:7-9; 1 Cor. 10:9, NW.

18. What does God prove by trying us, as in the cases of Abraham and Job?

¹⁸ God proves what we are by trial. (John 6:6) This is unlike Jesus’ enemies who tried him to bring about his fall, if possible, by forcing him into a compromise to escape criticism, trouble and injury. (Matt. 22:18, 35; 16:1; 19:3) When Jehovah tried Abraham, he proved Abraham’s faith and used him, not for an evil purpose, but for making a wonderful prophetic drama by having him sacrifice his beloved boy Isaac. God was not asking Abraham to do something He himself would not do, for Abraham here pictured Jehovah God. In the great test of God as to the depths of his love for mankind he proved himself big-hearted enough to sacrifice his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. (John 3:16; Heb. 11:17-19, NW) To explode Satan’s false charge against Job, God let Job be tried and proved Job’s loyalty. Likewise he lets Job’s counterpart, the Job class which begins with Jesus particularly, be tried and their loyalty and their worthiness of God’s reward be proved.—Jas. 5:10, 11, NW.

19. By doing what in advance for us does God not bring us into temptation?

¹⁹ How is it, then, that in answer to our prayer God does not bring us into temptation? For one thing, God does so by strengthening us to stand the trial he lets come upon us and also by forewarning us. Before letting the spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan the heavenly Father filled the Son with the holy spirit and also opened up the heavens to his vision. He also audibly acknowledged him as his approved Son. (Matt. 3:13-17) God does not let us work up a temptation innocently for ourselves by ignorance, as when his servant Paul warned married couples. They were well-meaning in having no sexual intercourse, but Paul advised otherwise, “that Satan may not keep tempting you [toward adultery] for your lack of self-regulation.” Paul warns that Christians who are determined to be rich contrary to Scriptural advice “fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires which plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things”. (1 Cor. 7:1-5 and; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10, NW) Jesus, too, warned against the deceptive power of wealth. (Matt. 13:22, NW) Thus God does not leave us ignorant of the source of temptations. To protect a Christian novice against the weaknesses of himself, the apostle Paul instructed that no newly converted man was to be made a congregational overseer. Why not? “For fear that he might get puffed up with pride and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.”—1 Tim. 3:2, 6, NW.

20. What similar forewarnings were given by others and how has God kept us from the hour of test that has come on the world?

²⁰ Jesus forearmed his disciples against temptation by forewarning them against the severe trials ahead. That way they would not get offended at them. His apostle Peter told Christians not to consider the fiery trials coming upon them to be something strange and unusual. In place of being surprised, hurt and offended, they should rejoice over these opportunities to prove their faith and devotion. Paul also tells us to be on the lookout for just such trials as befell the Israelites in the wilderness, temptations “common to man”. (John 16:1-4; 1 Pet. 4:12, 13; 1 Cor. 10:6-13) So God keeps us from being tempted along with the world by warning us what things really are and by opening our eyes of understanding so as not to be deceived with the world and thus be drawn into temptation with the world. In that way he keeps us from the temptation that has now come on all the world, just as he promised us by Christ. (Rev. 3:10; 2 Pet. 2:9) The spiritual table which he spreads for us does not become a trap to us just because that table sets forth things contrary to what the world expects or likes. And God’s Son as King of the new world is no cause of stumbling to us but is a precious thing to us, a precious stone laid in Zion, God’s capital organization. This precious King is our High Priest with God. He was tried as we are being tried and so can sympathize with us and succor us.—Rom. 11:9; 9:32, 33; 1 Pet. 2:7, 8; Heb. 2:18; 4:15.

ENTERING INTO IT

21. How does God warn against temptations due to bragging and criticizing?

²¹ God warns us against creating temptations for ourselves by our bragging self-conceitedly and by criticizing others mercilessly on points where we ourselves are weak or vulnerable, unknown to ourselves. When we brag self-confidently it makes a test of us proper on this particular point. Where we criticize others self-righteously, it is due that we be tried to show our criticism warranted or not. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal Peter bragged against his fellow apostles and fell into denying Jesus his Master three times. Jesus’ prayers especially for Peter helped save him from losing faith completely. Jesus did not bring his disciples into temptation that night by leading them to the garden of Gethsemane, but he warned them against entering into temptation by their failing to keep awake and praying as he was doing. He marked out the course that would offset or act counter to temptation and enable them to endure the proof of their loyalty.—Matt. 26:33-35, 40-45; Gal. 6:1.

22. Since he is a father, how is it God does not bring us into temptation?

²² From this it is clear that God does “bring us not into temptation”. He subjects us to trial by chastening us, but he does not chasten us to the point where it is too great for us to bear and we break down and fall into temptation. “As a man chasteneth his son, so Jehovah thy God chasteneth thee.” (Deut. 8:5, AS) A father that loves his son would not carry the chastening too far, where it was more than the son could stand. He would give him only as much as he could take at the time. So with our heavenly Father. He builds us up for the trial that we may come through successfully.

23. How can we weaken ourselves for the trial, and so why did not Jesus bring his disciples into temptation by taking them to Gethsemane?

²³ But we can weaken ourselves for the trial by a lack of watchfulness and prayerful preparation, by our carelessness and ignoring God’s instructions and advice, so that, under the trial, we will enter into temptation to do sin and will succumb to it due to the desire which we have cultivated contrary to God’s will. Thus we let it turn out an experience with spiritual hurt to us rather than one of victory for us, one building us up in our strength in God, one strengthening the ‘tested quality of our faith’ and winning God’s approval for us. We should always remember Jesus’ warning, “The spirit, of course, is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38, NW; Luke 22:40, 46) Before going to Gethsemane Jesus had warned them that the prophecy he quoted must be fulfilled. Hence the fulfillment of the prophecy was not being forced upon them contrary to their wills. It came true because their flesh was weak and they had not strengthened their willing spirit by keeping awake and praying. They did not avail themselves of the divine help they needed. Consequently they entered into temptation due to a selfish desire to save their own necks, and they fled and abandoned Jesus, and Peter went farther and denied him three times.

24. How is it shown that God was not the one that brought them into temptation in Gethsemane?

²⁴ It was not God that brought them into this temptation so as to fulfill his own prophecy, for God’s Son Jesus stood the trial and he asked for his disciples to be let go unmolested. Their failure to heed Jesus and watch, pray and copy his courageous, self-sacrificing example operated for them to enter into the temptation. Since Jesus stood the trial, God had not brought the apostles into temptation by giving them a trial greater than what they could stand. Jesus’ steadfastness by God’s power should have steadied and helped them. Satan was the one that ‘sifted the apostles like wheat’, scattering them because they feared death with their Master. (Luke 22:31-34; Amos 9:9, 10; Ps. 59:11; Isa. 30:28) That God did not bring them into this temptation, but that they themselves entered into it, is shown in that later on they did find in God the strength to expose themselves to being arrested for Jesus’ sake, to being thrown into prison and being held for execution. So with Jehovah’s help they could have borne the Gethsemane trial also. Hence it follows that the heavenly Father brought them under trial at Gethsemane but did not bring them into temptation.

25. So in praying not to be brought into temptation what are we asking of the heavenly Father? What guarantees have we about it?

²⁵ So being aware of our weakness and limitations we pray in the Lord’s prayer to the heavenly Father that he will not try us and chasten us any more than an earthly father would his child. Is that not a proper prayer of a child to its father? We have God’s written guarantee that he will not do so. “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.” And he says: “They shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” (Ps. 103:13, 14 and Mal. 3:17, AS) Supporting this thought, the apostle Paul vindicates God of any charge of bringing us into temptation by saying: “Let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall. No temptation has taken you except what is common to men [like those Israelites in the wilderness]. But God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out in order for you to be able to endure it.”—1 Cor. 10:12, 13, NW.

DELIVERANCE FROM THE WICKED ONE

26. With what petition does the prayer close, and why appropriately so?

²⁶ Where a child proves himself loyal under trial, won’t a loving earthly father rescue the child from a wicked assailant and oppressor? Yes; and so will the heavenly Father, too. Appropriately, then, Jesus closed the model prayer with this petition: “And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the wicked one.” (Matt. 6:13, NW) And what deliverances God has wrought since the establishment of his kingdom in 1914! It is as though he was answering the prayer of old: “Command deliverances for Jacob.” He is a Deliverer.—Ps. 44:4-8; 2 Cor. 1:10; 2 Tim. 3:11; 4:17, 18.

27. For what classes has God accomplished a deliverance since 1919?

²⁷ Since A.D. 1919 God has delivered the remnant on earth of his Kingdom heirs from great mystic Babylon, Satan’s world. He has sent his Son Jesus Christ to the place of power in the heavenly Zion to act as a Deliverer in their behalf and to turn away all the ungodliness of mystic Babylon from them and free them from their fears. This deliverance he accomplished in fulfillment of the prophecy: “All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God,” for in all the earth his remnant are active as his liberated servants and witnesses and are demonstrating their freedom from Babylon. (Isa. 59:18, 19; 52:1, 2, 10-14; Rom. 11:26) Hence all the people of good will in all nations see the salvation and deliverance Jehovah God has effected for his remnant, and they are being shown the way to get deliverance from Babylon too. So Almighty God is now accomplishing the deliverance of this great crowd of “other sheep”, just as he delivered Lot from doomed Sodom long ago.—2 Pet. 2:7, 9.

28. In view of all the wicked features of the situation now, of what divine provision must we make use for protection and victory?

²⁸ Meantime we must put on the full suit of armor from God and stand firm in it and keep praying. Doing so we keep ourselves from having the wicked one Satan the Devil fasten his hold on us, though we are in the world which is lying in the power of that wicked one. (1 John 5:18, 19, NW) We know that the days are wicked, and that wicked men and impostors were foretold to advance from bad to worse and they have reached their worst in these last days. Hence if we hope to withstand the onslaught of the wicked one and his demons in this wicked day, we must don the full suit of armor from God. With its shield of faith we can “quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles” and in this manner endure the trial of our faith: “this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith.”—Eph. 5:15; 6:11-18, NW; 1 Pet. 1:6, 7; 1 John 5:4, NW.

29. If we thus do our part, what will God do?

²⁹ If we thus do our part God will faithfully do his part for our deliverance. As it is written: “Faith is not a possession of all people. But the Lord is faithful, and he will make you firm and keep you from the wicked one. May the Lord continue directing your hearts successfully into the love of God and into the endurance for the Christ.”—2 Thess. 3:2, 3, 5, NW.

30, 31. But what does answer to the petition for deliverance mean now, and how does the prayer close?

³⁰ For us who live in the “time of the end” of this world our heavenly Father’s answer to our prayer, “Deliver us from the wicked one,” means more than just keeping us out of Satan’s power and rescuing us from his mighty organization while He leaves him and his organization still on the loose. Answer now to that prayer means a deliverance by preserving us against wicked Satan’s final attacks in this time of the end and destroying him and all his organization whereas we survive the end of his world. This salvation or deliverance our Father effects by means of his kingdom for which we pray, asking that it come against Satan’s organization and destroy it. Thus here on the earth to which Satan and his demons have now been restrained God’s will is to be done, and after those wicked spirits are abyssed at Armageddon they will not molest anyone on earth during the thousand years of Christ’s kingdom.

³¹ Thus the Lord’s prayer closes on a note of triumph with full confidence in Jehovah’s victory. It is now near complete answer.

Theocracy’s Increase in Burma

This article continues the series reporting on the travels of the Watchtower Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and his secretary, M. G. Henschel.

THE Rangoon airport is located at Mingaladon, several miles from the city. When we stepped out of the plane and into the waiting bus which drove us to the terminal building we saw no sign of any of the publishers and we wondered whether conditions in Burma had worsened and they had not been able to make the trip out. On account of the delay in the flight the brothers had been misinformed about the plane that had arrived and they were waiting inside to be advised when the Bangkok plane landed. The first our brothers saw of us was at 5:40 and they thought we would not arrive until 6, so all of us were surprised and glad to meet. The publishers related how two weeks earlier the insurgents in the country had blown up the water line and they were without water for some days. They were glad that things were now restored and the convention would not be affected. On the way to the meeting hall we passed a high barbed-wire fence with many guards on duty at the gates and we were informed that inside this compound lived the high officials of the government who had to be protected because of the war conditions in the country.

We were scheduled to speak to the convention already in session that evening and it surely was a delight to see the fine increase in the organization. In 1947 when we visited before there were only 19 publishers there and then we were meeting on the outskirts of the city in a little Kingdom Hall built of bamboo poles and covered with woven palm leaves. But now the company had grown and moved into the heart of the town, 106 Brooking street, one flight up. The hall was filled; 80 persons had assembled from various parts of Burma. Most of them were from the city of Rangoon itself because travel is difficult in Burma at the present time. Because the plane left Bangkok late the meeting was on when Brother Henschel and I walked into the hall. A round of applause came up when they saw us. They were happy that we had arrived. Brother Henschel talked first and a brother in Burmese attire was his interpreter. I was introduced and they sent up another interpreter, a sister who did very well and was very quick in expressing herself in the Burmese language. It would be rather difficult to have the same interpreter for both of us, because it is a task to take words into your head in English and bring Burmese words with the same meaning out of your mouth. After an hour or so of doing interpreting the interpreter is quite tired and relief is good. We appreciated their assistance, because many of those in the audience would not have been able to understand us if it had not been for the interpreters.

In 1947 when we were there they had an average of 17 publishers proclaiming the Kingdom message and there was only one Gilead graduate in the country at that time. Since then the Society was able to send in a few more and they have done excellent work. With the fine co-operation and help of the company publishers and a few local pioneers the new peak of 94 ministers was reached in Burma.

PUBLIC ADDRESSES IN RANGOON

The convention continued the next day. The big feature for Wednesday was the public meeting held in the City Hall. It is a large building right in the center of Rangoon, and up one flight is the big auditorium, cooled by ceiling fans. The officials had allowed the brothers to display a large banner on the front of the building to advertise the meeting. Additionally, many handbills had been distributed and newspapers had announced the meeting. We had seen an ad on the front page of a paper on the plane when we left Bangkok. The meeting was set for 6:30 p.m. That made it possible for those working to go to the meeting and then to their homes afterward. A fine crowd of 256 persons gathered to hear the lecture “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land”. This was not interpreted into Burmese, because the announcements given out were to the effect that the lecture would be given in English. The audience was unusually attentive and very anxious to hear about the freedom they would receive in the new world. All were invited to remain and after fifteen minutes’ intermission they heard Brother Henschel talk. A hundred persons stayed. Brother Henschel spoke while I went to the government radio station in Rangoon with some of the brothers who had arranged for me to give a fifteen-minute talk over the radio. The station was BBC, broadcasting on 7,500 watts power. On Wednesday evenings the station puts on an hour’s English program from 8:45 to 9:45. This follows a Burmese musical program which I heard at the radio station and it was most interesting. They were playing the native songs and they sound quite different from the American melodies. Not only does Burmese music use whole tones and half tones, but in Burma they break the music down to quarter tones. In other words, they have another note between their whole tones and sharps and flats. To the Burmese this is natural, but to an ear trained to hear the Western music the Eastern melodies are very enchanting but difficult to understand because of the odd tones that are so prominent in their music.

Just at the time I was to go on the air, Brother Henschel brought his talk to a close and Station BBC was tuned in at the City Hall. All sat and listened to the fifteen-minute discourse on the hopes of the people and what they could look forward to in a new world of righteousness. The brothers expressed afterward that they believed this broadcast would do much good, especially among the English-speaking Burmese, and they expected to find in the field-service work during the next few days many persons who listened to the program.

The convention continued the next day and ended with 90 persons coming to the closing meeting. After that we adjourned to the room above the hall where a little cafeteria had been set up, and in a way the convention continued with a sort of question-and-answer arrangement from 9 o’clock to 11. We had gone there for refreshments and we had them, but we also had brothers centered around us and we were bombarded with questions on various points. It showed that the publishers were interested in the truth and it was a pleasure to try to answer them from the Scriptures and to give them a clearer understanding on some issues that they did not have clearly in their minds. It was a most profitable evening.

Burma, like many other Eastern countries, is going through great troubles and has its full share of difficulties in the last days of this old world. During the second World War the Japanese swooped down over that land and caused great difficulties. Just about the time the people got over that war they clamored for independence and they gained it from the British. They set up their own democratic government for ruling. But as in every young nation it seems that there are many oppositionists, and now outside of the principal cities there are insurgents, as they call them, who are causing havoc, trying to break down the confidence of the people in the present government and trying to take over the reins of rulership. There is a great deal of disturbance in the territory to the north of Rangoon and train travel is really unsafe. Even though armed guards are put on the trains, when the trains are stopped by the bandits people are robbed and sometimes many of them are killed if resistance is put up. It seems from reports that people are safe enough in their villages and towns during the daytime, but when night comes fear comes with it because of the night raiders. It is difficult to get regular reports from the brothers in the north, but we learned that they were continuing faithful in preaching the good news as they had opportunity, and arrangements were made for the branch servant, Brother Richards, to fly to these points to visit the brothers. There is regular air service, and undoubtedly great comfort and help can be given to these brothers of ours by a visit from the branch representative. We were delighted to see a few of the publishers who made the trip from the north and to see their zeal for the service.

MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES

The missionaries gave us some very interesting experiences. Norman Barber, a graduate of Gilead, was telling that, when he goes to his territory in different parts of the city, rather than just getting on a bus or walking directly to his territory he usually carries on the magazine work or distribution of booklets. From block to block he talks to people as he has opportunity, witnessing to individuals, and he places numerous booklets in this manner. When checking his report it was observed that he had no difficulty in distributing four and five hundred booklets a month, most of this being during going to and from his territory. He has been able to arrange for a number of home Bible studies in this way.

Brother Smedstad, a missionary who is the assistant company servant, reports that he has great pleasure in taking publishers out in the field service in group witnessing five days a week. This keeps him very well occupied, but he has aided many in getting into the field service regularly and he is able too to train the weaker publishers in what to say when they go from door to door. In addition to this good work he has many Bible studies and arranges to call back on the people in the territories that he is working with the company publishers. The three missionaries, including the branch servant, are doing good work.

The missionaries are living on the third floor of a building that was bombed out during the last war and just recently was fixed up so it could be inhabited. As yet there are no windows in the building where they reside. They did not need them when we were there, because it was the dry season, but in two months the rains would fall, and not just lightly but in drenching torrents. So between now and the time that the rains fall they will have to put in glass windows; otherwise they might be flooded out of their third-floor apartment. It was a pleasure to eat most of our meals with them and talk over their problems as missionaries and discuss the branch work and the advancement of the Kingdom interests there.

For a long time the Society has been trying to get more missionaries into Burma, but the government there in its present anxiety, having plenty of problems to handle locally, does not see fit to allow any more missionaries to come in, at least not for the present. It may be when the internal distress of revolution on the part of some of the people settles down and the government brings peace and order that they will look upon the matter of bringing in foreign missionaries with greater favor. I sincerely hope so. It will depend a great deal upon the attitude toward the Buddhist religion, I know.

But even though we have only a few missionaries there they are supported by some special pioneers and regular company publishers and the organization appears to be strong and energetic and they ought to keep on preaching the good news, for that is their expressed desire. Undoubtedly the assembly just held will greatly stimulate the brothers to press onward and accomplish the work that Jehovah God wants done in all the world.

Our days in Burma were full to the limit from morning until night, talking with our brothers, and the visit was much too short. We did not have much time to see the things in the city, but one cannot miss the numerous golden pagodas of Buddhism rising above rooftops and the priests whose yellow robes are a slightly deeper shade than those of Thailand. The scars of war remain with Rangoon and there are numerous buildings of which only walls remain standing. On the ground floor of some of these, squatters have taken up residence, but there is always the possibility that part of the remaining walls will fall in and crush them. Streets and sidewalks are not fully restored to prewar standards. So the country suffers now from its internal strife and money is for military equipment, the big problem being attacked first.

The people of Rangoon are varied and interesting. Indians abound, some following the ancient traditions of dress with turban and dhotī and others using the conventional European styles. The Burmese wear a kind of sarong, which is said to be cooler than European clothing. The blouses the women wear are usually of nylon or silk, with bright buttons or precious stones on the front. They are very colorful. Quite a few Tibetan traders were in town and they looked quite out of place with their heavy clothing and warm hats and long hair, often braided and hanging down their backs. It was the first time we had seen people from Tibet in native dress.

WATER FESTIVAL DODGED

On Friday morning we rose early and ate our breakfast at the missionary home. As soon as we had walked out of the hotel to go to the missionary home, which was a block away, we spotted some young boys with their water guns ready to start off the children’s day of the water festival. The water festival does not go into full force the first day and this year’s first big day would be the 14th. The astrologers had announced that it would begin on Friday the 13th; but the stars evidently did not reveal to them the right story, and after further consultations it was announced in the newspapers that the water festival would begin on Saturday, the 14th, because the stars said so. That was all right with us. But even so the children always begin a day early. The last time we were in Burma we were in the middle of the water festival and they poured buckets of water upon us while we were riding in a jeep. This time in going to the airport we had a little more protection from the youngsters because we were in a sedan car and could turn up the glass windows. The car got a washing and if the windows had not been up the water surely would have landed on us, because the youngsters make some very excellent shots with their throwing of water and their water guns.

They go into this water festival in a big way. They set up bamboo and palm-leaf pavilions throughout the city. They fill barrels with water and people can come and get supplies for the drenching of others, all of which is a part of their belief that throwing water on the three days of the festival washes away the sins of the people. I was told that at some places they have not only a supply of water for throwing, but a bus may stop and the passengers are allowed a free drink flavored with some fruit. Of course, they may also be refreshed with a soaking with water at that time. It had made us smile at the last meeting of the assembly when the company servant announced that the Watchtower study for Sunday would be postponed until Tuesday because of the water festival. He had good reason, because the last time we were in Burma the brothers came to the meeting during the water festival and they had to bring extra clothing with them, wrapped in waterproof material, and then they changed clothes there at the Kingdom Hall before the meeting. But with such a large company coming to the meetings now it seemed advisable to allow the brothers to stay at home and not go out of the house during the water festival.

So we received a little bit of sprinkling on the car windows from the children, but the big three days when grownups go at it with very much vigor were to follow on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They say that then somewhere in Burma they have rain during the festival and evidently their astrologers thought it better to move it back a day to be sure of rain. This water festival brings no life to the country, but it is later when the monsoons come to water the parched earth and the rice planting season begins.

At the airport that morning there were many of our brothers. We enjoyed a last farewell of shaking hands under the eyes of two watchful customs guards and then at 8:30 we boarded a bus that took us out on the field where our plane waited and we boarded the plane to make our way to Bangkok and our connections for Hong Kong.

Questions From Readers

● Why does not the Watchtower Society condemn wine and liquor as the evils they are?—H. J., Pennsylvania.

We have not condemned the drinking of alcoholic beverages because the Bible does not condemn them. How can we do so when the Scriptures show that Jehovah’s servants partook of such? Melchizedek served wine to Abraham. The priests in Israel were permitted to drink wine, except when serving in the tabernacle or temple. It was used in feastings, with God’s approval, and was gratefully accepted as a divine provision. (Gen. 14:18; Lev. 10:9; Ps. 104:14, 15) Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine for use at a wedding, after the supply provided by the host had run out. The very context shows it could not have been grape juice, as some would claim. (John 2:1-11) Jesus ate food and drank wine, and the religious generation of his day accused him of excess, saying, “Look! a man gluttonous and given to drinking wine.” (Matt. 11:19, NW) This charge would never have been lodged against him if it involved unfermented grape juice. Nor does an unfermenting drink cause wineskins to burst.—Luke 5:37-39.

While we cannot endorse total abstinence as a Christian requirement, our Society has straightforwardly published what the Bible does condemn about alcoholic drinks, that is, overindulgence to the point of drunkenness. (Prov. 20:1, AS; Isa. 5:11, 22, Mo) But if we are going to prohibit alcoholic beverages just because some do not know when to stop, and get drunk, then we must also prohibit eating, because some do not know when to stop for their physical good and play the glutton. Why so? Because the Bible ranks gluttony with drunkenness and condemns both. (Deut. 21:20; Prov. 23:20, 21) So we harmonize with the Bible and condemn gluttony and drunkenness, but not eating and drinking in moderation. “Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness,” advised Paul to Timothy. (1 Tim. 5:23, NW) Notice, a “little”, not a lot. Christians may use wine, but “not giving themselves to a lot of wine”. They should exercise control and restraint, and not use it at all when in assembly or in gospel-preaching work. (1 Tim. 3:8; Titus 2:3, NW; Lev. 10:9) Those who cannot restrain themselves and use it in moderation should not use it at all. And certainly a Christian will never use “social pressure” as worldlings do to get others to drink, nor will he drink himself when he is in the presence of a weak one that would be stumbled or offended thereby.—Hab. 2:15; Rom. 14:21.

So Christians will keep the balanced viewpoint of the Bible on this matter, and thereby avoid either extreme.

● Some religionists claim that the wine in the Memorial cup was unfermented grape juice. How can we prove that Christ used real wine on this occasion?—A. L., Arkansas.

Those who adhere to the Temperance or Prohibition Movement insist that Jesus’ words “the fruit of the vine” mean grape juice, and not real fermented juice or wine. But we remember that the harvest of the vineyard occurred in the late summer of the year, whereas the passover of the Jews did not occur until the following spring six months later, and the Jews did not have the means generally to preserve grape juice that long and keep it from fermenting. Jesus used the “fruit of the vine” that was available at the passover season, which was real wine. The history shows that the Jews used real wine at that season, and to this day the Jews follow up their tradition from that time and use fermented grape juice or real wine with alcoholic content.

For further information we refer you to The Watchtower of February 1, 1948, and its article “When and How to Celebrate Memorial”, which in its footnote* on page 40 says: “The wine used by our Lord, to represent his shed blood, we have no doubt was made (as ‘orthodox’ Hebrews still make their Passover wine) without any yeast or leaven being added to the grape juice to hasten fermentation. But nevertheless it was fermented wine; the elements of fermentation inhering in the grape juice, led by slower process to fermentation and clarification, and thus it became ‘wine’ . . . . it is clear to us, that the wine used by our Lord at the Supper, was pure wine (but not simple grape juice, which would not keep without fermentation from fall to spring) and of the same sort mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, an excess of which would make drunk (Eph. 5:18; John 2:10; Luke 5:39), . . . not claiming that our Lord and the apostles used raisin juice or grape juice, but the real wine.”

● Why has the Watchtower Society suddenly approved the use of the word “religion” relative to the worship of Jehovah’s witnesses?—P. L., New York.

We are not trying to make a new language, but we want to use the language we have to the honor of God’s name, and do so with as little confusion as possible in Kingdom preaching. In the English language the word “religion” means the service or adoration of God or a god, as expressed through certain forms of worship. So the religion may be either true or false, depending upon both the god being worshiped and the form or manner of expressing the worship. If we practice the true form of worship of the true God Jehovah, and if we are speaking the English language, then when discussing our worship we may properly use the English words that will so limit our meaning, namely, “true religion.”

The word “religion” is used in the English Bibles in several places. It is used in the King James Version at James 1:26, 27. There James distinguishes between the vain or false religion (Jas 1:26) and the pure or true religion (Jas 1:27), and does so by appropriately qualifying in each instance the same Greek word, thres·keiʹa. The Greek threskeía is equivalent to the Latin religio, both simply meaning “form of worship”, of which there can be a true and a false kind. From the Latin religio comes the English word “religion”. Study over the footnotes in the New World Translation on the texts at Acts 26:5, Colossians 2:18 and James 1:26, 27, to see how they allow for the use of the words “religion” and “religious”. When the Bible uses the term “religion” it is either properly qualified or the context or setting indicates whether it is speaking of the true or the false. Note how the setting shows that at Isaiah 29:13 it is false religion and at 2 Timothy 3:5 it is true religion, reading both texts from the Moffatt translation.

This viewpoint on the use of the word “religion” was not suddenly adopted by the Society. Careful readers of the Society’s publications have noticed that during the past few years when religion was being discussed the publications were careful to limit any condemnation to false religion. Two years ago Awake! quoted Moffatt’s translation of 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13, and identified the religion mentioned in that text as being true by inserting this qualification in brackets, as follows: “Though they keep up a form of [true] religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force.” (September 22, 1949, page 9) So this matter had been under careful study and consideration for a long time, and what was brought out on it at the Theocracy’s Increase Assembly at Yankee Stadium in New York last year was further enlargement and welcome clarification, and not some new idea brought forth suddenly. None should feel upset by the use of the term “religion”. Because we use it does not put us in the class of the tradition-bound false religions, no more than does the calling of ourselves Christians put us in with the false Christians of Christendom.

● Why did the October 15, 1950, Watchtower accent the last syllable of the Greek word for “soul” (psy·cheʹ), whereas the New World Translation Appendix accents the first syllable (psyʹche)? Also, this appendix states that this Greek word occurs 102 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, but the book “Let God Be True” says that it occurs 105 times. Which is right?—Reader in Guatemala.

When The Watchtower of October 15 printed the word psy·cheʹ with the accent on the last syllable it was giving this word according to the Greek accent. You can prove that the Greek accent is on the last syllable by turning to the New World Translation Appendix, page 762, where the Greek word in Greek characters is printed. However, when this appendix uses the word psyʹche, with the accent on the first syllable, then it is giving it the way the word is pronounced in English. You can verify this by going to any fair-sized English dictionary and looking up the word psyche. We printed the accent on the first syllable here to show how the word is generally pronounced in English, as a two-syllable word.

Also, the New World Translation is correct in saying that the word occurs in the Greek text just 102 times, because this translation is based upon the Greek text of Westcott and Hort, of 1881. Where the book “Let God Be True”, page 60, says that the Greek word occurs 105 times, it is discussing the King James Version and the Greek text that the translators used back there in 1611. Because the Westcott and Hort Greek text is more accurate, it makes a difference in the number of times that psyʹche is used, reducing the number to 102.

Communists and Jehovah’s Witnesses

Prejudice and misunderstanding for long did much to confuse the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses, an international group of Christian ministers, with those of communists. A forthright editorial in the Moline, Illinois, Daily Dispatch, of December 2, 1950, is to be appreciated for its contribution toward bringing to light the truth on the matter. The major part of the editorial named is herewith quoted:

“The sentence of life imprisonment for two members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect in East Germany should serve to reassure some Americans about the political pedigree of members of the sect in general. The two sentenced were leaders of a group of Witnesses who refused to pledge loyalty to communism, even under threat of death. So in the upside-down justice of the satellite Red courts, the two leaders were charged with treason and spying for the United States and Great Britain and clapped in jail. Jehovah’s Witnesses have undergone a measure of persecution in the United States, mostly from veterans’ organizations who resent the Witnesses’ refusals to pledge allegiance to the American flag. We also take a dim view of the Witnesses’ slight of our national emblem, but, on the other hand, we have found no justification for the violence and threats of violence against the members of the sect. We have found even less justification for rather carelessly worded labels which various American groups have tried to paste on the Witnesses, including the label ‘Communist’. We believe the conviction of the Witnesses by Communists indicates the impartiality of the sect in rejecting all forms of political nationalism. . . . There may be those in America who feel that jailing Witnesses for life is the proper treatment for them. If those persons abhor communism, they should not want to be identified with Communist practices.”

Announcements

REMAINING FEARLESS TO THE ACCOMPLISHED END

Today fear and anxiety grip nearly all of earth’s inhabitants, as they look ahead to what is coming upon mankind. Foretold in Bible prophecy, the approach of the accomplished end of this present old world is marked with mounting troubles and woes, of kinds and intensity without parallel in human history. For these very days of uncertainty and insecurity Almighty God has decreed that a comforting, confidence-inspiring message be taken to all willing hearers. Support and strength can come only from the true Source: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear.” (Ps. 46:1, 2) To find this refuge, and to learn how to gain this strength, we must study God’s Word, both individually and with others, and then share in announcing Jehovah’s kingdom. Have you prepared to participate in this work during September, by fearlessly making known this good news in your neighborhood, offering the book “Let God Be True” and a 32-page booklet on a contribution of 35 cents? Report your activity as you help others in remaining fearless to the accomplished end.

“NEW WORLD TRANSLATION”

In the field of modern Bibles, none excel the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. In it is found a rendering that offers the best in a faithful reproduction of the Sacred Scriptures (“New Testament” only). It has the benefits of the latest finds in ancient manuscripts. It includes the advances gained through study of ancient languages. Archaic English is omitted. Instead, use is made of present-day common English, retaining the literal meaning of the original language. This book of 800 pages, bound in attractive green cloth with gold-embossed title, contains an extensive array of marginal cross references, helpful foreword, footnotes and appendix. It is a “must” for your library. Postpaid, $1.50.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of September 16: The Lord’s Prayer Nears Complete Answer; also, “Let Your Kingdom Come,” ¶1-3.

Week of September 23: “Let Your Kingdom Come,” ¶4-11; also, Daily Bread, Forgiveness, and Deliverance, ¶1-13.

Week of September 30: Daily Bread, Forgiveness, and Deliverance, ¶14-31.