The Watchtower — March 1, 1951

Prayers for Peace

MANY persons pray to God when in trouble, but forget him when all is well. Others blame him for their woes, but never bless him for their joys. Peace prayers abound when war threatens, but when the scare subsides how concerned about God is Christendom? Few thank him for good as earnestly as they implore him when trouble strikes. Whom do you consider your true friends? Those who come only when they want something? Whom do you feel the urge to help? Those who wish to use you selfishly? or those who at all times love you sincerely? If one who runs with others in good times comes to you only in hard times, are you not inclined to refer him back to his fairweather friends for help?

So it is likewise understandable why Jehovah finally said to Israel: “You have forsaken me, and served alien gods. Accordingly, I will not save you any more. Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen! Let them save you in your time of distress!”—Judg. 10:13, 14, AT.

What about nations of Christendom that claim to serve God? Their politics is corrupt, their commerce greedy, their religions hypocritical. Their trust has been placed in international alliances, in mechanized armies, in weapons of destruction. Since in such the nations place hope, to such they should cry for help in trouble. Like the nations, so the people generally shun anything more than lip service to God and his Word. As foretold, the masses of men are “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with self-esteem, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power”.—2 Tim. 3:1-5, NW.

When such men and nations pray to God for peace, can we expect him to listen? Without forsaking their wrong course, should they expect divine aid? God’s Word states: “Jehovah is far from the wicked; but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.” “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” “Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous and his ears are toward their supplication, but Jehovah’s face is against those doing injurious things.”—Prov. 15:29; 28:9, AS; 1 Pet. 3:12, NW.

If prayers are to be heard, the praying one must heed God’s Word, show love for God by obeying His commands, and voice petitions in harmony with God’s purposes for a peaceful new world. Such prayers for peace will be answered.—Isa. 9:6, 7; Matt. 6:9-13; Jas. 4:3; 1 John 5:3; Rev. 21:1-4.

Clergy and War—a Confused Picture

WHEN Jesus concluded his famous sermon on the mount “the crowds were astounded at his way of teaching; for he was teaching them as a person having authority, and not as their scribes”. (Matt. 7:28, 29, NW) He drew heavily upon the inspired Hebrew Scriptures to give substance to his sermon, and this gave it a ring of godly authority. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, he did not depend on the traditions and commandments of men for support. Of Christ it is written, “The sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” (John 10:4, NW) His voice echoed the Bible. They heard in his words the righteous principles of the Bible. His speech was plain, his words simple, his meaning clear. No double talk to be variously construed and interpreted, no hairsplitting or ambiguity to smack of a cagey lawyer more than a fearless minister. He did not water down or compromise or abandon his principles in the name of an endless string of “expediencies”. With him it was Bible truth regardless of consequences. It was this kind of talk that astounded ears accustomed to the preaching of scribes and Pharisees who feared men, sought to please men, to be admired by men, to be enriched by men. Jesus pleased God, and spoke with the authority of God.

What about those claiming to speak for God today? Do they do so with an authoritative Bible ring of truth and righteousness? Or do they echo human opinion, as did the scribes and Pharisees? Let us sample some of the views on war, since that is a current theme of their sermons.

On November 29, 1950, the National Council of Churches was officially constituted. It embraces 31,000,000 members of the American Protestant denominations. The council’s own claim is that “it lifts up its voice in behalf of the Christian way of life”. Because of the war peril a commission had been “asked to seek under God for a Christian word that might guide or strengthen our fellow Christians and our fellowmen in the darkness we face together”. The “word” forthcoming was a lengthy report that was very obscure. It condemned pacifism, advocated the United Nations; justified total mobilization, but not total war; declared no methods of fighting clean, but opined some methods dirtier than others. Atom bombs? If used on us first, we could “use them in retaliation with all possible restraint”.

What scriptures were offered to give the ring of Bible authority to the report? None. Two members of the commission refused to sign it, one saying that the statement was involved and confused and had the effect of “making Christians do reluctantly what military necessity requires”, and the other said the report was a “contradiction of terms” and offered no “distinctive moral guidance from the Christian gospel”. Certainly no one could conceive of this mass of confused wordage coming from the mouth of the fearless Nazarene.

OUTSPOKEN FOR WAR

Unmistakable, however, was the position taken by Dr. Billington of the Akron, Ohio, Baptist Temple. He contended that “as a man of God” it looked to him as though “God is not with us”, and advised: “Drop the A-bomb and stop it [Korean war]. God gave it to us. Let’s use it to protect our Bibles, churches, schools and America’s way of life.” The Word of God will endure forever, and that without atom bombs. The same can be said concerning the true church. (1 Cor. 15:50-58; 1 Pet. 1:25) If God gave the atom bomb to the United States, did he also give it to the Soviets? Would we expect Christ to speak as did Dr. Billington? Or would he be more likely to cite as a principle, “Those who take up the atom bomb will perish by the atom bomb”?—Matt. 26:52.

Josef Cardinal Frings, archbishop of Cologne, declared on July 23, 1950, that “war is not only the right but even the duty of a nation” and that “unqualified conscientious objection to warfare as propagated by certain quarters does not coincide with Christian principles”. (AP dispatch published in Albany, N. Y., Times-Union, July 24, 1950) What Christian principles? No scriptures were offered to give this assertion an authoritative ring. Nor were any offered in Osservatore Romano when it gave Vatican approval to Truman’s decision to build the hydrogen superbomb, because “there is no other way out”. (N. Y. Times, February 3, 1950) True Christians still rely on God rather than bombs as the way out.

Adding another facet to the clergy position on war, Roman Catholic Edmund A. Walsh, vice-president of Georgetown University, said concerning atom bombs, if the nation felt it were on the verge of being attacked: “Neither reason nor theology, nor morals require men or nations to commit suicide by requiring that we must await the first blow.” He added that American use of the bomb first would place “an appalling responsibility” on the accuracy of its intelligence sources reporting the imminent attack upon the United States. Then he proceeded to shoulder that “appalling responsibility” by saying: “The protestations of peaceful intent spoken by Vishinsky in the United Nations are only the actors’ lines of a prepared script designed to distract the audience from an approaching Pearl Harbor.”—N. Y. Times, December 25, 1950.

Adding a brilliant polish to this facet of striking the first blow of a third world war, the official newspaper of the archdiocese of Boston, The Pilot, said on September 1, 1950, that a preventive war against Russia may be necessary. It held that offensive wars are moral under certain conditions, if fought for a “morally certain right”, and added: “There is considerable evidence to establish the fact that the Soviet is guilty of real crimes and is contemplating further ones, and we seek merely to defend basic human rights.”

A CHASTISEMENT OR BLESSING FROM GOD?

Moving on to get another view of this many-sided picture of the clergy and war, we come face to face with the frequently expressed position that God brings the wars upon us as a chastisement for our sins. An example of this is found in the New York Times’ report of July 24, 1950: “Our own sins have undoubtedly brought upon us this new chastisement,” the conflict in Korea, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph F. Flannelly, administrator of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said yesterday. No scriptures are offered to make this position sound authoritative, whereas logic makes it unreasonable. If the war is a chastisement from God, why rail against the Korean and Chinese communists, and the Soviets that lend their backing? Flannelly’s position would require us to recognize these communists as instruments in God’s hands.

A few weeks later, from this same pulpit, an about-face is made. No longer is the war lamented as a chastisement from God, but is proclaimed a blessing from him. From the New York Times, September 11, 1950, we quote: “Sorrowing parents whose sons have been drafted or recalled for combat duty were told yesterday in St. Patrick’s Cathedral that death in battle was part of God’s plan for populating ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ ‘It is a thought not always remembered,’ he [Msgr. W. T. Green] continued, ‘but it is the first responsibility of Christian parents to do what lies in their power to give their children back to God at whatever time, place and circumstances in which he chooses to call them, so that they may become true citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven.’” If war is a part of God’s plan for populating the kingdom of heaven, why should Catholics try to thwart him? Why should they pray for peace? Why not do all in their power to encourage war, that through it their children may gain the Kingdom? Why have peace, and thwart God’s plan, and keep heaven unpopulated?

Centuries before Christ Israel was God’s holy nation, and was used in wars that were approved by God, and at times he even fought in behalf of his people Israel. Yet even under such favorable circumstances the Israelite soldiers that fell in battle did not go to heaven. (John 3:13) David was a man of war, divinely approved wars, but he did not ascend into heaven. (Acts 2:34) After Christ came, Christians are spoken of as soldiers, but not the usual kind: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage warfare according to what we are in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.” (2 Cor. 10:3, 4; Eph. 6:10-17, NW) The Christian Greek Scriptures disclose God’s method of populating the kingdom of heaven, but carnal warfare does not appear as a part thereof. Green’s words lack backing.

THE BASEST OF WAR PROFITEERS

Much talk is heard about taking the profit out of war. One of the cruelest forms of war-profiteering is exemplified by a letter written to Catholic parents during World War II. It was from Archbishop Sinnot, of Winnipeg, Canada, and dated March 1, 1944. After the salutation “My dear Catholic Parents”, the first lengthy paragraph reads like an extortion note:

“I have received from the Pastors of the different Parishes a list of those who have boys overseas. Some time ago, as you are aware, I called on Catholic Mothers to enroll their boys as Perpetual Members of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith. I said: ‘What better guarantee for any boy exposed to all the hazards of war! A guarantee, should he be killed, that he will go at once to his Maker, to be with Him for all eternity. A guarantee, should it be God’s will, that he will return to his dear Mother and to those who love him.’ This has been explained to you over and over again, from the pulpit and you have been urged to enroll your boys. A few, who have been personally contacted, have answered the appeal, but all the others have maintained a stolid indifference. If I were to conclude that you were indifferent to the safety of your boy, I would be doing you a grave injustice. You are not indifferent. What then can be the reason for the inaction! Some say, in fact many say, that they cannot afford it. That is not a reason, that is a specious excuse, unworthy of a Catholic Mother. You receive a portion of the boy’s pay, and what better use can you make of it. ‘Oh’, you answer, ‘I am trying to have a nest egg for my boy when he returns.’ When he returns. Wouldn’t it be better to take the best means you know to ensure the boy’s return. If he does not return, what good, under heaven, will the ‘nest egg’ be to him. I am not advising you to take the boy’s money, I would much prefer that you use your own money. But, if you must take the boy’s money, take it as a loan. Surely you will be able to make it up in the years to come. Do you not think, with a little economy and a few less shows, you will be able to set aside one dollar a month, until the full amount is paid up? It is not necessary to pay the $40.00 at once. You can pay any sum you wish, by instalments. You can pay, say, $5.00 a month, or $10.00 every three months. You can take a year, you can take two years, you can even take three years. Three years, that is almost the equivalent of One Dollar per month. The important thing is to ensure the boy’s safety, as far as we can do so,—his safety in time and eternity.”

MONEY BUYS NO FAVORS FROM GOD

It is difficult to conceive of such heartless nagging for money, under any circumstances. When it is done in God’s name, it is the rankest fraud and blasphemy. The humane mind balks at believing God might return safely from war a son with a forty-dollar price tag. Or to take that son to heaven if a forty-dollar ticket is provided. What scripture can possibly be twisted and wrested to even hint at such vicious money lust on God’s part? Not one! The falsity of such extortion done in God’s name is shown at Micah 3:11 (AT): “Her chiefs pronounce judgment for a bribe, and her priests declare oracles for hire, and her prophets divine for cash. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, ‘Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No misfortune can befall us.’”

But misfortune can and will befall those who think God’s favors can be bought with money. On one occasion a man offered Peter money for a gift of God. The apostle Peter, very unpopelike, said: “May your silver perish with you.” (Acts 8:18-20, NW) It was Peter who said to those in charge of congregations: “Shepherd the flock of God among you, not under compulsion, but willingly, neither for love of dishonest gain, but eagerly.” (1 Pet. 5:2, NW) This rules out the dishonest use of nonexistent pagan purgatories or burning hells to extort money from the surviving friends of the deceased. The Bible shows the dead are in the grave, asleep in death, awaiting a resurrection to life on earth. (Eccl. 9:5, 10; John 5:28, 29, NW) No clergyman can interfere with this divine purpose, whether he is given or refused money.

From the foregoing it is clear that the clergy offer no consistent, comforting counsel regarding war, no sure guidance backed by the authority of God’s Word, and their leadership in other problems is similarly confused. The majority of those thinking war un-Christian are too weak-kneed to say so in wartime. Others clamor for war to rid them of their enemies, just as the Pharisees forced the Roman military to kill their exposer Jesus. Some support defensive wars, others preventive wars, and still others outright offensive warfare. One says war is a chastisement from God for our sins, another says it is his way of populating heaven. Others hover over their congregations like vultures, opportunists that swoop down in wartime to extort money from grieved parents. War-profiteers of the basest sort.

Sincere Christians turn from these confused men, turn to the clear truths and Christian principles of God’s Word. There they will find words of authority. There the sheep will hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, and will learn the way to follow, and will find the path to life in a new world.—2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-4.

“Be Rich in Right Works”

THERE was once a very foolish man, so the parable goes, who had such great wealth and possessions that he thought of tearing down his storage barns and building bigger ones. Crazed with greed he dreamed of the time when he would selfishly spend his fortune wining and dining to his body’s lustful content. But in drawing up his plans little did he figure that he would die that very night, leaving everything behind. No, not with all his glittering riches was he able to add even a single day to his life.—Luke 12:16-21.a

Today multitudes of people are just as foolish as the man in the parable. In fact, the whole world of organized religion, politics and commerce is dominated by this same greedy spirit. Powerful religious sects seek to increase their sphere of influence in politics and commerce. Political parties and systems of government compete with one another for control of earth’s surface, its people and its wealth. Cruel and oppressive commerce with its fearful creed of selfish greed hoards up earth’s treasures. Thus every part of this present system of things is feverishly stock-piling material riches as security against the ominous future.

How foolish! Oh, how worthless that wealth, influence and power will be when Jehovah God brings his terrible wrath against the Devil’s wicked organization at Armageddon! No, it profits people absolutely nothing if they gain the whole world and then forfeit their life. A person’s “life does not result from the things he possesses”.—Ezek. 7:19; Jas. 5:1-3; Mark 8:36; Luke 12:15, NW.

Now what do you as an individual want? Is it security in this present world that will soon pass away, or is it life in a righteous new world? All sober persons not intoxicated with the Devil’s spirit of greed and selfishness will choose the latter. Consequently, they will follow the commandments concerning the way to life. Working at what is right and righteous is what counts! “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.”—Prov. 11:4.

But how can one be rich in right works? Jesus told the rich young man who sought eternal life to dispose of his burdensome wealth and show mercy and loving-kindness to the poor by following Christ’s example. That was the best advice, but the saying was too much for the vain and selfish fellow. Like a camel trying to crawl through a needle’s eye, he never made it.—Matt. 19:16-24.

On the other hand, the faithful apostles and all true Christians since then have proved it can be done. By right works they have proved their faith. (Jas. 2:17, 18) It is true that the majority of these are “the poor of this world”, yet there are a few “who are rich in the present system of things”. (Jas. 2:5; 1 Tim. 6:17, NW; 1 Cor. 1:26-29) So it is not the actual value or worth or quantity that one gives in Kingdom service that counts. All that one has is required from poor and rich alike. The poor widow that gave her last two mites, worth about one-fourth of a cent, was fully approved, for actually she “cast in all the living that she had”.—Luke 21:1-4; Matt. 13:44-46.

So keep busy and keep spending yourselves in Kingdom work if you would “be rich in right works”. Be liberal and ready to share your divine knowledge with the poor, and thus secure for yourselves eternal life.—1 Tim. 6:18, 19, NW.

[Footnotes]

Early Christians Under Roman Rule

SATAN is the god and princely ruler of this world and the mass of mankind are in bondage to his oppressive organization. Christ’s kingdom, on the other hand, is not of this world. His disciples are no part of it, though they remain in it as ambassadors of Jehovah’s new world. (2 Cor. 4:4; John 15:19; 18:36; Jas. 4:4) As true Christians they have a special calling, are given a divine commission, and have God’s activating holy spirit upon them to accomplish a work of making disciples of people of all the nations. (Matt. 28:19, NW) Early Christians were faithful to this commission, though it made them unpopular, objects of hatred, targets of persecution.

There were only 120 in this little band of Christians at first. But in less than two months, at Pentecost, 3,000 more were added. Then the number jumped to 5,000. The work increased, the field of activity expanded to take in more territory, and in spite of violent opposition from the orthodox Jews God’s witnesses “went every where preaching the word”. (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4; 8:4) The apostles and others traveled from port to port, and overland they used the famous system of Roman military highways.¹ In the principal cities they established congregations, and it was from such centers that the Kingdom message was carried into the rural areas. In addition to what Pliny, Clemens Romanus and Justin Martyr have written, Origen expressly says “that many [Christians] had made it their business to go through not only their towns, but also the villages and farms”.²

At first the early Christians wrote letters; but what letters! “If they could write such letters as these,” Dr. Goodspeed remarks, “what kind of sermons do you suppose they preached? No wonder the gospel so quickly permeated the Greek world!”³ The apostles wrote for the common people and hence in the popular koiné Greek, not the classical, and their letters were circulated far and wide. (Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27) Being book-conscious, the early Christians not only collected and published the letters of Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude, but also published the history of the apostles by Luke, and the “Four Gospels” in codex form, a method of bookbinding made popular by Christians. (2 Tim. 4:13) The literary style of the gospel accounts is so high that “no type of religious literature has equalled it in attractiveness and power”.³ As time went on that early unincorporated Bible society of Christians became busy translating the Bible into other languages—Syriac, Coptic, Latin, etc.³

IMPACT ON PAGAN WORLD

As young Christianity in its vigor and strength spread over the Roman empire it ran up against many strange religious theories, philosophies and customs. It also collided head-on with the ideologies of Roman officialdom. To the demon worshiping pagans who reverenced a host of different gods it seemed very strange indeed that these people called Christians believed there was only one true and living God whose name alone is Jehovah.⁴ In pagan eyes it seemed odd that these servants of God had no stately temples. “For almost three centuries, we must remember, Christians had no church buildings. They met in such private houses as had rooms large enough to accommodate their meetings.”^{3, 2}

Moreover, Christians had no famous statues or shrines. “The use of images,” Neander affirms, “was originally quite foreign to the Christian worship and Churches, and it remained so during this whole period. The intermixture of art and religion, and the use of images for the latter, appeared to the first Christians a heathenish practice.”² Christians had no imposing formalism or paid priesthood.⁵ “In the apostolic church preaching and teaching were not confined to a particular class, but every convert could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and every Christian who had the gift could pray and teach and exhort in the congregation.”⁶

Christians proclaimed Christ their savior instead of the emperor. Even their Bible teachings regarding such things as marriage, cleanness in all things, honesty and justice, peaceable conduct one toward another, patient endurance of violent persecution, as well as the practice of love, mercy and forgiveness⁠¹—all of these things were viewed by unbelieving pagans as “turning the world upside down”.

Tertullian tells how the pagans ate human blood—sometimes to seal a treaty, sometimes as a sign of initiation, sometimes as a cure for epilepsy. But not so Christians! Says Tertullian: “Let your error blush before the Christians, for we do not include even animals’ blood in our natural diet. We abstain on that account from things strangled or that die of themselves, that we may not in any way be polluted by blood, even if it is buried in the meat. Finally, when you are testing Christians, you offer them sausages full of blood; you are thoroughly well aware, of course, that among them it is forbidden; but you want to make them transgress.”⁷

“The early Christians, who tried to keep themselves from idolatry, were regarded as very antisocial persons. They never appeared at public feasts and entertainments. They would not join in the amusements of the circus or the amphitheater.”^8,9,10 And why not? Cyprian, who lived back there, gives other reasons in addition to the matter of public idolatry: “A combat of gladiators is in preparation, in order to gratify the thirst of cruel eyes with blood. A man is put to death for the pleasure of men, murder becomes a profession, and crime not only practised, but even taught.”²

Roman agencies lied against the Christians, to incite both the people and the government against them.² Outbursts of mob violence often occurred and terrible injuries and even death were suffered by faithful Christians.⁸

SERVE GOD OR STATE, WHICH?

It was the same old issue: whom would God’s servants worship and obey? One cannot serve two masters, Christ declared. True Christians never compromise on this issue. (Matt. 6:24; Acts 4:19, 20) Even as they refused to “heil Hitler” in modern times, so also nineteen centuries ago they refused to salute, bow down to or burn incense to Caesar’s image.⁸ “Rome had become gradually full of people espousing foreign cults, who on demand would swear allegiance to the divine spirit of the emperor. The Christians, however, strong in their faith, would take no such oath of loyalty. And because they did not swear allegiance to what we would to-day consider as analogous to the FLAG, they were considered politically dangerous.”¹¹

Those men of God knew that the “divine right of kings” is only a myth, that the flag or emblem of the state was no symbol of salvation and hence they could not pledge allegiance to it. Nevertheless, they were loyal and obedient to the state in all matters not pertaining to worship.¹² Christ forbade them to be rebellious against the state. “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God,” he commanded them, and that is what they did. (Mark 12:17, NW) Says Justin Martyr: “Taxes and customs we pay the most scrupulously of all men, to those who are appointed by you, as we were taught by him. (Matt. 22:21) Hence we worship only God alone, while at the same time we serve you willingly in all other respects.”² On this same matter Tertullian declared: “The image of Caesar, which is on the coins, is to be given to Caesar, and the image of God which is in man, is to be given to God; therefore, thou must give the money, indeed, to Caesar, but thyself to God; for what will remain to God, if all belongs to Caesar?”²

“The early Christians were ready to die for their faith. They refused to worship the gods of the pagan Romans. Since they believed in peace, they would not serve in Rome’s imperial armies.”¹³ To the Romans those “who objected to military service seemed useless to the state”,⁹ but that did not change God’s viewpoint of the matter, and, after all, that is what counted.

Those Christians did not object to or interfere with Caesar’s drafting pagans for his army. Indeed, he had a perfect right to do so, for they were part of this old world. But when Caesar asked God’s ministers, who were of Jehovah’s kingdom and no part of the Devil’s world, to fight old world battles, that was an entirely different matter. So the specious argument of those like Celsus (a Latin writer of the second century) is but empty words. “Does not the emperor justly punish you?” asked Celsus, “For if all did as you do, the emperor would be left to himself, no one would defend him, the wildest barbarians would obtain the power over all the world, and there would not remain a single trace of true wisdom, nor even of your religion, among mankind; for fancy not that your Almighty God would come down from heaven to fight for us.”^2,12

PERSECUTION FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE

“If they have persecuted me,” warned Jesus, “they will also persecute you . . . all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake.” (Matt. 5:10, 11; Luke 21:12; John 15:20, 21) And so it was. “It appears conclusively, both from the letter of Pliny and the rescript of Trajan, that the Christians could be punished for the nomen alone, or the mere profession of Christianity, apart from the specification or proof of definite crimes.”¹ Everywhere they were spoken against.—Acts 28:22.

Christians in those early days were attacked by literary scholars such as Lucian, Celsus, Porphyrius, Hierocles, and, as already mentioned, they were often mobbed and beaten by the misdirected populace.¹⁴ But in many other instances the ruling elements were responsible. Christian meetings were broken up; their Bibles were burned; their privileges as Roman citizens were taken away; they were thrown into prison; and sometimes they were burned at the stake or stretched on the rack or thrown into an arena to be torn to pieces by wild animals. “Every refinement of torture was practiced. Paganism, fighting for its existence, left no means untried to root out a sect both despised and feared.”⁸

Some historians⁠¹⁵ have debated over why God’s people were singled out and persecuted beyond measure, but when one sees the issue it is quite simple to understand. A letter addressed to Diognetus, who lived in the early part of the second century, says: “The Christians are not separated from other men, either in their earthly abode, nor by language, nor customs; they never inhabit separate towns, they use no peculiar speech, no singular mode of life.—They dwell in the towns of Greeks, or of Barbarians, just as chance has assigned their abode and inasmuch as they follow the customs of the country with regard to raiment, food, and other such matters, they show a temper and conduct which is wonderful and remarkable to all men. They obey the existing laws, nay, they triumph over the laws by their own conduct.”²

So the persecution was not because Christians were queer fanatics. They were just common, ordinary people when it came to everyday life. (1 Cor. 1:26-29) But even this fact drew ridicule from Celsus, who “makes it a matter of mockery, that labourers, shoemakers, farmers, the most uninformed and clownish of men, should be zealous preachers of the Gospel”.²

Rome really had no better subjects, for Christians paid more genuine respect to the government and law and order than any others, even though they were classified as undesirable citizens.¹⁶ In proof, Tertullian called in the magistrates to testify that among those daily guilty of murder, seduction, stealing, etc., the criminals were pagans, not Christians. True, the jails were full of Christians, but the only accusation against them was that of being Christians.¹⁷ All the facts proved that Jehovah’s faithful servants under the rule of Rome were “a set of men of the most harmless, inoffensive character, who never harboured in their minds a wish or thought inimical to the welfare of the state”.¹⁸

Strange, is it not, that such good people would be hated and persecuted without pity? Here is the reason, Tertullian explains: “They pay no vain, nor false, nor foolish honors to the Emperor” and they refuse to indulge in the wanton festivals of the pagans.⁵ The Romans were tolerant of everyone that would bow down and worship the totalitarian state and its man-made god, the deified emperor.¹⁸ Even the Jews got along fairly well by compromising the issue.¹ “But the conduct of the Christians,” Mosheim tells us, “was directly the reverse of this: for, laying aside every sort of fear, they strenuously endeavoured to make the Romans renounce their vain and silly superstitions, and were continually urging the citizens to give up and abolish those sacred rites.”¹⁸ “Their gospel was not an esoteric, secret mystery, but something to be proclaimed upon the housetops, and they made it their business to carry into effect the old slogan of the prophets, ‘Publish good tidings.’”³

LIST OF AUTHORITIES HEREIN CITED

1. Christianity and the Roman Government, by E. G. Hardy, 1925 reprint of 1894 edition, pp. 122, 130, 95, 18, 19.

2. The History of the Christian Religion and Church During the Three First Centuries, by Augustus Neander, translated from the German by Henry John Rose, second edition, 1848, pp. 46, 182, 183, 162, 52, 159, 160, 52, 53, 40, 41.

3. Christianity Goes to Press, by Edgar J. Goodspeed, pp. 11, 36, 76, 14, 75.

4. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, The Modern Library edition, vol. 1, Chap. 16, pp. 450, 451.

5. A Source Book of Roman History, by Dana C. Munro, 1904, p. 170.

6. History of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff, vol. 2, p. 124.

7. Tertullian’s Apologeticus, translated by T. R. Glover, IX, 9-15.

8. Early European Civilization, by Hutton Webster, 1933, pp. 132, 233, 333, 334.

9. A History of Rome, by George Willis Botsford, 1901, p. 263.

10. The History of Medieval Europe, by Lynn Thorndike, 1917, p. 64.

11. The Book of Culture, by Ethel Rose Peyser, 1934, p. 549.

12. A Short History of Rome, by Guglielmo Ferrero and Corrado Barbagallo, 1919, pp. 280, 382.

13. From the Old World to the New, by Eugene A. Colligan and Maxwell F. Littwin, 1932, p. 88.

14. Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, by McClintock & Strong, 1871, vol. 2, p. 271.

15. The Ancient World, by Willis Mason West, 1913, pp. 538, 539.

16. History of Europe, by James H. Breasted, 1920, p. 272.

17. History of the Christian Church, by Henry C. Sheldon, 1894, vol. 1, p. 180.

18. Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity, by John Laurence von Mosheim, translated from the German by Robert S. Vidal and edited by James Murdock, 1853, vol. 1, pp. 129, 130.

Torments of the Rich Man

IN OUR previous issue we discussed the parable of Rich Man and Lazarus down to the first part of Luke 16:22. The Scriptural proof was offered to show that the favored rich man and the beggar Lazarus symbolized two classes: the rich man the highly favored religious clergy among God’s professed people, and the beggar Lazarus the despised, neglected people who realize their spiritual need and who hunger and thirst after truth and righteousness from God. The parable had its first application to the Jews or Israelites to whom Jesus spoke the parable. Among them the “rich man” class included the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and other religious leaders, who opposed Jesus and sneered at his teachings. Because Jesus and his disciples preached the good news of the Kingdom to the poor and afflicted ones who listened to him with pleasure, this enriched them with the truth of God and with privileges of serving him aright. It meant death to their beggarly, diseased spiritual condition. It relieved them of dependence on the “rich man” class for what religious instruction they got. It brought them into the favor of Jehovah God, who was represented by Abraham, where they could feast to the full at the spiritual “table of Jehovah”. In this way it was that, to quote the parable, “the beggar died and he was carried off by the angels to the bosom position of Abraham.”

1. What befell the rich man at death? What did his death picture?

WHAT now occurs to the “rich man” is the opposite of the favor to the beggar Lazarus. Luke 16:22, 23 tells us: “Also the rich man died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, he existing in torments, and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in the bosom position with him.” (NW) The “rich man’s” death did not mean the physical death of any members of that class. It pictured their death to the privileged, advantageous position that they had till now enjoyed and in which they had treated the Lazarus class as despised, diseased beggars. So when and how did the “rich man” class die and get buried?

2, 3. (a) When did the “rich man” class die? (b) How did Jesus strip them of their linen and purple and spoil their table?

² It was at the same time that the Lazarus class experienced their change of condition for the better. What worked for the removal of the disadvantageous condition of this poor class worked for the death of the “rich man” class to their special privileges seemingly in God’s favor. This occurred when John the Baptist came preaching repentance because God’s kingdom was near. He turned the people to Jesus as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”, the Anointed One, the Christ. John exposed their self-righteousness and called them the “offspring of vipers” and showed them they were in danger of being baptized with fiery destruction in the coming wrath of God on Israel. They needed repentance just as much as the sinful poor people who were condemned by Moses’ law. They need not think they were the promised “seed of Abraham” due to their natural descent from that faithful Hebrew.—Matt. 3:7-12, NW.

³ But Jesus himself was still more deadly to the “rich man” class in their linen and purple clothing and at their sumptuous table. Declaring themselves righteous, they once appeared lofty in the eyes of the Lazarus class, but they were actually disgusting in God’s sight. Jesus exposed them as such to the Lazarus class. (Luke 16:15, NW) Thus he stripped them of their linen of self-righteousness. He disrobed them of their purple claims to royalty in God’s kingdom when he declared that the harlots, sinners and tax collectors of the beggar class went into the Kingdom before them. He climaxed this with the awful judgment: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43, NW) He spoiled their religious table for them when he turned from them and committed the Kingdom mysteries and the privilege of Kingdom preaching to the poor of the Lazarus class and said: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to babes. . . . Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and become my disciples, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for your souls. For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matt. 11:25-30 and Luke 10:21-24, NW) When the “rich man” class willfully rejected him and procured his death, this sealed their death as spiritually privileged ones. Their religious table became a trap and their feast a deadly snare to them.—Rom. 11:7-9.

4. Does the parable describe Lazarus as buried at death and gone to hell? Why?

⁴ We have already noted that the parable avoids saying that Lazarus was buried and went to hell, Hades or Sheol. But it does say of the rich man that he “died and was buried” and found himself “in Hades”. His death was openly certified by that day of Pentecost ten days after Jesus ascended to heaven to appear in God’s presence with the value of his human sacrifice. Then the holy spirit was poured out on the first members of the Lazarus class. The spirit was an evidence of their being accepted with God and of having Christ’s righteousness imputed to them and of becoming heirs of God’s kingdom. The spiritual food concerning his kingdom by Christ did not fall on that day of Pentecost from the “rich man’s” table for the poor people. No; it came through those disciples who had been taken into the “bosom position of Abraham”. There Peter, and not the “rich man” class, began using the “keys of the kingdom of the heavens”. About 3,000 Jews turned to the table of the Greater Abraham and were baptized and got the outpoured spirit. Thus the Lazarus class began to be lifted out of deadness in trespasses and sins and to be seated “together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus”. (Acts 2:1-42; Matt. 16:19; Eph. 2:1-6, NW) So how could the parable describe Lazarus as in Hades, Sheol, hell, or the common grave of mankind? It could not.

5. In what way was the “rich man” class dead and yet living?

⁵ But as for the “rich man” class: By refusing Jesus and stubbornly holding onto the works of the Law to justify themselves to life they proved themselves cursed by the Law. So they died to the privilege of being associated with Jesus Christ as the promised Seed of Abraham. Till their physical death they lived on in the flesh, just like the gadabout woman of whom the apostle wrote: “The one that goes in for sensual gratification is dead though she is living.” (1 Tim. 5:6, NW) The Law to which they held proved to be death to them, condemning them to death as accursed sinners. (Rom. 7:9-11) Living on in the flesh, though they were dead in God’s eyes, they could see what happened with the Lazarus class and could be chagrined by it.a

6. When was the “rich man” class buried back there?

⁶ As far as the Jews are concerned, the “rich man” was buried three and a half years after Pentecost. Why then at the latest? Because then the good news of God’s kingdom was preached to the despised uncircumcised Gentiles for the first time, at the home of the Italian centurion Cornelius. The “rich man” class among the Jews were not the ones to do the preaching. No; they were not the ones proving to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth in harmony with Jehovah’s promise to Abraham. The one preaching to Cornelius was a member of the despised Lazarus class, the apostle Peter equipped with the “keys of the kingdom”. (Acts 10:1 to 11:18) The “rich man” class was without any life-giving message and was inactive in God’s service, and hence was as dead and buried.

7. If hell is the grave, how is it they are pictured as talking there?

⁷ But, you ask, how is it that the rich man is pictured as talking in hell if it is just the common grave of mankind? It is because this is a parable. So dying, being buried and being in hell are used in a symbolic way. This fact shows that it is a parable, because if the “rich man” class were actually in the Bible hell, they could not talk or see a thing. “Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol” (AS)—“be silent in the grave” (AV)—“be brought down to hell” (Dy). So says Psalm 31:17. (Ps. 30:18, Dy) And at Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 we read: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more, . . . Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell [(Dy)—in Sheol (AS)—in the grave (AV)], whither thou art hastening.” If one is in the condition like Sheol, hell, or the grave, he is not active in God’s service nor learning any of the truth. There the “rich man” class find themselves and can see the Lazarus class’ change of condition and can talk and complain. It is as when the psalmist despondently said concerning himself: “My life draweth nigh unto Sheol. I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help, cast off among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me.”—Ps. 88:3-7, AS.

HOW IN TORMENTS

8. Does not his “existing in torments” there prove there is fire and torment of conscious souls in hell? Why?

⁸ But if Hades, Sheol, or hell is the common grave of mankind, where there is no sensation, knowledge or activity, how is it that the parable says of the rich man in Hades, “he existing in torments”? In the next verse he says it is due to a “blazing fire” Lu 16:24. Does that not show there is fire and torment of conscious human souls in Hades, Sheol, or hell? Not at all. This is a parable, and Sheol or Hades is used to picture the condition of the “rich man” class while still here among us on earth. Hence this class can be pictured as being in Sheol or Hades or hell and at the same time existing in torments from a blazing fire. The rich man could not be pictured as in Gehenna, because then he could not be pictured talking, for Gehenna or the “lake of fire that burneth with brimstone” symbolizes “second death”, utter destruction from which there is no resurrection.—Rev. 19:20, AS; Re 20:14. See footnote.b

ABRAHAM SEEN AFAR OFF

9. What did the rich man see afar off? What did this mean to him?

⁹ The “rich man” class, although living in their religious realm, were dead to God and were as buried in Hades or hell as far as his active service is concerned. For this reason they could be pictured as dead and buried in Hades or the grave and yet be alive and able to look up and see afar off and also to experience torment. What they saw helped to contribute torment to them: “he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in the bosom position with him.” That means the “rich man” class saw they were not getting the blessing as Abraham’s natural seed. They saw the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, far off from them and his favor going to the Jewish remnant and Gentiles who believed on Jesus and followed him. Far from being the promised seed of Abraham for a blessing to all the families and nations of the earth, they were a curse to them. Said Paul: “They are not pleasing God, but are against the interests of all men, as they try to hinder us from speaking to the nations that these might be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins.” (1 Thess. 2:15, 16, NW) Both Paul and Barnabas said to them: “It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken first to you. Since you are thrusting it away from you and do not judge yourselves worthy of everlasting life, look! we turn to the nations. In fact, Jehovah has laid commandment upon us in these words, ‘I have appointed you as a light of nations, for you to be a salvation to the most distant part of the earth.’”—Acts 13:46, 47, NW.

10. What did being in the bosom position mean for the Lazarus class? What did not being there mean for the “rich man” class?

¹⁰ So they see the Lazarus class in the bosom position with Abraham, hence at meal or at banquet with Abraham and on the first couch with him, to betoken being in his special love and favor. (John 13:23, 25; Deut. 13:6; 28:54, 56; 2 Sam. 12:3, 8; Mic. 7:5) That means they are in the bosom favor of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, and are having fellowship with him. They have been adopted as sons of God to be associated with Jesus Christ, the true Seed of Abraham, and so they are feasting at the “table of Jehovah” on the Kingdom mysteries and truths and on the pure worship and service of God. (1 John 1:3, 7; John 4:34; Jas. 1:27) But the “rich man” class are on the outside of all this favor, afar off. The Lazarus class are like Isaac, Abraham’s son by his beloved wife Sarah, the son who was made Abraham’s heir. As God said: “It is in Isaac that your seed shall be called.” (Rom. 9:7; Gal. 4:28, NW) But the “rich man” class are like Ishmael, Abraham’s son by the slave girl Hagar. God rejected Ishmael as the seed and he was therefore cast off and sent away so as not to threaten Isaac’s life. So, although those in the “rich man” class might be Abraham’s natural descendants, they were cast off from God’s favor. So they persecute the Lazarus class in envy and revenge, as Ishmael did.—Gal. 4:22-30, NW.

11, 12. How were they in torments in Jesus’ day? How in apostolic days?

¹¹ No wonder the “rich man” class are in torments. In Jesus’ day his message tormented them. After he exposed their religious traditions and precepts as contrary to God’s Word and commands, the disciples said: “Do you know that the Pharisees stumbled at hearing what you said?” When he pronounced woes upon them for their religious hypocrisy and self-righteousness, one of them said: “Teacher, in saying these things you also insult us.” This did not quiet Jesus, but he went on further to tell them they had taken away the key of knowledge from the people. Tormented at the report that Jesus was teaching in the temple, they dispatched officers to arrest him, but the officers refused to do so and came back with the tormenting confession: “Never has another man spoken like this.” When he spoke his parable of the vineyard and they saw that the murderers in it meant them, they tried to seize him in their mental anguish, but did not do so, for they feared the people there.—Matt. 15:12-14; Luke 11:45; John 7:32, 45, 46; Matt. 21:45, 46, NW.

¹² Thinking to reduce their torment, they finally had him killed. But their torments were only renewed through the Lazarus class from Pentecost onward. For example, the priests, temple captains and Sadducees were annoyed because Peter and John taught the people in the temple about Jesus and his resurrection. But arrests and imprisonment did not intimidate and silence the apostles. They became bolder and the preaching in Jerusalem was intensified, exasperating the religious heads still more. At Stephen’s testimony before them they felt cut to the heart. Gnashing their teeth and shrieking they rushed on him en masse, threw him outside the city and stoned him to death. Saul of Tarsus, who witnessed this, pushed a rabid persecution of the Lazarus Christians. Being extremely mad against them, he breathed threats and murder against them. But for him it was like the kicking of an ox against the goads and getting deeply pricked. When Saul changed and became the apostle Paul and he and Barnabas preached to great crowds of people, the religious leaders were filled with jealousy and blasphemously contradicted what these said to the people, and then persecuted them for turning with the message to the non-Jews. Repeated are the reports of their uprisings in rage against Paul and his missionary companions. What a torment they were in! How the heat of the flaming message of denunciation and exposure scorched and sizzled them!c

MODERN COUNTERPART

13, 14. Who have acted as the modern counterpart of the rich man?

¹³ The religious officials and leaders of Jewry who made up the “rich man” class of that first century find their modern counterpart in the clergy and religious leaders and supporters of Christendom today. They represent systems that have become entrenched among human society and have great antiquity and age-old traditions. So with their wealth and their influence with the rulers of this world, they have gained for themselves a place of great prominence, respect, influence and control over the people. Outwardly they have appeared very righteous and sacrosanct to men, so that to criticize them seemed sacrilegious, blasphemous and irreligious. They have basked in the favor of the wealthy and the rulers and have wielded mighty political influence. They have appropriated to themselves the Kingdom promises of God’s Word and imagined they were first in the favor of God, the Greater Abraham, and that through them God’s kingdom was to be established over the earth. They have gone in for educational, social and political advantages and have looked down upon the common people as the laity, unlettered, and utterly dependent upon the betitled, educated clergy and their religious systems for Scripture information.

¹⁴ They have given the people little of God’s Word and service and have deceived them with the sectarian traditions and pagan philosophies, leaving them in their spiritual hunger and ulcerous disease. They have taken away the key of knowledge opening the meaning of God’s Word. They have turned the people away from God’s kingdom as humanity’s sole remedy and turned them to the political schemes and policies of worldly rulers and blessed them for engaging in the sanguinary combats of the nations. At this end of the world they have no saving message for the distressed people, but leave them spiritually poor, starving and diseased with only the forlorn hope of a League of Nations or United Nations organization as their best hope for world peace, stability and prosperity.

15. How are they shown to be dead and buried?

¹⁵ Now these religionists are in a spiritually dead state like the “rich man” of the parable. Certainly they are not alive to the fact that the “appointed times of the nations” closed in 1914 (A.D.) and that there God’s kingdom was put in power over the earth with the promised Seed of Abraham, Christ Jesus, in the throne. They despise the remnant of the Lazarus class, Jehovah’s modern witnesses, for preaching such a message. In the face of the sign of the consummation of this system of things and the presence or pa·rou·siʹa of Jesus Christ in Kingdom power, they should have believed the message, at least by the end of World War I in 1918. Yet they did not come to life and activity and take up that Kingdom message and proclaim it to mankind. The remnant of the Lazarus class did so after they recovered from the oppressions of their foes during that world war. They reorganized in 1919 and became alive and increasingly active in preaching “this good news of the Kingdom” to all nations for a witness before the end of this world arrives at Armageddon. But the religious “rich man” class scorned the prophetic meaning of world events. They turned down the message taken up by modern “Lazarus” and sought refuge in a human substitute for the Kingdom, that futile thing called the League of Nations. So they demonstrated no activity for proclaiming and advancing the Kingdom. They showed they were dead and buried toward God; and his judgment, written aforetime in his Word, pronounces them so.

SEEKING THE THEOCRACY

16. When does Luke 13:27-30 reach a climax? Who are the ones that come?

¹⁶ All through the Christian era the prophecy at Luke 13:27-30 has been working toward its climax now. In that prophecy Jesus told of the time when the door would be closed in the face of people once religiously privileged and said: “He will speak and say to you: ‘I do not know where you are from. Get away from me, all you workers of unrighteousness!’ There is where your weeping and the gnashing of your teeth will be, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown outside. Furthermore, people will come from eastern parts and western, and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And, look! there are those last who will be first, and there are those first who will be last.” (NW) After Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s imperial armies A.D. 70, the coming of those from east, west, north and south was mostly of the non-Jews or Gentiles from all nations reached with the good news.

17. What does seeing Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets in God’s kingdom mean?

¹⁷ In our previous Watchtower issue we saw how Abraham, whose name means “Father of a multitude”, pictured Jehovah God, the Father of the promised Seed of Abraham. Abraham’s son Isaac, who was offered in sacrifice, pictured the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who chiefly fulfills the role of the Seed of Abraham for blessing all mankind. Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, pictured the congregation of Christ’s followers, for God adopts them as his spiritual sons and makes them part of the promised seed of Abraham. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel; and they are spiritual Israelites, “the Israel of God.” (Gal. 4:28; 3:26-29; 6:16, NW) The expression “all the prophets” also represents the congregation of spiritual Israel, the members of the “body of Christ”. In the prophecies such ancient prophets were used to foreshadow these spirit-begotten Christians and to forecast their role or course of action. So together, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets picture the Theocratic Government. Our seeing them “in the kingdom of God” means seeing with the eye of understanding that Jehovah, Jesus Christ and his congregation of spirit-begotten followers form the kingdom of God and are the ones in that heavenly kingdom.

18. Hence what does coming and reclining with them in the Kingdom mean?

¹⁸ Hence when people from all directions come and recline at the table in that kingdom, it means that these believers are taken into the class of Kingdom joint heirs and feast on Kingdom truths and privileges at the “table of Jehovah”. So there is no need to wait till Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets are resurrected from the dead in order for us to see this prophecy fulfilled.

[Footnotes]

A more extended comparison by any honest courageous person will disclose to him that where the Douay Version reads “hell” in the Hebrew Scriptures, the King James Version reads “grave”. The American Standard Version discloses that in all these places the Hebrew original word is “She.ol”, whereas the Greek Septuagint Version uses the word “Hades”. No hellfire screecher can disprove this. Now you can understand why Amos 9:2 says: “They dig into hell.”

That explains why the prophetic 116th psalm goes on to say: “Then called I upon the name of Jehovah: O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death [not, from eternal torment], mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints.” (Ps. 116:4, 7, 8, 15, AS) As Jonah got out of the “belly of hell”, the fish’s belly on the third day, so Jesus got out of the literal Bible hell. Jonah, in the whale’s belly, did not picture Jesus in any torment in hell. (Jon. 2:1-3) The “sign of Jonah” which Jesus said would be given to the Israelites, including the “rich man” class, was Jesus’ own resurrection from death and hell on the third day.—Matt. 12:38-41; 16:1-4.

The harmonious Bible truth therefore stands uncontradicted, unshaken, that Sheol, Hades, or hell, is the common grave of mankind and there is no fiery torment of human souls in it.

Canada’s Supreme Court Sides with Jehovah’s Witnesses

● On December 18, 1950, Canada’s Supreme Court reversed itself to rule Jehovah’s witnesses not guilty of sedition by distributing the leaflet Quebec’s Burning Hate for God and Christ and Freedom Is the Shame of All Canada. The case involved Aime Boucher as defendant. Arrested in 1946, his case finally got to the Supreme Court in 1949. The court split, three to two, against the witnesses. Upon application for reargument by the witnesses, the issue came before the full court of nine justices in 1950, and in December a five-to-four decision legally vindicated Jehovah’s witnesses. The case was momentous for Canada, not just because the court reversed itself, but because the historical decision in effect rewrote the concept of sedition previously held in Canadian courts. It brought matters up to date by viewing democratic peoples as the rulers and the officials as servants of the people. The intensely interesting details of this historic case appear in the March 8, 1951, Awake!

No Relief for the Rich, but Comfort for the Poor

1. How are the first now last, and the last now first?

THE clergy and religious leaders of Christendom took it for granted that they, just like the “rich man”, were first in line for the Kingdom and sure of it. Now they find themselves, since A.D. 1919, to be last and out of the Kingdom privileges altogether. On the other hand, those whom they despised as the last ones in any chance for God’s kingdom, the remnant of the beggar Lazarus class, these are now first in the enjoyment of Kingdom privileges at the “table of Jehovah” as His witnesses. The facts prove it so. They are the ones to whom the Kingdom interests are now entrusted. They are conscientiously caring for them by obeying Christ’s command to preach this Kingdom gospel to all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.

2. How did the Lazarus class experience a change like Job’s and that of the “two witnesses” of Revelation 11?

² They were falsely accused and misrepresented as hypocritical sinners by the religious clergy, just as the bereft, disease-stricken Job was accused by his three self-righteous friends. This remnant of the Lazarus class have now experienced a glorious change of condition, in the same way that Job, nearly dead and seemingly afflicted by God, was healed and given a new lease on life for 140 years, was blessed with twice as much as he had before, was rejoined with his wife and was blessed with seven sons and three lovely daughters the same as before. (Job 42:10-17) Once those of the remnant of the Lazarus class were lying as dead and inactive, like the “two witnesses” of Revelation, chapter 11. Taking advantage of World War I, the “rich man” class intimidated and maneuvered them into deathlike inactivity toward Jehovah’s witness work and they lay like ‘corpses’ on the broad way of the great city of Christendom, modern Sodom! But in 1919 God’s spirit began restoring them to life in his service to be his witnesses and Kingdom ambassadors. So they came into the favor of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, and received his invitation, “Come on up here.” They responded to this invitation to come to life in his exalted service in the interest of the kingdom of heaven. So with regard to this, Revelation 11:12 says: “And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.”—NW.

3. So where do the “rich man” class see those “two witnesses” to be and themselves in contrast?

³ Yes, their enemies, the “rich man” class in Christendom, beheld them enjoying these royal privileges at the “table of Jehovah”, in the bosom position of Abraham, whereas they themselves were cast out and denied these Kingdom opportunities. They have been left to the darkness, gloom and desperation of this world with its selfish alliance of nations for world peace. There they weep and gnash their teeth at this reversal of conditions against them and in favor of Jehovah’s witnesses. They are as dead and buried in Hades (or hell, the grave) as regards God’s approved service, and yet they are in torment because of seeing how the remnant of the Lazarus class have been taken into this service and are being used in it so mightily world-wide. God has withheld his sorely needed message from them and they suffer from a spiritual “famine . . . of hearing the words of Jehovah” among themselves.—Amos 8:11, AS.

4, 5. How are they as in fiery torment?

⁴ They see themselves far off from the bosom position of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God. And just as the Jewish clergy and religious leaders were tormented at the message and activities of Jesus and his disciples, so the religious heads and notables of Christendom today are in torment at observing and feeling the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses. Hundreds of thousands they behold responding and attaching themselves to the Lazarus class, just as a large family of ten new children were added to Job after his recovery from God’s seeming disfavor due to Satan’s machinations. Jehovah’s message by his witnesses is like a flaming fire against the “rich man” religionists: “Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah.” (Jer. 23:29, AS) To them the activities of the Lazarus class in proclaiming the day of Jehovah’s vengeance are like the locust plague foretold at Revelation 9:1-11 and Joel 2:1-11.

⁵ These “locusts” are the army of Jehovah’s witnesses, and as to their effect upon Christendom’s “rich man” class Revelation 9:5-7, 10, 11 says: “It was granted the locusts, not to kill them, but that these should be tormented five months, and the torment upon them was as torment by a scorpion when it strikes a man. And in those days the men will seek death but will by no means find it, and they will desire to die but death keeps fleeing from them. And the likenesses of the locusts resembled horses prepared for battle, . . . Also they have tails and stings like scorpions; and in their tails is their authority to hurt the men five months. They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is A·badʹdon [Destruction], but in Greek he has the name A·polʹlyon [Destroyer].” (NW) Not surprising that the effort is made throughout Christendom to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses.

PLEA FOR RELIEF TURNED DOWN

6. How do they address Abraham, and why?

⁶ Mark, now, that what the parable next tells of the rich man in Hades and torment has undergone fulfillment in this consummation of the system of things. “So he called and said: ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this blazing fire.’” (Luke 16:24, NW) The Jewish clergy cried out, “Father Abraham!” in a plea for favor as his natural seed. They were his natural descendants and had expected treatment better than this from God because of such natural relationship to that ancient “friend of God”. Oh for relief from God on the basis of this relationship! Likewise today Christendom’s religionists, the modern counterpart, address the Greater Abraham, God, as “Father” and plead with him for mercy in their tormented condition.

7. What does their request to have Lazarus sent to cool their tongue mean?

⁷ If Jesus was not telling a parable but the “blazing fire” was literal, then how absurd for the rich man to ask to have Lazarus dip his finger in water to cool the rich man’s tongue! But how could the Lazarus class bring the “rich man” class any relief now? Well, by a drop of the water of truth that would refresh the religious clergy in their spiritual anguish and torment. How could this be accomplished? Only by having the Lazarus class stop preaching the “day of vengeance of our God” and stop exposing hypocritical religion and pronouncing the fiery judgments of Jehovah against Christendom. So they want the Greater Abraham to have the ones in his bosom favor to compromise. Let them not preach the naked truth, but preach nice things for the religious clergy and give them a better appearance in people’s eyes. That is, do not do as Jehovah commanded the prophet Jeremiah, who pictured his witnesses today: “Whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak. . . . And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.” The “rich man” class speak thus in a manner like that of the Israelite priest Amaziah to the prophet Amos, but they get an unsatisfying, tormenting answer like that which Amos returned to Amaziah.—Jer. 1:7, 19, AS; Amos 7:10-17.

8. How does Abraham address them in reply, and why?

⁸ What, now, does the Greater Abraham reply? The parable goes on to tell: “But Abraham said: ‘Child, remember that you received in full your good things in your lifetime, but Lazarus correspondingly the injurious things. Now, however, he is having comfort here but you are in anguish. And besides all these things, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you people, so that those wanting to go over from here to you people cannot, neither may people cross over from there to us.” (Luke 16:25, 26, NW) Because the Jewish clergy were natural descendants, Abraham could properly address them as “Child!” But this only condemned them, because, though being his natural offspring, they had willfully rejected the divine favor and had come under God’s condemnation. So because of their professions to be God’s children the Greater Abraham addresses the complaining “rich man” religionists as “Child!” in the same way that Joshua addressed the troublemaker Achan when on trial for life. (Josh. 7:19) They are in the position of a child that justly needs punishment. Psalm 82:6, 7 says to them: “I said, Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. Nevertheless ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” (AS) The “blazing fire” they now experience is just an advance token of the destruction that awaits them. But God defends and delivers the poor and needy, and rids them out of the hand of the wicked.—Ps. 82:1-4.

9. How did they ‘in their lifetime’ receive the good things?

⁹ “In your lifetime!” Yes, in the rich man’s time before divine judgment came, on natural Israel back there and on Christendom down here since God’s kingdom was set up and Jesus Christ was made the “chief cornerstone” in that royal structure. Before the “rich man” religionists were exposed as dead and buried toward God they had little concern for the people’s real spiritual need. They made a good living from their clerical profession and sought honor and worldly respect and led an easy life. They gave the people very little Bible intelligence and did not go out seeking the lost sheep. They remained silent about their oppressors and oppressions and let them hope for relief and comfort only in heaven. Likewise the “evil slave” class seek only their own heavenly salvation and leave the “other sheep” to shift for themselves until the Millennium. They offer no assistance now to such sheep to escape the world tribulation of Armageddon and to survive into the Millennium. (Matt. 24:48-51) So the “rich man” religionists have taken the good things of this life and have held the good things of the Bible in reserve for themselves. But now those days are gone forever, and they are seriously disturbed, disillusioned and in great anguish.

10, 11. (a) How did the Lazarus class receive the “injurious things”? (b) But now how are they comforted, and who also with them?

¹⁰ In those days when Christendom’s religious set flourished, the Lazarus class received the “injurious things”, and that largely at the hands of the “rich man” religionists. People who gave them a bit of soothing relief were looked down on as dogs that came and licked their ulcers. They were made to appear spiritually diseased and outcasts, under God’s curse, “as having nothing,” like beggars. (2 Cor. 6:8-10, NW) But now since God has reversed matters and showed whom he really favors and has taken to his bosom, they are comforted. Of course, they are still verbally abused and violently persecuted by the “rich man” class; but they are comforted with God’s comfort and refreshed and renewed by the good things from his table. They eat, drink, rejoice, sing for joy of heart, and are blessed, whereas the “rich man” religionists hunger, thirst, feel shame, cry and howl sorrowfully, leave their name for a curse, and face destruction. (Isa. 65:13-16) It is as when Job was healed and comforted, and his family, relatives and friends were restored.

¹¹ The remnant of the Lazarus class are spiritual Jews. Upon their “skirt” we now see “ten men . . . out of all languages of the nations” take hold and go up with them as companions to Jehovah’s theocratic organization. (Zech. 8:20-23) They are like Job’s brothers, sisters and acquaintances who came to comfort him, besides those beautiful children whom he fathered in his old age. (Job 42:11; see also The New World, pages 364, 365) They are the “other sheep” whom Jehovah’s Right Shepherd, Jesus Christ, brings into unity with the Lazarus remnant, making them one flock under one Shepherd. In this way, too, these “other sheep” become intimate companions with the remnant and come into the bosom favor of the Greater Abraham, and they share in the present “good things” and comfort of the remnant. (John 10:16) They are the first ones of the earthly class to receive benefits from the Greater Abraham through his Seed, Jesus Christ and his body of joint heirs.

A GREAT CHASM

12. What does the great chasm represent? What relief does it forbid?

¹² But that “great chasm”! The rich man had not thought of that when pleading to Abraham for relief. The people where he is cannot cross it and force themselves into Abraham’s bosom. Nor can the Lazarus class leave Abraham’s bosom and cross over it to the relief of the “rich man” class. The chasm pictures God’s judgment, which cannot be reversed and which divides the two classes. It forbids any mercy or relief to Christendom. She is abandoned since making her decision following World War I. She then decided against God’s established kingdom and favored the international conspiracy for ruling the earth by human agents in defiance of His rightful sovereignty and in opposition to his King Jesus Christ, whom he put on the throne in 1914 to rule amidst his enemies. To the “rich man” class the King Jesus Christ says: “Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” (Matt. 23:33, NW) The Kingdom is here to rule in triumph. Now this world, including Christendom and its religious powers, must be abandoned to destruction. Her “rich man” class are like Esau, who sold his birthright for selfishness and moved to Mount Seir. Afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for, “although he earnestly sought a change of mind [in Isaac] with tears, he found no place for it.”—Heb. 12:16, 17, NW; Deut. 2:1-5; Ezek. 35:1-15.

13. What dividing work has gone on, which prevents fraternizing?

¹³ The terms for getting adopted as members of Abraham’s seed according to God’s promise cannot be set aside. The Kingdom class of blessing is now about complete, only a remnant on earth being yet destined for it. The “rich man” has not met those theocratic terms and requirements but has chosen the wisdom of this world. The last ones from his standpoint are now first in their participation in the Kingdom interests, and the reputedly first ones are now last. There can be no fusion of the two classes, no fraternizing! “Come out of her, my people,” calls the divine voice from heaven, “touch not the unclean thing.” The Lazarus remnant have left the Babylonish world and its religious confusion that they might be clean to bear Jehovah’s vessels of worship. God is determined to keep the organization of his people clean now. Only the real thing is kept there; all hypocrites are thrown out. The rich man cannot be brought in contrary to Jehovah’s decree. But now in this short period of God’s patience before the world destruction at Armageddon the “other sheep” class hear the Right Shepherd’s voice sounding the divine call to come out of worldly Babylon. They do so, flee to the upraised Signal of Jehovah’s kingdom, and gain entrance to the one flock under his royal Shepherd. These sheep the Shepherd puts to his right and divides them off from the “goats”. The great unbridgeable chasm of divine judgment allows for no fellowship between faithful persons and those who unbelievingly reject the Kingdom.a “Thy judgments are a great deep.”—Ps. 36:6.

PLEA FOR THE FIVE BROTHERS

14. Who is the father of the “rich man” class? How was this shown?

¹⁴ The “rich man” class have their own ideas about the salvation of the people. “Then he said: ‘In that event I ask you, father, to send him to the house of my father, for I have five brothers, in order that he may give them a thorough witness, that they also should not get into this place of torment.’” (Luke 16:27, 28, NW) He still calls Abraham “father”, but he confesses he has a closer relationship to another father and has five brothers. Who this father is Jesus told this class: “If you are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham. . . . If God were your Father, you would love me, for from God I came forth and am here. You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.” (John 8:39, 42, 44, NW) So the “rich man” class show their real sonship by the resemblance of their works to those of the Devil.

15. Whom do the rich man’s “five brothers” stand for?

¹⁵ The “rich man” and his five brothers total six. This is a number distinguishing the organization of imperfection and sin, the enemy organization. (1 Sam. 17:4, 7; 2 Sam. 21:20; Rev. 13:18) So they are the visible seed of the great Serpent, as Jesus called them. (Gen. 3:15; Matt. 23:33; 3:7) Back there the five brothers stood for all the Jewish brothers of the “rich man” class, all natural Israelites of a like attitude, spirit and fatherhood. They were the seed of Abraham by natural descent but were not the spiritual sons of the Greater Abraham nor the brothers of Christ. At this end of the world they picture all those professed Christians of Christendom who associate with the religious leaders, follow their guidance and act goatishly toward Christ’s remnant of brothers. Their works betray who is their father.—2 Tim. 2:25, 26, NW.

16, 17. (a) What does the rich man admit regarding Lazarus? (b) What does he in reality want Abraham to do with Lazarus for his brothers?

¹⁶ The rich man admits that Lazarus is a witness of Jehovah, saying: “That he may give them a thorough witness.” Is the rich man here approving of the Lazarus class of Jehovah’s witnesses and asking for his five brothers to be helped to become Jehovah’s witnesses too? The facts fulfilling the parable do not indicate this. Actually, the rich man wants the Greater Abraham to send Lazarus away from his bosom to preach to his brothers in such a way and with such a message that it will not show them up to be dead toward God. It should not put them in mental torment. On the contrary, it should give them the false assurance that they are still in divine favor, reposing, like Lazarus, in the bosom of the Greater Abraham with all the promised New World blessings in view.

¹⁷ As in apostolic times, the “rich man” class of today want God to make his witnesses change their unorthodox way of preaching and also change their message. Soft-pedal this message of the “day of vengeance of our God” and let up on ‘overturning the strongly entrenched things’ of error, false religion and worldly friendship. The “rich man” class wants his brothers in his father’s organization to be spared the torment he suffers from the proclamation of the pure Word of God, exposing their hypocrisy and worldliness. So their prayer is really to their true father, Satan the Devil, and is that he will prevail upon the Lazarus class to make them a part of this world, compromising with the “rich man’s” organization. Then they will not torment unfaithful Christians.

18. What did Abraham now reply? What did his reply mean?

¹⁸ “But Abraham said: ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to these.’” (Luke 16:29, NW) This shows that, at the time Jesus spoke his parable, only Jewish persons were meant, for then the Gentile nations did not have the Mosaic Law and the Prophets or the other section of the Hebrew Scriptures headed by the Psalms.b Abraham’s answer showed he did not agree with the rich man’s request concerning Lazarus. Just so, too, the Lazarus class was not to be allowed to take away Moses and the Prophets or to ignore them or to take from them or add to them. The Scriptures which they had already must stand without change or compromise. The “rich man” class and their “five brothers” today have, not only Moses and the Prophets or the Hebrew Scriptures, but also the Greek Scriptures of Christ’s disciples. The “rich man” class had not strictly heeded these Scriptures and conformed his life and teaching to them. Hence he suffered. So if the “five brothers” or other members of the religious part of the Devil’s organization listen to these Scriptures and regulate their lives by them, only then will they not get into the “rich man’s” hopeless, tormented condition.

DEMANDING A SIGN

19. How does the rich man contradict Abraham? What does he really want done?

¹⁹ The rich man thinks he knows better than the Greater Abraham. “Then he said: ‘No, indeed, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them they will repent.’” (Luke 16:30, NW) So he contradicts God: Moses and the Prophets are not enough. He admits that his brothers need repentance, but he wants their repentance to be worked out, not by heeding the Scriptures Jehovah’s witnesses preach, but by a sign. He reveals himself to be like a “wicked and adulterous generation” which “keeps on seeking for a sign”. Yes, “the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom.” (Matt. 16:1-4; 12:38, 39, NW; Luke 23:8; John 4:48; 1 Cor. 1:22, NW) He wants his brothers’ repentance to take place by this sign without the Law of Moses and the Prophets, as if a sign were an indispensable addition to them and they were not sufficient in themselves. Give them an awe-inspiring sign, and do not remove the traditions of the religious elders and the precepts of men which overstep God’s commands and make his Word invalid. (Matt. 15:1-9) So this class in Hades insist on their own way of saving mankind, a way that dispenses with being tormented by the Lazarus class.

20. (a) So what does the “rich man” class today want regarding the Lazarus class? (b) What here shows this is a parable?

²⁰ The clerical “rich man” today does not want to part with religious traditions, age-old ceremonies and pagan philosophies, which they have sanctified into their religious systems and teachings. They let the people have the Bible, but they do not recommend to their congregations the pure teaching of Moses and the Prophets and now the rest of the inspired Scriptures written to show the fulfillment of Moses and the Prophets. They do not want Jehovah’s witnesses, the Lazarus class, to recommend the Holy Scriptures to the people, exposing the religious traditions, ceremonies and philosophies. No, but let God, the Greater Abraham, give some supernatural sign that will show whether the Lazarus class are true or false and that will not result in such pain for the rich man’s “five brothers”. Again we see how Jesus must have been speaking a parable. For if this were all literal, then how could the rich man ask dead Abraham to send back Lazarus from the dead, when Abraham himself is dead and is unable to resurrect even his own self, not to speak of another person? It is “God who makes the dead alive”. (Rom. 4:17, NW) But will the Greater Abraham do something miraculous with the Lazarus class of Jehovah’s witnesses so as to have them make a forced impression on the rich man’s “five brothers”?

21. What did Abraham reply, and how did Jesus elsewhere speak in agreement with that?

²¹ “But he said to him: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31, NW) So a sign according to their specifications will not be given them, just as Jesus elsewhere told them: “A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. . . . look! something more than Jonah is here.” (Matt. 12:39-41, NW) He took a correct measurement of their religious attitude when he said: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” And he showed he agreed with Abraham’s words, when he said: “You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me. And yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life. . . . Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuses you, Moses, in whom you have put your hope. In fact, if you believed Moses you would believe me, for that one wrote about me. But if you do not believe the writings of that one, how will you believe my sayings?”—John 4:48; 5:39, 40, 45-47, NW.

22. What only can the Lazarus class bring the “rich man’s” five brothers? What is the difficulty with these latter?

²² All that the Lazarus class could bring them would be Moses and the Prophets and the message of the risen one, Jesus Christ. But no adulterated, compromising message! You cannot really believe the message of the Risen One, and now also the message of his established kingdom, without also believing Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. For the Christian Greek Scriptures are based on the Hebrew Scriptures. Also the ancient Hebrew Scriptures find their fulfillment in the Christian Scriptures and in the facts of today respecting his kingdom. So if you do not want to believe Moses and the Prophets just for the truth of those Scriptures, then you will not be willing to believe because of a man who has been made alive to God’s favor and who reclines in his favor, no longer a spiritual beggar but an active witness of Jehovah. Besides such a spiritual enlivening of the Lazarus class, Jesus Christ actually did rise from the dead and sent his witnesses, first to the Jews and then to the nations. (Acts 10:40-42) Now his followers as witnesses of Jehovah go preaching the risen Christ and his kingdom to the survivors of the “rich man” class, his “five brothers”. Yet this makes no difference with them. Why not? Because they do not choose to believe Moses and the Prophets and the rest of the inspired Scriptures. They do not want to exercise faith; they want to see a sign.

23. So may we expect miraculous backing for our work? What, then, are we under orders to do?

²³ Will God change his method for the sake of these willful unbelievers? Never! The yawning chasm of his uncompromising judgment still remains there between us and them. So apart from our change of condition since 1919, which is like Jonah’s coming out of the huge fish’s belly to live on earth as Jehovah’s witness and preach to the Ninevites, a sufficient sign, the Lazarus class of Jehovah’s witnesses need not expect God to work any astounding miracle upon them or with them so as to hasten the repentance of the rich man’s brothers’ class. We need no support now by a resurrection of faithful witnesses of old. We are not authorized to compromise the divine message for this day of judgment of the nations by holding back from telling all the counsel of God. We are commanded to use Christendom’s own possession of the Scriptures, Moses and the Prophets and the inspired testimony about the risen Christ and his kingdom. Thus equipped, we are to preach fearlessly. Recognizing God’s favor upon us, we no longer look to the goatish religious leaders and go to them as beggars for spiritual favors. We keep ourselves in the Greater Abraham’s bosom of favor and we preach as he commands us.

24. To whom alone, then, may we bring comfort and relief?

²⁴ Let the goats stop their ears and persecute us in their religious anguish and torment. We cannot compromise and predict any relief from God for them. But seeing we have been so greatly comforted by the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, we are obliged to go forth and “comfort all that mourn” with the comfort with which He has comforted us through Christ. (Isa. 61:1, 2; 2 Cor. 1:3, 4) Let those who have ears to listen, listen and be comforted. In that way many more straying sheep will hear the Right Shepherd’s voice and turn from their beggarly, sin-diseased, downtrodden condition in this world and come into the favor of the Greater Abraham along with the remnant of the Lazarus class. Thus the great crowd will continue increasing, to swell the voice that is heard saying: “Praise Jah, you people, because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king.”—Rev. 19:6, NW.

[Footnotes]

Gilead Appreciates the New Version

December 1, 1950

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

124 Columbia Hts.

Brooklyn 2, N. Y.

Dear Brothers:

In our opinion one of the greatest gifts we have received as Christians in these last days has been that of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. On behalf of the instructors and the ministerial students here at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead I wish to convey to you our great appreciation for this scholarly instrument. For this exceedingly “good gift” we render our thanks to the “Father of the celestial lights”.—Jas. 1:17, NW.

From the commencement of this school we have been looking for the ideal Bible translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures to be used as our basic textbook. Now beyond expectations we have found that ideal translation. I can assure you that since the release of the New World Translation we here at Gilead have been using it night and day in our studies and Bible research work.

As a body of close students of the inspired oracles of God we have ever been eager to grasp the precise sense or meaning of any particular Bible texts we are examining. For the past fifteen terms of school since 1943 hours upon hours have been spent in consulting scores of Bible versions and technical works in search for the original language meanings of various Bible references. During our present term, the sixteenth, matriculated since the convention at Yankee Stadium, much research time has been eliminated for both the student and the instructor by reason of this new work. In every respect the New World Translation meets our dire need for a translation that specializes in rendering as far as modern scholarship permits the exact original sense of the Christian Greek Scriptures in good, modern, understandable English. This new translation is indeed a dream come true for both the faculty and the student body.

In the brief four months just past since the release of this new Bible version, many gemlike discoveries have been made by us as to its eminent merits. From when we first received a copy the restoration of the divine name has been a towering merit. Each time a text is read where the name Jehovah appears one still pauses to reflect on the increased significance conveyed. What helpful proofs are submitted not only in the footnotes but also in the Foreword and the Appendix to substantiate this restoration! The other technical aids, such as the critical apparatus in the footnotes, the cross and chain references in addition to the wealth of scholarship made available in the Appendix, heighten the value of this work in the eyes of every ministerial servant of God.

Another surpassing merit is that in its faithful renderings of the Greek the new translation consistently distinguishes things that differ. By performing this service NW makes an inestimable contribution in enabling one to return to an accurate understanding of early pure Christian doctrine. For example, many translations use the one English word “world” to translate three different Greek words, aión, oikouméne and kósmos. Obviously three so widely differing Greek words could not enjoy a common English word in translation. NW uniformly throughout translates these “system of things”, “inhabited (habitable) earth” and “world”, respectively, we are pleased to note. At once important texts, such as Matthew 24:3, 14, and 21, containing these three different Greek words in close proximity, yield clear meaning, preserving the things that differ.

In other Bible translations we have found that koimáo is rendered at times “to sleep” (see Acts 7:60) and other times that same word is translated “be dead” (see 1 Cor. 7:39). Now in most translations the ordinary Greek word hypnos is rendered “sleep” (Matt. 1:24; Luke 9:32) and nekrós as “dead” (Matt. 8:22), words widely different from koimáo. We are happy to see that NW uniformly translates koimáo as “asleep in death” and hypnos merely as “sleep” and nekrós as “dead”. Surely it is vital to ascertain from the Scriptures whether ordinary “sleep in rest” is being spoken of or “sleep in death”, which incidentally further disproves the false doctrine of conscious human existence after death.

We have particularly appreciated this further discovery of merit in the fact that NW makes a careful study of pístis, “faith,” the noun form, and pisteúo, the verb form. Most translations render these words interchangeably as “faith” or “belief” and “believe”. It is good to see that NW always consistently translates pístis as “faith” (Rom. 1:5) and the verb pisteúo by the verbal phrase as either “puts faith” (Matt. 18:6) or “exercises faith” (John 6:29), and thus retains its root association with the noun. The kindred form apistía, which other translators have rendered “unbelief”, NW meaningfully translates as “lack of faith”. (Matt. 13:58; Mark 6:6) Now observe what clearness of thought and vigor of argument is conveyed at the points where two of the above Greek forms appear in the same text, as at Romans 3:3 and Ro 4:5. So there is preserved for us additional meaning by means of contrast which no doubt the original writers had in mind in so expressing themselves in the Greek.

A further merit we have noticed is either NW’s selection of choice expressions or its finding the apt English word to consistently convey the Greek sense in a superior way to any other contemporary translations. Following are a few of the host of examples we could cite. The phrase “in union with” instead of “in” at John 17:21; “sacred secrets” instead of “mysteries” at Matthew 13:11; “godly devotion” instead of “godliness” at 1 Timothy 3:16; “on the basis of my name” instead of “in my name” at Matthew 24:5; “undeserved kindness” instead of “grace” at John 1:14; “Chief Agent” instead of “Prince” at Acts 3:15; “declared righteous” instead of “justified” at Romans 2:13; “disown” instead of “deny” at Matthew 10:33; “examined” instead of “discerned” at 1 Corinthians 2:14-16; and “first recognition” instead of “foreknow” at Romans 8:29.

So you see we keenly appreciate the wise selection the translators have made in their English equivalents for the Greek vocabulary used by the apostolic writers. All this has added colorful vividness to the Biblical narratives, and clear-cut understanding of the sayings of Jesus and the arguments employed by the apostles.

This letter expressing our great delight in using the New World Translation would be incomplete without referring to the superb translation of the first chapter of the gospel of John. Not only because it rightly conforms to the Greek in maintaining the difference between the God Jehovah and the Word, Christ Jesus, who “was a god”, but, by properly using the English word “came into existence” in verse 3 to translate fittingly egéneto, the whole account of the prehuman biography of Jesus discloses new vistas of thought. It emphasizes the great universal fact that life comes through Jesus Christ. NW’s rendering reads glowingly, “What has come into existence by means of him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (Joh 1:3, 4) Each time one rereads NW’s translation of John 1:1-18 new delights of spiritual understanding are in store for him.

To us it seems the spiritual gems we are constantly discovering in this new translation are innumerable and unending. Daily as we use this translation we thank Jehovah God our loving Provider for having given us this timely instrument with which we may constantly peer into “the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge”. (Rom. 11:33) We are grateful that the Watch Tower Society has come into possession of this faithful and illuminating translation. May the Lord Jehovah grant the New World Translation a wide and phenomenal distribution, that large numbers of men of good will toward God may come to a fuller understanding of the inspired Christian Greek Scriptures.

For the many happy residents here at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead I send you our warm love and greetings.

Your fellow servant,

A. D. SCHROEDER, Registrar

Watchtower Bible School of Gilead

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Freedoms

In Havre de Grace, Maryland, Jehovah’s witnesses applied for a permit to hold a religious meeting in a park. The city council refused the permit, the meeting was held anyway, two speakers, Daniel Niemotko and Neil Kelley, were arrested, tried on disorderly conduct charges, convicted, and fined $25 and costs. Appeals eventually brought the case to the United States Supreme Court. On January 15 this court, in a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice Vinson, reversed the lower courts and censured the city officials. Chief Justice Vinson pointed out that the high court had previously condemned statutes and ordinances requiring permits from local officials on the ground that “a license requirement constituted a prior restraint on freedom of speech, press and religion, and, in the absence of narrowly drawn, reasonable and definite standards for the officials to follow, must be invalid”. It was pointed out that Havre de Grace had no law regulating or prohibiting use of the park, but left all authority in the hands of the park commissioner and city council. On this the chief justice said: “No standards appear anywhere; no narrowly drawn limitations; no circumscribing of this absolute power; no substantial interest of the community to be served.” On this same day the court struck down a New York city ordinance that required police permits for preachers to conduct religious services in the streets. The court is to be commended for these decisions, which are victories for basic freedoms. A detailed account of the witnesses’ case will appear in the March 22 Awake!

Questions From Readers

● In view of the perilous last days in which we live, would it be proper for married couples to use contraceptives? Also, if conception occurs, would abortion be permissible?—Based on similar questions that have come to us from different readers.

We are not authorized either by the law of the land or by God’s Word to advise on contraceptives. The responsibility for their use must rest with those who decide that they can conscientiously use them, and their just judgment must rest with the God whom they serve, and not with us. Whether married couples in the truth want to have children or not is for them to decide, not us. Each couple must consider its own circumstances and its own purposes in view, and decide the matter and adopt a course and then take the responsibility before God for such course and its consequences. But we do unequivocally maintain that the purpose of marriage before God is the production of children, and hence if any married couples want children now, before Armageddon, that is perfectly proper and no one should criticize them for so doing, thereby meddling in their business. Neither should any be criticized for not having children, nor should we meddle in as to their reason why not. Private marital affairs are not the business of outsiders.

Children are not to be viewed as a hindrance to serving God and hence to be unwanted. Otherwise Paul would not have written, “She will be kept safe through childbearing.” Nor would he have advised women under certain circumstances “to bear children”. (1 Tim. 2:15; 5:14, NW) Under similar conditions his counsel applies today. If children come in the natural way according to which God instituted human marriage, then they are to be welcomed, even now, before the divine mandate is reissued to Armageddon survivors. You are grateful for having been brought into life, even within this present evil world, and so your children can be grateful for the same reason.

For us to advise abortions would be a violation of the law of the land. Moreover, we take the position that abortions themselves are contrary to the Word of God. Individuals must shoulder the full weight of responsibility for such a course. We are obliged to say that according to God’s covenant with the Israelites the fruitfulness of the womb was a mark of his blessing, whereas unfruitfulness was a curse. (Lev. 26:9; Deut. 28:4, 11, 18, 63; Ps. 127:3-5) And we must note that God has great regard for the life of the unborn child and of the expectant mother. The heavy responsibility upon those endangering even accidentally the life of the unborn child or the life of the pregnant woman is shown in the Mosaic Law, at Exodus 21:22-25 (AS): “If men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow; he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

The husband and prospective father was chiefly affected, and so the woman’s husband required a fine for temporary hurt; but where the child’s life or the woman’s life was lost, then the one responsible must pay with his life. Now if such accidental interference with the natural course of events with regard to a pregnant woman was a matter of such serious consequence, would you not view deliberate interference worthy of even greater condemnation? And while we are not under the Mosaic Law now, there is no reason to think that God’s mind has changed relative to the sanctity of the lives involved in such cases. In such matters Christian principles usually demand more rather than less.—Matt. 5:38-42.

So the Watchtower Society cannot involve itself by giving advice where harm or loss of life is concerned, either to the unborn child or to the prospective mother. Abortions are accompanied by danger from hemorrhages and infection and can lead to the permanent injury or the death of the woman. It cuts short the growth of an embryo that would otherwise grow till normal birth as a human baby, according to God’s creative arrangement of things. We view as of no force and immaterial the arguments that the age of the embryo or fetus is a factor determining the rightness or wrongness of abortion, since God did not set any such qualifications or limitations upon his law expressed at Exodus 21:22-25. While under ancient law of man the offense of abortion was committed in the event there was a quickening in the mother’s womb, the modern law by statute is closer to the Scriptural rule. It “is usually made a felony whether committed before or after quickening”.—Summary of American Law, Clark, page 122.

All of this is something very serious for each married couple to think over, and then order their course of action so as to please the Most High God. The problem is theirs, the decision theirs, and the consequences to be borne are theirs. The decision and responsibility involved in all this cannot be passed on to other individuals, or to the Watchtower Society. In these matters “each one will bear his own load of responsibility”.—Gal. 6:5, NW.

Circuit Assembly in Nigeria

Great rejoicing came from the fact that six persons, as a result of the assembly, shook off the shackles of religion and came into the Lord’s organization. During Saturday’s service the witnesses called upon certain juju worshipers. These people soon saw the folly of their religious practices and were convinced by the simple Bible truths. Sunday morning the witnesses called back on these people. “What shall we do with our jujus [fetishes]?” they asked. “Destroy them!” came the reply. “Will you assist?” “Gladly!” In true Gideon fashion a group of witnesses began removing the jujus out of their places. There was great commotion. Neighbors quickly gathered. Some protested, others selfishly wanted to salvage the trinkets from these fetish objects. But the witnesses were determined to do a thorough job. One witness answered the religious neighbors in the words of Gideon’s father, “If the jujus are gods, let them now fight and save themselves.” How helpless they were! The witnesses dumped all the trash into a canoe, rowed out to the center of the river and junked the jujus into a watery grave. Gone and perished forever! But the people of good will who once served them rejoice in the hope of living forever.—Nigeria branch office.

Announcements

“DROOP NOT YOUR HANDS” TESTIMONY PERIOD

This is the Testimony Period for the month of April. It was an encouraging command first uttered by the prophet Zephaniah to a people bearing the name of Jehovah and doing a work of praise. Today, as then, there is a people doing a like work of praising their Creator. This work is publishing the Kingdom message, “a pure language,” to all nations. All Bible prophecy calls for fearless action in this work, “Fear not, droop not your hands.” (Zeph. 3:16, Mo) The one who commands today is the supreme authority; so his servants have no fear, but speak the pure language to all they contact, favorable circumstance or not. There is no stopping this upbuilding work; hundreds of thousands have willingly put their hands to it, and many more godly-inclined persons of all lands would take it up if given opportunity. Do you want to be one of these and aid others? If so, a ready implement is at hand; offer the Watchtower magazine subscription to others for $1 a year. To new subscribers during the month the booklets Evolution versus The New World, Can You Live Forever in Happiness on Earth? and one other will be given free. Lift up your hands and then send a report of your time and activity to us.

NEW WORLD TRANSLATION

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, first released to the public on Wednesday, August 2, 1950, during the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in New York city, answers a long-felt need for an accurate and dependable translation of the Greek Scriptures. Done in modern speech, it is just as understandable to present-day readers as the original writings of Christ’s disciples were understandable to the simple, lowly readers of their day. It is not a revision of any previous work, but is a new rendering from the original Greek text, using primarily the standard text of Westcott and Hort. To insure accuracy the translation is as literal as modern English usage permits. One of its outstanding features is the use of God’s given name Jehovah throughout. There are copious marginal references, chain references, footnotes, an enlightening foreword, an appendix, maps and illustrations. This new translation presents the Greek Scriptures in all their purity and is worthy of close study. A copy will be sent you, postpaid, on a contribution of $1.50.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of April 8: Torments of the Rich Man.

Week of April 15: No Relief for the Rich, but Comfort for the Poor.