The Watchtower — May 15, 1951

Receiving Mercy by Showing Mercy

MEN are merciful toward themselves. They want mercy from others for themselves. All men need mercy, for all have weaknesses and shortcomings that put them in need of forgiveness from others. But what is oftentimes the case? Why, the very ones that need mercy shown to them withhold it from others. Oh yes, they show a selfish kind of mercy by being very lenient and understanding toward those who have weaknesses similar to their own, but on points wherein they are strong and need little forgiveness they tend to be harsh judges. A man may not be tempted by alcohol and be very intolerant of those who are, while at the same time he falls short in sexual morality and craves great mercy for himself and others with this weakness. The gossip may condemn the covetous, the covetous wags a finger at the hot-tempered, who in turn rails against the drunk, who scorns the idolater that frowns on the fornicator, and each one all the while is as easy on his own weakness as he is harsh on the weaknesses of others.

Sin is sin, whether of one kind or another. If we offend in one point of God’s law, we have broken his law. The gossip commits trespass just as surely as does the fornicator, and God classifies both offenders as sinners, and both need his mercy and forgiveness. “For whoever observes all the Law but makes a false step in one point, he has become an offender against them all.”—Jas. 2:10, NW.

Three verses later Jas 2:13 the disciple James adds this important reminder: “The one that does not practice mercy will have his judgment without mercy. Mercy exults triumphantly over judgment.” If we were judged strictly on the basis of right and wrong, none of us could stand; but God’s mercy enters in on our behalf to triumph over judgment and see us through. However, to receive this mercy from God we must practice it toward others, and not just in cases involving weaknesses we share in and hence understand so well, but also in cases involving sins to which we never succumb and which leave us at a loss to understand why others commit them. Christians seeking divine mercy cannot afford to forget Jesus’ words: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; whereas if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”—Matt. 6:14, 15, NW.

Frequently a person is heard condemning faithful Bible characters. One may point with indignation at King David because of his immorality on one occasion, another berates Noah as a drunkard. It is true that David committed adultery with Bath-sheba, and Noah drank too much wine on one occasion. (Gen. 9:21; 2 Sam. 11:4) Moreover, Moses the meekest of men was provoked to unwise words that kept him from entering the Promised Land; Elijah fled in fear from his service as a prophet; Jonah headed in the opposite direction because he did not like his territory assignment; Jeremiah determined to quit preaching because it made him the object of reproach and derision; Peter denied Jesus, and on another occasion compromised on a point of doctrine because of fear. (Num. 12:3; 20:10-13; 1 Ki. 19:1-18; Jer. 20:7-9; Jon. 1:1-3; Matt. 26:69-75; Gal. 2:11-14) But what does this prove? That they were hardened sinners and grossly wicked? No; it merely shows that they were imperfect and in need of God’s mercy. They took any rebuke the Lord administered, recovered from their temporary lapse into sin, and pressed on faithfully.

What their self-righteous critics fail to appreciate is that these men did not abuse God’s show of mercy by settling themselves into habitual sinning to the indulgence of fleshly weaknesses. They responded to God’s rebukes and showed his mercy was not wasted on them, but that it worked toward their recovery for righteousness. Busily picking at these men and posing as upholders of standards higher than God’s, these critics fail to discern how such cases magnify God’s mercy, as Paul said: “Where sin abounded, undeserved kindness abounded still more.” (Rom. 5:20, NW) Nor do they appreciate Jesus’ words: “Stop judging, and you will by no means be judged; and stop condemning, and you will by no means be condemned.” (Luke 6:37; Rom. 14:4, NW) Undoubtedly these arrogant critics need mercy more than did the ones they criticize, and if their sins were written down for the world to read they would perhaps be exposed as guilty of the same sins plus many more. They remind of the self-righteous Pharisees who swelled with pride that they were not like others, yet concerning whom Jesus said harlots would enter the Kingdom before them.—Matt. 18:23-35; 21:31; Luke 18:11.

But none should hastily conclude from this that one may give up and let sins and lusts of the flesh have their way with us, and bank on God’s mercy to see us through and into the new world. Those who would be righteous are not perfect; they fall, but they must recover and stand erect again. (Prov. 24:16) Prior to coming to a knowledge of Jehovah’s requirements persons may have been drunkards, idolaters, thieves, fornicators, and so forth; but when they set themselves to follow in Jesus’ footsteps they shun the old pathways of a sordid past. (1 Cor. 6:9-11) They must wage warfare against the weak flesh, in order to walk according to God’s spirit.

The apostle Paul pointed out this conflict between flesh and spirit, saying: “In me, that is, in my flesh, there resides nothing good; for ability to wish is present with me, but ability to work out what is right is not present. For the good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members.” (Rom. 7:18, 19, 22, 23, NW) He continues his argument to show victory comes from God through Christ for those “who walk, not in accord with the flesh, but in accord with the spirit”.—Rom. 8:1-8.

So all of us are imperfect sinners, in need of mercy. Mercy that works toward our salvation comes from Jehovah: “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses.” (Dan. 9:9) It is administered to us through Christ Jesus, “by means of whom we have our release by ransom, the forgiveness of our sins.” (Col. 1:14, NW) Finally, we must show it toward others, if we are to get it for ourselves: “Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another. Even as Jehovah freely forgave you, so do you also. Happy are the merciful, since they will be shown mercy.”—Col. 3:13; Matt. 5:7, NW.

Healing for Life in the New World

“And the leaves of the trees were for the curing of the nations.”—Rev. 22:2, NW.

1, 2. What future health program is Jehovah about to engage in, and what is the main objective of the present health program?

JEHOVAH God has been carrying forward an unusual health program for the past nineteen hundred years. Now he is about to engage in a healing work that will cure all humans that live in the everlasting new world. The coming health program will enable all men and women who follow the divine prescription to live evermore in perfect physical and mental well-being on an earth free from all traces of disease and senility.

² The wonders that will be accomplished in recovering mankind to perfect health were foreshadowed in the astounding cures and healings that Jesus Christ and his apostles accomplished at the beginning of the health program which has been in progress for the last nineteen centuries. As for this present program, it has aimed particularly at preparing certain ones, a limited group from among mankind, for eternal life in the spirit realm. That is, it has been carried on for the particular benefit of the Christian congregation of 144,000 faithful overcomers of this world, who are to be united with Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom. But that kingdom itself will be a healing agency. Through it all the families of the earth will be blessed with perfect life and happiness.

3. At its start how was the current health program highlighted?

³ As explained in the last previous issue of The Watchtower, the current health program for the Christian congregation was highlighted at its start nineteen centuries ago with miraculous physical cures. At the word or touch of Jesus Christ blind eyes were opened, deaf ears unstopped, dumb mouths filled with articulate speech; the lame walked without a limp or a crutch, the bedridden got up instantaneously well, the unfortunates crippled with leprosy were cleansed of all its ravages, the dead rose from their funeral bier or memorial tomb. Luke, who himself was a physician, nicely wrote of this manifestation of divine therapy to say: “And Jehovah’s power was there for him to do healing.” (Luke 5:17, NW) Not by any mysterious course in metaphysics, mesmerism, or other hypnotic power, but by direct grant, Jesus conferred on his specially chosen disciples the authority to perform physical cures. With the express command that they were to do these without financial charge! Then he died a martyr’s death, this man of whom it had been prophesied: “Yet surely our sicknesses he carried, and as for our pains he bare the burden of them, . . . the chastisement for our well-being was upon him, and by his stripes there is healing for us.”—Isa. 53:4, 5, Ro; 1 Pet. 2:24.

4. Why did not the health program cease at Jesus’ death?

⁴ Did the divine health program abruptly cease for all time at Jesus’ death? No; Jehovah God saved it from collapse by raising him from the dead to take his seat at God’s right hand in heaven and there exercise all authority for God in heaven and on earth. Ten days after ascending and returning to heaven, that is, on the day of Pentecost, this glorified Jesus poured out holy spirit upon his faithful disciples on earth, and with it he conferred upon many of them the gift of miraculous physical healing power. Thus the health program from heaven went on among mankind.

5. Why is there no divine physical healing now, and does this represent a real loss for us?

⁵ As also explained in the previous issue of The Watchtower, the miraculous healings and cures of human bodies continued on till the last of the apostles and their Christian associates died. By those miracles the Christian congregation had been established in its faith and had also been definitely identified as being the true “Israel of God”, taking the place of the natural house of Israel which had rejected Jesus as Messiah or Christ. In due time the Christian congregation passed out of its babyhood. Today, after a career of nineteen centuries, it is at its maturity or full growth of Christian manhood. God has put away from it a number of things peculiar to its babyhood, such as the gift of the spirit for performing instantaneous cures on the human body and mind. So the remnant of this Christian congregation who are yet on earth do not exercise such a gift of the spirit. They have no Scriptural reason to expect from any source or by any channel a miracle of divine healing in their case. But this results in no real loss or embarrassment to them, because their hope and eternal destiny is spiritual, heavenly, and not physical, earthly.

6. Have Christians been and are they subject to illness? How do they seek relief?

⁶ Even in the first century during the operation of miraculous healing the most faithful of the Christians were subject to physical illness and maladies common to all the rest of mankind, and died of them. Not all died a martyr’s violent death or lived to the extreme old age of the apostle John, who received the Revelation and who may have died from the decay and collapse due to great age. Christians who were gifted with the authority to heal were not authorized to use the power upon themselves or have their similarly gifted brothers use it upon them for the comfort, ease and convenience of the Christians. Nor did they pray for such miraculous healing of their physical organisms. They used reliable remedies or the services of the practicing physicians. So today, long after the passing of the spirit’s gift of physical healing, faithful Christians get sick or fall victim to the major diseases of these times. They, too, seek relief in sensible ways.

7. Are unusual recoveries today to be viewed as healing divine?

⁷ Sometimes surgical operations are submitted to as a last resort. The life of the patient hangs by a slender thread. Recovery seems very unlikely. There is almost every reason to despair for his life. But then there is a turn, and the sick one or the subject of the surgical operation recovers and resumes his former activities. Because it is so marvelous should we view it as a case of divine healing in this twentieth century? The recovered one may feel that way about it. He will use expressions of gratitude to God and describe it in terms that make it a case of divine healing. He will say God was merciful to him and spared his life especially for the further work which God has purposed for him.

8. What are the sensible arguments against such a view?

⁸ But if God accomplished the cure, that is, if it were a case of divine healing, why, then, did this Christian have to resort to doctors and their prescribed medicines? Or why did he have to agree to an operation and maybe violate God’s law and take a blood transfusion or an injection of blood plasma? Were such things the preliminaries of divine healing in apostolic times when this was an operation of God’s spirit? Not at all. Back there God’s miracles were direct and instantaneous, without aid of human physicians and medical remedies, and where these had failed. But this is not so today. Hence where a Christian experiences an unusual recovery and survival, he should not persuade himself that this was by special intervention from heaven. Persons outside the Christian congregation have unexpected, extraordinary recoveries, too. Besides, while one Christian may have staged a baffling comeback from the jaws of death, another Christian or many other Christians under similar circumstances have not been so successful but have succumbed to the great physical distress. So what? Did divine favor smile on the one who had the revival of his physical forces and who came back to normal health and activity? But did it frown on those who had no physical improvement and who lingered, grew worse and finally died from their affliction or operation? That would not be fair to say, especially where those who succumbed were just as faithful and devoted to God as was the one that had an unusual recovery.

9. What further shows that failure to recover is no sign of divine displeasure or lack of attention?

⁹ Remember that shortly after God appeared to Jacob and pronounced his name as henceforth “Israel”, his beloved wife Rachel had hard labor in bringing her second son Benjamin to birth and died. Not as any sign of divine displeasure, we may be sure. (Gen. 35:9-20) At the age of 147 years Jacob himself fell sick and died of his illness. But not because of being out of God’s favor, for he continued as God’s prophet down till the last. Jacob was embalmed by the physicians of Egypt. (Gen. 47:28 to 48:1; 49:33 to 50:3) Elisha, too, fell sick of a sickness from which he died, but he prophesied even on his deathbed as one of Jehovah’s witnesses. (2 Ki. 13:1-20) It is possible, also, that Timothy’s cases of stomach trouble and his frequent spells of sickness continued with him till his death, and that the wine which Paul advised him to take served only to give him some relief. (1 Tim. 5:23) So one’s succumbing to an operation or a sickness is no evidence of God’s displeasure or lack of interest and attention. No more so than a phenomenal recovery is to be interpreted as his special intervention and favor. We must be reasonable and balanced in mind. Bear in mind that there are many bodily factors and accompanying circumstances which work for pulling some through an operation or siege of serious illness, but which are not present for those who succumb.

10. Is sickness a proper matter for prayer? With what limitation?

¹⁰ This does not mean we are not to be grateful to God and to voice gratitude to him if we convalesce. Nor does this mean we may not take the matter to Him in prayer when we are sick or our beloved fellow Christians are sick. Every circumstance and affair in our lives is a matter which we can take to him in prayer. Still, we may not ask for divine healing and expect it, even if we use as a basis Jesus’ words: “If you remain in union with me and my sayings remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will take place for you.” (John 15:7, NW) We know what the sayings of Jesus are regarding his followers for this day, and they do not tell of miracles on the physical organisms of his followers at this time.

11. During sickness what can we properly ask for? And if we die, whose are we still?

¹¹ The proper thing we can ask is for our heavenly Father to help us to endure in Christian fortitude during illness or physical impairment. We can ask him to help us to act as faithful witnesses through it all, not to lose faith in him, to suffer no spiritual injury because of it. We can pray that we may be guided in the use of proper remedies which are available or the proper medical services. Even amid sickness we can let our light shine. Our obligation is to “preach the word, be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season”. (2 Tim. 4:2, NW) There have been cases where the physically infirm have been improved bodily by proving their zeal for his Kingdom in getting out actively into the field service, although poor health appeared to dictate against it. Let us remember that, to quote the apostle, “both if we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. Therefore both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah. For to this end Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.” (Rom. 14:8, 9, NW) So the faithful Christian who fails to recover and dies still belongs to the Lord Jesus.

BLAMING IT ON THE DEVIL

12. To whose case do some refer to argue for Satan’s hand in sickness and accident?

¹² Some will now propound the question, Is not Satan the Devil the one who causes us to fall sick and so puts us out of commission? Is he not the one who causes fatal accidents to Jehovah’s faithful or accidents that cripple their further usefulness in his service? For support of an affirmative answer they will refer to Job’s case. There Satan caused fire to fall from heaven and consume Job’s great herds of sheep and their keepers, and also a violent storm to strike the house where his ten children were feasting and to collapse the house upon them to their death. In addition to this that wicked one struck Job with a frightful disease which covered him from head to toe with corroding, itching boils.

13, 14. Why does not Job’s case provide the rule to measure all cases?

¹³ But Job’s case does not provide us the rule by which we are to measure all cases of sickness and accident. Job was made a special test case. First, Jehovah called Job’s integrity to Satan’s attention, and then the adversary accused Job of serving God for his selfish benefit, because God had hedged him and all his good things about with divine protection, so that it was prosperous for Job to serve God. But now let God lift this protection and let Satan touch him in the matter of these selfish benefits, and Job would renounce God, cursing him to his face. When Job refused to be pressured into this unfaithfulness by loss of property and children, then Satan obtained permission to touch Job’s skin and flesh and threaten his life with an incurable disease. Added to this, Job’s own wife turned against him and three of his prominent friends condemned him as a hypocrite afflicted by the just hand of Jehovah God. But these keen tests from the Devil failed to move Job from his integrity. Satan’s challenge to God concerning this godly man was thus defeated, and Almighty God miraculously healed Job and more than made up for all that Job had formerly lost during the crucial test.

¹⁴ True, we Christians are each under a test of our integrity in the midst of this hostile world. But no one is to think he is of such importance that he is singled out and made a special test case such as Job was made. If such were the case, then we would have to carry the picture of Job all the way through in its application to each individual Christian. In that case each Christian would in this life have to have restored to him twice as much as he lost by accidents engineered by Satan. He would have to experience miraculous divine healing and afterward live a long life of good health, to correspond with Job’s 140 years after he got well.—Job, chapters 1, 2, 42.

15. Whom did Job picture, and hence what did his test foreshadow?

¹⁵ Moreover, the test on Job was permitted by God and was written down to serve as a prophecy. It foreshadowed how the Job class, beginning with Jesus himself (who never got sick), would be exposed to the testing of their integrity toward God by Satan. However, this test was not to be by literal accidents, loss and terrible diseases due to Satan. No; but by persecutions and opposition from this world which would bring loss of close associates, and bring us a disgraceful, misrepresented appearance in the eyes of the world, making us look loathsome to them, so that they would accuse us of being religious hypocrites and under God’s curse. For instance, when orthodox religious systems of Christendom accuse us of being blasphemers, haters of everybody, and Nazis, Fascists and imperialists here and Communists there. Job’s miraculous restoration, therefore, foreshadowed, not the divine healing of our physical ailments and our being made immune against further accidents, but how Almighty God would restore the faithful remnant of his anointed witnesses to his favor and would counteract all the false accusations and misrepresentations of his servants before all the people of good will.

16. Why do the cases of the woman with the spirit of infirmity and Paul’s thorn in the flesh not argue for Satan’s hand in all sickness?

¹⁶ So let us take the sane view of sickness and accident. There are many things besides sickness and accident which Satan can use to put our integrity to the test. True, Jesus did say of the woman who was bent over double and whom he cured: “Was it not due, then, for this woman who is a daughter of Abraham, and whom Satan held bound, look! eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” But we note that the record says the woman had a “spirit of weakness” and was evidently under the power of a demon who would not let her straighten herself up. (Luke 13:10-16, NW) True, also, Paul spoke of his “thorn in the flesh” as an “angel of Satan, to keep striking me”; but this was not a sickness or accident, as we explained in our previous issue of The Watchtower. Whatever the thorn was, it was something that Satan the adversary worked on in order to make matters hard for Paul and to worry him. So it may be with ailments and accidents in our case. While Satan may not be blamed for them, yet he can use them after they have befallen us to worry us, weaken our faith in God, break down our zeal in God’s service, make us lose God’s spirit and quit.

17. Do normal causes produce the same ill effects in Christians as in others? Does turning Christian change their bodies any?

¹⁷ Sickness, diseases and accidents have their normal causes. These causes produce the same results in the lives of devoted Christians as in the lives of unconsecrated worldlings. At Lystra, in Asia Minor, when the pagans wanted to worship the miracle-working Paul and Barnabas as gods, they leaped out into the crowd and objected: “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are human creatures having the same infirmities as you do.” (Acts 14:8-15, NW) And we can all agree with the psalmist David when he said: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps. 51:5, AS) So just because a person believes the good news of God’s kingdom and devotes himself to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, God does not work a miracle and change his bodily organism any. Oh, he might be able to prolong his life by better living henceforth as a Christian, both morally and physically, because he learns more and more of the truth and gives his body decent treatment and does not abuse it as those in the world do with their bodies. Unselfish activity in God’s service does one good in both mind and body. Study of God’s Word and applying it in word, thought and deed has a salubrious effect upon one in every way. To quote Solomon: “Fear Jehovah, and depart from evil: it will be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”—Prov. 3:7, 8, AS.

18. Rather than Satan’s direct touch, what operates for disease without discrimination of any?

¹⁸ All the sickness that has entered the earth resulted from the original violation of God’s law. Likewise today, sickness and disease are due to some violation of God’s laws concerning physical well-being. They are not due to the direct touch of Satan. Various ones of us may inherit tendencies to certain bodily ailments, and these may appear after certain causes lead them to develop and break out. Say a plague is sweeping the land. A worldling with a healthy constitution may go through it unaffected, whereas a faithful Christian may be laid low with it and die or have a hard time recovering. The reason for this may lie entirely in the weaker physical frame and in not knowing what precautions to take against becoming infected. So these are natural, physical processes which may operate in any and all persons regardless of one’s faith. It would be unreasonable to blame the Devil directly.

19, 20. If not Satan, what is the cause of accidents, impartially?

¹⁹ The same with accidents: These are generally due to carelessness. Under those same circumstances carelessness by anyone will result in the same accident. A bus loaded with conventioners is returning them to their homes and the driver falls asleep at the wheel. The bus crashes, many are killed and almost all others are wounded. Aha, the Devil is to blame! No; rather the carelessness and thoughtlessness of the driver. Again, a carload of witnesses who have been out in the field service spreading the Kingdom news drives off for a little outing and parks at a curve in the road. Another car rounds the curve and, for momentum, makes too sweeping a turn and crashes into the parked car and kills all the occupants. The work of the Devil? No! Lack of thought and caution at a curve.

²⁰ A Christian steps on a loose rug on an oiled floor, skids, falls and breaks his hip. Blame the Devil? No; anybody else stepping in haste on that rug on the slippery floor would have had the same experience, even the Devil’s favorite. Two Christians get married and want to stay childless for freer action without worries and burdens. Suddenly, to their dismay and despite all their carefulness, along comes an unwanted baby! They claim the Lord was the one who led them to meet each other and get married, but as for this baby, why, that was where the Devil took advantage of them to interfere with their service of God. But if they did not want to have children, why did they get married in the first place? Is not the primary function of marriage the bringing of children into this earth? By getting married, they endangered their freedom for service and exposed themselves to the burdens and responsibilities of children. No, Satan did not implant the power of reproduction in men and women. He did not start that baby’s life, a life which Christian parents are to view as “holy” in God’s sight. (1 Cor. 7:14) No, that baby was no “accident”. Do not fool yourself about the operation of natural law which God the Creator fixed unalterably in the human system. That law operates where all your carefulness may not be smart enough to block its operation.

21. Are Christians to expect certain common physical conditions to result differently in their case from that of others? Why your reply?

²¹ So sickness, malignant maladies, accidents, and old age may be expected to take their usual course among devoted Christians the same as among the rest of mankind. When the body gets old and no longer has youth’s power to repair itself or to build up new tissues, it can be expected to break down, Christian or no Christian. Isaac, the son of Abraham, turned blind in his old age and was sightless for about 50 years, although he was a type of Jesus Christ. (Gen. 27:1, 21-23; 35:28, 29) We may try to patch up the worn-out body, but if medicines, a specialist’s treatment, or a surgical operation fails to add a cubit to the old Christian’s life span, that is not directly his fault. Yet, when such measures fail, he is not then to look or pray for divine healing. Christians have long since had this operation of the holy spirit suspended toward them. You may recall how God turned back the time dial fifteen years for King Hezekiah, and the prophet Isaiah put a fig plaster on Hezekiah’s malignant boil as a symbol of God’s power to heal. (Isa. 38:1-22) But we are no longer living in the days of prophets and apostles gifted with the power of supernatural healing. So the extraordinary is not to be expected or prayed for just because we are faithful Christians.

22, 23. May some succumb to death at Armageddon for natural causes? And would this indicate judgment executed against them?

²² When the oncoming battle of Armageddon strikes in its fury and with its desolations, many devoted Christians will be in their old age or in an infirm condition. Hence it may be that during the progress of that battle with all the conditions which it will produce on and around the earth, many Christian aged, weak in constitution, or with poor hearts, may die from sheer natural causes. When we read the prophetic accounts of that battle, for instance, Psalm 46, telling how the earth will be moved, the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, the waters roaring and showing great agitation so that even the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, we can see it will be a time that will be hard on the hearts and physical constitutions of even the hardiest of persons. We may have to undergo many privations in common with the people of the world, including food reductions, exposure to the heartless elements, etc., so that it will be a strenuous time, taxing our physical powers. Some, because of physical condition, age, or other circumstances, may prove no more able to endure the hardships of Armageddon than others.

²³ But the death of faithful witnesses of Jehovah then simply because their bodies cannot take it will not be a judgment against them, betokening an execution of them by Jehovah’s heavenly hosts. They will give way to death in their faithfulness, in vindication of God, and their death will not mean their extinction forever, but it will allow for a resurrection in the new world that follows Armageddon. But if it pleases God, he can strengthen even the weakest of his faithful people in an abnormal way to undergo all the hardships of that time of unparalleled trouble and survive. The surviving of any of his people will be because he has preserved them amid the destruction which he executes against all his enemies.

24. What, then, should be our course as to health and security?

²⁴ While we are active in God’s service we should try to take the best care of our health and physical vitality and to guard against overindulgence, hazards and accidents as far as possible. The same as when we lock the doors, shut and bolt the windows, fasten the cellar door, and do other things, to safeguard our homes against entry by thieves. And then we may trust our heavenly Father and Caretaker for the rest. If, though, we come into dangers because of faithfulness in his service, we must accept whatever he lets come according to his will, and we may thank him for his deliverance of us from recognized dangers. Take no needless chances. Do not put Jehovah to the test in an unwarranted way. “Therefore, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.” “Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men.”—1 Cor. 10:31 and Col. 3:23, NW.

The More Important Healing

1. How are God and Christ still active as Healers?

JEHOVAH God and Christ Jesus are still active as the great Healers. But how is that if the day of bestowing the gift of the spirit for curing the sick in body is about nineteen centuries in the past? How, too, has his health program for his Christian witnesses continued till this day? In what way is he accomplishing cures and healings now? The Scriptures answer that he is performing such marvels now in a greater way than in a physical or bodily way, namely, in a spiritual way.

2. In this respect what do advocates of divine healing overlook today? And why do not natural-minded people appreciate it?

² Religionists who make miracles on the human body their outstanding tenet and their chief claim to being God’s people lay the main stress on what is physical or natural. They overlook God’s greater miracles which are accomplished in a spiritual way. The physical miracles in the apostolic days so long ago were merely secondary to the more wonderful and more important spiritual miracles. The physical healings passed away in due time as was foretold, but the works of spiritual transformation have continued on through the centuries down till now. Natural-minded people of this world will not be able to appreciate these greater and more vital wonders, and they will not care for them or attach any value to them or believe them real. On this the apostle says: “But a physical man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are examined spiritually.”—1 Cor. 2:14, NW.

3. How are the spiritual miracles more important and durable in effect?

³ But today hundreds of thousands of persons of good will are beginning to appreciate these wonder works which are more important for everlasting life in the new world than temporary physical cures in this world could ever be. The good effects physically on those who received miraculous bodily cures in apostolic times ended with their death. The good effects on those who have believed and experienced God’s power through Christ in a spiritual way continue, in that they will be with them when they are resurrected to life in the promised new world. So let us not claim to be Christians and yet be merely ‘physical men who do not receive the things of the spirit of God nor understand them’.

4. Which cure of blindness was more important, the natural or spiritual?

⁴ Jesus and his gifted disciples gave vision to the blind to see the natural world about them. There is, though, a deadly spiritual blindness, for which Satan the Devil is indeed responsible. “The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.” (2 Cor. 4:4, NW) Eyes of the mind or of understanding need to be opened to see the light of life, otherwise we shall stumble into destruction. The blind religious guides led the blind Jewish people to the pit where both tumbled in together to destruction. (Matt. 15:14, NW) So, which is it more vital to remove, the physical or the mental blindness? Which miracle is the greater, the physical or the spiritual?

5, 6. How did the physical miracles compare with the spiritual miracles of a corresponding kind?

⁵ Also, Jesus and his disciples with the gift of healing made the deaf to hear, the dumb to talk, the lame to walk, the lepers to be clean enough to enter into the temple with other worshipers of God. But those physical miracles do not compare with the spiritual miracles which cause people formerly deaf to God’s Word to hear it now with understanding. By spiritual miracles those whose tongues were dumb as far as praising God opened their mouths to declare his fame, to preach his Word and to witness to his kingdom. Those who were limping along uncertainly according to human moral standards and traditional self-righteousness and worldly respectability gained strength to walk unfalteringly in the path of God’s righteousness through Christ, uncompromisingly holding to the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Those who were infected with the leprosy of sin accepted true cleansing from the loathsome state of transgressors of God’s law, being washed in Jesus’ blood.

⁶ Jesus and his apostles raised the dead: Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, Lazarus, Dorcas, Eutychus. But these resuscitations of the physically dead only to die again in the flesh, were these miracles greater than raising people who were dead toward God in their sinful, alienated condition to live, act and serve Jehovah God? For the anointed Christians this means immortal life in the new world, glory with Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom. To those having this spiritual resurrection during this world it is written: “Furthermore, it is you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, . . . God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness you have been saved—and he raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.”—Eph. 2:1-6, NW.

7. What prophecies did Jesus quote referring to miracles of healing? And to what kind of healing?

⁷ When Jesus at Nazareth announced his commission as God’s Sent One, the Messiah, to those Jews in the synagogue he referred to the miracles of spiritual healing which he was to accomplish, saying: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.” (Luke 4:16-19, NW) The need of spiritual cure as being foremost Jesus stressed again when he once more quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah, to explain why he was preaching to the people in parables: “This is why I speak to them by the use of illustrations, because, looking, they look in vain, and hearing, they hear in vain, neither do they get the sense of it; and toward them the prophecy of Isaiah is having fulfillment which says: ‘By hearing, you will hear but by no means get the sense of it; and, looking, you will look but by no means see. For the heart of this people has grown thick, and with their ears they have heard with annoyance, and they have shut their eyes; that they might never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and get the sense of it with their hearts and turn back, and I heal them.’”—Matt. 13:13-15, NW.

8. What miracles were necessary for those religious Jews? Why?

⁸ What was necessary for those religious Jews was to have the spiritual miracles, to open their mental eyes, to unstop their ears of understanding, to remove the fatty encasement of selfishness from about their heart. Then first could they see through what God was doing and could identify the Messiah whom he had sent and turn back from their self-righteous worldly course and get spiritual healing from Jehovah God. With all the miracles that Jesus performed upon human bodies the majority of the Jews never did turn to him and his apostles and have their eyes, ears and hearts repaired spiritually and get the cure from sin and its consequences and be raised to life as the spiritual Israel of God. For this reason the nation of natural Israel, who would not believe without signs and wonders, were rejected by God. Their holy city and temple were destroyed, their nation was broken up and its members were scattered to the four winds as a people despised and cursed.

RESTORATIVE REMEDY

9, 10. On whom in this century has God wrought an outstanding miracle, and how did he foretell it by Jeremiah?

⁹ People who are fascinated by the thought of divine healing with physical miracles today are blind to the fact that Jehovah’s great health program is operating mightily today, that he is performing marvelous miracles of spiritual healing for us to live in that glorious new world which stands immediately before us. The outstanding miracle is the one he has wrought upon the remnant of his faithful witnesses who make up his visible theocratic organization. He foretold this miracle twenty-five centuries ago at the time that ancient Jerusalem was menaced with destruction by the Chaldean armies under Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. We read:

¹⁰ “For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defence against the mounds and against the sword; while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city: Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal unto them abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And this city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure unto it.”—Jer. 33:1-9, AS.

11. How did the remnant come into a condition needing healing?

¹¹ During the years of the first world war, 1914 to 1918, the remnant of spiritual Israel came under Jehovah’s displeasure. His kingdom by his Christ had been born in the heavens in 1914, at the end of the “appointed times of the nations” that year; but, under the great stress of persecution, oppression and international opposition during those war years reaching a climax in 1918, God’s anointed witnesses failed and their organization experienced a breakup and they came under captivity to the world system of modern Babylon. But from 1919 on they came to a realization of their spiritual condition. They appealed for some divine restorative remedy. Their appeal was well worded by Jeremiah who foretold the captivity of spiritual Israel: “Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now. As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee.” (Jer. 17:14-16, AS) The hearts of the remnant were broken because of God’s apparent disfavor and because, through fear and improper understanding, they had been forced out of his service.

12. How did he heal and revitalize the remnant? With what response?

¹² God heard the prayer of his repentant, brokenhearted remnant. He regathered them, repaired the breaches of their organization and reorganized them for more effective service than ever. He built them up on earth as the visible theocratic organization to represent his heavenly Jerusalem which was now radiant with Kingdom glory. Here, not physical cure of fleshly organisms, but spiritual cure of the remnant of his witnesses was needed, to recover them from unclean fear and from religious foolishness. “He sendeth his word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions.” (Ps. 107:17-20, AS) He opened their eyes and ears more fully to get Scriptural understanding. For a time they had been lying as dead under the world’s repressive laws and measures, but now they were revived by God’s spirit. Up they stood and engaged in free and fearless activity as his witnesses to tell all the nations the good news of His kingdom. A spiritual resurrection indeed! (Rev. 11:7-12) So they were delivered from their captivity and were assembled into an unbreakable unity of faith and action. By all this Scriptural understanding and these joyful service privileges they were greatly comforted. Their tongues were loosed to sing: “Praise ye Jehovah; for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is comely. Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem; he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”—Ps. 147:1-3, AS.

13. So how has Jehovah’s city or organization become a joy, praise and glory before all nations, and with what illumination?

¹³ In this way, by means of this restorative work of mercy to his anointed remnant, the great heavenly Physician performed a modern miracle of spiritual healing. It has astounded Christendom, but has also chagrined her. The restored organization of Jehovah’s people abounds with the peace, truth and spiritual prosperity with which he has filled it. By activating them in his witness work in all quarters of the earth He has made their organization become a praise and glory for him before all the nations, and the name of “Jehovah’s witnesses” has become a joy to numberless multitudes. For his visible theocratic organization this is a day of brightness amid the thickening gloom and darkness of the worldly nations. They have heavenly light day and night; and the light increases to the illumination of perfect day, the brightness of a week of days all concentrated into one. As it was predicted: “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth up the hurt of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”—Isa. 30:26, AS.

14. How does this healing prove Jehovah’s kingdom has been set up?

¹⁴ God’s restoration of his witnesses to his theocratic organization, his entrusting them with the ambassadorship of his kingdom to the people of all nations, fulfills Bible prophecy. It is a convincing evidence to his witnesses that the promised kingdom has been established in the heavens. Jehovah now reigns over the earth by his Christ whom he has enthroned as King of the new world. Just as long ago Job was restored from his captivity in Satan’s power and was healed of his deadly disease and was vindicated, so God’s faithful remnant have experienced restoration, pardon from sins, and spiritual healing. And just as the beggar Lazarus died to his diseased, hungry state at the rich man’s gate where the despised curs licked his ulcers, so the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced a change of condition since 1918. Like Lazarus, they now find themselves in the bosom of favor of the greater Abraham, Jehovah God. (Luke 16:19-25) They no longer feel sick spiritually. They are in His theocratic organization, a city of radiant spiritual health. Once lamed by the enemy world, now they seize the prey from this world, the people of good will. Why is this so now? The prophetic answer comes: “For Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah, our lawgiver, Jehovah, our king: he will save us. . . . then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”—Isa. 33:22-24, Da.

CHRISTENDOM REFUSES THE ONLY REMEDY

15. What have Christendom’s healers accomplished for her physical health?

¹⁵ Pitted against the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses today is the great organization of Christendom, which boasts of an antiquity all the way back to the apostle Peter. After her centuries of existence, at least sixteen centuries since Emperor Constantine’s day, is she a picture of health physically, spiritually? Medical science within her has made great strides forward, but what has this accomplished for her? Persons who practice Christian Science or Jewish Science of faith healing, and those who advocate direct divine healing by prayer and laying on of hands, how much have all these accomplished for Christendom’s relief? Not even the elimination of the common cold, not to speak of those great killers: heart disease, cancer, arthritis, tuberculosis, pneumonia, kidney and liver diseases, peptic ulcers, etc.

16. What is her condition otherwise, and which healing does she need more?

¹⁶ But aside from that, look at Christendom’s worse condition socially, politically, economically, judicially, morally, and religiously. Her condition is well described by Isaiah when telling of her ancient prototype, Israel: “Ah! sinful nation, guiltladen people; brood of evildoers, children who deal corruptly; who have forsaken the LORD, and spurned the Holy One of Israel, and gone back in estrangement from him! Where will you still be smitten, that you continue in your defection? The whole head is ailing, and the whole heart sick; from the sole of the foot to the head there is no health in it—nought but blows and bruises and bleeding wounds, that have not been pressed nor bound up nor softened with oil.” Which, then, is it that Christendom needs more, the healing of her people’s physical organisms or their spiritual healing?

17. Why is this the more important healing? How does Isaiah prescribe it?

¹⁷ Admittedly there is serious need of physical healing. Yet this physical well-being would never spare her from the woes and destruction of the impending war of Armageddon. It is the spiritual healing that is the more urgent, the more important, the really vital healing. For it is only those who seek and gain the spiritual recovery who will survive the terrible desolations and destructions of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” and enter the healthy new world. Putting the spiritual therapy in the first place, the prophet Isaiah prescribed the course for Christendom to take and described the certain results: “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD: ‘If your sins be like scarlet, can they become white as snow? If they be red like crimson, can they become as wool? If you prove willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall taste the sword’; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”—Isa. 1:4-6, 18-20, AT.

18. What do the physicians Christendom consults prove to be?

¹⁸ But Christendom is like Asa king of ancient Jerusalem at the time of his serious disease. Of him it is written: “Yet in his disease he sought not to Jehovah, but to the physicians.” (2 Chron. 16:12, AS) Today Christendom turns her back on the real remedy which Jehovah prescribes in his Word and summons her religious medics to the side of her deathbed. These, with their pagan philosophies, traditions of men, empty rites, ceremonies and holy years, and worldly-mindedness, turn out to be what Job said of his false friends, “forgers of lies” and “physicians of no value”.—Job 13:4.

19. How have these clergy physicians matched Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s descriptions of priests, prophets, and shepherds?

¹⁹ With Jeremiah we can fitly raise the question: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” (Jer. 8:22) The clergy physicians are quacks as far as the spiritual well-being of the people, the laity, is concerned. With two world wars already to their account and a third one menacing Christendom and, worst of all, Armageddon unavoidably threatening her, the clergy have matched Jeremiah’s description of the religious leaders who failed to avert Jerusalem’s destruction: “From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” (Jer. 6:13, 14) The prophet Ezekiel (34:4) testifies that they have neglected the eternal spiritual interests of God’s sheep: “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” Hence God’s Word cries out woe to them, and their woe will come upon them in full at Armageddon to their destruction.

Leaves of Healing

1. For what healing did Jehovah cut short the days of tribulation, and with what miracles resulting?

CHRISTENDOM’S clergy claim to have as their divine commission the converting of the world to Christ. But after all these sixteen centuries they are farther than ever from it. God foreknew how they would turn out in this day. So he has not sent them out nor depended upon them to accomplish the spiritual healing of his “sheep” on earth. He has raised up a loyal remnant of imitators of the Right Shepherd Jesus Christ, who appreciate that the spiritual need of the people is more important than their physical well-being. Just after the first world war the remnant themselves required the great Physician’s attention, and he healed them spiritually. In fact, for the sake of these elect or chosen ones Jehovah cut short the days of the great tribulation upon Satan’s world, that the remnant might be relieved of what ailed them spiritually and might be saved to heavenly life in the new world. He healed the waters of doctrine that they were drinking, to immunize them against infection by this sinful world. (Matt. 24:21, 22; Ezek. 47:8, 9; Ex. 15:23-26) The truth is, he caused a continually deepening and expanding river of Kingdom truth to flow forth to them. Its waters have been lifegiving to them. Spiritually, the result of the divine health program to them has been miraculous, fulfilling the prophecy: “Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”—Isa. 35:4-6.

2. What others needed healing? And so on what mission did Jehovah send out his remnant?

² This spiritual remnant with a heavenly destiny were not the only ones to be healed as to their relations with God through Christ. A great crowd of others with an earthly destiny also needed the benefit of the heavenly Physician’s health work. They needed to be invited to the waters of Kingdom truth. They needed to have applied to them things with curative powers. So God commanded that his healed remnant should themselves go forth on a healing mission in these ominous days preceding Armageddon. For it is only the spiritually healed one who will get through Armageddon and emerge into the hale new world. So he has made his faithful remnant of Kingdom heirs to grow up like sturdy trees of righteousness on the banks of the river of truth. The situation is beautifully pictured for us at Revelation 22:1-3:“And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its broad way. And on this side of the river and on that side there were trees of life producing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruits each month. And the leaves of the trees were for the curing of the nations. And no more will there be any curse.”—NW.

3. (a) What are their fruits and their leaves? (b) Who avail themselves of these, and with what benefit?

³ The standing of those rows of trees of righteousness there is a sure sign that water of life is there. The trees’ abundance of leaves invites the sunstricken, parched seekers of life to cooling shade beneath their foliage. The fruits of the Kingdom, that is to say, the Kingdom message and the active service in spreading it, they hold forth for the great crowd of people of good will to eat and to pass on to other famished ones. Being trees of righteousness, they are good trees. Their leaves are the faithful outward professions of what they believe and teach, without hypocrisy, and accompanied by Kingdom fruits every month and season of the year. And so these symbolic leaves, when applied to the people of good will everywhere, are health-giving, curative, acting like medicine. As Ezekiel stated in a corresponding vision: “Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezek. 47:12, AT) Hundreds of thousands have already come to these trees by the riverside, have eaten the Kingdom fruits offered and have applied to themselves the curative leaves by accepting the educational services of Jehovah’s anointed remnant of witnesses. They have experienced healing mentally, morally, and in their relations with God. So now they are in line for eternal life in the new world.

4. Hence, why does Jehovah’s health program widen its scope?

⁴ Let the misguided religionists who insist on supernatural physical cures yield themselves unwittingly to the power and influence of deceptive demons to accomplish such cures and carry on in their healing practice. Jehovah’s effective health program for endless life in the new world is on and is accomplishing wonders in more and more parts of the earth. It is ever widening its scope. For as the great crowd of people of good will get their ears open and hear the invitation to the salutary waters of Kingdom truth, their mouths once parched into speechlessness are opened and they speak the invitation to others who are dying of thirst and hunger. In fact, they are commanded to share the waters and invite others to them. As it is written: “And the spirit and the bride keep on saying, ‘Come!’ And let anyone hearing say, ‘Come!’ And let anyone thirsting come; let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.” (Rev. 22:17, NW) No socialized medicine this, carried on by taxing the people. This is a service from God without charge to those who exercise faith in him and in his kingdom by Christ Jesus.

PAIN AND DEATH TO GO

5. How will the health program thus begun with those of good will end up? Where and when?

⁵ For men and women of good will today the spiritual restoration is not all there will be to it. That is only the start of real health for them. There will also be marvelous miracles in due time in a physical way; to end up in human perfection of body and mind, in a diseaseless paradise. True, the spiritual health to which they can only attain now before Armageddon has a salutary effect on their minds, hearts and spirits and even upon their physical condition. But after the battle of Armageddon there will come the erasing of all human imperfection and sin from among the inhabitants of the new world. That new world will be the time and place for it. That will be the seventh thousand-year period of human experience, and it corresponds with the seventh day of rest and of physical recuperation which Jehovah legally established among his chosen people of old.—Ex. 20:8-11.

6. What will that millennial sabbath day be the appropriate time for, and how did Jesus on earth foreshadow this?

⁶ That seventh millennium will mark the fixed time of ushering afflicted mankind into rest and release from laborious attempts at self-perfection, and deliverance from sin and all its attendant imperfection, disease, accident, old-age decrepitude and death. That was one reason why Jesus performed many miracles on the Jewish sabbath day. He showed what he would do for the ailing bodies of mankind on the millennial sabbath day of which he is the Lord. (Matt. 12:8; Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7; 13:14; John 5:9, 10, 16) He can and will act the part of Physician for the bodies of the people of good will whom he redeemed, for it is written of him since his resurrection and glorification in heaven: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.”—Heb. 13:8, NW.

7. Will Armageddon survivors have an instantaneous change to human perfection? Or any of those resurrected on earth?

⁷ Immediately after the battle of Armageddon is over and the new world is fully inaugurated, what about those people of good will who survive the battle because of having had spiritual healing? Will they be instantaneously healed of every bodily affliction and miraculously perfected? No. This would not comport with their still being in the same human bodies and still having traces of sin and evil inclinations which they inherited from Adam. They will no more be perfected in an instant after Armageddon than the faithful witnesses of ancient time, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc., will be resurrected as perfect men by God’s power through Christ the King. Some of the anointed remnant of Kingdom heirs will also survive Armageddon with the great crowd of “other sheep”, and this remnant will not experience any perfecting in the flesh in an instant of time. They are looking for perfection, not in the flesh, but in the heavens, by a share in the first resurrection to life as spirit sons of God.

8. Why does fulfillment then of the mandate to multiply and fill the earth argue against getting human perfection instantaneously?

⁸ Were the earthly “other sheep” to experience physical healing to human perfection instanter after Armageddon, then for them to receive the divine mandate to marry, multiply and fill the earth with righteous offspring would mean to bring perfect children into the earth. Such children would not need the benefits of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice and the healing work of his kingdom. Of course, there will be no stillborn babies then, nor any death of mothers in childbirth. But after Armageddon children will not be born in human perfection in fulfillment of God’s mandate then. Evidently what childbearing will then be authorized will cease before the married couples reach human perfection. So their children will also feel the effects of descent from the sinner Adam and will have to exercise faith and avail themselves of God’s redemptive provisions through his King Jesus Christ. Everlasting life is not possible to man except through him. “The gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Rom. 6:23, NW.

9. From what will mankind then be healed? At what rate of healing?

⁹ There will be healing of mankind from all the effects of inheriting sin and condemnation from Adam. That includes even death in the memorial tombs. This stupendous miracle of healing will be wrought by resurrecting those who died and returned to the dust of the earth. There is no room for doubt about this, for Jesus and his apostles raised the dead and the omnipotent Physician Jehovah God raised his beloved Son Jesus Christ to everlasting life, as testified to by hundreds of witnesses of God’s resurrected Son. But for those who survive Armageddon and for those who will be resurrected from the memorial tombs, the physical healing will be gradual until human perfection is reached, at the latest by the end of the thousand years. This gradual progress in physical health will depend upon their progress in the way of righteousness under Christ’s millennial rule.

10. (a) Why will cures then be possible only from God through Christ? (b) How will further disease possibilities be cauterized out?

¹⁰ There will be no need to cast demons or unclean spirits out of anybody then, because these will all be bound with Satan their ruler in the abyss. So no wizards, witches, necromancers, spirit mediums will be possible then, and no misinformed religionists will be able to go around and hold healing periods and perform supernatural cures by the power of Satan the Devil who always tries to transform himself into an angel of light and mislead mankind. (2 Cor. 11:13-15) The only cures then possible will be from God through Christ the King and will be without financial charge. All those who undergo the full divine treatment till the great Physician discharges them from treatment because completely cured will be able to meet the loosing of Satan and his demons at the end of the thousand years. None will then be too weak to meet and repel his deceptive assaults and hold on to their perfect health of body, mind and heart against his infectious efforts. Those who yield to his deceptions will do so, not due to some lurking disability in their system, but willfully and on their own inexcusable responsibility. God and his King will not permit these rebels against theocratic government and righteousness to live on and contaminate and infect the new world with death-breeding sin. They will destroy them utterly, cauterizing out the disease possibilities with the fire of everlasting destruction.—Rev. 20:7-15.

11. So what will be the grand result of God’s health program for earth and its inhabitants?

¹¹ This will represent the climax of the great Physician’s health program. Those who keep their complete spiritual soundness by their integrity under this final test will be justified to eternal life on the paradise earth. They will eat of its perfect fruits and sustain their lives in God’s image and likeness, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Earth will no more be labeled with a sign, “Beware! Contagious disease here,” to warn the rest of the universe. Divine healing will have attained the miraculous result predicted: “Look! the tent of God is with humankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Rev. 21:3, 4, NW.

Pastor Says Church Fails in Duty

● Asked whether religious groups were meeting the needs of the community today, a religious pastor, Owen Geer, told a Los Angeles, California, roundtable discussion group on May 29, 1950: “No, religious groups could be many times more effective in our time than they are.” R. K. Staley, prominent lay member of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, supported Pastor Geer, stating: “The people have asked for bread, but the church has given them a stone. Creation is no chance occurrence, and so man himself is no chance development. The church should have opened the door to understanding so man could feel his relationship to the Creator.” Geer later filled out his own remarks when he said: “The question is not so much what the church has done as what the church might have done had it fulfilled its mission. The church could have been many times more effective than it has been. It could unite in all its strength to abolish war, if it would. Why don’t we do this? Why do we permit sectarianism and racialism?”

Traveling Increases the Witness

JESUS was an energetic traveler. He instilled into the minds of his followers the idea that they must travel in order to preach the good news. After he completed working in one place, “he went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him.” (Luke 8:1, NW) You may remember that earlier in his career Jesus set down the pattern he wanted to follow. He did not gather around him just one small group and stay with them always; he gave all the opportunity to hear the good news and then he went on to new fields, because he was sent by Jehovah to witness to all the descendants of Israel. When the crowds tried to detain him from going away from them he said, “Also to other cities I must declare the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this I was sent forth.”—Luke 4:43, NW.

Even though in his traveling he met up with the objection of being ruled by the demons because of his good works, and even though he received persecution and went through many trials and hardships, he continued his tour of all the cities and villages. As he traveled he always saw crowds and “felt tender affection for them, because they were skinned and knocked about like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: ‘Yes, the harvest is great, but the workers are few. Therefore, beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.’” (Matt. 9:36-38, NW) And so Christ Jesus selected twelve apostles to do the same kind of work he did, and he sent them out to preach. Later in his ministry he sent out seventy disciples to preach, and in time men and women by the hundreds, even thousands, took up preaching the message of good news and traveled to the ends of the earth. It was their traveling that aided greatly to increase the witness.

Why were the apostles and early Christians energetic travelers like their Master Christ Jesus? Their only reason was to see that Jesus’ words were fulfilled when he said that the good news of the Kingdom should be preached in all the world for a testimony.

Today we see that Jehovah’s witnesses still travel. The majority of them are in the thousands of cities and villages throughout the world, working as company publishers and calling from house to house, village to village and town to town in their assigned territory. Those theocratic publishers who find themselves in position to leave home go greater distances and take up the pioneer service and travel in territories not reached by company publishers. And then there are others who become missionaries who go into lands far distant, even to the ends of the earth. To visit these brothers in all parts of the earth is a most blessed privilege for anyone in Jehovah’s organization. Many of those that have traveled to the ends of the earth assembled at Yankee Stadium in New York city during the summer of 1950 and enjoyed the fellowship of brothers of like precious faith and then returned with renewed strength to their territories to tell others of their experiences and of the advancing work of the Kingdom.

It is good from time to time for someone from the Society’s headquarters at Brooklyn to visit these outlying congregations, missionary homes and branch offices to help them with their problems. So N. H. Knorr, president of the Society, and M. G. Henschel arranged another trip to visit those in distant fields engaging in the great harvest work of gathering together some of the “other sheep”. In the course of the trip Brother Knorr sent reports of his experiences, which The Watchtower is pleased to publish here.

Friday, February 23, was a bright, sunny, clear morning in New York. We had breakfast with the Bethel family and then Brother Henschel and I were taken to LaGuardia field by some of our fellow workers of the headquarters, to begin our trip to the Far East. We boarded a TWA Constellation at the airfield and took off at 10 a.m. There was a good breeze blowing and that helped the plane take off quickly. It also blew away much of the haze and smoke which is common to New York city, and this gave us an exceptionally fine view of the New York metropolitan area. The captain flew westward until he had crossed the Hudson river, then he banked to the south and flew over Jersey City. We could see all of the famous skyscrapers of the city, as well as the harbor and rivers and the bridges across the rivers. Cars and trains were visible though we were several thousand feet up. We saw the Bethel home clearly and then the radio towers of the Society’s station, WBBR, rising into the sky on Staten Island. After this special fare—a huge feast for the eyes—we started west toward Chicago. We flew over Sunbury, Pennsylvania, en route and saw no clouds until we reached Ohio. Pennsylvania’s rugged brown terrain of the winter season was dotted here and there with patches of snow, while here and there a frozen lake sparkled in the bright sunlight. Rivers and streams followed their serpentine courses through the valleys. A few coal mines came to view, with their huge piles of blackish slag and dingy wooden buildings. We were flying at more than 200 m.p.h., so it was not very long until we lost sight of the ground and looked instead upon the sun-brightened sea of fluffy white clouds that extended as far as the horizon. We plunged down through the clouds when we neared Chicago and landed there twenty minutes ahead of time.

Some passengers left the ship at Chicago and others took their places. It was not long until we were once more flying high above the United States toward Los Angeles. In the modern sky transports it is easy to read and write when the weather is not rough, so some unfinished mail and other matters brought along from the office were taken care of. We took a southerly route, passing over Kansas City and Albuquerque. We saw the sunset as we neared the Colorado river, and there was a bit of bumpy weather over California. In the darkness we could see the lights of a city below and we noticed that the same lights could be seen from time to time. To keep the passengers informed, the captain announced that too many planes were trying to land at Los Angeles International Airport and we were circling over Riverside. This lasted for about five minutes and then word came from the airport that it was safe to approach Los Angeles. But over Los Angeles it was again necessary to circle over the city and await further orders. Between fifteen and twenty minutes were spent cruising over the city and maintaining the same altitude so other planes which were also in the vicinity would not collide with ours. Seven or eight times we saw the same drive-in theaters and business corners and it began to feel like we would be hanging up in the sky for hours. It was like sweet music when we heard the landing gear being lowered, for we knew clearance for landing had come through.

STOP IN CALIFORNIA

When we reached the ground we found out why things were so difficult at the airport. The California sun had spent a busy day drawing up moisture from the Pacific ocean and, now that darkness had come, a little rain might be slipped in without letting the Chamber of Commerce see it. When the plane came to a halt near the main buildings we saw a man clad in a raincoat and with a hood over his head dash over to the stairway and up to the door of the plane. He had about forty red-and-black umbrellas with him, and when he opened the door and stepped inside the identity of a true Californian came to light, for he said: “Welcome to Miami!” We were glad for the umbrella service and we had many laughs with the brothers who met us over the wonderful California reception. It had been a long trip and some humor at the end of it was appreciated.

After claiming our luggage we traveled away from the airport by car. Water was everywhere. We rather enjoyed jesting over the weather as we drove through the city. Manchester boulevard was like a river. It would have been appropriate to carry pontoons there, for the ripples were lapping at the running board. We were hungry and so we stopped a few minutes at a small café. But even there we could not forget the rain, because, as we sat awaiting our food, the roof sprang a leak and water dropped on us. Then on we went and when we got to the city limits we found no rain and the full moon was shining.

We stayed in California from February 24 to 27. During that time we had snow, hail, rain, windy days, and sunshine. California offered us all the variety one could ask for. We found our visit with a number of the brothers to be very enjoyable. The opportunity was given us to visit the Palomar Observatory, where the Hale 200-inch telescope is situated, and about which the Awake! magazine had reported sometime ago. While it is a wonderful thing to behold the heavens with the naked eye, to see some of the photographs that have been taken through the giant telescope makes you appreciate the immensity of the great universe of Jehovah. Even with this big “eye” one can see only a small portion of God’s magnificent and glorious creation. Knowledge such as this should help all mankind to appreciate the Creator, but it is reported that most of those scientists that use this wonderful telescope do not declare the majesty and honor of Jehovah’s name. Actually, those persons who have sought to know the Most High and have studied His Word know more of His glory, honor and power than do the famed scientists.

The Society maintains a supply depot at Lynwood, and it is a busy little place where brothers work hard to produce millions of handbills every year to advertise public meetings. Shipments of literature are made to companies and pioneers in the western part of the United States through this depot, at a considerable saving to the Society. It was interesting to see that they had orders on hand for over seven thousand copies of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, and none were in stock to fill these orders. Not that I was glad they could not fill all the orders, but it shows that the demand is greater than the supply and that people everywhere desire to read this excellent translation. (We were later to find that the demand in countries visited also exceeds the supply.) There is great interest in the truth in the western part of the United States, and in California hundreds more persons were reported taking their stand and sharing in the great ingathering work. We found the spirit and zeal of the brothers in California to be excellent, and they are pushing ahead in the good work.

Tuesday night, the 27th, was very cool. Shortly before midnight a number of the local brothers came out to the International Airport to wish us a good trip and to send greetings along to their brothers abroad, adding warmth to the departure. We certainly appreciated their interest in the trip and their hospitality in visiting with us. A few minutes before midnight we were advised by the Pan American Airways to board their waiting Stratocruiser destined for Honolulu. As we boarded the plane we waved a farewell to our brothers. We took our seats, fastened the seat belts and began to look at the interior of the plane. The seats were large and comfortable and in every way the plane seemed to be bigger and better. After we took off at midnight we found the sleeping good.

In the morning we learned that the flight had been made at a comparatively low altitude, only 12,000 feet. The trip was very smooth and the captain told us that they always choose the altitude where they find the best weather conditions. This flight convinced us that the Stratocruiser is one of the best planes for long-distance travel. Its two decks allow for some walking about and a change in atmosphere. The small lower deck is a lounge where refreshments are served. The view of the earth below is unobstructed by the wings or engines, which cannot be said for the upper or main deck.

HAWAII

The morning light brought to view the snow-capped peaks of the big island of the Hawaiian group, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the islands of Hawaii. These were to the south of us. Clouds obscured the rest of the islands until the plane dropped to about 2,000 feet and prepared to land. Then to the north of us we could see Koko Head and Diamond Head, two extinct craters on the coast of the islands of Oahu, and then Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. The whole island was very green, in marked contrast to what we had seen in the mainland. As the plane landed and taxied over to the terminal building we could see that there had been rain and we could feel the warmth of the air. But not the air alone is warm in the Hawaiian islands. There at the terminal building waited a group of about one hundred publishers, carrying leis and prepared to give us a very warm welcome. Many were dressed in typical Hawaiian style and colors. We recognized the Gilead graduates and many of the publishers who were in Honolulu when we had visited there in 1947. A fence kept the spectators off the field, but as we passed through the gate one publisher after another put a lei around our necks. The leis were made of fragrant carnations, gardenias, orchids and other fresh flowers, and they were beautifully put together. Both of us were so loaded down with leis that we finally had to begin putting them on our arms. Cameras flashed and a representative of the press asked for a story, a write-up later appearing in one of the dailies of Honolulu. The welcome to Hawaii is something not to be forgotten, and that last day of February will long be remembered.

We made our way through the terminal building and into the waiting car. Into Honolulu we drove through fairly heavy traffic and soon we were at 1228 Pensacola Street, the branch office of the Society for the Territory of Hawaii. In the Kingdom Hall to the rear of the branch and in the yard next to it there was considerable activity—there was going to be a convention in Honolulu and the cafeteria would be set up at the Kingdom Hall. As is usually true when a branch office is visited, there was mail waiting and there were many questions to answer and office work to be done. But our work for the first day was cut short, because the publishers in Oahu had planned for an international picnic such as they alone can put over. The beach at Hanauma bay near Koko Head was theirs for the evening.

So we would fit in well with the group, and, for our comfort, one of the brothers provided typical colorful shirts, which we wore with pleasure. Off we went in a car toward the eastern end of the island. It was but a few miles to the beach and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the green lawns, the towering palms and the multitudes of flowers growing around the modern homes along the way. Before we knew it we were at our destination. The parking area was not as one might expect it to be for a beach; it was at the top of a big hill. Apparently Hanauma bay was once a crater of an active volcano, three sides of which still stand and one has disappeared into the sea. We had to make our way down a pathway built on the side of a steep cliff. Down below were the white sand and coral reefs of the beach that was the home of a large grove of palm trees. Out toward the mouth of the bay the huge waves were crashing on the rocks and sending a spray high into the air, but the reef broke the ocean’s force and along the beach the waters were calm. Though it was not raining it was cloudy and there was no sunshine. We did not mind the weather, but the publishers from Oahu felt much more comfortable with jackets or sweaters.

The early arrivals moved the picnic tables and formed four big tables, each about forty feet long. Car groups kept arriving and soon perhaps 200 people were there, all of them interested in Jehovah’s kingdom. Among them were some brothers from the mainland who had come to Hawaii by boat to attend the convention. There were other mainlanders present too, but the majority of the brothers were of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean or Hawaiian extraction. This is what made the eating so novel, for each person or family came carrying some kind of food and it was spread out on the tables. Each publisher prepared something traditionally connected with his race or nationality, so there were raw fish, poi, chow mein, fried shrimp, salads, and a host of other things the names of which I do not know. Some ate with chopsticks and others used spoons. It was almost an adventure to go from one table to another to taste the foods. Everyone was having a fine time and all nationalities blended together with happiness, thankful to Jehovah for the knowledge of the truth. Some had come from companies outside of Honolulu and they were getting acquainted one with the other. After everyone had satisfied his hunger there was still much food remaining. Groups would gather and talk of their field experiences and how they learned the truth, and some asked questions and discussed scriptures. It was a pleasant appetizer for the week-end convention ahead. About 8:30 the picnic broke up and all went home for a pleasant sleep after hours in the fresh air, preparing themselves for the activities before them.

March 1 was a day that brought back memories of the convention at Yankee Stadium in New York last August. Planes were arriving through the day from the other islands and conventioners had to be met and taken to their accommodations. In the Kingdom Hall signs were being painted, publishers were going out in the advertising work, refreshment stands were being set up, and all nationalities of people were coming in and going out as they carried on preconvention activities. Brother Henschel and I had to go into matters in connection with the branch work and talk to the missionaries. In the evening there was the street advertising work and magazine distribution.

HONOLULU ASSEMBLY

At 9 o’clock on the morning of March 2 the convention opened at the Lincoln school on Victoria street, a five-minute walk from the Kingdom Hall. The publishers heard two talks and then dispersed to the field for Kingdom service activities. The Filipino publishers remained in the hall, however, for at 10:15 the lecture “Can You Live Forever in Happiness on Earth?” in Ilokano was to be delivered. It was advertised for the public and the attendance was 41, which was very good.

That afternoon it was possible to have the use of the auditorium of the Roosevelt high school as soon as classes were dismissed. That was to serve as the site of the convention from there on. The publishers swarmed into the auditorium at 3 p.m., and in a few minutes most of the stage decorations had been put up and sound equipment installed. One of the most beautiful convention platforms ever used at a convention was that one. Hawaii has many flowers and green plants and these were used with skill, together with colored papers arranged as a double rainbow with a background of the green curtains of the auditorium’s stage. No one would get tired of sitting in that auditorium and looking toward the platform. At the front entrance to the auditorium a special display of literature in languages used in the islands was set up, and that attracted the attention of strangers and high school students who came by.

While all the speakers did exceptionally well, there was a part of the program that was very impressive. A brother was giving a review of the New York convention. He started with the first day and gave, in story form, an excellent and comprehensive summary of each day’s doings. If you attended the New York convention you will recall that every day new equipment was released for the use of the Kingdom publishers. Each time the brother mentioned one of these releases a young sister in a native costume of many colors would come onto the stage and hold up the publication. Then as the story switched to another subject the girl would move off the stage into the wing. Some of the sisters were dressed in Chinese costumes; others had Filipino or Hawaiian attire, but all were quite different in colors. While the brother talked there always seemed to be someone moving about the platform with the releases. A lot of ground was covered in thirty minutes, and then at the time of the final remarks all the sisters came back on the stage at one time and stood in a line right across the stage, each holding up one of the releases. It was a powerful demonstration of what Jehovah provided for his people through his organization during the eight-day New York assembly.

One brother who spoke about the pioneer service and showed what a privilege it is to be in the full-time service told of one of his experiences. He had gone to the island of Maui to do pioneer work, and one day when standing on the street doing the magazine work a merchant seaman approached him. He told the brother how he had been in New York at the time of the big convention of Jehovah’s witnesses and how some of the convention delegates had stopped at his house during the convention. He learned about the truth during that time, but he had not become associated with the local company because of his employment. His ship was in port for several days and so he readily joined in the witness work. He borrowed a few magazines right off and in ten minutes returned to ask for more. The pioneer brother asked him how he placed the ones he had so quickly and he said he just tried to. The new publisher was doing better than the pioneer. Also, during his visit there the seaman worked in the house-to-house service and enjoyed the meetings very much. He said he had been helped very much to get started in the service of Jehovah and he would continue it when he returned home. So the pioneer brother showed the conventioners at Honolulu that the way to have such interesting experiences is to be a pioneer, for he would never have met the seaman if he had not left his home to pioneer in the other island.

Attendance at the first day’s sessions was 405, and most of them took their meals at the Kingdom Hall cafeteria. That was a fifteen-minute walk from the high school. The meals were prepared by the publishers who volunteered and the food was excellent. The cafeteria servant said it would be the last time they could use the equipment they had for a convention, because there have been such good increases in publishers and the equipment is inadequate. Most of the publishers ate out in the yard, sitting under banana trees, palm trees and fig trees, a setting which would be the envy of any fine hotel or restaurant.

Saturday morning there was an assembly for baptism at 8:30. Following the talk the cars took all candidates to Ala Moana park in Honolulu, a beach that can be seen almost from the hill where the Roosevelt high school is situated. It was amazing to see how many there were immersed. Theocracy’s increase is a reality in the Territory of Hawaii, for 66 people showed their consecration that morning. Later in the day three other persons who could not be there in the morning were immersed, making a total of 69.

That same morning the auditorium was used to deliver public talks in Japanese and Korean, both of which had been widely advertised. The brother who delivered the Japanese public lecture was arranging to leave in a few weeks to join the publishers in Japan and to there advance the knowledge of the Kingdom truth. The Hawaiian publishers will miss Brother Hanaoka, but there are others there to take up the work among the Japanese people in the islands.

The program for the day included a number of talks, demonstrations and the ministry school. The speakers did very well. Brother Henschel and I spoke each day of the assembly, exhorting the brothers to faithful service and taking before their attention Jehovah’s manner of dealing with his servants concerning their protection and healing.

Throughout the convention special attention was given to learning the songs from the new songbook that was released at the New York assembly. A special chorus was made up and often these were called upon to sing a verse of a new song so others could hear it and learn the proper way to sing it. Two sisters provided excellent musical background for this. The publishers in Hawaii are interested in doing all things well and they wanted to learn all the new songs properly.

One brother who was raised in the Catholic religion told how much he rejoiced to have a knowledge of the truth. As a Catholic he was given no incentive to read and write so he never learned. But there were many things he could not understand about the religion and often he wondered at what the priests taught. One day his wife became interested in the theocratic publications and began to study the Bible. The brother would hear his wife talking about things she had learned and so he determined to learn to read so he could learn the truth too. Now he is able to help himself by reading the Kingdom truth. This is another way in which the truth benefits the people.

Because there is no daily service for transpacific travelers, it was found necessary for us to leave Hawaii on Sunday, March 4. That meant that the public meeting would have to be held in the morning. The title of the talk was “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land”. From 10 to 11 o’clock an audience of 707 people listened attentively while I explained the jubilee ordinances which Jehovah instituted in Israel, under which all enslaved Israelites could gain freedom, and showed how the people today need what was foreshadowed by that, namely, the freedom of the new world of righteousness, because all have been taken into bondage through Satan’s rule. Jehovah God is the one who provides freedom, and now is the time to proclaim liberty in all the earth. The attendance was very good, in view of the fact that the highest attendance of the brothers was 405. It was felt that a very good witness was given, much interest was aroused and the brothers were truly delighted with their assembly.

The conventioners were recipients of the love and greetings of the Brooklyn Bethel family and other publishers I had met recently, and they were very anxious to send along with me the love and greetings of the Hawaiian publishers to others to be met on this trip. Jehovah’s servants are interested in their brothers everywhere and in the work that is being accomplished in the earth now.

The Territory of Hawaii consists of eight principal islands and some small ones. The population is around half a million people. In 1947, when I visited the islands, there were 130 publishers in the field, on the average, and it was quite a thrill to me on this trip to see 426 publishers, the new peak for the month of January. The Hawaiian publishers were delighted, because they felt sure that it would not be very long until they made the 34 per cent increase at which they are aiming. They need only 19 additional publishers to reach the 445, the hoped-for peak of 1951. They are showing steady growth: they had seven companies four years ago and now they have ten, with three isolated groups reporting. At this time there are nine graduates of Gilead working in the islands and 26 other pioneers. Some of these pioneers expressed their desire to go to Gilead some day and go off into new fields. It won’t be long until the Hawaiian publishers will be able to take care of all their territory without any outside assistance. There are a few places where help is needed, and it was arranged for some pioneers to be sent to other islands in the group to help interested people and start new companies. All the publishers are expansion minded, and they are anxious to continue to proclaim liberty to those that mourn and to bring them into line for the free jubilee kingdom where they will receive the joy of living in peace and prosperity forever.

All too soon the afternoon came and time for our plane to leave for Fiji. When we reported at the airport we found a good number of the conventioners there to wish us a good trip, but in the hour that we waited for our departure the crowd grew to upward of 200, and again it was a very colorful and joyful assembly, with leis again being bestowed upon us. We certainly had a send-off. While we were sitting in the plane and the engines were being warmed up, I felt reluctant to leave Hawaii because of the expressions of love and the friendliness as well as the zeal of the publishers. They really make their guests feel at home in Hawaii, which can be testified to by many publishers from Australia and New Zealand who passed through to attend the New York convention last year. It does not take long for a strong attachment to grow among the Lord’s people. Wherever one is serving the Kingdom interests and keeping busy in the Lord’s work, he can certainly feel at home and among true friends when the spirit of the Lord is shown. But some day there may be an opportunity to return. Others were waiting at the next destination. They too would have the spirit of Jehovah and there would be work to do.

Isle of Martinique

Like a green gem resting securely in its tropical setting, Martinique basks in the warm sunlight beneath billowy clouds and wavy palms. What a beautiful sight it was from the airliner, six thousand feet above.

As we approach the capital, Fort-de-France, we see the savanna with its neat rows of towering royal palms and statue of the Empress Josephine. The city nestles among surrounding hills on a flat place by the sea, as if they were going to push it into the water. On the hills can be seen the beautiful homes of the well-to-do, while down toward the city are the little shacks of the common people squeezed together like dirty herds of animals. The narrow streets and sidewalks reveal the old age of the town and its relation to the mother country, France. New modern stores are in contrast with the many ancient ones.

The almost modern city boasts of electricity, bus systems, cinemas, hospitals, and water supply system. For many of the poor people, however, the water supply is composed of a bucket balanced on the head and carried from a neighborhood hydrant. Work is under way to supply water to the homes of most of the people in the city proper.

Recently a new water supply has been provided which brings pure water without the use of pipes or buckets or even water rent. How glad some are to receive this water to quench their thirst! Only some? Yes, not all are glad for this new supply. Already the order has been issued to stop this supply.

Yes, you have guessed it. It is the water of truth coming from the great fountain of the waters of life, God’s Word. Four missionaries sent to the isle of the West Indies by the Watch Tower Society to bring the water of truth have been ordered from the country by the local authorities. No reason is given. Perhaps they feel their water supply is sufficient. So the new supply is ordered closed on the 31st of December, 1950.

The authorities cover over the real motive by saying the government has nothing against this new water supply. But you see, they say, we have a big Catholic fountain here, a little Baptist fountain, a little Adventist fountain, and an Evangelist fountain, and you got here too late, so you cannot stay. But you may come back as tourists for up to three months, but you must not establish a water supply system on the island.

So on January 18, 1951, the four WatchTower missionaries left a small group of disappointed natives on the pier at Fort-de-France and sailed to St. Lucia, B.W.I.

Questions From Readers

● In the October 15, 1950, Watchtower the article “Be Fruitful, Multiply, Fill the Earth” said the resurrected multitudes would not share in the divine mandate to marry and bring forth children, and cited Matthew 22:30 as proof. The book “The Truth Shall Make You Free”, pages 362-364, states that it is reasonable that “other sheep” dying before Armageddon will have an early resurrection and share in the divine mandate, adding that such will not be contrary to Matthew 22:30. Which is correct?—R. K., New York.

We still hold to both statements, and say that there is no contradiction between them. The Watchtower stated that the resurrection of the dead would not constitute a fulfilling of the divine mandate, and that the “resurrected multitudes” would not marry and reproduce, citing Matthew 22:30 as proof, which states: “In the resurrection neither do they marry nor are they given in marriage.” (NW) The setting of this text shows that it is speaking of the resurrection of mankind, wherein multitudes will be raised from the dead. It was these multitudes that The Watchtower had in mind when it spoke of “resurrected multitudes”. We do not expect multitudes of the “other sheep” class to die prior to or during Armageddon, but expect them as a class to survive Armageddon and comprise a “great multitude” or “great crowd”. (Rev. 7:9, 10, NW) Hence they were not the ones under discussion when The Watchtower of last October 15 spoke of the resurrected multitudes not sharing in the divine mandate.

However, when “The Truth Shall Make You Free” spoke of resurrected ones reasonably sharing in the divine mandate it did have in mind those of the “other sheep” class that might die before or during Armageddon, and it quoted John 5:27-29 (AS) to show that these who had “done good” would have an early “resurrection of life” like the faithful witnesses and prophets of ancient time, and would not have to await mankind’s later “resurrection of judgment”. And since it is to this later resurrection that Matthew 22:30 applies, “The Truth Shall Make You Free” properly pointed out that this text did not apply to those of the “other sheep”.

So there has been no change in our position on this matter. “The Truth Shall Make You Free” raises the question concerning those of the Lord’s “other sheep” who die before Armageddon: “Will these have a part in the carrying out of the divine mandate in the new world?” It then answers: “It suggests itself as reasonable that, God having held this hope before them, and they having died faithful and blameless to him, he would not deny them the privilege of the divine mandate.” Please note that this is given as merely a kindly suggestion. As far as we yet know, the Scriptures are not definite upon the matter, and so the answer is mainly speculative, but with some agreement with principles involved. We can still entertain this suggestion, but keeping in mind that it is just a kindly suggestion. We may be sure that what God has in store for those other sheep finishing their course faithfully in this world before Armageddon will not disappoint them, but will be perfectly satisfying to them and in full accord with his righteousness. There is no need to worry or waste anxious thought over it now.

● When Jesus spoke of a camel going through a needle’s eye, did he mean a literal needle’s eye, or did the expression refer to a little gate in one of the large gates of Jerusalem?—N. R., British Guiana.

We recall that years ago the “needle’s eye” used to be explained to mean a little gate in one of the large gates of Jerusalem, so that if night had fallen and the gates were closed, this little gate could be opened and by unloading the camel it could crawl through the little gate on its knees and haunches; in other words, with great difficulty. Then in 1940 George M. Lamsa issued his translation, The New Testament Translated from Original Aramaic Sources, and in it he renders Matthew 19:24: “Again I say to you, It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

However, the New World Translation which was issued last year renders Matthew 19:24: “Again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to get through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God.” But Luke 18:25 uses a different Greek word in the original Bible and hence the New World Translation renders that verse: “It is easier, in fact, for a camel to get through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God.” We believe that Jesus meant a literal sewing needle and a literal camel, to illustrate the impossibility of the thing without God’s extreme help.

● Would one of Jehovah’s witnesses be wise to say he accepts as from the Lord and true each issue of The Watchtower even before he opens it? or should he say it is provided by the “faithful and discreet slave” but he will prove everything in it before accepting it?—L. P., Montana.

If the heavenly Father would not give a stone or serpent or scorpion to a child who asked for bread or fish or an egg from him, and if The Watchtower is a gift from Jehovah through Christ by the “faithful and discreet slave”, are we to take each issue of The Watchtower into our hands as if we were going to be bruised by a stone or bitten by a serpent or stung by a scorpion? (Matt. 7:7-11; Luke 11:9-13, NW) Are we to be doubtful and suspicious about each succeeding issue? The Beroeans first “received the word with the greatest readiness of mind”, and then they went to “carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so”. (Acts 17:11, NW) So we should receive The Watchtower as an instrument that is always endeavoring to bring us the truth, if our past experience with it warrants that, and then, not in a combative spirit, we should Beroeanlike prove by the Scriptures what it says. That is what we want you to do, that you may be convinced and make these things your very own.

Announcements

“PURE LANGUAGE” TESTIMONY PERIOD

There is only one pure language among the thousands spoken today. It is the pure language of truth, God’s Word. Almighty God provided it for all peoples of many nationalities. To enable many to learn this pure language, the month of June has been set aside as the “Pure Language” Testimony Period. (Zeph. 3:9) Now is the time for this pure language to be made known to all life seekers; so why not take it up, speak it forth, and help others to learn it and live? Offering them the book “This Means Everlasting Life” and a 32-page booklet, on a contribution of 35c, makes this simple and easy to accomplish. Unite with Jehovah’s! witnesses in this educational campaign. Then report your activity and add it to this world-wide work during this period, all to the honor of the Creator.

1951 DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES—U. S. AND CANADA

Chicago, Ill., May 18-20,-International Amphitheatre, 43rd and South Halsted Sts.

Dallas, Texas (White & Col.), May 18-20, Fair Park Automobile Bldg., State Fair Park.

Minneapolis, Minn., May 18-20, Minneapolis Armory, 6th Ave. S. and 6th St. S.

Toronto, Ont., May 18-20, Varsity Arena, 275 Bloor St. W. and Maple Leaf Gardens, Carlton and Church Sts.

Denver, Colo., May 25-27, City Auditorium, 14th and Curtis Sts.

Montreal, Que., May 25-27, The Auditorium, 4110 Lasalle Blvd., Verdun.

Winnipeg, Man., May 25-27, Amphitheatre Rink.

Atlantic City, N. J., June 1-3, City Convention Hall.

San Francisco, Calif., June 1-3,-Cow Palace, Geneva Ave. and Rio Verde St.

Saint John, N. B., June 1-3, Curling Rink, Lansdowne Ave.

Vancouver, B.C., June 1-3, Forum Building, Pacific National Exhibition.

Atlanta, Ga., June 8-10, Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, Courtland and Gilmer Sts.

Atlanta, Ga. (Colored), June 8-10, Sunset Casino, 690 Magnolia St. N. W.

Edmonton, Alta., June 8-10, Edmonton Gardens, Exhibition Grounds.

The time and place for the 1951 district assemblies are listed above. Be sure to attend and partake of Jehovah’s bountiful blessings.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of June 17: Healing for Life in the New World, ¶1-20.

Week of June 24: Healing for Life in the New World, ¶21-24; also The More Important Healing, ¶1-14.

Week of July 1: The More Important Healing, ¶15-19; also Leaves of Healing, ¶1-11.