The Watchtower — November 15, 1951

Baptism for Salvation and Fire Baptism

“Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God).”—1 Pet. 3:21, Mo.

1. Who is the great Baptist, and in what do his baptisms result?

JEHOVAH God is the great Baptizer or Baptist. The baptisms which he performs are either to life or to death, to salvation or to destruction. History proves this. In the near future we are going to witness a tremendous baptism of fire. Will this be a great modern Pentecost, and will those who have it come on them survive it? The only way to face the happening of that fire baptism is to make sure we have the baptism for salvation now. By this we do not mean baptism in water by total immersion or by submergence of your body under water or by sprinkling or pouring water on your head by some religious clergyman. Millions in Christendom claim to have had water baptism in one form or another, but they will experience no salvation because of it. We mean the baptism which God administers, not man.

2. By whom was water baptism introduced, where, and to what baptism did he point the people?

² About six months before Jesus came to the Jordan river, John the son of the Levite priest Zechariah was sent by Jehovah God to introduce baptism in water for Jews who repented of their sins against the Law which God gave their nation through Moses. How fitting it was that John opened up his baptismal work at the Jordan river! It was in this river that, hundreds of years before this, Jehovah’s prophet Elisha sent Naaman the Syrian general to wash himself so as to be cleansed of his leprosy. In the Jordan river Naaman baptized himself, or dipped himself (for baptizing means dipping or immersing), seven times and was healed of his deadly plague. (2 Ki. 5:10-14; see LXX translation) And now John was baptizing the Jews in the Jordan to symbolize their being washed from their sins because of their repentance toward Jehovah God. But John told them there was a greater immersion yet to be performed by someone stronger than him. John warned the Jews with these words: “Already the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree, then, that does not produce fine fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. I, on the one hand, baptize you with water because of your repentance; but the one coming after me is stronger than I am, whose sandals I am not fit to take off. That one will baptize you people with holy spirit and with fire. His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will completely clean up his threshing-floor, and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with fire that cannot be put out [by man].”—Matt. 3:10-12, NW.

3. Who objected to Jesus’ baptism, but how was it shown to be right?

³ The one stronger than John the Baptist was Jesus Christ. Humble John honestly objected when Jesus came to him at the Jordan to be dipped. Realizing Jesus’ sinlessness, John could not see the fitness of a water baptism for him and said to Jesus: “I am the one needing to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?” But Jesus assured John the water baptism was a proper symbol for him to undergo, saying: “Let it be, this time, for in that way it is suitable for us to carry out all that is righteous.” That it was a right symbol for Jesus to undergo Jehovah God showed, for then God baptized Jesus with his holy spirit. When Jesus came up from the water, “he saw descending like a dove God’s spirit coming upon him. Look! also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’” In this way God acted as the great Baptizer and did that which led finally to Jesus’ salvation to immortal life in heaven at God’s right hand.—Matt. 3:13-17, NW; Heb. 5:7; John 12:27; Ps. 116:7-15; Matt. 26:39.

4. What baptism for Jesus here began, and how was it completed?

⁴ Here Jesus began a baptism into death as a man, a human creature. Three years later he indicated this to his disciples by saying: “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how I am being distressed until it is finished!” Shortly afterward he said to John and James: “The cup I am drinking you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am being baptized you will be baptized.” (Luke 12:50 and Mark 10:39, NW) He was undergoing an immersion into the death as a human sacrifice for man’s sins, beginning at his water baptism at Jordan. It was finished with his death on the torture stake at Calvary, outside Jerusalem. Then God completed the great act by saving his obedient Son out of death, resurrecting him to immortal life as an invisible spirit in heaven. John the Baptist could never perform such an immersion. Only the almighty heavenly Father could do so.—1 Pet. 3:18, 21, 22.

A DIFFERENCE

5. Why was not the baptism with spirit at Pentecost one of fire?

⁵ John told the Jews that Jesus would “baptize you people with holy spirit and fire”. (Luke 3:16, NW) Many clergymen of Christendom understand the holy spirit and fire here to mean one and the same thing, so that the fire is the holy spirit. To back up their argument they point to the day of Pentecost when the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified in heaven, poured out the holy spirit upon his faithful disciples on earth and, to quote the account, “tongues as if of fire became visible and were distributed to them, and one sat upon each one of them, and they all became filled with holy spirit and started to speak with different tongues, just as the spirit was granting them to make utterance.” But that could not be called a ‘baptism with fire’, for the appearance of a flame would have had to envelop and cover their whole bodies to be a baptism in it.

6. How does Joel’s prophecy show it was not a baptism of fire?

⁶ The apostle Peter then quoted Joel’s prophecy (Joe 2:28-32) to show it was there being fulfilled. But this prophecy foretold that Jehovah God would pour out his spirit, and not fire, upon all kinds of flesh in the last days. Among the signs, though, that God would produce on earth below would be “blood and fire and smoke mist; the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah arrives”. (Acts 2:1-21, NW) This shows that the fire is separate from the spirit and is associated with death and destruction, blood and smoke mist.

7, 8. (a) How did John show what the fire baptism meant? (b) How did Jesus gather the wheat and burn up the chaff?

⁷ It is evident that the fire symbolizes destruction. In his own speech John the Baptist makes that clear, saying that the tree not producing fine fruit will be chopped down by the ax at its roots and be thrown into the fire; and that Christ Jesus, like a thresher, has his winnowing shovel in hand to clean up his threshing floor and that he gathers the wheat into his storehouse but the chaff he burns up with fire which no man can put out.

⁸ John spoke to the Jews in symbols. The tree that failed to produce fine fruit is the nation of natural Israel, the nation of unbelieving Jews. The wheat whom Jesus separated and gathered into his storehouse for preservation and for sustaining the lives of others are the small Jewish remnant who believed and accepted him as Jehovah’s Messiah or Christ. But the chaff that he winnowed away and burned with a fire which the Jews could not put out are the vast majority of the nation who did not believe and who persecuted Christ’s followers. The prophet Isaiah used the same symbol of chaff to show the destruction of wicked, unfaithful Israel. (Isa. 5:24, 25; 33:11, 12) The wheat class of believing Jews were baptized with the holy spirit from heaven beginning with the day of Pentecost. The chaff class of rejected faithless Jews were baptized with fiery destruction in the year 70, when their national capital Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s imperial legions; one million one hundred thousand Jews perished and ninety-seven thousand Jews went into captivity; and thus they were scattered to the ends of the earth, a homeless people.

9. What baptism did Jesus promise his disciples, but what baptism did his parable indicate for the Jewish unbelievers?

⁹ The resurrected Jesus, when instructing his disciples to remain at Jerusalem until they became clothed with power from on high, did not tell them they would be baptized with fire. He said: “John, indeed, baptized with water, but you will be baptized in holy spirit not many days after this. . . . you will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4, 5, 8, NW) These were the ones baptized with the holy spirit, Jehovah God using the glorified Christ Jesus to pour it out; but as for the rest of the Jews who refused to accept the invitation to Jehovah’s spiritual wedding feast for his Son, Jesus said in his parable: “The king grew enraged, and sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (Matt. 22:7, NW) Jehovah, the heavenly King, used the Roman legions as his executional armies A.D. 70 to destroy Jerusalem and its temple, and thus those unbelievers who had brought about the murder of Jesus and his disciples were baptized with symbolic fire.

10. How was this foreshadowed in 607 B.C., and how did Jeremiah lament?

¹⁰ This baptism had already been foreshadowed by the first destruction of Jerusalem and its royal palace on Mount Zion by Babylon’s armies in 607 B.C. In foretelling this, Jehovah’s prophets also spoke of this national calamity as coming upon the apostate Israelites by fire. (Zeph. 1:18; Jer. 32:26-35) And Jeremiah, lamenting the destruction upon the nation, moaned: “He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: and he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. . . . in the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire. Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger; and he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.” (Lam. 2:3, 4; 4:11, AS) In this he followed the rule of action stated in the Psalm of King David: “Jehovah trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.”—Ps. 11:5, 6, AS.

11. What is the first fire baptism on record, as Jesus showed?

¹¹ The fiery destruction of the Jewish nation in 70 (A.D.) and in 607 B.C. for its disobedience to God’s law was not the first baptism of fire in Bible records. The earliest on record was that upon the pagan cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that in a very literal way. (Gen. 18:20 to 19:29) Jesus himself backed up the truthfulness of the record of it, saying: “Likewise, just as it occurred in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all. The same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed.” Since Jesus was there giving us his prophecy on the end of this world, he gives us to understand that a world-wide baptism of fire is ahead of the generation living today.—Luke 17:28-30, NW.

12, 13. (a) How did Isaiah show such a baptism would befall Israel? (b) How does Jude show this is a prophetic drama for our day?

¹² Showing that the flaming deluge from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah was a prophetic picture of the baptism of fire upon the nation of natural Israel, Jehovah inspired his prophet Isaiah to address the nation of Israel as the counterpart of those cursed cities and to say: “Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings . . . cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”—Isa. 1:9-17, AS.

¹³ Israel failed to heed this call to righteousness and proved itself to be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah for responsibility before God. Consequently it met a fate like that of those wicked cities in a terrific baptism of fire. Only a faithful remnant escaped. This is a prophetic drama making certain that a like baptism of fire will immerse the modern counterpart of Sodom, Gomorrah and apostate Israel. This is expressed by the warning the disciple Jude wrote to his fellow Christians, saying: “So, too, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, . . . are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.” (Jude 7, NW) But apostate Christendom has failed to pay attention to this warning example. So she, too, will be immersed in fiery destruction, and God will never lift her out of it.

EARLIEST SYMBOLIC IMMERSION

14. In what salvation are we interested? How does Peter mention it?

¹⁴ Seeing we are facing such things, we are interested in salvation and in the immersion that leads to it. The apostle Peter tells us there was an ancient illustration of it. So we do well to study it carefully to know what to do to gain the desired salvation in this perilous time. Peter tells us the illustration was given in Noah’s days. The mention of Noah instantly reminds us of the flood—water—and that raises in our minds the thought of water baptism. But let us examine and see whether that is what Peter points to. He writes: “The patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed, in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water. That which corresponds to this is also now saving you, namely, baptism, . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven, and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him.” (1 Pet. 3:20-22, NW) Who are now being saved by this which corresponds to the ancient pattern which was set in Noah’s days?

15. Who in Peter’s day were saved by it? And who are so saved today?

¹⁵ We are happy to say, The Christians from both Jews and Gentiles who receive the baptism in the holy spirit, and now also a “great crowd” of their companions of good will. In Peter’s day the life-seeking Jews needed to be saved from the baptism of fire that threatened the nation, and Peter, on the day of Pentecost, urged them: “Get saved from this crooked generation.” Three thousand believed the message that Jesus was glorified in heaven to be both Lord and Christ, and later thousands more; and they were all baptized in his name for the forgiveness of their sins and to receive the gift of the holy spirit, participating in its baptism. In course of time these followed Jesus’ instructions and did not enter into the city of Jerusalem at Passover time A.D. 70. Consequently, they did not get trapped there by the Roman legions that besieged the city, and so they did not fall by famine, pestilence and the sword nor get captured and led off into exile as slaves of Rome. They were spared from a fire baptism upon that faithless nation. In this they pictured how persons with faith in God and Christ today will be spared from a similar event shortly to come upon Christendom.

16. Why must there be correspondencies between Noah’s day and now?

¹⁶ After mentioning features about Noah’s days the apostle Peter tells us that what is also now saving us “corresponds to this”. Corresponds to what? Evidently the procedure or arrangement which was the way of salvation back there during the Flood. There must be correspondencies, for Jesus spoke prophetically of the “time of the end”, where we are now, and said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:35-39, NW; Luke 17:26-30) By these words Jesus added proof that the Flood was a historical fact and also that this “time of the end” of this world during which he is invisibly present in Kingdom power is like the time of the end of the ancient world when Noah was present.

17. What does Noah’s name mean, but how was he active?

¹⁷ Let us, therefore, note the important correspondencies. Then we can be sure of the baptism that brings salvation. The main character on that ancient scene was Noah, the builder of the ark. Whom does he picture? Noah was given his name by Lamech his father, because at his birth Lamech said: “This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.” (Gen. 5:29, AS) The name Noah means “rest” or “consolation”. But Noah was no lazy man of inactivity either before or after the flood. He was the visible leader in the most important activity of that day. Noah was the tenth in line counting from Adam, and thus he completed a series of generations from Adam, ten being a number symbolizing completion with regard to earthly things. Noah did not rest before the Flood. He was a “preacher of righteousness”, and when he was given divine warning of things not yet beheld by man he “showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household, and through this faith he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”.—Heb. 11:7, NW.

18. After the flood how did Noah fulfill his name’s meaning?

¹⁸ The first thing Noah did after he and his family came out of the ark following the flood was to build an altar and offer sacrifice to Jehovah. This was restful to the Lord Jehovah, for we read: “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour [a savour of rest, margin; a satisfying odour, Ro]; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.” Then Jehovah blessed Noah and his sons. (Gen. 8:21; 9:1) Here we see how, in accord with the meaning of his name, Noah brought comfort to mankind at its new start after the Flood, procuring relief as respects the work and the toil of their hands which they had formerly endured because of Jehovah’s curse on the ground.

19. How does Jesus correspond with him, particularly as to the meaning of Noah’s name?

¹⁹ The one who corresponds with Noah is Christ Jesus. Jesus was the seventy-seventh from Adam, according to Luke 3:23-38, and his name means “Jehovah is salvation”. But like Noah he ushers men into rest, even now. He said: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. . . . and you will find refreshment for your souls. For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30, NW) During this “time of the end” of this world Jesus gives this rest and refreshment to all the sheep whom he serves as the Right Shepherd, both the remnant of his “little flock” of heavenly joint heirs and also the great crowd of “other sheep”. (Luke 12:32 and John 10:16) But after the battle of Armageddon baptizes this old world, including Christendom, with fire, he will comfort mankind with a great sabbath of rest for the thousand years of his reign. “For Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is.” He said that to Jews who objected to deeds of mercy on the sabbath day. During the thousand-year sabbath he will rule as King and High Priest and will lead mankind in the pure worship of God, so that there will be no divine curse upon obedient mankind. Jesus is indeed the antitypical Noah. Ancient Noah did a constructive work “for the saving of his household”. So does Christ Jesus. What is this construction? How does it correspond with the ark?

20, 21. What corresponds with Noah’s ark, and how so?

²⁰ That which corresponds with the ark is Jehovah God’s theocratic system over which he has placed the antitypical Noah, Christ Jesus. This Son of God is also a builder like Noah, and he tells us that he builds his church or congregation upon himself as the Rock. (Matt. 16:18) Moreover, at Hebrews 1:1, 2, 8, 9, we read that he is a “preacher of righteousness” by whom God has spoken to us and “whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things”. (NW) The ark which this Greater Noah constructs consists of a new system of things, a new divine arrangement which affords us protection and preserves us for eternal salvation. The congregation, the theocratic organization which he builds, must live within this new system of things and must think, speak and work in harmony with it. This ark or theocratic structure is the laughingstock of the world, because it is built according to God’s instructions and for his purpose. It is different! The world has seen nothing like it and does not understand it.

²¹ Hence faith in God is required for its construction, and those who work for this new system of things must exercise faith to carry on under the scoffing and reproach of this world. But in the great crisis ahead it will serve its purpose faithfully by preserving all those who take refuge in it, just as the ark carried Noah and his family safely through the flood-waters. We remember, too, how such an ark, chest, or tebah (Hebrew), also saved the infant Moses from a watery death in the Nile river.—Ex. 2:3, 5.

22. How did that new system prove of salvation? How will it do so?

²² This is a new system of things when compared with the old system that prevailed among the Jews under the law of Moses. When that Jewish system fully ended in the fiery destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, this new Christian system of things survived. Today, nineteen centuries since then, Jehovah’s witnesses are enjoying that same new system of things and are entering into more and more of its new things. We have done well to take refuge in it rather than in the system of things which obtains in Christendom and in the rest of the world. For the hypocritical worldly system will be baptized with fiery destruction at Armageddon, but God’s new system of things will survive and prove the salvation of those who shape their lives according to it. The end of this present wicked world means the end of the things of Satan’s construction, his heavens and earth. But the Greater Noah, Christ Jesus, is in the holy heavens at God’s right hand and he will come through the conflict of Armageddon victoriously. He will survive, and so will the remnant of his anointed followers and their good-will companions who have taken refuge in the divine new system of things as an ark. When on earth Jesus, like Noah, confessed that he did not know the day or the hour when that which corresponds with the flood would break out, but now in his heavenly contact with God he knows.

INTO THE GREATER NOAH

23, 24. (a) If not in water or the ark, into what were they baptized for salvation? (b) How were they thus baptized?

²³ In further examining the corresponding points between Noah’s days and this “time of the end”, we ask, What is the thing into which we are baptized for salvation in view of the approaching world destruction? Of course, the anointed remnant of Christ’s “little flock” are baptized in holy spirit, as the early disciples were on the day of Pentecost. But this is not what the apostle Peter is talking about here. In Noah’s day water was what the ancient, ungodly world was baptized in to its destruction: “the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.” (2 Pet. 3:6, NW) Hence it was not this flood into which the eight survivors were baptized for salvation. Also, it was not merely the ark or vessel into which they were baptized, for doubtless there were some boats afloat on the rivers which flowed out of Eden and these may have ridden the flood waters for a time but at last became swamped and were overwhelmed. So the Scriptural conclusion is that what brought salvation from the deluge was for the survivors to be baptized or immersed into Noah the ark-builder.

²⁴ The seven who went into the ark with Noah had to have confidence in him as Jehovah’s prophet. They had to be unbreakably attached to him and walk with him as he “walked with God”. They had to be willing to suffer the taunts and reproaches that fell upon him and suffer with him for a righteous cause. They had to be incorporated into a system of things not of that world, a theocratic arrangement in which Noah was the chief builder, the chief consultant and shipmaster or pilot. So they had to submit to him as the head who took the lead and directed the body of fellow workers. Doing all this, they were in effect baptized into Noah.

25, 26. (a) How was such a baptism duplicated in the case of Moses? (b) Who calls it a baptism, and in what were the Egyptians baptized?

²⁵ This being baptized into a chosen servant of Jehovah was duplicated in the case of Moses. Peter tells us of the baptism into Noah, but the apostle Paul tells us of the baptism into Moses. Those who escaped from Egypt with Moses were the circumcised Jews or Israelites and the “mixed multitude” of good will, and all these were immersed or baptized into him. How? By Jehovah’s symbolic act at the Red sea; and there again Jehovah by his angel acted as the great Baptizer or Immerser. He formed the watery walls on their right hand and their left as they moved eastward through the bed of the Red sea. He provided the watery cloud above them, and with it he hid them from the view of the pursuing military hosts of Pharaoh. Then he lifted his people out of these waters by bringing them out alive on the eastern shores of the Red sea, a living free nation, But to experience this baptism they had to accept Moses’ leadership. Rebellion against him as Jehovah’s chosen one was punished with destruction. As he was the mediator between God and the Israelites, they had no approach into relationship with God except through him. They had to accept Jehovah’s laws through him. Outside of the theocratic organization under Moses’ visible headship and outside of this “state of Israel” there was no hope and a person was “without God in the world”. So we read at Ephesians 2:12, NW.

²⁶ By following Moses through the Red sea under the cover of the miraculous cloud the Israelites and the “mixed multitude” of good will were baptized into Moses. From then on they were bound to his headship and dependent on his acting as mediator between Jehovah God and Israel. Consequently Moses spoke of bearing them as a father does a child in his bosom. (Num. 11:11-14) The apostle Paul pronounces all this a baptism when he writes: “Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all got baptized into Moses by means of the cloud and of the sea.” (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, NW) The Egyptian armies in pursuit were not under that protecting cloud. So when Jehovah’s angel looked out through that cloud and saw the Egyptians in the bed of the Red sea, the walls of water were let collapse and those armies were baptized in watery destruction. They were never lifted out alive by human or by divine power.

27. Into what is baptism for salvation today, and who get it?

²⁷ God used Moses to predict that there was coming a Prophet like him but greater than he was. The apostle Peter plainly points out that this Greater Moses who was to come is the Lord Jesus Christ. As with Moses, so with Christ. There is a baptism into him for salvation. His “little flock” who become joint heirs with him in the heavenly kingdom are baptized into him by the holy spirit which God first poured out upon Jesus as the Head and which Jesus at Pentecost began pouring upon the members of his “little flock”. For, says the apostle Paul, “just as the body is one thing but has many members, and all the members of that body, although being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For truly by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit. Now you are Christ’s body, and members individually.” (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27, NW) However, Peter points to a baptism into him at this “time of the end” of this world, a baptism which includes the Right Shepherd’s “other sheep” as well as the remnant of his little flock, for he brings them all together to become “one flock, one shepherd”. (John 10:16, NW; Acts 3:19-23; Heb. 3:4-6) This is the baptism into the Greater Noah. When the ancient world ended, one’s being inside the ark was a symbol of being baptized into Noah under the theocratic system of things. Noah’s wife, his three sons and their wives were the seven baptized into Noah. Whom did these picture?

NOAH’S WIFE

28. In whom does Noah’s wife find her correspondency?

²⁸ First take Noah’s wife. She is a woman who has been entirely ignored in previous discussions of this prophetic drama. In whom does she find her correspondency today? Obviously in those whom the Scriptures call the “bride” of Christ, the “Lamb’s wife”. They are the “body of Christ”, his 144,000 faithful anointed followers who make up his spiritual “little flock”.—Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:21-32.

29. How long did Noah have his wife? What is the correspondency?

²⁹ Noah had his wife at least a hundred years before the flood, for her son Japheth was the oldest and was born about a hundred years before the flood, since Noah was five hundred years old when he became a father. Shem, her next son, was born ninety-eight years before the flood began. (Gen. 5:32; 7:11; 10:21, AS, margin; Ge 11:10; 9:22-25) How many years of Noah’s six hundred before the flood he had this wife we do not know. He had her well before the end of that ungodly world and possibly long before the birth of his three sons. So Christ’s bride began forming long, long before the end of this wicked world, namely, nineteen centuries ago, at the beginning of this Christian system of things. In this “time of the end” she is represented on earth by the remnant of his anointed little flock.

30. What did Noah’s wife’s intimacy with him picture?

³⁰ Noah’s wife had a most intimate relationship with him as her husband. Just so, the “bride” class, including the remnant today, are baptized into the modern-day Noah, Christ Jesus, in a special way by holy spirit. This means they must be baptized into his death for the vindication of Jehovah God’s kingdom, that they may be finally raised up in the likeness of his resurrection, the first resurrection, to heavenly “glory and honor and incorruptibleness”. The apostle Paul asks them: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through our baptism into his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, we also should likewise walk in a newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Rom. 6:3-5, NW) Here Jehovah God is the great Baptizer. In ancient time Noah worked for his wife’s salvation by showing his faith in a practical way. She did not forsake him. She followed him into the ark and did not die off but spent some of her years after the flood, though not to bring forth further children to Noah. So with the remnant now.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS-IN-LAW

31, 32. Who are there to correspond with Noah’s sons and their wives?

³¹ Here we come to a consideration of Noah’s three sons and their wives. Who today correspond with them? We must be honest and face the facts of our day, “the time of the end.” Today our glad eyes behold a great crowd of men and women, boys and girls, flocking to Jehovah’s theocratic organization and taking up sacred service at his spiritual temple. They see there is no salvation for them in any of the demon-inspired, man-made arrangements of this fateful day. So they turn from doing the will of men and of this world and dedicate themselves entirely to doing God’s will. They ascribe all power of salvation to Jehovah God who sits on the throne and to his Son Jesus Christ, whom the Father gave as a Lamb in sacrifice. They hail him with palm branches as Jehovah’s anointed King, and they follow his leadership as the Right Shepherd. He will become their “everlasting Father”. (Isa. 9:6) These now vastly outnumber the remnant with whom the Shepherd has made them one flock, and we see they have come under the new system of things at the opportune time, in the interval of favor between the opening part and the closing part of the “great tribulation” upon Satan’s world. In such terms as the above they were foretold at Revelation 7:9-17.

³² We, therefore, cannot erase them from the scene of the end of the world. We cannot leave them out of the picture. They are in the ark arrangement with the remnant of the little flock. Hence they must have a correspondency with some of those in Noah’s ark during the flood. It is only reasonable, it is only factual, that they correspond with Noah’s three sons and their three wives.

33. In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, who pictured this same class?

³³ This is nothing strange or unusual. We have already noted that a “mixed multitude” were baptized with the Israelites into Moses at the Red sea and eventually entered the Promised Land. Further, when Jesus was comparing the days of his second presence before the battle of Armageddon with ancient days when great calamities and remarkable deliverances occurred, he drew not only Noah’s days into the comparison, but also those of Lot. Lot was a nephew of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. Lot had taken up residence in Sodom, which was condemned to fiery destruction. Showing that Lot and his two daughters who escaped the fiery destruction were figures prophetic of persons to come, Jesus said: “Likewise, just as it occurred in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all. The same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed. Remember the wife of Lot.” (Luke 17:28-30, 32, NW) Lot and his daughters, for whose lives Abraham interceded with Jehovah’s angel, doubtless picture the same class as the mixed multitude of Moses’ time and Noah’s three sons and their wives. All this pictures that, not only is a spiritual class, the remnant, carried safely through Armageddon, but also an earthly class of good will.

34. How did Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law compare with him and his wife numerically, and what was their privilege?

³⁴ Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law outnumbered him and his wife three to one, and after the flood they were the ones who fulfilled God’s mandate: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Gen. 9:1) They had been baptized into Noah by faithfully co-operating with him as Jehovah’s servant during all the years of building the ark and by finally entering the ark with him, likely going in two by two as the male and female animals did. So they came under Jehovah’s blessing after the flood, with a mandate that agreed with part of the mandate given to Adam and Eve in Eden.

35. How are they thus a picture of the “great crowd” today?

³⁵ How fitting a picture they are of the “great crowd” of other sheep of today! These also are being baptized into the Greater Noah, Christ Jesus. Not, however, in the same way as the remnant of the “little flock” are. They are not baptized into Christ’s death, for the great Baptizer Jehovah God does not will this concerning them. It is his will that, surviving the battle of Armageddon in the modern “ark” of salvation, they may be fruitful with children in the righteous new world and may have part in building up the paradise on the cleansed earth and inhabiting it as perfect humans in God’s image and likeness forevermore. Hence they are not like Christ’s remnant who are “buried with him through our baptism into his death” or “united with him in the likeness of his death”. Even though some “other sheep” may die in the remaining time before the battle of Armageddon, yet they never sacrifice their prospect of perfect life in the earthly paradise. They sleep away in the hope of resurrection to human life on earth under Christ’s kingdom of a thousand years. So it is by their hearing the voice of the Right Shepherd today proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom in all the earth for a witness to all nations and then devotedly following him as God’s anointed King that they are baptized into the Greater Noah. For this reason they live changed lives. They no more waste time in imitating the manners of this world, but live according to the new system of things, the ark of safety.

For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope.—Romans 15:4, New World Translation.

Request to God for a Good Conscience

1. How did God’s patience wait in Noah’s day? How is it so now?

THE apostle Peter reminds that “the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed”. (1 Pet. 3:20, NW) Since A.D. 1914 we have been living in the ‘day of Jehovah’s preparation’, because from 1914 till the universal war of Armageddon is the “time of the end” of this world, “the consummation of the system of things.” (Nah. 2:3) All the circumstances prove that these days are like those of Noah, and again Jehovah God is exercising his patience, waiting—waiting. Since the orders to construct the ark were issued to Noah when his sons were now married, God must have patiently waited some decades of years. Correspondingly, in these days of the presence of Christ Jesus in the heavenly kingdom we have already lived more than three decades since 1914. How much longer God’s patience will wait till he lets loose the baptism of fire upon this world for its destruction we do not know, for it has not been granted to us to know the exact day and hour.

2. Why does God’s patience not mean slowness as to his promise?

² We are not to interpret this as meaning that God is slow as respects his promise to establish the new world of new heavens and a new earth in order to bless all the families of the earth, living and dead. He has set the day and the hour, and he will hold to his time schedule. Nothing that Satan the Devil has already done or can yet do will cause him to move the day and hour back and delay the fiery baptism upon this world. For this reason Peter says that that “day of Jehovah” will be suddenly upon this unbelieving, scoffing careless world like a thief in the night. So we do not want to be thrown off guard, but want always to be found in the “ark” and be found there, baptized into the Greater Noah, at the awesome day and hour. From the apostle Peter’s viewpoint we are to “consider the patience of our Lord as salvation”. We should see that he is patient toward us, giving us time to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Part of this work consists in trying to help as many “other sheep” as possible to come to repentance that they may seek God’s haven of protection and be saved from the destruction ahead. He does not want any of these to be destroyed but desires them all to attain to repentance that leads to salvation in the ark. Educating and leading them into the ark’s system of things takes time, and Jehovah has been kind enough to be patient for a sufficient time. But that time is hastening to its end at his fixed day and hour.—2 Pet. 3:9, 15.

3, 4. (a) On earth what did Noah and his family have to put up with? (b) What must we put up with, but who is most tolerant?

³ The preflood days of Noah were days in which the earth was filled with violence. Human flesh had corrupted its way of life and its moral relations, and angels from heaven were participating in the debasement of mankind, and giantlike Nephilim were bullying human creatures and making a name for themselves, like heroes. With religious hypocrisy men were misusing Jehovah’s name and bringing reproach upon it. Noah and his family had much to put up with.

⁴ Likewise we must put up with the violence of these times, and the corruption of human society, besides the brutality of totalitarian dictators who are like Nephilim spreading their own renown and abusing their power to bully mankind. For our collaboration with Christ Jesus, the Greater Noah, in his work we have to endure the ridicule and reproach that is cast upon us by worldly religionists, while religious hypocrisy in Christendom still deceives the gullible people. Under these times that are “hard to deal with” we must put up with a lot, while God himself ‘tolerates with much long-suffering the human vessels of wrath which were made fit only for destruction’. Americans and others may boast of the religious toleration which is granted in their Bills of Rights, whereas their treatment of Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere proves they do not exercise it. When it comes to toleration, Jehovah God has exercised the greatest religious tolerance for much longer than American history or history of any other modern nation, for 4,319 years now, or since Babylon was founded shortly after the flood. This divine patience has allowed for honesthearted persons to escape from false religion before it finally goes down and its stubborn devotees along with it.

5. What is the Flood’s counterpart? Who may expect it in their time?

⁵ The modern counterpart of the flood is the battle of Armageddon. The early Christians lived as though it would occur in their generation and they would survive it in the Christians’ ark. But we today are the ones who are warned by prophecy and its fulfillment to be prepared for it to occur within our generation. The presence of the “great crowd” of other sheep with us gives added proof to the certainty of this. We do not want to experience the baptism of fire which 2 Peter 3:7-12 describes and which is reserved for the wicked heavens and earth that now exist. So it is urgently necessary that we hold to the true baptism. But how?

6. With what did Peter associate baptism for salvation and how did the natural Jews try to gain this thing?

⁶ When Peter mentions baptism as the thing that now saves, he comments upon it, saying: “Not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the request [made] unto God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 3:21, Ro; Mo) There has always been a difficulty in translating Peter’s words here to bring out the exact sense, as well as in explaining them. But the point is this: For attaining salvation a good conscience toward God is absolutely necessary. The natural Jews tried to attain it. They tried to avoid defilement of their flesh by not eating and drinking this and that, and by various washings of various utensils and clothing and parts of the body, to keep away the filth of the flesh. Also they offered up sacrifices of clean, unblemished animals on the holy altar at Jerusalem’s temple, but it never made those Jewish worshipers perfect as respects their conscience. They still had an inward consciousness of being condemned sinners in God’s sight. The continual need for them to repeat these washings, cleansings and sacrifices only reminded them again and again of this disturbing fact. (Heb. 9:9; 10:1-3) But now such a good conscience toward God is attainable by means of the Greater Noah, Christ Jesus. Through him we get rest for our consciences and we enjoy peace with God.

7. If not by putting away fleshly filth as tried by the Jews, how is a good conscience gained, as the apostle Paul shows?

⁷ This good conscience toward God is what all lovers of eternal life crave and request in their prayers toward God and in all their efforts. We long to have a consciousness of being no longer sinners but to have a righteous standing with him and be at peace with him. Now it can be won, not by just putting away fleshly filth as the Jews tried to do in an effort toward self-righteousness, but by faith in God and in his provisions through Christ Jesus. The blood of the animals which the God-fearing Jews sacrificed worked only as far as cleansing their flesh in a typical or pictorial way, but those animal sacrifices all pointed forward to the real, effective sacrifice of God’s High Priest, Jesus Christ. Hence, says Paul, “how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God?” Then he encourages us believers, saying: “Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with sincere hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.”—Heb. 9:14; 10:19-22, NW.

8. How are works of self-justification dead works, as illustrated in Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus?

⁸ God’s forgiveness of our sins is now possible only through Christ’s blood. Any of our own works for justifying ourselves by merely cleaning up our flesh outwardly are dead works; they have no life-giving quality about them. They do not make us alive toward God and his proper service, no more than the “rich man” in Jesus’ parable made himself righteous and alive toward God by wearing purple and linen over his bathed flesh, in contrast with the beggar Lazarus covered with ulcers. The “rich man” came under a baptism of fire afterward. Faith in Christ’s sacrifice and faith in God’s promise to Abraham respecting Christ as the Seed for blessing all the families of the earth is the vital thing.—Luke 16:19-31.

KEEPING IT GOOD

9. After gaining a clean conscience, what is necessary, and why?

⁹ But here, now, is an important point for all who want to enjoy the real baptism for salvation. After we have a good or clean conscience before God which relieves us of the consciousness of being condemned sinners and outside of his favor, we must keep our consciences good and clean. This requires more than mere faith in Christ’s sacrifice. It requires real baptism into him now. Why? Because, though you may bear his name and confess him with your lips, you can disown him by the way you live. You can show you do not belong to him by your works, works which are not like his example and which he never commanded as your Master and Owner, who bought you with his own blood. Jesus never had any consciousness of sin in himself. He said to his accusers: “Who of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46, NW) And Saul of Tarsus, after accepting Jesus as his Ransomer and then getting into Jehovah’s true service, said to the Roman court: “I have hope toward God, . . . that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. In this respect, indeed, I am exercising myself continually to have a consciousness of committing no offense against God and men.” (Acts 24:15, 16, NW) Can we say that about ourselves?

10. To make a confession like Paul’s, to what must our consciences bear witness?

¹⁰ If we want to be able to make the honest confession that Paul did in court, then we need to have our own conscience bear witness to the way we are living. Paul said to those he helped into the truth: “The thing we boast of is this, to which our conscience bears witness, that with holiness and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but with God’s undeserved kindness, we have conducted ourselves in the world, but more especially toward you.” (2 Cor. 1:12, NW) Like Paul, we must have the inward consciousness that we are not copying the world or keeping in friendship with it while we are in it but that we are sincere in what we are doing in a godly way, having more than just a form of godly devotion.

11. How can we keep our consciences clear and recommend ourselves to other people’s consciences as ministers?

¹¹ We are not trying to display human worldly wisdom to blow up ourselves in people’s estimation. We humbly conduct ourselves as persons who have received God’s undeserved kindness and we do not want to waste it by missing the good purpose for which it was conferred upon us. A big part of that undeserved kindness is expressed by God’s putting us in the ministry, to serve out the good news to other people. If we are conscientious about the way we carry on this ministry and use it right, not to gain power over the people or to make money off them or to live off them, then we shall not only have a clear conscience ourselves but also recommend ourselves as God’s ministers to the consciences of people who hunger for the truth. That is the way Paul felt about it, for he said: “Since we have this ministry according to the mercy that was shown us, we do not behave improperly, but we have renounced the underhanded things of which to be ashamed, not walking in craftiness neither adulterating the word of God, but by making the truth manifest recommending ourselves to every human conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor. 4:1, 2, NW) Use tact indeed, but be truthful.

12. How is there danger of our getting a seared conscience?

¹² We are living in the “later periods of time”, in fact, in the last period of this world. So there is danger of our getting a seared conscience, one marked as with a branding iron so that it is like scarred tissue that has no sense of feeling. We can get such a conscience by becoming a hypocrite and remaining one, using underhanded worldly ways and devilish wisdom and adulterating God’s Word so as not to give the straight truth to friend and foe but trying to please them and excuse them by what we say. If we do this, we cannot stir up their consciences toward righteousness and truth and we grow more feelingless in our own inward sense of right and wrong, like Christendom’s clergy. God’s inspired utterance showed how some would get that way, saying: “In later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons, by the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, marked in their conscience as with a branding iron.” In their shamelessness they have no sense of guilt to drive them to sew fig leaves together and make aprons for their loins and then hide themselves among the trees.—1 Tim. 4:1, 2, NW.

13. How is it easy to get a defiled conscience? So in Paul’s letter to Titus what are we told to do?

¹³ We have to get our consciences enlightened and cleansed by the truth of God’s Word. It is so easy to develop a defiled conscience, one that condemns what is pure in God’s sight. How? If we follow man-made standards of self-righteousness and hold fast to them and do not advance with God’s advancing light on his arrangements for salvation. The religious Pharisees got defiled in this way, so that they saw nothing clean in what Jesus and his disciples did and taught. And how did they get that way? By accepting religious fables and commandments of men in place of those of God. So we are told to “be healthy in the faith, paying no attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn themselves away from the truth. All things are clean to clean persons. But to persons defiled and faithless nothing is clean, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They publicly declare they know God, but they disown him by their works, because they are detestable and disobedient and disapproved for every good work”. What a terrible condition for self-righteous persons to get into! It is something for us to avoid.—Titus 1:13-16, NW.

14. So to what things must we pay no attention? What is the objective of God’s mandate to us to do this?

¹⁴ To avoid this we must pay no heed to religious fables or to fleshly family trees which fill us with pride and cause social distinctions and unchristian disunity among us. We are under God’s command to do this. His purpose in issuing such a mandate is to have us show sincere love for God and our brothers out of a good conscience, an inward consciousness that we are doing what is good. “Command certain ones not to teach different doctrine, nor to pay attention to false stories and to genealogies which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith. Really the objective of this mandate is love out of a clean heart and out of a good conscience and out of faith without hypocrisy.”—1 Tim. 1:3-5, NW.

15. For what does Peter make a strong plea to his readers, and why is this necessary to our baptism into the Greater Noah?

¹⁵ The apostle Peter makes a strong plea for a good conscience in us who are baptized into the Greater Noah in this “time of the end”. We cannot be baptized into him within the ark unless we go after a clean, good conscience, for Christ Jesus always had and kept such a conscience, through all his sufferings. The self-righteous hypocrites accused him, but he knew he was suffering for no wrongdoing of his own but for doing the good will of God. As followers of his we must suffer, especially in this time of his second presence as the Greater Noah. But when we suffer at men’s hands, let us make certain that we do not suffer for our own wrongdoing. “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a busybody in other people’s matters.”—1 Pet. 4:15, NW.

16. So because of what should it be that we suffer, and with credit?

¹⁶ Do not suffer because of going after “flesh for unnatural use” and committing fornication with one whose flesh does not belong to you in marriage relationship. Such things went on outside of Noah’s ark at the end of the ancient world, when men, Nephilim and married materialized “sons of God” committed such things in disobedience to Jehovah God. (Jude 6, 7, NW) Be sure that when you are forced to suffer at the hands of men in power and others in worldly authority it is because you requested a good conscience from God and you are trying to hold it by keeping His commandments. In that way men will be able to find no fault in you except that you are obeying the law of your God. In that case there is credit to you for such suffering, because you are preserving your integrity toward God. Then you are like your Exemplar, the Greater Noah Christ Jesus, for he was a model for us in suffering for conscience’ sake.

SUFFERING WITH CREDIT TO OURSELVES

17. What does 1 Peter 2:19-23 say on this?

¹⁷ “For,” says 1 Peter 2:19-23, “if someone because of conscience toward God bears up under afflictions and suffers unjustly, this is an agreeable thing. For what merit is there in it if, when you are sinning and being struck blows, you endure it? But if, when you are doing good and you suffer, you endure it, this is a thing agreeable with God. In fact, to this course you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was being reviled, he did not go to reviling in return. When he was suffering, he did not go to threatening, but kept on committing himself to the one who judges righteously.” (NW) That One judged Christ Jesus to be innocent.

18. So, for our baptism to be to salvation, what must we preserve, and thus how can we answer our foes who inquire of us?

¹⁸ For our baptism into the Greater Noah to be for our salvation we need to preserve our inward consciousness of being blameless according to God’s laws and commands. So, then, when you are called up to make a defense before Communist and totalitarian authorities and officials who demand to know the reason for your hope by which you live, you can look them squarely in the eye. You can feel free of guilty fear and can answer them with the courage which your own innocence and God’s approval give you.

19. Thus, in the face of enemies who speak against us, how will we pledge a good conscience toward God?

¹⁹ “Hold a good conscience,” says Peter, “so that in the particular in which you are spoken against they may get ashamed who are speaking slightingly of your good conduct in connection with Christ. For it is better to suffer because you are doing good, if the will of God wishes it, than because you are doing evil. Why, even Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones.” (1 Pet. 3:16-18, NW) If we do this, then when we come before God himself for questioning we can make an answer to him out of a good conscience, pledging to him a good conscience. Then he will judge us with approval through Christ Jesus. It may be, too, that some honesthearted person who sees you are willing to suffer for the sake of holding a good conscience toward God will be impressed and will be led to see that your God is the living, true God and so will turn to Him for salvation.

20. (a) Why does baptism for salvation now rest with Christ because of his position? (b) In the day of the baptism of fire, for what shall we be hid from Jehovah’s expressed wrath?

²⁰ In these wicked days, when the baptism of the wicked with fire is impending, may we wisely guard against any misbehavior toward God and man. Let us be baptized in Christ’s example, for he is the Greater Noah in the ark of a new system of things for salvation. He died innocently because of the wrongdoing of others, but in the completing of his baptism into death he was resurrected and is now at God’s right hand in heaven, angels, authorities and powers being made subject to him. There is every reason, then, why baptism for us to be saved now rests with Christ Jesus. The day is at hand that will burn as a furnace. The nations are being gathered, the kingdoms of this world are being assembled, for God to pour out his indignation and fierce anger upon them. Then “all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of [his] jealousy”. That baptism of fire will envelop both the wicked earth and the satanic heavens and will reduce them to ashes and smoke. Our safe course, then, is to seek Jehovah and his righteousness and meekness and to take up his pure language and serve him with his people with one common consent. (Mal. 4:1, 2; Zeph. 3:8, 9; 1:18; 2:1-3; 2 Pet. 3:7-12) So by all means let us request and keep a good conscience toward God. In that way we shall be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger when expressed in baptizing the wicked and the proud with fiery destruction. We, however, shall gloriously realize the purpose of our baptism into the Greater Noah for our everlasting salvation.

Returning to North America

This article concludes the series reporting the Far Eastern service tour of the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and his secretary, M. G. Henschel. It covers their return to North America.

IT WAS 10 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, at Tokyo when we took off from Haneda air base on Northwest Airlines and we settled down in our seats for the long flight over the expansive waters of the Pacific in the direction of Alaska. We were to share in a most unusual experience that day. Technically speaking, we would arrive at our destination before our time of departure from Tokyo. The crossing of the International Date Line makes it all possible. We covered well over a thousand miles before land was sighted. Small, grassy bits of land were seen below, and the steward said they belonged to the Aleutian island chain. On one of the large sections called Shemya the Americans maintain an air base, and it was there that we landed for refueling. The weather was clear when we landed at 10 a.m. Tuesday, but before we took off at 11 a.m. there were four changes. From sunshine to pouring rain was possible in but a few minutes. The winds were rather strong and there were no trees. The American-built quonset huts and barrack buildings were not built on the surface of the island, but in each case the builders dug a hole and piled the dirt up around it and then in the hole the house was constructed. Whether this was for protection against weather or bombing we do not know. The airfield itself was first class, and the long runways covered with black top were situated on a plateaulike section of the island. A dock for unloading ships carrying supplies stretched out into the icy waters of a small bay. We were told this island is one of the loneliest spots on earth.

ALASKA

Alaska is a rugged territory. The highest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley, is there. High ranges cut through several parts of Alaska, and thus there is really only one clear route from Shemya to Anchorage, where the huge Elmendorf air base is situated. After having spent weeks in the tropics, we took unusual interest in the sights below our plane. It was May and there were still vast expanses of arctic lands yet unconquered by summer’s attacking forerunner, spring. There were many frozen lakes several miles wide dotting the snow-covered plains. In the mountainous sections smaller lakes nestled down in the valleys, bordered by evergreen forests which clung to the lower portions of the mountains. On occasions, the bright sunlight struck jutting white peaks, glistening spires of snow-covered rock contrasted against backgrounds of blue.

Dusk was settling over Anchorage when the plane landed at Elmendorf air base. It was 8:30 p.m. on May 8. We had come thousands of miles and still had an hour and a half to the good over our take-off time in Japan. Our brothers were waiting for us. After some delay with the customs all passengers cleared and we joined our friends. It was a pleasure to see their enthusiasm and to know progress was being made theocratically in Alaska.

Our impressions of Anchorage and surrounding towns might be summed up in saying there was every appearance of a boom town. Many of the homes looked like temporary shelters rather than permanent dwellings. Prices are considerably higher than in New York, perhaps double on most items. On the main street it seems every other place is a barroom or saloon, but probably it is not quite such a high average. Though a person might imagine himself to be in a gold-rush town, it is not the mining of gold that brings the wealth to Alaska. At Anchorage it is the federal government that is responsible for the flow of money. Huge appropriations have been made for construction of defense bases in Alaska, and it is the construction workers and the military personnel that bring the prosperity to Alaska. Much of the work is seasonal and summer brings in thousands of workmen from “outside”, as the Alaskans say when they speak of the States. Because the people work such long hours in the summer, it is difficult to carry on the witness work then. And in the wintertime many of them go to California or other states. This is reflected in the company reports too, because quite a number of the publishers go “outside” for the winter. Of course, while there is a loss on the Alaskan reports, actually there is no loss in the Kingdom service; the brothers keep on preaching wherever they go, and thus Alaska has contributed publishers to companies in the States; and when the over-all viewpoint is taken we find good progress in Alaska. The witness is being given.

The brothers in Alaska were in good spirits at convention time. The new Carpenter’s hall, just recently completed, was the place of assembly. A large banner in orange and black hung at the front of the hall, announcing the public lecture. Never before had Anchorage received such a witness, for the publishers were out with placards and handbills every day, letting the people know of the assembly. The yellow taxicabs co-operated well by allowing signs to be taped to the sides, free of charge. Many of the owners of stores and bars put the signs in their windows. And the newspapers did their part in telling of the arrival of the Society’s representatives and of the assembly in general.

The assembly was held May 11 to 13 inclusive. On the first day there were 59 present. Saturday there were 70. And on Sunday 162 came to the public lecture. Four new publishers were immersed. The representation was very good. Conventioners came from Ketchikan, Juneau, Palmer, Fairbanks, Eileson air base, Elmendorf air base and from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. A number were men from the armed services who have recently learned the truth and who have regular meetings at the Elmendorf air base and Eileson air base near Fairbanks. It is very encouraging to see how new companies are being organized and more praisers of Jehovah are to be found even in the far reaches of the cold north. A new company was formed at Palmer, in the famed Matanuska valley, at the foot of the snowcapped Chugach range. It is hoped one will soon be organized in Fairbanks. So far it has not been possible to find great success among the Eskimos and Indians, but a few show interest and there is evidence of progress already. The territory is so scattered in most of Alaska that it is difficult to organize companies and to work the territory, but faithful witnesses like Gilead graduates Errichetti, Woodard and Davis, and others, fight temperatures of 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and steady rains of weeks at a stretch in order to advance clean worship in Alaska’s vast territory. It was a privilege to meet the faithful fighters for truth and righteousness in Alaska and to assure them that, while they received courage and strength through the assembly and the visit of representatives from Brooklyn, the brothers everywhere would take courage and receive joy when they learned of the good work under difficult circumstances in Alaska.

We were to leave for Seattle on Monday, May 13, just after noon. The brothers came to the hotel to bid us farewell, and then we were told there would be a delay. This gave us time to see some of the surrounding communities and to visit with the publishers in Anchorage. It was not until 11:30 p.m. that we took off for Seattle-Tacoma airport, bidding our brothers Godspeed as they carry on in Alaska.

SEATTLE AND EASTWARD

Our purpose in visiting Seattle was to see how things were going at the Society’s literature supply depot, which is located on Broadway. However, we did arrange in advance to speak to the brothers in the Seattle company on Wednesday night. When the announcement of the visit was made to the units of the Seattle company there was much gladness, but it was expressed to many who lived in other cities. So the story spread through the state of Washington and into Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia. Judiciously the Seattle brothers selected a large hall for the meeting, the Eagles auditorium. They did not know exactly how many would come, but, as they heard rumors, they added to the number of chairs rented for overflow halls. The three-hour meeting was attended by 3,300 brothers and sisters from the Northwest, a real surprise to everyone. The brothers in the Northwest have great zeal and their interest in the work is such that they travel miles to learn more of the good things being done around the world.

Thursday morning at 8:30 we emplaned for the East. Brother Henschel stopped at Minneapolis and I went to Chicago. At these cities we met with other brothers from the Society’s headquarters and joined in the first of a series of district assemblies for the United States and Canada. In the year 1948, in the United States, six district assemblies were held and the attendance totaled 66,350. Fourteen cities were used in 1949 and 85,441 attended. We hoped for further increases for the 1951 assemblies and we were not disappointed. The report showed the following:

Assembly Date Public Meeting Baptism

Chicago May 18-20 19,074 290

Dallas May 18-20 8,740 225

Minneapolis May 18-20 5,275 118

Denver May 25-27 5,513 105

San Francisco June 1-3 19,233 635

Atlantic City June 1-3 23,052 405

Atlanta

White June 8-10 9,300 149

Colored June 8-10 3,116 78

93,303 2,005

CANADA

Six district assemblies were held in Canada. Of these, I was able to attend the one at Montreal. Montreal proved to be the most outstanding assembly of them all for several reasons. For many long years the publishers have battled hard against the strongly entrenched religious element in Quebec. The Society has concentrated an ever-increasing number of pioneer publishers in this French-speaking community. When the facilities of the Verdun auditorium were engaged and convention preparations began things seemed to be running very smoothly, strange for the province of Quebec. But trouble was brewing! The City Council of Verdun decided that the auditorium could not be used for a religious convention and told the management the contract would have to be broken. We being determined to have the convention, injunction proceedings were instituted, and on May 17 Mr. Justice Smith of the superior court granted Jehovah’s witnesses full use of the auditorium in spite of the objections of the council. On May 23 the city secretly and illegally retaliated with another injunction, whereby a different judge of the same court made a contrary order directing the opposite to what had been ordered in the injunction of May 17. Such a scandal had never been heard of before in legal history. What a dilemma! One court order gave us full use of the auditorium and the other gave the City of Verdun the right to keep us out. In faith our arrangements went forward and the publishers continued going from house to house giving oral invitations to the public meeting in two languages. But would the meeting be held? The fight was pushed to the very limit, arrangements being made for a special court hearing on May 24, which was a holiday, and to the great joy of all we got the full use of the auditorium. So it was named “the victory of Verdun”.

Three thousand five hundred and twenty attended the public lecture delivered in English and interpreted into French. One striking point that impressed all present was when the question was asked as to what the Communists and the Roman Catholic Church had in common and it was answered by saying, “Both are aiming at world domination.” One press photographer could be seen hurriedly putting his camera to the floor and joining in the applause; a taxi driver standing in the doorway said it was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard. Only the days and months ahead will fully reveal the work accomplished by this district assembly in the heart of the Hierarchy’s North American organization. The press gave a good report the following day, with quotations of much that was said about the record of the Catholic Church, a very unusual occurrence in Quebec.

Here is a summary of the Canadian assemblies:

Assembly Date Public Meeting

Toronto May 18-20 9,381

Montreal May 25-27 3,520

Winnipeg May 25-27 3,813

Vancouver June 1-3 7,488

Saint John June 1-3 1,112

Edmonton June 8-10 4,254

29,568

At these assemblies 645 were immersed, showing their dedication of their lives to Jehovah’s service.

And so I bring to a close this series of reports on the progress of the work of announcing Jehovah’s righteous kingdom. It was a great pleasure and a unique privilege to see so many of Jehovah’s witnesses in so many lands in such a short time. Everywhere the reports show that Jehovah’s witnesses are very busy and they are finding many persons of good will who study the Bible and accept God’s instruction found therein. That means that what follows is the expansion of the work by the adding of additional ministers, fearless preachers of the good news. This should be an evidence to all people that we are living at the end of the rule of Satan the Devil, for, just as the Bible foretold, the good news of the Kingdom is being preached throughout the world and Jehovah is gathering in the sheeplike or meek ones and showing them how to live forever in happiness on earth. He is letting them see what false religion has done for mankind and that true worship, spotless from this evil world, is the way that leads to eternal life. To Jehovah go the praise and thanks that these things may be viewed and that they are so. There is every indication that more increases are in store and that it is proper to say to the people that a “great crowd” now living will never die.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Denmark

THE testimony given by Jehovah’s witnesses in Denmark has been so extensive and intensive that people have been compelled to take notice. Even those who are not well disposed toward Jehovah’s witnesses comment from time to time on their zeal and devotion. In a Copenhagen daily newspaper in which matters of a religious nature receive special attention there was the following comment on the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses:

“How the Danish Church (to use the words of a well-known man) deserves this wasp called Jehovah’s witnesses. They make us ashamed of ourselves with (1) their energy and self-sacrifice; (2) their faith in God—instead of our belief in grace—as a means of missionary activity; (3) their preparedness for martyrdom, when we recognize even ‘atomic murder’ as ‘the will of God’ which we must support ‘when other means fail’. Additionally, I would assert that if our church were in ‘word and deed’ as it should be, Jehovah’s witnesses would cease to be.”

Perhaps taking their cue from Jehovah’s witnesses, many influential clergymen have been agitating for a greater Christian activity on the part of laymen. This presents real difficulties, however, as these men have not had the advantages of real training in the ministry. They are not “equipped for every good work”. One clergyman writing in the press about this said:

“But laymen must be equipped. When Jesus called his disciples it was not for a church existence in order to listen. No, he equipped them and sent them out. When one has met 22 Jehovah’s witnesses in the course of a quarter of an hour, and none from the state church, then one can understand that we are up against it. We are idle in our church even if we have legions of meetings. What we lack is the ability to give ourselves.”

Jehovah’s witnesses in Denmark are equipped, the old and the young, and youth presents no hindrance to the acceptance of the message of the Kingdom when there is an understanding heart, as illustrated by the case of a Danish school lad.

It is the custom in Denmark that scholars are sometimes taken to other parts of the country, there to take part in special courses. On one such occasion among the scholars was a young witness for Jehovah. During the sessions one of the teachers, a Catholic, was explaining the theory of evolution. Not limiting himself to this, he took occasion to attempt to ridicule the account of creation as given in the Bible and tried to show that it was impossible of comprehension. After he had finished the pupils were asked if they had any questions in connection with the matter that had been presented. As there were no questions, the young Jehovah’s witness asked if he might speak for a while. Permission was given and he proceeded to show the weaknesses in the evolution theory and how the teacher’s attack upon the Bible account was really unsound. Later this youth wrote an article for the school magazine, giving a good testimony concerning the truths of the Bible.

The following evening on the way to a ball game the teacher inquired of the boy as to the purpose and point of his article in the school magazine. The teacher became so interested in what the boy had to say that the ball game was forgotten and teacher and pupil talked on until it was dark. The teacher admitted that he really did believe in God and that he had done the boy a great injustice. When he received his papers on such Scriptural subject he assumed that the lad had copied from another book and, therefore, gave him low grades. He frankly said that he did not think a youth could have written so freely on such deep subjects. The conclusion of the matter was that the article was reprinted in a magazine that circulates among the alumni of the school.

Friday is the day in Denmark when Jehovah’s witnesses work specially with the magazines The Watchtower and Awake! To take a trip through Copenhagen along the main streets is a great experience, for here you will find these Christian witnesses standing at regular intervals, demonstrating not only that they believe in Jehovah as the only true God but that they are desirous of helping their fellow men to the same understanding.

When Jehovah’s witnesses began this work in Denmark, people smiled and thought it was an extraordinary idea to go on the streets with magazines. The persistence and determination of the witnesses in doing this street work has in course of time, however, earned the respect of many people, and now they are experiencing the results of their patient labors.

Public Bible lectures in the open air are becoming more popular in Denmark. One group of witnesses were anxious to try out their new public-address equipment and so they arranged for a lecture in a little wood outside the village. They did their advertising from house to house in the morning hours, and at noon they assembled in the wood to eat lunch. At 3 p.m. there were eighty persons gathered to hear “It Is High Time to Awake!” Another interesting lecture was held by some of the witnesses who cannot talk, being deaf-mutes. This lecture was held in a home for deaf-mutes and all the talking was done by the use of finger signs. Seventy persons listened, or, we should say, watched, attentively. Fifteen of these people are now attending a regular Bible study arranged by Jehovah’s witnesses. So in this home already the ears of the deaf are unstopped to hear the heart-cheering message of the Kingdom.

As is to be expected, the continual preaching of Jehovah’s witnesses in Denmark is giving the clergy of the state church much to think about. Some have tried to oppose the educational work of Jehovah’s witnesses by having meetings to explain to their parishioners why they should not listen to the witnesses. With the growth of the Kingdom witness and the increase in the number of those serving Jehovah it is not so easy for the clergy to speak disparagingly about the witnesses, because persons in large number are either friends or relatives of these witnesses. It must not be assumed that all the clergy are hostile in their attitude toward Jehovah’s witnesses, however, for quite a few have expressed admiration for the work. The following quotation from a Copenhagen morning paper will serve to illustrate the point. The writer is a clergyman, who says:

“The Norwegian poet, Arnulf Overland, says that in our perplexing times there are only two who know what they want and are prepared to stake their lives for it: the communist and the Christian. That the communist knows, none will dispute, but does the Christian know? One does not get that impression when one reads Christian papers. Different opinions are voiced when the question is asked: How can we get in touch with the workers and youth; how is the gospel proclaimed to the people today? Some suggest that mission houses shall be converted into movie theaters or to places of assembly where national, social and educational lectures should be given in order to get in contact with people more easily. Others assert that only God’s Word shall be heard in our mission houses and church halls. Who is right?

“When Overland says the Christian and the communist know what they want and are ready to stake their life for it, one sees in events in Eastern Germany proof that such is the case. Not among men of the church, who always prefer to compromise in a difficult situation, but among Jehovah’s witnesses. As Christians who have a message to deliver, Jehovah’s witnesses devote themselves entirely to their cause, cost what it may. They are prepared to take the consequences of their stand for Jehovah and his kingdom.”

The clergyman continues in this newspaper article, saying: “To get in touch with the workers and youth, Jehovah’s witnesses do not need to alter their preaching to include national, social and educational lectures. The message that they bring is so powerful in itself that thinking people cannot do other than listen to it. By his prophet Jehovah God says there will be a famine in the land, ‘not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.’ (Amos 8:11, 12, AS) The hungry people do not find the word of Jehovah in the religious systems, which give them stones instead of bread, but Jehovah’s witnesses bring the word of Jehovah, as it is found in the Bible, and that is why people listen to them.”

Then this clergyman says, “We do not need worldly methods, but what we need is to get out on the streets and lanes and knock on the doors just like Jehovah’s witnesses. We have become so tolerant, so understanding, . . . that one is prepared to take the Devil by the arm, just to be tolerant. . . . Paul passionately fought against erroneous doctrine in his letters, but I believe had he been living today he would have directed his fire more against the Danish State Church than against Jehovah’s witnesses.”

Yes, Jehovah’s witnesses, approximately 6,000 of them, are very active in Denmark today. Their ranks are constantly increasing. They have no problem to get people to listen. Their problem is to take care of all the people who want to hear.

Ministry in an El Salvador Hospital

Bible instruction has carried Jehovah’s witnesses into strange places in their efforts to reach all people. Take, for example, the case of the Bible study in the general hospital of San Salvador, the capital. It has now been conducted for over a year and the original small group has grown many times. These men, confined to the tuberculosis ward for an unknown length of time, have occupied themselves in the ministry work in spite of the most unfavorable circumstances. Some of the more active convalescents who have become Jehovah’s witnesses conduct regular Bible studies with other interested patients, thus working from bedside to bedside. They spend their out-of-bed time effectively preaching the good news, and they report their activity to the local congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses. This month, April, witnessed the establishment of a theocratic ministry school in the hospital ward. Now they will have the benefit of an effective ministerial training course.

Letter on Witnessing to University Students and Professors

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

124 Columbia Hts. Brooklyn 2, N. Y.

May 6, 1951

Dear Brothers:

Of late we have noted a definite upswing of interest in our message of the new world particularly among those who are educators and college students. As you know, our Ithaca territory served by the more than two hundred some publishers associated with Gilead includes the two secular schools, namely, Ithaca College with 1,433 students and the internationally famous Cornell University with a teaching staff of 1,069 and a student body of 10,565.

Since the Yankee Stadium Convention of August 1950 we have made a wide distribution of the new booklet Evolution versus The New World among the educated class, with the result that several Bible studies have been started not only with college students but also with their instructors. It is evident from the many discussions our Gilead people have had on the streets and in the house-to-house work that numbers of university people are not as sold on the evolutionary theory as some misinformed educators would like.

Last fall a young man came to Cornell for his doctor’s degree, having taken his master’s degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Learning of Gilead he requested an interview with one of its instructors. I called at his lodging place and a three-hour discussion ensued. In a retreating battle the Cornell man was contending for the philosophies he had learned as against the clear, logical, forceful teachings of the Bible.

The next day a phone call came through to Gilead with an S.O.S. plea from this same student for a further interview, as he had not been able to sleep the night before. He found that many of his previous foundations and hopes and ideals had been shattered. He was encouraged to begin to study the Bible, which he immediately set out to do, even to slighting some of his school studies. Soon the Evolution booklet brought him quick deliverance from this intellectual superstition and he discussed its contents enthusiastically with his several professors and fellow students. Every Tuesday night a home Bible study was held with him in the book “This Means Everlasting Life”. Inside two months he advanced to the point where he attended the weekly meetings at Gilead and also participated in the field service. His school studies now seemed to be worthless and were not building him up for his new world future. He left the university to return home to become a minister.

Another interesting case is that of an ex-G.I. who graduated this last February as a veterinarian doctor. He was in Gen. Clark’s army that invaded Italy. He visited not only Rome and many parts of Italy but also had an interview with the pope, along with ten other American soldiers. At the conclusion of his service as a soldier in Italy, having been utterly disillusioned and disgusted with Catholic civilization, he decided that when he returned to America he would become a Protestant minister. But upon his return to the United States he couldn’t find any satisfactory Protestant church that he would like to become a minister of. So he finally decided to attend Cornell University for five years to become a veterinarian, and that he did.

However, it was not until this last fall that one of our Gilead publishers found him and immediately began home Bible studies with him. He has come right along in the truth and is now a real minister of God, one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He has accepted a position as a veterinarian in Texas and has moved there with his little family to take up the witness work as well. His wife too took her stand and is rejoicing in the hope of life in the new world.

In January a Cornell instructor obtained a copy of “This Means Everlasting Life” from one of Gilead’s students who was doing street work. The Gilead student arranged for me to accompany her on the back-call, and after a very pleasant interview the gentleman agreed to attend my weekly Bible study which other Cornell folks attend, and which is held near his home and near the campus. He has already attended nine meetings and takes a very active part in the discussions. Sometimes we spend one or two hours after the hour’s Bible study in discussing Bible problems and questions. He expressed himself as enjoying the Evolution booklet, which well confirms his disbelief in this theory for many years.

In the house-to-house work on the last Sunday in March one of the Gilead students called at the home of a Cornell professor who immediately gave him a warm welcome and invited him to step inside for a chat. He said he heard that some of Jehovah’s witnesses had given talks to a students’ group at the Unitarian church a few Sundays before and wondered whether one of our instructors would address one of his classes sometime. The Gilead student invited the professor to attend our public meeting that afternoon and promised to introduce him to me following the meeting. He came and was delighted with the public lecture. We talked for about an hour on Bible matters and then he asked whether I would like to give a lecture to his sociology students the next Saturday. This I readily agreed to do.

Right at 11 a.m. that next Saturday April 7 twenty-four sociology students (seniors and grads.) were waiting along with their instructor in Morrill Hall to hear the talk. The theme of my talk was “The Incoming New World Society”. A brief study was presented of the origin of the present old world society and how it has stood outside God’s favor, divorced, so to speak, ever since the rebellion in Eden. How Jehovah the Author of Life in due time sent his Chief Agent of Life, Christ Jesus, to earth to become the means around which a new world society was to be built which would endure forever in harmony with God. They were shown that our present generation is passing through a transition period in which we are experiencing and witnessing a break-up of the present unsatisfactory old world system of things. Jehovah’s witnesses as a worldwide community in 115 different lands are today a nucleus of the incoming new world society. It was shown that our witness work has an intellectual appeal, and not an emotional one to the credulous, as is the case with most religious organizations today. Actually what is now socially transpiring on a global scale is a mass exodus from effete religions to the strong, well-tried one fold of Jehovah’s witnesses under the invisible leadership of the one shepherd Christ Jesus.

The indifference displayed at first by a few of the students was transformed into a most attentive audience taking copious notes of what was being said. After the lecture, which lasted about 35 minutes, questions were enthusiastically propounded. Twenty-two Evolution booklets were eagerly accepted by the class and two books also were placed.

A series of special lectures entitled “Faith Concept” has been running at the university and held in Barnes Hall where guest speakers, clergymen from the Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Mormon and Quaker faiths, took their turns to address the students. One of the Cornell students who regularly attends my Thursday night Bible study took the initiative to see the authorities whether Jehovah’s witnesses could not be asked to supply a speaker for this “Faith Concept” series. The ones in charge agreed to ask me to address their assembly as the eighth in the series and the date set was for Tuesday, May 1, at 4:30 p.m. Due publicity was given in the university’s newspaper, The Cornell Sun.

The lecture was held as scheduled. Fifty were in attendance, some of the faculty and the majority students. The theme of the talk was “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. (Prov. 29:18) Our Scriptural vision of the glorious new world was vividly painted for them in many details, together with the Biblical proofs. Toward the end of my thirty-minute talk three Presbyterian clergymen entered the assembly. In the question-and-answer session which followed the clergy sought to get control of the meeting. However, they soon betrayed their ignorance and lack of faith in the Bible and were laughed down by the audience.

For example, in the discussion as to whether the human soul was mortal or not, one clergyman said that this word “soul” is understood in various senses, one of which is the sole of your foot. Professional twisters as they were, the clergy couldn’t get the audience to swallow that one. Imagine using two entirely different words and spelled differently at that! In countering the speaker’s reference to Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, AS, where it says “the dead know not anything, . . . there is no . . . knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest”, one of the clergymen said that the writer Solomon at that time was despondent and therefore did not really mean what he wrote, just as when a man today gets spiritually down he utters things he does not really mean. With this sophistry the clergyman definitely went on record as denying the inspiration of the sacred Scriptures.

The clergy filibuster having failed, the audience continued to ask questions for about forty minutes, showing their keen interest in prophecies of the forthcoming new world. At the conclusion one bound book and 21 Evolution booklets were placed. One of the clergymen spoke to me after the meeting and said that he wished his people had the zeal that Jehovah’s witnesses had. That was accountable, I ventured, because Jehovah’s witnesses have a clear vision of a practical future. We have something tangible to offer the people, namely, hope of life unending on a beautiful paradise earth. Offering people future life in a roasting hell or in a heaven of vague idle life inspires no one.

The next day The Cornell Sun carried a fair write-up as to the lecture. Even this article served as a witness, because the next Saturday while in the street work one Cornell student approached a publisher, asking for literature, as he wanted to know more about the new world mentioned in the report in the paper. Other reports have come in to indicate quite a favorable reaction to the witness given. One professor in attendance was particularly friendly in greeting and took many notes of the talk.

So, by the Lord’s undeserved kindness, we will continue to avail ourselves of every opportunity in expanding our witness to the new world in our territory of “intellectual ones” by offering priceless education for life to those who claim to be educated in the ways of this old world.

Your fellow proclaimer of Jehovah’s supremacy,

A. D. SCHROEDER [signed] Registrar at Watchtower Bible School of Gilead

Questions From Readers

● The new book What Has Religion Done for Mankind? shows there is only one class of disobedient angels, not two classes. Did they first rebel in Eden or in Noah’s day? Also, who were the spirits in prison to whom the resurrected Jesus preached, can they repent and be saved, and if not why preach to them?—G. G., New York.

There is no scripture to prove that any angels rebelled with the covering cherub in Eden. One that was once so used is Ezekiel 28:18, where it speaks of Satan as defiling his sanctuaries by the multitude of his iniquities. At most, this might be taken to mean that he had a spiritual force under him and defiled it, but does not indicate such defilement took place in Eden. It could have been in Noah’s day, by which time Satan would have built up a ‘multitude of iniquities’ to use as arguments, whereas in Eden he hardly would have had time to pile up such a multitude of iniquities. However, the text could mean much less than this, according to some modern Bible translations. The American Translation does not use “sanctuaries” as though it referred to habitations for associates, but says, “You profaned your sacredness.” Moffatt says, “You have profaned your sacred position.” Fenton says he ‘deeply wounded his virtues’.

The first Bible evidence we have of angelic rebellion, aside from the covering cherub, is the record at Genesis 6:1-4 concerning Noah’s day. In the common version verse 4 reads as though the Nephilim giants were in the earth before the sons of God cohabited with women, and hence some might argue that these were materialized demons that had previously rebelled with Satan. However, more accurate translations in modern speech show that these giants were the offspring of the materialized sons of God and women: “In those days, as well as afterward, there were giants on the earth, who were born to the sons of [God] whenever they had intercourse with the daughters of men; these were the heroes who were men of note in days of old.” (AT; Mo) So the sons of God were the first angelic rebels on the scene.

This is borne out by 1 Peter 3:19, 20, NW: “In this state also he went his way and preached to the spirits in prison, which had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days.” This seems to indicate the first act of disobedience on the part of angels was in Noah’s day. If they had rebelled before that time, that earlier occurrence of rebellion would have been the turning point worthy of mention. Jude 6, NW, states: “The angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling-place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.” The original position of the angels was their place in Jehovah’s organization, in which position they had been placed by him and doubtless had assigned duties, since God did not create them to loaf. By rebellion they would forsake their original position. By materializing to permanently live with women they would abandon their proper dwelling place in heaven as spirit creatures. By Jude 6 linking these two wrongs so closely, it seems both were committed at the same time, which would be in Noah’s day when the “sons of God” materialized. When the Flood forced them to dematerialize, they returned to heavenly places as spirit creatures, but not to their original position in Jehovah’s organization. They became Satan’s demons.

To view the rebellion of angels as being in Noah’s day instead of Eden is more reasonable. In Eden Satan had just started his rebellious course. God had accepted the challenge, and given the promise of the Seed. The issue was new. It was not so likely that angels would jump in immediately to join the unproved rebel Satan. They would wait to watch developments. In Noah’s day fifteen centuries had gone by, and Satan had turned aside all men but three, Abel, Enoch and Noah. If he could do this by himself, how completely successful would he be with a host of angels to help him! And where was the promised Seed? Had not fifteen centuries elapsed, with no sign of it? So Satan could argue, arguments he would not have at the outset in Eden. He could argue that if the sons of God would join him, materialize for a time or permanently, a super race of giants could be produced to dominate and rule over man, and under them the last holdouts for Jehovah could be whipped into line or destroyed.

But the Flood upset the scheme and forced the materialized angels to dematerialize. These former sons of God could not return to Jehovah’s service had they wanted to; they remained with their chosen master, Satan, and became his demon hordes. They were now imprisoned in dense darkness, alienated from God, in the dark as to his purposes, with a dark end ahead of them, all of which is well pictured by Tartarus. (See 2 Peter 2:4, NW, and appendix note thereon.) It was to these spirits imprisoned in Tartarus that Jesus preached.

Why? To give the demons a chance to repent? Hardly. No angel died as their ransom, even if they were in circumstances permitting ransoming. Moreover, it is hardly consistent to say that perfect Adam and Eve will have no second chance, and then turn around and say that disobedient angels, who were perfect and far higher and smarter and more powerful than man, and who had even seen and associated with Jehovah God, could abandon their God-given assignments and join Satan and yet later have a chance to repent unto salvation. Why, then, preach to the demons?

Preaching does not always mean for purposes of repentance and salvation. We take the wine cup of Jehovah’s wrath to the nations, not for their conversion but as a warning of the death awaiting them. It is an announcement of doom and of Jehovah’s ultimate triumph. We will continue to preach after Armageddon has started, not that more will then repent and be saved but that all will know Jehovah’s purposes of vengeance are being carried out. (See the June 1, 1951, Watchtower, page 351, second question and answer.) Similarly Jesus preached to the demons. So the invisible part of Satan’s world, as well as the visible, get a witness against them, not only by Christians’ being a spectacle to men and angels (including the fallen ones, the demons), but by Jesus himself preaching to them of their final end.

Please see also pages 69-73, 76, 81, 152, 153 in What Has Religion Done for Mankind?

● Verses 4 and 5 of Proverbs 26 seem to express contradicting thoughts. What is the explanation?—T. L., North Carolina.

According to Moffatt’s version these verses Pr 26:4, 5 read: “Never answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him: answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagines he is wise.” Or, according to Fenton’s translation: “Answer no fool, like his folly, lest you make yourself like to himself. Reply to a fool as his folly requires, lest he seem to be wise in his own eyes.” The key to properly relating these instructions that seemingly conflict is found in the warning sounded in each case. It is the difference in the warnings that fixes the meanings to be attached to the instructions given relative to answering fools.

If you answer a fool according to his folly, in the sense of answering in harmony with his folly or according to it, you put yourself in agreement with the fool. The fool’s reasonings and deductions are unsound, and your answer should not be in accord with the fool’s views. The fool may show folly in the undignified or contentious manner in which he argues, showing desire for only fruitless strifes of words, which Christians are commanded to shun. So you would not answer according to the folly of the fool by siding in with his foolish views or by adopting his foolish and degrading methods of argument. Why not? “Lest you become like him.” But you can answer the fool without making yourself like him, and this Pr 26 verse 5 advises, “lest he imagines he is wise.” If you did not answer the fool’s folly and allowed it to go unchallenged and unrefuted, the fool would certainly become wise in his own conceited viewpoint. To prevent this you would answer according to his folly in the sense of answering on the basis of his foolish contentions, analyzing them, exposing how ridiculous and absurd and unworthy of acceptance they are when viewed rationally. Thus you may be able to show that the fool’s own arguments and false principles lead to conclusions far different from what he contends. His own folly may be used against him in a turning of the tables, if his folly is wisely caught up and analyzed and used against the fool’s false position. So doing, you “reply to a fool as his folly requires” and forestall his becoming “wise in his own eyes”.

Announcements

“PRAISE JEHOVAH AS KING” TESTIMONY PERIOD

“Praise Jah, you people.” (Rev. 19:6, NW) In obedience to this compelling exhortation hundreds of thousands in 1951 have raised their voices in a mighty song of praise to the universal sovereign, Jehovah God. Other thousands are catching up the joyful words and joining in the chorus that lauds their Creator as King. What of you? Do you believe the Bible? the evidences of our day which prove Jehovah reigns, and a new world is at the doors? Perhaps, then, the desire to praise the Most High exists within your heart, too. You can use your faculties to “Praise Jehovah as King” during December, when that theme will be sounded in a special way world-wide. The Bible message extolling God’s greatness will be presented to the public in the form of the book entitled “What Has Religion Done for Mankind?” and a 32-page booklet, on a contribution of 50c. Literature for distribution may be obtained from a company of Jehovah’s witnesses, or from the Watchtower, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn 1, N. Y. Write us for information regarding a nearby company of Jehovah’s witnesses, or as to how you may have a further share.

THEOCRATIC MINISTRY SCHOOL

“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan. 12:4) In fulfillment of this prophecy many thousands are truly ‘running to and fro’ through the pages of God’s Word. For them, knowledge is indeed on the increase, knowledge of a most vital sort, rewarding the learners with peace, joy, freedom and the sure prospect of living forever in God’s new world. Contributing remarkably to the widespread increase of Bible knowledge are the numerous theocratic ministry schools conducted by congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. At present a chapter-by-chapter analytical study of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures is under way, this outstanding translation being critically compared with other Bible translations. Supplementary textbooks studied in the school treat such topics as Bible languages and manuscripts, Bible dictionaries and concordances and their use, proof of Bible’s authenticity, Bible doctrines, and religions—past and present. Other subjects needful for ministers and Bible students, such as composition and public speaking, are given ample attention. The publishers are happy to extend to the readers of this magazine an invitation to attend a theocratic ministry school and share in the increase of right knowledge. The school is held once each week, without cost. Feel free to write us for the location of the school nearest you.

1952 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR

“Which is the true religion?” How often has that question been asked! The 1952 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses will furnish overwhelming evidence showing God’s blessing upon the people bearing his name. Though a wicked world bans them, drives them underground, threatens imprisonment, torture and death, Jehovah’s witnesses in 116 lands fearlessly press on, refusing to compromise with enemy forces, but insisting on obedience to God and Christ. You will thrill to their amazing experiences, learn of marvelous increases, and come to appreciate that here indeed is the one organization of true peace, love and unity; this by reading the inspiring and revealing 1952 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Available on a contribution of 50c. Also released at this time is the attractive colorful 1952 calendar, containing the yeartext and appropriate Scriptural citations. Obtainable for 25c; 5 for $1.00, sent to one address. Companies, pioneers and groups are encouraged to combine their orders and send them in through the appointed servant.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of December 16: Baptism for Salvation and Fire Baptism, ¶1-18.

Week of December 23: Baptism for Salvation and Fire Baptism, ¶19-35.

Week of December 30: Request to God for a Good Conscience.