The Watchtower — May 1, 1952

Healing for Life in the New World

TODAY people who are fascinated by the thought of divine healing with miracles overlook some important facts regarding it;a such as that in times past, at the very best, divine physical healing was but of temporary value; death sooner or later claimed those who had benefited from it. Also that Christians themselves did not use divine power for their own benefit but continued to suffer the ailments common to man.—Matt. 4:2-4; 1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20.

They also fail to note the fact that today on the one hand non-Christians may experience as seemingly remarkable cures as do those professing to be Christians, while on the other hand the normal causes of sickness, disease and accidents, such as heredity, circumstances and carelessness, operate the same for Christians as for non-Christians. Nor is there any reason for blaming the Devil for disease and accidents that befall a Christian as though he were another Job. Job’s was a special prophetic case, and was recorded under inspiration for the benefit of others.

The outstanding miracle of divine healing of recent times God worked upon the remnant of his faithful witnesses who make up his visible theocratic organization. Particularly between 1914 and 1919, they were in a spiritually diseased and afflicted condition. They prayed to God for healing and he brought them spiritual healing and forgave them their iniquities.—Ps. 107:17-20; 147:1-3; Jer. 17:14-16, AS.

After healing those whose hopes for everlasting life were of a heavenly kind God expanded his modern spiritual health program to include men of good will, a “great crowd” of “other sheep”, to whom the hope of everlasting life on earth is extended. The spiritual healing that these are receiving is far superior to any temporary physical healing. These are getting their eyes of understanding opened so as to see the Light of life. They are getting their ears opened so that they can hear with appreciation God’s Word and heed its counsel. They are getting their spiritual vocal powers restored so that they can sing Jehovah’s fame, preach his Word and witness to his kingdom. They are receiving strength of spiritual limbs so that they can walk unfalteringly in the path of God’s righteousness through Christ Jesus.—Isaiah chapter 35.

Only those being spiritually healed now can hope to survive God’s vengeance coming upon diseased Christendom at Armageddon and enter the new world of righteousness and life. (Isa. 1:4-6, 18-20) How important, therefore, that we both partake of the ‘leaves of the trees that are for the curing of the nations’ and of “life’s water” ourselves as well as urge these same prescriptions for spiritual divine healing upon others!—Zeph. 2:1-3; Rev. 22:1-3, 17, NW.

[Footnotes]

1914 a Marked Year!

“Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.”—Luke 21:24, NW.

1. To what extent does it appear that Jehovah’s witnesses gave advance publicity to the year 1914?

“END of all kingdoms in 1914!” Such was the arresting headline of an article published on Jehovah’s witnesses in a secular magazine called the “New World Magazine” in its issue of August 30, 1914. An extract of the article continues. “The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the International Bible Students, best known as Millennial Dawners, have been proclaiming to the world that the day of wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. ‘Look out for 1914’ has been the cry of the hundreds of traveling evangelists who, representing this strange creed, have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that the ‘Kingdom of God is at hand’. Although millions of people must have listened to these evangelists; although one of their books, The Time Is at Hand, has had a circulation of more than four million copies, and although religious publications and the secular press service involving hundreds of country newspapers, as well as through lectures, debates, study classes, and even moving pictures, the average man does not know that such a movement as the ‘Millennial Dawn’ exists.”

2, 3. How was the chronology figured to ascertain 1914, as published in The Three Worlds and The Watchtower of 1880?

² This startling proclamation of global importance was actually begun to be published by Jehovah’s witnesses some 37 years before the marked year of 1914. It was in 1877 that Charles T. Russell, the first president of the Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s witnesses, as a coauthor of the book The Three Worlds, explained in this book the Bible chronology of this date. “The seventy years’ captivity ended in the first year of Cyrus, which was B.C. 536. They therefore commenced seventy years before, or B.C. 606. Hence, it was in B.C. 606, that God’s kingdom ended, the diadem was removed, and all the earth given up to the Gentiles. 2,520 years from B.C. 606 will end in 1914. . . . ‘Jerusalem must be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,’ (Luke 21:24) hence, trodden down until A.D. 1914 when the resurrection and return of the ‘whole house of Israel’ is due.”—Pp. 83, 165.

³ The Watchtower magazine itself as far back as 1880 showed the importance of this year of destined change in earthly control. “It has often been shown that this is the basis and key of the Times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24), or the duration of Gentile rule over Jerusalem. A time is a year; a prophetic year is 360 common years. . . . seven times are 2,520 years. From B.C. 606, where the desolation of Jerusalem began, 2,520 years reach to A.D. 1914.” “‘The Times of the Gentiles’ extend to 1914, and the heavenly kingdom will not have full sway till then.”—Zion’s Watch Tower, June, 1880, and March, 1880.

4. Since 1914 what have Jehovah’s witnesses claimed occurred in 1914? What questions arise?

⁴ Not only before 1914 but also since then Jehovah’s witnesses have repeatedly gone on record as to the significance of this important date. At their Philadelphia convention November 22, 1947, Jehovah’s witnesses to the number of 20,649 unanimously passed a resolution, a portion of which says: “ . . . world events from and after 1914, beginning with the first World War, fulfill the prophecies concerning the end of this world and thereby disclose themselves as the visible sign of the establishment of Jehovah’s kingdom by his Christ in that notable year; . . . we have gathered unitedly, regardless of race, nationality, language, color, or previous religious affiliation, to Jehovah’s enthroned King of the new world, Christ Jesus, who now stands on Mount Zion as a Signal to the peoples.” All this means that divine sovereignty as it was once exercised by God over the earth was due to be restored in fact in the year 1914. As foretold, momentous events did happen at that time and things continue to occur which greatly affect the destiny of all kinds of men on earth today. What, then, is divine sovereignty, and why has it come to be a universal issue? Why has there been a lapse of nearly sixty centuries in its exercise over the entire earth? What evidences are there that God has resumed his sovereignty over the earth, and what does this augur for mankind?

5, 6. What is sovereignty? Who is the Universal Sovereign, and how so? What kind of government does he authorize?

⁵ Jehovah God is the absolute sovereign of the universe. This is the greatest fact. It is a basic principle of truth. In the heavens God has exercised his right of sovereignty from the very beginning. Sovereignty is defined as the supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power by which any society of creatures is governed.a Sovereignty is the source of any power to establish and define government. It is the sovereign power that determines the kind of government that shall rule over a group of creatures. Therefore the government of any group of creatures is the outward visible expression of the sovereign power behind it.b

⁶ Jehovah God by virtue of his being the creator is in such a pre-eminent, almighty position that he can legally and in fact determine the kind of government which shall rule his obedient creatures. (Ex. 6:3; Amos 4:12, 13, LXX) The kind of government which Jehovah as sovereign authorized untold ages ago for the universe was a theocratic government. It is this very same kind of government that will bind the universe into one realm of peace and security for the future. Theocracy is a government under the immediate direction and administration of the Most High God. Thus, as a reigning sovereign, God has participated directly through appointed agents in the administration of his governments.

EARTH’S SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTED

7, 8. What happened to the government originally authorized in Eden? Describe the office of the first invisible ruler of perfect man.

⁷ Man’s rebellion in Eden terminated for a time the apparent exercise of divine sovereignty over the entire earth and all its inhabitants. Then an assumed sovereignty appeared to be discharged by a spirit creature who formerly was a trusted officer in God’s universal governmental organization, which government is pictured in the Bible by a hill or a mountain. (Isa. 2:2, 3) Upon this hill or mountain of God are found the high-ranking spirit creatures known as cherubim. These cherubim surround the throne of Jehovah and are supposed to be upholders of his universal sovereignty. (Ps. 80:1, AS) One of these cherubs was given the legal right to exercise governmental protectorship over the first perfect man and woman in Eden and the race which would spring from them. He was set by Jehovah God in his delegated guardianship over mankind. (Ezek. 28:14) The Bible gives a description of this first theocratic ruler over perfect mankind who later rebelled, and it describes him under the typical figure of the “king of Tyre”.

⁸ “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, . . . Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee. By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.”—Ezek. 28:12-16, AS.

9. What issue was raised by the rebellion? What immediate steps did Jehovah take in the matter?

⁹ The Bible account of the rebellion in Eden is familiar to most persons and need not be dealt with at length here. (Gen. 3:1-8) Immediately after the overt act in defiance of Jehovah’s sovereign will had been committed, Jehovah, the Supreme Judge, held court. The God Sovereign disempowered this first government ruler over man and justly sentenced to eventual annihilation this unfaithful cherub who in the guise of a serpent had carried out a hitherto unheard-of treason against the Universal Sovereign Power. By his dastardly act he had now raised an issue as to God’s supremacy which Jehovah at once accepted and was bound to vindicate. Jehovah even uttered his first recorded prophecy where, in veiled language, he foretells the empowering of a new ruler, a seed-king and vindicator. (Gen. 3:14, 15) God’s determination to settle this great issue in his way was indicated years later in the contest that developed between Jehovah and the Pharaoh of Egypt.—Ex. 9:16, AT; Rom. 9:17, NW.

10, 11. Describe the divorcement of Satan from God’s organization.

¹⁰ Forthwith on this first judgment day the legal right of government guardianship was stripped from this guilty rebel opposer, who now became known as Satan the Devil. This one no longer was the representative of Jehovah God. His dismissal constituted furthermore a legal divorce from God’s mountainlike organization.c Do we have a record of this summary dismissal? Yes, the Bible by divine revelation gives us a record of God’s bill of divorcement. The divorcement decree clearly indicates that a reconciliation between the rebel Satan and the Universal Sovereign whom he flouted is utterly impossible. Let the revelation speak for itself.

¹¹ “Hence I have expelled you as a profane thing from the hill of God, . . . Your beauty made you proud of heart, your brilliance depraved your wisdom; so I have cast you down, abandoning you for kings to feast their eyes on you. By the greatness of your guilt, by the crimes of your commerce, you have profaned your sacred position; therefore have I made you set fire to yourself, with flames that consume you, and reduced you to ashes on earth in the sight of all who behold you. All who know you among the nations shall be appalled at you—your fate is awful, there is no future for you.”—Ezek. 28:16-19, Mo.

12. Give evidence as to the scope of activity open to Satan after his divorcement.

¹² While at Eden time Satan was disempowered and legally divorced forever from God’s theocratic governmental organization, this did not mean that he was banished from being present upon the earth where he could influence the development of civilization toward his own selfish ends or from his associating with angels in heaven. “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Eternal [Jehovah, AS], and among them the Adversary [Satan, AS]. ‘Where have you been?’ said the Eternal to the Adversary; and the Adversary answered, ‘Roaming here and there, roving about the earth.’ Then the Eternal said to the Adversary, ‘Have you noticed that there is no one like my servant [Job] on earth, a blameless and an upright man, who reverences God and shuns evil?’ The Adversary answered, ‘But is it for nothing that [Job] reverences God? Have you not hedged him safely in, his house and all he has? You have prospered him in his business, and his flocks are teeming on the land. Only put out your hand, touch whatever he possesses, and see if he will not curse you to your face!’ Then said the Eternal to the Adversary, ‘There! I leave all he has within your power; but lay no hand upon the man himself.’ So away went the Adversary from the presence of the Eternal.”—Job 1:6-12, Mo.

13, 14. (a) What does the statement “Roaming here and there, roving about the earth” indicate? (b) What does the record of man’s governments show?

¹³ The above colloquy or conversation between the Universal Sovereign Jehovah and the expelled, sham sovereign Satan recorded in the fifteenth century B.C., or some 2,500 years after the rebellion in Eden, reveals several interesting matters. First, by Satan’s “roaming here and there, roving about the earth” is indicated that he had earthly interests with fallen mankind which required his supervision as an invisible self-constituted overlord. Having made himself independent by what he thought a successful break from theocratic government, from then forward Satan as a mimic sovereign sought to empower many different kinds of governments of his own design over fallen mankind. From his first attempt in establishing a kingdom government at Babylon in Nimrod’s time to the present all the many nontheocratic governments have been of his invention and authorization.—Gen. 10:8-10.

WHERE THE NATIONS GET SOVEREIGNTY

¹⁴ The facts show that among all the numerous experiments in organizing earthly governments ancient and modern, all the way from absolute monarchies on the right to Communist regimes on the extreme left, each has a record of being harsh, without vision, corrupt, graft-laden, oppressive, beastly, persecuting true worshipers of God, breaking the everlasting covenant as to the sanctity of life and provoking bloody wars. (Gen. 9:4-6, 16) Each has had its heyday and then ended in violence. The sovereign power authorizing such miserable failures as governments could not have been the true Universal Sovereign. Rather, the evidence is overwhelming that it has been Satan, the Dragon, who has attempted to give sovereign power and authority to these ungodly governments. (Rev. 13:2 and Eph. 6:12, NW) Actually, from the fall of Adam and Eve to the present, all of unfaithful human society has come under the control of this false cunning overlord who has made himself the “god of this system of things”. (2 Cor. 4:4, NW) Absolutely no hope of everlasting life and permanent security lies with the present old world society and its governments, because their foundations are not rooted with God but stand divorced along with Satan since Adam’s day.—Gen. 3:16-19.

15, 16. (a) What disclosure is made by the words “Have you not hedged him safely in”? (b) What recognition did God give his true worshipers on earth?

¹⁵ The above-referred-to conversation in heaven as to Job makes another enlightening disclosure. It is gleaned from Satan’s complaint, “Have you not hedged him safely in?” This seems to indicate that right from the rebellion Jehovah took independent action as to any interests he had in the earth regardless of Satan, and that he exercised overriding superior authority whenever it pleased him. The facts recorded in the Scriptures support this conclusion. Jehovah took immediate control of the garden of Eden and placed its care in the hands of other mighty cherubs who were loyal to him. (Gen. 3:24) To any of mankind who rendered true worship to him God now arranged to give them special guardianship, not through a theocratic government as he originally had purposed for Adam’s offspring, but by direct angelic protection.

¹⁶ We know that Jehovah dealt directly with Abel, Enoch and Noah, giving them revelations of his will. They thus had God’s recognition. (Gen. 4:4; 6:8; Jude 14) God gave his recognition to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who lived apart from the governments of Satan’s world and who had a guardian angel to guide them in Palestine. (Gen. 22:15; 24:7; 31:11; 48:16) The angel of Jehovah spoke to Moses in the fiery flame of a thornbush. (Acts 7:30, 35, NW) As the hosts of Israel moved out of Egypt in 1513 B.C. the angel of Jehovah moved from in front of the Israelites to their rear, to act as a rearguard to keep the Egyptian army from overtaking them and slaughtering them. (Ex. 14:19) After the days of Israel’s typical theocracy when God’s people were captive in Babylon, Michael, the guardian angel prince of Israel, was on the job safeguarding Jehovah’s interests in the earth. This guardian angel of Israel was doubtless Jesus Christ in his prehuman existence.—Dan. 10:13, 21; Rev. 12:7.

17. What provision has been made for the divine care of true Christians? Give proof.

¹⁷ Just as Satan wielded no theocratic, sovereign-granted power over God’s true worshipers prior to Jesus’ time, so in the days of Jesus and the early Christians Jehovah has had caretaker angels to protect his people “from the authority of the darkness”. Referring to Satan, Jesus said, “He has no hold on me.” (Col. 1:13 and John 14:30, NW) Then there is Peter’s case when he was delivered out of Herod’s murderous hands by Jehovah’s angel. (Acts 12:6-11, NW) Paul says with respect to protecting angels: “Are they not all spirits [angels] for public service, sent forth to minister for those who are going to inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14, NW) Thus in spite of Satan’s ironlike governments and their strong powers of persecution Jehovah’s people in all ages have stood apart and survived. It is only those who have shown a lack of faith and who compromised that would take themselves out from under God’s special care. Even today all those who form the nucleus of the new world society, both the anointed remnant and those of the “other sheep”, have in fact come out from Babylonish bondage and have escaped the clutches of Satan. (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:15) While Satan has all along sought to make good his side of the issue on sovereignty by forcing all men under his false sovereign control, the following scripture has proved to be true: “The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”—Ps. 34:7, AS.

18. To what extent has Satan tried to mimic Jehovah’s sovereignty, and how great a one has he become?

¹⁸ There is a final matter to amusingly note from Satan’s brazen conversation with Jehovah as to Job. Satan was not the all-powerful sovereign that he originally thought he was going to be. The fact that God calls him to question by saying, “Where have you been?” indicates that Jehovah had the upper hand. Satan in fear was being put on the spot, so to speak. The further fact that Satan complains of the “hedge” put around Job indicates that he was nettled at Jehovah’s displays of superior power not only in defense of his true worshipers on earth, but also on special occasions, such as, for example, at the Flood, where with no difficulty God washed away Satan’s angelized earthly civilization; at Babel, where God confused the speech of Satan’s first earthly kingdom; and in Egypt, where Jehovah brought the first world power to its knees to deliver the Israelites with a high hand. (Gen. 7:21-24; 11:7-9; Ex. 14:8) Finally Jehovah placed a limitation as to how far Satan could go in his testing of Job’s integrity. (Job 1:12) Notice, too, that Satan displayed due respect for Jehovah’s power by complying with that order. He was taking no chances in needlessly arousing Jehovah’s far superior forces. All this was reducing the sham sovereign to a helpless inferior and demonstrated that his control on earth was not all-embracing. In fact, he merely controlled those parts where he had blinded the inhabitants with his false religions and had kept them in line by means of his various makeshift governments. Never has he enjoyed undisputed control and power over all mankind, because at all times there have been those who have clung to the true worship of Jehovah God and who have looked forward to a restoration of a divine, sovereign-empowered government over all the earth.—Heb. 11:10.

[Footnotes]

Determining the Year by Fact and Bible

1, 2. (a) To what territory was Jehovah limiting the contest as to domination? (b) What typical government did Jehovah organize, how was it brought into being, and what finally happened to it?

AS WE have seen, for about 2,500 years from Abel to Moses Jehovah had provided angelic protection for his individual true worshipers. Now the time came for him to demonstrate on a small scale what he had in mind eventually to provide for earth’s inhabitants on a global scale, namely, the restoration of His rightful sovereign control by means of a loyal theocratic government. In the development of the issue for earth-wide domination God marked out a sample territory in Palestine with four boundaries and which became called the “Land of Promise”. (Heb. 10:1; Gen. 15:18-21; Ex. 23:31; Deut. 34:1-4; Heb. 11:9) As a redeemer in 1513 B.C. Jehovah purchased Israel as his people, delivered them out of Egypt and organized them under a typical theocratic government which he empowered from his sovereignty, and he also became their invisible ruler. (Ex. 6:6; 19:6; Deut. 33:2-5; Isa. 33:22) He brought his people into the Promised Land to possess it in the year 1473 B.C. After six years they had largely expelled and subdued the former inhabitants who had had no legal right to the land, being merely squatters. In this way Jehovah’s sovereign control legally and in fact was established over this territory of contest.

² For a period of 866 years the same form of theocratic government under the one constitution of the Law covenant exercised national sovereignty in the Promised Land. This was longer by many years than most original governments that had existed on this earth as empowered by Satan. Because of the unfaithfulness of Judah’s anointed kings as in the case of the anointed cherub in Eden, Jehovah eventually disempowered this typical theocratic government and ended his sovereign control for a time in Palestine. He stripped the last wicked king of Judah, Zedekiah by name, of his ruling powers in 607 B.C. and sent him away captive to Babylon in the hands of his Gentile conqueror Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.—2 Ki. 25:1-7.

3. What pronouncement did God make as to the termination of this typical government?

³ Of this termination of typical kingdom government in 607 B.C. the Bible records: “And you, you knave, O prince of Israel to be slain, for whom the hour of sin’s full punishment brings doom—‘Off with his diadem, away with his crown!’ says the Lord the Eternal [Jehovah, AS]; ‘turn things upside down, up with the low, down with the high! I lay all in ruins, ruins, ruins; everything shall be overturned, till the rightful man arrives—and I will give him everything.’” (Ezek. 21:25-27, Mo) Observe that this pronouncement shows the legal right of the crown is to lapse for a long time “till the rightful man arrives”. When that “son of man” arrives it implies there will be a restoration of divine, sovereign-empowered government, but this time over the entire earth, as it says, “I will give him everything.”

4, 5. (a) How did Jehovah illustrate his position as a sovereign? (b) To what extent were the peoples of Israel and Judah recognizing Jehovah’s sovereignty?

⁴ For the benefit of his faithful, loyal subjects on earth Jehovah God gave an illustration of his legal pre-eminent position as the Sovereign who can rightfully empower kingdoms over the earth and the universe. Significantly God illustrated this matter to the prophet Jeremiah shortly before the divine sovereignty was withdrawn from empowering the last reigning king of the Davidic line, Zedekiah. Note what Jehovah the Sovereign, likened to a potter, says of his building up and breaking down of claylike governments:

⁵ “‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear what I have to say.’ So I went down to the potter’s house. He was at work with his wheel; and whenever any vessel he was making got spoiled in his hands, he re-moulded it to please himself, till he was satisfied. Then the Eternal’s word came to me, ‘O house of Israel, cannot I do to you as this potter does? Why, as the clay in the potter’s hands, so you are in my hands. At one time I may speak of tearing up a nation or kingdom, breaking it down and destroying it; but if that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the evil that I thought of inflicting upon it. Again, I may speak of building up a nation or kingdom, of planting it; but if that nation does evil in my sight by refusing to listen to my voice, then I will change my mind about the benefits which I meant to bestow upon it. So give the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this message from the Eternal [Jehovah, AS]: “I am shaping a calamity for you and devising a plan against you; ah, turn every one of you from your evil courses, amend your life and work!” They will say, “It is no use to talk; we mean to live as we choose, and follow, every man of us, our own evil, stubborn minds.”’”—Jer. 18:2-12, Mo.

6. What was Jehovah’s judgment for their repudiating his sovereignty?

⁶ And so it was that most of the people of Israel and Judah as well as their kings finally repudiated their great “potter” Sovereign, Jehovah. Instead they chose to go their own rebellious ways even as their Gentile neighbor nations of Satan’s world had been doing for centuries. For this reason Jehovah decreed that the Jews represented by their capital city Jerusalem would be dominated by Gentile nations and ruled over by their Satan-empowered governments from 607 B.C. forward. Jesus, the greatest prophet, referred to this domination and its continuing long after his earthly ministry, when he said: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24, NW) How long were these “appointed times of the nations” which Jesus spoke of? Jehovah the revealer of secrets makes known these “times” in his own way and time.

“APPOINTED TIMES OF THE NATIONS”

7. What does Isaiah prophesy in his 14th chapter as to the king of Babylon?

⁷ Fully 150 years before Jerusalem lost its national sovereignty to the Gentile nation of Babylon, Isaiah prophesied a taunt song. It was against the king of Babylon who was described as a ‘hewer down of fir-trees’, meaning a killer of God’s true worshipers, pictured as “trees of righteousness”. The king of Babylon, Isaiah foretold, would exalt his throne above the stars or princes of God’s typical theocracy and would overthrow this sovereign government by completely subjugating it. He having gained this ascendancy as a world ruler, God’s judgment would come and the king of Babylon too would be cut down like a tree and all men would see his humiliation. (See Isaiah 14:4, 8, 12-16; 61:3.) All this came to pass upon the ruling dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar, the conquering king of Babylon. He in turn symbolized the greater king of Babylon, Satan the Devil, who eventually will be totally defeated and cut down to annihilation.

8. How was it that Egypt and Assyria became the first and second world powers respectively? How was it determined which nation was to succeed Assyria as a world power?

⁸ A brief historical setting of the physical facts in fulfillment of Isaiah 14 is as follows. As has been said, domination of the Promised Land marked out by Jehovah in Abraham’s time was the point of contest. Egypt, reckoned as being the first world power because it dominated Palestine after Abraham’s time, lost its control of the Promised Land when the Israelites possessed it from 1473 B.C. onward. Centuries later Assyria became the second world power when it subjugated the northern kingdom of Israel in 740 B.C. (2 Ki. 17:6) In 632 B.C. Nineveh, the capital city of this second world power Assyria, fell to a coalition of Gentile powers, the Chaldeans (Babylonians), the Scythians and the Medes. (Nah. 3:7) The question now was, Which nation would fill the vacuum left by the fall of Assyria and thus become the third world power? Both Egypt, under its king, Necho, and Babylonia, led by its young commander-in-chief, Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon, made a bid for this position. They settled the question at the great ancient battle of Carchemish by the river Euphrates in 625 B.C. with Babylon defeating Egypt. (2 Chron. 35:20) After his victory and in this same year, 625 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, upon the death of his father, ascended the throne of Babylon.

9. Describe Nebuchadnezzar’s attempts to assert his mastery over the kingdom of Judah, and the final result.

⁹ Five years later Nebuchadnezzar sought to assert his newly won mastery over the Near East by making tributary one of the last of the independent kingdoms, the kingdom of Judah with its king, Jehoiakim, which he did by coming against Jerusalem in 620 B.C. (2 Ki. 24:1, 7; 2 Chron. 36:5, 6) In 618 B.C. Jehoiakim died in an attempt to throw off the Babylonian suzerainty. For this reason Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem for the second time (in 618 B.C.) and forced it to terms by taking Jehoiachin, the successor of Jehoiakim, captive to Babylon together with many of Judah’s princes and other outstanding men including Daniel. (2 Ki. 24:1, 8-16; Dan. 1:1-6) Nebuchadnezzar gave Jerusalem another chance as a subsidiary sovereign state by allowing Zedekiah, the brother of Jehoiakim, to be anointed king of Judah in 617 B.C. (2 Ki. 24:17, 18) Zedekiah, like his brother, attempted to throw off the Babylonian yoke by rebelling. But this forced Nebuchadnezzar in his anger to come against Jerusalem for a third time, but this time to utterly destroy it. Nebuchadnezzar began his third siege of Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month, Tebeth, in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, or on January 18-19, 608 B.C. (that is, after 6 p.m. January 18), according to our present Gregorian calendar system.a (2 Ki. 25:1) By July 2-3, 607 B.C., the famine due to the siege was exceeding great, the enemy had made a breach in Jerusalem’s wall fortifications and King Zedekiah fled the city on this day to Jericho, where he was later captured for deportation.—2 Ki. 25:2-7.

10, 11. (a) Precisely when were the temple and the king’s palace destroyed in Jerusalem, and what did this mean as to divine sovereignty? (b) What further slight evidence of Jewish control was there, and what happened to it?

¹⁰ The Chaldean (Babylonian) soldiers, having entered Jerusalem, began to burn the “house of Jehovah”, the “king’s house” and all the great houses of the city on Ab 7, July 30-31, 607 B.C. (2 Ki. 25:8, 9) By Ab 10, August 2-3, 607 B.C., three days later, they had completely destroyed the temple, the royal palace and the walls of the city. (Jer. 52:12-14) At this point it should be remembered that Jehovah made his sovereign will known through his priesthood at the temple, and the king’s palace was the center from which the administration of the nation as delegated by God to the king emanated. (2 Ki. 22:12, 13) Thus these centers of divine, sovereign-empowered administration ceased with the overthrow of Jerusalem.

¹¹ However, there was one more slight evidence of Jewish sovereignty after the fall of the Holy City, and that was Nebuchadnezzar’s appointment of Gedaliah, a Jew, as the governor of the remaining settlements in the country. But two months later Gedaliah and his Babylonish advisors were slain by a party of Jewish assassins. At the news of this tragic flouting of Nebuchadnezzar’s mercy, all the remaining Jews fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah the prophet with them. (2 Ki. 25:22-26; Jer. 41:1-18; 43:5-7) The land’s now becoming desolated of Jewish inhabitants, the last trace of theocratic rule came to an end during the seventh month, which began September 21-22, 607 B.C. So with swift-moving events the land was emptied and theocratic sovereignty withdrawn, giving the Gentiles undisputed control of the Promised Land for their “appointed times”.—Luke 21:24.

12, 13. (a) To whom was disclosed the number of the “times” of the nations, and in what manner? (b) What was the theme of the disclosure? Briefly give the picture revealed.

¹² How many “times” did God appoint for the Gentile nations to have undisputed control over the Promised Land which was the testing ground for earth-wide sovereignty? The Bible answers there were to be seven “times”. (Dan. 4:16, 23, 25) Significantly this number was disclosed to King Nebuchadnezzar in a dream after 607 B.C. when he had become the totalitarian ruler of the third world power. Note now the details of this dream as Nebuchadnezzar tells it to Jehovah’s witness Daniel for divine interpretation. Observe how the theme of this dream is God’s sovereignty, “to let the living know that the Most High reigns over the realm of men, giving it to anyone whom he chooses, and setting over it the lowest of mankind.”—Dan. 4:17, Mo.

¹³ Nebuchadnezzar said to Daniel: “‘O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, I know the spirit of the gods divine is in you, and no mystery is any trouble to you; hear the visions of my dream that I have seen, and tell me what they mean. Such were the visions of my brain in bed. I looked, and there was a tree in the middle of the earth, enormously high! The tree grew and grew strong, till it was high as heaven and visible from the ends of all the earth; its leaves were lovely and its fruit was rich, with food for all; wild animals sheltered under it, birds of the air roosted in its branches, and it fed all living creatures. In the visions of my brain in bed I looked, and there was one of the angel-guard! He came down from heaven and called aloud, “Hew the tree down, hack away its branches, lop off its leaves, and scatter its fruit: let the animals remove from underneath it, and the birds from its boughs. Still, leave the stump of its roots in the earth, among the soft grass of the field, with a band of iron and bronze round it; let the dews of heaven drench it—and let him share the herbage of the earth with the animals, let his mind cease to be human, let an animal’s mind be given him, and let seven years [times, AS] pass over him.”’”—Dan. 4:9-16, Mo.

14, 15. How was this dream fulfilled as to Nebuchadnezzar?

¹⁴ Daniel interpreted the dream to foretell that seven times or years of madness would overtake Nebuchadnezzar, during which he could not personally carry on his imperial government but would become wild like a beast and live out in the open fields. So in effect this great world ruler would find his kingdom taken away from him like the cutting down of the lofty tree mentioned in his dream. After seven years his sanity would return, and he would be restored to his kingdom, which, like that banded tree stump in the ground, was to be held pending his return to the control of his empire.

¹⁵ All this came to pass near the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Books on Nebuchadnezzar refer to his seven years of madness. (Dan. 4:33) “The form of madness from which he (Nebuchadnezzar) suffered when pride overthrew his reason was that called lycanthropy, in which the patient fancies himself one of the inferior animals and acts as such. Nebuchadnezzar imagined that he had become an ox, and went forth to eat grass like other cattle.” (The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, p. 422. See also Nebuchadnezzar, by G. R. Tabouis, pp. 263-265, 383.) Michaud, in his Biographie universelle, writes: “Nebuchadnezzar was punished for his pride by rather a strange malady, for he fell into a state of complete dementia and was persuaded that he had been turned into an ox.” Another French writer, Larousse, gives a similar account, adding, “He died a year after recovering his reason.”

16. How does this dream have its major application to heavenly rulership? What hope does God leave for mankind?

¹⁶ However, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream finds its major application to heavenly rulership. In ¶ 7 to 11, pages 261, 262, we have described the invisible theocratic rulership originally entrusted to the covering cherub in Eden. God’s sovereignty in fact operating through this anointed cherub was fittingly described by the lofty tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. When this exalted theocratic ruler of men and the animals rebelled by putting at issue the sovereign supremacy of Jehovah God, he was forthwith dismissed from God’s mountainlike organization and forever divorced from union with God. This was the cutting down of the lofty tree. To give hope to righteous mankind how glad we are to notice that God in the vision left a stump of this tree. Clearly this pictures the suspension of the office of righteous heavenly rulership through which God will exercise his sovereignty again over the earth. It would be kept in abeyance until He should come who would prove his right thereto. The dream shows that the Most High will give this kingdom right to the “lowest of mankind” or a son of man.—Dan. 4:17, Mo.

17, 18. (a) When do the “seven times” begin to apply as to the “tree stump”? (b) When does the period of “madness” become particularly manifest, and what changes are there in Gentile domination over Jerusalem?

¹⁷ Not before “seven times” had passed over the symbolic tree stump could God, according to his own decree, establish the kingdom over men in the hands of a righteous invisible ruler. The prophetic dream does not indicate that the “seven times” began at Eden immediately with the rebellion of Satan and his loss of the right and authority of righteous rulership. The facts in fulfillment show they did not begin then but in the days of the dreamer who had the dream fulfilled on him in miniature, namely, at the time the pictorial rulership was taken away from the last anointed king of Judah, Zedekiah. The dream merely announces that in the tree stump’s experience there would pass over it a period of “seven times” and that this would immediately precede the unbanding of the stump and its free growth again.

¹⁸ This makes it apparent that the “seven times” began with Nebuchadnezzar’s overturning of Jehovah’s typical theocracy at Jerusalem, in 607 B.C. As long as the typical administration of God at Jerusalem operated at all, even imperfectly, in his name, that long there was some measure of national sanity and a partial exhibition of right rule among nations on this earth. But with the overthrow of the typical theocracy there was then no restraint at all to the unreason and bestiality of human governors and humankind. The Gentile powers or governments were now exclusive in the field. God’s covenant people no longer held any national sovereignty in the midst of this world, independently of the Gentile nations. In 539 B.C. the Medo-Persian world power exercised domination over the Promised Land. In 332 B.C. it passed into the hands of Alexander, the Greek conqueror. In 63 B.C. Roman rule was established over Palestine. From A.D. 637 to 1917 various Mohammedan rulers generally controlled Jerusalem. In 1917 Viscount Allenby of Great Britain took Jerusalem from the Mohammedan Turks, who had controlled it since 1517.

MATHEMATICAL CALCULATION

19, 20. How long are the “seven times” of the nations? Give the proofs for establishing 1914 as a marked date.

¹⁹ How long are “seven times”, the times of the nations? The mathematics are supplied for us in another prophecy unrelated to this one which uses the term “times” or “periods of time”. In Revelation 12:6 (NW) there is mentioned 1,260 days and then in the 14th Re 12 verse 14 this very same period is referred to as 3 ¹/₂ “times”. So if 3 ¹/₂ “times” is 1,260 days, then 7 “times” (twice 3 ¹/₂ “times”) must be twice 1,260, or 2,520 days. Early in their wilderness trek the Israelites repudiated the sovereign wisdom of their God by wanting to return to Egypt on having believed the faith-lacking reports of the ten unfaithful spies. (Num. 14:1-4) For this lack of faith by the people in God’s sovereign leadership, Jehovah sentenced the nation to forty years of wandering in the wilderness with no sovereign control of land. “For every day spent in spying out the land, you shall spend a year being punished for your evil-doing, forty years for forty days; that will teach you what it is to have me against you.”—Num. 14:34, Mo.

²⁰ So according to this rule established in the wilderness the Jewish nation, who time and again showed they did not appreciate Jehovah’s sovereign control, would have to bear God’s adverse judgment at the hands of their Gentile overlords for a period of seven “times”, or 2,520 year-days. These 2,520 years ran from the desolating of Jerusalem and the land in the summer and fall of 607 B.C. up to the summer and fall of 1914, when they expired. From 607 B.C. to 1 B.C. is 606 years. From 1 B.C. to A.D. 1 is only one year, because the ancients had not discovered the zero which according to modern mathematics would have made it two years. The use of the zero is only of comparatively recent mathematical origin. From A.D. 1 to A.D. 1914 is 1,913 years. Therefore adding 606 years plus 1 year plus 1,913 years we get a total of 2,520 years.

21-23. (a) Give one correction of a slight error made by the brothers many years ago as to determining 1914. (b) Explain a second correction.

²¹ At this point some will inquire why Charles T. Russell in 1877 used the date 606 B.C. for the fall of Jerusalem whereas The Watchtower of late years has been using 607 B.C. This is because, in the light of modern scholarship, two slight errors were discovered to have been made which cancel each other out and make for the same result, namely, 1914. Concerning the first error, Russell and others considered 1 B.C. to A.D. 1 as being two years whereas in fact this is only one year because, as has been said above, there is no “zero” year in the B.C.-A.D. system for counting years. “The Christian era began, not with no year, but with a 1st year.”—The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, p. 102.

²² The second error had to do with not beginning the count of the 2,520 years at the right point in view of historic facts and circumstances. Almost all early Bible chronology ties in with secular history at the year 539 B.C., in which year the fall of Babylon to Darius and Cyrus of the Medes and the Persians occurred. In late years several cuneiform tablets have been discovered pertaining to the fall of Babylon which peg both Biblical and secular historic dates. The one tablet known as the “Nabunaid Chronicle” gives the date for the fall of Babylon which specialists have ascertained as being October 12-13, 539 B.C., Julian Calendar, or October 6-7, 539 B.C., according to our present Gregorian Calendar.b This tablet also says that Cyrus made his triumphant entry into Babylon 16 days after its fall to his army. Thus his accession year commenced in October, 539 B.C. However, in another cuneiform tablet called “Strassmaier, Cyrus No. 11” Cyrus’ first regnal year is mentioned and was determined to have begun March 17-18, 538 B.C., and to have concluded March 4-5, 537 B.C.c It was in this first regnal year of Cyrus that he issued his decree to permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. (Ezra 1:1) The decree may have been made in late 538 B.C. or before March 4-5, 537 B.C.

²³ In either case this would have given sufficient time for the large party of 49,897 Jews to organize their expedition and to make their long four-month journey from Babylon to Jerusalem to get there by September 29-30, 537 B.C., the first of the seventh Jewish month, to build their altar to Jehovah as recorded at Ezra 3:1-3. Inasmuch as September 29-30, 537 B.C., officially ends the seventy years of desolation as recorded at 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21, so the beginning of the desolation of the land must have officially begun to be counted after September 21-22, 607 B.C., the first of the seventh Jewish month in 607 B.C., which is the beginning point for the counting of the 2,520 years.

[Footnotes]

Evidences of the Year’s Correctness

1, 2. Describe the “family of nations” that arose after 1648.

WHAT physical evidences are there, then, that indicate 1914 was a marked year as to the ending of the “appointed times” of the nations? First a little background information is necessary. With the disintegration of the old Roman Empire and the breaking up of the Holy Roman Empire wedded to the Catholic Church there appeared after the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 a “family of nations”. This Gentile house of nations was a loose arrangement where big and small nations tried to get along in concert like big and small brothers with an occasional quarrel (war) between individual members. There was no big mother or father to boss them. Neither the Catholic Church nor the remnants of the old Roman Empire were any longer strong enough to keep these nations tied to their apron strings and thus keep these offshoot nations in line as they formerly did by being the superior dictators. Nevertheless the “family of nations” did maintain a measure of international order during their periods of world expansion, and they abode by a code of international law. However, this “family” had no political expression or super-organization. That was left for them to try later under the League of Nations in 1919 to patch up things.

² Following is an authoritative description of this “family of nations”. “The world empire of Rome showed a common political sovereignty by which the acts of remote territories might be regulated; the world religion of the Church of the middle period added the idea of a common bond of humanity. . . . The family was at first a ‘European Christian family of nations,’ and its law was European. The United States of America was the earliest addition outside of Europe. . . . In 1856 the five great powers admitted the Turkish Empire to ‘the participation in the advantages of European public law and concert.’ The entrance of Japan into the ‘family of nations’ in 1899 added another non-European state to the international family, which had ceased to be ‘European’ and ‘Christian’.”a

3, 4. (a) What are the physical facts that mark the end of the “seven times” of the nations? (b) What is remarkable as to the dates involved?

³ What happened to this loose house of Gentile nations in 1914 is common knowledge and history now. The delicate balance of Gentile powers which enabled them to generate themselves into vast war machines in the prewar period totally collapsed in 1914. Their whole house blew up and the nations went mad. Does not the collapse of this house of the Gentiles and their national sovereign independence being now put in jeopardy remind one of the destruction of the temple and the king’s palace in Jerusalem between July 30-31 and August 2-3, 607 B.C.? All this exactly 2,520 years later almost to the day!b Note the following summary of the rapid fire of events as these nations went at each other’s throats, and, mind you, all this happened suddenly in the summer of 1914.

⁴ “Austria declared war on Serbia July 28, 1914. Attempts to mediate continued. Germany demanded neutrality of Britain in event of war with Russia and France; offered to respect French territory but gave no promise on colonies; Britain refused to bargain, July 30. Austria now agreed to negotiate with Russia. Russia mobilized in part, declaring Hungarian mobilization was directed against it; Germany mobilized, declaring such Russian action was against Germany. In this tense situation Britain continued efforts to stop general war. While Russia and Austria were conferring, Germany sent ultimatum to Russia demanding end of mobilization in twelve hours. The czar asked Austro-Serb quarrel be submitted to The Hague; no reply. Germany declared war against Russia August 1; against France August 3. Germans enter Belgium, in violation of treaty, guaranteed by Britain. Britain asked Germany to guarantee neutrality of Belgium by midnight August 4; Germany refused. Britain declared war August 4. Italy bound to Germany and Austria in Triple Alliance, proclaimed neutrality; had secret understanding with France not to join in any war against France. Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary May 23, 1915; against Germany August 27, 1916. Turkey, Bulgaria, Rumania joined Central Powers. Japan declared war on Germany, August 23, 1914. United States declared a state of war existed with Germany, April 6, 1917.” (The World Almanac, 1951, pp. 188,189) Truly the Gentile world went crazy between July 28 and August 4 in launching the bloodiest war in earth’s history to that time. Just as the Scriptures foretold, “nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.”—Matt. 24:7, NW.

THE SIGN

5. What event does Jesus say must follow the end of the “times” of the nations?

⁵ Right after speaking of the “appointed times of the nations”, at Luke 21:24 (NW), Jesus makes a key revelation at the 27th Lu 21 verse 27 by saying: “And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The coming of the Son of man in the clouds with power was the great sign of the sovereign-empowered Messiah or Christ spoken of by Daniel (7:13, 14) and which the priests and Pharisees were looking for during Jesus’ ministry on earth. But as to Christ’s first presence Jesus said the only sign they would get would be that of Jonah the prophet. (Matt. 12:39, NW) However, when Jesus was being tried before the Jewish Sanhedrin on the false charge of blasphemy the high priest said, “By the living God I put you under oath to tell us whether you are the Christ the Son of God!” Jesus said to him: “That was for you to say. Yet I say to you men, From henceforth you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 26:63, 64, NW) Here Jesus openly admitted that as the Christ he would make a second presence as to affairs of the earth after a waiting period at God’s right hand. “Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Ps. 110:1, AS) The waiting period ended at the conclusion of the “appointed times of the nations” in 1914, his enemies were put where they belong under his feet, and from then has been seen the sign of the sovereign-empowered Christ coming on the clouds of heaven.

6. What information is obtained from Bible prophecies as to the enthronement of Christ Jesus in 1914?

⁶ Time had come in the fall of 1914 for Jehovah the Universal Sovereign himself to act! Action on a global scale, yes, on a universal scale, was due to take place. The waiting period was over, and now the desire of all righteous ones came. Christ Jesus, the proved and tested new world’s King, was enthroned and empowered with sovereignty from on high. At last the kingdom of heaven was established in the person of its anointed ruler, Christ the King. Now for the first time in nearly six thousand years there is in existence, as respects the entire earth, a new theocratic government with ruling right from God the true Sovereign. What tremendous good this bodes for righteous mankind! “The Eternal’s [Jehovah’s, AS] edict let me tell: ‘I, I have installed my king on Sion, on my sacred hill.’” (Ps. 2:6, 7, Mo) The Bible even gives us a glimpse of the glorious enthronement proceedings which occurred in 1914. “I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man [Christ Jesus, and he came even to the ancient of days [Jehovah God], and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13, 14, AS) Thus about October 1, 1914, just 2,520 years after the last vestige of typical Jewish sovereignty expired, the “iron and bronze band” of abeyance was removed from the “tree stump” and once again divine sovereignty empowered a theocratic government to take over the control of the entire earth. The “lowest of mankind”, Christ Jesus, was now exalted with kingdom right forever. (Isa. 53:7-9) What joy there was in heaven! “And loud voices occurred in heaven saying: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule as king for ever and ever.’”—Rev. 11:15, NW.

7. What events occurred in heaven upon the establishment of the Kingdom?

⁷ The establishment of the kingdom of heaven immediately set in motion a chain of events both in heaven and on earth. These events were to occur in a transition period during which a great tribulation would come upon Satan’s entire organization leading up to the final test of power at Armageddon which results in its utter defeat and destruction. The birth of the Kingdom government in 1914 is likened to God’s woman, his organization Zion, bringing forth a male child whom Satan’s dragonlike organization is seeking to destroy. “And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, that, when she did give birth, it might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne.” (Rev. 12:4, 5, NW) From this scripture we see that the Kingdom has a safe empowerment of sovereignty and that it is destined to take violent action in breaking up all opposing governments on earth as with a rod of iron. But wait! The false sovereign behind these nations still in heaven must be dealt with first. The Scripture next says: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael [Christ Jesus] and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.’”—Rev. 12:7-10, NW.

8. What reactions were experienced upon the earth?

⁸ Great was this victory of Christ Jesus and his angels! This prompt action in heaven was followed by reactions on earth. Jesus having come with his angels, this constituted the glorious sign of his second presence. (Matt. 25:31, NW) “Look! he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him.” (Rev. 1:7, NW) So the reaction is one of great trouble for the inhabitants of the earth who are out of harmony with God. A dire time of judgment is setting in when the divine Sovereign Jehovah begins to rule with respect to the earth by means of his Anointed One Jesus Christ. While all Satan’s empowered kingdoms by a false sovereign begin to tumble before the expansion of the invincible new government, note how the following prophecy fitly describes what happens: “In the days of these kings [falsely empowered demon and human rulers] the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom never to be swept away, with a sovereignty that shall never pass to others; it shall break all these kingdoms to bits and make an end of them, but it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44, Mo) Indeed it is at this time that the Sovereign Jehovah commands the obliteration of all earthly governments not empowered by him. “You are now my son [Christ Jesus], this day am I your father; ask, and I make you master of pagans, lord over all to the ends of the earth; you can maul them with an iron mace, and shatter them like potter’s ware!”—Ps. 2:7-9, Mo.

9. What difficulties as to sovereignty have the nations been experiencing since 1914?

⁹ From and after 1914 all nations of the earth and their ruling elements have lost their sovereign vitality. They came out of the terrible “family” war of 1914-18 greatly mauled and ensnarled. Their two global dog-eat-dog brawls have left them all reeling and drunken. Incidentally, the Bible alludes to Gentiles as “dogs”. (Mark 7:28) Transfusions of sovereign power from one to another have been resorted to to keep the nations operating in these troublous times. The Bible even foretold that their two postwar attempts to gird themselves together into a world security organization would fail. (League of Nations, 1919, and the United Nations, 1945) “Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: [1st] gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; [2nd] gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand.” (Isa. 8:9, 10, AS) So even as a last resort if they attempt the pooling of their fancied sovereignties they cannot withstand the irresistible growth of God’s true Kingdom rule which is destined to fill the whole earth.—Ps. 72:8.

WHEN YOU SEE THESE THINGS, WHAT?

10. What are some of the evidences as a composite sign that the Kingdom has already been established?

¹⁰ “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the consummation of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3, NW) In Jesus’ answer to this question he described many things that would occur in the earth as supporting proof that the Kingdom’s establishment was an accomplished fact. Such would be a time for Jesus to turn his attention toward affairs of the earth, hence it is referred to as his “presence”. These things must occur within the one brief period known as the “consummation of the system of things”, or in the transitional wind-up period of this old world. At no time in previous history have all these things occurred at once to comprise a composite sign as has been the case since 1914. Consider the following enumeration of some of the predicted things of which there is an abundance of physical facts in support:

Sign Scripture Proof

1. World Wars Matt. 24:6, 7

2. Widespread famines Matt. 24:7

3. Unusual number of earthquakes Matt. 24:7

4. Persecution of Christians Matt. 24:9

5. Many false Christian religions Matt. 24:10, 11, 23, 24

6. Increased lawlessness Matt. 24:12

7. Many forsake Christianity Matt. 24:12

12. Sore pestilences and diseases Luke 21:11

13. Men becoming faint out of fear Luke 21:26

14. Juvenile delinquency 2 Tim. 3:1-3

11. How do the righteous view these transitional days since 1914?

¹¹ While the earth is filled full of woes on a scale such as never before experienced by man, deliverance draws near for those honest-hearted ones who are sighing and crying over all the abominations that are done in the earth. (Rev. 12:12, NW; Ezek. 9:4) To those of us passing through these dire times since the marked year 1914 Jesus said: “But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” (Luke 21:28, NW) Truly rejoice, for Jehovah’s reigning King, Christ Jesus, has been set up as a raised signal around which the peoples of good will on earth are to rally. See, Christ Jesus, the glorious Signal, stands upon the lofty height of Mount Zion, the established kingdom of God. (Isa. 62:10, 11; Rev. 14:1) There he now reigns in the midst of his enemies in order to vindicate Jehovah’s right to universal sovereignty and in order to bless good-will persons out of all families and nations of the earth. Join in exalting him with praise! “Praise Jah, you people, because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king.” (Rev. 19:6, NW) “Praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his heaven of power, praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him for his sovereign strength.”—Ps. 150:1, 2, Mo.

It is already the hour for you to awake from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than at the time when we became believers. The night is well along; the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put off the works belonging to darkness and let us put on the weapons of the light.—Rom. 13:11, 12, NW.

[Footnotes]

Part 3—The Quran—Harmonious with Itself?

ACCORDING to its own testimony, the Quran was sent down from heaven by the same One who gave the children of Israel the Pentateuch and Christians the Gospel. However, the Quran, unlike the Pentateuch and the Gospel, had no miracles to support its claim of divine origin. The claim of some that the Quran itself is a literary miracle we found in a previous issue of this magazine to be untenable. However, other Muslim authorities hold that ‘the language itself is not beyond rivalry apart from the truths conveyed, the like of which it would be impossible to produce without a miracle’.

If the Quran is indeed the repository of divine truth, then we should expect to find it, above all else, consistent with itself, should we not? We certainly should. But do we? No, we do not. In fact, we find, upon careful study, not only much discrepancy in the Quran, but a tacit admission of that fact by its efforts to explain away the existence of such. For example:

“When We substitute one revelation for another [verse, sign, Rodwell]—and God knows best what He reveals (in stages),—they say, ‘Thou art but a forger’: But most of them understand not.” (An explanatory footnote in Rodwell’s version states: “The Muslims admit that there are 225 verses cancelled by later ones.”) And again: “None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that God hath power over all things?”—Sura 2:106; 16:101, Ali.

But why should Allah find it necessary to change, substitute, cancel, annul or abrogate any revelations or verses? Does not that provide a strong argument against divine authorship? Did Moses, Christ Jesus, the apostle Paul, or any other servant used by Jehovah God to give us divine truth find it necessary to resort to cancellation or abrogation? Would not such be an indication of defective power? And is there not a tacit admission that the Quran contains at least some contradictions in the following: “Do they not consider the Qur-an (with care)? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy.”—Sura 4:82, Ali.

NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION?

Perhaps the most obvious example of discrepancy in the Quran is in the matter of compulsion in religion. Note the following forbidding compulsion: “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” “Thy duty is only preaching.” “We have not made thee keeper over [the Unbelievers].” “What! wilt thou compel men to become believers? No soul can believe but by the permission of God.” “Thy duty is to make (The Message) reach them: It is our part to call them to account.” “Obey not the Infidels and Hypocrites—yet abstain from injuring them.” “Summon thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and with kindly warning: dispute with them in the kindest manner.” (Sura 2:256; 13:40, Ali; Sura 3:19; 6:106, 107; 10:99, 100; 16:126; 33:44, 47, Rodwell) Surely the foregoing are unequivocal and in harmony with the principles of justice.

But how can we harmonize the foregoing with the following texts commanding the use of force in religion? “Fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you: Kill them wherever ye find them . . . Fight therefore against them until there be no more civil discord, and the only worship be that of God.” “I will cast a dread into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger-tip.” “Believers, wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbors, and let them find you rigorous.” “And when the sacred months are passed, kill those that join other gods with God wherever ye find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay in wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious.”—Sura 2:186-190, 212, 213; 8:12; 9:5, 124; 47:4, Rodwell.

Indicative of the kind of reasoning used by Muslim commentators in endeavoring to harmonize these texts is that of Râzî’s comment on one of the foregoing: “‘Abstain from injuring them’—that is, leave it to God to punish them, either at your hands or by hell fire.”

PREDESTINATION AND THE “KEBLA”

Equally difficult to harmonize are the discrepancies in the Quran relative to predestination. On the one hand the Quran holds out that man can choose his destiny. Otherwise why should a warner be sent to them? Muhammad was commanded: “The truth is from your Lord: let him then who will, believe; and let him who will, be an infidel.” “O my people! how is it that I bid you to salvation, but that ye bid me to the fire?” “Those who shall repent and believe and do righteous works—for them will God change their evil things into righteous things.”—Sura 18:28; 25:65-71; 40:44, Rodwell.

On the other hand there are many, many texts which indicate predestination and that man is without choice. For example: “This is truly a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord: but will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is knowing, wise. He causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy.” “Some of them there were whom God guided, and there were others decreed to err . . . God will not guide him whom He would lead astray.” “Had thy Lord pleased, He would have made mankind of one religion: but those only to whom thy Lord hath granted his mercy will cease to differ. And unto this hath He created them; for the word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled, ‘I will wholly fill hell with Djinn [Spirits] and men.”—Sura 11:120; 16:38, 39; 76:29-31, Rodwell. See also Sura 6:39, 150; 13:30, 31; 14:4; 74:34, Rodwell.

And not only a predestination regarding eternal destiny but also a fatalism regarding the present life is taught in the Quran: “No one can die except by God’s permission, according to the Book that fixeth the term of life.” “No mischance chanceth either on earth or in your persons, but ere we created them, it was in the Book;—for easy is this to God.” And to Muslims who complained to Muhammad: “Were we to have gained aught in this affair [war], none of us had been slain at this place,” he was told to reply: “Had ye remained in your homes, they who were decreed to be slain would have gone forth to the places where they [now] lie.”—Sura 3:139, 148; 57:22, Rodwell.

These contradictions regarding predestination are apparent not only to those who do not recognize the Quran as inspired but also to Muslims. They have given rise to various sects in Islam and much blood was shed in times past over this controversy.

Another discrepancy is found in the Quran as regards the kebla, or direction Muslims should face when praying. On the one hand the Quran states: “The East and the West is God’s: therefore whichever way ye turn, there is the face of God.” “There is no piety in turning your faces toward the east or the west.”—Sura 2:109, 172, Rodwell.

But we also read: “We have seen thee turning thy face towards every part of heaven: but we will have thee turn to a kebla that will please thee. Turn then thy face towards the sacred Mosque.” “And from whatever place thou comest forth, turn thy face toward the sacred Mosque; for this is the truth from thy Lord.” (Sura 2:139, 144, 145, Rodwell) Is it or is it not vital which direction one faces when praying? The Quran gives contradictory instructions and reasons in support of each.

OTHER DISCREPANCIES

Then again, according to some verses the apostles of Jesus Christ were Muslims (that is, those “who surrender themselves to God”) ; and also Abraham: “neither Jew nor Christian; but he was sound in the faith, a Muslim.” (Sura 3:60; 5:48, 111, Rodwell) But according to Sura 39:14 (Rodwell), Muhammad was the first Muslim: “SAY: I am bidden to serve God with a sincere worship: and I am bidden to be the first of those who surrender themselves to him, (Muslims).”

Again, according to Sura 2:59 (Rodwell) salvation is for others besides Muslims: “Verily, they who believe (Muslims) and they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians, and the Sabeites,—whoever of these believeth in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord: fear shall not come upon them, neither shall they be grieved.”

But other parts of the Quran teach exactly the opposite: “Whoso desireth any other religion than Islam, that religion shall never be accepted from him, and in the next world he shall be among the lost.” “Infidels now are they who say, ‘God is the Messiah, Son of Mary!’ . . . Whoever shall join other gods with God, God shall forbid him the Garden, and his abode shall be the Fire. They surely are Infidels who say ‘God is the third of three,’ for there is no God but one God.” (Sura 3:79; 5:76, 77) According to these latter texts, practically all of so-called Christendom is doomed to eternal torment. Is that harmonious with the attributes of mercy and compassion that the Quran ascribes to God?

Again in Sura 2, verse 285 (Rodwell), we read, “We make no distinction between any of His Apostles,” whereas in verse 254 of the same sura we are told, “Some of the Apostles have we endowed more highly than others.” And another instance of a discrepancy within a sura is found in Sura 56, where we first read that “a crowd of the former and FEW of the latter generations” will gain paradise; while further on we are told that “a crowd of the former and a CROWD of the latter generations” will gain it. See verses 11-16 and 37-39, Rodwell.

These discrepancies are apparent not only to those who do not recognize the Quran as the divine revelation. Muslim commentators are hard put to try to explain and harmonize the various passages and so resort more or less frequently to “abrogation”; the later abrogating the former. “None of the revelations [verses] do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten but we substitute something better or similar.” In view of what we have seen, how many verses then would have to be abrogated? And both the abrogating and the abrogated verses remain in the Quran, all of which supposedly existed from eternity. And it cannot even be definitely stated in every case which is the abrogated and which the abrogating, as it is not definitely known where and when each verse of each sura was written.

Some Muslim commentators, such as Râzî, condemn others for resorting too readily to abrogation to solve the problem. A favorite device, therefore, is to list the various explanations as does Ali on Sura 7:46, which is generally held to teach something akin to purgatory. Says Ali: “This is a difficult passage, and Commentators have interpreted it in various ways.” Sometimes these commentators will indicate which explanation they themselves lean to, but more often than not they will refuse to commit themselves. As the Imam Râzî once put it: “These are the various explanations—the Lord only knoweth the true one.”

When commentators of the Quran are also translators we find them making use of free translations so as to tone down these discrepancies. For example: Sura 4:157, 158 reads (in part): “For of a surety they killed him [Jesus] not:—Nay, God raised him up unto himself.” (Ali) But Sura 3:55 plainly states, according to the original Arabic and Sale’s version: “When God said, O Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die, and I will take thee up unto me.” Note now how skillfully Ali covers up this matter: “Behold! God said: ‘O Jesus I will take thee and raise thee to myself.’”

However, as Ali himself admits in his footnotes there are many doubts, conjectures and differences of opinion among Muslim theologians on the matter; some holding that Jesus did die; others that he did not. Says one Imam on the subject: “Upon the whole, the views we have given expression to land us in the midst of doubtful and perplexing questions; but when we remember that the inspiration of Muhammad has been established, in all that he hath revealed to us, by an invincible miracle [the Quran] the existence of such doubts can in no wise militate against the text of the Quran. And after all, with the Lord is the true direction.” But how can the inspiration of Muhammad support the authenticity of the Quran when the Quran itself is held to be the best proof of Muhammad’s divine mission?

In Sura 2:2 we read, “There is no doubt in this book.” (Sale) But such certainly cannot be said about the Muslim commentators on the Quran. All of which is a tacit admission that the discrepancies are real and do not merely seem to be such because of lack of faith or lack of understanding by the “infidels”.

To some the history of Islam explains some of these discrepancies. For example: The verses telling Muhammad that he is but a warner and prohibiting the use of force in religion are chiefly found in the earlier or Meccan suras. At that time Muhammad had no recourse to the secular arm, but was himself persecuted.

Among Muhammad’s early converts were some pilgrims from Yathrib, who, returning to their home city, proselyted for him and gained quite a following there. Soon they were able to offer the outcast of Mecca a royal welcome to their city, even changing its name to Medina, the “city of the prophet”. Gradually Muhammad maneuvered himself into the position of ruler of the city. And so we find the suras written in Medina advocating force in religion.

In view of all the foregoing we cannot escape the conclusion that neither the message of the Quran itself nor its literary merit recommends it to us as of divine origin, for, above all else, the Word of God must be consistent with itself, must it not?

Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, for it comes down from the Father of the celestial lights, and with him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow.—James 1:17, NW.

God’s Way of Financing His Work

Proper to make expression of your “Good Hopes” in sharing in the expense of expansion

TO A backsliding nation Jehovah sent his prophet Isaiah with a message of reproof. Among other things, Jehovah through that prophet told them: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8, 9, AS) Fitting as those words were to apostate Jerusalem some 2,500 years ago, they apply with even more force to an apostate Christendom today.

Among the many ways of God that are superior to those of Christendom is his way of providing the necessary means for carrying on his work in the earth. His way is to give the people the truth regarding himself and his purposes and offer them privileges of service in connection with the true worship. Appreciating what God has done for them makes them want to do something for his cause. For example: When the time came to construct a tabernacle and furnish it for the carrying on of the worship of Jehovah, Moses simply announced: “This is the thing which Jehovah commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto Jehovah; whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it.” And what was the result? “And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing.” “And they brought [so much, that the people had to be] restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”—Ex. 35:4, 5, 21; 36:3-7, AS.

The same willingness was also apparent when it came to contributing for the building of the temple and supplying it with the necessary equipment. Said David: “Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of mine own of gold and silver, I give it unto the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir [amounting to at least $81,000,000], and seven thousand talents of refined silver.” Then he asked, “Who then offereth willingly to [fill his hand—margin] this day unto Jehovah?” No wonder that, with such an example, the princes, rulers, captains and the people responded ‘willingly and with a perfect heart’.—1 Chron. 29:3-6, 9, 14, AS.

When Christ Jesus came, he followed a like course. He not only said, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving,” but, in striking contrast to the greedy religious leaders of his day, he practiced what he preached. Though he had been rich, for the sake of others he voluntarily became so poor that he had no fixed residence in which “to lay down his head”. Those who noticed and benefited from his unselfish devotion were only too glad to contribute toward supplying his necessities.—Matt. 8:20; Luke 8:3; 19:1-10; Acts 20:35; 2 Cor. 8:9, NW.

The apostles followed the same pattern. Having received free, they gave free. Their unselfish course influenced others to show love, so that many early Christians sold all their possessions and turned over the proceeds to the governing body for them to use as they saw best for the advancement of the true worship and the benefit of the Christian community in general. All such was entirely voluntary, we are assured.—Acts 4:32-37; 5:1-4.

MONEY-RAISING SCHEMES OF CHRISTENDOM’S FALSE RELIGIONS

How different from the foregoing are the ways of apostate Christendom! Its religious organizations are willing to give allegiance to the world’s worst criminals, such as Hitler and Mussolini were, in exchange for financial support. They encourage greed among their members by operating bingo games, lotteries and other games of chance, appealing to the selfish inclination to want to get something for nothing. Although the Bible says not one word about purgatory, nor about an immortal soul, and although no one has ever returned from purgatory to demonstrate that there is such a place, yet all such is taught by religious organizations so as to instill fear into the people’s minds so that the people will pay for the saying of masses.

In 1948 at one Catholic church in Brooklyn, New York, “a Mass with the name announced, was $5; for Mass with one priest singing part of the Mass the fee was $15; for high Mass with three priests, $35; for lights at the different altars, $5 for each altar; for marriage in the afternoon without Mass, $22; for marriage in the morning with Mass and one priest, $15; with three priests, $45; for a funeral a nominal charge of $35, ranging up to $100 for three priests at the altar and two priests at side altars.”—American Freedom and Catholic Power, by Blanshard, page 37.

And while many Protestant clergymen profess to be shocked at such examples of commercialism in religion, more than one of such has privately admitted that he did not believe in a burning hell but felt that he had to teach it in order to keep the people coming to church. Other business-minded clergymen take pledges of their parishioners and then send statements to such monthly, reminding them of their account with the church.

Many religious organizations sponsor bazaars, church dinners, box socials, picnics, dramas and musical affairs, etc., eliciting support for their “church” by appealing to man’s love of pleasure. Which calls to mind the anecdote told regarding a certain Ladies Aid Society, of the previous century, who wrote America’s foremost journalist of the time, a philanthropic individual by the name of Horace Greeley, for suggestions on how they could raise money for their “church”. He replied: “Try religion.”

How contrary to the Bible all such money-making schemes are! Yet in view of the spiritual diet of husks and brackish water that are fed to the people it is no wonder that they have to be bribed, cajoled, flattered, threatened and placed on a pay-as-you-go basis; a course which finds its counterpart in certain Oriental religions which provide for sex indulgence in connection with their form of worship.—Rev. 2:14.

In striking contrast with the foregoing is the course taken by Jehovah’s witnesses under the direction of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. As noted in the 1952 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, during 1951 some 63,000,000 hours were spent by their ministers in preaching the good news of the Kingdom in 121 lands. Millions upon millions of books, Bibles, booklets, magazines and tracts were published and distributed. Missionaries were trained and sent to foreign lands. Some 18,000 ministers received help so that they could continue in the full-time ministry, while more than a thousand of them served at seventy branch offices, looking after the interest of some 400,000 field ministers.

FINANCING THE WORK OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

To take care of all this expansion did Jehovah’s witnesses find it necessary to resort to lotteries, bingo games, church bazaars, dinners, etc.? Did they stoop to painting Jehovah God as a fiend who for a price denies himself the pleasure of torturing souls in a purgatory? Did they agree to support totalitarian political organizations in return for financial assistance? No, none of that.

Having received an understanding of Jehovah God, his marvelous attributes and his purposes, Jehovah’s witnesses feel impelled to do something to show their appreciation and so they give willingly. They know that now is their opportunity to make friends of Jehovah God and Christ Jesus by proper use of unrighteous riches, which sooner or later will fail, whereas the friendship of God and Christ will guarantee everlasting dwelling-places. They also appreciate their privilege of doing what they can even though it be but a widow’s few coins of very small value.—Mark 12:41-44; Luke 16:9, NW.

They further appreciate that just as their study, their attendance at meetings and their ministry work must be done systematically if it is to be effective, so their contributing to the expansion of true worship in a monetary way is best done systematically, in keeping with Paul’s admonition: “Every first day of the week let each of you at his own house set something aside in store as he may be prospering.”—1 Cor. 16:2, NW.

The expansion of true worship in the earth depends in no small degree upon voluntary contributions. Jehovah’s witnesses therefore appreciate that it is a help to those directing this work to have some indication from them as to what to expect in the way of contributions during the coming year. For this reason they gladly co-operate with the suggestion of the Society to indicate each year what they want to contribute during the coming twelve months. Such is in no sense of the word a pledge, but merely an expression of what they hope to be able to do, and it is termed “Good Hopes”. Appropriate in this connection is the counsel of Paul: “Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7, NW) And appreciating that all depends upon Jehovah’s direction and blessing, his servants unite in mutual prayer to that end.—Ps. 127:1.

Those living in the United States, and who wish to co-operate in this matter, may address their card or letter to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Treasurer’s Office, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, New York. In writing about these “Good Hopes”, something such as the following may be stated: “It is my hope that during the next twelve months I will be able to donate to the work of praising Jehovah and saying to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ the amount of $‐‐‐, which contributions I will make in such amounts and at such times as prove convenient to me and as I am prospered, by the undeserved kindness of Jehovah God through Christ Jesus. [signed]” It may be well to keep a copy of your card or letter as a reminder to yourself. On page 258 is a list of other branch office addresses, and a complete list is found on the last page of the Yearbook.

Surely the mutual co-operation of Jehovah’s servants in this manner is in keeping with the Scriptural examples. And Jehovah’s manifest blessing upon it emphatically underscores that God’s thoughts and ways are indeed far superior to those of selfish men.

Istanbul

Continuing the travel report of the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and his secretary, M. G. Henschel

SUNDAY afternoon, December 16, was clear. The weather was good for flying over the Aegean sea. There were numerous Greek islands to attract our attention and it was not long after we left Athens that we came to the mainland of Turkey near the Dardanelles. The land was covered with snow because the day previous had brought to Turkey much stormy weather. Flights had been canceled the previous day because planes could not land at the Istanbul airport. We saw that the villages in the mountains were blanketed with snow, but after we crossed the Sea of Marmara and saw Istanbul we felt better because there was no snow there. We were surprised and pleased to see twenty of the brothers at the airport to meet us.

Only a few weeks before this the brothers had been informed that the president of the Society and his secretary would come to Istanbul to talk to them, and that gave them just a little more than four weeks to make all of the arrangements and invite interested persons to attend the public meeting that was to be held in the Armenian Church Hall which was engaged for the occasion. The organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is not yet recognized as a religious society but they may have meetings in buildings where regular religious services are held. That was the reason for engaging an auditorium in the Armenian Church building. No public advertising could be done but just word-of-mouth invitations to friends and persons of good will that were being taught the good news, the Lord’s Word. So while we were driving from the airport toward the city in the bus we had much discussion about how great the attendance would be.

This was our first visit to Istanbul and in the dusk we saw the rolling hills of the farmlands outside the city and then the old walls and ruins of an old aqueduct. The coffee houses were always full of men. Round loaves of bread were set in rows on shelves in the shop windows. The streets were paved with cobblestones and the trams and other traffic looked out of place on the old, narrow streets of the city. We soon learned that traveling in that part of the city is best accomplished on foot. Vehicles were jammed up and very little movement could be seen. The streets were crowded with people too, making a scene that was quite interesting. We felt we were in a different world, because all kinds of people from many nations live in Istanbul, a crossroads of the world.

Just around the corner from the hotel was the Armenian Church where the meetings were to be held. All of us were glad and surprised when we entered the hall and found more than a hundred persons already there. When the talk was delivered, “Will Religion Meet the World Crisis?” 150 were assembled. The teachers were overjoyed, for they were able to see some of the fruits of their labors.

In order to make the audience understand what was being said by me in English it had to be repeated in two languages, first in Greek with Anna Matheaki, a graduate of Gilead, the interpreter, and then Brother Avrilios Kallinikou, who understood Greek but not English, had to say it in Turkish for the benefit of the majority present. Everyone was very attentive and all expressed appreciation of the thoughts presented. A good number of professional men were there. Much discussion followed the meeting.

The next days were busy ones, with the five teachers that are in Istanbul talking over their problems. The Society has a Watchtower bookstore in the city in which store people can obtain publications and Bible helps in various languages and then the teachers give private instruction to those that are interested. The problems are numerous, the principal one being that of language. One of the teachers was telling us of a study that she was conducting with four persons, one of whom was born in Russia although of Hungarian descent, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. His wife was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, speaking Greek. A young German lady living in the same home was a Roman Catholic and another person attending the meeting was a German engineer, temporarily staying in Istanbul and of the Lutheran religion. All four had different ways of worshiping and spoke a number of tongues. To really explain things clearly the teacher had to express herself at times in several languages. This was possible and shows that despite the language problems the teachers have to contend with in Istanbul the Lord’s Word is being announced and “other sheep” are being found. One of the teachers speaks English, Greek, French, and some Turkish and Spanish, whereas another one speaks German, Swedish, French, English and some Turkish.

Often the teachers when making their visits to their studies have to take Bibles in three different languages so as to be able to properly care for the interest they have found. Our discussion with the teachers and considering the problems in connection with the work proved very interesting. It is hoped that someday arrangements can be made for our own religious assembly instead of meeting in the auditorium of another religion.

Also it was possible to meet with the servants of the group of witnesses that are looking after the Kingdom interests. They had many questions on organization and a whole evening was spent with 14 of them. One of the principal points made was that it is necessary for the servants to shepherd the flock of God and that they must aid them by setting the proper example for the Lord’s “other sheep” by being kind, patient and diligent in their activities. In Turkey those preaching God’s kingdom must use tact and talk to those that they find to be interested. One cannot go about the streets publicly preaching the gospel, nor even go from house to house as our ministers of the gospel are able to do in most other lands. According to the peculiar laws of Turkey one may not go about advocating his form of worship. The only way is to find those that are interested and study with them. This takes patience and real endurance; however, it is good to report that the two sisters are devoting on the average more than 160 hours monthly in their teaching work and they each conduct about 25 home studies every week. When one has the zeal to push the work he will find the time to do it even though the obstacles are greater in Istanbul than in other lands.

The last night we were there another meeting was held in the Armenian Church Hall. Brother Henschel and I spoke to those who are instructing persons that show interest in the Kingdom work in Turkey. There were 44 in attendance and they had great joy. It was very unusual in the lives of these witnesses of Jehovah in Turkey to have a big meeting together. Comparing this with the public meeting, it goes to show there were more than 100 persons of good will who had come in addition to the witnesses themselves.

The Turkish tongue, of course, is the principal one and with it one can get along very well in the city, but there are thousands of Greeks, Armenians, Germans, Spanish, French, and other nationalities too. Istanbul has been the center of much religious conflict and it is a city where the East meets West and where the many philosophies of life are at odds. There is only one thing that will bring peace and happiness to these peoples, and that is the kingdom of Almighty God. Confusion of tongues, confusion of ideas and confusion of religion will be removed. The city of ancient days, where crowds of people jam the narrow stony streets and ragged peddlers by the thousands hawk their wares, is going to be replaced along with the rest of the old system of things by God’s new world organization and then people will be free to meet together and worship Jehovah all over the earth.

A witness is being given in Turkey, but by no means is it widespread. Those who are there are zealous in their service and they have increased in numbers. We wish them Jehovah’s continued rich blessing.

On Wednesday morning, December 19, a number of the brothers came to the BEA office to say good-by to us. The five teachers and two others went along to the airport. It was very cold and a light snow was falling. It made us appreciate what they must put up with in the way of weather in this season of the year, for we had rain and snow the whole time of our visit. But their zeal for the Lord overcomes these problems and Jehovah is giving an increase.

Questions From Readers

● Do the texts at Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31 and Luke 13:30 about the first being last and the last first apply to the order of resurrection?—H. E., Michigan.

No, resurrection is not the topic of discussion. Two classes of persons come in for consideration. One class thought to be first in God’s favor ends up last or left out altogether, and the class thought last or left out comes into the foremost position of favor. The self-exalted religious leaders in Israel were not only materially well supplied but also rich in spiritual privileges and opportunities, first in line for divine blessing, so they thought. In their sight the poor, common people were contemptible and called ‘am haarets or “people of the earth”, as being beneath their feet, the last ones to be worthy of notice by God. Yet Jesus told the exalted ones that the time was coming when they would be shut out of God’s kingdom arrangement, pictured by Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets, and in their stead would come the despised ones to recline at the table in the kingdom of God. By speaking of these incoming ones as being from east, west, north and south Jesus showed they would be not only the common people from among the Jewish nation but also poor persons from all nations. Such downtrodden Jews and despised Gentiles were the last ones so far as a chance for God’s kingdom was concerned; or at least so reasoned the conceited religious ones who put themselves first in line for divine blessing. So it was with these classes and relationships in mind that Jesus concluded with the words: “There are those last who will be first, and there are those first who will be last.”—Luke 13:23-30; 16:14-31, NW.

Those desiring to be rich in comforts, whether in a material sense or in public esteem and reputation, will find it extremely difficult to enter the Kingdom; whereas those who willingly divest themselves of comfortable belongings and good worldly reputation to serve God under persecution will be blessed. Such lowly ones may be put last on the list for divine favor according to this world’s rating, and the lofty ones of the world may be put first on the list. Yet, it was after contrasting these very classes of rich and poor that Jesus said: “Many that are first will be last and the last first.” (Matt. 19:24-30; Mark 10:23-31, NW) The uses of this expression in Matthew and Mark have a different setting from that in Luke, but the principle being established is the same; namely, that those rich in spiritual privileges and opportunities and apparently first in line for divine blessing, such as the clergy class, wind up last, and lowly ones thought by the exalted clergy to be the last to ever rate any divine favor are put first by God.

At Matthew 20:16 the principle is stated in still another setting. An illustration is given of a householder who hired laborers to work in his vineyard, agreeing to pay them a denarius for the day’s work. At the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours of the day he brought in new groups of workers, promising to pay them what was just. At the end of the day all were given a denarius each, regardless of how long they had worked. Those who had worked all day got what they had agreed to, yet they grumbled because those working only an hour got just as much. The householder told them he had lived up to the agreement, and that he could do as he wished with what belonged to him. He sent them on their way, and concluded with the expression about the first being last and the last first. (Matt. 20:1-16) This illustration applies since the Lord came to his temple in 1918, and the conclusion came in 1931 when payment came in the form of the new name, Jehovah’s witnesses. Some who had been in the truth longest became offended, murmured, and left. They were not satisfied with the new name putting them on a level with all other publishers, and did not want to live up to it by doing the witnessing work. So these one time foremost ones, due to their years in service, became last or left out, and those more recent in the truth and more lowly took their places.

So applying the expression to these two classes, it becomes understandable in all its different settings, and makes sense whether referring to situations in Israel in Jesus’ day among the Jews, or referring to the addition of Gentiles to the church class, or to conditions in Christendom in these last days. The exalted clergy class once thought to be first are abased to last, and humble ones abased to last God exalts to first position with him.—Luke 14:11.

But how do we know that to be last means to be left out altogether? The same way that we know those “called the least in the kingdom of heaven” are left out of the Kingdom entirely. By the context. It implies that those referred to as “least in the kingdom” were the scribes and Pharisees, and specifically said they would never enter the Kingdom, nor would anyone else whose righteousness did not exceed theirs. It is this same clergy class that is also spoken of as the first who become last, so “least” and “last” must betoken the same fate. (Matt. 5:17-20) Some may cite Matthew 11:11 as proof that “least in the kingdom” means to be in it, where Jesus said when speaking of John the Baptist: “He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” However, here “least” is translated from a different Greek word than it is in Matthew 5:19, and should be accurately translated “lesser”. (NW Dy; AS, m.; Ro) All in the heavenly kingdom are lesser ones in comparison with Christ Jesus, who is the one “called great in the kingdom”, for he is the only one to perfectly keep and teach the Law. It is also the context that shows those first ones who become last are thrust out, not entering the Kingdom arrangement, no more able to do so than a camel can go through a needle’s eye. We might even illustrate it by present-day expressions. When we say, “That’s the least of my worries,” we mean it is not a worry at all. When we say, “That’s the last thing I would have thought of,” we mean we would never have thought of it at all. So the first that become last are left out entirely.

● Why was Aaron not punished with leprosy as his sister Miriam was when they spoke against Moses?—G. M., Pennsylvania.

The record of this event is found in Numbers chapter 12, and a plausible explanation can be given. Aaron at that time was high priest in Israel, and according to the requirements of the high priest as given in Leviticus chapter 21, and particularly Le 21 verses 20, 21, no Israelite of the household of Aaron, who had a plague in his flesh, scurvy or other blemish, could be high priest. So, if Aaron had been smitten with leprosy he would have been ejected from the priesthood, or at least for seven days that the leprosy would continue as in the case of Miriam. (Num. 12:15) It was evidently his office that saved Aaron from such dire punishment. Also, the record is plain that when Miriam was smitten with leprosy it was a painful experience to Aaron and caused him to cry out on her behalf, which brotherly pain that he felt was no doubt punishment enough for him. We would often prefer to endure pain ourselves than to have those we love dearly undergo it.—Num. 12:10-12.

However, Miriam’s sin in this murmuring against Moses may have been greater than Aaron’s, may have been more of a personal complaint on her part. It may have been a case of woman against woman, with Aaron siding in with his sister rather than with his sister-in-law. (Num. 12:1) Miriam murmured against Moses because he had an Ethiopian woman for his wife. Evidently there was some jealousy in the matter. Moses was a prophet of Jehovah God, and his wife would partake somewhat of his glory. She would be respected for what Moses was, and she could be looked upon as the first lady of the land. Now as circumstances indicate, Miriam was the first lady of the land. When the Israelites came through the Red sea and Moses sang his song on the other side, Miriam took the lead among the women of Israel and led them in singing God’s praise and was counted as a prophetess in Israel. (Ex. 15:20, 21) That gave her the standing of first woman in Israel, and she evidently exercised some influence because of that. Perhaps her high station in Israel was being put in the shade by the wife of Moses, and it rankled. And while it was certainly not right for Aaron to criticize Moses, it was even more presumptuous for Miriam to do so, in view of the woman’s assigned place of subjection to the man in the congregation of God. So God punished her with leprosy, and that humbled her in the sight of everyone. For seven days she was on the outside, and then she was brought back and restored to her station. In time she died and was buried with restored respect in Israel and in the favor of God.

Announcements

“STRONG REFUGE” WITNESSING PERIOD

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps. 46:1) So spoke a God-fearing man some two thousand years ago at a time of great crisis. So, too, may God-fearing persons express themselves today, when there is “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out”. God, “whose name alone is Jehovah,” has proved himself again and again a secure refuge in times of stress. His watchful eyes scan the earth and take note of those who are devoted to him, in order that he may show his strength in their behalf. Such ones, knowing that his special purpose for these days is to make known his name, are anxious to let others hear of this great and powerful refuge. During the “Strong Refuge” Witnessing Period, occupying all of the month of June, there will be hundreds of thousands telling others about and seeking to aid them to find this refuge, by presenting the books What Has Religion Done for Mankind? “This Means Everlasting Life”, and any other bound book, on a contribution of $1.50. You, too, are invited to have a share in this blessed work.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MISSIONARY WORK?

Have you ever dreamed of being a missionary? or longed to serve God in some such way? It is not only by going to foreign lands that one can do so. You can do missionary work by carrying the message of God’s kingdom to isolated territory that can be reached, possibly over the week end, from the place where you live. There may be parts of the territory in your vicinity where “this gospel of the kingdom” has been preached in only a limited way, or perhaps not at all. During June, July and August, you may share in a special missionary effort to reach such isolated places and experience the joy of bringing glad tidings to some who are as yet uninformed about these important things. Be a “missionary” during your summer vacation period, or at week ends. Write the Society’s office (address inside front cover), if there is no group of Jehovah’s witnesses in your vicinity that you can contact.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of June 1: 1914 a Marked Year!

Week of June 8: Determining the Year by Fact and Bible.

Week of June 15: Evidences of the Year’s Correctness.