The Watchtower — October 15, 1952

“The Word of God Is Alive”

DOES the Bible live for you? From the benefit you have personally derived from it can you join with Paul in saying, as he told the Hebrews: “The word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and their marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart”?—Heb. 4:12, NW.

Pointing to a prominent obstacle that has erected unnecessary barriers between honest seekers of truth and their understanding of the Bible, The Churchman of April 15, 1952, quoted these words of the “Rev. Dr.” Roy L. Smith, which he voiced at a meeting of the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ: “The Bible is the least understood and the most grossly misrepresented piece of literature ever produced among men. Its flesh and blood characters have been so misrepresented that they appear to be little plaster of paris saints or nameless devils. Now, thanks to the historian and the archaeologist, we are beginning to catch glimpses of them as they stand revealed in modern light involved in desperate struggles in behalf of a decent and righteous world. The book of life fortifies the souls of all those, even today, who labor toward these same ends.”

Fortunately the modern Bible-reader is blessed with access to numerous modern translations which have done much to keep the word of life from gathering dust on the mantel. Only those who have superstitious reverence for black covers or the peculiar phraseology of the traditional King James Version will hold back. The above-mentioned article said further: “It is hard to get rid of the notion that there is something very holy and religious in the language of the Authorized Version, and we forget that it was originally condemned because it was too modern, too much in the language of the common people. We love the old version because we are so familiar with its musical phrases, and like music, they touch our emotions rather than challenge the will. The folks who always used the thee’s and thou’s which we use only in prayers never can seem fully human to us. And it is perhaps more necessary that we should know precisely what the writers of the Bible said, and not be misled by words that have completely altered their meaning.”

The King James Version performed a truly wonderful work in becoming a household book and equipping families everywhere with the Word of God. But it achieved its merit because it was in the language of the people of its day. Now, with another day, other people and another language, there is no reason why the Bible should not be made as understandable as it was in the seventeenth century. So we get the greatest good by reading the Bible in modern-day speech.

“Not the Kind That Shrink Back”

THE atoms and molecules that go to make up matter are in constant motion. The faster they go the hotter they get; the slower they go the lower their temperature becomes. And the general rule is that as a substance heats up it expands, and as it cools off it contracts. Also, a hot body can share its heat with a cold one, the faster-moving molecules of the hot one imparting more speed to the molecules of the cold substance with which it comes in contact, which increased motion causes the cold one to heat up. All of which finds some analogy with Christians and Christian activity. Jesus referred to those claiming to follow him in terms of temperature: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or else hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.”—Rev. 3:15, 16, NW.

Those Christians who are hot are zealously moving and bestirring themselves in Kingdom service, and are expanding their ministry. The cold ones have lost their motion and cooled off and shrunk back. They have no heat or zeal for themselves, and none to share with others. Those who are active and hot for God’s service can contact the less-active ones and impart warmth and zeal to them, bestirring them to activity and heating them up to accomplish an expansion of their ministry. The rendering of this assistance may be a drain on the energy of the one who helps and may cut down on his preaching time, but it does make for an over-all increase of activity by getting the cooled-off one warmed up and active again. Moreover, it is not a permanent loss to the helper, as might be the case with inanimate substances. Why not? Because Christians have a way of constantly replenishing their heat supplies. “Is not my word like as a fire?” inquires Jehovah. (Jer. 23:29) So by continual refueling from the inexhaustible Word of God the Christian’s zeal and energy for service can be maintained at a high level.

Some start out zealously in service. They study and soak up a supply of heat from God’s Word and progress rapidly for a time. But later they fall into a bad practice. They neglect their study of the Bible. They quit refueling, lose heat as knowledge slips from mind, and cool off as they mix in old-world surroundings that are cold to God. Losing their Christian heat and not replenishing it by study, they cool off and shrink back to their former smallness and inactivity, just as they were before ever hearing the truth. Paul warns against just such a shrinking back on the part of those who had started out using their freeness of speech to preach and who had endured suffering with God’s people: “However, keep on remembering the former days in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations, and sometimes while you became sharers with those who were having such an experience. For you both expressed sympathy for those in prison and joyfully took the plundering of your belongings, knowing you yourselves have a better and an abiding possession. Do not, therefore, throw away your freeness of speech, which has a great reward to be paid it. For you have need of endurance, . . . Now we are not the kind that shrink back to destruction, but the kind that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”—Heb. 10:32-39, NW.

Those who shrink back are the ones Peter said fit the true proverb: “The dog has turned back to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.” (2 Pet. 2:22, NW) They had been a part of the old world system of things, then came into association with the new world society and fed upon the clean spiritual food on Jehovah’s table, “a feast of fat things,” and thereafter turned back to Satan’s world, where “all tables are full of filthy vomit, no place is clean”. (Isa. 25:6; 28:8, AT) The Christian’s food is not just the nourishing truths in the Bible, but also the doing of God’s will, as Jesus said: “My food is for me to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34, NW) It is not just a matter of hearing God’s words, but a matter of doing them also. (Jas. 1:22) When one quits studying and doing God’s will, he returns to the hearing and practicing of the world’s wordy propagandas, rolling in its mire like the washed sow returning to her muddy wallow.

But perhaps the ones once hot do not turn cold, but only lukewarm. Then what? Jesus answered, “I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” They may give the truth enough listless attention to keep from completely shrinking back, but not enough to expand into zealous service. Going neither one way nor the other, they drift. “That is why it is necessary for us to pay more than the usual attention to the things heard by us, that we may never drift away.” (Heb. 2:1, NW) If we allow ourselves to lazily drift with the current of humanity we gravitate toward the Dead sea of Armageddon. We must not drift with this babbling flow of humanity, being swept along with it unresistingly, but we must swim against it, which calls for strong effort. So we must not only refuse to shrink back but refuse to be idle and motionless, for such objects become like driftwood that moves with every changing wind and wave, unable to guide itself and without power to govern its destination. Some of the currents of Satan’s waters run deceptively smooth, seemingly still but running deep. In subtle ways he will make us drifters, moving slowly and apparently harmlessly at first, but as the current takes hold its grip on us strengthens and becomes harder and harder to break away from, until eventually we cannot swim against the increasing current that moves us ever swifter toward the Niagaralike plunge into the abyss. But we can avoid this peril by hearing and doing God’s words, which will strengthen our hope in the new world, and which hope will in turn serve as an anchor for our soul to keep it from drifting into destruction. (Heb. 6:19) Failing to do this, we shall become so sickening and obnoxious to Jehovah and Christ and God’s organization that we shall eventually be vomited from their midst, forcibly expelled as nauseating and polluting.

EXAMPLES, GOOD AND BAD

Moses shrank back from a special service assignment from Jehovah because it called for speaking, and Moses found that difficult. Jehovah provided a mouthpiece for Moses in the form of his brother Aaron, and together they served faithfully, Moses even doing some speaking himself. Whether he had a speech impediment of some kind, and whether he ever overcame it, are not disclosed by the record. The point is that his shrinking back was only momentary and due to what he considered an insurmountable obstacle, that later he did speak, whether flawlessly and eloquently or otherwise.—Ex. 4:10-16.

After the exodus from Egypt and while in the wilderness, the Israelites listened to the report given to Moses by the men who had spied out the land of Canaan: “We reached the land to which you sent us, and it surely does flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. The people, however, who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the Anakim [giants] there.” Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, were for entering the land, the latter saying, “We ought to go up and seize it; for we are quite able to do so.” But the ten defeatist spies remonstrated in terror: “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are too strong for us. The land through which we passed in spying it out is a land that destroys its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. We saw the Nephilim [titans] there (the Anakim belong to the Nephilim); to ourselves we looked like grasshoppers, and we must have looked the same to them.” (Num. 13:27, 28, 30-33, AT) In fright the Israelites shrank back to destruction in the wilderness, refusing to enter the Promised Land. The giants in the land scared them, but when Israel did enter the land some forty years later the giants were still there. (2 Sam. 21:15-22) So it is today. Shrinking back does not remove obstacles. They will still be there next week, next month or next year, to be faced eventually when we do press forward in service.

When the prophet Urijah declared an unpopular message against Jerusalem and Judah, King Jehoiakim sought to put him to death. Urijah shrank back, quit Jehovah’s service, and fled into Egypt. But Jehoiakim dispatched men to Egypt, who brought Urijah back, and the faithless prophet was slain. (Jer. 26:20-23) How different the course of Jeremiah! When a scroll written by Baruch at Jeremiah’s dictation and containing Jehovah’s judgments was read to King Jehoiakim, the king burned it and ordered the arrest of Baruch and Jeremiah. But Jeremiah did not flee the country as Urijah had done. Instead, he gave another scroll to Baruch, “who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire; and many words of like nature were added to them.” (Jer. 36:32, AT) On another occasion the unpopular message of destruction from Jehovah brought so much suffering upon Jeremiah that he decided to speak no more in God’s name. But the prophet could not become cool to Jehovah’s work and shrink back in inactivity. Why not? Jeremiah himself gave the answer: “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones; I am worn out with holding it in—I cannot endure it.” (Jer. 20:9, AT) God’s Word, like fire, kept the prophet hot and active in Jehovah’s service.

At the start of Jeremiah’s ministry, when Jehovah called him to be a prophet, Jeremiah’s first impulse was to shrink back: “I cannot speak; for I am only a youth.” But Jehovah countered with, “I put my words in your mouth.” (Jer. 1:4-10, AT) Those words Jeremiah thereafter faithfully spoke. We must likewise speak God’s words today, fearlessly. He puts them in our mouths, through our study of his Word the Bible and provisions he makes through his visible organization. If we are to get these words in our mouths and be able to fit them to our tongues in preaching, we must let them sink into our hearts and allow them to bend our minds, making over our minds so that they are filled with God’s thoughts and not man’s. (Isa. 55:8; Matt. 16:23; Rom. 12:2, NW) In short, we must study. Study not just the first principles of the truth, but the deeper things of God also, that we may press on to maturity to become teachers of God’s Word. “Solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.”—Heb. 5:12-14; 6:1, NW.

Are we among those “who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong”? It is through use that our mental capacities are expanded and trained. Are we training ours for idle chatter, for trivialities, for gossip, for complaining or murmuring? We are if that is how we use our lives. On the other hand, if we are using our minds to search out and digest all we possibly can from God’s Word and from provided Bible helps, if we are using that newly gained knowledge by commenting at congregational meetings, if we put it to further use in preaching in field service, then such use and practice will train our perceptive powers so that our mental capacities will increase. This world has coined the slogan that practice makes perfect. Slogans are easy to coin, but analysis often shows them counterfeit. Practice does not make perfect—only God makes things perfect. Practice does make better, either better at being good or better at being bad, depending upon what we are practicing. Practice gossip, and you will get better at that sin. Practice godliness, and you will improve with Jehovah’s help. Proper use of our perceptive powers will make us better students and ministers of God’s Word, will keep us hot and active for him.

The apostle Paul, who counseled against shrinking back, is a good example of one who avoided this pitfall. No territory was tough enough to make him shrink back from it. On one occasion the Jews “stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, imagining he was dead”. Soon thereafter he entered this same city again for the purpose of preaching. (Acts 14:19-22, NW) He did not shrink away from the door-to-door work: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20, NW) Persecutions did not daunt him: “Are they ministers of Christ? I reply like a mad man, I am more outstandingly one: in labors more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in stripes to an excess, in near-deaths often. By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; in travels often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness.”—2 Cor. 11:23-27, NW.

Christ Jesus resisted all endeavors to make him shrink back. At the outset of his ministry the Devil tempted him in various subtle ways, but Jesus never wavered and finally voiced this abrupt dismissal to the tempter: “Go away, Satan!” (Matt. 4:10, NW) Later on one of his own apostles sought to turn him aside from the course of suffering that lay ahead: “Peter took him aside and commenced raising strong objections to him, saying: ‘Be kind to yourself, Master; you will not have this destiny at all.’ But, turning his back, he said to Peter: ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumblingblock to me, because you think, not God’s thoughts, but those of men.’” (Matt. 16:22, 23, NW) And even when his own flesh willed that the cup of ignominious death pass away, his zeal for the divine will took first place with him. Just before his betrayal and death on the torture stake he prayed three times, in substance: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me. Yet, not as I will, but as you will.”—Matt. 26:39-44, NW.

GOOD EXAMPLES OUR MODELS

We are surrounded by a cloud of exemplary witnesses who lived before the time of Christ Jesus. “They were stoned, they were tried, they were sawn asunder, they died by slaughter with the sword, they went about in sheep skins, in goat skins, while they were in want, in tribulation, under ill-treatment; and the world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.” But they did not shrink back. We have read of the trialsome experiences that befell Paul. Yet he did not shrink back. He advised: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.” And of the foremost model of integrity it is written: “Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely.”—1 Cor. 11:1; Heb. 11:37, 38; 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:21, NW.

We know when we are shrinking back, and so does God. We know when we do something because we want to, and when we do something because God wants us to. We know when we follow our own will, and when we follow God’s will. That is, we can tell if we want to, but we seldom want to tell on ourselves. Many prefer to fool themselves, and think they fool others, and hope they fool God. But he is not mocked. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He sees us as we are, whether we do or not. We must try to see ourselves as God sees us. We can raise questions in a self-examination. We have dedicated our body to him, but do we give it over to his will, or ours? Do we serve ourselves, or him? Do we measure up to our dedication, or do we draw back or shrink from keeping it? Do we let him use us his way, or do we insist he use us our way? What do we give up? What do we forego? What do we say no to ourselves about, in order to expand our ministry? Or do we pamper ourselves first, then excuse the pampering? Do we cater to the flesh and grieve the spirit or rejoice the spirit and browbeat the flesh? We cannot please both. (Rom. 8:7-13) Rather than enslave the spirit, Paul enslaved the flesh, that the spirit might be free. (1 Cor. 9:27) Many other searching questions we can confront ourselves with.

So the conclusion of the matter is that we should study God’s Word and let it fire us to Kingdom activity, expand us to meet the ever-increasing demands that the field of witnessing makes upon us. Once started, we should keep up our warmth for God’s cause by refueling from the inexhaustible source of Christian zeal, the Bible. An unfed fire dies out. An unreplenished leaky vessel runs dry. So we must keep fired by God’s Word, filled with the waters of truth, use it to help others get active, use it at congregational meetings, use it in field service, use it in all possible ways and never allow it to cool off or shrink out of our lives. We must never freeze into a motionless state, but keep moving in service, expanding our ministry, hot for Jehovah and his cause. Then we can confidently take up the words: “We are not the kind that shrink back to destruction, but the kind that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”

Jehovah’s Merciful Provision

THE laws that Jehovah gave to the nation of Israel truly reflected his attributes of wisdom, justice and love. Particularly highlighting his justice was the statute that required that the malicious bearer of false witness be punished with the injury he sought to bring upon another: “The judges shall investigate the matter carefully, and if it turns out that the witness is malicious and that he has given false witness against his fellow, you must treat him as he meant his fellow to be treated; so shall you eradicate evil from your midst. The others shall hear and fear and never again be guilty of such a sin. You must have no mercy upon him; life for life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.”—Deut. 19:18-21, Mo.

On the other hand note the most merciful provision Jehovah made for the man who accidentally killed another; so that his life would not become the prey of the vengeance of the dead man’s relatives: “When ye pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer that killeth any person through error may flee thither. Ye shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.” In view of the fact that there were neither bridges nor ferries spanning the Jordan, this provision for cities on each side was vital.—Num. 35:10, 11, 14, AS, margin.

“And this is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee thither and live; whoso killeth his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in time past; as when a man goeth into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbor, so that he dieth; he shall flee unto one of these cities and live: lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and smite him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.”—Deut. 19:4-6, AS.

The six cities of refuge were among the forty-eight that were given to the Levites because they had no inheritance in the land. Upon the arrival of a manslayer to the city of refuge there was a trial by the elders of the city to determine whether the slaying was truly accidental or not. If it was not accidental then the manslayer was turned over to the slain man’s close-relative avenger to be put to death; if it was accidental then the manslayer, while having his life spared, was obliged to remain in this city of refuge until the death of the high priest serving at the time. Failure to remain in the city could cost him his life.—Num. 35:26-28.

Note that this merciful provision was available only if such a one “hated him not in time past”. Thus even here God’s law carried the implication that to hate one’s neighbor was as murder. (1 John 3:15) How wise God’s laws! How they uphold the majesty of his justice, while at the same time exalting his merciful kindness!

This merciful provision of God’s law for Israel, being among ‘all the things that were written aforetime for our instruction’, has the greatest interest for us today. (Rom. 15:4, NW) How so? Let us see.

THE NOACHIAN COVENANT

Shortly after Noah and his family emerged from the ark Jehovah God made a solemn agreement with them. Among its terms were: “I will hold men accountable for one another’s lives; whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. I put my rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a symbol of the covenant between myself and the world. . . . the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it, and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.”—Gen. 9:5, 6, 13, 15, 16, AT.

The nations themselves have flagrantly violated this covenant by waging many wars and by willfully and maliciously persecuting Jehovah’s servants. Regarding such violation of his covenant Jehovah says: “The earth is polluted through the touch of its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.” “For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.” Concerning Satan’s Babylonish organization it states: “In one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God who judged her is strong. ‘Be glad over her, heaven, also you holy ones and you apostles and you prophets, because God has judicially exacted punishment for you from her!’”—Isa. 24:5, AT; Isa 34:2; Rev. 18:8, 20, NW.

Although this destruction at the hand of Jehovah is coming upon the rulers of the nations, they are not the only ones that are guilty in the sight of God. All those who have shed blood at the bidding of commercial, political and religious leaders are likewise guilty. And not only that, but to the extent that the people have given their support to such rulers, to that extent they also share in blame for the violation of the covenant concerning the sanctity of life. However, just as with the Israelites back there, Jehovah today has made provision that those who have been unwittingly involved in such bloodshed and persecution, that is, without willfulness and malice, may escape the death penalty by fleeing to modern “cities of refuge”.

FINDING REFUGE TODAY

The Hebrew word translated “refuge” is used and applied only to these cities, and has the thought of an asylum or place of protection and safekeeping. What is this asylum? What are these modern cities of refuge? Since these cities of refuge were Levite cities and therefore composed of inhabitants who were specially dedicated to and engaged in Jehovah’s service, they would well picture the organization of dedicated anointed Christians today, the new world society that they are forming, the new system of things under which they operate. And since when has this place of refuge been made available to such unwitting manslayers, men of good will? Particularly since 1918, when the hope of surviving Jehovah’s vengeance at Armageddon was strikingly advertised in the lecture “The World Has Ended—Millions Now Living Will Never Die”.

Who is the avenger of blood? According to God’s law the official executioner was to be a close relative, a near kin. In fact, the Hebrew word for avenger indicates that he was the close relative. The near kinsman or close relative of the human race who has been appointed as God’s official executioner and avenger of all the blood unrighteously shed and for the persecution of his servants is Christ Jesus. By being born as a man he became the close relative of humankind.—Gal. 4:4, 5.

That Jehovah God has appointed him as judge and executioner is clearly to be seen from the Scriptures. “For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son. And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is.” (John 5:22, 27, NW) “He judges and carries on war in righteousness. And he is arrayed with an outer garment sprinkled with blood, and the name he is called is The Word of God.” The place where he will execute his judgments against all violators of the Noachian covenant “is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon”.—Rev. 19:11, 13; 16:16, NW.

The Scriptures speak of the avenger’s blood being hot. The heart of Christ Jesus is indeed hot with righteous indignation against those who have willfully violated God’s covenant. Like Jehu, he will proceed furiously against his enemies. (2 Ki. 9:20) This indicates that there is an urgency about fleeing to the city of refuge, God’s organization, now. As Jehovah through Jeremiah warned: “Flee from the midst of Babylon, save everyone his life; perish not through her guilt, for this is the LORD’S time of vengeance—due recompense is he repaying to her.”—Jer. 51:6, AT.

Upon arriving at the city of refuge the judges or elders of the city passed on the manslayer’s right to remain in it. These elders or judges would well picture the mature dedicated anointed Christians today who are a part of the new system of things. They pass on the worthiness of manslayers to remain in the city in that they point out to such the Scriptural requirements for being spared at Armageddon, and in that they warn the willfully wicked of their impending execution by the avenger of blood, Christ Jesus.

Even as the Israelites were forbidden to take a ransom for a murderer or for one who had fled to a city of refuge so that he could return to his home, so today no one can buy his safety with worldly goods. “Wealth is of no avail on the day of wrath; but righteousness saves from death.” (Num. 35:31, 32; Prov. 11:4, AT) They must become residents of the city of refuge by exercising faith in Jehovah God and in his Son, Christ Jesus, as their Savior and Redeemer and must dedicate themselves to Jehovah God. To such the command is given: “Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who do his will; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.”—Zeph. 2:3, AT.

How long must these remain in the city of refuge? Until the death of the high priest, or until after Armageddon, when the last of the priestly members of Christ’s body die to join their Lord in the heavenly realm. Until that time let all dedicated servants of Jehovah make known his merciful provision for sparing unwitting manslayers, and let all men of good will, lovers of righteousness, take advantage of the merciful provision of Jehovah by fleeing to these cities of refuge, God’s organization.

Purifying Worship in Nigeria

Breaking Down the Idols

A NIGERIAN district servant writes as follows: “We traveled to our next assembly by bush trail, passing through many small villages. Not many villages in the Western world could boast of being so religious. At the entrance to every village hangs the juju, to keep evil away; but this is only the beginning. Do you see that pole with a chain round it? That is Awosi, the god of life. What’s that at the entrance to that hut? A mound of earth with a pot on top. That is Umumogo, the family juju. That clay bird is Ugo, the juju of prediction. The life-size image of a man and wife is Ovugure, and the little wood carving of a man from waist up is Obo, the god of prosperity. And there is no missing Oghene, a forty-foot pole with a piece of white cloth atop. And there are the small houses of sacrifice on stilts. Inside can be seen shells, bones, bananas, yams, coconuts, bottles, etc.

“After we had finished the assembly a young man ran up and said, ‘My father has just died and left me his compound. There are many jujus there. Will you come and destroy them?’ The work was efficiently carried out.”

Another district servant writes: “By 9 p.m. the public meeting had dispersed, and while false religion had been severely attacked by the sword of the spirit, soon it was to feel the literal ax and fire. A certain man formerly steeped in demon worship desired to be free. Fearing to destroy his idol gods, he came to the witnesses late in the evening, requesting them to do the job. An army of 100 witnesses set off in the night on a destructive mission. Death came to the idol gods at midnight! A mighty juju house was set on fire and into the crackling flames were thrown countless idols, charms, cowries, drums, vessels, pots, special garments, ‘holy’ feathers, and the like. Many of the neighbors joined the witnesses and cheered as the work went on. The demon gods succumbed to the fierce crackling flames and went up in smoke. As the fire roared the witnesses danced around singing Kingdom songs. The juju tree and its fence were hewed down and burned. Even the charms in the hair of the man’s wife were cut out and burned. These jujus through oracles were constantly forbidding them to eat this or that, to refrain from doing this or that, and were always making demands for the sacrifice of chickens and goats. The man had spent all his money satisfying his idol gods, with no benefit.”

An Assembly Among Thieves

Imo River is a well-known place, not for its good, honest qualities, but as a center for rogues. Here is the headquarters of the most noted robbers and thieves in the whole province. It was at this place that Jehovah’s witnesses began arriving for their circuit assembly. The chief of the robbers approached the circuit servant and offered his compound for some of the witnesses to stay in. Was he sincere or just seeking an opportunity to ply his trade? Noticing the hesitation on the part of the circuit servant he said, “I want Jehovah’s witnesses to stay in my home. It may help me to see the truth. I can assure you that not even one small pin will be missing from your people. I mean it. You know we have our union, and all must abide by the rules.” Seventeen witnesses stayed in his compound. In this town of notorious thieves, through which no one will ever dare to pass at night, not one conventioner lost even the smallest article. The people said they were happy to be with a clean people. Jesus said that publicans and harlots would enter the Kingdom before the self-righteous clergy. We are reminded of another thief that died alongside Jesus and secured the promise of a resurrection. It remains to be seen how many from this town of thieves will abandon the old world.

Mohammedan Impressed by Christian Conduct

At Oshogbo a new cinema was engaged for the circuit assembly. The owner, a Mohammedan, charged £2 ($5.60). After the assembly this man approached us and said that he thought we were like the general run of the people and would break a few chairs, deface the premises and continue into the small hours of the morning. But, oh, what a difference! Would we be offended if he returned the money? ‘Let me know any time you want the cinema again. I will fix it up for you specially. It will be an honor.’

God’s Way Is Love

Our God-fearing readers will be interested to note that all the scriptures used in this article are taken from Catholic editions of the Holy Scriptures. The best-known English Catholic edition is the Douay-Rheims Version, which was revised by Bishop R. Challoner and published with the approval of the Catholic Church. Another version now growing in popularity and written in modern English is the translation by Monsignor Ronald A. Knox. These are the two recognized Catholic versions of the Holy Bible quoted herein.

You will be pleased at observing how, from these two translations of the Divine Word, the wonderful works of God are shown, which prove that “God’s way Is love”, and you will see what blessings are in store for faithful mankind through God’s arrangement. With the Holy Scriptures at hand, if you have a copy, read the lecture herein printed as given by the president of the Watch Tower Society at an advertised public meeting and at the same time broadcast over a well-known New York radio station.

“God is love.”—1 John 4:16, Knox.

1. (a) Who was God’s promised One? (b) Since he was brought forth so long ago, what question do men ask today?

THE Most High God, who created mankind, gave us his written Word, the Holy Scriptures, and set forth many promises therein. These prophecies foretold that in time a holy One would be brought forth to bless all the families of the earth. That promised One was Jesus Christ. Today mankind, conceived in iniquities, conceived in sins, wonders why there is so much difficulty, why so much pain, sickness and sorrow among men, why so much selfishness and discontent in this world, so long after this promised One, Jesus Christ, was brought forth. Mankind wants and seeks blessings. So they ask: “If Jesus Christ is the promised Seed of God and he is to bring blessings that will affect men of all nations, why is not something done about it now?” Will you continue reading and understand why from the Holy Scriptures?

2, 3. (a) Where and how was this promised One born? (b) How did the virgin Mary know he would be born by her?

² Over nineteen centuries ago Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. He was born of a woman highly favored of God, the virgin Mary. One of the most wonderful things that ever occurred on earth was this miracle, a man-child born of a virgin. It was Almighty God in heaven who, through his holy spirit, transferred the life of his heavenly Son to the virgin’s womb and in due time brought forth the promised Seed. God’s prophet Isaias had foretold this: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son: and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” (Isa. 7:14, Dy) Jesus’ mother was of the line of King David and so could bring forth his royal heir. She was the virgin chosen to bring forth the Seed of promise. She knew of this because the Lord’s angel, Gabriel, came and spoke to her, as the record in the Holy Bible says:

³ “Then the angel said to her, Mary, do not be afraid; thou hast found favour in the sight of God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call him Jesus. He shall be great, and men will know him for the Son of the most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob eternally; his kingdom shall never have an end. But Mary said to the angel, How can that be, since I have no knowledge of man? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the most High will overshadow thee. Thus that holy thing which is to be born of thee shall be known for the Son of God.”—Luke 1:30-35, Knox.

4. For what two purposes was Jesus born in this manner?

⁴ This marvelous miracle was performed in fulfillment of God’s promise, a virgin bringing forth the Son of God, and His further promise will also have fulfillment, “His kingdom shall never have an end.” Why, then, was God’s Son brought forth in this manner? Primarily to make known the name, the Word and the kingdom of the Most High God, his Father in heaven. In his ministry Jesus himself told us that very thing: “No man has ever seen God; but now his only-begotten Son, who abides in the bosom of the Father, has himself brought us a clear message.” (John 1:18, Knox) Yes, this Son, who had resided with his Father in his prehuman existence, was transferred from heaven to earth and made a “little less than the angels” to give us a clear message from his Father. He knew his Father, and we come to know the Father because the Son was with the Father. For the Son said in prayer to the Father: “I have exalted thy glory on earth, by achieving the task which thou gavest me to do; now, Father do thou exalt me at thy own side, in that glory which I had with thee before the world began. I have made thy name known to the men whom thou hast entrusted to me, chosen out of the world.” (John 17:4-6, Knox) Thus Jesus’ primary purpose on this earth was to make known his Father’s name, Word and kingdom. His secondary purpose was to provide the ransom sacrifice for mankind.

5. What great attribute has God thus been manifesting to mankind?

⁵ These two purposes accomplished by Jesus are great blessings that affect us all. So this gift of God, this sending of his Son into the world for these purposes, shows the great love that God has for us and proves that God’s way is love. Time and again he has manifested his love toward mankind, and he is constantly arranging for blessing them, even though man today thinks that God is slow in doing it. But are we patient enough to find out further what God has done, is doing and will yet do for us? Let us read on, then.

6. What, then, is God’s way, and how do we show we know God?

⁶ From his walking with Jesus Christ, the apostle John tells us that “God is love”, which means that His way is love in guiding and dealing with mankind. “How can the man who has no love have any knowledge of God, since God is love? What has revealed the love of God, where we are concerned, is that he has sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. That love resides, not in our shewing any love for God, but in his shewing love for us first, when he sent out his Son to be an atonement for our sins. Beloved, if God has shewn such love to us, we too must love one another. No man has ever seen God; but if we love one another, then we have God dwelling in us, and the love of God has reached its full growth in our lives.”—1 John 4:8-13, Knox.

7. In view of what men teach about God in contrast with what his Word teaches, what questions are we led to ask?

⁷ Seeing what God has done in fulfilling his own prophecies in the Scriptures, by sending his only-begotten Son into the world to help man to understand and become acquainted with his Creator, certainly we must say that God is love. From the way Jesus taught us and the way the inspired Holy Scriptures teach us we can realize that God is LOVE. But what a difference there is when it comes to the things that men teach us today about God! In view of such teachings of men and seeing that God has done so much with our eternal blessing in mind, we are led to ask: If God is love, how could there be a place of eternal torment, called hell, where billions of human creatures in God’s image are said to go after death of the body? There fire and brimstone are said to be burning for eternity and condemned souls are said to remain there without release, in conscious torment. How could there be even such a place as “purgatory”, where souls are said to endure excruciating pains while they await their release to be taken to heaven? Why should it be God’s will that the vast majority of people should live and suffer in such poverty and distress, so that many people say man has his hell right here on earth? How can God’s being love harmonize with such ideas and teachings of men? When the God-fearing people at Berea were taught certain things even by the apostle Paul, they went “daily searching the scriptures, whether these things were so”. (Acts 17:11, Dy) We can be just as noble as those Bereans were by doing the same thing.

8, 9. (a) Because of man’s present misery, what question do we ask about his future? (b) How would God have more love for a tree than for man?

⁸ In their present condition those of mankind are miserable. What man is not sorrowful? He lives a few years and then goes into death. After that, according to certain teachings in this world, if he has not been a good man he must go to eternal torment in the fires of hell. Patient Job, a man who loved and served God, said this: “Man, born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.” (Job 14:1, Dy) Does it not appear that man has enough trouble on earth without having to go to a place of eternal torment after he dies in order to experience more and worse misery? So we listen with interest to what Job has to say further: “A tree hath hope. If it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout. If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust: at the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted. But man when he shall be dead, and stripped, and consumed, I pray you where is he?” (Job 14:7-10, Dy) A tree is beautiful; it is God’s creation, but it is not intelligent.

⁹ Man is intelligent, in God’s image, and are we to believe that God loves a tree more than man, that a tree after it is cut down will sprout and grow again, but man—no; even though he has lived in his miseries here, God torments him more after death? None of us like death. We should like to sprout again as a green tree does, and we should like to live in pleasant surroundings, if only we knew how. But after death where is man? Job asked. Did Job believe he was in a burning hell, a fiery purgatory, or even a limbo?

10. What did Job pray respecting hell, and why?

¹⁰ What did Job know about this subject of “hell”? At the time Job was covered with boils due to a sickness brought upon him by Satan the Devil. He was really a man in misery on earth. So in view of popular teachings about “hell”, is it not strange that Job should say this to God: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me”? (Job 14:13, Dy) Here Job, in his misery, prays to God in heaven to hide him in hell. Can you imagine his wanting to go there if hell is a place of terrible conscious torment? Certainly Job had enough trouble and was not wanting to hop out of a frying pan into a fire. No, he did not. But to avoid this seeming contradiction some have imagined that there must be a part of hell that is blissful and another part for torment. On the contrary, Job prayed as he did because he knew God’s arrangements and knew what “hell” in the Holy Scriptures means. He knew that sometime in the future God would remember all those that had gone to this Scriptural “hell”, and would give them an opportunity in a new world, “in which justice dwelleth.” (2 Pet. 3:13, Dy) So what is that “hell”?

11. Who are laid like sheep in hell, and what hope is there for them?

¹¹ One writer of the Psalms had this to say about it: “Hear these things, all ye nations: give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. All you that are earthborn, and you sons of men: both rich and poor together. They are laid in hell like sheep: death shall feed upon them. And the just shall have dominion over them in the morning: and their help shall decay in hell from their glory.” (Ps. 48:2, 3, 15, Dy) Sheep are not in hell, but sheep are slaughtered by the millions. In such great numbers, too, men die and go to the Scriptural “hell”. There the psalmist says that death feeds upon them and their help decays, but he adds: “But God will redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when he shall receive me.”—Ps. 48:16, Dy.

12. (a) Why have men been obliged to see death? (b) Why could their going to hell not be to have their souls tormented?

¹² Another writer of Psalms says: “Who is the man that shall live, and not see death: that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell?” (Ps. 88:49, Dy) By no human means of his own or of another man can any person living on earth today escape the Scriptural “hell”. Why man has been obliged to see death is that he has been born a sinner due to the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve in the “paradise of pleasure”. “The wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, Dy) Since all have been obliged to go to the Scriptural “hell”, was it in order to have their souls tortured in any way? How could that happen to sinful souls, when God says, at Ezechiel 18:4 (Dy), this: “Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die”? So, from the Holy Scriptures, man goes out of existence when he goes to “hell”, for his soul dies, making it impossible for his soul to be tormented for a time or for eternity.

13. (a) It hell means torment, then what must we argue about Jesus? (b) How does comparing the Douay and the Knox translations show what hell is?

¹³ If anyone wants to argue that hell is a place of conscious fiery torment, then he must argue, too, that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, this one born of the virgin Mary, also went to a place of soul torment to take the place of sinful mankind. Speaking of Jesus’ resurrection, the apostle Peter said: “For David saith concerning him: . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell: nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. . . . he spoke of the resurrection of Christ. For neither was he left in hell: neither did his flesh see corruption.” (Acts 2:25-31, Dy) The Scriptural hell in which Jesus was for parts of three days is mankind’s common grave, and it was from this grave that his heavenly Father raised him on the third day. In proof of this Mgr. Knox’s translation of Acts 2:27, 31 does not use the word “hell” as the Douay Version does, but reads: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in the place of death, or allow thy faithful servant to see corruption. It was of the Christ he said, foreseeing his resurrection, that he was not left in the place of death, and that his body did not see corruption.”

14. How does Catholic authority show “hell” is the common grave?

¹⁴ The Holy Scriptures speak of the dead as being asleep, not as consciously suffering torment. The dead could not be tormented by going to the Scriptural “hell”, because that word is translated into English from the Hebrew word she·olʹ in the Old Scriptures and from the Greek word haʹdes in the New Scriptures. Out of 65 times that the Hebrew word she·olʹ occurs, the Douay Version translates it 63 times “hell” and once “pit” and once “death”. (Job 17:16; Osee 13:14, Dy) But at Job 14:13, quoted above (¶10), Mgr. Knox translates she·olʹ “grave” instead of “hell”, and he translates it “grave” instead of “hell” at other places also. (Gen. 37:35; 42:38, Knox) Thus Catholic scholarship recognizes that the Scriptural “hell” is the common grave of mankind.

15. Does anyone have any feeling in hell? What do the Scriptures show?

¹⁵ So when anyone dies and goes to hell, does he have any feeling there? Does he have any senses that would make him subject to any torment? God’s Word, not man’s word, answers: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more. Neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge, shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening.” (Eccl. 9:5, 10, Dy) In this scripture, instead of “hell”, Mgr. Knox translates she·olʹ as “grave”. Certainly if a person were alive in purgatory or in hell, he must have some reason, some knowledge, some senses, in order to feel the torture and pain that some teachers tell us a person suffers there after death. To the contrary, we are told definitely, at Psalm 145:4 (Dy): “His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.” And at Psalm 6:6 (Dy): “For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell?” According to the Holy Scriptures, when a man dies he stops thinking and feeling; he goes to “hell”, the Scriptural hell, which is the common grave, and there he is asleep until the resurrection. He does not enjoy any conscious rest there.

16. What did the experience of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, show about those in hell?

¹⁶ Jesus’ friend Lazarus was dead in the grave for four days. Jesus, talking to his disciples about Lazarus’ death, said he was asleep. His disciples thought Jesus meant he was not yet dead but merely resting. John 11:11-15 (Knox) tells us: “He told them, Our friend Lazarus is at rest now; I am going there to awake him. But, Lord, the disciples said to him, if he is rested, his life will be saved. Jesus had been telling them of his death; but they supposed he meant the rest which comes with sleep. So now Jesus told them openly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I am glad I was not there; it will help you to believe. But come, let us make our way to him.” Jesus had a wonderful opportunity here of showing what the resurrection would be in the new world, by bringing forth Lazarus who was actually dead and in the grave. On his arrival Lazarus’ sister Martha said to Jesus: “If thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died.” Later Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb, but there is nothing in the Holy Scriptures to show that Lazarus said anything about being in a hell of fiery torment or in purgatory for four days or in a limbo, or of being in heaven with the holy angels. Certainly if Lazarus had been any place else than in the grave and if his soul had gone off alive into space somewhere, he would have known it when he returned to Bethany his home town. He would have told the apostle John and then the apostle John would have reported it in his Holy Gospel. But he did not do so. So Lazarus experienced just what Ecclesiastes 9:10 said, that there is no wisdom, knowledge, sense, activity in the hell or grave to which man goes at death.

17. Why could God never have thought of such a thing as eternal torment of souls after death?

¹⁷ God never could have contemplated anything like purgatory or eternal torment in hell. That would be the farthest thing from his mind. Proof that God never thought of such a thing is set forth in his Holy Bible, where he objects to such a thing, saying: “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire: which I commanded not nor thought on in my heart.” God never had such an idea for his creatures, and yet his apostate people took their sons and daughters and burned them in the fire to idols and images of false gods. At this God said: “Here the gods of the countryside must have their hill-shrines, and children must be burnt as a sacrifice in their honour; a rite not of my prescribing, or enjoining, or imagining.” (Jer. 7:31, Dy; and Jer 19:5, Knox) No, a loving God never could imagine tormenting creatures made in his image, putting humans alive in fire as a sacrifice. Much less could his love let him think of a doctrine of eternal torment or purgatorial torment in fire for human souls after death.

18. In the Holy Scriptures what does fire indicate, as at 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9?

¹⁸ When fire is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures it indicates complete destruction, not eternal torment; as, for instance, in this text at 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 (Dy): “And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power: in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power.” Here “destruction” does not mean spoiling or damaging. When God destroys or burns something, he puts it completely out of existence.

19. Whom does God hate and to whom does he show mercy?

¹⁹ Now those who hate God he will not bless. Psalm 144:20 (Dy) states: “The Lord keepeth all them that love him: but all the wicked he will destroy.” His expression of love will not go out to those who are his haters; but to those who love him God does exercise mercy: “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: and shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Ex. 20:5, 6, Dy) You note that God shows his anger only toward those who hate him. He does not show hatred against people just because they are born of certain fathers in a sinful condition. Every grown-up person is a free moral agent. He can decide for himself whom he will serve. Those who hate God and reject him he will not love. His mercy he shows to thousands of them that love him. It pays to be God-fearing and show love toward God. It preserves us from God’s fiery destruction of the wicked.

EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE

20. How is our being alive an expression of God’s love?

²⁰ Everything God has done and will do in the future is prompted by love. It could not be otherwise, since “God is love”. Our very existence is an expression of his love. He created us, giving us life. “For with thee is the fountain of life.” (Ps. 35:10, Dy) He is the self-existing One. It does no good to try to imagine when he started, for he did not start: he is without beginning and likewise without end. Before he began creation he was alone. But he had great joy and happiness in bringing forth creations of all kinds, so that today we see about us the marvels of his creation. All things that he makes bring praise and honor to him when obedient to his rules, and that is the way it should be. He has produced a race of intelligent earthly creatures, human creatures. It is natural for them to want to live, because God gave them life and the desire to keep it. Just living is not complete in itself, but living in happiness, living with the opportunity to praise one’s Creator, does bring complete joy to the human creature.

21. How does all nature prove the Creator is a God of love?

²¹ When we look about us, we see all nature proving that the Creator is a God of love. He made all things for man’s pleasure. Look at His generosity in nature. For mankind he has provided all kinds of food: fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, berries, besides water to refresh us. As far as things that we need for our life are concerned, he gives mankind an overabundance. One has but to travel in various parts of the earth to see the different sorts of food used by the different peoples, all of them nourishing, all of them pleasant to eat. Our needs in the way of covering and shelter God considers, too. He has brought forth animals that produce wool, and in the fields the cotton and fiber-furnishing plants, materials that can be turned into cloth, and trees that produce wood and branches and foliage for shelter. Even animal skins may serve for clothing; so we can have the necessary clothing and protection for our bodies, everything in such abundance. All mankind need to do is to use their capabilities and put these things to proper use.

22, 23. (a) What senses has God given us, and for what purpose? (b) How can man express life, and where would he like to live always?

²² Consider this body God has given us, and observe what man can do with it. He can see, looking at his fellow creatures, beholding all the wonderful creation of God living and inanimate. He can feel, telling whether things are hot or cold, determining the shape of things by touching them with his fingers, even if he could not see them. God has given us a wonderful sense of taste. No matter what we eat we can distinguish it, even though there be just a slight shade of difference in taste between this and that food. He has allowed us to hear, capturing the music in the melody of the birds, the surging of the waves, the varying audible movements of the winds. He has granted us hearing so that we can listen to loved voices, those of our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers and our friends. We can detect what they mean and what they wish to express to us. God has also given us the sense of smell. With it we can enjoy the fragrance of the grand array of flowers he has made, the natural perfumes that fill the air, the odor of the enjoyable foods we eat.

²³ All these senses God has given us as a precious gift to add to our enjoyment of living, not to experience torment now or hereafter. It shows he loved his creatures from the start. How his creatures can express life on earth! Man can walk, run, climb, swim, yes, fly, not with natural wings like birds but by using machines which God’s mental gifts to man enabled him to make to get up into the air by applying God’s laws for nature. All this God has given us. We are not self-developed creatures of evolution. We did not get here by chance. We were made, created by God’s power, and all these things that we possess are His gifts, blessings from a loving God. Even though imperfect now, man enjoys his five senses and enjoys his home, the earth. If things were perfect and peaceful, man would be content to live for eternity on earth. Now, would you not?

24. What can the brain do, and what does God’s gift of it show?

²⁴ You really would not know you were alive if it were not for the brain God has put into your head. What an organ it is! What records it makes! What impressions are put upon it during our present brief lifetime! How many things we can recall by it! What imagination it has to conceive things! How it can reason! There is will in that brain which moves us to action, makes us take certain courses. This brain of ours has a conscience that can be trained in righteousness. There seems to be no limit to the extent that our brain can be used. It can be directed to the study of scientific matters, astronomy, mathematics, engineering. It can study out the putting up of great structures and buildings for the housing and the work of earth’s people. It can study and devise and develop languages. We could go on endlessly thinking of what the human brain can do, because we have men all over the world today who are using their brain in so many different ways, some for the blessing of the people and, alas, others for the injury of the people. Regardless of how fallen man uses it, God gave us the brain and certainly this in itself is an expression of his love.

25. What attributes did God give to man?

²⁵ Another important thing: God gave man his own attributes. God’s attributes are love and wisdom, justice and power. These he put in the first man Adam when creating him, for God made Adam in his own image. “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, Knox) “All God’s doing; his are the wisdom and the power.” (Job 12:13, Knox) “See where he sits, . . . justice and right the pillars of his throne.” (Ps. 96:2, Knox) “Not once, but twice I have heard God’s voice of warning; all power is God’s.”—Ps. 61:12, Knox.

26. In expressing love, what did God put man in charge of?

²⁶ Those several scriptures testify that he is a God of wisdom, love, justice and power. If all men followed these attributes as put in the first man in perfection, this earth would now be a grand place on which to live. By his loving interest in man, God gave him directive powers for his responsibilities in taking care of the lower animals and in dealing with all the human family: “And God said, Let us make man, wearing our own image and likeness; let us put him in command of the fishes in the sea, and all that flies through the air, and the cattle, and the whole earth, and all the creeping things that move on earth.” (Gen. 1:26, Knox) God was generous, loving, in that he should take man and put him in charge of all these things.

27. Where did God put man and how did he provide for him not to live alone?

²⁷ “So the Lord God took the man and put him in his garden of delight, to cultivate and tend it. And this was the command which the Lord God gave the man, Thou mayest eat thy fill of all the trees in the garden except the tree which brings knowledge of good and evil; if ever thou eatest of this, thy doom is death.” (Gen. 2:15-17, Knox) Then God gave man a perfect, lovely wife as his helper and for peopling the earth. “And God pronounced his blessing on them, Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and make it yours; take command of the fishes in the sea, and all that flies through the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28, Knox) Another expression of God’s love! He did not just make a man and a woman and put them there in a paradise home and let them live alone with the animals. No! He made provision for happy family life among men, as the means of peopling the earth. He said: ‘Now you multiply, fill this earth with your kind and subdue it. Bring forth children and let them grow up to be people like yourself and let them multiply again till this whole earth is filled with human creatures. At the same time make the earth a perfect paradise. This is your home.’ Certainly the Creator showed love in making man and putting him in an earthly paradise of pleasure.

LOVE’S TEST

28. God’s putting the forbidden tree in the paradise showed that man’s happiness and contentment depended upon what?

²⁸ Had man continued in God’s love things would be different today. But man left God’s love and went his own way. Although man did so, God did not forsake humankind. “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (John 3:16, Dy) But some people wonder: ‘Well, God could not have been very loving in putting the tree of knowledge of good and evil there in the paradise. How could this tree and the forbidding of man to eat of it be an expression of divine love?’ However, the Creator knows what is best for man. He knows His purpose in making him and placing him here on earth. Happiness and contentment on Adam and Eve’s part, together with their family, depended on their continued appreciation of God’s blessings. If God once got out of their lives they could not be content, nor enjoy life, because they would have lost the Father’s love, and that is an essential thing to living. What God was concerned about was man’s continuing to live in His favor, in His blessing and in His true worship. So it depended on God’s love, righteousness, wisdom and power and upon God’s law’s being put into effect, and not man’s law.

29. (a) Was man to govern himself? (b) So what did God want to see in man?

²⁹ God did not arrange for man to govern himself. God had made full arrangement for handling the affairs of the earth and for having man do the things the way God knew it would be best for man to do them. All this for the blessing of the creation. Man should now show appreciation for God’s sovereignty, for his rulership over the universe. If no appreciation was shown, naturally the blessings would be lost. God told the man: “Thou mayest eat thy fill of all the trees in the garden except the tree which brings knowledge of good and evil; if ever thou eatest of this, thy doom is death.” (Gen. 2:17, Knox) This shows God would govern man, not by force or coercion, not by fear of hell-fire torment, but by appealing to man’s appreciation, man’s own gratitude, man’s love for his Creator. God rules in love. All he told man to do was: Do not eat of that one particular tree. What God wanted to see in man was obedience.

30. What would appreciation have led man to do?

³⁰ Obedience is expressed through appreciation and doing what the One who is blessing you wants. It would be for man’s own good to do what God wanted him to do. If man was appreciative, gracious and loving toward his Father, he would do exactly what his Creator wanted done. What did man have? Nothing except what God had given him, and everything he had was for his good. Man should therefore have love and appreciation for his Maker. He must observe the principles God set forth for man and abide by those principles. Man must remember it is Jehovah God who is the Lawgiver, giving the directions for the course of action man is to take. Man should respect these laws and commandments of God. So God put a simple test upon man. It was one of obedience as regards his eating. By just staying away from that forbidden tree man certainly could have shown he appreciated and loved God.

31. To whom did Eve prefer to listen?

³¹ But Eve and Adam did not love God, for they partook of the fruit of that tree. Through the serpent, Satan the Devil presented himself to Eve and she preferred to believe Satan the serpent rather than the Creator. The serpent said to Eve: “What is this command God has given you, not to eat the fruit of any tree in the garden?” “To which the woman answered, We can eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except the tree in the middle of it; it is this God has forbidden us to eat or even to touch, on pain of death. And the serpent said to her, What is this talk of death? God knows well that as soon as you eat this fruit your eyes will be opened, and you yourselves will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:2-5, Knox) “And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.”—Gen. 3:4, Dy.

32. What did Adam and Eve show a lack of, and why?

³² There was no love shown on Eve’s part in partaking of the forbidden fruit. Adam showed his selfishness, too, by eating. There was no love in their hearts, no appreciation, no gratitude for all the wonderful things God had given them. They preferred to be disobedient, to make their own laws, to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil, no longer looking to the great Sovereign of the universe who has all power, wisdom and love for His guidance. No, now they would act smart, make their own laws and live by them, be like God. How foolish, for in order to enjoy life a creature must recognize the Supreme One’s law, arrangement and way of blessing, not what the creature thinks ought to be done!

33. How did God then show his love did not fail for mankind?

³³ Back there in the paradise of pleasure our first parents turned against God. But God’s love did not fail. In this promise he expressed his way of love toward the human family: “I will put enmities between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Gen. 3:15, Dy) So God let Adam and Eve live long enough to raise a big family. God knew he could win the love of those of Adam’s offspring who appreciated divine blessings; but those who proved willfully wicked and did not want to live under God’s law and arrangement He would destroy. They would not be blessed eternally by the Seed of God’s woman, but would be crushed as the serpent’s seed.

34. What right did Adam and Eve lose, but what remains God’s purpose concerning mankind’s home?

³⁴ For disobedience Adam and Eve lost the right to live on earth. They lost their home in the paradise of pleasure and were put out of the garden of Eden. But as for their offspring, God promised that his Seed of promise would come and change things. God purposed for man to live for eternity in his earthly home, whereas now mankind lives for a short time. This earth was meant for man’s home, not heaven, not purgatory, not a hell of eternal torment. “The Lord has pronounced it; the Lord who made the heavens, and the whole frame and fashion of earth, moulded to his will. He did not create it to lie idle, he shaped it to be man’s home.” (Isa. 45:18, Knox) God says further: “So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.” (Isa. 55:11, Dy) This earth, man’s home, is not going to be burned up and put out of existence. God says this earth will not lie idle, and he did not create it to be idle, but he made it as man’s home, to be filled with perfect humans and to be brought to a paradise state all over. Psalm 103:5 (Dy) says: “Who hast founded the earth upon its own bases: it shall not be moved for ever and ever.” Ecclesiastes 1:4 (Dy) adds: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever.” Earth will remain forever for man’s home, and in due time God will have perfect mankind live upon it for eternity in pleasure, in prosperity, with abundance. Man will then be praising God, because God’s way is love and he is working it out for man’s benefit and blessing.

LOVE’S GIFT OF A BOOK

35. What book is a gift of God’s love, and how was it produced?

³⁵ All of our quotations above are from the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Bible. That Book of books is a gift of God’s love, for it sets out a record of his promises. It shows how he has dealt with man for the past 6,000 years, blessing and guiding obedient men up to this present time. In the sixteenth century before Christ God began to have the Bible written in its present form. It was started with the writings of Moses. Other inspired writers came along, all writing under God’s direction. Finally, about A.D. 98, the apostle John finished writing the last of the books of the Bible.

36. What did the apostle Peter say about the writings of God’s prophets?

³⁶ Speaking about the more than thirty-five books of the Bible written before the Christian church began, the apostle Peter writes: “Now the word of the prophets gives us more confidence than ever. It is with good reason that you are paying so much attention to that word; it will go on shining, like a lamp in some darkened room, until the dawn breaks, and the daystar rises in your hearts. Yet always you must remember this, that no prophecy in scripture is the subject of private interpretation. It was never man’s impulse, after all, that gave us prophecy; men gave it utterance, but they were men whom God had sanctified, carried away, as they spoke, by the Holy Spirit.”—2 Pet. 1:19-21, Knox.

37. So what is the best written guide for us, and why?

³⁷ Now all these things were written for our benefit. God saw to it that the Bible text was preserved, for that text was his own, written under his inspiration. Hence His Word is a perfect guide to us all. We should turn to it and study it. It makes us wise for gaining salvation. Paul told Timothy so: “Because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation, by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice: that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.”—2 Tim. 3:15-17, Dy.

38, 39. (a) What book reveals God’s purposes, and what did God promise to Abraham, David and Daniel? (b) What will the Kingdom make secure for mankind?

³⁸ We can certainly depend on the Bible, more so than on man’s spoken word. It is God’s word of truth, setting out mankind’s history from Adam to the present time and telling us what will happen in the near future. The Holy Bible reveals God’s purposes for a new world. As we turn to the Scriptures we can hear God’s promises about this new world with blessing for all faithful mankind. Long ago God promised Abraham: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:18, Dy) Adam had disobeyed and brought sin, sorrow and death on the human family, but to obedient Abraham God promised that blessing would come to all nations through his Seed, who is Jesus Christ. Later to David God promised a Ruler for mankind: “I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons: and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house: and I will establish his throne for ever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee. But I will settle him in my house, and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be most firm for ever.”—1 Paralipomenon 17:11-14, Dy.

³⁹ Centuries afterward God inspired Daniel to prophesy: “But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed: and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people. And it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms: and itself shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44, Dy) These scriptures, along with many other prophecies in the Bible, point to a kingdom that God will set up forever for blessing faithful men and women. That kingdom will make mankind secure in their homes: “They shall build houses and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruits of them. . . . they shall not plant and another eat. . . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion and the ox shall eat straw; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor kill in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Further, regarding the King and his rule Isaias says: “He shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. . . . The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion and the sheep shall abide together: and a little child shall lead them. The calf and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall rest, together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain: for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea.”—Isa. 65:21-25 and Isa 11:4-9, Dy.

40. What about wars between nations under the Kingdom?

⁴⁰ In that day, under that kingdom, will there be any more war between nations? Listen to Micheas 4:3, 4 (Dy): “And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into spades. Nation shall not take sword against nation: neither shall they learn war any more. And every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken.” Christ Jesus, the Seed of God’s promise, is the One who will bring all these blessings to the human family through the Kingdom which God has decreed shall be set up with Jesus as King.

41. How did the fulfilment of the angel’s words to Mary lead to fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6, 7?

⁴¹ Recall now the angel’s words to the virgin Mary: “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call him Jesus. . . . the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob eternally; his kingdom shall never have an end.” (Luke 1:31-33, Knox) That was carried out for the fulfillment of Isaias 9:6, 7 (Dy): “For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace. He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom: to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

42. What prayer did Jesus teach his disciples, and what does its fulfillment mean as to nations of this world?

⁴² Jesus knew he was called to this exalted position to be the Ruler of the new world. So he taught his apostles to pray for this kingdom, for they were going to be taken into it with him. To God their Father in heaven they prayed: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10, Dy) To this day Christians pray that same prayer, but have you ever thought just what you have been praying for? Do you realize that when you ask the Father in heaven to have his will done on earth the same as it is done in heaven you are asking him to destroy all this wicked arrangement that exists on the earth? For the earthly nations are not doing his will. You pray for them to be removed, as Daniel prophesied, and in their stead to have God bring in his kingdom. So will you now stop praying that prayer or do you want the Kingdom and its blessings?

RANSOM AND RESURRECTION

43. How has Jesus made it possible for man to gain eternal life?

⁴³ On earth Jesus not only vindicated the holy name and Word of his heavenly Father but also provided the ransom which mankind needed, by dying as a perfect sacrifice on Calvary. By giving his perfect, sinless human life he met the condemnation that God’s law imposed on Adam’s offspring. Thus, all that rebellious Adam had lost for his unborn posterity, Jesus bought out from under that sentence. By this he made it possible for man to gain everlasting life. Therefore the apostle Paul writes: “Sin offers death, for wages; God offers us eternal life as a free gift, through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, Knox) All that Adam got as his wage for sin was death, not eternal life in a fiery hell or purgatory. If we today accept Christ Jesus, God’s free gift to us through him is eternal life, in the new world. Jesus said: “As the Father has within him the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son that he too should have within him the gift of life, and has also granted him power to execute judgement, since he is the Son of Man. Do not be surprised at that; the time is coming, when all those who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out of them; those whose actions have been good, rising to new life, and those whose doings have been evil, rising to meet their sentence.”—John 5:26-29, Knox.

44. By whom did death come, but through whom does life come and for how long must he reign?

⁴⁴ There we have Jesus’ promise that all those in their graves will come forth in due time, some to a resurrection of life and blessing in the new world and others to a judgment that will go against some of them because they will not line up with God’s kingdom under Christ at that time. Life is through Christ Jesus; as we read at 1 Timothy 2:5, 6 (Knox): “There is only one God, and only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, and gave himself as a ransom for them all.” The first man Adam brought sin into the world and death by sin, so that all of us his descendants have died. The man Christ Jesus has provided a ransom for all believers. Jesus presented his ransom to God in heaven after his resurrection from the dead, and now God has seated him in the heavenly throne to rule as King of the new world. Says the apostle Paul: “His reign, as we know, must continue until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last of those enemies to be dispossessed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:25, 26, Knox) Christ’s reign is God’s provision for mankind, in expression of his love to them. God loves life, not death. Death is sin’s wages. Jehovah loves the sinner who repents and turns to Him. Because the first man sinned and went against Him, that has not made God go against the human family. But God does insist that we be obedient to his laws and follow out his arrangements, if we expect to live.

WHEN

45. When is all this to begin happening, and to what are selfishness and hate leading all nations?

⁴⁵ Well, someone says, you speak of God’s way as love; so when is it all going to happen? For an answer turn to Matthew, chapter 24. It tells us of a sign of many features, wars, pestilences, famines, earthquakes, Christians persecuted, that would appear when the Kingdom was due to begin. Jesus there told his disciples that when Christians saw these things occurring together on earth they should know that this old system of things is passing out and the new and righteous government, God’s kingdom for which he taught them to pray, is established in the heavens. He said: “Then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.” (Matt. 24:10, Dy) Now is that not a true description of the situation on earth today? Selfishness rules supreme. This is leading to a “great tribulation” such as man has never seen nor will ever see again. It will destroy all this wickedness and the nations engaging in it. The climax of that great tribulation will be the battle of Armageddon that the Pope has been moved to mention. That battle will put out of existence all the wicked angels together with Satan the Devil, and all the humans who are serving this wicked organization.

46. How could the battle of Armageddon be any expression of God’s love?

⁴⁶ Is that battle, then, an expression of God’s love for the human family? Yes. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but it will be a blessing for mankind for God to destroy all the wicked. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezech. 33:11, Dy) It is so foolish for any creatures to turn away from God’s commandments and direction. Why will you die just to carry out your own will and way of life? Those who refuse to obey God’s commandments he will bring to extinction, wiping them out, annihilating them. That is what will happen to the wicked. (Ps. 144:20, Dy; 2 Thess. 1:7-9) It is essential to all men loving righteousness that the wicked be thus destroyed. It expresses God’s love of righteousness and his kindness to man to destroy those wicked ones from the universe.

47. With whom will God people the earth?

⁴⁷ The Sovereign Ruler of the universe will bring forth a perfect earth, peopled with a perfect human family. Why, then, should God let the wicked remain on this earth and corrupt it? It is God who purposes to produce a perfect society of men and women, all in expression of his love, bringing them happiness, peace, plenty and contentment with their perfect life. It is his purpose to fill this earth with happy, righteous creatures, not wicked ones.

48. How does the flood of Noah’s day show Armageddon will be an expression of God’s love?

⁴⁸ In Noah’s day the flood was a very essential thing. Earth was then filled with wickedness, for mankind in general had turned against God. The exception was the immediate family of Noah, who loved and preached righteousness, eight persons. The people refused to be converted by God’s warning through Noah, and clean themselves up; he annihilated them, including the governments that then existed, because God regretted he had made man; he was grieved at the condition to which they had descended. So he destroyed them all. Noah loved God and God loved Noah and his family, four married couples. These God brought through the catastrophe, the destruction of that old, ungodly world. God had to destroy that first world and all its people in order that Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives, might enjoy life in happiness. God will do the same thing again. He must do it. As the flood was an expression of his love, it is also love’s expression for him to bring the battle of Armageddon. It is essential now so as to let people who love righteousness live in peace and unity for eternity.

49. How do men come to know more than a mere existence?

⁴⁹ Life is enjoyable in happiness only under God. We are living today—yes, but few of mankind are enjoying this life. Man lives, exists, but when sincere people come to know God and follow out his righteous commandments and live according to his good principles, they begin to live in happiness. “The blessing of the Lord maketh men rich: neither shall affliction be joined to them.” (Prov. 10:22, Dy) Jehovah’s kingdom for which we pray will be earthwide and will be a lasting blessing for obedient mankind.

50. What must now be preached before Armageddon, and in order that men may do what?

⁵⁰ And now, before the battle of the “great day of the Almighty God”, Armageddon, this good news of the destruction of this world and the establishment of God’s kingdom must be preached in all lands and the islands of the sea. (Apocalypse 16:14-16, Dy; Matt. 24:14) Just as Noah learned of the coming flood and was a preacher of righteousness and preached the saving news in his day, so those who learn of Armageddon and of God’s kingdom must preach “this gospel” in all the world for a testimony. There is no way to escape destruction at the battle of Armageddon unless people come to the Lord God and seek the just and seek the meek, “if by any means you may be hid in the day of the Lord’s indignation,” the same as Noah and his family went through the flood. They were hid in the day of the Lord’s indignation against that old world. (Sophonias 2:3, Dy) God does not change. He can preserve his people in all parts of the earth in this day, in the end of this wicked world.

51. Has God raised up any witnesses, and what are their purpose, their work, their way?

⁵¹ God is therefore seeing to it that “this gospel of the kingdom” is preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations. After that the end will come, the end of this system of things. God has raised up his witnesses. These witnesses of Jehovah God are very anxious about this matter. They want people to know God’s way. They show their appreciation to him by preaching the good news of the Kingdom in all the world. Jehovah’s witnesses feel their responsibility for taking this message to the people. They are not political, nor commercial, and are against any such false hope as godless communism. They love God in heaven and want to serve him and his Son Jesus Christ the King. They want others, too, to know about him and serve him. They encourage all people who love righteousness to prove by the Holy Scriptures all the things they preach. Anyone can take the Holy Bible, whether it be a Catholic edition or not, and prove to his own satisfaction what God’s provisions are for him. Everyone should turn to the Holy Scriptures for proof, just as the ancient Bereans did: “These were of a better breed than the Thessalonians; they welcomed the word with all eagerness, and examined the scriptures, day after day, to find out whether all this was true.”—Acts 17:11, Knox.

52. As Jehovah’s witnesses, what fundamental things do we believe?

⁵² By those Holy Scriptures we, as Jehovah’s witnesses, believe that the first man sinned and brought death on the whole human family. But Jehovah God loved mankind and arranged for their redemption that they might gain life in the new world. He gave his Son Jesus Christ that the sin of the world might be taken away.

53. What witness do we give about resurrection and gaining or failing to gain life in the new world?

⁵³ From the Holy Scriptures we have learned and bear witness that the resurrection is one of the greatest doctrines taught in God’s Word, and that mankind now in the graves will be raised and given the opportunity for everlasting life, the little flock of Jesus’ faithful followers gaining life in heaven as Christ’s bride, and the rest of believing mankind gaining an inheritance in paradise restored to earth. Those who show love for God and seek to do God’s will faithfully will live for eternity. Those who refuse to follow God’s law will go into everlasting death.

54. What things should we seek before Armageddon, and why?

⁵⁴ The new world is just ahead of us. Before Armageddon we should seek righteousness and meekness that we may be hid in the day of the Lord’s indignation. Jehovah God is not angry with those who love him. He will express his anger against the Devil and his wicked demons and people on earth who serve the Devil. These the Seed of God’s woman will crush out of existence.

55. What book should we get, read and study, and why?

⁵⁵ Everything God has done he did out of love. He has expressed his purpose in the Holy Scriptures, and we can depend on his Word. The Holy Bible has been proved to be true thus far, and we can have faith in God’s promises for the future. To gain eternal life in happiness we must come to know the great Creator Jehovah God and his Son. That is why Jesus said to God: “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3, Dy) Get a Douay Version Bible or a Knox Version Bible. Read it. Prove to yourself that what you have read here is Scripture truth. In love God preserved his Word, the Bible, for you. So read it. Learn of life and your opportunity for it, in proof that God’s way is love.

“He Done It”

● The following appeared in the New York Post, January 24, 1952: “Once again God must take the rap. In the aftermath of the West Frankfort mine disaster a jury has solemnly assembled, meditated, contemplated and brought in its unanimous verdict. God has been convicted. According to the jury the murder of 119 coal miners in West Frankfort must go down in the history books as ‘an act of God’. As Murray Kempton reported in this newspaper the other day, no one—government, coal operators, mine workers, or union officials—seemed prepared to look for any other culprit. It was so easy to blame God. After all, He couldn’t talk back. More reverent men might have hesitated to reach this verdict. They might have considered the guilt of congressmen who have stubbornly refused to pass a mine safety law. They might have weighed the responsibility of the coal operators who have tenaciously resisted mine safety legislation. They might even have studied the role of UMW officials who have always seemed more concerned with union politics than human safety. But all that would have involved many complicated problems. It was so much easier to blame God.”

Gilead’s Nineteenth Class Graduates

GILEAD graduations are happy occasions! The more than 12,000 that attended the graduation exercises will readily testify to that fact. To the student graduation represents a completed course of strenuous study. To many, a well-done. To the many friends and relatives who were privileged to be present at the exercises of the nineteenth class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, and to many more who could not be present in body but were present in “spirit”, Gilead graduations represent additional praise and honor to Jehovah God; because these graduates are willing instruments in the hands of Jehovah to the glorifying of his name and the freeing of many more prisoners from Babylon’s bondage before Armageddon strikes. The presence of so many well testified to the interest in the school and to the purpose for which it has been dedicated. It also demonstrated the bond of love that unites the theocratic family, and especially the affection shown to those who are soon to be sent to some thirty different countries to search for the Lord’s “other sheep”. Just a brief review of this happy occasion is possible.

Early Saturday morning, July 26, cars and buses began to arrive. Friends from forty-five states, also from the District of Columbia, Canada, Cuba and Hawaii, literally swarmed over the 700-acre farm of the Watchtower Society at South Lansing, New York, where the school is located. The farm, which is a home for a few, and a school for a class of approximately a hundred, became a virtual paradise for these thousands. Happiness reigned supreme!

The start of the graduation week-end activities began Saturday evening with a Bible study using the Watchtower magazine. The gentle slope of the lawn down toward the pond in front of Shiloah formed a large, natural amphitheater. The platform, banked with multihued gladioli, was nestled at the edge of the fir trees, which served as a picturesque background for the entire proceedings. The graduating students participated in the discussion of the paragraphs of the Watchtower magazine, while some 8,500 of the visitors listened with keen interest. This was followed by a musical program with a pleasant variety, arranged by the students, in which native folk songs and items were presented representing the thirteen different lands from which students had come. The entertainment was interrupted by a light shower and the program was discontinued for the evening.

These light showers turned to cloudbursts during the night, but the morning brought a new day with a refreshing breeze and clearing skies. Promptly at nine o’clock the graduation exercises began. After a few words of encouragement from the farm servant and instructors, and the reading of telegrams of congratulation from points in all corners of the earth, the Society’s president gave the graduation address. His subject: “There Is More Happiness in Giving.” He reminded the students that happiness had been theirs in receiving, then added: “The instructors have been happy in giving much information to you from God’s Word in the past six months. Think of the happiness that will be yours in going forth to give freely of this knowledge to others.” He concluded by saying that “the only true happiness in life is to give as Jehovah gives, with pleasure and satisfaction. Giving by compulsion is not acceptable to God. It must be done freely and gladly”.

Immediately following the talk diplomas were handed out individually with an announcement as to where the different missionaries were being sent. The envelope presented to each of the 111 graduates also contained a brief message from the Society on this same theme “Happiness in Giving”.

At the conclusion of the morning’s program a representative of the student body read a resolution, which was afterward unanimously adopted by the students, expressing their keen determination to “do all in our might to constantly make our minds over for new world living, and thus show our thankfulness for the added privileges of a Gilead training . . . We are now determined that, ‘having accepted the undeserved kindness of God, we shall not miss its purpose’ but, in Jehovah’s strength, we shall enter our assignments and minister in a spirit of mildness, showing love to all kinds of men”.

Most of the visitors remained Sunday evening, when the musical entertainment held over from Saturday was enthusiastically received. Representatives of the student body made expressions as to their impressions of the days of training at the school and also concerning their future life as foreign missionary workers in the different countries to which the class is being dispersed.

While the crowds were bidding farewell, conversations took on a more serious note. Some of the graduates were heard to say: “School is over, graduation has past, but there is much work ahead. These past five months have been difficult, but despite their difficulties they were happy months. I know we will look back on them whether near or far away and find in these few days much happiness, great comfort and a sure hope. And we will be moved to thank Jehovah over and over again for this most grand and happy privilege.”

[Picture on page 637]

Gilead’s Amphitheater

New “Bible” Omits God

● An Israeli teacher, M. Segal, has taken it upon himself to rewrite the Hebrew Scriptures, because, he said, something had to be done to make the good book popular, as it was in danger of being forgotten in Israel. In rewriting the Bible, however, he left in very little about God, because he claims the Bible is only history. He deleted four of the Ten Commandments, the ones dealing with the relationship between God and man. He left out the idolatrous dance around the golden calf and the smashing of the tablets on Sinai. Mention is made of the plagues against Egypt, but he inserts his idea that God had nothing to do with them. He has accepted the same lack of appreciation of pure worship that caused Israel’s downfall in 607 B.C., when the nation was “destroyed for lack of knowledge”. (Hosea 4:6) This is shown in the Associated Press report, which said: “In some parts of Segal’s work God appears briefly, but apparently only for the sake of art.”

Questions From Readers

● Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Does this mean that we as Christians should not be taking up time attending funerals?—L. S., Germany.

The record at Matthew 8:21, 22 (NW) is: “Then another of the disciples said to him: ‘Master, permit me first to leave and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Keep following me, and let the dead bury their dead.’” These words do not militate against anyone’s attending a funeral. The man here addressed had said to Jesus that he wanted to go and bury his father, but that did not mean that the man’s father was dead already, for if his father had been dead at the moment the man would have been there at the bier and not listening to Jesus. But the man meant that his father was old and sooner or later would die; and so the man wanted to postpone following Jesus until after he had taken care of his father until death and could receive his father’s dying blessing and then fulfill his father’s wish to have his son at the deathbed close his eyes piously after death ensued. This would have delayed the man’s following Jesus indefinitely and hence Jesus said to let the dead bury their dead. The man’s relatives were evidently not following Jesus on the way to life and hence were dead spiritually and could be left to bury the man’s father when he died. But when dedicated Christians today who are on the way of life and out from under the world’s condemnation have a death in the family and have a funeral, can you rightfully say that here is a case of the “dead” (spiritually) burying the dead? No. The man in the Biblical case wanted to go home to bury his father and not to give a witness by a funeral sermon.

But dedicated Christians arrange for a witness to the truth at the funeral. This is taking advantage of an opportunity. Jesus went to the home of Jairus where funeral ceremonies were being conducted over his dead daughter, and raised her. He also approached the funeral procession of the dead son of the widow of Nain and raised the boy from the dead. Peter went to the funeral of Dorcas of Joppa, where he raised her from the dead. (Mark 5:22-24, 35-42; Luke 7:11-15; 8:41, 42, 49-55; Acts 9:36-41) These funeral occasions afforded great opportunities for a witness concerning the Kingdom and Messiah, and that is what funeral occasions are being used for by many of Jehovah’s witnesses in these days, and extensive witnesses are being given both by the funeral discourser and by other brothers in attendance at such funerals.

What about attendance at a funeral conducted by a clergyman of one of the many false religions? We do not advocate it as a general practice, for such a practice would be very unwise. However, there may be circumstances when those in the truth would attend such a funeral, and could do so without being censured for it. Close relatives, who for reasons beyond their control feel obliged to go to a church building of some false religion to see their loved one buried, go there to see the funeral and perhaps comfort others in attendance. They do not go there to practice false worship, if they are in the truth. It is the same as in the apostle Paul’s day in the case of a man who went into an idol’s temple for something to eat. He goes in there to get a meal, but not to worship. (1 Cor. 8:7-10, NW) Some other brother’s conscience would not be strong enough to permit him to do this, and his weak conscience would take offense if he saw his Christian brother in such a place for just a meal. So while we do not advocate attendance at clergy-conducted funerals, it is not within our province to criticize or condemn, but we will let God judge our brother who according to his conscience may feel obligated to attend functions under clergy officiation.

● On what basis could there be a distinction between clean and unclean animals before the Noachian flood, before man ate meat, before the Mosaic law was given?—E. M., Nigeria.

That such a distinction was made is shown by Genesis 7:2: “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” The basis of this distinction could hardly be on the grounds of what could be eaten and what could not, for prior to the Flood flesh was not eaten; it was only after the Deluge that animal flesh was added to vegetation as a source of food supply. And even then there were no limitations as to what animals man might eat, but all were to be meat for him, according to his choice. (Gen. 1:29, 30; 9:2-4) As far as eating was concerned, the designations “clean” and “unclean” came into existence with the Mosaic law, and ended with it. (Acts 10:9-16) Apparently the basis of the distinction prior to the Mosaic law was what was suitable to sacrifice in worship of Jehovah. It seems that Abel knew of the appropriateness of animal sacrifice. The animals he is reported using for that purpose proved to be “clean” ones. That Noah had this distinction in mind as pertaining to sacrifice and not eating is shown by his action as soon as he left the ark after the Flood: “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”—Gen. 8:20.

● The Watchtower, February 1, 1952, quoted the text about Abel’s offering in sacrifice to Jehovah “the female firstlings of his flock”. Why did Abel offer in sacrifice a female sheep, when ordinarily the requirement was for a male animal?—W. F., Massachusetts.

The complete quotation in The Watchtower was of Genesis 4:3-7, according to Young’s translation. This translation was chosen, not for its rendering of Ge 4 verse 4 on which the question is based, but for the idea this translation allows at Ge 4 verse 7, namely, that it was a sin-offering that was lying at Cain’s door and that if he would avail himself of it he could offer an acceptable sacrifice to God the same as Abel did, that is, a bloody one. However, when Young renders the Hebrew expression in Ge 4 verse 4 as “female firstlings” he is not correct. It is true the word “firstlings” in Hebrew here has the feminine form, but that does not mean it designates female firstborn of animals. In Hebrew the firstborn of humans is rendered in the masculine gender, but in animals it is rendered in the feminine gender, and the firstfruits of plants take on a still different form of the root word. It does not mean that all animal firstborn are females, no more than it means all human firstborn are males. So on this particular point other translators are correct in rendering Genesis 4:4 as merely “firstlings” and designating no gender in the English translation. So the question as to why Abel sacrificed “female” firstlings becomes without basis, for when the account is correctly translated it does not say that he did so.

Announcements

“HOLD A GOOD CONSCIENCE”—1 Pet. 3:16, NW.

A good conscience toward God is what all lovers of eternal life must have. It is won not merely by putting away fleshly filth and sin, but by positive right-doing, serving God, based on faith in the blood of Christ Jesus, of which Paul says, “How much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God?” During November this “sacred service” on the part of Jehovah’s witnesses will take the form of presenting to the people the three bound books What Has Religion Done for Mankind? “Let God Be True” and “This Means Everlasting Life”, on a contribution of 50c each. This splendid combination of books presents a wide field for profitable Bible study that will help people to attain and hold a good conscience. Join in the special effort by introducing these books to others, and by reporting your activity to the Society at the conclusion of the month.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF RELIGION TODAY?

Why do you think your religion is the best? Naturally you do or else you would not practice such religion. But did you ever stop to think that there are millions of people practicing a multitude of different religions and all believing that their particular religion is best? Can everyone be right? The teachings of modern religions are so diversified and contrary one to another that common sense tells us they cannot all be right. How are we going to weigh their respective merits? By examining their fruits—the results they have produced. The 352-page book What Has Religion Done for Mankind? sets forth the evidence of the effects of religion practiced by millions. It is available to you on a remittance of 50c, postpaid.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of November 23: God’s Way Is Love, ¶1-19.

Week of November 30: God’s Way Is Love, ¶20-34.

Week of December 7: God’s Way Is Love, ¶35-55.