The Watchtower — June 15, 1953

Religious Pretext for Vain Show

PERHAPS no religious service is attended by more professed Christians than that held on Easter Sunday. Regarding the 1953 Easter the New York Times, April 6, reported: “Easter Services Jammed. Record Throngs in City Pay Glad Tribute to the Resurrection.” It also told of mammoth crowds attending Easter sunrise services in various parts of the United States and that one of the largest crowds ever assembled in St. Peter’s Square gathered there to hear an address by the pope.

Among the details given in the Times report were the following: At St. Patrick’s cathedral the bright finery of 5,000 worshipers combined with the white and gold vestments of the priests and the choral alleluias to reflect the joy of the Easter celebration of the solemn pontifical mass. At the cathedral of St. John the Divine another 5,000 thronged the service at which five church banners and 62 organ trumpets were blessed, followed by a solemn liturgical procession of clergy and choir robed in white.

At St. Martin’s Episcopal church a garden was set up in the chapel of the church. “It contained a representation of the Hill of Calvary with three crosses and the Holy Sepulchre. An azalea bush was planted beside the tomb and daffodils, tulips, narcissuses, blue daisies, lilies and snapdragons were included in the arrangement. The tomb was constructed from rocks from many countries.” Some 6,000 persons viewed this display in the five Easter services held in the church.

At Radio City an audience of some 6,500 witnessed a “dramatic enactment of the rising of the Easter sun”, the stage simulating the interior of a Gothic cathedral with red and blue stained-glass windows, the altar being flanked by Easter lilies and guarded by figures of angels. Similar sunrise services were held in other theaters throughout the city, and at Paramus, New Jersey, nearly 9,000 attended the Easter sunrise service.

Nor were the spectacles limited to places of worship. Police estimated that 1,250,000 witnessed the Easter parade on Fifth Avenue, where not only the notable figures of society paraded in their finest and most correct, but where notoriety seekers held forth and publicity agents of milliners and clothing stores advertised their wares by means of models who posed as Easter worshipers. One white-haired old gentleman, attired like Benjamin Franklin in eighteenth-century knee breeches and buckled pumps, presented himself at one church after another.

One “woman wore a large round wide-brimmed hat on which was mounted a cross, table and chairs for the Last Supper, chickens, a live bird in a cage and other bric-a-brac”; who, however, was admonished to keep on walking until she got outside of the Easter parade area. Another wore a large hat containing rows upon rows of pink roses, topped with a skirted rabbit, chickens and an American flag. A number of other such millinery creations were also seen, calling to mind the fantastic headgear of the South African ricksha boys. In spite of all this we are solemnly assured that this was the most dignified Easter held in recent years!

Ostensibly one engages in a form of worship for the purpose of pleasing or appeasing a deity. Those professing to be Christians by the same token engage in their religious services for the purpose of gaining the favor of the God of the Bible. To gain his favor he tells us that our worship must be based on truth, must be sincere and uncontaminated by the world.—John 4:24; Heb. 4:13; Jas. 1:27, NW.

But are the spectacles enacted in the churches and the finery displayed on Fifth Avenue for the purpose of winning Jehovah God’s approval? Or is its purpose to attract the idly curious, win the approval of men and reap a large harvest of shekels for the coffers of the church? And what about the sincerity of such church attenders who limit church-going to once or twice a year, when a spectacle is being presented? Are not such drawing near to God with their lips while their hearts are far removed from him? Are they not displaying a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power?—Matt. 15:8; 2 Tim. 3:5, NW.

All such, however, is not surprising in view of the fact that “there is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers”. (Encyclopædia Britannica) It was first at the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, that Easter was established as a festival, to fall on the first Sunday after the full moon on or following March 21.

Easter and everything associated with it is of pagan origin, not Christian. The very term “Easter” is taken from the goddess of spring, Ostara, a variation of Ishtar or Astarte. Both eggs and rabbits are pagan symbols of fertility, while the wearing of new Easter hats was done by pagans to assure luck in love.

Even the thousands of Easter sermons are filled with paganism. The theme of immortality is stressed and much is made of the return of life in the spring as emblematic of human immortality. Thus clergymen confuse the Scriptural teaching of the resurrection from the dead with the Pythagorean and Platonic teaching of the immortality of the human soul, as if they were one and the same thing. Far from being the same they are not even compatible, for there could be no resurrection unless there was a death, a cessation of life; and if the immortality teaching is true then there is no such thing as death.

How could Christ Jesus have been immortal when he plainly told John that he was the Living One who had become dead but now was living forever and ever? (Rev. 1:5, 18; 2:8, NW) And note also Paul’s argument on the resurrection at 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. If there is no resurrection then Christ is not risen but is still dead, and Christians are without hope. The resurrection hope and the immortality dogma cannot be reconciled.

Easter has no place in the true worship of Jehovah God. It is based on false teaching and serves as a religious pretext for vain show. And judging by the crowds his professed “people love to have it so”.—Jer. 5:31.

The Broad Road of Religious Divisions

WHY so many religions? Within the United States alone there are twenty-three kinds of Baptists, twenty-one kinds of Methodists, twenty divisions among the Lutherans, thirteen brands of Mennonites, ten kinds of Presbyterians, and a whole handful of Churches of God. Thirty-nine religions admit such a lack of unity that they say doctrine is all up to the individual, apparently assuming he knows more than the scholars, or that his contradicting idea may be inspired by the spirit. One authority put it this way: “If one must speak of denominations and sects, of organizations here and there, of movements now and then, how can one speak of Christianity in the United States? Is not this religious chaos . . . all spots and jumps?”

Yes, why such division? The Bible is just one book. Average editions contain 1,000 to 1,300 pages, and that is not exceedingly large. Webster’s Dictionary contains 3,000; the Encyclopædia Britannica, 24,000; the Harvard Classics, 22,000. Yet on the basis of the Bible’s 1,000 pages rests the foundation of more than 230 of America’s more than 250 religions, or one denomination for every five pages in that book. Now, since the Bible does not contradict itself on doctrine every five pages, why are there so many different religions claiming it as their guide? Are their scholars so ignorant they cannot read these 1,000 pages to agree, or are there other reasons?

Some reasons for this division have been petty, others practically ridiculous, few of them Christian. A main cause has been man’s determination to make his religion over to suit him, instead of making himself over to suit God. These attempted “improvements” were long ago foretold: “Men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves,” and, “There will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them [Christ].” (Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Pet. 2:1, NW) In evidence that this happened, The Kingdom of God in America says current religion “represents not so much the impact of the gospel upon the New World as the use and adaptation of the gospel by the new society for its own purposes”. Unity of doctrine is gone, and that loss of unity represents a loss of true Christianity.

Religious boundaries have been frequently laid out along the political and economic map. William Warren Sweet in The Story of Religions in America points out that the most important and far-reaching of the schisms in American churches occurred over Negro slavery, and says: “It was not until church members had become wealthy cotton growers, that the churches ceased to denounce the institution. At the adoption of the Constitution all the churches were unanimous in their opposition to slavery; by the opening of the Civil War the churches had become a bulwark of American slavery.” So, with religion not molding the people, but being molded by them; not influencing the world, but being influenced by it, it is little wonder that it has spread out in so many different and conflicting directions.

HISTORY OF DIVISIONS

The first settlers brought with them a great number of religions. There were Anglicans, Puritans, Pilgrims, Scotch Presbyterians, Calvinists, Lutherans, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and others. But the pioneer was a rugged individualist, independent and determined to go his own way in religion as well as in politics. He took this already confused stock of religions and severed and split them into myriads of smaller groups. “Denominations such as the Dunkers and Mennonites, which were of European origin, when transplanted to America divided and redivided as they moved westward into the undeveloped frontier,” says Sweet, who describes this frontier religion as “warped though it often was, almost beyond recognition”. The foundations for the new religions were, therefore, based not on sound doctrine but on this warped frontier viewpoint. While getting farther and farther from true worship, the number of sects grew and grew.

Further severing America’s religion was the “Great Awakening” between 1734 and 1790. This was a surge of revivalism that spread from New England down through New Jersey and into the South. The new preachers or “New Lights”, however, were not looked on with favor by the more conservative elements or “Old Lights” who frequently expelled the newer group. These, being vigorously evangelistic, just established their own congregations, some of which grew into new religions. The Unitarians split off from the Congregationalists in this manner. The Presbyterians split temporarily into “New Side” and “Old Side” bodies, and many “Separate” congregations that were formed became Baptist. Shubal Stearns, the founder of one of these, moved to North Carolina, where his evangelism produced the Separate Baptists, now a comparatively small group, whose immediate growth was called “almost unparalleled in Baptist history”.

Slavery, already mentioned, was the third great reason for schisms. It split Methodism wide open in 1844. The great Baptist split was in 1845. The Presbyterian house divided right down the Mason-Dixon line between North and South. Entirely separate religious organizations were established to conform to politics, and when politics can divide the church it has certainly fallen a long way from the separateness from politics taught by Christ and the apostles! The Baptist and Presbyterian divisions remain to this day; the Methodist breach was healed only in 1939. Frank S. Mead in his Handbook of Denominations says this split “concerned neither doctrine nor polity; it was purely political and social”. The real effort was not to follow God’s Word, but to support the political views of the members, to ‘adapt the gospel to their own purposes’.

Differently, the Episcopalians did not divide; they just went out and shot each other. Bishop Polk was a Southern general, and according to Mead’s See These Banners Go, “Bishop McIlvaine of Ohio and fighting Bishop Polk of Louisiana prayed for each other by name in their chancels, every Sabbath day.” They just “separated for the moment, as two travelers might separate to walk around a mud puddle in their road and join again when the obstacle was passed”.

THE ROAD BROADENS

Not only did this sectional conflict also divide these same religions into white and colored, developing new denominations for Negroes, but national divisions severed other groups. Though the early Christian congregation was to make no division between Jew or Greek, slave or free, and James said class distinctions were a sin, the Eastern Orthodox churches within the United States are divided into Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Roumanian, Russian, Serbian, Syrian and Ukrainian groups. The Lutherans are divided into Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and other sections. “The churches of America,” says H. Richard Niebuhr, “no less than those of Europe, have often been more subject to the influence of provincial or class environment than to the persuasions of a common gospel.”—1 Cor. 12:13; Jas. 2:1-9.

The fourth and fifth major causes of division were the phenomenal antimission movements that swept the frontier in the early nineteenth century, and the use of instrumental music. Antimissionism developed from the frontier objections to sending money back East to pay for the missionaries, and from the frontier preachers’ jealousy over the eloquent, better-trained new arrivals. The movement swept the whole of the frontier, particularly through Kentucky and Tennessee, and so struck the Baptists that at least three groups of “Hard-Shell” or “Antimission” Baptists still remain.

This, along with debate over that particularly noisy instrument, the organ, disrupted the Disciples of Christ so violently that a fourth of their members split off to form the “Churches of Christ”. The antiorgan argument said: “No element of public worship is legitimate which is not explicitly authorized in the New Testament. Instrumental music is not so authorized. Therefore it is not legitimate.” The extent to which this was carried was shown by Lard’s Quarterly (1864), which said: “Let every preacher resolve never to enter a meetinghouse of our brethren in which an organ stands. Let no one who takes a letter from one church ever unite with another using an organ. Rather let him live out of a church than go into such a den. Let all who oppose the organ withdraw from the church if one is brought in.” (Italics his) Today a million people think God is vitally concerned over whether any musical accompaniment helps the singers stay on key. Of course, they have no objections to other modern innovations not mentioned in the Scriptures: the radio, songbooks, stained-glass windows, etc.; but they justify this by saying these are not elements of worship as they think a sounded note somehow is. However, instrumental music seems approved in the so-called “New Testament”.—Rev. 5:8; 15:2.

The desire of particular men to lead their group was another major cause of religious divisions. Such jurisdictional divisions are well exemplified by the Mormons. When their founder, Joseph Smith, died, the largest group, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, followed Brigham Young to Utah where they built Salt Lake City. A second group, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was led by Joseph Smith’s sons. A third formed the Church of Christ (Temple Lot); a fourth, the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonites), followed Sidney Rigdon; a fifth, the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerites), followed Alpheus Cutler, one of the original seven elders of Mormonism; and the sixth group, the Church of Jesus Christ (Strangites), followed James J. Strang, who claimed he had written credentials from Joseph Smith.

STILL MORE DIVISIONS

Others followed quirks of their own ideas to further confuse the picture. The “two seed” theory of the Two—Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists (one of the antimission groups) is that back in Eden God put a good seed in man; Satan, the evil one. Babies, they think, are born with one seed or the other, so missionary work is useless; a man with the bad seed is helpless and one with the good will come to the church anyway. At last report (eight years ago) their numbers had dropped to a mere 200. Their doctrine is based on a misinterpretation of Genesis 3:15 about the seed of the woman.

Then, as one writer commented: “In any large city unheard-of sects can be located, frequently consisting of only one or two churches. A dissatisfied preacher finds it easy to lead off a group and start a new denomination of his own. . . . Most of the little groups have no history save a church quarrel, and few of them possess any distinctive doctrines or practices.” It has been estimated that there may be as many as 3,000 of these independent groups.

Away back in 1890 a little book, Short History of the Church in the United States, truthfully said: “The multiplication of ecclesiastical organizations has been one of the characteristics of American religious life.” Some like to call them the “many mansions” in the Father’s house, perverting John 14:2, which refers to heavenly blessings. In most minds today a shamefully hazy blending occurs to where divergence of doctrine and difference of belief are passed over, put aside with the view that they are all different roads going to the same place. But they are not. While propounding their own theories they cannot be gathering with Christ. He called the tradition-following religious leaders of his day who did not hold to right doctrine while claiming divine authority for their acts hypocrites, blind guides, fools, serpents, viperous offspring doomed to destruction. (Matt. 12:30; 23:1-39) Those seeking life and truth must get off these broad paths, dust off their Bibles and learn from that thousand pages the difference between all this hodgepodge of self-contradicting doctrines and the true inspired Word given by Jehovah God. But for a discussion of this and of its importance we must refer you to our following article, “The Narrow Way Leads to Life.”

The Narrow Way Leads to Life

Beware of the dead-end streets!

SOME people think religion’s purpose is just to make good men. Their view is: “If one is sincere in his religion, that is all that is expected of him.” Others view religion as a drug for the mentally distressed or a help to those in trouble. They say: “All these religions fit some people’s needs; if they are doing good, that is fine!” Still others who think just having the name “Christian” is sufficient say: “They are just different roads, all going to the same place.” Hence, it is often proposed that these various roads be fused into a broad middle way, a uniting of all religions. The frame of mind behind such a view was shown by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale in the June, 1948, American magazine, where he said doctrinal differences “are of little real significance to the average man today”, and, “Not one modern Protestant out of 50 could tell you in what doctrinal respects Methodists differ from Baptists or Presbyterians from Congregationalists.”

This slurring over of doctrines is encouraged by such clergymen as Peter Ainslee, former president of the national conference of the Disciples of Christ, who once said: “Let those bodies that hold to baptism by immersion still practice what they believe. . . . Let the creedal bodies still hold to their creeds. . . . But let them abandon denominationalizing as one of the things for which they stand.” It would seem he was more concerned about having them stay in his organization than about their having true worship. However, true worship and right doctrine are of vital importance. The prophet warned: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.”—Hos. 4:6.

That knowledge comes, not from the human ideas that have severed today’s religions, but from God’s Word. The psalmist said: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” All these religious roads are dead-end streets because they are not lit by that Word. Its light does not spread out to cover today’s many conflicting doctrines, for Christ said: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”—Ps. 119:105; Matt. 7:13, 14, NW.

Sincerity alone is not sufficient for one to get life. “What man thinks a right course, may end upon the road to death.” “Man’s ways are always right in his own eyes, but the Eternal has the verdict on his life.” (Prov. 14:12; 21:2, Mo) Even being a “good man” is not sufficient. Jesus was asked: “Teacher, what good must I do in order to get everlasting life?” He replied: “Observe the commandments continually.” The questioner said he did that; he did not murder, steal, commit adultery, covet, bear false witness, and he honored his parents. He was a good man, but he asked: “What yet am I lacking?” The answer: Sell your belongings, give to the poor “and come be my follower”.—Matt. 19:16-22, NW.

No one is following Christ if he teaches a different doctrine; he is following himself or some other man. Today’s hundreds of brands of religion that are scattering with doctrines which differ drastically even among themselves should take Jesus’ warning: “He that is not on my side is against me, and he that does not gather with me scatters.” (Matt. 12:30, NW) They are following a broad and spacious road that will accommodate all these beliefs. Not all could be on his side.

If a traveler desiring to visit a neighboring country asked directions of 200 different persons and got 200 answers, all the way around the compass, north, south, east and west, what would he do? Take the advice of the person his grandparent took advice from, or from the one who wore the most peculiar garb, or had the most mellow voice, or to whom his sweetheart or marriage mate listened, or who had the most imposing or closest building in which to talk? Would he say that he does not talk about directions, as some people say they will not talk about religion? No. An intelligent traveler would get a roadmap to compare the different directions and see why they are so conflicting.

POOR GUIDES

Where true worship is concerned, the roadmap or guidebook is the Bible. Yet today’s individual ignorance about that guidebook is astounding. Bishop Wells of the West Missouri diocese of the Episcopal church said: “The fact of the situation is that 90 per cent of our church members—not the leaders, but the average man and woman—do not really know what they believe and why. They might be called religious illiterates. Many persons do not know the Bible.” (Kansas City Star, January 31, 1951) But does this apply to just “the average man and woman”, as he implies? Not according to a survey made by Dr. George Herbert Betts of Northwestern University and published in a little book entitled “The Beliefs of 700 Ministers”. He wanted to determine: “All formal creeds aside, what do the ministers of our churches believe? Do they agree to a man on the beliefs within a single denomination? Do the denominations agree with each other on the great fundamental matters of Christian faith? Can we of the masses find in our spiritual leaders a certainty of belief on the crucial questions of religion such as warrants our trusting their insight?” To answer this he sent 56 basic doctrinal questions to 1,500 representative clergymen and theological students; 700 replied. Here are the percentages on certain representative questions:

prophets inspired? 67 5 28

The trinity doctrine? 80 7 13

Record of creation? 47 5 48

Biblical miracles? 68 8 24

In an actual devil? 60 7 33

Jesus’ virgin birth? 71 10 19

Heaven is a place? 57 15 28

Hell? 53 13 34

Christ said the way is narrow. They have certainly spread out. Some are bound to be teaching false doctrine, because Genesis is either true or false; the miracles either occurred or did not; either Jesus was born of a virgin or the Bible lies. There are not two answers to these questions, but only one. It is not that the Bible is impossible to understand, but that too many care too little about what it says, leaning to their own ideas, following men instead of God. By following their own theories they have turned from pure worship just as surely as did Adam and Eve, who were led by Satan into a simple matter of disobedience. Likening these false doctrines to yeast, the apostle warns that just a little ferments the whole lump.a—1 Cor. 5:6, NW.

The early church had no such confusion. Christ set the apostles on a cramped path, the narrow road leading to life. Could you imagine Peter going to Galatia and saying Jesus was not the Messiah, while Paul in Ephesus said he was; Paul going to Corinth and saying to be baptized and another apostle saying not to; Timothy in Thessalonica telling the Christians to study the prophets faithfully while someone else goes to the Bereans and says about these very prophets that Christ quoted freely: “Why, that is the Old Testament, just mythology, fakes and forgeries, good literature but that is all”? Of course not! They knew that Jesus was the Messiah, baptism was proper, the prophets were true.

APOSTOLIC EXAMPLE

How was it the apostles had such unity? It was not just because their group was small, but was because they had right doctrine, held rigidly to the truth, refused to be contaminated by false worship, refused to unite with those teaching falsehoods. Today’s religious leaders with their broad roads and plans for interfaith would have considered Jesus and the apostles narrow, for these early Christians would never have put up with such confusion as goes under the name “Christendom” today. Whether today’s clergymen know it or not, their lack of concern for true doctrine would have put them in the same class as the Jews who rejected truth, and to whom Jesus said: “You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father.”—John 8:44, NW.

The apostles got this true doctrine through obedience to God’s Word, through being disciplined by the truth; putting their own ideas aside and letting the truth rule them. Otherwise they would have claimed Jehovah as their father while doing the works of Satan, and would have fit right into the warning that “if you are without the discipline of which all have become partakers, you are really illegitimate children, and not sons”. (Heb. 12:8, NW) Legitimate sons of God have unity because they have the solid Christian faith that is built on the solid rock of God’s Word. It corrects former wrong ideas. “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16, NW) Discipline is not always pleasant, but it is necessary for proper training, and when the true Christian lets God’s Word correct him, teach him, reprove him and set him straight about the false doctrines of this old world’s religions, he is glad to change his ideas to conform to that Word. He then comes to unity on doctrine with all others who really do accept the narrow path of truth.

SOURCE OF UNITY

There is no need for the ignorance that has prompted today’s many religious divisions, save that the Scripture said that the wicked god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to the truth. (2 Cor. 4:4) In dividing they have lost their dynamic power, have changed, modified, corrupted and perverted the truth. They have divided over petty differences and national rivalries, have made new doctrines at will, and have gotten doctrines and tried to find a few Scripture texts to prove them, rather than putting their ideas aside to study the 1,000 pages of the Bible and find out what true worship really is. Such study would soon show the difference between what is taught in today’s religions and what the Bible actually says.

Take, for example, the doctrine of the trinity. It was taught by the pagan Plato, the pagan Egyptians, Babylonians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Taoists and Buddhists, but was not taught by the apostles, as the January 1 issue of this magazine showed in detail. The doctrine of the immortal soul, according to the pagan Greek historian Herodotus, came from pagan Egypt. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jews got it from the pagans. On examining the Bible, however, you will find that it shows irrefutably that the soul can die, and therefore is not immortal. (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Acts 3:23) The related doctrine of hell-fire was also taught by the Buddhists, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Phoenicians and Greeks, but not by the Bible, which says simply, “the dead know not any thing,” and shows that hope for future life is in the resurrection as a reward for right doing, not in everlasting torment.—Eccl. 9:5, 10; Job 14:13; John 5:28, 29.

For unity on spelling the dictionary is accepted as an authority. In religion the Bible is that authority. It shows what true worship was before it was perverted by all these pagan doctrines. Having taken three sample doctrines, the trinity, immortality and hell, on which Dr. Betts’ survey showed today’s clergy are at disagreement, we find that by accepting the Bible’s authority we can come to unity with all who likewise will accept God’s Word. But if such widely accepted doctrines are false, how did religion come to adopt them? Through the very practice of trying to make their interfaith projects a unity of organization instead of a unity of doctrine and broadening their organization to include all sorts of doctrines that were never a part of true Christianity. Frank S. Mead explains it simply in his book See These Banners Go: “What we call the Church is a snowball, rolling. It started on ‘the coasts of Caesarea Philippi,’ . . . it rolled westward gathering, absorbing, being colored by everything it touched, and coloring everything. It was Hellenized in Greece; Romanized in Rome; it gathered laws, philosophies, thinkers, tinkers, soldiers, saints and devils; it became in time a rolling leviathan of accumulated creeds and catechisms, convictions and conceptions, social custom and economic practice. In shape and size and structure it has changed mightily.” In getting off onto this broad road that could encompass all kinds of worship, it has rejected its core of true Christianity, for Christ warned that the broad road followed by the multitude leads to destruction.

JOIN THE FEW

It is for a very logical reason, however, that many people believe that all these conflicting doctrines and forms of worship are acceptable to God. They cannot see how God could possibly doom all these people to hell just because they are in the wrong religion, and so they think God does not mean what His Word says about the narrow way. By sheer force of numbers they think to high-pressure him into accepting almost all of them. The flaw in their argument is that the Bible does not say the wages sin pays is hell-fire, but that it is death, and that the gift God gives for righteousness is everlasting life. “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, NW) God does not bless with future life the indifferent, lethargic ones who think He owes them something, but rather those who thankfully put forth a real effort to find the narrow way he has set out, and follow it. The others have not proved worthy of life, so will not receive a resurrection, will remain in permanent death. Only eight persons were worthy of surviving the flood; not ten righteous men could be found in Sodom; only a few hundred accepted Jesus in his day; the vast number of today’s so-called Christians are that in name only. Christ was right when he said only a few would follow the narrow way that leads to the reward of life.—Gen. 6:1-7:7; 18:23-33; Matt. 23:37, 38; 1 Cor. 1:22, 23; Matt. 7:13, 14.

Study. Demand absolute proof for all doctrines—not just the “proof texts” all religions have, but the whole picture, all the Bible has to say on the subject. Prove what is right. Come out of this confused babble of doctrines on these broad streets ending in death. In harmony with God’s inspired Word, the One Book that is the sole basis for true united worship, follow closely the narrow way that really does lead to life.

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee; yea, if thou cry after discernment, and lift up thy voice for understanding; if thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures: then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God.—Prov. 2:1, 3-5, AS.

[Footnotes]

Believe

Denomination Believe in Devil? Creation Acc’t?

Not Not

Replies Yes Sure No Yes Sure No

Baptist 50 68% 0 32 63% 7 30

Congregational 50 17 10 73 12 0 88

Episcopalian 30 46 21 33 11 4 85

Evangelical 49 71 10 19 53 2 45

Lutheran 104 97 2 1 89 4 7

Methodist 111 35 11 54 24 9 67

Presbyterian 63 55 11 34 35 7 58

13 others 43 77% 0 23 60% 8 32

True Worship Progresses in Northern Africa and on the Iberian Peninsula

Concluding the report on the African trip of the president of the Watch Tower Society, N. H. Knorr, and his secretary

IT WAS a happy group that I left behind in Ethiopia as I flew away to Cairo. En route we stopped for a few hours at Eritrea for engine repairs. By the time I got to Cairo, Brother Henschel, my secretary, had already left for his visit to Tripoli, Libya. During his stay in Cairo he had addressed 92 witnesses of Jehovah at their assembly and gave a public discourse at which 182 were present.

It was arranged for me to go to Alexandria to talk to the brothers there. At 6 p.m. the various congregations in Alexandria, French, Arabic and Greek, came together and I spoke to them through two interpreters, one speaking Greek and French and the other Arabic. Present were 257, a much bigger crowd than I had served five years before. The next morning we returned to Cairo by train. In the evening 116 brothers attended the central meeting and again the talk was given through three languages.

I flew to Algiers by way of Paris, where I had a twelve-hour stopover permitting me time to go over the problems of the Paris branch office with the one in charge, the branch servant, who then accompanied me to Algeria. The work of spreading the true worship in Algiers has just started. The Society recently sent some missionaries and other full-time ministers to this capital of Algeria to see what could be done, and they are doing well. The Arab section of the city, called La Casbah, is in the ancient Arab town, which was the original city of Algiers. Now the city has spread out and this has become more or less the center of town.

The missionaries find it very interesting to witness to these Arab people. When they knock at the door of a Moslem home the woman checks to see who is there. If the man happens to be an Arab, the Moslem woman will cover her face with a veil before she speaks to him; but if it is a European she does not. No one seems to understand just why; but it is observed that even when an Arab woman is in a shop making a purchase, if she is speaking to a European she unveils her face, but should an Arab enter she immediately puts her veil upon her face.

This was the first time an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses had been arranged for the city of Algiers. The Watch Tower Society had written to all who were interested in its work and told them of the visit of the president and the meetings that were to be held. On Saturday morning a group of thirteen came together and went forth to engage in the field ministry. A small hall had been rented for the afternoon meeting, and much to our surprise 39 were in attendance. Very good interest was shown and many questions were asked at the conclusion of the meeting. On Sunday the public meeting was held at 9:30 a.m., at which thirty were present.

Right now there are ten part-time ministers assisting the eight full-time ministers in the work of making known the Kingdom message to the people of Algeria. So for the few months that the brothers, the full-time ministers, have been there good work has been done, and if it keeps up at that rate it will not be long before a fine congregation of Jehovah’s ministers will be organized.

From Algiers I flew to Madrid and there met Brother Henschel and the brothers who work in the Iberian field. Regarding Libya, to which Brother Henschel went after his visit to Cairo, he had the following to report:

LIBYA

“This land was formerly held by Italy, but now an attempt is being made by the British and the United Nations to help the Libyans to organize their own government. It is a major task because few Libyans have had experience in such matters. A king has been enthroned and Arabic has become the official language. The religion of Islam predominates.

“With the rise of this new nation to a place among the countries of the world, there has also arisen within it the proclamation of the Kingdom message. Begun in 1950, the seeds of truth planted are already bearing good fruit. The brothers in the Tripoli company show great enthusiasm for the work. During the past year as many as 19 different ministers have had a share in the preaching work in one month. The local congregation is Italian. While the work cannot be carried on as freely as in some other countries, missionary work being frowned on officially, the truth is nevertheless spreading. Some of those who attended the assembly in Tripoli live out on farms near the city. Among the experiences they told is the following regarding a sister and her priest:

“A new Catholic priest, upon coming to her parish, visited all his parishioners in it and made arrangements for having dinners with them. He told her, then also one of his parishioners, that he would come on Thursdays. However, he came back on Wednesday and found the family eating beans. He was invited to join them in their meal if he cared for beans. This highly insulted him and he asked for meat and eggs, of which there was none in the house. Angrily he left the house and on the next Sunday in church he denounced the family for offering beans to the priest. That was the last time they attended church.

“During my visit meetings were held at the Kingdom Hall, the peak attendance being 27 at the public meeting. My departure from Libya was delayed at the airport, which meant that I would miss connections at Rome for Barcelona. The delay in Rome I spent with the brothers there, who were rejoicing in the fact that they recently had a new peak of 2,150 Kingdom proclaimers in Italy.

SPAIN

“On January 10, I arrived at Barcelona via Madrid and immediately began discussing local organizational problems with the brothers there. Special field service efforts were on and new ministers were taking part in the preaching work for the first time. That night I gave a talk to an audience of 50 in a private home.

“On the following day two more gatherings were held in private homes and it was a thrill to see 193 in attendance, which was almost double that of the previous year, when 100 were present. This was partly due to the presence of brothers from Barbastro and Palma de Marjorca. The field preaching activities and the series of meetings caused the brothers in Spain to exhibit a spirit among them that I had not seen before. Many home Bible studies are now being conducted and the prospects for future growth are excellent.

“Some of the brothers from Barcelona, desiring to continue their ‘convention’ joys, as well as to meet the president and brothers from other parts of Spain, accompanied me by plane to Madrid Tuesday morning. That afternoon we had a meeting in Madrid at the home of one of the witnesses, with 26 present. In the evening, at another home, 32 were present.”

As Brother Henschel was speaking to those brothers I was arriving by plane from Algiers. Naturally I found many problems that needed attention. For some years the Iberian Peninsula has been a dark corner of Europe where true freedom of worship does not exist. Since World War II a little handful of Kingdom publishers have boldly continued with pure worship in Spain, where the cult of saints and virgins predominates.

Two separate meetings were held on the afternoon of the following day with a combined attendance of 46, I speaking to one group and Brother Henschel to the other. Later that evening, I made it very plain to fifty brothers and newly interested ones gathered in a private home that their advancement must be made manifest, and pointed out to them the various ways in which they could do this.

PORTUGAL—LAST STOP

From Spain we flew to Portugal and within a few hours of landing we were giving talks to a group of 43 brothers at the central meeting place of Jehovah’s witnesses in Lisbon. That night we crossed the river to Almada and had a similar meeting with 53 attending. It was the beginning of a week of special ministerial activity and the brothers were in high spirits as they engaged in Kingdom service and worship. On Sunday all came together at Almada, and in spite of the rain the count was 73 brothers and persons of good will.

Early Tuesday morning we left Europe, winging our way homeward to New York. We watched the sun come up behind us and could see the light increase each minute until finally the sun broke forth in all its splendor from above the fluffy clouds. It is just that way with the light of truth now, for it is shining brighter each minute through the spiritual darkness of Satan’s system of things on this earth. It had just been our privilege to see expansion on a large scale in Africa and southern Europe, with thousands more ministers of the good news letting their light shine than when we last were there. What an indescribable privilege it is to serve Jehovah!

Pastor Quits for Conscience’ Sake

“The Rev. Edward H. Morgan, pastor for eight years of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Delaware county, resigned yesterday from the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. . . . Mr. Morgan blamed the trend of modernism for his action, and declared he could no longer continue to compromise his beliefs, . . . [saying] ‘I am leaving the church because I can no longer serve the Lord with a clear conscience and without compromise as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. . . . Finding myself continually involved in what I believe to be at variance with God’s word, I find the only course for me is to remove myself.’”—Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19.

If the pulpit were a service instead of a profession, such men would not find themselves economically bound to a system they could not honestly support; and if more of them had the strength to give up their life’s work when they found it did not correspond with God’s Word, even though, like Mr. Morgan, they had no idea what they would do in the immediate future, there would be fewer men at war with their consciences, and there might be more true servants of God in the land.

The Rule of King Death

“Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression by Adam, who hears a resemblance to him that was to come.”—Rom. 5:14, NW.

1. What evidence is there of the rule of death, and when did its rule begin?

LOOK where you will across the length and breadth of this fair earth, on hilltops or in the valleys, wherever you see any signs of life you will also see memorials to death. In the vicinity of every city, town and village, along beautiful country roadsides, your gaze will take in from perhaps a few to hundreds of memorial tablets, crosses or tombstones testifying to the fact that death rules as king. But besides these, there are thousands of unnumbered and unremembered dead who have no markers or statues identifying the place where they lie. That place may have been a battlefield, a desert, a snowfield or the seemingly endless stretches of the sea. Those who knew them are themselves no longer here to tell us. The grave is indeed one of the three things never satisfied. (Prov. 30:15, 16) But consider too the seemingly unlimited duration of this sovereign’s rule. Our ancestors all acknowledged his kingship. Yes, we can go back to the very first man and woman and find that in their day the sway of this unwelcome royal government was acknowledged, and there it had its beginning.

2. What is Jehovah’s purpose regarding man and the earth?

² However, it was not the Creator’s purpose that death should sweep through the land and constantly add to his plunders. He finds no pleasure in death, but would rather have even the wicked turn from his way and live. (Ezek. 18:32; 33:11) The tears, heartaches, broken homes, produced by disease, plague, famine and sword, need never have been but for one wicked conspirator and two accomplices. If the Creator’s wise command had been obeyed and his earthly children had kept the love of Jehovah in their hearts, we would now have a world filled with happy, healthy, mature men and women. These would find complete happiness in instructing equally joyful children, and all without a trace of sin, sorrow, suffering, death and imperfection. How do we know this? The oldest and most reliable book in the world, the Holy Bible, reveals that such was the Creator’s purpose. It states: “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:27, 28, AS) He purposes that the earth be permanently populated. “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” (Isa. 45:18, AS) His purpose shall be accomplished.—Isa. 66:1; 60:13; 11:9.

3. Who is responsible for death’s rule, and what was his ambition?

³ But who brought about the change from the perfectly ideal condition to the wretched chaos the world is in today, you may ask? The wicked conspirator who started it all, Satan the Devil, did not foresee the full and final consequences of his wrongful acts. He determined to gratify an illegitimate, selfish ambition and show others what he could accomplish. That ambition has consumed him like an intense greed and changed him from an originally perfect creature to one with no regard for the suffering and wretchedness produced by the gratification of his desire. There came a time when he decided that instead of loyally representing his Creator and using his exalted office to lead the earthly creatures under his charge to render obedience and due worship to Jehovah he would lead them to render such homage to himself. In self-conceit with corrupted wisdom his line of argument was that his personal beauty, the gift of his Creator, merited such recognition. Craving admiration and worship he vowed he would become like the Most High.—Ezek. 28:14-17.

4. How did the Devil go about to accomplish his purpose, and what caused Eve to yield?

⁴ To achieve his end Satan was now willing to become a slanderer, a deceiver, an opposer of Jehovah and a devourer, as identified by the names Devil, Serpent, Satan and Dragon. Using all the subtleness of his exalted position and communicating his message through the visible serpent, he assured the first woman that by following his suggestion she would have something far greater than what an untrustworthy God had given her. Whether she was shocked at the original suggestion of distrust of her heavenly Father, or not, is immaterial and the record does not state. That she yielded to the allurement of the prize and transgressed is important. James wrote: “But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:14, 15, NW) It is evident that Eve did not fully weigh the matter as to the reliability of the authority making the promise, nor did she consult Adam, her head, on the matter. In this she showed a lack of love. Spellbound with the prospect to be gained, she decided to grasp the forbidden and then assist her husband to it.

5. (a) What issue was thereby forced upon Adam, and what caused him to decide wrongly? (b) What did the conspirator accomplish by deflecting Adam and Eve?

⁵ Having succeeded with Eve the cunning adversary now used her as his tool to break the integrity of Adam. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. When she invited Adam to eat, the full consequences of her disobedient act quite probably struck home to him. He was not deceived. How would his Creator take action? Would he immediately lose his only human companionship? Why had she forced this issue upon him? To yield to her meant disobedience to his God. It was a choice between love and duty to Jehovah and affection and attraction to his helpmate; choice between the Creator and the creature, between governing his life by principle, according to the godlike attributes with which he had been endowed, on the one hand, and passion, the strong pull of human emotion, on the other. Adam too lacked true love for his Creator and decided wrongly. Without gratitude and thankfulness to God, the first human pair became accomplices to the great conspirator. Satan had succeeded in bringing reproach on Jehovah, whose glory is above the earth and the heavens. The Devil supplanted the truth with falsehood and destroyed pure and right worship in the earth. Jesus testified of him: “That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.”—John 8:44, NW.

6. (a) What slander of Jehovah was implicit in Satan’s lie? (b) How should Adam and Eve have responded? How did they respond, and why?

⁶ Now consider for a moment the tactics employed by the Devil right from the start. By spreading his lying report, ‘You shall not surely die,’ he planted doubt, distrust and disbelief in the first human minds, and thereby dragged down the unmatchable, illustrious and praiseworthy name of Jehovah to the level of an exploiting racketeer. He charged God with being a deliberate deceiver, interested in keeping man as an underdog, and for that reason wholly untrustworthy. In all of this he manifested what he himself had become. Did the human children of their heavenly Father, surrounded by so many expressions of his love, kindness and care, resent such false accusations? Did either cry out, ‘You snake in the grass, you can’t call my Father that’? The record does not allow us to think so. The deceiver’s work was so deftly done and their personal interests were so appealed to that they forgot and turned their backs on their best friend. With no grounds for doubting Jehovah in the least, they failed to show the faith required to please God. At the suggestion of a course offering them unrestrained liberty, license, they plunged ahead on their own, and began to make of themselves copies of their master. By their choosing the course of a transgressor death became their king. He has been a hard, unrelenting ruler, and, try as man will, he is unable to break death’s power.

7. What decision must we individually make? why? and with what ends in mind?

⁷ But you and I too must choose between loyalty to Jehovah on one hand and submission to the archenemy Satan the Devil on the other. By our course of action we support one or the other of these two masters. This is so because we have freedom of will. To obey Jehovah means life, to yield to his enemy means eventual death. We must guard against yielding to temptation to please our flesh, and we must beware against being made tools of the adversary to ensnare others. The apostle Paul warned, “For if you live in accord with the flesh you are sure to die; but if you put the practices of the body to death by the spirit, you will live.”—Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16, 17; Rom 8:5-8, NW.

8. Cut off from Jehovah’s loving-kindness, how have man’s years declined?

⁸ Observe now man’s declining years, the result of cutting himself off from God’s undeserved kindness. Dwelling in the land where death cast its shadow neither Adam nor any of his offspring lived a full one-thousand-year day. Longevity gradually decreased with several sudden drops in the lives of men. After the first ten generations from Adam to Noah no one attained an age reaching into the nine-hundred-year age bracket. Shem, who followed Noah, lived to only six hundred years. The three succeeding generations attained an age within the four-hundred-to five-hundred-year bracket. Then followed another sudden drop, for within five generations man’s life span was cut in half. The four generations that followed, reaching to Joseph, the son of Jacob, brought man’s maximum life expectancy down near the hundred-year mark. (Genesis chapters 5, 7 and 11) Death was ruling as king from Adam to Moses and man’s fading life spark was just like a mist appearing for a little while. The great conspirator had the ability to bring the plague of death through transgression but was without the power of life, for only in Jehovah’s hand is the breath or life power of all mankind.—Jas. 4:14, NW; Job 12:10.

9. What shows that the patriarchs’ years were as long as ours today?

⁹ It is unsound to say that the years of the patriarchs were not as long as ours, possibly as short as our months, for God had specifically given man lights in the firmament to designate days and years. Though their annual periods were not calculated to the fraction of the day, there was no mistaking the seasons of the year, since Jehovah had said, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”—Gen. 1:14; 8:22, AS.

MAN’S DEATH STATE

10. What various non-Biblical theories are there regarding the condition of death?

¹⁰ For six thousand years men have been dying, yet, strange as it may seem, the vast majority do not know what the condition of death really is. Those without the Bible believe either their personal theories or their particular sacred books. Even those with the Bible are greatly confused by the traditions of men. The general religious conception is that death is separation or alienation from God. Some have said it means the closing of heaven to the lost soul. Since it is assumed that the soul is immortal and must live on forever, and since a happy existence, or heaven, is denied it, it follows that it must spend its eternity in a state of misery. Pagan tradition, human philosophy, the world’s literature and education have generally followed these conclusions.

11. What is the Scriptural testimony regarding the condition of the dead?

¹¹ For our own good, let us consult God’s Word for the correct answer. Speaking of what takes place at the moment man dies, Psalm 145, verse four (Dy), reads, “His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.” (See Psalm 146:4, AS.) Certainly if one’s thoughts perish, then all knowledge and feeling perish as well. This is borne out by Ecclesiastes 9:5 (Dy), “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.” The prophet Job also describes the death state in the words, “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master.” (Job 3:17-19) “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” (Job 14:10) There is no activity in the death condition. “The dead praise not Jehovah, neither any that go down into silence.” “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest.”—Ps. 115:17; Eccl. 9:10, AS.

12. What facts support the Scriptural position regarding the death state, and how does the judgment pronounced upon Adam bear this out?

¹² From the evidence, then, we can see that death is the end of one’s existence. It is physical death, and any attempt to make a distinction between it and a so-called spiritual death is unscriptural. Man dies physically, mentally and spiritually all at once. The dead person’s mind cannot function, his eyes cannot see, his ears cannot hear, nor can his lips speak. Death for man is the same as it is for the lower animals. (Eccl. 3:19-21; Ps. 104:29; 145:20) Notice how plain God made this at the time when the first death sentence was pronounced. God concluded his judgment against Adam with the words, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) He was to go back to the state of nonexistence from which he came. There was no part of the divinity in man that had to be kept alive.

13. How do we know that Adam was not immortal and that heaven was not to be his destiny?

¹³ The record furthermore says nothing about Adam or his posterity as losing heaven. That had never been promised to either Adam or his posterity, and to have claimed a right to it would have been highly presumptuous. “The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Ps. 115:16, AS) Mere creation did not entitle them to an unconditional, endless earthly life, much less to a spiritual or heavenly condition. Only the adversary promised that, namely, that they should be like gods, and he was unable to keep his promise that man should not die. God moreover enforced the death penalty by acting after his word: ‘And now, lest he put forth his hand, and eat, and live forever.’ Therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, and he placed the cherubim, and the flame of a sword, to keep the way of the tree of life.—Gen. 3:22-24, AS.

14. What are the alternatives that God sets before creatures?

¹⁴ Life and death, not life in happiness versus life in misery, are the Scriptural opposites. This is shown by the expression of Moses to the children of Israel: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed.” (Deut. 30:19, AS) Proverbs 8:35, 36 (AS) states: “For whoso findeth me findeth life, . . . all they that hate me love death.”

15. (a) What did Adam lose for himself and his offspring? (b) What proves that eternal torment was not God’s purpose for any of fallen mankind?

¹⁵ Death’s rulership as king contradicts any claim that eternal torment, or any future in misery, is to be the fate of Adam or of his offspring. It was not eternal torment that began to rule as king, or for which mankind was now in line. What Adam lost for himself and his offspring was the privilege of carrying out the divine mandate to reproduce, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; he lost the dominion over the birds of the air, cattle and fish, and lost his own life. Though allowed to exist for 930 years, yet that existence was with sorrow and toil and without the peace and blessing of God. We have inherited the imperfection bequeathed us by our first parent. God’s Word says: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12, NW) All were represented in their forefather Adam, through his unborn seed, and representatively sinned in him. Hence there is not a righteous man, not even one. For this reason, too, no descendant from Adam could rescue his fellow man from death’s rulership; for how could one slave free another. It is written: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” (Ps. 49:7, AS; Rom. 3:10, NW) Instead of eternal torment as the wage for sin, we read: “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Rom. 6:23, NW.

16. Give Scriptural proof that death reigns not only over the bodies of men but also over souls.

¹⁶ Death’s rule is not only over the bodies but also over the souls of men. It is the soul that sins that dies. (Ezek. 18:4, 20) It is the soul that goes to the grave at death and from which it is rescued by a resurrection. Psalm 89:48 declares: “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.” Psalm 49:15 reads: “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.” Psalm 114:8 (Dy) states: “For he hath delivered my soul from death: my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.” A few additional texts proving that the soul can die or be destroyed are the following: Ps. 30:3; 78:50; Isa. 55:3; Matt. 10:28; Mark 14:34; Luke 2:35, and Rev. 16:3.

THE HUMAN SOUL

17, 18. (a) What is the soul? (b) What scriptures disprove false teachings regarding human souls?

¹⁷ What, then, is the soul, do you ask? It is no intangible, mysterious something which no one has ever seen. The human soul is defined for us at Genesis 2:7, AS. “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Each person is a soul. The breath or spirit of life, by means of which God animated, made alive or energized, the human organism, and man’s body together made up the first living human creature or soul. Hence, too, man’s existence alone is also designated soul. There were fish, bird and animal souls on earth before man was created, as Bibles with a marginal reference at Genesis 1:20, 30 indicate. These marginal references supply “soul” and “living soul” for “life” in the texts.

¹⁸ From the beginning God’s great adversary has caused to be freely taught the falsehood that man has an immortal or deathproof soul that does not die. According to this human tradition each man has only one soul, whereas Exodus 1:5 says, “And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.” How could seventy come out of Jacob’s loins when tradition teaches God gives each body one soul at its birth? Manifestly the word soul refers to Jacob’s seventy living descendants and nothing more. According to Leviticus 5:1, 2, souls can hear, see, speak, sin and touch. Can it be too difficult for anyone to understand what the souls referred to here must be, since it is only living humans that could do all of these things? Let us then no longer follow the erring traditions of men that reproach God and lead to death, when it is so easy to learn the truth that leads to life.

19. How is it possible that so many should be mistaken regarding the soul and state of the dead?

¹⁹ Someone may think, however, Millions of people cannot possibly be wrong, can they? Again let us go to the Scriptures for our answer. These show that Satan has deceived or seduced the whole world. In the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse (Revelation) it tells of Michael waging war against the Dragon and his angels. Re 12 Verse nine reads: “And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world.” (Dy) The apostle John wrote: “We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19, NW) The prophet Jeremiah foresaw how persons of good will would recognize that they had been following error and would flee to Jehovah’s organization for refuge, when he wrote: “O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit.”—Jer. 16:19, AS.

20. How does the question of a resurrection prove what the condition of the dead is?

²⁰ But what if there were no resurrection of the dead? According to men’s tradition the disembodied souls would share the awful fate of remaining disembodied eternally. But according to the logical argument of the apostle Paul all who have died would have perished. (1 Cor. 15:18, NW) The apostle Paul had no misgivings regarding the resurrection, but clearly expounded and boldly taught it. He avoided fables and private interpretations. He did not formulate private definitions as some do, saying, “The wages of sin is death—a death that never dies,” for such is handling the Word of God deceitfully. He did not argue that “destroy” does not mean “destroy” but means “preserve alive in torment”, for that would be twisting the Scriptures to one’s own destruction. (Ps. 145:20) Paul let God be true though it should make every man a liar.

21, 22. (a) What two classes are being manifested, and what is the hope of those exercising faith? (b) How can seemingly conflicting texts be harmonized?

²¹ While death was ruling as king, two classes of persons were manifesting themselves. One had faith in God’s promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head in due time. These sought to please Jehovah. The other class, like the first human pair, were intent on going their own way, and became persecutors of the godly. It was not long before the spirit of the originator of death bore fruit and Cain killed his brother Abel. To all likewise persecuted, Jehovah gave assurance, not that they would go immediately to heaven, but that they would share in the resurrection of the dead. Thousands of years later the resurrection hope was still the hope of godly men, as Jesus showed when he told Nicodemus that up to that time ‘no man had ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man’. (John 3:13, NW) In the apocalyptic vision written sixty-six years after the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the apostle John saw the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work which they used to have still not yet in heaven. He wrote: “And they cried with a loud voice, saying: ‘Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?’” (Rev. 6:10, NW) The final reward is not given them until the judgment that began in 1918.—Rev. 11:18.

²² The texts that seem to conflict with the foregoing conclusions can be readily harmonized. The appearance of Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration was not a physical reality, since Jesus told the disciples, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is raised up from the dead.” (Matt. 17:9, NW) The taking away of Enoch and the catching up of Elijah meant the end of their ministry and death, but not the fulfillment of God’s promise to them, as is shown by Hebrews 11:39 (NW). “And yet all these, although they had witness borne to them through their faith, did not get the fulfillment of the promise.” Instead of going to a literal heaven those faithful men of olden times looked forward to the time when Almighty God, who resides in the heavens, would establish his rule and authority here on earth.

23. For what kind of government and rule did Abraham and other faithful men look?

²³ Abraham and other faithful men looked for a city or government to come whose builder and maker would be God. Since it would have a heavenly origin, the apostle Paul calls it a heavenly city. (Heb. 11:8-10, 13-16) They hoped to share in its blessings through the resurrection and therefore publicly declared that they were strangers and temporary residents in the land. They hailed that kingdom in which God’s will shall be done on earth as in heaven, in which the profit of the earth will be for all, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. (Eccl. 5:9; Hab. 2:14, AS) Death will no longer possess and exercise supreme power and authority over mankind then. He will no longer be king. For a thousand years Christ and his bride will rule the new world and Satan will be bound.

24. What effect should this knowledge have upon us?

²⁴ How the knowledge of the truth should loosen our tongues in gratitude and thankfulness for the deliverance Jehovah has brought to us from the shackles of ignorance and superstition! How it should make us want to let millions know, so they too can obtain release from Satan’s bondage! Jesus told his disciples that what they heard in the ear they were to proclaim from the house-tops. What else could we do, who were once slaves to sin and death but are now free? Say to the prisoners, Go forth, worship Jehovah in holy array!

The Rule of King Death Broken

1. What mental and moral havoc has death brought upon mankind?

THE rule of king death has brought not only physical havoc upon the human race, but mental and moral havoc as well. Besides the gnarled joints, bent backs, impaired nervous systems and hundreds of afflictions that crowd thousands of hospitals, there is the lack of self-control, the practice of injustice, immorality and the general unbalance of man’s attributes. Satan has caused man’s instinctive desire to worship to be turned from the Creator to the creature. “Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor did they thank him, but they became empty-headed in their reasonings and their unintelligent heart became darkened. Although asserting they were wise, they became foolish and turned the glory of the incorruptible God into something like the image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed creatures and creeping things.” (Rom. 1:21-23, NW) According to their degree of civilization men still worship such things as the sun, fire, images, money, property or themselves and organizations of men. In the place of unqualified love for Jehovah first, and love of neighbor second, Satan has planted selfishness, fear, greed and hate. By one master stroke, in inducing our first parents to sin, the adversary made sin to rule as king with death. From then on all have been sinners, they have fallen short of God’s glory, and missed the mark of perfect obedience. Jehovah is holy, completely devoted to righteousness, perfect. Nothing short of holiness, perfect obedience, unstained in any manner, could be acceptable to him.

2. What difference is there between Adam’s transgression and that of his offspring?

² What, then, is the difference between Adam’s transgression and that of those who followed him till Moses? since Paul wrote, “Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression by Adam, who bears a resemblance to him that was to come.” (Rom. 5:14, NW) Adam had been created perfect; there was no flaw or weakness in his organism. He had been given the divine law, had the capacity for understanding and appreciating its importance, and possessed within himself the ability for perfect obedience. Yet in the face of all of this he became a rebel. His disobedience was deliberate, willful. But with Adam’s offspring it has been different. They have not had the perfection of Adam nor the ability for flawless obedience. Although not inexcusable for any wrongdoing, they have not had the same degree of responsibility.

3. What determines the degree of responsibility? Give examples,

³ Responsibility depends on the degree of knowledge of God’s will available to one and also possessed by him. Following Adam’s disobedience God did not immediately give any precisely stated law commanding what he wanted mankind to do and pronouncing punishment for disobedience. It is written, “Where there is no law, neither is there any transgression.” (Rom. 4:15, NW) For this reason God did not execute Cain for murdering Abel, though he was considered by no means guiltless, but let him live on under a curse and with destruction facing him. Not having the Mosaic law, the generations living from Adam to Moses were under no obligation to keep it.

4. Why are wicked men without excuse, and will ignorance set them free?

⁴ The downward course of wicked men under the rule of king death was very rapid. The eternal power and Godship of the Supreme Judge was visible to them in both earth and heaven. Hence they were inexcusable for suppressing the truth and following unrighteousness. Without a God-given code of laws these men began to make laws for their own households and their rulers for the nation. Wishing to escape divine judgment some professed ignorance of God’s will and what sin is, and so various religions arose which ignore its existence. They cannot explain its beginning, its penalty and God’s provision for removing it from the universe. Their ignorance of it does not free them from its condemnation, but only holds them tighter with its chains. For everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, and so sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4, NW) All unrighteousness is sin.

RULE OF DEATH AS KING

5. (a) What has been the effect of sin’s rule as king? (b) Why did Jehovah give Israel a law?

⁵ Here another king is introduced to us. It is sin personified, sin ruling as king. What a king sin has been! Look at all his blemished earthly subjects. With worldwide authority, delinquency, corruption and hypocrisy ever on the increase, millions by preferring sin and stifling their conscience are daily paying tribute to him. The worldwide rule of king sin with king death, to which there is no living human exception, is evidence of its origin with our first parents. To awaken man’s conscience to sin and to teach him to look for God’s salvation he provided his chosen people with a systematized collection of laws. These were given through his prophet Moses 2,512 years after creation. According to them, God would impute or charge up sin to the wrongdoer. No human code of laws could reveal to men God’s mind regarding sin, right and wrong, and the means of atonement. God’s laws clearly defined it, and its priestly services foreshadowed that only through an appropriate ransom could sin be removed. Salvation would come through God’s promised seed. “Why, then, the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made.”—Gal. 3:19, 24, NW.

6, 7. How was it possible for Jesus to be without sin, and to be able to provide the ransom what steps were necessary on his part?

⁶ Who is the one to come referred to by Paul? The coming one is the emancipator from king death, the seed of Abraham, the prophet like Moses. Since death came as a result of sin, it required someone free from sin to remove sin and vanquish death. It is Jesus Christ, the only sinless man ever born of woman. He was born holy and immaculate, not because his mother was immaculate, for she was a Jewish maiden descended from Adam. It was because he was begotten by a sinless, perfect father, Jehovah God. In the case of reproduction by two parents, the life sperm comes from the father, which fertilizes the egg in the mother, who in turn produces the body of her offspring. At God’s due time for Jesus to be born his perfect life was transferred from heaven to the egg cell in the womb of the virgin Mary. In this way Christ Jesus did not receive human life from the sinner Adam, but received only a human body through Adam’s descendant Mary. To be born by her, he had to lay aside all of his heavenly glory and position. He had been with the Father for unknown millenniums in the past, associated with him in the work of creation. He was the first-born and only-begotten Son of God, through whom Jehovah created all other things visible and invisible. (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 3:14) At God’s due time for his birth, God sent forth his Son, produced out of a woman, who came to be under law, that he might release by purchase those under law, that we in turn might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4, 5, NW) Jesus was born under Moses’ law, an Israelite, but he was not condemned by that law, for he was the only human that kept it perfectly.

⁷ How does the first Adam bear a resemblance to Christ Jesus? Certainly not in the course of action taken by the first Adam, in becoming another sinner. No, not that. The apostle Paul could see that since the once perfect Adam had become father to a whole race who were now sinners, the redeemer and deliverer of any of these must be a perfect one, as Adam had been, in order to provide an acquittal, or cancellation of the debt against them. The resemblance lies in the fact that like must go for like. (Deut. 19:21) Adam had been sinless, spotless, a perfect human, not part man and part God, and the Son of God must be the same. If this had not been required he could have materialized, that is, taken on a visible human form as angels had done on previous occasions when they appeared to Abraham, Lot and others. But since a perfect human organism was required as a sacrifice, to meet the demands of justice, Jesus was born of a human virgin in the likeness of men. For it is written: “You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me,” and, “Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things.”—Heb. 10:5; 2:14, NW.

8. (a) Mankind’s acquittal must be according to what attribute of God, and how was the required sacrifice foreshadowed? (b) How only could the rule of death be broken?

⁸ Jehovah’s acquittal of mankind from sin and its penalty could only be according to his attribute of justice and would of necessity be a free gift. He is slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty. (Ex. 34:6, 7) The sacrifice required was foreshadowed in the offering by Abel, who slew an animal of his flock and shed its blood. It was pictured by Israel’s passover lamb and their yearly atonement sacrifices and was illustrated by Abraham’s offering of his son. Jesus came to vindicate his Father’s name and to be that sacrifice. He said, “The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matt. 20:28, NW) Although he was the Chief Agent of life he was killed; yet God exalted him as a Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Sin had brought death, the Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world; not the sin of the old world doomed for destruction, but the sin of those who will compose the new world of righteousness. (Acts 3:15; 5:31; Jas. 1:15; John 1:29) Only in this manner could the rule of king death be broken.

9, 10. (a) How can we gain the benefit of God’s provision for life? (b) What does this arrangement reveal regarding Jehovah God, and whom does it take in?

⁹ How, then, may we gain the benefits of God’s gracious provision and not perish? Not by ignorance of sin and its consequences, nor by keeping the law covenant. Paul states: “All those who sinned without law will also perish without law; but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law.” (Rom. 2:12, NW) Hence all would perish. None would be saved. Jews as well as others are all sinners. “But now apart from law God’s righteousness has been made manifest, as it is borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets; yes, God’s righteousness through the faith in Jesus Christ, for all those having faith. For there is no distinction.” (Rom. 3:21, 22, NW) The exercise of faith in the ransom sacrifice brings to us an undeserved kindness; the free gift of an uncondemned standing before his Son. The acceptance of the release by ransom paid by Christ Jesus, and our dedication and faithful service to Jehovah, assure us of being declared righteous by him. In this way we gain the benefit of his gracious provisions and shall not perish.

¹⁰ So lofty, generous and merciful is God’s arrangement that human words are inadequate to describe it. It reveals and exhibits his own righteousness, by his forgiving of sins that occurred in the past while he was exercising forbearance, and in declaring those righteous whom he had taken out of all nations to be a people for his name. It takes in those who would exercise faith similar to that of Abraham, whether from among the Jews or from among the nations. These could say, “Therefore, now that we have been declared righteous as a result of faith, let us enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have gained our approach by faith into this undeserved kindness in which we now stand, and let us exult, based on hope of the glory of God.” (Rom. 5:1, 2, NW) Members of the church class anticipate a heavenly glory. Jehovah’s other sheep anticipate, when declared righteous, the earthly glory of God’s image and likeness in which Adam was originally created.

11. (a) What contrast is there between the trespass and God’s free gift? (b) What benefits do we enjoy as a result of that gift?

¹¹ But there is a contrast between the trespass which resulted in death and God’s free gift. God’s free gift accomplishes more good for us who exercise faith than any harm we may have received as the offspring of sinner Adam. For if by one man’s trespass many died, the undeserved kindness of God and his free gift, together with the undeserved kindness by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded much more to many. (Rom. 5:15, NW) We today have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. He is a priest of loving-kindness, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and one who is able to deal moderately with the ignorant and erring ones. We have God’s word made more firm, we have better knowledge and we have his spirit and his organization. We enjoy a new relationship to him through his Son, we have many faithful examples of integrity and a glorious treasure of service. Should this not equip us to break the power of king sin in our lives?

12. In what is God’s undeserved kindness toward his creatures revealed?

¹² The superabundance of God’s undeserved kindness is revealed in the fact that whereas the judgment resulted in condemnation from one trespass, the gift resulted in a declaration of righteousness from not one, but many trespasses. Who from among mankind can claim that by their course of action, either willfully or ignorantly, they have not transgressed and reproached Jehovah’s name? How satisfying then is the promise, “Happy are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered; happy is the man whose sin Jehovah will by no means take into account.” (Rom. 4:7, 8, NW) In 1918 God’s people had shown uncleanliness of lip and the fear of man in neglecting to give public praise to Jehovah. But how happy was their lot when their witness work was revived, when they were received back into God’s favor and all their sins were cast behind his back!

13. What glorious prospect regarding the earth did Jehovah foresee and purpose, and by what means will it be realized?

¹³ Consider, then, the glorious prospect Jehovah foresaw and purposed. He started a sinless and deathless world to begin with, and he purposes to have a sinless and deathless world when all his enemies have been destroyed. Men and women, perfect in mind and body, free from sin and unrighteousness, without flaw or ailment of any kind, will inhabit the earth forever. As kings in life they will again have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. This glorious result will have been brought about through the thousand-year rule of the new heavens. These new heavens, or new invisible ruling powers, will be composed of those who richly received of God’s undeserved kindness in association with Christ Jesus and shared in his suffering. As the apostle Paul says: “For if by the trespass of the one man death ruled as king through that one, much more will those who receive the abundance of the undeserved kindness and of the free gift of righteousness rule as kings in life through the one person, Jesus Christ.”—Rom. 5:17, NW.

14. How is God’s exact justice revealed in his providing release for mankind?

¹⁴ Jehovah’s exact justice is clearly revealed in all of his dealings. None can rightly comprehend his doings without an appreciation that justice is the foundation of his throne. With logic for which there is no equal in any literature outside of the Bible, the apostle Paul shows how condemnation is set aside through Christ, whom God set forth as an offering for propitiation through faith in his blood. He says: “So, then, as through one trespass the result to men of all kinds was condemnation, likewise also through one act of justification the result to men of all kinds is a declaring of them righteous for life. For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, likewise also through the obedience of the one person many will be constituted righteous.”—Rom. 5:18, 19, NW.

RULE OF UNDESERVED KINDNESS AS KING

15, 16. (a) What king challenges the rule of sin and death? (b) By what means and with what result?

¹⁵ Look, another king arises who challenges the rule of sin as king and counteracts his power. It is king undeserved kindness. Sin has been ruling concurrently with death. Undeserved kindness rules through righteousness. Sin brought death, undeserved kindness brings life. Sin was a sting like that of the poisonous serpent who lied about Jehovah and his word. The truth makes one free from his power. Paul wrote, “The sting producing death is sin, and the Law gives to sin its power.” (1 Cor. 15:56, NW) All things the Law said it addresses to those under the Law, so that every mouth might be stopped and all the world might become liable to God for punishment. In view of this, how gracious is Jehovah’s arrangement as stated: “Now the Law came in beside in order that trespassing might abound. But where sin abounded, undeserved kindness abounded still more. To what end? That, just as sin ruled as king with death, likewise also undeserved kindness might rule as king through righteousness with everlasting life in view through Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Rom. 3:19; 5:20, 21, NW.

¹⁶ What joy may be ours! Though sin is still ruling in those of this world, leading to death, yet undeserved kindness can rule as king in us, leading to life. “Likewise also you: reckon yourselves to be dead indeed with reference to sin but living with reference to God by Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin continue to rule as king in your mortal bodies that you should obey their desires. Neither go on presenting your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, also your members to God as weapons of righteousness.”—Rom. 6:11-13, NW.

17. What pertinent questions regarding our course of action should we ask ourselves?

¹⁷ Dear reader, how are you presenting yourself? What rule of action is governing your life? Is it principle, an adherence to fundamental truth, or passion? Is it obedience to God’s commandments or gratification of the flesh? Have you dedicated your life to Jehovah? Have you tasted the joy of regularly attending the congregational meetings and Bible studies of Jehovah’s witnesses? Have you matured to the point of presenting yourself for service, like the three hundred of Gideon’s little army of whom it is said, ‘and they stood every man in his place’? We are slaves either of sin with death in view or of obedience with righteousness in view.

18. What choice must we make, and to be on the winning side requires what of us?

¹⁸ We must choose between the enslaver and the liberator. To support Satan’s lies, to live immorally or to practice idolatry means to support kings sin and death and to receive their wage. To serve Jehovah frees us from chains now, and will assure us of the gift of God, eternal life. Will you share in announcing that deliverance? If you have not already done so, enlist now on the winning side. Our fruitage in times past consisted of things of which we are now ashamed, for the finish of those things is death. “However, now, because you were set free from sin but became slaves to God, you are having your fruit in the way of holiness, and the finish everlasting life.” (Rom. 6:22, NW) “Through him let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.” (Heb. 13:15, NW) Then we too will be convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

19. To walk in the light what must we do?

¹⁹ The rule of kings sin and death has been a dark night of weeping for humanity. The beginning of the rule of undeserved kindness resembles the dawning light of a new day. “The night is well along; the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put off the works belonging to darkness and let us put on the weapons of the light.” “You are all sons of light and sons of day. We belong neither to night nor to darkness.” (Rom. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:5, NW) To remain in the light we must walk in brotherly love, observing the new commandment as the apostle John admonishes us, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2:8, NW) Continuing to walk in that light gives us the victory over king sin.

20, 21. (a) What accusation against Jehovah did the Devil make, and who proved it to be a lie? (b) Who will share with Christ Jesus in his vindicating work and in his victory over king death?

²⁰ Reflect now for a few moments on the ultimate triumph of Jehovah’s undeserved kindness over king death as well. Satan, the originator of ill will, brought the accusation that Jehovah was unreliable and his word untrustworthy, to which all the heavenly creation were witness. Who on earth would deny that assertion, prove the Devil a liar and qualify to be his destroyer, thereby vindicating Jehovah’s word and name? It was not the first Adam, for he joined in the conspiracy to reproach the Creator. That left no perfect man on earth to take up Jehovah’s cause. But by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness the ‘Son of man’ came to earth and qualified as the second Adam. “It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first man is out of the earth and made of dust; the second man is out of heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47, NW) “For we know that Christ, now that he has been raised up from the dead, dies no more; death is master over him no more.” “But God resurrected him by loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to continue to be held fast by it.” (Rom. 6:9; Acts 2:24, NW) Christ proved the Devil a liar, and qualified. The majesty of Jehovah’s law could not hold him in death, since he was guiltless, and hence God raised him as the one who through death proved worthy to destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil. In victory Christ exclaims, “I became dead, but, look! I am living for ever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”—Heb. 2:14; Rev. 1:18, NW.

²¹ Take note how God has lovingly arranged for others to share with Christ in the work of vindication. Discussing the resurrection hope of the faithful called-out 144,000 consecrated underpriests the apostle Paul says: “But when this which is corruptible puts on incorruption and this which is mortal puts on immortality, then the saying will take place that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up forever.’ ‘Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?’” (1 Cor. 15:54, 55, NW) These gain the victory through Jesus Christ, and Satan will be bruised under their feet shortly. Victory through Christ will also be the portion of persons of good will, the faithful other sheep who have the hope of everlasting life on earth. Whether by resurrection or by now passing alive through Armageddon to live forever in the new world, theirs is a victory over death, for they share in the everlasting Kingdom blessings. “And death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4, NW) The rule of death as king will be replaced by the rule of life as king for all time, when the final testing of mankind is over.

Questions From Readers

● Exodus 4:11 (AS) states: “And Jehovah said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh a man dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? is it not I, Jehovah?” On the basis of this text, can Jehovah be blamed for all the dumb or deaf or blind?—J. C., Ontario, Canada.

This text cannot be rightly used as an argument that Jehovah God is responsible for all the dumb, deaf and blind in the earth. There are several possible views that might be taken in explanation of it. Jehovah God the Creator endowed man with speech, hearing and sight, so he can also remove these powers from man, just as he can also restore them to man where they have been lost. For instance, his angels smote the men of Sodom with blindness when they were assaulting Lot’s house. Jehovah’s Son Jesus Christ smote Saul of Tarsus with blindness for three days to turn him from his course of persecution of Christians, and thereafter divine power restored sight. The apostle Paul told the sorcerer Elymas that he would be stricken blind for a season by the hand of Jehovah, and it was so.—Gen. 19:11; Acts 9:8, 9, 17, 18; 13:8-11.

The men who were accompanying Saul of Tarsus when he was struck blind were rendered deaf by Jehovah’s power as far as discerning what Jesus said to Saul. They heard the sound of the voice, but they were deaf to its articulation of words. (Acts 9:7; 22:9, NW) God told Ezekiel that at times he would be made dumb, and that later his tongue would be loosed. (Ezek. 3:26, 27; 24:27) Then there was the priest Zechariah who was smitten with dumbness because of his slowness to believe and who was relieved when his son John was born and circumcised and named. (Luke 1:20, 22, 62-64) Also Jehovah declares that at Armageddon he will strike his enemies and “their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth”.—Zech. 14:12.

The foregoing are specific examples of where Jehovah literally brought deafness or dumbness or blindness upon individuals and also lifted these disabilities from them. The text certainly does not say that every case of such physical disability springs from Jehovah. From this text it does not follow that persons born blind or deaf or dumb were so disabled because of any direct intervention by Jehovah, as some argue. However, it is true that the operation of certain natural laws of Jehovah may result in deformities of one kind or another. By the first man’s rebellion sin and death came upon all men, and physical deterioration and degeneration set in as a consequence. Parents may sin and become diseased in certain ways, and their violation of Jehovah’s laws may result in some susceptibility to disease or some physical deformity’s being passed on to the offspring at birth. If such comes about by the operation of Jehovah’s natural law or by way of penalty for violating his laws, then in an indirect way he may be viewed as the source of it, though not responsible for it.—Ex. 20:5.

A third possible view of the matter would be in a spiritual sense. Ears that hear God’s message but fail to grasp its significance are spiritually deaf. Eyes that see foretold events but fail to perceive their fulfillment of prophecy are spiritually blind. Tongues that speak the words of God recorded in the Bible but are unable to voice clear explanations and applications are spiritually dumb. So ears that hear and eyes that see and tongues that speak can still be deaf and blind and dumb to Jehovah’s purposes. Sometimes Jehovah makes them so, because of their unworthiness. When he sent Isaiah to testify to unfaithful Judah he said to the prophet: “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (Isa. 6:9, 10) Isaiah was said to have done this to them, since he spoke the words that made the rebellious people close their eyes and ears to the message. But since the message was from God, God himself may be said to have done it. These selfish people were not fit to hear and be healed by God’s message, so they were deaf and dumb and blind to it.

To keep such unworthy ones in this state of spiritual darkness Jesus spoke to them in parables or illustrations, as he told his followers when they asked why he used illustrations: “This is why I speak to them by the use of illustrations, because, looking, they look in vain, and hearing, they hear in vain, neither do they get the sense of it; and toward them the prophecy of Isaiah is having fulfillment which says: ‘By hearing, you will hear but by no means get the sense of it; and, looking, you will look but by no means see. For the heart of this people has grown thick, and with their ears they have heard with annoyance, and they have shut their eyes; that they might never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and get the sense of it with their hearts and turn back, and I heal them.’” (Matt. 13:13-15, NW) The selfish people were not interested in God’s message, not even enough to inquire into the meaning of the illustrations Jesus used. So by putting the message in this form such unworthy ones were weeded out, and only the meek ones anxious to learn of God remained to question Jesus on the meaning of the illustrations. In this way Jehovah both kept some spiritually deaf, dumb and blind and made others see, hear and speak with spiritual enlightenment.

Some just have no love for truth, and “for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”. Modern translation brings out the meaning more clearly, showing that Jehovah does not deliberately delude them but merely allows Satan to delude them, since they take more pleasure in lies and unrighteousness than in truth and salvation: “The lawless one’s presence is according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and wonders and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved. So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them that they may get to believing the lie, in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess. 2:9-12, NW) In spiritual matters Jehovah allows Satan the god of this world to mentally blind them.—2 Cor. 4:4.

Just as Jehovah makes some deaf and dumb and blind spiritually, so others he lifts out of spiritual deafness and dumbness and blindness. As Isaiah foretold of this time of spiritual enlightenment: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” (Isa. 35:5, 6) Spiritually, he now allows these defects to remain upon the proud and arrogant, and lifts them from the meek and lowly.

Hence we see that in ways both physical and spiritual Exodus 4:11 is fulfilled by Jehovah God, but not in a way that makes him responsible for all the physically deaf, dumb and blind in the earth.

The Bible—but Only the Desirable Parts

● The clergy of Christendom have long been guilty of rejecting what parts of the Bible they do not want. Even the fundamentalists do this regarding its statements that the soul dies and that Jesus and his Father are not one in a trinity. (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Acts 3:23; John 14:28) Now the tables have been turned upon them, for the Communists are doing the same thing. The January 14 Christian Century reported a sermon by Ch’ieng Ch’u Ku published in the October 16 New Church that said the new heaven and the new earth have already been realized in the new China, thanks to land reform. “More than 4 million farmers now own their own land, build their own houses, eat the fruit of their harvest.” This included also the river projects, railways and church reform. “We are masters of our own church. We shall never again be confused by the imperialistic vision of the end of the world. . . . We must arise and work, demonstrating that the people are the masters of the new heaven and the new earth.” What egotism! Men the masters of both the church and heaven! No need to see what God expects, or to see what he has said he alone can do. This clergyman flings God into the class of imperialists anyway, since His Word tells of the end of the world; the end of democracies and Communistic governments alike, of the entire wicked system of things and the establishment of righteousness and peace to remain forever. But Ch’ieng Ch’u Ku does not care about that. He is concerned more with political propaganda in the same way that the clergy of the West push their brand; both taking only what they want of God’s Word and rejecting the rest.

Overcoming the “Impossible”

WHO would ever think of finding room for a whale in a sardine can? Perhaps what might have appeared to be a problem of equal proportion confronted Jehovah’s witnesses as they prepared for their 1950 convention at Yankee Stadium. Some 75,000 conventioners were going to want beds to sleep on. New York city was already overcrowded. The housing shortage was acute. People were stacked up in apartment houses like eggs in crates.

The Convention Bureau and the Hotel Association volunteered to help by accommodating some 25,000 conventioners, but where were the other 50,000 and more going to sleep? This meant that thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses spent many thousands of hours hunting rooms for their visiting brothers. Beginning on May 13 one of the greatest stair-climbing and door-knocking campaigns of the city’s history began in search for neat, clean rooms. Most of the homes in the city of New York were called on twice, and some three and four times.

All of this added up to a tremendous amount of work. But Jehovah’s blessing was there. In ten short weeks more than 35,000 accommodations in private homes were obtained. This, plus the hotel rooms, plus the trailer camp, provided adequate resting places for those who enjoyed one of the greatest conventions in the history of the world.

The coming 1953 assembly, July 19-26, calls for a repeating of the same, and it began April 26 on a greater scale. We have every reason to believe that by the time July 19 arrives each one will have received an accommodation of his choice. For overcoming these seeming “impossibilities” all credit, thanks and praise go to Jehovah, who can make all things possible.

Announcements

NEW WORLD SOCIETY ASSEMBLES—Heb. 10:25.

July will be a month of great activity for Kingdom publishers throughout the earth. The world assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses will hold the attention of all who are interested in the New World society. At the same time the preaching of good news will continue everywhere during this month. The offer will be three bound books on a contribution of $1.50, with three booklets given free. The New World society is on the increase and all efforts must be made to fix the attention of the peoples on the great issue now up for settlement. Those who wish to have a powerful message in compact form for helping people realize the import of these times may send for a packet of the two-color tract entitled “Awake from Sleep!” This six page tract carries a punch that will awaken people to their opportunities now. Convenient for pocket or purse. A packet of 200 will be sent for only 25c. Ask for the tract “Awake from Sleep!”

“THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND”

This book is outstanding because it deals with the basic theme of the Bible, namely, the kingdom of God. Throughout its 384 pages all the important Scripture texts bearing upon this subject are brought into view, as the book traces the Kingdom from God’s first promise concerning it through to its complete establishment. Both Hebrew and Greek scriptures are focused upon the theme. The Head of the Kingdom is identified and his activities are set forth. What is the Kingdom? When will it come? How do men today fit into the picture? “The Kingdom Is at Hand” will help you to understand what the Bible teaches concerning this important subject. Contained in the book are complete subject and scripture indexes. It is bound in attractive maroon, with gold-embossed title, and may be obtained for 50c.

BROOKLYN BETHEL VACATION

The Society’s offices, factory and Bethel home in Brooklyn, New York, will be closed from July 31 to August 10 for the annual vacation. The Bethel family will also be occupied with convention matters from July 19 to 26, although the home and factory will be open for four days following the convention, July 27 to 30, for inspection by visitors. This means that, in the period from July 19 through August 10 very little mail will be handled and few orders shipped. To avoid delays, anticipate your literature needs now and order immediately.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of July 19: The Rule of King Death.

Week of July 26: The Rule of King Death Broken.