The Watchtower — May 15, 1953

Youth No Bar to the Ministry

A MINISTER is one who serves. Jesus made this point clear in his lesson on humility occasioned by the request of the wife of Zebedee that her two sons, James and John, be granted the chief seats with Christ Jesus in his kingdom. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. Just as 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. 20:20-28, NW.

A minister of God, therefore, is one who serves God. How old must one be to be one of God’s ministers? Many an official has looked askance when a minister, appearing before him, stated that he had dedicated himself to his Creator when but a lad and that he had been a minister ever since his dedication. Can a child be a minister of God or does his youth automatically bar him from being one? What do the Scriptures and the facts show?

First of all let us note that Samuel began to serve at the temple right after being weaned. And when God had a message for Israel of impending disaster, he did not send his angel to aged Eli, nor to his matured though dissolute sons, but to the young boy Samuel.—1 Sam. 2:12 to 3:19.

And what about Jeremiah? When Jehovah said to him: “I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations,” he replied: “Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child.” Did Jehovah accept Jeremiah’s excuse? He did not, but answered him: “Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.”—Jer. 1:5-7, AS.

Yes, the Hebrew Scriptures give many examples of youthful ministers of Jehovah God. There were also David, Joseph, Josiah, Daniel and his companions. And so also the Christian Greek Scriptures, wherein the first and chief example that comes to us is, of course, Christ Jesus. At the age of but twelve he was found “in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and questioning them. But all those listening to him were in constant amazement at his understanding and his answers”. (Luke 2:46, 47, NW) And should it be argued that he was an exception, being the Son of God, then we ask, What about Timothy? He must have been very young when he started out on his preaching career, for some ten years later Paul still found it necessary to counsel him: “Let no man ever look down on your youth.”—Acts 16:1-3; 1 Tim. 4:12, NW.

Not only do the ministers of Jehovah thus have good Scriptural precedent for their ministerial activity while still youths, but their critics are estopped from caviling by the record of history on the subject. For instance, John Calvin was recognized as a chaplain at the age of twelve. Pope Paul III elevated his grandson (yes, that is right, his grandson) Alessandro Farnese to the cardinalate at the age of fourteen. Pope Leo X was made an abbot when but eight years old and became a cardinal at the age of thirteen. Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) appointed his grandnephew Alessandro a cardinal at the age of fourteen.

Also in modern times we repeatedly read of youthful ministers serving in the pulpits. Perhaps the most sensational instance was that of a four-year-old son of a California clergyman who preached in 1948, 1949. In fact, due to this child-minister’s performing a marriage ceremony a bill was introduced in the Missouri legislature prohibiting ministers under seventeen to perform marriages. The bill, however, was defeated, on the ground that it violated religious freedom.

What does it take to be a minister of Jehovah God in these days? Dedication to Jehovah, a knowledge of his Word, a desire and ability to tell it to others, and faithfulness in spite of opposition. That one does not have to be an adult to have these qualifications is apparent from the following report received from a traveling representative of the Watch Tower Society serving in the Gold Coast:

“On my arrival at the small coastal town of Senya Beraku I met a young brother about thirteen years of age, whose one eye was bloodstained. When questioned as to the cause he told his experience. He first came in touch with the truth two years ago by following an older schoolmate to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses. After some time this schoolmate lost interest, but not he. Soon he was joining the brothers in the house-to-house preaching. His mother being dead and his father away, working on the Ivory Coast, he was staying with a grandmother and aunt who repeatedly beat him to discourage his activity, but in vain. Twice he was prevented from attending an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses where he hoped to get baptized, but only by their hiding his clothes. On the day I saw him he had been getting ready to join us in the group preaching activity when his aunt got hold of him and had some boys stretch him out and beat him. After the beating he asked them if that was all they could do and then left to meet us for witnessing. That beating accounted for his bloodstained eye.

“People mock at his going from house to house, calling him asempfo, which means ‘bearer of good news’. He calmly tells them that he appreciates the name, for that is what he really is, and then asks them why do they not also want to become asempfos, bearers of good news, themselves?

“They tell him that he ought to be in school instead of thus preaching, to which he replies by pointing to the urgency of the message. The fact is that in spite of his ministerial activities he is at the head of his class in school. His answers are so tactful and intelligent that some express resentment and others amazement that such replies should come from such a little boy as he is. When he goes from door to door his brief case containing Bible literature practically drags on the ground, he being so small.

“Early Sunday morning we immersed him and you can imagine his joy that at last he had been able to symbolize and give public declaration of his dedication to Jehovah.”

How many professed Christian ministers, mature in years, show such understanding, zeal and integrity? Truly, not age but fruits determine whether or not one is a minister of God. Age is no bar to the ministry.

Watch Out for the Pharisees!

“THEN Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the seat of Moses. Therefore all the things they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say but do not perform.’”—Matt. 23:1-3, NW.

These words of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Prophet of whom Moses spoke, clearly identify the Pharisees as men who had taken authority to themselves. They had seated themselves in Moses’ seat. Jehovah God gave the Law to Moses as a guide and rule for the Israelite people. For the Pharisees to have seated themselves in the seat of Moses would mean they professed to be teachers of the Law of God, the written Law as given to Moses contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. It would mean they should have turned the Israelite people to Jehovah their God.

If the Pharisees and the people held to the Law from God, surely such a people would be blessed and be in line with Jehovah’s will and purpose. But was that the case? The facts and the Bible account show that the nation of Israel was not blessed by God under the Pharisees and their teaching. Jesus’ own words tell us that the people could not trust these professed teachers of the Law. Why not? Who were these Pharisees? How were they able to ‘seat themselves in the seat of Moses’? Why did Jesus warn the people and his disciples against following them?

A brief history of these men is in order to give us the proper setting for the action that took place between them and Jesus when he was on earth. The name Pharisee, which means separated, sounds the keynote for this body of religious men. Sometime during the second century B.C. this group came into existence as the champions of Jewish exclusiveness. They are connected by many historians with the Hasidim, who were described as being “mighty men of Israel, even all such as were voluntarily devoted to the law”. It was during the early part of the same century that Antiochus Epiphanes, a Seleucid prince of Syria having control over Palestine, proscribed Judaism, and in its place tried to force the popular Greek customs and ways upon the Jews. In fact, he prohibited the Jews, under penalty of death, from observing any and all of the religious observances ordained in the Law of Moses, even to the keeping of their sabbath. While some Jews bowed to this edict and turned to Hellenistic ways, others revolted. To this revolt, called the Maccabean wars, the strict observers of the Law joined themselves. Many of the zealous Jews died rather than break the sabbath law. Their adherence to the Law corresponded to that of the scribes of Israel who had been and were the men of influence in decisions on matters of law and on the many traditions they enjoined upon the Jewish people.

It was not until the time of the Jewish Maccabean prince John Hyrcanus, toward the last of the second century B. C., that the Pharisees came to be known by that name. The Pharisees did not agree with the Hellenizing influence that had affected so many of the Jews. They were determined that they, at least, would in no way become contaminated with Greek culture, literature and commerce. They separated themselves completely from all such influences. They became very exclusive. They took on a “better than thou” attitude, became formal and overly self-righteous. They gave minute interpretations and twists to the law. They exaggerated expectations of fulfillment of prophecy and gave literal and strictest attention to trivial acts of worship and external rites and ceremonies beyond the requirements of the law, placing the traditions of the older men of influence on an equal footing with the written inspired Scriptures. Instead of keeping with the times and speaking the international tongue of that time, Greek, they held to the Aramaic language, which the Jews had learned in Babylonish captivity many years previous.

This separateness did not make the Pharisees very popular with many of the Jews, and after the death of Hyrcanus his son Alexander Jannaeus openly persecuted them as a sect and even went so far as to put many of them to the sword. It was during his reign as a Maccabean high priest of the Jews that the people were torn by much internal strife between the two parties, the Pharisees and the opposing Sadducees. But the tide turned favorably for the Pharisees when, in 78 B.C., Alexandra, wife and successor of Alexander Jannaeus, brought the Pharisees into favor. She astutely recognized that physical force was powerless against zealous religious conviction, and so gave official recognition to them. This put the Pharisees in position to consolidate their power, and they played a major and influential part in the religious life of the people of Israel from that time forward.

ENSNARING TRADITION

The small measure of independence had by the Jews under the Maccabeans was short-lived, however. In the year 63 B. C. the Roman legions were knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, taking the city over as its conquerors. Thenceforth until the time of Jesus’ appearance on the scene the Jews simmered under their loss of political liberty. Their national pride had been hurt again. They were prone to turn from the reality of the day and dwell on the glories of the past, back to their history as a once powerful nation. They developed more and more an inward self-exaltation and spiritual pride that made them look down upon anything not Jewish or not in line with their traditional law. The Pharisees, particularly, continued to entwine the people in the morass of oral law and tradition they had evolved. Through all this the Romans who ruled them, using local governors or kings, were not interested or anxious to meddle with the Jew’s religion. They did not understand the Jew and only tried to maintain the Pax Romana or Roman peace the best they could.

These Pharisees were the ones, then, that had seated themselves in Moses’ seat. They knew the law. They were men of influence, some of their number being found in the High Court of the Jews, the Sanhedrin. (Acts 23:6, NW) Many of the learned men of the time were in their ranks and were held in high esteem by the people: “But a certain man rose in the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a Law teacher esteemed by all the people.” (Acts 5:34, NW) Being in such a prominent position as the Pharisees were, and having the confidence of the people as they had, they were in an excellent position to teach the people the Word of Jehovah. But rather than doing so, they strayed far from the truth; so far, indeed, that when Jehovah God’s time came to send his messenger, John the Baptist, to prepare the way for the Greater than Moses, Christ Jesus, they rejected Jehovah’s warning and counsel. “But the Pharisees and those versed in the law disregarded the counsel of God to them and were not baptized by him [John].” (Luke 7:30, NW) Small wonder, then, that Jesus told his disciples later: “For I say to you that if your righteousness does not abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.”—Matt. 5:20, NW.

Exactly why the Pharisees disregarded God’s counsel is aptly illustrated at Mark 7:1-13: “Now the Pharisees and some of the scribes that had come from Jerusalem gathered before him. And when they saw some of his disciples eat their meal with defiled hands, that is, unwashed ones—For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands up to the elbow, observing the tradition of the older men of influence, and, when back from market, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves by sprinkling; and there are many other traditions that they have received to observe: baptisms of cups and pitchers and copper vessels;—so these Pharisees and scribes asked him: ‘Why is it your disciples do not conduct themselves according to the tradition of the older men of influence, but they take their meal with defiled hands?’ He said to them: ‘Isaiah aptly prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they pay respect to me, because they teach as doctrines commands of men.” Letting go the commandment of God you observe the tradition of men.’”

Certainly there is no law in the Law of Moses that stated that a man had to wash his hands before he ate. That was strictly a tradition or commandment of the Pharisees’ religion, not a law of Jehovah God. Then, to show how the religious Pharisees had pushed God’s law aside for their own doctrine, Jesus went on to say: “Adroitly you set aside the commandment of God in order to retain your tradition. For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death.’ But you men say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, “Whatever I have by which you may get help from me is corban, (that is, a gift dedicated to God,)” you men no longer let him do a single thing for his father or his mother,’ and thus you shove the word of God aside for your tradition which you handed down. And many such maxims you do.”—NW.

It is evident from the above words of Jesus that the Pharisees were interested in the “gift” that was dedicated to God (that is, to the temple of the Pharisees). The Bible speaks of these men as money lovers; and this, too, brought on occasion for Jesus to tell the Pharisees in no uncertain terms: “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is under obligation.’ Fools and blind ones! Which, in fact, is greater, the gold or the temple that has sanctified the gold?”—Matt. 23:16, 17; Luke 16:14, NW.

In the matter of judgment and faithfulness Jehovah’s Word required that those professing to be leaders and teachers should be just and true. The Pharisees were sadly lacking in such things, and Jesus took them to task for it. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cummin, but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, judgment and mercy and faithfulness.”—Matt. 23:23, NW.

DANGEROUS DOCTRINE

In view of these things disclosed by Jesus and the many other things revealed by him regarding the Pharisees, what result had their course effected upon the people in general? Jesus further answered this: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before mankind; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in.” (Matt. 23:13, NW) Even some of the rulers believed on Jesus and what he had to say, but they were in fear of the Pharisees, who could make or break them socially. “All the same, many even of the rulers actually put faith in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess him in order not to be expelled from the congregation; for they loved the glory of men more than even the glory of God.”—John 12:42, 43, NW.

From the evidence given in the Bible concerning the Pharisees one can only deduce that they were dangerous. Dangerous because not only did they prevent themselves from having Jehovah God’s favor, but also they were turning thousands upon thousands of people into the way of destruction. The Pharisees said they were teaching the truth. Jesus Christ said that what they were teaching was wrong and that it was death-dealing. (Matt. 23:27, 28, 33, NW) Hence Jesus warned his apostles and disciples: “Be on the alert and watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” When the disciples failed at first to comprehend just what he meant, the Master clarified it for them. “Then they grasped that he said to watch out, not for the yeast of the loaves, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”—Matt. 16:6, 12, NW.

To this day there are many men who have taken upon themselves to be professed teachers of God’s Word, and yet who teach exactly contrary to the truth. There is only one way to determine those who have God’s interests in mind. It is recorded at Isaiah 8:20, AS: “To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.” If men today do not teach Jehovah God’s promised new world of righteousness as mankind’s only hope; if they do not expose this present system of things as of Satan the Devil, its god, nor warn all righteously disposed persons to flee from it to God’s organization, then they are not teaching truth and light. Watch out for them and their teaching. Remaining with such blind guides can only lead to death and destruction.—Matt. 15:14, NW.

The Sure Guide

● “It is not really enough,” said the London Catholic Herald, February 5, “to refute the accusation that Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible with the retort that they are allowed and encouraged to do so. The refutation will only be effective when Catholics do read and love the Bible and show the fact in the habit of their minds, the turn of their language and, above all, in that inner appreciation of doctrine and the spiritual life which grows best when fed on the Bible.” There is a challenge! No one will believe Catholics are really encouraged to read the Bible until they do read it. It may not always please them, however, for diligent study will prove that today’s religions have added to true doctrine as thoroughly as did the Pharisees of old. Nevertheless, its value is in providing a release from ensnarement, the exposure of blind guides and the sure test for true doctrine.

True Worship in Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia

Continuing the report by the president of the Watch Tower Society, N. H. Knorr, of his trip through Africa

AFTER leaving Johannesburg our next stop was Blantyre, chief commercial city of Nyasaland. Due to many newly paved roads and new buildings the general appearance of Blantyre has improved considerably since our last visit, five years ago. However, the problems of pressing forward with the Kingdom message remain the same. European brothers are needed to help the Africans to gain a clearer understanding of the Scriptures and in their organizational activities, and therefore for some years now the Society has been trying to send in more European brothers. But even though this has not been permitted up to the present time the work has moved ahead well, the number of witnesses swelling from 4,918 to 11,244.

On December 18 the assemblies in Nyasaland began. Brother Henschel served the brothers assembled at Limbe, just outside of Blantyre, while I, accompanied by Brother McLuckie, the branch servant, flew to Lilongwe, where another assembly was being held.

For the assembly at Lilongwe the brothers built a large shelter over a hundred yards long and thirty yards wide, which gave protection from the sun and also somewhat from the rain, it having a gabled roof. There were 2,500 present and they had a very joyful time. Some had come long distances, a few even from the Northern Rhodesian border. They were very orderly and attentive. Jehovah’s witnesses in Nyasaland are peaceful and do not cause any disturbances. They do not engage in politics in any way whatsoever but center their hope in God’s kingdom.

While I was giving two talks to the brothers at Lilongwe Brother Henschel was speaking to an audience of about 4,000 at Limbe in a lovely grove of mango trees. At this place only the platform, elevated on bamboo poles some eight feet above the ground, was sheltered. The witnesses gathered in an oval, sitting on the ground. It must be mentioned that the singing at both places was unusually delightful.

After addressing the assembly at Lilongwe I had to hurry back for the public meeting at Limbe, which was due to begin at five o’clock. While my return trip had been delayed some because of a storm, the weather at Limbe had been fine all day and now 5,000 were gathered in an open field to hear the public lecture. Later in the evening I gave the same talk at the Town Hall for the benefit of the Europeans, 35 of whom attended. At both meetings the people evinced keen interest in what was being said about the great need for the people now to consider God’s way.

The following day I served the brothers at Limbe while Brother Henschel flew to Lilongwe and there gave the public talk to 3,000. Thus upward of 8,000 heard the public lectures in Nyasaland. During the assembly the brothers were encouraged to press on in the work and those still illiterate were urged to learn to read and write. Although there is illiteracy among the brothers, it is less than for the country as a whole.

While in Nyasaland I had the opportunity to talk to the government officials at Zomba about more European supervision and about allowing some missionaries to enter the country. What the outcome will be is difficult to say; but, regardless of what the government does, if it is their aim to keep the truth from reaching the people or to slacken the zeal of Jehovah’s witnesses, they will fail. In five years the number of witnesses has more than doubled and we can expect a like increase for the next five years.

In order to reach Blantyre in the first place we had to hire a small plane, and we used this same plane to take us back to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, our next stop. The craft was a two-engine biplane with fabric covering. The pilot, not having been to Nyasaland before, was not familiar with the locations of all the mountains, and so in view of the low clouds decided to follow the winding road. It was like driving a car at one hundred miles an hour, taking all the turns.

The land rose but the clouds did not. Several miles ahead we could see that the clouds met the ground. After skimming the tops of the trees for a while with the clouds brushing against the top of the plane, there was finally nothing left to do but to return to the airport. It was a 30-minute wild ride. By 9:30, an hour later, the wind and sun had caused the clouds to rise and so we started off again. By taking a different route and flying between two layers of clouds we were able to make our way to Southern Rhodesia.

SOUTHERN RHODESIAN ASSEMBLIES

When we arrived at Salisbury the convention was already under way. We were especially delighted to see 163 persons present, all Europeans. When we had our gathering in Salisbury five years before, only eight Europeans were present. Until recently it had been quite difficult to interest Europeans in the work of Jehovah’s witnesses. But even in the fine land of Southern Rhodesia there are anxieties that bother those who are of good heart and they are beginning to look for hope. The population consists of 120,000 Europeans and 2,000,000 Africans.

Shortly after I had arrived at this assembly I had to leave to address the African meeting. This required a drive of about five miles to Harari Native Township. We found the brothers seated on the ground in a large open lot and listening to three speakers. One was speaking in Cinyanja, one in Cishona and one in Zulu, one after the other giving the same information. Although I did not understand what they were saying, I could feel that the spirit of Jehovah was manifest among these people.

Upon beginning to address the assembly myself I could see that the old custom of the sisters sitting to the left of the speaker and the brothers in the center and to the right was gradually giving way among Jehovah’s witnesses and more and more the wives are sitting with their husbands. It was a beautiful sight, these 7,300 African brothers, who had gathered from all parts of Southern Rhodesia, enjoying their assembly to the full. The skies were clear for all the assembly.

On Sunday 280 African brothers were immersed in a river and 17 European brothers in a pool in Salisbury. While Brother Henschel was addressing the audience of European brothers in the morning I gave the public talk to the Africans and there were 11,000 in attendance. Later in the day when Brother Henschel and I addressed the Africans again there were at least 15,000 gathered together.

On Sunday afternoon the public meeting for the Europeans was held and 250 attended, which was excellent. Everybody was pleased with the results, for nearly half of the African audience and about 100 Europeans had attended the public meetings, due to the very intensive advertising of the lectures.

One thing that impressed the Africans, the police and the Europeans who observed the African assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses was that here on the ground Africans, from different tribes from all parts of the land, had come together, and yet there were no quarrelings, no fights, no bloodshed. To many who were not Jehovah’s witnesses this seemed almost incredible.

In Southern Rhodesia African Jehovah’s witnesses are being recognized by many Europeans as very good people to employ. For example, the boss of an African brother, an engineer on the railway, tried to get rid of the brother, and the matter came to the attention of the station master. The only reason given for wanting him fired was that he was one of Jehovah’s witnesses. The station master referred the matter up to the railway superintendent and asked what he should do. The superintendent answered: “We have hundreds of Jehovah’s witnesses working here in Bulawayo and they are the best boys. Do not fire that boy.” So they kept the brother and put him under the supervision of another boss.

At Shabani the brothers are giving a tremendous witness to the truth. The chief compound manager said: “A year ago I would not let Watch Tower representatives in the compounds, but now we realize your boys are the best boys we have. We are gradually putting them in the most responsible positions.” The mine manager recently issued a bulletin to all European employees saying that all Africans who are Jehovah’s witnesses working under them are to be allowed time off to go to their meetings, and that even if they are on shift work. When one compares the 10,315 witnesses in Southern Rhodesia at the present time with the 3,044 in 1947 he will appreciate how great an increase has been taking place there.

The work is growing so rapidly here that it seemed advisable to buy a house in a beautiful part of Salisbury, which may be called the queen city of Central Africa, to house the missionaries and the branch office. Arrangements were made for the European brothers to give greater personal supervision to the African congregations and more careful training to the African traveling representatives of the Society, known as circuit servants. While there is outstanding peace and unity among Jehovah’s witnesses, our African brothers are very anxious to keep on improving. The prospects for theocratic expansion in Southern Rhodesia are very promising.

The Bible

● It is the best seller of all time. It is the book of the month every month of the year, every year of the calendar. It is perennially modern, never outdated, and whatever the price, it is priceless, for it has brought solace to the sick, comfort to the sorrowing, spiritual strength to the strong. It has given hope to the poor, humility to the proud. It has touched the hearts of king and commoner. It was written for all people of all nations of all time. It points the way to spiritual wealth that never can be taxed and to spiritual dividends that never will be passed. It is the dispenser of life to those who follow its counsel; it is the unfailing beacon to guide men into that new world of righteousness where there will be no tears, disappointment or death. It is the textbook of freedom, the guidebook of life. Let us study its teachings, follow its counsel, and live; for ‘this means everlasting life, to know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent forth, Jesus Christ’.

What Has Happened to Religion?

ACCORDING to both the Christian Herald and Reader’s Digest, our “most important shortage” is “too little . . . belief in Almighty God”. Is this view shared by others? Yes. “Anemic religion” and the “decline of the churches” have been decried by the Episcopal Churchnews and the Manchester Guardian. An article in Woman’s Day was up in arms over children’s saying they never talk about Jesus in Sunday school, and “Christian” youth has been “found guilty at ‘trial’ of Bible ignorance”, according to the Baltimore Sun.

The Milwaukee Journal reported on a most unusual request by labor union leaders for a study of the sort of religious faith needed to meet the conditions and problems of contemporary life. It said few leaders in government, business, journalism, education, the arts, farm and labor organizations between thirty and fifty years of age have more than a nominal connection with a church or synagogue.

An article in Collier’s quoted an old farmer as avowing, “Only God can save the world now.” God? Yes! But does that mean today’s religions? No! Actually it is today’s religion that is responsible for the shortage of belief in Almighty God, because it has accepted responsibility for teaching that belief. The “Rev.” David Glyn Evans of the Basingstoke, England, Congregational Church said on August 19, 1951, “If lots were cast tomorrow, it is the sleeping church that would be thrown overboard”; and he pointed to the fact that during the past thirty years Congregational churches alone in England lost more than 100,000 members.

The failure of today’s religion was shown by a Christian Century article February 27, 1952, which said: “There is an impression abroad that religion first and last is a comforting and comfortable affair. Twentieth century Christianity has lost the stringent note. For most of us there is no cross in it, no abstinence, no subjugation of the flesh in the interests of the spirit. People are not made to feel when they look at the church and its program that Christianity is a creed for heroes or that to embrace it means ‘living dangerously’. It is overanxious to placate and accommodate the state and the world at large. . . . The man on the street has little reason to think that Christians are a company of people committed to the turning of the world upside down with a view to setting it right side up. But that was the general impression of Christians in the first century. It meant something then to be a Christian, and it cost something. No one from A. D. 30 to A. D. 313 thought of Christianity as a comfortable religion. It was a creed for heroes.”

Just as in politics there is much talk of peace, so in religion there is much talk of the church’s becoming militant again, but this goal succeeds no more than do the peacemakers’ dreams. Rather, the churches prefer to please the men who provide the money, honor, political recognition and “respectability” which early Christians never had nor sought, having a far more valuable thing in its stead.

Further illustrating this very failure of even the church members to show sufficient concern over their religion to actually get out and work for it, The Churchman for June commented: “Though Christianity was founded by a layman it has taken us many years to realize that we have deprived the layman of the position of high dignity that he held in the early church, when all Christians were a royal priesthood.” But that magazine’s discussion of a few being granted licenses as lay readers is a proposal that still falls short of providing for “a company of people committed to the turning of the world upside down with a view to setting it right side up”.

Religious leaders would like to shift the blame to the people or to communism for the moral decay, as Cardinal Spellman did at the Eucharist Congress in Spain last year. They cannot! The people are responsible for many things, communism is responsible for many others, but the religious leaders are the ones who are responsible for today’s religious deterioration. They have watered down pure worship, exalted their own prestige, fraternized with corrupt politics and government. They have taught their theories and traditions, instead of God’s Word, and as a result their religions have become anemic.

Predestination or Individual Choice—Which?

“God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.”—Acts 10:34, 35, NW.

1. How do justice and love operate together, and how not?

JEHOVAH is a God of justice and of love. But in exercising his quality of love he never ignores the demands of justice. Both operate in perfect balance together, neither being stifled by the other. Through sinfulness inherited from Adam all men are justly condemned to die, but by the sacrifice of Christ all men are lovingly offered opportunity to live. “The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, NW) Opportunity for receiving the loving gift of life is not limited to a select few, leaving the justifiable condemnation of death to be unalterably forced upon the remaining many. God does not single out some for life regardless of their personal conduct just to display his love, nor does he arbitrarily doom others to destruction merely to exalt his justice. To do so would be showing partiality. And Jehovah “is never partial”, does not show “respect of persons”. (Deut. 10:17; 2 Chron. 19:7, AT) His love and justice are wisely directed, and “the wisdom from above” is “not making partial distinctions”. Emphatically, “there is no partiality with God.”—Rom. 2:11; Jas. 3:17, NW.

2. How is astrology akin to predestination?

² But many religionists say God is partial, when they preach predestination, when they declare the individual’s destiny is divinely fixed before birth. Rather than being based on the Bible, the doctrine was sired by paganism and nourished by tradition. Predestination is shown in a sense at Deuteronomy 4:19 (AT), when Jehovah warned his covenant people: “Beware, when you look up into the heavens and see all the host of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, that you do not let yourselves be allured into paying homage to them, and serving them.” It was common practice for the ancient heathen religions to make gods of the heavenly bodies and worship them, and to claim that the destinies of men were guided by these gods or heavenly bodies. This is strikingly shown by Jehovah’s words to the stargazing Babylonians: “You have wearied yourself with your many counselors, now let them stand up and save you—those who map out the heavens, and gaze at the stars, and tell you month by month what fortune will come to you.” (Isa. 47:13, AT) They mapped out or divided off the heavens into twelve sections, one for each month, and according to the month or position of the stars at the time of birth a man’s life course was determined. They believed that their star gods more or less predestinated their lives. The pagan religions of both Greeks and Romans made gods of the heavenly bodies, and the present names of the planets are from Roman mythology.

3. What did the Pharisees believe, and into what thorny problem did this plunge them?

³ Before their captivity in Babylon the Jews frequently fell victims to such idolatries. (2 Ki. 17:16; Jer. 44:17; Ezek. 8:16) After their return to Jerusalem they avoided the more obvious idolatries, falling instead into more subtle snares. They began to build up a great mass of tradition, and religious sects arose among them. One of these was the Pharisees. They did not believe in predestination by the star gods of the heathen, but they did believe Jehovah so determined human lives. By their tradition they transferred a pagan doctrine to Jehovah, and voided his word that “time and chance happen to all of them”, rather than events being predestinated. (Eccl. 9:11, AT) The outstanding Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us: “The Pharisees . . . ascribe all to fate [or, providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action.” “When they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously.” (Wars of the Jews, Book II, Chapter VIII, ¶14; Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter I, ¶3) To believe in predestination and at the same time retain the view that man is a free moral agent has always been a thorny problem to the devotees of the doctrine, ancient and modern. None logically harmonizes the two factors. Many today adopt the Pharisees’ supposed solution, for want of something sensible. To say a creature possesses true free will that is deliberately created with a temperament that will go in the way God predestinated is like saying a machine has free will, but moves only in the way it was made to move by its maker.

4. What Catholic position developed concerning predestination?

⁴ Following in the footsteps of the Pharisees, the prominent Roman Catholic saint, Augustine, “maintained that grace is an internal operation of God upon those whom he designs to save, imparting not only the power, but also the will to do good. The fact that some are saved and others lost he attributed to the will of God. Hence his doctrines of unconditional predestination, of particular redemption, and of special and irresistible grace. Reprobation, he granted, was based upon foreseen guilt, but apparently unconscious of the inconsistency, he denied the applicability of the same principle to election. In 529 the system of Augustine was established as Church doctrine by the Council of Arausio (Orange), but the reaction against the strictly logical yet essentially immoral nature of his dogma has been perpetually manifested.” “Four hundred years more passed away before a man could be found bold enough to complete Augustine’s theory by declaring that, as God has sovereignly and immutably elected whomsoever he has pleased unto life, without any foresight of faith and obedience, so he has of his own good pleasure freely and unchangeably predestinated whomsoever he has pleased unto everlasting misery, without any reference to foreknown sin and guilt on their part. This anticipator of Calvin was a Saxon monk named Gottschalk (Godeschalcus). His novel view brought down upon him not merely ecclesiastical censure, but even persecution.” Church councils in 848 and 849 condemned him, and he was flogged and imprisoned in a monastery until his death some twenty years later.—M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume VIII, page 499.

5. (a) From what other source did the doctrine find support? (b) How is astrology further tied in with it?

⁵ During this same general time period another religion was teaching fatalism and predestination, and had scriptures to support them: “No one can die except by God’s permission, according to the Book that fixeth the term of life.” “Some of them there were whom God guided, and there were others decreed to err . . . God will not guide him whom He would lead astray.” “No mischance chanceth either on earth or in your persons, but ere “we” created them, it was in the Book;—for easy is this to God.” “This is truly a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord: but will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is knowing, wise. He causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy.” (Sura 3:139; 16:38, 39; 57:22; 76:29-31, Rodwell) Of course, these are not inspired scriptures from God’s Word, the Bible, but are from the holy book of the Mohammedans, the Koran. M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume I, page 499, links predestination and astrology and shows Mohammedanism’s interest in both, saying: “By the latter [judicial astrology], it was pretended, could be predicted events which were dependent upon the human will, as particular actions, peace, war, etc. Astrology accords well with the predestinarian doctrines of Mohammedanism, and was accordingly cultivated with great ardor by the Arabs from the seventh to the thirteenth century. Some of the early Christian fathers argued against the doctrines of astrology; others received them in a modified form. In its public capacity the Roman Church several times condemned the system, but many zealous churchmen cultivated it. Cardinal D’Ailly, ‘the eagle of the doctors of France’ (died 1420), is said to have calculated the horoscope of Jesus Christ, and maintained that the Deluge might have been predicted by astrology.”

6. To what extent was Calvin’s influence felt, and how was the doctrine spread?

⁶ In the midst of the ferment of the Reformation the subject of predestination was revived, and during the 1530’s and the two decades that followed John Calvin dominated the stage as the champion of unconditional predestination of not only those to be saved but also those to be lost. Again the Roman Church condemned these views, just as it had seven centuries earlier when the Saxon monk Gottschalk had argued for them. However, a century later, from the synod known as the Westminster Assembly of Divines, came forth the largely Calvinistic Confession of Faith, which was adopted in 1646 by the British Parliament, to become the creed of the English Church and the doctrinal basis of almost all the present Presbyterian churches. Through the Puritans predestination teaching was spread all over New England, and by the Reformed Dutch and other Presbyterian bodies it was carried through most of the Middle and Western states of America. Today the foremost advocates of the doctrine are Presbyterians, though many of the modern church bodies of this particular faith have modified their views and watered down the harsh doctrine.

7. What discloses the Catholic view on predestination now?

⁷ The foregoing has shown how extensively the doctrine was and is believed, that it was or still is adhered to in varying degrees by ancient astrologers, pagan religionists, Pharisees, Mohammedans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. Inclusion of the last-named ones may come as a surprise to many and be denied by some; hence we quote the following from the July 1951 issue of the pamphlet Why, edited by “Father” Richard Felix, O.S.B., and published with ecclesiastical approbation by the Benedictine Fathers, Benet Lake, Wisconsin: “God predestines certain souls for Heaven. He does not predestine any soul for Hell. The Council of Trent officially condemned the heresy of Calvin who held that by an absolute decree of God part of mankind was predestined to Hell. The predestination of the elect to Heaven is a positive act of God; the reprobation of the wicked is not.” This reaffirms the predestinarian teachings of Augustine concerning those to be saved, and automatically leaves all others hopelessly lost, whether specifically predestinated to destruction or not. Recently Catholicism’s predestinarian views cropped out in the public press, when it reported on the funeral held for a ten-year-old girl who had fallen from a fire escape. On that occasion a Catholic priest in a Brooklyn church reportedly said: “God wanted another angel and He took Dorothy. Dorothy had been picked by God to remain with her parents just this length of time. Then He called her to serve Him at this Christmas time.”—New York Daily News, December 19, 1952.

PREDESTINATED AS A CLASS

8. Just what is the Presbyterian teaching?

⁸ However, the Presbyterian churches are the foremost advocates of the doctrine of predestination, and we therefore center attention upon their position. According to their own words, they teach: “Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace. The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.”a

9. Can they trace the doctrine to Paul, and how do they try?

⁹ Presbyterians claim that they can trace this doctrine to Paul. They may be able to trace it to Paul the Pharisee, but not to Paul the apostle. When a Pharisee and known as Saul of Tarsus and a violent persecutor of Christians, Paul may have believed predestination. But when he abandoned that sect he did not seek to salvage any of its traditional teachings, about which Jesus remarked to those religionists: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.” (Matt. 15:6, NW) Paul did not contaminate Christian teaching with the Pharisee doctrine of predestination of individuals. Nevertheless, predestinationists today will try to support their claim that Paul did teach predestination by quoting his words at Romans 8:29, 30: “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

10. Why a class instead of individuals does Romans 8:29, 30 foreordain?

¹⁰ From this can it be correctly argued that certain individuals were predestinated to be called and justified and glorified as spirit creatures to reign with Christ in heaven for a thousand years? Notice in this text that the ones called and justified are first predestinated, and since the divine predestinating could not fail, no individuals once called and justified could fail to be eventually glorified with Christ. That is the view that must be taken if this text is applied to individuals. However, other scriptures, to be considered later, show persons once called and justified or declared righteous can fall away and be destroyed. So what is unfailingly predestinated at Romans 8:29, 30 must be a class, and not the individuals making up the class. Jehovah has predestinated or foreordained the requirements this class must meet, its standards of conduct, its work while on earth, its service with Christ in heaven, its place in the divine arrangement of things, and even the number of individuals that will comprise it.—Rev. 14:1-4.

11. Does the use of personal pronouns make the text mean individuals instead of a class?

¹¹ Some may say that if a class were meant the pronoun “it” and not the personal pronoun “them” would have been used in the text. Not necessarily so. We often use personal pronouns to refer to a class, rather than to the individuals making up the group. For instance, two schools meet in an athletic contest, and a girl from the winning school says: “We defeated them.” The “we” refers to the winning school as a group, and not to all the students individually, for as individuals they did not defeat the other school. Certainly the girl did not. She did not even play. Only those on the team defeated them. And the “them” does not refer to all the students of the losing school either, for not all of them individually played and suffered defeat on the athletic field. “Them” refers to the losing school as a group, not as individuals. Similarly, the “them” at Romans 8:30 refers to a class, not individuals. Only thus can the text be harmonized with other scriptures.

12. How does Matthew 22:14 rule out predestination?

¹² If Jehovah God predestinated individuals to salvation in advance, would he call or invite to such salvation those not predestinated for it, those who could not possibly attain it? Would not such an invitation be hypocritical in the extreme, a heartless mocking and cruel taunting of those whom he has foreordained to fail? It would be sadistic torture of weak and helpless creatures at the hands of an all-powerful Creator. It would deny the divine attributes of both justice and love. Jehovah God is not guilty of such unloving, unjust, hypocritical misconduct. By pouring out his holy spirit or active force upon persons he calls or invites them to membership in the heavenly class, and that without predestinating in advance their success or failure in attaining it. Some of the individuals called become unfaithful and drop out. More are called to take their place. Enough are called so that eventually the predestinated number are finally chosen, regardless of the many who fell away after being called. It was because of this circumstance that Jesus said: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” If predestination were true, the number called would be the same as the number finally chosen.—Matt. 22:14.

13. What questions are raised by Ephesians 1:4, 5, and how do Presbyterians answer them, confusingly so?

¹³ Believers in this doctrine call attention to Ephesians 1:4, 5: “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” But again the reference is to a class, and the use of the personal pronouns “we” and “us” does not affect this fact, as previously pointed out. However, this text does say that this class was predestinated or foreordained “before the foundation of the world”. Would that not indicate that Jehovah knew before he created Adam and Eve that they would fall into sin, and bring forth imperfect, sinful offspring, thereby making necessary Christ the Redeemer and the foreordained Kingdom class to reign with him for a thousand years to restore fallen mankind to perfection? Presbyterians answer yes, saying: “The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends.”b Also, “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”c Yet they contend that, though God unchangeably ordains and orders and governs everything that comes to pass, the human creature has complete liberty and freedom of will, and God may not be blamed for what he irresistibly ordains. Very confusing.

14. How is the “world” of Ephesians 1:4, 5 Scripturally identified?

¹⁴ Actually, there is not the slightest evidence that Jehovah foreordained the fall of Adam and Eve. Then why would he foreordain “before the foundation of the world” the provision of Christ and the Kingdom class to lift obedient mankind from the effects of Adam’s fall? Because the world that began with the creation of Adam and Eve is not the same as the one before whose foundation this class was predestinated. Peter speaks of three worlds: the “world that then was”, that arose when Adam sinned and was later destroyed by the Noachian flood, the present wicked one that started after the flood and will end in Armageddon’s fiery destruction, and the promised new world wherein righteousness is to dwell. The new world’s foundation was laid at the time of the death of Jesus, for it is his sacrificial death that furnishes the basis for human creatures to be rescued from sin and death, enabling some to reign with him as part of the new heavens and others to live forever on this globe as an obedient new earth. Hence Jesus is referred to as “the Lamb who was slaughtered from the world’s foundation”.—Heb. 9:25, 26; 2 Pet. 3:5-7, 13; Rev. 13:8, NW.

15. Why does foreordaining the class before the world’s foundation not mean God foreknew Adam’s fall?

¹⁵ Was Jesus slaughtered, impaled on the torture stake, before Adam’s creation? Certainly not, but more than four thousand years later, A.D. 33! But before the foundation of this righteous new world was laid by the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ with the merit of his shed blood to present before Jehovah, Christ and the Kingdom class had been predestinated. Yet this foreordination was after Adam and Eve’s sinning. It was after their fall that Christ was promised as the Seed that would bring deliverance, and to whom would be joined faithful human creatures to become the new heavens of the new world. (Gen. 3:15; 22:17, 18; Isa. 65:17; Gal. 3:16, 29) So when it is understood that it is the new world before whose foundation (A.D. 33) the Kingdom class was foreordained, the basis for arguing that God predestinated Adam’s fall and his offspring’s plight vanishes. If Jehovah had previously ordained Adam’s fall, the test of obedience in Eden would have been no fair test at all, but a sham, a fake, a farce! Jehovah would stage no such fiasco, with man’s eternal life hanging in the unjust balance!—Lev. 19:36; Deut. 25:13-16; Prov. 20:10.

NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE

16. How do predestinarians argue concerning the book of life, and how does this boomerang?

¹⁶ Still another line of argument is pursued by predestinationists. Certain scriptures speak of names in a book of life, and it is argued that the names of these individuals were so recorded before the world began, and this indicates they were predestinated to salvation. As has been shown, however, they cannot correctly use Revelation 13:8 or Re 17:8 to argue that before the original world began with Adam’s creation some names were written in and others left out of the book of life. As for other texts used, such as Luke 10:20 and Philippians 4:3 and Revelation 21:27, by no clever twisting of matters can they be made to say the names were recorded before the individuals’ birth. Actually, for the predestinationists to hurl the book-of-life argument into the controversy is for them to throw a boomerang. How so? Because if one’s being in the book of life means he is predestinated to salvation, then it can be shown that such predestination fails, and if it fails the doctrine’s very foundation crumbles. To those who prove faithful Jesus promises: “I will by no means blot out his name from the book of life.” (Rev. 3:5, NW) Which indicates names could be blotted out. If such a blotting out were impossible, Jesus’ promise would be meaningless. That it is possible Psalm 69:28 (AT) shows: “May they be blotted out from the book of life.” That it is Jehovah’s purpose to blot out those becoming unfaithful was shown when Israel worshiped the golden calf at Sinai. After asking God to forgive Israel Moses said: “But if not, pray blot me out of thy book.” Jehovah’s reply was: “Whoever sins against me, him only I blot out of my book.”—Ex. 32:32, 33, AT.

17. What observations on names are here appropriate?

¹⁷ To say these names are literal ones recorded before the individuals were born is to say Jehovah named all these babies, and not the parents. Some names copy those of demon gods. Did Jehovah give such hated names to predestinated servants of his? We must abandon the narrow view and see that names involve far more than mere literal designations of persons. In the Bible names are meaningful, denoting a person’s circumstances or activities or qualities, and frequently being changed during his lifetime to take on more meaning, to be more descriptive of him as he or his circumstances changed. In this broad sense names stand for certain qualities or principles or actions, and on the basis of such things the names may be good or bad, feared or revered, famous or infamous. It is such names that persons make for themselves during life that determine whether they are found recorded in God’s book of life or not, rather than narrowly viewed literal designations given to them at birth.

18. What kind of names are in the book of life?

¹⁸ Recorded in the book of life are the righteous requirements for gaining life. Therein are described the approved qualities of meekness and humility, justice and uprightness, love and mercy, zeal and faithfulness, patient endurance and obedient service. If we make names for ourselves as moral personalities, integrity keepers, zealous preachers and neighbor lovers we shall be in God’s book of life, for that is where such things are approvingly named. The book of life contains the names and reputations we must live up to if we are to be included in it, if we find ourselves described in it. If by our conduct we have made names that stand for and measure up to the divine requirements the unchanging Jehovah has established from the beginning and gone on record as approving, then such names of ours conform to and are reflected in God’s book of life. If our names stand for the same things that God’s book of life stands for, then our names are in it. The book of life is not a literal book such as men make and write in, any more so than are the names in it the literal names of men given at their birth. The book of life is Jehovah’s righteous requirements creatures must meet to live, and the names therein are names that stand for and match those requirements.

19. How can we get our names in that book, or have them blotted out?

¹⁹ We can get our names into that book, or have them blotted out. All are born under wrath, not in the book. (John 3:36) We may continue in this sinful way for years, and then change to doing good things, things approved as worthy of life, things described in the book of life, and by becoming associated with such things we enter the book of life. It speaks of us in that it names approvingly the good works we now do. Those things were always established there, from the beginning; but we did not conform thereto. Our names, our fame, did not match; but when we change and make a name for those good things then we come into the categories or classes already approvingly named in the book of life. And what if we thereafter become unfaithful, quit living up to the good name, lose our good name, and make a bad name, a name for immorality, or slothfulness, or gossiping, or complaining, or backbiting, or haughtiness? If we make a name for such things we shall no longer be found named in the book of life, for such things are not named there, not described there as requirements, and hence our works no longer identify us as being in that book. The good name we once had is gone and the bad name we might thereafter make is not in the book of life. Such wicked names are blotted from God’s memory so far as any resurrection or salvation to life is concerned, and the former name for righteousness is forgotten when wickedness replaces it with a bad name.—Prov. 10:7; Ezek. 33:12-16.

20. What is involved in confessing one’s name, and how are names lived up to?

²⁰ To confess Jesus’ name before men means much more than just repeating his literal name, as he stated. (Matt. 7:21) To properly confess it or show belief in it we must declare its meaning, its significance, its fame, what it stands for, and live up to it as our model. (Matt. 10:32; Mark 8:38; Luke 12:8) Similarly, when Christ acknowledges the names of his followers to God in heaven it is not a mere mentioning of their literal names, but a testimony to the names of integrity built up by their faithful service. (Rev. 3:5; 14:13) Neither Jehovah nor Christ gives us our personal names at our birth, but they do assign names to certain faithful servant classes. These names must be lived up to. (Isa. 43:10-12; 62:2-4; Rev. 2:17; 3:12) So it is not just the inscribing of literal names in a literal book in heaven, but the building up of a life pattern that conforms to Jehovah’s requirements. By our fruits we are identified. (Matt. 7:20) If our fruits are the same as those identified in the book of life, then the book of life identifies us, acknowledges us, embraces us within its contents. Let our conduct, which makes a name for us, match the conduct described in the book of life. Thus shall we be found there.

21. How is Jesus named in the Hebrew Scriptures, though that personal name of his is not there?

²¹ This is no arbitrary view to take regarding the names in the book of life, but finds a supporting analogy in the Bible itself. Do the Hebrew Scriptures identify the Messiah? Certainly. By his personal name? No, the name Jesus is not therein linked to Messiah. But just because the personal name is not recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures does not mean they do not name Jesus as Messiah. Many descriptive names of the Messiah are given, names that describe his qualities, his conduct, his service, his position. He is named Immanuel, and it was Jesus who lived up to that name. (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22, 23) He is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace, and Jesus fits them all. (Isa. 9:6) The Messiah was called many other names that Jesus fulfilled, such as Seed of the Woman and, Seed of Abraham (Gen. 3:15; 22:17, 18; Gal. 3:16; Heb. 2:14), Servant and Light to the Nations (Isa. 42:1, 6; Matt. 12:18; Luke 2:32; Acts 26:23), Leader and Witness (Isa. 55:4; Matt. 23:10; Rev. 3:14), Redeemer (Isa. 59:20; Rom. 11:26), Tried Stone, Cornerstone and Sure Foundation (Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:42; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4, 6-8). Hundreds of other descriptive details about Messiah are in the Hebrew Scriptures, and all of them found their fulfillment in Jesus and identified him as the promised Messiah. Jesus so argued to his disciples. (Luke 24:27, 44, 45) Jesus measured up to all the descriptive names that the Hebrew Scriptures gave to the Messiah. If all these descriptive names apply to Jesus, then how can we sensibly argue that he is not named in the Hebrew Scriptures just because the personal name Jesus is not given in connection with Messiah? We can not!

22. Similarly, how are faithful ones named in the book of life?

²² So it is with those identified in another book, the book of life. Its symbolical pages have descriptions of those who make names for zeal, faithfulness, chastity, integrity, and so on. If we fit those descriptive names we are in the book of life. Just as Jesus is found in the Hebrew Scriptures as the Messiah, though his personal name is not there mentioned, so we may be in the book of life as qualifying ones, though our personal, earthly names are not inscribed in any literal book in heaven. And just as Jesus would have lost his identity as Messiah if he had failed to live up to the descriptive Messianic names recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, so we shall lose our good names as Christians and be blotted out of the book of life if we fail to maintain names that match the divine requirements. We are descriptively named in the book of life only as long as we enduringly conform to the descriptive names therein given concerning saved ones, making those names our own.

REDEEMED, JUSTIFIED, SANCTIFIED, ELECT ONES CAN FAIL

23. What qualifying word do Presbyterians introduce to evade the force of Matthew 22:14, and what do they say about redeemed ones?

²³ Forging on to further arguments advanced by believers in predestination, we cope with their contention that those once released or redeemed by Christ cannot thereafter fail. It has been shown previously that called ones may fall, Jesus’ words at Matthew 22:14 having been quoted, to the effect that many are called but few finally chosen. That text is a devastating blow to their doctrine, and they endeavor to dodge it by saying the called ones who fall were not effectually called. No Scriptural authority grants them license to add this qualification, but the survival of their doctrine demands it. The purpose for mentioning this here is to establish the weight they place upon the word “effectually”. When they use it they rule out the possibility of failure. They use it in connection with those redeemed by Christ: “To all those for whom Christ hath purchased redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the Word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by his Spirit to believe and obey; and governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.”d

24. How is 2 Peter 2:1-3 a blow against predestination?

²⁴ The foregoing shows that they teach that those for whom redemption was purchased cannot fail, that redemption is effectually applied to them, that they are effectually persuaded and all enemies are overcome. By what means are they redeemed or released? Peter answers: “You know that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, as a ransom that you were released from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers. But it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ’s.” (1 Pet. 1:18, 19, NW; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12; Rev. 5:9) With his blood Christ buys them and they become his. He is their owner. To them it is written: “You do not belong to yourselves, for you were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 7:23, NW) According to predestinarian teaching, if Christ has redeemed them, released them, purchased them, become their owner, they could never fall away. But the Bible says they can, and some do: “These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves. Furthermore, many will turn out of the way and follow their acts of loose conduct.” “But as for them, the judgment of ancient times is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering.”—2 Pet. 2:1-3, NW.

25. What further shows redeemed ones can fall away?

²⁵ Continuing the discussion of those purchased ones who later disown their owner Christ Jesus, the apostle Peter states: “Certainly if, after having escaped from the defilements of the world by an accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get involved again with these very things and are overcome, the final conditions have become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have accurately known the path of righteousness than after knowing it accurately to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. The saying of the true proverb has happened to them: ‘The dog has turned back to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.’” (2 Pet. 2:20-22, NW) After being cleansed by the water of truth and the blood of Jesus they return to the sins of their former filth. The destruction of such does not slumber, but arrives at God’s scheduled time.

26. How does Paul show redeemed ones can fall, and what rules out any recovery for them?

²⁶ The apostle Paul writes in similar vein: “It is impossible as regards those who have once for all been enlightened and who have tasted the heavenly free gift and who have become partakers of holy spirit and who have tasted the right word of God and powers of the coming system of things, but who have fallen away, to revive them again to repentance, because they impale the Son of God afresh for themselves and expose him to public shame.” (Heb. 6:4-6, NW) These here mentioned who did fall away with no possibility for recovery had had the benefits of the ransom applied to them, had been bought by Jesus’ blood. If not, they could have availed themselves of it for salvation. However, they had already used the benefits of the sacrifice and thereafter fallen away. Now they themselves deliberately impale Christ afresh in personal rejection of him, attaching no more value to his sacrifice than the death of a criminal. Christ died for them once; he will not come to earth to die for them again. “This he did once for all time.” “Neither is it in order that he should offer himself often, as indeed the high priest enters into the holy place from year to year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would have to suffer often from the world’s foundation. But now he has manifested himself once for all time at the consummation of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself.”—Heb. 7:27; 9:25, 26, NW.

27. What do Presbyterians say about justified ones, but what the Bible?

²⁷ Concerning those justified or declared righteous the Presbyterians teach: “They can never fall from the state of justification.”e By what means are men justified? They are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. Or, “justified by his blood.” (Rom. 3:24; 5:9) But preceding paragraphs have quoted scriptures that show conclusively persons can and do fall away after being redeemed and purchased by Christ’s blood, and that their revival is not possible. And since it is this redemption or releasing that brings justification, when this releasing goes justification goes with it. Presbyterians acknowledge that justified ones can sin and come under divine displeasure, but add that by humble confession and petition for forgiveness they can “renew their faith and repentance”.f Yet a text previously quoted said that it is impossible, “if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”—Heb. 6:4-6.

28. How do Presbyterians clash with the Bible regarding sanctified ones?

²⁸ Sanctified ones are safe, Presbyterians say: “They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”g The same class discussed at Hebrews 6:4-6 and; 2 Peter 2:20-22 are again commented upon at Hebrews 10:26-29 (NW): “If we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition. Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt?” Such despise Jesus’ blood that validated the new covenant, into which they had been brought. Hence they are consumed, but with an everlasting destruction carrying far more severe disgrace and contempt with it than that suffered by those put to death under the covenant of the law of Moses. But the vital point to note here is that these opposers had at one time been sanctified. Nevertheless, they fell away.

29. What shows elect ones can fall, in contradiction of predestination?

²⁹ Those in line to reign with Christ are called the “elect” or the “election” in the King James Version Bible; some modern versions use the expression “chosen ones” instead. Believers in predestination say such ones cannot fail. Mark 13:22 states: “False Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” The italicized words are not in the original Greek, and their addition makes it sound as though seduction of the elect is impossible. Modern versions are more accurate: “To lead astray, if possible, the chosen ones.” (NW) “To mislead God’s chosen people if they can.” (AT) Some they can, some they cannot. Paul endured certain things for the elect’s sake, to aid them in gaining salvation. (2 Tim. 2:10) This would have been unnecessary if the elect could not fall. If God had ordained the election sure, there would be no need for the chosen ones to be admonished to make it so. Yet Peter said: “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” (2 Pet. 1:10) Obviously, Peter is telling them that they will fall unless they make their choosing sure by their own diligent efforts. And if they cannot be lost, why did days of tribulation have to be cut short to save them?—Matt. 24:22.

30. What further proves falling out of the faithful foreordained class is possible?

³⁰ The doctrine of predestination teaches that those who have been redeemed, justified, sanctified and chosen can never fall away; yet the scriptures considered plainly prove the opposite. Once saved does not mean always saved. Conquerors with Christ must be not only called and chosen, but “called and chosen and faithful”. Faithful for how long? “Prove yourself faithful even with the danger of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” It must be not only had but held: “Keep on holding fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” To remain in union with Christ the anointed cannot grow lukewarm, for to such chilled ones he says: “I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 2:10; 3:11, 16; 17:14, NW) For them to partake of the heavenly kingdom with Christ they must endure to the end: “We actually become partakers of the Christ only if we make fast our hold on the confidence we had at the beginning firm to the end.” (Heb. 3:14, NW) To win, the race must be run to the finish, the fight fought to the end. (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; 2 Tim. 4:7, 8) Certainly the apostle Paul was of the predestinated class, elect, called, redeemed, justified and sanctified, when he wrote his first inspired letter to the Corinthians; yet it was possible for him to become disapproved and cast out: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” (1 Cor. 9:27, NW) He certainly did not feel individually predestinated, beyond the possibility of falling out. It was only when death was near and the fight finished that he spoke with confidence concerning the crown.—2 Tim. 4:6-8.

INDIVIDUALS CHOOSE THEIR OWN DESTINY

31. What texts deny predestination and show individual choice?

³¹ The predestinarian position is that God fixed the destiny of all persons before their birth, some predestinated to salvation and some ordained to divine wrath, and this without any foreknowledge of how the individuals would act. (¶8) If Jehovah has thus chosen man’s destiny before birth, rendering any future choice by man an empty mockery, Moses would never have been inspired to say to Israel: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you as well as your descendants may live, by loving the LORD your God, by heeding his injunctions, and by holding fast to him; for that will mean life to you.” (Deut. 30:19, 20, AT) Nor would Joshua have said: “If you find it obnoxious to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, either the gods whom your fathers served who are beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:15, AT) Again, “Anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13, NW) Unblocked by predestination, any who wish can gain life: “The spirit and the bride keep on saying, ‘Come!’ And let anyone hearing say, ‘Come!’ And let anyone thirsting come; let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.” (Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17, NW) Jehovah says: ‘Warn them from me. Let him hear who will, and let him decline to hear who will. Have I any pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, and not rather in this, that he turn from his way and live? Why should you die? I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies. Turn, then, and live!’—Ezek. 3:27; 18:23, 31, 32; 33:7, 11-15, AT.

32. What exposes the folly of predestination?

³² What a hypocritical appeal that would be if the ones addressed were powerless to choose! Would Jehovah predestinate some to death, then say that it would be his pleasure for them to turn from that divine predestination and live? What folly to think so! And would Christ have said it was his anxious desire to gather Jerusalem’s children if they had been divinely predestinated to abandonment? Of course not, and the record shows those persons wanted it that way, contrary to Jesus’ desire: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.”—Matt. 23:37, 38, NW.

33. Who may gain salvation, and how?

³³ Not by some humanly uncontrollable predestination does everlasting life come, but by taking in knowledge of Jehovah and Christ, by striving to be an approved workman handling properly the truth, by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, by preaching to save others as well as ourselves, by being doers of the word and not hearers only, by doing God’s will and not lip-serving only. (Matt. 7:21; John 17:3; Phil. 2:12; 1 Tim. 4:16; 2 Tim. 2:15; Jas. 1:22, NW) Not for a restricted few predestinated to salvation did Jesus provide the ransom, but “he became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him”. (Heb. 5:9, NW) Men are free to choose to serve whom they will and to act as they wish, and thereby fix their own destiny as either life or death.—Rom. 6:16.

34. In what ways is predestination inconsistent with Jehovah’s procedures, and on the basis of what does man reap?

³⁴ If predestination were true, why would Jehovah give his law to Israel or have the good news of the Kingdom preached to the nations? Why would he have judgment periods for determining the destiny of men on the basis of their conduct, judging them “individually according to their deeds”, rendering “to each one according to his works”, and saying “in accordance with their ways will I treat them, and in accordance with their practices will I judge them”? (Ezek. 7:27, AT; Rom. 2:6; Rev. 20:13, NW) Why separate sheep and goats on the basis of their reaction to the message and messengers of Christ? (Matt. 25:40, 45) Why all this, if the destiny of men is fixed before birth? Not God, but man, is responsible for man’s destiny. Not as God predestinates, but as man sows, does man reap. To reap life man must never give out in sowing good: “Each one will carry his own load of responsibility. Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit. So let us not give up in doing what is right, for in due season we shall reap by not giving out.” (Gal. 6:5, 7-9, NW) God does not show partiality to some, predestinating them to life, and discrimination against others, predestinating them to death or torment. The evidence forces the conclusion: “God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.”—Acts 10:34, 35, NW.

35. Yet what must we remember concerning works?

³⁵ From the foregoing none should conclude we can save ourselves by our works. If we could we would earn salvation as our right, but we cannot. It comes through God’s undeserved kindness. (Rom. 11:6; Eph. 2:8, 9; 2 Tim. 1:9) However, by study we gain faith and by works in harmony with our knowledge we prove our faith and obedience. (Rom. 10:14, 17; Jas. 2:18-26) We must do these works to show obedience, for it is to obedient ones that the ransom does or will apply. Without such works salvation is impossible.

36. How did Presbyterians try to extricate themselves from difficulties, and with what results?

³⁶ It should also be noted that in 1902-1903 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America added two chapters to the Confession of Faith, along with a Declaratory Statement. These additions were apparently made to soften the harshness of predestinationism, and harmonize with scriptures showing individual choice and necessity of good works. But in attempting to do this the additions really contradict the preceding material. If they add these chapters they should delete previous ones to avoid clashes. Yet if they made the necessary deletions they would eliminate predestinarian precepts altogether. So in their quandary they keep both and contradict both themselves and the Bible. They are on the horns of a dilemma of their own making. The new material does not harmonize predestination with Scripture, yet in attempting to line up with Scripture it contradicts predestination. It waters down the doctrine till it is completely washed away. Moreover, they compromise it to death. For instance, Chapter X, Section 3, page 45, states: “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit.” But the Declaratory Statement, page 125, says this is “not to be regarded as teaching that any who die in infancy are lost. We believe that all dying in infancy are included in the election”. The Bible does not back them up in this.—Ezek. 9:6.

37. What challenging questions remain, but to what may we look forward?

³⁷ The subject cannot be closed at this point, for important questions remain unanswered. Do not predestination believers harmonize their doctrine with man’s free will? And what about Esau and Jacob, and Pharaoh, Samson, Jeremiah, Judas, and even Jesus? Does not the Bible show they and still others were predestinated? Challenging questions these, but space permits no more than the raising of them here. We must defer their answering to our next issue.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 309]

Immanuel

Wonderful

Counselor

Mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

Seed of the Woman

Seed of Abraham

Leader

Witness

Redeemer

Cornerstone

Sure Foundation

Missionaries and “Missionaries”

CHRIST Jesus when on earth worked hard and long to bring the comfort of the truth of his Father’s Word and kingdom to men of good will, and his disciples and apostles did likewise. (Mark 6:30-34; Luke 8:1; John 4:6, 34) Therein they were opposed by a greedy, lazy and hypocritical clergy who not only refused to enter the Kingdom themselves but opposed those desiring to enter.—Matt. 23:4, 13; Luke 16:9-14.

In this twentieth century true Christians follow the example set by Christ Jesus and his immediate followers by likewise busily bringing the comfort of the truth to men of good will. In this they are opposed by the modern counterpart of the scribes and Pharisees, the false religious leaders of Christendom. Representative of the difference between the two classes is the report recently received from two young missionaries who have been preaching the good news of God’s kingdom in Thailand since last July:

“Well, we are getting used to the work here and are getting to feel quite at home. We have a goodly number of Bible studies with the people and some of them are progressing very well. Last Sunday we had our first public talk in Korat. This was in our house and in English. Since not many people here can understand English we were thrilled to see forty at the lecture. Among those present were the assistant inspector of education for the Northeastern Region of Thailand, and the inspector of the interior and a local judge; all three of whom are studying the Bible with one of the missionaries.

“Jehovah surely made a good job of confusing the tongues. It is no easy task, learning one of these Eastern languages, they are so different and seem to have so many exceptions to the rules we learn. However, the people seem to think that we are doing very well and often ask us how many years we have been in Thailand. We hope to have talks in Thai soon. That is encouraging, isn’t it?

“Not only do Eastern languages but also Eastern religions present a big problem. It takes real effort and time to convince a Buddhist of Bible truth. When you begin a Bible study you first have to do a lot of explaining to prove that God really exists; and then they do not have any knowledge about Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Moses, or of any other Bible characters and events; so it is a case of starting from the very beginning.

“There are other missionaries here; they call themselves Missionary Alliance, and are from America. While they have been here many years, they have made little progress. Their Bible class in English on Sundays attracts some who want to learn English and then they also have a Sunday school for children. They spend a great deal of time playing tennis and badminton. The people have already noticed the difference between these and the Watchtower missionaries, and often comment on our always being busy and not playing tennis and badminton, and about the many people we are teaching. They also ask why we do not have servants and automobiles as the other missionaries have. The other missionaries resent our being here, have told us that this was their field, and have asked why we had to come along when they were here first.

“Next month we hope to go to an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Bangkok, some 180 miles from here. It will be a new experience for us, as the entire program will be in Thai. It will be a real pleasure to meet other missionaries, as there are only five in our group here.”

Yes, there are missionaries and “missionaries”. “Missionaries” whose only concern is to feed themselves, and missionaries whose chief concern is to feed the flock of sheeplike persons, men of good will.—Ezek. 34:2.

“The Truth Will Set You Free”

NIGERIA, situated in western Africa, is a multitribal country of widely differing customs and many languages. About as large as Texas and New Mexico combined, it has a population of about thirty million, one half of which are Moslems. Some 13,000 witnesses of Jehovah carry on their activity, mostly in the southern part of the country, where nominal Christianity largely prevails, but where there is also much primitive juju worship and paganism.

Although the various religious sects of Christendom have labored for years among these people, they have not succeeded in making even a dent in the superstitious beliefs of the natives. Most of their converts continue to hold their pagan superstitions and will attend church in the morning and then go to the forest and participate in fetish ceremonies in the evening. On the other hand, when the light of truth brought by Jehovah’s witnesses penetrates the African mind, superstition and demon worship are banished completely, so much so that the onlookers marvel greatly.

To give an illustration: In one village a gale broke off some branches of a large tree that was believed to be inhabited by spirits and was regularly worshiped. Although the road was blocked, not one villager would dare touch a branch for fear of being struck dead by the juju. So what did they do? They sent for Jehovah’s witnesses to clear away the mess because they knew the juju had no power over them. Likewise, when juju processions pass through villages terrorizing the population, Jehovah’s witnesses calmly walk by in the road, while others flee to their homes in terror. It has been recognized throughout the native villages that the juju has no power over Jehovah’s witnesses. Truly Jesus said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”—John 8:32, NW.

Judging from the foregoing, who is bringing the truth that sets men free to the Nigerians, the popular sects of Christendom or the unpopular witnesses of Jehovah?

Bricklayer Insists on Preaching

In Northeastern Finland, where religious bigotry rules, much intolerance and prejudice have been shown against Jehovah’s witnesses. The public schools have become the very strongholds of false religion, and Jehovah’s witnesses have not been able to rent the school auditoriums for the purpose of holding their public Bible lectures. Recently one of Jehovah’s witnesses, who is a pioneer minister, solved the problem at least as far as one of these schools was concerned.

Even as the apostle Paul made tents so as not to be a burden to others, so this minister lays brick. He was offered a job at a school that had repeatedly turned down the request of Jehovah’s witnesses to rent their auditorium. The bricklaying minister replied that he would be glad to lay the brick provided they would let him give a Bible lecture in the school auditorium. The school board met and discussed the matter and finally decided that if the bricklayer wanted to preach the Word of God, then honoring their religious traditions required them to give him permission to do so and he could choose his own subject for his sermon. Two weeks later the auditorium, with a seating capacity of 200, was packed out by the townspeople, who listened to the pioneer minister speak on the subject “Is the Bible Practical for Our Day?” When the lecture was concluded some of the visitors were heard to respectfully remark: “And to think that this young preacher is at the same time our school bricklayer!”

Death—An Enlarged Continuation of Life?

ACCORDING to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, death is “a cause or occasion of loss of life; extinction; cessation of function or existence”.

However, the great majority of mankind do not accept Webster’s definition regarding death. While holding conflicting opinions as to just what happens at death, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Moslem, the Jew, the Catholic and most Protestants do not believe that death means an end of existence. Dr. Peale, D.D., expressed a popular opinion on the subject in an article published in the St. Paul’s Sunday Pioneer Press, April 13, 1952, under the caption, “Life Is Eternal”:

“The longer I live and observe human and eternal events, the more certain I am that death is not the end of life. It is my belief, based on substantial experience, that the state of existence we call death is merely an enlarged continuation of life.” After commenting on “the indestructibility of life”, he went on to say, “The fact that we cannot see the departed does not indicate their annihilation.” And in concluding, Dr. Peale said regarding the dead: “They have not died.”

Is death “the cessation of function or existence”, or is it “merely an enlarged continuation of life”? What does the Bible say? Since the greatest man that ever lived stated concerning God’s Word, “Your word is truth,” we can confidently accept as truth what it has to say on this subject.

Was the first man Adam told that death would be for him enlarged continuation of life? Was he told that life was indestructible, eternal? On the contrary, because of having disobeyed he was plainly told: “Dust you are, and to dust you must return.” (Gen. 3:19, AT) Did Adam have an existence before he was taken out of the ground? Of course not! Then, when he was returned to where he had been before he likewise would not have an existence, would he? His creation was a change, from nonentity to entity; his death a return, from entity to nonentity. Certainly as far as Adam was concerned death was not a change of existence, a merely enlarged continuation of life.

That is why the Scriptures state: “For there is one fate for both man and beast—the same fate for them; as the one dies, so dies the other; the same breath is in all of them, and man has no advantage over the beast; for everything is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all return to the dust. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and whether the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth?” “Like sheep they are appointed to Sheol; death shall shepherd them.” (Eccl. 3:19-21; Ps. 49:14, AT) Do the lower animals at death experience an “enlarged continuation of life”? Then neither does man.

And again: “For whosoever is joined to all the living has hope; for as a living dog he is a better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing at all, nor have they any longer any remembrance; for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or substance or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol whither you are going.” (Eccl. 9:4, 5, 10, AT) No hope of an enlarged continuation of life in such scriptures, is there?

Job knew that death was a cessation of existence and therefore he stated: “For now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.” “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!” “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.”—Job 7:21; 14:13; 17:13.

David likewise knew that death was not “an enlarged continuation of life” but just the opposite. “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in Sheol [the grave] who shall give thee thanks?” Yes, “the dead praise not Jehovah, neither any that go down into silence.” That is why we are counseled not to put our trust in man: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”—Ps. 6:5; 115:17; 146:3, 4, AS.

Because the dead do not enjoy an enlarged continuation of life but are unconscious, the Bible speaks of them as being asleep. Thus Jehovah God told both Moses and David, “Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.” That is why the psalmist prayed for God’s guidance lest he should “sleep the sleep of death”.—Deut. 31:16; 2 Sam. 7:12; Ps. 13:3.

And so when Lazarus the friend of Jesus died, Jesus spoke of him as being asleep. Jesus did not tell Mary and Martha that their brother had gone to heaven, but assured them that he would rise from death.—John 11:11-23.

Nor can it be argued that all such instances only apply the term sleep to death because Christ Jesus had not brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Tim. 1:10) When Stephen was murdered by a mob, we do not read that he went to heaven, but rather that he also “fell asleep”. (Acts 7:60) And the apostle Paul speaks of Christians sleeping until the resurrection: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then by means of Jesus God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep.”—1 Thess. 4:14, AT.

Does that mean there is no hope for the dead? Not at all. There is hope, but that hope is not based upon death’s being a state of existence, merely an enlargement of life, but is based upon the power of Almighty God to resurrect the dead. The hope of a resurrection is repeatedly held forth in both the Hebrew and the Christian Greek Scriptures. (See Daniel 12:13; Hosea 13:14; John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15.) But if the dead have not died but are actually experiencing an enlarged continuation of life, why have a resurrection?

Death is the opposite of life. As far as man is concerned death is annihilation save as he is recorded in God’s memory and will be resurrected in God’s due time. The Bible is reasonable and consistent. To say that life is eternal, to say that death is a state of existence, merely an enlarged continuation of life, is to say that white is black and black is white, that hot is cold and cold is hot, up is down and down is up, is to say that the Bible does not make sense. But it is the creeds and teachings of men, based on tradition, superstition and “substantial experience”, that do not make sense. God’s Word always makes sense, when we once understand it!

For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. As the last enemy, death is to be destroyed.—1 Corinthians 15:25, 26, NW.

Questions From Readers

● Are the charges in a tract against Jehovah’s witnesses true that the Society’s first president was immoral, profiteered from selling some mysteriously named wheat at $65 a bushel, and committed perjury when asked in court if he could read Greek?—C. W., North Carolina.

No. They were deliberate falsehoods. No immoral action was ever proved against the Watchtower Society’s first president, Charles Taze Russell. In a suit for separate maintenance Mrs. Russell’s attorney said, “We make no charge of adultery”; and Mrs. Russell, who went to all ends to discredit her husband (her main objection was that he would not let her control the Watchtower magazine’s policy), specifically said she did not accuse him of immorality. When critics who did not know him thought they could take portions of the trial and malign his good name, he swore: “I never was guilty of immorality toward any person. . . . Further, I have never desired to do so.” Those who knew him personally highly respected his integrity. J. F. Rutherford, one who was sufficiently convinced of the importance of the Christian work Brother Russell did to likewise devote his life and funds to it, and who succeeded Russell as the Society’s president, said at Russell’s funeral: “Truly it can be said that Pastor Russell’s character was and is without blemish.”

The facts about “Miracle Wheat” are equally perverted. Brother Russell was interested in anything related to the Scriptural prediction that the desert would blossom as a rose and the earth yield her increase. So, when the public press reported a new and unusual strain of wheat, called “Miracle Wheat” by its original grower, Brother Russell reported this in The Watchtower, along with a government report on it. Some Watchtower readers contacted the grower, who was in no way connected with the Watchtower Society, and purchased some of the wheat. When theirs produced seed they offered it as a contribution to the Society. The original grower sold the seed at $1.25 a pound, so they suggested their contribution be priced at $1.00, and all the money received be given to the Society. The Society made no claim for the wheat on its own knowledge, though it won several State Fair grand prizes before it wore itself out. Brother Russell neither named it nor profited from it; the money went as a donation into Christian missionary work. When others criticized this sale, all who had contributed were told that if they were dissatisfied their money would be returned, and the money was held for a year for this purpose. Not a single person requested it back. The only critics were those who had no real knowledge of the matter, which was purely a donation sale for the benefit of the Society—as open and aboveboard as a church cake sale.

The “perjury” charge was not made in court, but in a tract written later by an irresponsible slanderer against whom Brother Russell had brought a libel case. The official record of the case in question (Police Court of the City of Hamilton, Ontario, March 17, 1913) says: “Q. You don’t profess, then, to be schooled in the Latin language? A. No, sir. Q. Or in Greek? A. No, sir.” After this he was asked if he knew individual Greek letters, and it was over this that the question of his knowledge of Greek arose. This false “perjury” claim has been repeated by many who never went to this Canadian city to check this old court record to see if they are spreading truth or a lie. Not only has the question they “quote” been reworded, but Brother Russell had specifically said that he did not know Greek.

The extent to which critics will deliberately falsify such quotations is shown in another tract that says Jehovah’s witnesses deny the ransom and tries to support this with a quotation from Volume 5, page 127, of the Studies in the Scriptures: “Jesus’ suffering would not pay the debt of sin.” Here is what the book actually says: “True, the wages of sin was not suffering, but death; and hence suffering on our Lord’s part would not alone pay the wages of sin for us: it was absolutely necessary that he should ‘taste death for every man.’” The book says exactly the opposite of what the tract claims it says.

With such lies and perverted facts the critics condemn themselves. They would not like to be classed with the ultramodernists who accuse Jesus of being illegitimate, but they stoop equally low regarding other men whose lives were spent unselfishly in God’s service.

A Foretaste of New-World Unity

CHRISTIANS of the first century were identified by their bond of love and their unity. Christendom, on the other hand, is identified by its many divisions of religions and confused politics. The only semblance of unity that she possesses originates, not out of the bond of love for one another, but out of fear of one another. Jesus commanded his followers to “love one another”.—John 13:34, NW.

This same spirit of love for one another and for truth still permeates twentieth-century Christians. Accurate knowledge caused early Christians to eliminate from among themselves old-world disunities, as Paul stated: Put on “the new personality . . . where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all things and in all”. (Col. 3:9-11, NW) So, too, witnesses of Jehovah today are not disunited by the old world’s national traditions, pride, rivalries, political differences and social standing. Their assemblies prove this true. The peace, harmony and brotherly affection that Jehovah’s witnesses have for one another have always been a source of amazement to the oldworld “stabilizers”. It was outstandingly so at the 1950 international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Yankee Stadium in New York city.

The contrast of divided Christendom and united Jehovah’s witnesses, we agree, is great. Perhaps greater than day and night, because it is the difference between old-world and new-world living. Eight full days of new-world unity and living has been a means of bringing many to an accurate knowledge of truth. Once again we have this opportunity extended to us, at the Yankee Stadium July 19-26, 1953. Do not miss it!

Announcements

PROSPERING WITH GOD’S NATION

True prosperity comes only from Jehovah. No matter what else happens, Jehovah is sure to prosper his chosen people because his own great name is involved and because he has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. (Ps. 35:27, AS) The course of wisdom is to associate with God’s organization in order to enjoy prosperity. “Remember me, O Jehovah, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people; oh visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the prosperity of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation.” (Ps. 106:4, 5, AS) In all nations today there is a “great crowd” of people of good will who must be informed and observe the spiritual prosperity of Jehovah’s organization, and desire to share in it. To aid them, during the month of June Jehovah’s witnesses will present three bound books on a contribution of $1.50, with three booklets given free. Contact Jehovah’s witnesses locally or write the Society for opportunity to share in this three-book distribution during June. Tracts, too, will be a help to you in informing people about the organization of God in these last days. Send for 200 of the small tract What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe? and pass them out everywhere. The cost is only 25c. Ask for the tract by name.

GOD’S WAY IS LOVE

The world today does not operate on the principle of love, because it is not following God’s way. Nor does the world understand how the system of things in human society could possibly function completely on the basis of love. Yet the Bible shows that everything Jehovah God does demonstrates love; and that it is his purpose to create a new world based upon love as its moving force. The 32-page booklet entitled “God’s Way Is Love” gives credit to God for his love already expressed toward humankind. It is urgent that men recognize what God is doing and not despise the expressions of his love, if they want to live, as pointed out in the booklet. All Scripture quotations in God’s Way Is Love are taken from Catholic translations of the Bible. In plain and simple language, with logic and sound reasoning, this booklet magnifies the great love of God. Why not share in the distribution of this booklet among your friends? Order seven copies, remitting 25c; or single copy, 5c.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of June 21: Predestination or Individual Choice—Which? ¶1-18.

Week of June 28: Predestination or Individual Choice—Which? ¶19-37.