The Watchtower — September 15, 1953

Jehovah, Not a Primitive Concept

ACCORDING to one of America’s foremost theologians, Harry Emerson Fosdick, the Bible reveals a gradual development of man’s concept of God. Writing in the New Outlook, May 1953, he had, among other things, the following to say on this subject:

“The primary problem in Christian apologetics is . . . to achieve a concept of God which will require a minimum of argument because its intelligibility, reasonableness, and relevance to human need carry a self-authenticating authority. The problem is not new. It is old, dating from primitive man, from man as soon as he learned to think. Always the question was, in view of what we know now, how shall we think of God?

“The Bible itself is a major illustration. What a contrast between the ideas of God at its primitive beginnings and at its end! From the early battle cry, ‘Yahweh is a man of war: Yahweh is his name,’ to Jesus’ beatitude, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God’—what a deepening of the concept of divine nature! What an expansion in man’s apprehension of God!

“The writers of the Scriptures traveled an ascending road with widening vistas, and because any God of this universe is infinite, that process can never stop. It critically confronts us today.”

Mr. Fosdick would thus have us believe that man of himself gradually ascended from a concept of Yahweh or Jehovah as a God of war to a God who blesses the peacemakers; and that the Bible, far from being a divine revelation to man, is but the record of man’s efforts to acquire an adequate concept of God. (Ex. 15:3, NW; Matt. 5:9) Whatever kind of apologetics that may be, it certainly is not Christian, for Christ Jesus never taught such things. He said, “Your word is truth.”—John 17:17, NW.

A humble and honest examination of the Bible will reveal that Mr. Fosdick’s comments are not in line with what Jehovah’s Word says. It shows that while Jehovah’s requirements of his creatures differ according to his purposes and the time in which they live, his four cardinal attributes are always the same, namely, justice, power, wisdom and love. Do we not read in the very first book of the Bible of Abraham’s appeal to God’s justice? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And did not the Founder of Christianity and his apostles emphasize the fact that Jehovah is a just and righteous God?—Gen. 18:25; Luke 18:7; Rom. 9:14.

And did not the angelic messenger to Abraham reveal Jehovah as the Almighty when he asked, “Is anything too hard for Jehovah?” A concept identical with that Christ Jesus gave when he said: “With God all things are possible.” (Gen. 18:14, AS; Matt. 19:26, NW) No change in concept of God as regards his justice and power during a period of two thousand years, is there?

Further, does not the Genesis account of creation testify to Jehovah’s wisdom, and did not Moses repeatedly state that God was the source of wisdom and that he imparted it to his servants? (Genesis, chapters 1 and 2; Ex. 28:3; 36:1, 2) And did not Christ Jesus and his immediate followers testify to the same effect?—Luke 11:49; Rom. 11:33; Jas. 1:5.

And finally, as regards Jehovah’s being a God of love, mercy and peace, here likewise we find no difference between the God of Moses and the God of Christ Jesus. Note how Jehovah revealed himself when Moses asked to see his glory: “Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth; keeping loving-kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”—Ex. 34:6, 7, AS.

But perhaps someone will say, What about the rest of that quotation that reads, “That will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.” While those words seem to contradict what preceded them, a little reasoning will make it all clear. Is it not true that when a people or nation, such as Israel, rejected Jehovah’s worship and went to pagan religion God permitted them to go into captivity and that the results were felt not only by themselves but also by their descendants even to the third and fourth generations? Is it not simply an inexorable law that by the very nature of things parents by their course of action bring upon their children either good or evil; it being simply a matter of ‘what you sow you will reap’?

Christ Jesus taught exactly the same as Moses in this respect, a fact that modernist clergymen like to overlook. Note his warning to the religious leaders of his day as to what was in store for them: “You are bearing witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Well, then, fill up the measure of your forefathers. Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna? For this reason, here I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23:31-36, NW) Those words were fulfilled with the complete destruction of Jerusalem A.D. 70. That destruction was just and was in keeping with Jehovah’s being a God of war.

Yes, the Bible is the divine revelation and not merely a record of man’s concepts of his God. From beginning to end it reveals Jehovah as a God of love, wisdom, justice and power. He first shows himself as a God of love, bestowing his blessings upon his creatures. But when these spurn God’s gifts, rebel and turn to wickedness, then he has no alternative but to show himself as a God of war. Do the Hebrew Scriptures overlook Jehovah’s loving, tender and compassionate qualities? “Jehovah appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer. 31:3, AS) Do the Christian Greek Scriptures overlook Jehovah’s justice and righteous indignation? “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says Jehovah.” “For our God is also a consuming fire.” (Rom. 12:19; Heb. 12:29, NW) Jehovah is not a primitive concept of God.

Is Monastery Life Christian?

MONASTERY life is held in high esteem by many persons. Not that many want to become monks themselves, but they place the monk on a pedestal and admire him because of his asceticism. Thus twenty-two students, both Protestant and Catholic, of an Ohio university felt that they were “a bit closer to heaven” for having spent a week end at the Trappist monastery at Gethsemane, Kentucky, early in 1951, “brushing against the garment of God,” as one of them expressed it.—Cleveland Press, March 5, 1951.

What is the life of the Trappist monks that caused these young men to feel so edified because of having come in contact with it? What is the origin of monastic life? And does that life find support in the Bible, and particularly in the example given us by Christ Jesus?

The Trappists really are the “Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance,” which order was founded in the eleventh century. Because of its strict rules it is the pride and joy of many Catholics and has been popularized by a best-selling book written by one of its members. In the United States there are six Trappist monasteries, all together housing some 500 monks, the Trappists being but one of more than 400 Roman Catholic orders or congregations of “Religious” scattered throughout the country.

The theme or keynote of the Trappists is “strict observance” or austerity. Regarding the details we quote from Coronet, October 1951. First of all there is the requirement of silence. “Silence is the shroud these men wear, to better concentrate on God.” “The rule of silence is a penance these monks impose upon themselves as mortification for their sins and the sins of the world.” Except for religious services, and necessary communication with their superior or outsiders because of business relations, they do not speak. Among themselves they use only the sign language.

Austerity is also emphasized in the hours for prayer. Days begin at 2 a.m., with four hours of prayer, and, all together, seven hours each day are spent in religious devotions. Christianity to them is “a total obedience to Christ’s command at Gethsemane to ‘watch and pray.’” “To them there is no greater service to humanity than prayer,” they recognizing “fervent prayer as the strongest weapon for their salvation.”

Austerity is also shown in their menu. No meat, fish or eggs except in cases of illness, meals consisting mostly of vegetables, soups, beverages and plain bread. Austerity also shows itself in their sleeping quarters: each has an individual cell, furnished with crude furniture and a “simple” crucifix. The bed consists of boards with a mattress of straw. Each wears the same robe for work, worship, relaxation and sleep, at night removing only his shoes.

Communication with friends and relatives is kept at a minimum, and personal visits are not allowed. Most of the daylight hours are spent in farm work, although there is some time for relaxation and pursuing hobbies such as stamp collecting, amateur astronomy, writing novels, etc.

As to why all this austerity, we are told that Trappist monks “devoutly believe that rigorous austerity brings out the best in human character and that by their austere life and self-sacrifice they bring mankind closer to God,” these things being the “guideposts to salvation.” Each Saturday evening two Trappists wash the feet of the rest, hoping thereby to purify themselves. In addition to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience required of all Catholic orders, Trappists also vow to remain Trappists the rest of their lives and to perfect themselves.

ORIGIN OF MONASTERIES

Actually monasticism or monastery life is as ancient as pagan religion itself, written records purporting to go back 2,000 years before Christ telling of those who spent their nights in prayer and their days fasting. And “nearly 600 years B.C., the artificial caves of India were occupied by Buddhistical monks, and there is conclusive evidence that they served the Brahmins for a like purpose long before that.”—McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopædia, Vol. VI, page 459.

Monasticism can therefore be classed among the many features of the Roman Catholic religion that Cardinal Newman lists in his work, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, as having their origin in paganism. In fact, he includes a monastic custom, that of the tonsure, a circular haircut peculiar to some monks.

While among the Jews for the last two centuries before their destruction A.D. 70 there existed a monastic sect known as the Essenes, it appears that it was not these, but the pagan Egyptian monks that were the immediate predecessors of the so-called Christian monks, as they were first found in Egypt. Beginning as a form of asceticism, a term used to describe the training of Greek gladiators and prize fighters, those practicing it did not at first separate themselves from their fellow men but mingled with them in their daily occupations while denying themselves wine, meat and agreeable foods, some of them also practicing celibacy.

As time went on these retired to the deserts for contemplation, where they were visited by many as objects of reverence or for advice. They then became known as anchorites, that is, those who retire; as monks, meaning those who live alone, and hermits because they lived in deserts. The anchorites were the most excessive in their austerity, exposing themselves to the rigors of the weather without sufficient clothing, eating very sparingly of coarse foods, wearing heavy chains and iron rings; some even assuming painful positions over a period of years, such as one Simeon Stylites, of the sixth century, who spent both night and day in an erect position atop a pillar, for some thirty years, it is claimed, and who fasted forty days at a stretch. Up until the twelfth century he had many imitators, all of whom were known as “Pillar Saints.”

As anchorites, hermits and monks increased, they formed communities, and then became known as cenobites, from the Greek terms meaning common or communal life. At first each monk was free to do as he pleased, but as time went on these communities evolved set rules, and in the fifth century poverty, chastity and obedience were made the three prime requisites of monastery life. Each monastery, however, continued independent of others until about the eleventh century, when various “orders” began to be formed and monasteries joined one or another of these. The next two centuries saw the formation of the largest and most popular Roman Catholic orders, among which were the mendicants, those monks who went about begging.

History shows that monasticism has swung from one extreme to another; from asceticism to the worst kind of licentiousness; and from poverty to such riches that “the wealth of the monasteries was tempting and the great ones both in Church and State seized upon them.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X, p. 475) In fact, at one time fully half of Europe was owned by monasteries and other church institutions, and an abbey such as that of Mount Casino had a revenue of more than a million dollars annually. And while swearing vows of obedience its abbots became dukes and sovereign princes, and in Britain sat as peers in Parliament; they coined money like feudal barons and lived in great state and dignity, one of the abbots of St. Gall once entering Strasbourg with a thousand horsemen in his train.

NO BASIS IN THE SCRIPTURES

The entire philosophy of monasticism is foreign to the Scriptures. It finds its basis in gnosticism and pagan religions and is premised on such teachings as that of immortality of the soul, eternal torment and purgatory. Two outstanding fallacies of monasticism are that all that is connected with the flesh is evil and therefore the flesh must be abused as much as possible, and that by means of such abuse, personal works and prayer one can perfect himself and gain salvation for himself and others.

Monasticism is the very antithesis of Christianity. Jesus warned not to advertise one’s prayers and fasting, not to let anyone but God know about these things. (Matt. 6:5-8, 16-18) What is the entire monastic system of retiring to a monastery, wearing black robes, having one’s hair cut a certain way, or cut off altogether, adhering to strict rules regarding silence, and abstinence from certain foods and hours spent in prayer but so much of advertising of piety, which Christ condemned? Not self-inflicted punishment, but deeds of mercy to one’s fellow man are what God commands.—Isa. 58:1-7, AS.

Nowhere, in either the Greek Scriptures or the Hebrew, do we find any basis for asceticism, as though denying ourselves the necessary comforts of life would bring favor with God. Note how plainly the apostle Paul condemns all such: “If you died together with Christ toward the elementary things of the world, why do you, as if living in the world, further subject yourselves to the decrees, ‘Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch,’ respecting things that are all destined to destruction by being used up, in accordance with the commands and teachings of men? Those very things are, indeed, possessed of an appearance of wisdom in a self-imposed form of worship and mock humility, a severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in combating the satisfying of the flesh.”—Col. 2:20-23, NW.

True, Christ Jesus suffered, his apostles and disciples suffered, even as did Jehovah’s faithful servants from Abel to John the Baptist, but do we read that they courted suffering for its own sake? They were willing to suffer rather than compromise, but when they could avoid suffering without compromising they did so. Nowhere are we told that such self-imposed sufferings are the way to salvation. On the contrary, we are told that it is the blood of Christ, together with our faith in it, that cleanses us from all sins.—Rom. 5:1; 1 John 1:7.

Nor is there any justification for retreating from mankind. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, for Christians to heed John’s words, “Keep yourselves from idols,” they had to separate from the world because the world was full of idolatry. But where do we read in the Bible that any of the early Christians did that? Would there have been any persecution if they had followed that course? Of course not, and the fact that they were persecuted proves that they did not physically separate themselves from the world.

The trappists take a vow of silence, but where in the Scriptures are we told to refrain from using our tongues? On the contrary, we are told to comfort him that is weary with a word, to speak the truth to our neighbor. Every Christian is to make disciples of people of all nations. The early Christian congregation, when it was scattered because of persecution, did not keep silent, but went everywhere preaching the Word. Speech is a gift, God intends us to use it, but, of course, not abuse it or misuse it.

Christ Jesus did much praying, once spending a whole night in prayer, just before he chose his twelve apostles. (Luke 6:12-16) And on the night of his betrayal he did much praying and he counseled his apostles to “watch and pray.” (Matt. 26:41) But did he mean thereby that we should spend from four to seven hours daily in prayer? Hardly, when he warned against needless repetition in prayer. (Matt. 6:5-8) He was a busy man, he had much preaching to do. So did Paul and all the other early Christians. They also had to study God’s Word so as to properly equip themselves for preaching.

We are commanded to love God. The best way we can do that is to praise him, not within the walls of a monastery but where others can hear of him so that they also can join in praising God. We are told to love ourselves and our neighbors as ourselves. We do not show love of ourselves by torturing our bodies, denying them necessary food and rest, and we cannot be loving our neighbor as ourselves if we separate ourselves from him. We show the very best kind of neighbor love when we preach to our neighbors about who Jehovah God is, what his purposes are and what his kingdom will accomplish. (Mark 12:28-34) That is the essence of Christianity, but it cannot be done in a monastery. Therefore monastery life is not Christian.

Who Knows True Worship?

● In 1951 an Iowa court threw out a bequest to promote the dissemination of the Christian religion when it found that so many conflicting views made it impossible to define Christianity. More recently a British lawyer’s will that specified that the recipient of his goods be “a member of the Church of England and an adherent of the doctrine of that church,” was thrown out of a British court which held that there are too many possible interpretations of what it means to be a member of the Church of England for that requirement to have any meaning at all. It ruled that it was impossible to define what the doctrine of the Anglican church is, and hence the degree to which one is “an adherent” of that doctrine. Of course, the apostles and early Christians had no such problem. They knew what true worship was, and narrowly defined it. It was only with the additions, divisions and confusions of false teachers who peddled their own ideas instead of God’s that such a condition developed. Even those claiming to follow Christ no longer know for sure which way he went! They could determine it by casting off these human ideas and returning to the One Book that reliably reports what he preached and did, but too many are too busy with trivial matters to take time to do this, so they continue to use the name “Christian” while going in all sorts of opposite ways.

Creating Counterfeit Christianity

EARLY Christians were not timid about telling others what they believed. Prominent church organizations today teem with those who profess Christianity but who shy away from speaking of their belief. Not long ago at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York the “Reverend” E. B. Broderick chided church members who refused “to poke their heads out of their homemade spiritual bombshelters.” He likened them to “timid disciples who keep us guessing by refusing to declare themselves.” (New York Times, May 25, 1953) Protestants have their “timid disciples,” too! Dr. D. Steward of the Central Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, declared: “It is a serious condition when members of Christian Churches do not know what they stand for.” (Houston, Texas, Post, October 27, 1952) What has brought about a “Christianity” so devoid of the genuine qualities displayed by early Christians?

The stark truth is that a “Sunday religion” has evolved over the years. It masquerades as Christianity. Indeed, a form of worship that is divorced from the everyday affairs of life could not be genuine Christianity, for Christianity is a worship to be practiced every day. Confirming this Christ himself declared: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake day after day and follow me continually.” (Luke 9:23, NW) The apostles taught the good news in the temple and from house to house “every day.” (Acts 5:42, NW) Since genuine Christianity is everyday worship, a “Sunday religion” must be a “form of godly devotion” that is counterfeit, because the worshipers ‘prove false to its power.’ (2 Tim. 3:5, NW) Thus in spawning a “Sunday religion” there has been created a counterfeit Christianity. This is the dividing of the people into two classes: the clergy and the laity.

By the term “clergy” is meant the select group of men who are ordained by organized religion to preach its message and who usually wear distinctive garb and assume impressive titles. The laity are thus the common people as distinguished from the clergy. Under this system the laity sit in pews and pay the clergy to preach to them. Under this system the laity “accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled.” (2 Tim. 4:3, NW) Is this division of “Christians” into people-pleasing preachers and passive auditors Scriptural? The Catholic Encyclopedia, under the heading “Cleric,” asserts: “Christ did not commit the preaching of the Gospel . . . to the faithful in general, but to certain carefully defined persons, as the Apostles.” In view of this it was not at all strange that, when there was a request for “emancipation of the laity” at the World Congress of the Apostolate of the Laity, the pope bluntly rejected the idea, saying: “The expression ‘emancipation of the laity’ is hardly pleasing to us; it has rather an unpleasant sound.”—New York Times, October 15, 1951.

Two facts become clear: First, the clergy contend that the clergy and laity division is of divine origin. Second, any other arrangement would, to put it mildly, be “unpleasant” for the clergy. Let us now “make sure of all things” by turning to the Scriptures. If the clergy and laity division proves to be unscriptural, then it has been a big factor in creating counterfeit Christianity.

NO CLASS DISTINCTION

Early Christians were all brothers. No class distinction could rightfully exist. (Jas. 2:1-9) Christians were not to bow down worshipfully before another, as Peter told Cornelius. (Acts 10:25, 26) No Christians kissed Christ’s hand or toe; instead, he washed their feet! “If I, although Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash the feet of one another.” (John 13:14, NW) If bowing down and kissing toes and hands were Scriptural, then, according to Jesus’ example, Christians would have to do this, not to a select few, but to all their brothers. Clearly, such procedure is not Scriptural, and Christ set no pattern for class distinction.

Early Christians were all laymen. They had no paid clergy. In fact, the Founder of Christianity was not a clergyman but a layman. When Christ taught in the synagogues, the people were so amazed they asked: “Where did this man get these things?” And then when their astonishment heightened, they asked: “‘This is the carpenter the son of Mary . . . is it not? . . . ’ So they began to stumble at him.” (Mark 6:2, 3, NW) It was due to the very fact that Christ was not one of the clergy of his day that people stumbled over him, losing the opportunity for life!

That the apostles were not professional theologians, Luke tells us: “Now when they beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering.” (Acts 4:13, NW) The apostles were just ordinary people. For instance, Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen; Matthew was a tax collector. (Mark 1:16, 19; Matt. 9:9) Though the apostle Paul had received religious instruction according to the Pharisees’ way of worship, yet he had to abandon such religious instruction in order that he might practice the genuine worship of God! Jesus denounced the Pharisees’ worship as counterfeit! (Acts 22:1-21; Matthew chapter 23) Paul the Christian was no paid clergyman, but a tentmaker and a teacher of the good news.—Acts 18:3; 1 Cor. 9:16.

ALL AUTHORIZED TO PREACH

Early Christians were all ministers. One historian states: “In the apostolic church preaching and teaching were not confined to a particular class, but every convert could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and every Christian who had the gift could pray and teach and exhort in the congregation.” Further, the commission to preach comes from Almighty God, and, since God is not partial, all are authorized to preach. (Acts 10:34, 35, NW) Christ Jesus recognized this: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives.” (Luke 4:18, NW) The truth would free the laity from the clergy. This truth all early Christians preached: “Just as you sent me forth into the world, I also sent them forth into the world.” Thus true Christians were to speak, not sit.—John 17:18; Acts 1:8, NW.

Contrary to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the “faithful in general” were to preach. The seventy sent out by Jesus were not clergymen. In their presence Jesus declared: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have carefully hidden these things from wise and intellectual ones, and have revealed them to babes. Yes, O Father, because to do thus came to be the way approved by you.” (Luke 10:21, NW) The way approved by God could not be a clergy-laity system.

With the outpouring of the holy spirit, Christianity prospered. It grew from 3,000 ministers to 5,000. (Acts 2:41; 4:4) To be sure, these “faithful in general” were not merely attenders at a religious service, but they were all ministers! “All [the 5,000] except the apostles were scattered [by a persecution] throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. However, those who had been scattered went through the land declaring the good news of the word.” (Acts 8:1, 4, NW) Furthermore, what was the purpose of Christ’s giving “gifts in men”? Was it not to train others to be preachers? “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the training of the holy ones for ministerial work.”—Eph. 4:8, 11, 12, NW.

When Paul wrote, “Preach the word, be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season,” was this admonition limited to Timothy? No! Explained the apostle: “The things you heard from me with the support of many witnesses, these things commit to faithful men who in turn will be adequately qualified to teach others.” (2 Tim. 4:2; 2:2, NW) Indeed, the “faithful in general” were to “preach the word”!

FLATTERING TITLES UNSCRIPTURAL

If there is no clergy among true Christians, why do we read of deacons and bishops in the Bible? The answer: This is simply a case of mistranslation. The Greek word epískopos, translated “bishop,” (1 Tim. 3:1) has the real meaning of “overseer.” The title “deacon” (1 Tim. 3:12) is the result of another mistranslated Greek word, diákonos, the basic meaning of which is just “ministerial servant.” To call one a “ministerial servant” is not tickling one’s fancy, nor is it the giving of a flattering title, which is condemned by God. (Job 32:22) The word “reverend” in the Bible nowhere applies to man; only to Jehovah. (Psalm 111:9) And Jesus specifically condemned the titles “Rabbi” and “Father.” (Matt. 23:7, 9) Thus the giving of flattering titles, further dividing the clergy from the laity, is unscriptural and has fostered counterfeit Christianity.

Counterfeit Christians are spectators. Genuine Christians are a “theatrical spectacle to the world” because they preach, not watch. Paul invited all to imitate him as such. (1 Cor. 4:9, 16, NW) Therefore the genuine worship of Jehovah cannot be a “balcony religion,” where worshipers watch and observe while someone else does the work. But every genuine Christian must boldly play his part as a preacher of the good news while the scene of this old world still remains, “for the scene of this world is changing” and will pass away at Armageddon.—1 Cor. 7:31; 1 John 2:17, NW.

This “change of scenes” means a new world is near. (2 Pet. 3:13) Who will live to see it? Only true Christians. Imitation Christians may flourish, yes, but only until Armageddon. Of the wheat (true Christians) and weeds (imitations) Jesus said: “Let both grow together until the harvest.” “The harvest is a consummation of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.” (Matt. 13:30, 39, NW) The crop of “weeds” that Christendom has raised under its unscriptural clergy and laity system will be cast into the fiery furnace of destruction at Armageddon. And hurled into the abyss of death will be that chief counterfeiter, that sham sovereign, Satan the Devil. (Rev. 20:1-3) A new scene comes before our eyes: a new world wherein death, pain and sorrow have vanished. (Rev. 21:1-5) Only the genuine Christians will live to enjoy this complete “change of scenes”!

Flight to Safety with the New World Society

The speech below (in two parts) was delivered by the president of the Watch Tower Society to 134,333 attending the New World Society Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York city, on the afternoon of its seventh day, Saturday, July 25, 1953, and was featured by the release of the Society’s new book entitled “New Heavens and a New Earth”.

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then understand that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her [Jerusalem] withdraw.”—Luke 21:20, 21, NW.

1. For those who hang on to what things is there increasing peril, and where does safety lie? Why?

THE founding and building of the new and lasting things go forward successfully while the condemning and destroying of the old things proceed. When the demolishing of the old things is completed shortly, there will be no chaotic beginning for the new, there will be no need for men to start at the level of the early caveman, but the way will be fully cleared for the developing of the new to the grandeur of a paradise. It is a time of increasing peril. It is also a time of great opportunity. The peril steadily increases for those who hang on to the old in defiance of its being condemned. Mankind’s only safety lies in speedy flight to the new, and that without delay. It is with the new that the great opportunity lies for men to survive the end of the old and enjoy a future of enduring happiness, peace and love. The new things are not those that vainglorious men of this world conceitedly promise to build. The new things are those of the Almighty One who sits on the throne of the universe. For nineteen centuries his words have stood recorded: “Look! I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:5, NW) Today he is backing up his words with deeds. The new things are being made. Happy are those people who see them being constructed and who flee to them. Safety and preservation will never fail them there with God’s New World society.

2. Before taking refuge in supposedly sacred things, what is it necessary to do, and what historic example recommends this course?

² Men have a strong tendency to hold on to certain things long held sacred and to trust in them as though they were a charm against harm. It is felt that they are from God and that he will spare them and therefore it guarantees one’s safety to take refuge in such sacred things. But things to which men impute sacredness may not be sacred to God, even if they have great age or antiquity. To rely on such means to deceive oneself with a false hope. It is necessary to determine whether they are in agreement with God’s promised new things. If not, they will not be carried over and incorporated with the new. For the truth of this in our time we have a historic example. In fact, this example was a prophecy of what would take place in our time. No temple of religion was invested with greater sacredness or guarded with greater jealousy and fanaticism than Herod’s temple in Jerusalem nineteen centuries ago. It and previous temples on the same spot had a combined existence of almost a thousand years; and yet after a guided tour of inspection of Herod’s temple Jesus Christ said: “The days will come in which not a stone upon a stone will be left here and not be thrown down.”—Luke 21:5, 6, NW.

3. Why did Jesus declare that temple abandoned, and when it was destroyed why was God not left without a temple?

³ That temple was the most gorgeous building in the holy city of Jerusalem. In it the priests who were descendants of the chosen family of Aaron busied themselves with the sacred services. It was called “the house.” Yet, notwithstanding all its sacred associations, Jesus said just before this: “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) Jesus knew not only that it had become a house of merchandise and a cave of robbers but also that it was served by priests who were plotting his death. It had merely an outward show of sacredness but was entirely empty of holiness within. Jesus therefore declared it abandoned by Jehovah God and refused to patch it onto the new system of things that he was bringing in. Thirty-seven years later it met the fate he predicted. Not a stone of it was left resting on another. However, the new temple of Jehovah God, a spiritual temple of “living stones,” continued standing. Within it a righteous new system of things functioned that was to result in the pure worship of the true God all over the earth and the everlasting blessing of all the families of mankind.—1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:20-22.

4, 5. Did the new system of things wait for Jerusalem and its temple to be destroyed, and what is the proof for your answer?

⁴ The new system of things did not wait for the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple before beginning. With the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus to heaven to appear in the presence of Jehovah God with the blood merit of his human sacrifice, the new system of things began in reality. Having the sacrifice that was really acceptable to God for ransoming mankind from sin and its penalty death, Jesus served as the new High Priest of God. The earthly high priest of the old Jewish system of things lost his office before God, for he had been made a high priest by the Law covenant that Moses had mediated between God and Israel at Mount Sinai. But now Jesus had become a Prophet and Mediator greater than Moses and he mediated a new covenant between Jehovah God and the spiritual Israelites, the Christian congregation that was built upon him as the Rock. Thus that old Law covenant that God had made with the natural Israelites at Sinai was abolished and its priesthood, its sacrifices, its festivals and its obligations with it. (Heb. 3:1; 9:11-15; Col. 2:13, 14; Deut. 5:2, 3; 29:1) From then on Jesus Christ served as God’s anointed High Priest at God’s spiritual temple, its Holy of Holies being even heaven itself before the very presence of God himself.

⁵ Jesus’ manifesting of himself as the new and everlasting High Priest meant that the consummation of the old system of things had come. As it is written concerning him: “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. 9:26, NW) It was in full harmony with this fact that the abandoned temple of Herod at Jerusalem was destroyed by the legions of Rome under General Titus in the year 70 (A.D.). This was when the reputedly holy city of Jerusalem itself was destroyed.

6. What must we not overlook regarding the connection of the Christian congregation with Jerusalem, and what did its eventual flight from there mean?

⁶ Today in this year 1953 we must not overlook one important point: For thirty-four years after God’s new covenant was made and the Christian congregation began to be built on Jesus Christ the Rock at Pentecost of 33 (A.D.) the city of Jerusalem served as the headquarters city of the Christian congregation. The governing body of the congregation was located there and was made up of the twelve apostles and other older disciples, such as James the brother of Jesus. They used the temple courts as a convenient place to meet crowds of people and preach to them. It was in this temple that Paul the apostle was mobbed about the year 56, and it was in Jerusalem that the disciple James and other faithful Christians with him were killed by fanatical Jewish stoners in 62. But when the year 67 came, the Christian governing body and all other disciples of Jesus fled from Jerusalem and from all the province of Judea. Why did not the Christians stay on and keep preaching the good news about Jesus Christ in the old holy city and the rest of Judea? Was it cowardice before persecution? Was it unfaithfulness toward their commission to preach the good news? None of that! It was the wise preservation of their lives, that they might continue preaching elsewhere. It was obedience to the prophetic command of Jesus Christ when he foretold the destruction of the abandoned temple and said to his disciples:

7. What was the prophecy containing the command that they obeyed?

⁷ “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be objects of hatred by all persons because of my name. And yet not a hair of your heads will by any means perish. By endurance on your part you will acquire your souls. Furthermore, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then understand that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her withdraw, and let those in the nearby regions not enter into her [into Jerusalem], because these are days for meting out justice that all the things written may be fulfilled. Woe to the pregnant women and the ones suckling a baby in those days! For there will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.”—Luke 21:16-24, NW.

THE CUE TO FLEE

8. When were the Christians given their cue to flee, and where did they flee? The fulfillment of what words of Jesus did they escape?

⁸ In November of the year 66 (A.D.) the governing body in Jerusalem and all the other disciples there and in the province of Judea were given their cue to flee from the entire province to the mountains, as commanded by Jesus. That was when the Roman armies under Gaius Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, arrived before the city which was in revolt against Rome. After five days of fighting that put the full capture of the city within his grasp he withdrew his forces for no accountable reason, to be pursued by the Jews, with loss of thousands of his troops. The Christians took this as the cue given many years before by Jesus. So they fled from Jerusalem. They did not stop in any part of the province of Judea; Jesus’ command was for those in Judea to flee from it to the mountains. Hence they and their children (born or yet unborn) crossed the Jordan River into the mountainous region of Gilead and settled principally at Pella, one of the cities of the Decapolis. There they kept up their Christian activities and carried on their preaching. There they were safe when the Romans came back in the early part of A.D. 70 and terrible desolation came upon Jerusalem in fulfillment of Jesus’ tearful words addressed to her: “If you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having to do with peace—but now they have been hid from your eyes. Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side; and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”—Luke 19:41-44, NW.

9. What then perished never to be reinstated, but what endured?

⁹ The life of the holy city and its temple did not prove to be charmed. Those who stuck with those things of the corrupted old system fought a lost cause and perished in the desolation of Jerusalem and all the province of Judea. But the Christians in the mountains of Gilead survived and preached on. The old system that then perished is gone forever; the priesthood of Aaron’s family and the worship of Jehovah God in a material, man-made temple at Jerusalem will never be reinstated. The new Christian system of things under the new covenant with Jesus as Mediator and High Priest endures down to this day.

10. What question do we feel urged to ask, and, knowing its answer, what can we determine about Christendom?

¹⁰ All this is not without tremendous significance to us in these strange, unusual days. We are staring in the face something similar, only far worse. We feel the urge to ask after the causes of things, and we do so wisely, that we may know whether a certain course of action is advisable for us. When we see that the present-day city of Jerusalem in Palestine does not carry on the tradition of the ancient temple city, but that Christendom is in fact the modern-day counterpart of the holy city of the days of Jesus and his apostles, then we are impelled to ask, What led to the frightful siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 (A.D.)? Knowing that, we can then determine whether for a like reason destruction on a vaster scale is hanging threateningly over Christendom, the twentieth-century counterpart of the doomed Jerusalem.

11. What was the prophecy in which Jesus gave the key to the answer to the question?

¹¹ Jesus gave the key to the answer when he said to his disciples in this same prophecy, as reported by the apostle Matthew: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come. Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. Let the man on the housetop not come down to take the goods out of his house; and let the man in the field not return to the house to pick up his outer garment. Woe to the pregnant women and those suckling a baby in those days! Keep praying that your flight may not occur in wintertime nor on the sabbath day; for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”—Matt. 24:14-22, NW.

12. According to that, what was the cause of Jerusalem’s appalling destruction A.D. 70?

¹² The “disgusting thing that causes desolation” at the sight of which standing in the holy place the Christians were to flee to the mountains—this was the cause of the appalling destruction that overtook Jerusalem and her realm in Judea. That “disgusting thing” was the league or alliance that the religious rulers of Jerusalem made with the Roman empire in order to procure the death of Jesus Christ, God’s anointed King. That imperial world power of Rome was symbolized in divine prophecy as a disgusting thing, as a ferocious wild beast that would war upon Jehovah’s holy ones or saints on the earth. It proceeded first against Jehovah’s chief Holy One, his Son Jesus Christ, to do away with him as a rival to its world domination.—Acts 3:14; 4:27-30, NW.

13. Who thrust God’s Holy One before Rome’s attention, how and why?

¹³ The religious rulers of Jerusalem were the ones that thrust God’s Holy One before the attention of the Roman world power, seeking revenge because Jesus exposed their false practices and their violations of God’s commands. Before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate they accused Jesus of being seditious against Caesar, forbidding the paying of tax to Caesar and stirring up the people against him. When Governor Pilate tried to resist the religious pressure and to let Jesus go, the Jews shouted: “If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar. Every man making himself a king speaks against Caesar.” When Governor Pilate, in an appeal to the Jews’ national patriotism, presented Jesus as their king and tried to shame them by asking, “Shall I impale your king?” then, of all people, it was the Jewish chief priests that answered: “We have no king but Caesar.”—John 19:12-16, NW.

14. Why would Jehovah feel disgust and indignation against that religious element, and what consequences did he let them suffer?

¹⁴ Do you feel disgust at that? Then how much more would God in heaven feel hot indignation at this betrayal of his Anointed King Jesus Christ to the Roman imperial world power and the linking up of those who claimed to be his people with the cruel, anti-Jehovah world power of Rome? It was a religio-political conspiracy against Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. No wonder he heard and acted upon their defiant cry at that time concerning Jesus’ blood: “His blood come upon us and upon our children”! No wonder he abandoned their house as a polluted temple! No wonder he considered them part and parcel of a disgusting thing, an abominable arrangement against his kingdom by his Holy One Jesus Christ! (Matt. 27:25; 23:38, NW) They professed friendship for God’s enemy, Caesar, thus making themselves God’s enemies. Now let them eat the bitter fruitage of that traitorous friendship; let them gall under the unequal yoke of such a nefarious anti-kingdom conspiracy until they should be driven to violent revolt against their political partners. God foreknew that the hypocritical religio-political alliance was bound to break up in due time and that the political part of the disgusting thing would move with its armies against the religious part of the disgusting alliance, to bring Jesus’ blood upon the guilty religionists and their children, giving Jerusalem a blood bath from the veins of 1,100,000 of her children!

15. When did the Christians move out of the doomed locality without inconvenience, and what did they escape sharing?

¹⁵ The revolt of the Jews against their friend Caesar came in 66 (A.D.) for the outrages done them by his political governors. That same year the armies of the political part of the disgusting thing turned against them and made a preliminary assault against their holy city Jerusalem. That was the sight of the disgusting thing with its armies surrounding the holy city of Jerusalem that the Christians were to look for as notification that it was high time for them to flee to the mountains outside Judea for safety. Not knowing how soon the armies of the disgusting thing would come back and complete the desolation of Judea and Jerusalem, the Christian governing body and other obedient Christians moved out without having to do it on any inconvenient Jewish sabbath day or in wintertime. In the seventh century before Christ the Babylonish armies had come back to desolate Jerusalem the first time. In 70 (A.D) the Roman armies came back. During the spring and summer of that year the siege and complete destruction followed. By prompt, obedient action the Christians had escaped sharing in that horrible desolation.—Jer. 37:6-10.

MODERN COUNTERPART

16. When did Daniel foretell the “disgusting thing” to appear, and what makes the period since A.D. 1914 that particular time?

¹⁶ Jesus, when prophesying of that “disgusting thing that causes desolation,” said that Daniel the prophet had foretold it too. Daniel prophesied of its appearance as taking place at the time appointed, the “time of the end.” (Matt. 24:15, NW; Dan. 11:29-35) Jesus predicted things to occur in the time of the end of this world, and such things have come in one continuous series since A.D. 1914—world war, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, world-wide persecution of true Christians, the preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom as established, false prophets and Christs, and, yes, the “disgusting thing that causes desolation”—all these things in combination marking this as the critical “time of the end.” What makes it the “time of the end” for the nations of this world is that God’s “appointed times of the nations” came to the end of their 2,520 years’ length in 1914 and there the long-prayed-for kingdom of God was born in the heavens and his holy, anointed King Jesus Christ was installed upon the throne and given the right to rule the entire earth and break to pieces all nations that opposed his rightful rulership.—Matt. 24:3-25; Rev. 12:1-5; Ps. 2:7-9.

17. Where is that “disgusting thing” to be found, and by the fulfillment of what prophecy may it be identified?

¹⁷ As this period since 1914 is confirmed as the “time of the end,” where then are the disgusting thing and its armies of desolation that Daniel and Jesus foretold? Look! there it is in the religio-political conspiracy of today against the established kingdom of Jehovah God and its holy, anointed King Jesus Christ. Identify it for yourself by its fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 2:1-6 (AS): “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: the Lord will have them in derision. Then will he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure [saying]: Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Acts 4:24-30) The world alliance known as the United Nations is the chief and most powerful expression of this religio-political conspiracy against the Messianic kingdom of God. We say “religio-political,” because the religions of this world are in on this world conspiracy against the Kingdom, especially the religions of Christendom.

18. How during World War I did the religious clergy show disloyalty to God’s established kingdom, without regard for Matthew 25:40?

¹⁸ For decades before A.D. 1914 Jehovah’s witnesses had been preaching the full establishment of God’s kingdom by Christ at the end of the “appointed times of the nations” in that year. To confirm their preaching as correct, World War I for global domination by the nations of this earth broke out suddenly in 1914, to be followed by the mournful train of events down to this day. Had the religious clergy of Christendom examined the prophecies that Jehovah’s witnesses called to their attention, had they faced the facts of modern history and seen their import and shown loyalty to God’s will, they would have hailed his kingdom and would have recommended it as the only government entitled to world domination. To the contrary of this, they took sides with the political factors in total warfare for the domination of the earthly realm of God’s anointed King Jesus Christ. They led in persecuting Jehovah’s witnesses who stood loyal to God’s enthroned Ruler and they moved the sword-brandishing arm of the political state against Jehovah’s witnesses to try to exterminate them from the earth. They gave no reverential thought to Jesus’ words: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matt. 25:40) For fear of alienating the affections of their political friends the clergy preferred to hold to the warring kingdoms of this world and to accuse Jesus Christ of sedition against Caesar by accusing his true followers of this.

19, 20. At the close of World War I how did the clergy follow the lead of the politicians’ postwar proposals, but who proclaimed something else as the only hope of humanity?

¹⁹ When at the close of World War I in 1918 the united political program for the postwar world was proposed, the clergy of Christendom were at once for it. What was that? To have Christ as King? No, not that, but a League of Nations, to provide strength for the old-world system to continue through unity. The clergy of Christendom were first to follow the lead of the politicians and to advocate the League of Nations. In January of 1919, before the peace conference convened at Paris, France, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America urged the establishing of the League of Nations and said it was not merely a peace expedient, but, to quote their pamphlet, “it is rather the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth.” They added: “The heroic dead will have died in vain unless out of victory shall come a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.—2 Pet. 3:13.” In other words, the postwar world under the League was to be the new heavens and new earth that God has promised, the League of Nations as the “political expression” of God’s kingdom to be the new heavens, making unnecessary Christ’s real kingdom that forms the new heavens of God’s new world.

²⁰ As for the pope of Rome, although failing to get a seat in the League of Nations, he offered the benefit of his ecclesiastical offices to it. On January 10, 1920, the League began functioning with the support and blessing of the clergy of Christendom. At the same time the voice of Jehovah’s witnesses began to be heard with an unusual tone of boldness and conviction, proclaiming God’s kingdom under Christ as the only hope of distressed humanity.

21. Which of those two postwar movements promoted God’s kingdom, and which aroused his disgust? According to what evidences to date?

²¹ Now which of these two postwar movements really promoted God’s kingdom? Which of them aroused the disgust of the Most High God? Jehovah’s witnesses or the clergy-blessed League of Nations? Well, Jehovah’s witnesses are still here as represented in this New World Society Assembly at Yankee Stadium, New York city, but where is that political new heavens, the League of Nations? Where was it during World War II? Down in the bottomless pit of helpless inactivity. To take away its reproach, they have revived it and given it a new front and a new name called United Nations. Students of Bible prophecy know this was just as foretold.—Rev. 17:9-11.

22. What disintegrating experiences did the League undergo down to World War II, and what question do we now ask?

²² The League of Nations and the religious clergy of Christendom got along notably well together, and there was no open break. But in October of 1933, eight months after Hitler came to power, Nazi Germany quit the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations, and the disintegration of the League began, Japan having withdrawn from it on March 27 that year. It was first after this that Communist Russia was admitted, on September 18, 1934, or years after protests had been raised against it for its flagrant persecutions of religion within its borders. In 1935 Fascist Italy flouted the League of Nations and launched off onto its aggressions. The League applied sanctions against it and Mussolini’s Italy quit that body on December 11, 1937. In 1939 the League of Nations was given its kick over into the bottomless pit of ineffectiveness by Hitler Germany’s aggression against Poland, this precipitating World War II. We now ask, Up till that year of the League’s descent into the abyss had the armies of the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” been seen surrounding the modern counterpart of Jerusalem? No; not to any noticeable extent.

23. How was there a time when the “disgusting thing” could not serve as a visible sign for Christians to flee, and what questions do we ask about its armies of desolation?

²³ Now mark this point: When the League of Nations was kicked into the abyss and when for six years this disgusting thing was in this bottomless pit, the disgusting thing was not and it was not visibly standing in the holy place as a sign for true Christians to move out of Christendom and flee to the “mountains” of safety. But early in 1945 there was a stirring in the bottomless pit and the thing that was disgusting to Jehovah God and his King began making preparations at the San Francisco (California) Conference of forty-six nations to come out after World War II. It did, on October 24, 1945, by Russia’s depositing of its instrument of ratification of the postwar world-security organization. The Charter of the United Nations had now come into force. The beastly disgusting thing that causes desolation was again present. But where were its armies of desolation? Were these to be literal military forces of the United Nations? We remember that back in June 2, 1931, U. S. General Douglas MacArthur criticized certain clergymen regarding their stand on war and said: “Religion and patriotism have always gone hand in hand.” Then he added: “I am curious to know how many of the clergymen who voted for the League have read the articles and understand that under them the peace of the world is to be maintained in the last analysis by armed military forces.” However, the League of Nations never got armed military forces.

24. In 1944 what did American clergymen and laymen come out for, and what did the British prime minister say regarding what it needed?

²⁴ Thirteen years later, when the disgusting thing was in the bottomless pit as a fiasco, American clergymen and laymen came out for forming a nucleus of a general world organization. Also, on May 24, 1944, British Prime Minister Churchill, when discussing Spanish developments before Parliament, said: “We must undoubtedly in our world structure embody a great deal of all we have gained for the world by the structure and form of the League of Nations. We must arm our world organization and make sure within the limits assigned to it that it has overwhelming military power.”

25. When did the eighth world power get its army, and for what must this not be mistaken? Why?

²⁵ Today the United Nations, successor to the League of Nations, is the eighth of a series of world powers foretold in the Bible. The “eighth army” of this eighth world power has not chosen to show overwhelming military power in Korea, but at least the eighth world power, the United Nations, has its army, with units from nineteen nations. This police force went into action on June 27 of the pope’s holy year of 1950. But this composite army of the disgusting thing that causes desolation was then really acting in the defense of Christendom against the Communist aggression. We must therefore not mistake these United Nations military forces for the armies that may now be seen carrying forward an encirclement of Christendom, Jerusalem’s modern counterpart. What, then, are they?

26. What, then are those armies, and what prophecy yet to be fulfilled shows this?

²⁶ The armies that are predicted by Jesus’ words to desolate this modern, antitypical Jerusalem are within the political ranks of the very United Nations. They are those elements that wage war upon the religious system of Christendom. When the “disgusting thing” came up out of the abyss in 1945, it at its very start contained powerful members of the Communist antireligious bloc of nations. The peace offensive of 1953 on the part of the anti-Christendom forces should not throw anyone off guard. The anti-Christendom bloc will grow and will not halt until Jerusalem’s modern counterpart is completely surrounded by armies of terrible destruction. All “ten horns” of the beastly disgusting thing that has come out of the pit will yet turn on its religious partner that has adulterously joined the disgusting thing in a world conspiracy against Jehovah’s anointed Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Without fail the words of God must be fulfilled: “And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast.”—Rev. 17:16, 17, RS.

27. When, therefore, did readers of prophecy see armies encamping to surround Jerusalem’s counterpart, and what fate does she deserve?

²⁷ Therefore 1945, the year of the United Nation’s emergence, marks particularly the time when those who read Daniel’s prophecy and Jesus’ warning with discernment could see armies encamping to surround Jerusalem’s modern counterpart in order eventually to make her desolate and naked as a spiritual prostitute. She had been friendlily carrying on loose conduct with the worldly United Nations, thus choosing Caesar as her friend and rejecting God’s kingdom by Christ as her enemy. So now at Armageddon she deserves the punishment of a spiritual harlot according to God’s law.—Lev. 21:9.

28. The sign of what is now before our eyes, and what will be the full culmination of that?

²⁸ The sign of the nearer approach of the battle of Armageddon is now before our eyes. When this adulterous, religio-political combine finally cracks up and the symbolic beast and its ten horns turn against the harlot system of organized religion it will denote that the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” has begun by which he will execute all the foes of his Messianic kingdom. That war will end when Jesus Christ the King together with his angel executioners will destroy all the “disgusting thing” and all other elements of this old world that line up in opposition to his rule.

Arise, O Jehovah; let not man prevail: let the nations be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O Jehovah: let the nations know themselves to be but men.—Ps. 9:19, 20, AS.

Posthaste “to the Mountains!”

1. What is it now high time to do, and where can one now be hidden from destruction by the heavenly executioners?

THERE is now no time for delay. It is high time to flee for safety. The proverbs of God say: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me. A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple go on, and suffer for it.” (Prov. 27:11, 12, RS) Where, then, can the wise and prudent person flee and hide from destruction by the heavenly executioners that carry out God’s will upon his foes? Not to private refuge farms of isolation in some literal mountains or other out-of-the-way place. There are no out-of-the-way places to God’s executioners; and the hiding of oneself from the armies of the “disgusting thing” that wreak desolation upon Jerusalem’s modern counterpart will not hide anyone from execution by God’s Armageddon forces under his King Jesus Christ. For the Christians who saw the armies of Governor Gallus and promptly fled from Judea before Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 (A.D.), the mountains of Gilead around Pella were a place to continue in theocratic organization under their governing body and to keep on preaching the good news of God’s Word, turning people’s hopes and dependence away from doomed Jerusalem and to the promised kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem. For Christians and for people outside of Christianity who want to flee and be hidden at Armageddon’s very outbreak, the mountains outside of condemned Judea pictured today the protected New World theocratic system of things that Jehovah God has created in this time of the end. In that system of things is where Jehovah God keeps his New World society safe, that they may carry on their theocratic activities, announcing the Kingdom of God’s new world.

2. How can those inside Christendom flee from her, and in company with whom is there now safe refuge?

² Those of us who are literally in the realm of Christendom cannot get out of it in a physical way. For us to go to the lands of so-called “heathendom,” steeped just as much in Babylonish, demon religion, would be no greater safeguard in the time of Armageddon. But we can flee from Christendom spiritually by abandoning her worldly, untheocratic system of things and thus get out of her danger zone, leaving her to her fate and having no part with her in her adulterous connections with the United Nations and any other political and commercial system of this old world. Only then can we be free to declare the day of vengeance of our God against Christendom and all the rest of this Babylonish world. There is only one place to go for safe refuge, and that is under Jehovah’s theocratic new system of things in company with his New World society. From God’s standpoint those of his New World society are no longer in the land of the condemned and doomed but are in the land of his approval. He has founded a “new earth” to flee to!

3. How are Jehovah’s worshipers today in a new land, and how is this a complete change of condition for them from their condition at the close of World War I?

³ We as Jehovah’s worshipers are in a new land. A new land has been born in this “time of the end,” not by means of an undersea earthquake’s pushing up a new island or continent, but by God’s all-powerful spirit in giving his people a new position on earth. He has completely changed the situation for them from what it was at the close of World War I. Then in consequence of Christendom’s action in rejecting Jehovah’s kingdom of his Son and choosing the friendship of Caesar and handing over Christ’s faithful followers to Caesar for execution by the sword of the State, the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses came into captivity to the enemy’s power. For a while they were exiled from Jehovah’s favor and were held in the enemy’s land and deprived of their rightful privilege of freely worshiping their God and doing his work. Their condition was foreshadowed by that of the Jewish remnant when held prisoner in the idol-filled land of Babylon far from their homeland that God had decreed should lie desolate without man or tame beast for seventy years, with no capital city and no temple bearing Jehovah’s name. Scattered about in an alien land, they were no longer a nation under a government of their own. Their distant homeland was no longer a cultivated land teeming with people, but was a wilderness, a jungleland infested with fearsome wild beasts and unclean birds. Similarly in 1918 the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses were as an oppressed people not a nation and with no land of their own, no God-given land according to his promise. How, then, is it that today they are distinguished as a united, organized people, moving about freely in the royal realm of theocracy?

4. What promise of liberation did God fulfill for them as he did for his ancient people?

⁴ It is because God has done for them spiritually what he did for his ancient people after they had been held captive in Babylon for the decreed term of bondage there. God fulfilled his promise of liberation that he had pronounced by his prophet, saying: “The ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. . . . For I am Jehovah thy God, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.” (Isa. 51:11-16, AS) When in 537 B.C. Almighty God thus ransomed his people from the mighty world power of Babylon after nearly three quarters of a century, it excited the amazement of the ancient world. So, too, now.

5. When did the liberation of the anointed remnant begin, and what only can account for their free, organized state today?

⁵ At the close of World War I in 1918 (A.D.) Christendom turned to the League of Nations for security in the postwar world. The anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses turned to Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ as the rightful government of the new world and vowed to proclaim it to all mankind, and that with boldness, if only they were ransomed from the enemy’s fearsome power. Therefore in 1919 their release from the enemy’s power began, and it can be attributed only to Jehovah’s power by means of Christ his King. Only His power can account for it that today they are a people called by his name. As he had said in his prophecy: “That I may . . . say unto Zion, Thou art my people.” It is he who by the dynamic power of his spirit and by the liberating force of his revealed Word of truth has broken the restrictive fetters of fear of man and the shackles of religious falsehoods, man-made traditions and untheocratic systems and customs. He has reorganized them in subjection to his anointed King. He has ordered their lives theocratically and given them a purpose in living, a glorious commission of service in His name.

6. How has a new land thus been born, and what is its capital?

⁶ By this divine action a nation has been brought forth. A new land has been born, not by the Peace Conference of Versailles after World War I in carving up the map of the globe and giving various peoples like Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc., a territory of their own. No, but by the Creator of heaven and earth in giving his delivered witnesses on earth the standing that no other people occupy, the standing of his restored, approved people living and working in a theocratic domain. It has its definite boundaries beyond which they will not go to compromise and make common cause with this world. It has a capital city. Its capital is not over in Brooklyn on the river bank opposite the world capital of the United Nations. It has no earthly city as its capital, for it is a universal society with a divine capital in heaven, New Jerusalem.

7, 8. How has Zion’s travail during World War I not been in vain, and thus how has the world been amazed in fulfillment of prophecy?

⁷ The travail through which God’s universal organization Zion passed during World War I has not been in vain, but by the power of her Husband Jehovah God she has brought forth a chastened, purified, theocratic people as her visible children on earth. Thus to the surprise of all a nation was brought forth. If today this mammoth international assembly here in Yankee Stadium in this eleventh year of the atomic age arouses the wonder of New York city, then it is only part of the amazement of the entire world at seeing the unusual, unexpected birth of a new land and the bringing forth of a nation by God’s woman Zion, in execution of his 2,700-year-old prophecy:

⁸ “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith Jehovah: shall I that cause to bring forth shut the womb? saith thy God.”—Isa. 66:7-9, AS.

9. On what day are these astonishing things brought forth, and how had God opened Zion’s womb and why could he not now close it?

⁹ It is in one exclusive day that these new and astonishing things have been produced in vindication of Jehovah’s word. This is the day of Jehovah in which his theocratic government comes to the fore. The day of 2,520 years enjoyed by the untheocratic, Gentile nations for global domination has ended. At the ending of their day in 1914 Jehovah’s day began throughout the universe and his government exercised by his Anointed King Jesus Christ was brought forth from his heavenly organization Zion. To bring forth the Messianic kingdom symbolized by the man-child he had opened the womb of his organization Zion. He could not now shut her womb and not let her produce more, and especially so after he let her go through a period of painful travail due to the persecution of the Kingdom proclaimers on earth. By captivity to the enemy and by exile in the enemy land they were buried away, hidden out of sight. They were unidentifiable as representatives of the heavenly Zion. That persecution of them must be defeated and result in something by the power of God. The things of Jehovah’s people on earth had to be brought into harmony with the triumphant birth of the Kingdom in the heavens, and they were. How?

10. How was a nation brought forth by Zion and a land born through Jehovah’s Servant, and for what is the land now open?

¹⁰ At the climax of the travail and at the due time for the birth Jehovah caused his heavenly Zion to bring forth the remnant of her spiritual children on earth as a nation subject to God’s newborn kingdom. Long previously he had said to his great Servant, Jesus Christ the King: “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; saying to them that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” (Isa. 49:8, 9, AS) Now by his Servant, the Ruler in the newborn kingdom, Jehovah raised up the land by causing his anointed witnesses to inherit the formerly desolate heritages, telling them to go forth from their bondage to this Babylonish world and no longer to linger in Babylonish darkness but to come forth into the light of Jehovah’s day. Thus he caused the birth of a land for them by restoring them to his favor and putting them under his theocratic control, free from the bondage of the foes of the Kingdom. As with the Israelites at the end of the seventy-year desolation of Jerusalem and the land of Judah, this newborn land of today lies no longer under a divine interdict. As it were, the seventy-year restriction is lifted, and the land is thrown wide open. It is time for Jehovah’s people to flock into the newborn theocratic land and to take up each one his theocratic assignment in it. Let now the people of good will stream into this land!

11. When and how did Jehovah plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and with what does such earth correspond in Jesus’ prophecy regarding the disgusting thing?

¹¹ This means the founding of the new earth. The Creator had already planted the new heavens of the new world in 1914 by the birth of his Messianic kingdom, for the Kingdom becomes the heavenly ruling power of the righteous new world. The Creator’s laying of the foundations of the new earth began in 1919 with the ransoming of the remnant from Babylonish restraints in that year and the reinstatement of them in the divine favor, service and worship. The birth of this land of the New World society is truly the founding of the new earth, for the spiritual remnant will be preserved through Armageddon and their theocratic earthly organization will eventually blend into the permanent new earth of the new world, inhabited exclusively by earthly people of good will. This newborn land now occupied by the newly-brought-forth nation of Zion’s spiritual children is a place of security. It corresponds with the mountains to which Jesus warned his followers to flee at the sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, and especially at the ominous sight of its armies of desolation surrounding Christendom, which claims to be holy and indestructible by man.—Luke 21:20, 21, NW.

12. What has Jehovah put into the mouth of his restored remnant, and for what purpose?

¹² The flight of the spiritual remnant and their governing body to this newborn land far from Christendom’s danger zone does not end the matter. Their safety is not the full realization of the divine mercy and saving power in this day of Jehovah. He has pointed out the purpose of covering the restored remnant with his protection in the land of restoration, saying: “I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth.” (Isa. 51:16, AS) These words in the remnant’s mouth are not for them to keep to themselves but must be transmitted to the rising generation of the new world that will occupy the “new earth” permanently. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah: my spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever.”—Isa. 59:21, AS.

13. How will Jehovah’s words never depart from their mouth?

¹³ Jehovah’s words in the mouth of his people are for them to speak out boldly, authoritatively. For his words never to depart out of their mouth means for them never to cease serving as his mouthpiece in proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom in all the world now for a witness to all the nations. If they are willing to use their mouths in his witness work he will always supply them his message to deliver. This will be not alone for the salvation of themselves but also for the salvation of many others.

14. Why must those already fled to the “mountains” concern themselves with more than their own salvation, and how do they “raise a signal”?

¹⁴ Those who have already fled to the mountains of safety with the New World society must unselfishly concern themselves with more than their own salvation. Countless others are threatened with destruction at Armageddon, which will begin with destruction of old-world religion. We who read the prophecy with discernment see the armies of desolation massing their camps around the present-day counterpart of unfaithful Jerusalem. We read the sinister meaning of the situation. It is a sign that the worldly religious system that has taken the name of God’s Son but has blasphemed it and heaped reproach upon Jehovah’s name is near its devastation and hence near the start of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Those will be the days of vengeance for vindicating Jehovah and his Messianic kingdom. (Rev. 16:14, 16; Luke 19:22) It is mandatory upon the remnant to act as a watchman class and cry out the warning to the people of good will of all nations to flee to the mountains. If they are in Christendom, they must flee out. If they are outside of her and in heathendom, they must not enter in and become a part of her. The nations of the Western bloc are feverishly trying to preserve Christendom as something sacred and as if the world’s safety lay in her; but not so, says God’s Word. Those who have already fled to the newborn land with the New World society have Jehovah’s words in their mouths and they must proclaim his kingdom everywhere as the only government that is bound to succeed and usher in undiminishing blessings to all the families of the earth. In that way they “raise a signal over the peoples,” that these may see where to flee and assemble for safety under the shadow of God’s hand.—Isa. 62:10, AT.

15. Does the foregoing mean that we may no longer preach in the realm of Christendom? And how long are we to preach?

¹⁵ Jerusalem’s modern counterpart is seen getting encircled with armies of desolation and those in that doomed system are commanded to flee out of it if they want to be Christ’s followers. But this does not mean we must quit preaching in Christendom. The system of Christendom in alliance with this world against the Kingdom is what we must flee from, but it is in the realm of Christendom that we must keep preaching. How long? If we have said, “Here am I; send me,” then Jehovah’s answer at the temple to Isaiah we must take to indicate how long. His answer is: “Until the cities be wasted, without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land become an utter desolation, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the solitude be great in the midst of the land.” (Isa. 6:8-12, Da) That is, until the crack-up in Christendom’s alliance with the disgusting thing that causes desolation becomes a complete rupture and the horns of the beastly thing turn upon her and make her desolate. That means, till the battle of Armageddon begins and proceeds toward the total desolation of the old world of which Satan the Devil is the god. Till then there must be no quitting. We must give forth God’s words that have been placed in the mouth of his remnant and in the mouth of the rising generation of good will. We must preach the good news of the Kingdom to all the nations as a witness, which necessarily includes also the proclaiming of the day of vengeance of our God.—Isa. 61:2.

16. How may we show that we welcome fugitives to the New World society’s land, and to increase the land’s population far beyond what it is now what do we have to do?

¹⁶ In love for our imperiled neighbor and fellow man let us do this and thus help as many as we can to flee without further delay from the entire doomed world of the Devil. We have to go to them. Like the angels who warned Lot and his daughters at Sodom and urged them not to stay in the District but to escape for their lives to the mountainous region, we must take them by the hand and help speed their escape. (Gen. 19:15-17, NW; Luke 17:28-30) We must view seriously what we see in the light of Jesus’ prophecy and we must act with the sense of greatest urgency in behalf of all the people of good will who long for such a thing as a happy life in a righteous new world. By such efforts we show we welcome them to the blessed land of the New World society, here to enjoy the pleasures of God’s loving-kindness and security under his wings, where everlasting joy is upon the heads of his people. Already there are reported over a half million serving as witnesses in the newborn land with the New World society. Are we willing to work on until Jehovah God has made the blessed population of the theocratic land to number, say, millions, who for having fled there and faithfully living there will survive Armageddon and need never die off the face of the new earth? If we are willing, God’s good news of the Kingdom and his warning of vengeance for the foes of the Kingdom must be our message down till Armageddon and we will not let those words of God depart from our mouths until the desolation of Satan’s old world is complete and the earth as well as heaven is clean. That supreme event is near!

17. Of what are we on the threshold, and what preparations must we make for it?

¹⁷ We are now on the threshold of a new world that will never perish or grow old, but of which the divine Creator says: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain.” (Isa. 66:22, AS) What an unspeakable privilege it is now to live in the land of safety with the New World society and take part in the preparations for that world of calm and of contentment with godliness, where nothing may harm us or make us afraid! It is Jehovah God who builds the righteous new world by Jesus Christ his King, and so our preparations for it are principally with ourselves as a New World society, learning how to work together in love, getting organized theocratically and keeping so. Amid the destructions during Armageddon our various physical properties, homes, Kingdom Halls, and material possessions may be destroyed, but under heavenly protection from Jehovah’s executional hosts we shall survive with what we need, chief of all of which will be his approval for holding fast our integrity to him and his kingdom.

18. How and with what expectation should we now conduct ourselves as a New World society, and in accord with this what has Jehovah provided for us through his New World society?

¹⁸ Looking forward to living endlessly together after Armageddon, the big thing now is knowing how to live together and serve God unitedly. Let Jehovah’s spirit have free and unimpeded operation among us that we may be kept from being fashioned according to men’s ideas and schemes and that he may make us into something for his everlasting use. While the old-world society wails, howls, starves and thirsts religiously and hastens to a fiery destruction, let us continue rejoicing, singing and feasting together spiritually, always remembering the words of Peter: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Pet. 3:13, NW) In full accord with our expectation, and for our further feasting together and working together as a New World society, the happy God Jehovah has provided for us through his New World society this new 384-page book in English, entitled “NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH”

Admissions of Failure

The Living Church (Episcopal) said last November 23: “Not long ago a survey was published of religious beliefs held in a distinguished parish of our Church. It was appalling to note how little some people actually believed, in spite of the fact that supposedly they stand up and recite the Creeds every Sunday in church. It was correctly pointed out that in most instances this rather depressing weakness of faith was due to lack of definite teaching. Nevertheless . . . a layman who goes through the motions of saying a Creed he does not believe, or, indeed, who joins a Church which professes a Faith he does not believe, is just as blameworthy as a clergyman who fails to teach orthodox Christianity to his flock.”

Further shortcomings of much of today’s religion were shown at the Annual Assembly of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in London’s Westminster Chapel, in May, 1950. There Chairman Lovell Cocks, principal of Bristol’s Western College, sizzled forth: “Can faith as halting as ours outrun the fierce dynamism of the Marxist creed? Can we hope to beat the Communists until Christians know their stuff as well as the Communists know theirs? Till we do the Communists need not be afraid of us.” As to the big ill-attended churches, he said: “These fellowships have come to believe that the cause of the kingdom means keeping these buildings going, and everything else is sacrificed. . . . May it not be that what Christ really wants them to do is to sell out, to get rid of their buildings, and hire a room over a shop—an upper room, and begin all over again in an apostolic way.”

No knowledge, no belief, a halting faith, worship of buildings, the fire of true Christianity gone—that is Christendom. Its dynamism has been extinguished with the poisonous gas of human theories, political and social meddling and false doctrine. It has dulled the senses to real Christian belief and action. You have a choice—the world’s apathy or the firm, dynamic faith of true Christianity. Which will you choose?

Seed Sown in Gold Coast Yields Ninetyfold

IN HIS illustration of the sower Jesus foretold that the seed that fell on the right kind of soil would yield thirtyfold, sixtyfold and some even a hundred. (Mark 4:20) Telling of Kingdom seed that yielded more than ninetyfold within two years, as well as the effect that the truth concerning Jehovah and his kingdom had on an African chieftain and a queen, is the following letter from a Watch Tower missionary in the Gold Coast, Africa:

“About two years ago a lone Christian minister of Jehovah who lives in the village of Edubiase here in the Gold Coast walked two and a half miles to the village of Akrofuom for a day of preaching the good news. He happened to be calling at the homes across the street from the leading church of the village as the minister was delivering his sermon. Noticing the witness the minister pointed at him and warned his flock not to listen to that false prophet. One man in the congregation, displeased with this charge, asked the minister how the witness could be a false prophet since he read continually from the Bible to prove his points, and said that to say he was false was to say the Bible was false.

“After the sermon was over the witness approached the people coming out of church and several gathered around him to hear what he had to say. The minister, although urged by his members to stay and join in the discussion, they also having prepared a fine meal for him, left in great haste. This increased the interest in the Kingdom message and fourteen signed up for Bible study in their homes. The following week the minister returned to the village and succeeded in causing some of them to go from their village to the one in, which the witness lived to have their names removed from the list.

“In a few days, however, the witness again went to Akrofuom and well over fourteen others signed up for Bible study. Telling them of an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses to be held in Konongo, eight decided to ‘spy’ out the workings of the witness organization and to report back to their fellow villagers. Before long the attendance of the leading church in Akrofuom began to dwindle. In six months the newly interested ones hired a truck, which served as a bus, to go to the next assembly, and many were convinced that the Christian ministers of Jehovah had the true organization. Then came the national convention of the witnesses in Accra last November; and again the interested and enthusiastic villagers hired a truck to make the 300-mile trip.

“Now the leading church building in Akrofuom has been enlarged and painted white on the inside. Why? Because on the outside now appears the sign KINGDOM HALL OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES. At present upward of ninety ministers are regularly preaching the good news of the Kingdom where two years ago there was not even one. With very few exceptions all the villagers are associated with the witnesses. You can imagine their joy and my great delight to find practically the entire village Jehovah’s witnesses. It greatly enrages their former minister to see his onetime ‘elders’ now taking the lead in preaching the good news of the Kingdom in the neighboring villages.

“So encouraging has been their course and preaching that a very old queen mother, who all her life had been attached to juju, demon magic and royalty (idolatry), left her stool of rulership over her people in a nearby village. Her people tried to persuade her to remain, but she refused and gave a good witness explaining her reasons and that she could not serve two masters. When asked to appoint a royal to take her place she said, ‘If I know juju is demonism and to sit on the stool is wrong before Jehovah God, how can I ask anyone else to do it?’ Because of her testimony no one is occupying the stool seat of authority, the villagers fearing to appoint another.

“The former minister, actually a catechist, of Akrofuom, finding his pastures despoiled, has been concentrating his efforts in Akrokerri, but there also the villagers are taking an interest in the Kingdom message as brought to them by the Akrofuom witnesses only two and a half miles away. One of the most prominent church members there, a well-educated chief who himself used to direct mobs against Jehovah’s witnesses and otherwise seek to oppose their work, has left his church, one of the strong ones in the village, and is studying the Bible with a witness right at the palace, and he is warning his former religious associates against being led by the ‘blind’.

“This chief used the palace drums to call his villagers to the public lecture I was to give. As a result 249 came and heard the talk. After the lecture one of the royals stood up and asked: ‘We know we are wrong and what you have said is true, but what do you want us to do, leave our churches and join you?’ Several spoke out from the audience that that question was foolish, as the questioner had admitted he was wrong. Others joined the questioner in wanting an answer, and so they were told, ‘If you were in a lorry and the driver was drunk and likely to take you all into the ditch, would you remain inside or would you drop down? And after coming to know the markings and the ring of true currency, would you still be willing to accept counterfeit coins?’ The obvious answer quieted everyone for the moment and then many Bible discussions put Jehovah’s witnesses present to work in many small groups; eager searchers were delighted with the answers and went off to tell other bystanders what they had learned. Others quenched their thirst for truth by going from group to group listening in on a wide range of subjects.

“I spent three hours witnessing to the chief, he verifying everything by looking up the scriptures in his Bible. He subscribed for The Watchtower, and as I departed he was engaged in an earnest discussion with one of his former religious associates. As I watched him thumb through the Bible for answers, standing there in his long flowing royal robes with the standard bearer at his side and a servant holding the large regal umbrella over his head, it made me think of King David.

“Your joy at reading this report cannot compare with my delight in experiencing these things. My heart overflows with gratitude to Jehovah our God. Love and Christian greetings from all of us over here in the Gold Coast.”

And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, . . . and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.—Mic. 4:2, AS.

Questions From Readers

● At Exodus 6:3 God told Moses that he was not known to Abraham by the name Jehovah, yet at Genesis 15:7, 8 God identifies himself to Abraham as Jehovah and Abraham calls him by that name. What is the explanation?—J. M., England.

The Hebrew expression at Exodus 6:3 around which the question revolves may be rendered two ways, that is, as a statement or as a question. The usual rendering is to make it a statement, as does the common King James Version: “By my name Jehovah was I not known to them.” Berry’s interlinear translation puts it in question form: “By my name Jehovah did I not make myself known to them?” The marginal rendering in the New World Translation takes recognition of this possibility, saying: “As respects my name Jehovah did I not make myself known to them?” This rendering in question form, of course, removes at once all difficulty. However, it is the exceptional rather than the usual rendering, and in the main body of its text the New World Translation holds to the generally accepted form. It will be useful to read Exodus 6:1-8, NW:

“So Jehovah said to Moses: ‘Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh, because on account of a strong hand he will send them away and on account of a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’ And God went on to speak to Moses and to say to him: ‘I am Jehovah. And I used to appear to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but as respects my name Jehovah I did not make myself known to them. And I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their temporary residences in which they resided temporarily. And I, even I, have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I am proceeding to remember my covenant. Therefore say to the sons of Israel, “I am Jehovah, and I shall certainly bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from their slavery, and I shall indeed reclaim you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I shall certainly take you to me as a people and I shall indeed prove to be God to you and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah your God who is bringing you out from under the burdens of Egypt. And I shall certainly bring you into the land that I raised my hand in oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I shall indeed give it to you as something to possess. I am Jehovah.”’”

The name “Jehovah” is the causative form of the third person singular of the verb “to be” and literally means “He causes to be.” He “causes to be” according to his purpose. It was very appropriate for the name to be stressed to Moses on this occasion, for Jehovah was beginning to cause to be accomplished his purpose concerning his people in Egypt. Four hundred and thirty years before this he had promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation. (Gen. 12:2) Thereafter God told Abraham that his seed would be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land, but that they would be delivered and established in the promised land of Canaan. (Gen. 15:7, 13-16) These promises were passed on to Isaac and Jacob, but upon none of them did Jehovah cause the promises to be realized. They knew the literal name Jehovah and used it, but they did not come to know or experience him as the One who caused to be fulfilled these promises.

Now in Moses’ time Israel was suffering down in Egypt, and in their affliction the Hebrews might cry out: ‘Where is Jehovah, the God of our forefathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? Look at our sorrowful condition. What has he done? Why does he not make himself known to us? Why has he not caused these promises and covenants of his to be realities?’ Well, for four hundred and thirty years these promises had been pending, and it was time for their fulfillment to begin. So God reminded Moses of the name Jehovah, and that now he was going to show Israel the application of this name, “He causes to be.” He would demonstrate that he is true to the meaning of his name. He would live up to its meaning by causing to be realized the promises made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The Hebrews would know Jehovah in a way their forefathers had not known him, that is, by actual demonstration in keeping with the name’s meaning. He would deliver them from Egypt as a nation, thus causing to be fulfilled his ancient promise. Though Israel might have felt forsaken and that God had as good as ceased to be, Moses was told to tell them he was sent by “I SHALL PROVE TO BE.” And by his mighty works and deliverances Jehovah did prove to be the Deliverer and causing the accomplishment of his purposes toward his people Israel.—Ex. 3:14, NW; 2 Sam. 7:23, AS.

Just as the Hebrews in Egypt came to know Jehovah in a way he was never known to their forefathers, so Pharaoh and the Egyptians came to know him. Surely they must have known the literal name of the God of the Hebrews that had been in their midst two hundred and fifteen years. Yet Pharaoh stormed: “Who is Jehovah, so that I should obey his voice to send Israel away? I do not know Jehovah at all and, what is more, I am not going to send Israel away.” (Ex. 5:2, NW) Later God said: “The Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah when I stretch out my hand against Egypt.” (Ex. 7:5, NW) Though knowing his name, Pharaoh and the Egyptians did not know Jehovah as a God of action, and did not acknowledge him as of any practical force or consequence to be taken into account. But when he acted against them they knew him in a way heretofore unknown to them, just as the Hebrews came to know him in a way unknown or unexperienced by their forefathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Today haughty rulers of this world know the literal name Jehovah, but like Pharaoh and the Egyptians of old they deny knowing him as being of any consequence. At Armageddon they will know he is Jehovah, however. More than sixty times Ezekiel told backsliding Israel and other nations that they would know Jehovah. They certainly knew the literal name. Ezekiel’s warning back there applies to Christendom and other nations now. When Jesus was on earth he said to Jehovah: “I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world.” This was like the mission of Moses when he went to make God’s name Jehovah known to the oppressed Hebrews in Egypt. When Christ strikes at Armageddon he will again make manifest Jehovah’s name, in a way that will convince all that Jehovah is a God that “causes to be” in accord with his purposes.—Ezek. 6:7, 10, 13, 14, AS; John 17:6, NW.

In conclusion, consider a human illustration. A man may be known as a fighter. He may even be called a fighter. Yet he may seem very peaceful to you. You have not seen him fight. Then years later you see him angered by an evil deed and he bursts into action, fighting for right. Like others around you, you may have called him a fighter before, but now for the first time you really know him in a forceful way as a fighter. You see him make application of this name to himself, demonstrate it, live up to it. Now you know him in a way you had never known him before. So Jehovah God has many qualities as expressed by titles, and these qualities had been demonstrated to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They also knew the name Jehovah, but they never saw its inward meaning demonstrated as their descendants did when he delivered Israel from Egypt in fulfillment of the promised purpose concerning their offspring. The delivered nation really knew Jehovah as a God who “causes to be.”

Misrepresentation Misfires

● During a period of agitation on the proposed federation of the Central African territories of Nyasaland and Northern and Southern Rhodesia a two-day work stoppage was called by certain African political leaders. On a large farm where Jehovah’s witnesses have been holding meetings for many years, they were misrepresented to the new farm manager as being responsible for the work stoppage. In anger the farm manager ordered the witnesses to quit holding meetings on the farm because “you Watch Tower people are Communists and engage in politics”. The overseer of the local congregation called on the manager and with the help of the Watchtower publications was able to prove that Jehovah’s witnesses kept separate from all politics. As a result the farm manager placed a large building at their disposal for the holding of their meetings (they having previously met in the open) and said, “This is your church. I want you to come and teach the other people on the farm how to read and write as well as the truth from the Bible.”

Announcements

AWAKENING THOSE WHO SLEEP—Eph. 5:14, NW.

There is great need for all persons to be awake to the sign of the times. Bible prophecies are being fulfilled by events occurring in the earth during this generation. The mission of the Awake! magazine is to present information in the light of God’s Word that will provoke and stimulate thought on current affairs. With courage Awake! slices into the thick darkness of falsehood and misinformation that covers a great many subjects affecting the destiny of millions of people. It follows the precept that the truth is beneficial to all, and it endeavors to present the truth so that those who sleep under the burden of old-world propaganda may be awakened to the seriousness of these times. During October Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere will offer Awake! from house to house on a subscription basis of $1 a year (24 issues), with three booklets free. Why not subscribe?

WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING

Yearly, on October 1, the annual meeting of the members of the Pennsylvania Corporation, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, is held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This year October 1 falls on Thursday, on which day the meeting will be held at ten o’clock forenoon at Carnegie Library Building, Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Street, Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania. As usual a letter is going to each of the members of the corporation, notifying them of the meeting and sending them proxy forms. We would like to have all the proxies returned by the 20th of September, and each member should complete and return his proxy promptly whether he is going to be at the meeting personally or not. Those who are members of the corporation should expect to receive a letter of notice and should be certain that the Secretary’s Office has the proper address to which to mail the notice of the annual meeting.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of October 18: Flight to Safety with the New World Society, ¶1-15.

Week of October 25: Flight to Safety with the New World Society, ¶16-28; also, Posthaste “to the Mountains!” ¶1, 2.

Week of November 1: Posthaste “to the Mountains!” ¶3-18.

Check Your Memory

After reading this issue of “The Watchtower”, do you remember—

✔ In what way Jehovah justly visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children? P. 548, ¶3.

✔ Why a monastic vow of silence is incompatible with true Christianity? P. 552, ¶1.

✔ Why an Iowa court threw out a bequest to promote the dissemination of the Christian religion? P. 552, ¶4.

✔ Why a “Sunday religion” is counterfeit Christianity? P. 553, ¶2.

✔ Why it is improper to call religious leaders “Reverend,” “Father,” or “Rabbi”? P. 555, ¶3.

✔ Why this is both a time of peril and a time of opportunity? P. 556, ¶1.

✔ When the new system of things had its beginning in reality? P. 557, ¶4.

✔ What cue to flee was given Christians A.D. 66, so as to escape the destruction upon Jerusalem and Judea A.D. 70? P. 558, ¶8.

✔ What Christendom’s clergy hailed in 1919 as “the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth”? P. 562, ¶19.

✔ Since when the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” has been seen? P. 563, ¶23.

✔ What will mark the beginning of Armageddon? P. 564, ¶28.

✔ What are the “mountains” to which Jesus commanded his followers to flee at this time? P. 565, ¶1.

✔ What study aid was released at the close of the lecture “Flight to Safety with the New World Society”? P. 571, ¶18.

✔ Why the leading church building in Akrofuom, Gold Coast, West Africa, was enlarged and repainted? P. 572, ¶5.

✔ Why God told Moses that by his name Jehovah he was not known to Abraham, though Abraham did use the name Jehovah? P. 574, ¶5.

✔ When modern rulers, like Pharaoh of old, will be made to know that Jehovah is God? P. 575, ¶2.