The Watchtower — January 15, 1955

True Christians Defeat Persecution

FOR three and a half years Christ Jesus had served as Jehovah’s chief earthly representative. He had agreed at Jordan to do his Father’s will, and in spite of all the temptation and persecution that Satan and his agents could bring to bear against him Jesus did not swerve from his agreement one iota. On the last evening that he was with his disciples as a man he said to them: “In the world you will have tribulation, but cheer up! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33, NW) Cheer up while suffering persecution? Yes, because of the comforting and encouraging assurance that persecution can be defeated.

But why did Jehovah allow his beloved Son to suffer persecution? Yes, why should God allow any of his servants to be persecuted? Does he not love his servants? And is he not all-powerful? Then he must have some good reason. What is it? And since the facts indicate that many professed Christians have failed to defeat persecution, what does it take to defeat it?

God has given us the answers to these questions in his Word, the Bible, even as we should expect. Particularly to the point is the record found in the first two chapters of Job. Therein is recorded the conversation between Jehovah and Satan regarding God’s upright servant Job. True, Job was serving Jehovah, but what was his motive? God maintained that it was a love of righteousness; Satan maintained that it was a love of selfish gain. Take away the material rewards for right-doing, Satan contended, and Job would renounce God, yes, curse him to his face. Because this challenge involved Jehovah’s name and supremacy as well as the worthiness of his creatures to enjoy life, Jehovah accepted the challenge and gave Satan free rein with Job, short of taking his life. The outcome is well known to all familiar with the Scriptures. Though Job wondered time and again why God permitted him thus to suffer, at no time did Job charge God with wrong but, rather, expressed his supreme confidence in him: “Lo! he may slay me, yet for him will I wait.”—Job 13:15, Ro.

Not that Job was the first thus to keep integrity but, rather, that in his case we have the issue highlighted and pinpointed, as it were. The very fact that Jehovah called Job’s integrity-keeping course to Satan’s attention indicates that the issue had previously been raised; and so it had, in the garden of Eden when Satan succeeded in turning aside the first human pair. That success inspired Satan to think that he could turn aside all God’s intelligent creatures. To prove Satan false God permitted Satan to continue his nefarious course.

The apostles and early disciples of Jesus defeated persecution even as he had done. Their unequivocal stand was: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” With the stoning of Stephen violent persecution broke out against the Christian congregation at Jerusalem, scattering all save the apostles. But far from being overwhelmed by such persecution, “those who had been scattered went through the land declaring the good news of the word.” Jesus had told them to rejoice if persecuted, and the record shows that they did just that.—Acts 5:29, 41; 8:1, 2, 4, NW; Matt. 5:11, 12.

And what violent persecution the apostle Paul defeated! He was repeatedly imprisoned, and “by Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,” and left for dead. In spite of it all he kept on preaching. (2 Cor. 11:23-25, NW) Nor have examples of true Christians defeating persecution been wanting down through the years. Whether forced underground by pagan emperors or by “Christian” swords of the Roman church they refused to compromise but held fast to their integrity, continuing to “preach the word.”—2 Tim. 4:2.

Jesus had forewarned, “in the world you will have tribulation,” and Paul, in his second letter to the young minister Timothy, wrote: “All those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.” (2 Tim. 3:12, NW) What about our day? Are Christians in this mid-twentieth century suffering like persecution and, if so, are they defeating it? How? For answers to these questions see the next succeeding article.

Defeating Red Persecution Today

Why has Jehovah permitted his servants to suffer violence from the time of Abel down to our day? Into what compromising situations has persecution of professed Christians forced many? Is it possible to keep integrity behind the Iron Curtain? What does it take to defeat persecution?

IT SHOULD not surprise us to find Christians suffering persecution in this twentieth century. Why not? Because in spite of all its claims to Christian civilization the fact remains that Satan is still the “god of this system of things.” He still walks about “like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.” And full of wrath, he wages war on those “who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.”—2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:17, NW.

Besides, are there not still with us religious leaders whose hatred of the light—because it exposes the errors of their teachings and their selfish practices—and whose envy of the prosperity of Jehovah’s servants blind them to the justice of freedom of worship? And are there not still oppressive political powers, totalitarian governments, who resent the Christian’s giving his allegiance to Jehovah God and their being told that they will be replaced by God’s kingdom? Yes, there certainly are, and these and others of like selfish mind combine to bring persecution upon Jehovah’s servants today even as did their counterparts in the days of Jeremiah, Christ Jesus and the apostles.

Of course, we can avoid persecution by compromising. Shortly after World War II a United States official interviewed many of the clergy in Germany endeavoring to ascertain their justification for co-operating with Hitler and his Nazis. In answer to their excuses he reminded them of the fearless course taken by Christ Jesus. Replied one bishop: “Yes, but look what they did to him!”

Organized religion likewise found it convenient to compromise in Japan in connection with the worship of the emperor cult. Although Shinto was the state religion they blithely presumed to believe that it was purely a political matter and that therefore Christians could take part in such rites. How one could bow down to the emperor without bowing down to him as a descendant of the gods when his political office was based on his religious claims, was a question that did not seem to bother their religious consciences.

In Russia, as soon as the avowedly godless government showed a little favor to organized religion by appointing a churchman to an official position, back in 1942, “churchmen vied with one another in sending cordial messages to Stalin.”—Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1954.

In East Germany organized religion gave such support to the Communists’ peace propaganda, “even though the movement took on a political and strictly secular character,” that it was easy to identify Jehovah’s witnesses by their refusing to have anything to do with it.

In Poland some 2,000 Catholic priests at mass meetings urged all priests to join the Communists’ National Front, and in a memorandum dated May 8, 1953, the bishops of Poland admitted having leaned over backward in supporting Communists’ policies even when such were contrary to church interests saying: “We are seeking a positive solution, which would benefit both the Church and the State. Nothing is farther from our minds than to introduce dissension.”

But to avoid persecution by compromising is being lukewarm, and Christ warns that all lukewarm ones he will vomit out of his mouth.—Rev. 3:16, NW.

PERSECUTION CAN BE DEFEATED!

In striking contrast with all such compromising is the course of action taken by Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the world. The fearless record they made in Nazi Germany, where 10,000 entered the concentration camps and 8,000 returned from them, is well known to all. They lived to see the end of their tormentors. And in Canada, where the work was banned during the greater part of World War II, the end of the ban saw twice as many witnesses as there were when the ban was first imposed. Certainly that was defeating persecution!

In French Equatorial Africa two natives came in touch with the Kingdom message and began preaching to others about Jehovah. The government refused to allow either missionaries or printed literature to enter the country. Yet, in spite of this ban and much persecution, in six years those two ministers increased to 666 in April of 1954; an increase all the more remarkable in view of racial and language barriers.

At the time the Dominican Republic proscribed the work of Jehovah’s witnesses, back in 1949, they had a peak of 274. Though many were imprisoned, the witnesses there have not compromised but have fearlessly kept on preaching underground. As a result, in 1954 a peak of 371 took part in the preaching work, this amounting to an average yearly increase of seven per cent. No question about their defeating persecution.

In 1950 upward of 20,000 witnesses were regularly preaching the good news in Eastern Germany when the Communists banned the work and took into custody all the brothers serving at the headquarters office at Magdeburg, the traveling representatives and the local overseers. In all, more than 2,000 were arrested and at the present time there are 1,283 in prisons. In spite of the increased difficulties of preaching under ban, the threat of imprisonment being always present, their ranks have again filled in so that today there are again upward of 20,000 active witnesses in Eastern Germany. Many are the expressions of joy coming from the witnesses in Eastern Germany, both from those inside and those outside prisons.

The fearless course of Jehovah’s witnesses in Eastern Germany arouses the admiration of many. For example, after the New World society conventions in 1953 the house-to-house activity was stressed in Eastern Germany. In one congregation twenty took part in this work, completely covering their town. Two of them, while engaged in this campaign, happened to call upon the mayor. Asked if they were Jehovah’s witnesses, they countered by asking who he thought Jehovah’s witnesses were. The mayor then frankly stated: “I know that you are, but you do not need to be timid. I marvel at your zeal and courage.” The two witnesses were able to give good testimony regarding their beliefs and work and made arrangements to call further on him. Many such experiences could be related showing how Jehovah’s witnesses are defeating persecution in Eastern Germany.

In Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Yugoslavia, where the work of Jehovah’s witnesses has been banned for years, we see a like defeating of persecution. In 1946 there were 11,131 Christian witnesses of Jehovah active in those lands; in 1950 their numbers had increased to 28,183, and in 1954 there were how many? Almost four times as many as in 1946, that is, 42,767.

DEFEATING PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA

But perhaps of greatest interest is the record of Jehovah’s witnesses’ defeating persecution in Russia. In 1946 there were 6,000 witnesses in Russia; in 1949 there were 10,000. How did they get there? Some became witnesses because of having been witnessed to while serving with the Russian army in Germany, others because of meeting Jehovah’s witnesses in German prisons and concentration camps. Most of them, however, came to be within Russia because of Russia’s taking over the Baltic States and parts of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

However, to what extent they were defeating persecution was not known, due to the effectiveness of the Iron Curtain, and so year after year since then the witnesses of Jehovah in other parts of the world looked in vain in their annual Yearbook for reports regarding the witness in Russia. In 1951 the president of the Watch Tower Society met a radioman in Vienna, Austria, who had been a prisoner in Russia and who had met many witnesses of Jehovah while in prison. In December, 1953, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, who had been sent to a Russian prison camp in 1948 because of having witnessed to two Russian soldiers, was released on account of ill health, being over sixty years of age. He told of his witnessing to the Russians while at the camp and of meeting some witnesses there who were overjoyed to meet him.

Then, in February, 1954, several articles appeared in The Observer, London, England, on conditions in Russian work camps, written by a German journalist, Frau Brigette Gerland, who had just recently been released from one of them. She had been arrested in 1946 in Eastern Germany and sentenced to seven years at forced labor in Communist prison camps. Eventually she was sent to Vorkuta, capital of Arctic Russia, where there are some half million prisoners.

She gave a fine report of the prisoners at Vorkuta. Among those she described were “the believers, who, refusing to work for the state on grounds of conscience, had, after years of bitter struggle, forced the camp administration to respect their scruples and so employed them only in work that was for their fellow prisoners. Their success proved that resistance was possible within the camp.”

She made special mention of one woman believer, a trained technician who had once been a member of the Communist Youth movement but was not contented. Accidentally stumbling across a “New Testament,” she was converted thereby to Christianity. At her job in a factory she met a young woman who believed in the gospel and who introduced her to others that likewise did. The two young women abandoned their jobs and went to Central Asia, Siberia, where they worked in a hospital and preached the Bible. The secret police heard of their activity and sentenced them to fifteen years of hard labor for religious agitation. Says Frau Gerland regarding them: “The story of their conversion [preaching activity] and arrest is typical of the fate of hundreds whom I met and of thousands of others, and it is a story of a movement that is still alive outside the camps.”

In reply to an inquiry regarding Jehovah’s witnesses in Russia, Frau Gerland replied: “I met a lot of them in the Arctic camps. Most of them had been Western Ukrainians [formerly Polish] or people of the Baltic States, but there were among them also Russians and other Soviet peoples, even Tartars and Armenians. I think that in the camp district of Vorkuta alone there must have been more than two thousand, maybe even three thousand. They have been very kind and helpful people and all the prisoners liked them. By the camp chiefs they were not bothered because of their beliefs.”

The foregoing record of Jehovah’s witnesses’ defeating persecution in Russia calls to mind the confidence expressed regarding them in the 1950 Yearbook, that, “regardless of where they are, they continue to preach the good news. Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere will offer prayers to Jehovah to the end that he will bless and guide and direct these faithful brothers that they too may have a share in the vindication of Jehovah’s name by maintaining integrity despite the distressing times they endure. Their outstanding faith is a stimulus and inspiration to all of Jehovah’s witnesses, for they are faithfully continuing in the service of Jehovah.”

And what does it take to defeat such persecution today? First of all, knowledge. Without knowledge of Jehovah and his attributes, purposes and will for them and why he permits them to suffer they could not have resisted the Red terror. And that knowledge must result in a living faith, for one ‘can have strength for all things’ if he has faith, for it all is “according to your faith.” And it also takes hope, for hope is to the Christian what an anchor is to a ship and a helmet to a soldier, namely, a protection in time of danger.—Phil. 4:13; Matt. 9:29; Heb. 6:19; Eph. 6:17, NW.

To defeat persecution also requires Jehovah’s holy spirit, for it cannot be accomplished by human might or power. (Zech. 4:6) And, above all, it requires love, for without love we are nothing. Besides, “there is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside.” (1 John 4:18, NW) Yes, true Christians can and do defeat persecution even as is demonstrated by the witnesses of Jehovah throughout the world.

[Picture on page 37]

Bowing to whatever is currently expedient

Organized Religion

Why Many Church Pews Are Empty

FOR a month in a certain California newspaper appeared the following advertisement: “WANTED men, women and children to occupy slightly used pews, Sunday morning, 10 to 12, at Armona Methodist Church, corner of 14th Ave. and Hanford-Armona Hwy.” The following experience may throw some light on why the pews of this church were unoccupied Sundays.

“I attended this church for twenty-five years and each time a minister asked the question, Why are the churches failing? I would feel more convinced that something was wrong with the churches. A year and a half ago I asked the minister, who had placed the above advertisement in the paper, to explain Armageddon to me and also parts of Revelation. Both he and his wife, who is also an ordained minister, told me they did not know, nor were they interested in Revelation, as we were not supposed to know. I was also told that I would lose my mind if I studied with Jehovah’s witnesses, as they are the worst false witnesses in the world.

“I had been studying the Bible for a few months with a young witness of Jehovah who had called at my door and she assured me that I would not lose my mind if I kept studying with her. After four months I was baptized, and it is amazing the progress I have been able to make, starting at the age of fifty-four as a Bible illiterate. Now with the help of Jehovah I am able to preach from door to door and conduct Bible studies. At my very first door I obtained a subscription for The Watchtower. I feel that it has been worth every bit of the tests, criticisms, etc., that I have had to go through. Incidentally, the minister and his wife, who had told me I would lose my mind if I studied with Jehovah’s witnesses, had to leave their church because of friction. P. S. My mind actually has been much improved!”

No wonder church pews are empty! Why take the trouble to go to church if we are not supposed to understand the Bible? And if we are, it is apparent that we must look elsewhere than to the places of worship where such ministers hold forth.

Something Hard to Understand?

Do you find an occasional article in this magazine that seems a little deep for you, a little difficult to understand? Did you ever stop to think why that material is there? The apostle Paul stated the principle to the Hebrews: “For everyone that partakes of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” (Heb. 5:13, 14, NW) Thus the mature Christian must use his perceptive powers, must meditate upon and discuss difficult matters. So do not ignore an article because it is difficult, but take advantage of it to aid your progress toward spiritual maturity.

Is Your Best Good Enough?

THERE is a proverb that speaks of four things as never being satisfied, as never saying, “Enough.” Sometimes Jehovah’s witnesses, as they listen to congregation servants discuss field service, may think these servants could have been listed as a fifth class that never says, “Enough.” It may seem that they are never satisfied, as they urge better meeting attendance, more home Bible studies and increased door-to-door activity. But this is as it should be. To have servants who say “It is enough” before the work is finished would be disastrous to the congregation. Servants should encourage us to greater activity and urge us to improve our ministry, should keep us from becoming self-satisfied and overconfident. Remember, “let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall.”—1 Cor. 10:12, NW; Prov. 30:15, 16.

But you may say, “I’m doing my best now. How can I do more? Isn’t my best good enough?” It may be, it may not. Is your best the best possible for you? Does your best get better? Your best may be poor because you do not try to improve it. Should you not make an advance toward greater maturity so that your future best will be much better than your present best? Sometimes it is a question of Can we do better? but more often it is a question of Will we do better? Are we getting the most from the abilities we possess, or could our best be better if we applied ourselves more diligently? A doctor may have ability but be mediocre because he failed to apply himself at medical school and during his internship. He may do his best with the knowledge he has, but his patients die because he has not developed to the full the ability he has. His best is not good enough, since he could have made it much better. So it is with the minister engaged in spiritual healing. He has a certain amount of ability. Has he developed it by study, by regular meeting attendance, by participating in the training program for his improvement? Does his best measure up to the fullness of his ability? If through negligence or laziness we do not develop, and because of that our best is poor, it is not good enough.—Matt. 25:15.

To improve your best improve your love. We say we love Jehovah. Do we really love him? Real love is not mere sentimentality, but finds expression in action: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments.” Just as the body without the breath is dead, and faith without works is dead, so also love without works is dead. To show a lively love for Jehovah we must obey his commands, and his commands embrace everything we have, all we are: “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.” In answer to Jewish religionists Jesus quoted this from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. They knew the words well, for they were in the phylacteries or scripture-containing cases they tied on their arm and forehead, and they repeated the words in their morning and evening prayers. But Jesus told the people that it was not the ones merely saying “Master, Master” that would enter the kingdom of heaven, but those that did Jehovah’s will. So their hypocritical and repeated declarations of love for Jehovah were valueless when unsupported by obedience to Jehovah’s commands.—1 John 5:3; Mark 12:29, 30; Matt. 7:21, NW.

WITH WHOLE STRENGTH AND WHOLE MIND

We do not want to be two-faced like the hypocritical Pharisees. Can we say the words they quoted so much and mean them? Do we love Jehovah with our whole strength, whole mind, whole soul and whole heart? Remember, to love means to obey. Do we love him with our whole strength, which means using our physical energies in his service? In witnessing to others about the truth we might exhaust ourselves walking, knocking, talking, doing it at door after door for hour after hour. We would be loving Jehovah with our whole strength, but it would not be enough. It would be commendable physical zeal, as industrious as energetic ants that sluggards are told to consider. (Prov. 6:6) But more than physical strength is needed. Army ants, for example, march in columns, and in unusual circumstances sometimes go in circles, the head of the column swinging around and following the rear members. They march themselves to death, milling in this circle for days until they drop in their tracks. They use up their whole strength, but not very wisely. We should love Jehovah with our strength, showing zeal in his service. But to exhaust ourselves walking and knocking and talking is not enough. We must love with our whole mind also.

Jehovah gives certain commands for our minds. If our minds love Jehovah they will obey these instructions. Joshua was told to read to himself God’s law day and night. The righteous are to meditate in it day and night. Christians are told what to fill their minds with: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things.” Does your mind show it loves Jehovah by obediently considering these things continually and meditating in his Word day and night?—Phil. 4:8, NW; Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2.

Or is your mind cluttered with worldly thinking? Satan is sending out his propaganda to shape men’s minds to his purposes. It pours forth from newspapers and magazines, blares out of radios, flashes from television screens, and even saturates the comic books. Satan is seeking to brainwash all humanity with floods of propaganda, to drown godliness from men’s minds by his torrents of dirty water of demonic expressions. As a result, minds that turn from the old world to rely on Jehovah’s new world need a cleansing “with the bath of water by means of the word.” Has your mind taken this turn for the better? Then you must “quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over.” Does your mind resist Satan’s brainwashing, turning instead to a bath in truth waters that cleanses it of filth and lies? Has it obeyed the command to be made over and transformed, no longer being fashioned and shaped by worldly thinking? Satan and his system hate minds that think for themselves, that do not conform to the mass mind molded by propaganda. If a person thinks deeply he may be called names, such as “egghead.” But neither physical violence nor psychological warfare will cave in the mind that loves Jehovah, for there is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint.” Love enables us to overcome restraining fear and “have freeness of speech in the day of judgment.”—Eph. 5:26; Rom. 12:2; 1 John 4:18, 17, NW; Rev. 16:13, 14.

There must be freeness of speech of the right kind, not just glib wordiness. Jehovah commands our mind to be able to answer: “Always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.” Has our mind shown love for Jehovah by obeying this command, by absorbing the knowledge necessary to defend our beliefs and give strong reasons for the hope we have concerning the new world? Can we answer, not to our satisfaction, but to the questioner’s satisfaction? Have we applied our mind to the utmost in study so that we can handle the truth effectively, with no cause for shame at being unable to refute opposers? “Do your utmost to present yourself approved to God, a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright.” Does our mind serve up answers approved by God or shameful to us? Does our mind not only contain the words of truth but handle them rightly? A mind that really loves Jehovah will be so trained.—1 Pet. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:15, NW.

Of what good is it to use our whole strength going in the service if our mind cannot direct our tongue to say the right things when we get to the doors? Willingness or an untrained best is not good enough. Willingness to prove the trinity false is not enough, but the knowledge to show it false is also needed. When witnessing we do not want to be always walking from house to house, climbing stairs, knocking on doors, talking to people, and failing to convince. We want to walk, climb, knock, talk and succeed. We must train our mind to direct our tongue to defeat false doctrines, to show trinity false, immortal soul pagan, purgatory nonexistent, and to paint a glorious picture of the new world, to give hope and comfort. Can it do so? Does its best fall short of that? If so, its best is not good enough. Our mind’s best must become better, be improved, be trained by meditation and study and instruction so that the words it directs the tongue to utter will uproot entrenched traditional dogmas and overturn false reasonings and bring thoughts into conformity with Biblical truth. Our mind can do this if it obeys Jehovah’s commands concerning its training, and the mind that loves will obey.—2 Cor. 10:4, 5.

WITH WHOLE SOUL AND WHOLE HEART

One might use the greater part of his strength in Jehovah’s service, and effectively use a mind well trained in handling the word of truth, yet nullify all this by improper conduct from time to time. Such a person would not be loving Jehovah with his whole soul. “Soul” refers to one’s life, one’s conduct at all times. We must love Jehovah with our whole soul or life, not just a part of it. A Christian is never off duty from Christianity; it is a twenty-four-hours-a-day service. We must not only preach and attend meetings and study, but also conform to Jehovah’s moral laws and measure up to his principles in our everyday living. The apostle Paul was aware of this, and said: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” His preaching work would not save him from disapproval if he did not live a morally clean life at all times. There is a battle between the mind educated according to Jehovah’s law and the body of flesh with its inborn sinful tendencies and desires, and Paul browbeat his body to keep it enslaved to the divine law in his mind. The figurative garments that identify us as Jehovah’s witnesses cannot be set aside while we temporarily clothe ourselves with the works of worldly immorality. Our love is not like a clerical garment that can be laid aside while the wearer dons civilian clothes to go on a fleshly spree. That would not be loving Jehovah with our whole soul, with our whole life.—1 Cor. 9:27, NW; Rom. 7:15-25.

Certainly this would seem to cover everything, but it does not. In addition to loving Jehovah with our whole strength and whole mind and whole soul, we must also love him with our whole heart. The heart refers figuratively to feelings or affections, and is called the seat of motive, the source that motivates us to act one way or another. And since love is expressed by action, since it impels us to act and is a strong motive for acting in certain ways, the heart symbolizes the seat of love. So to love Jehovah with the whole heart means to obey him out of motives of love, love for him or for our fellow man. One might use strength and mind and conduct himself daily as Jehovah decrees, but do it all out of selfishness. That would not be acceptable. Service must be from the heart, done out of love and with a spirit of joy and cheerfulness. “Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”—2 Cor. 9:7, NW.

Just as love without works is dead, so works without love are dead. Paul said that if he spoke in tongues of men and angels it would not amount to anything if he did not have love. If he prophesied and had all knowledge and understanding and faith sufficient to transplant mountains but had no love, it would be as nothing. If he gave all his belongings to feed others, spent his body in the service, or handed it over to persecutors for destruction, yet lacked love, he would have no profit at all. Love must motivate our service.—1 Cor. 13:1-3.

Again it is asked, Do we really love Jehovah? With whole strength, whole mind, whole soul, whole heart? Does service have first call on our strength? Are our minds filled with scriptures? If they are in the Bible, why are they not in our minds? Too much material? Perhaps. Too little study? More likely. Does our everyday living reflect our love for Jehovah? And is it from the heart? The requirements are heavy when carefully analyzed, are they not? Even our best is not always good enough, and we must improve. For example, in 1918, when Christ came to the temple, the anointed on earth were trying to do their best, but it was not good enough. Why, the Bible even says that if the tribulation of Armageddon had come then, no flesh would have been saved! But because the anointed were sincerely trying to do the best they knew how, Jehovah extended mercy, corrected them, purged them of wrong ideas, and allowed time for them to improve their service so that it would be acceptable. Their best had to become better before he could accept it.—Matt. 24:22.

So always do your best, and always try to make it better. Appreciate servants that encourage you to do more, to do better, rather than lull you into a false feeling of security by saying you are doing enough now and should be satisfied with that. Be diligent to make your present best better, for there is room for improvement until we become perfect, and full and complete perfection in Jehovah’s sight will not come to earth’s inhabitants until the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign. Then our best will always be good enough.

Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Part 2—Small Beginnings (1879-1889)

IN THE year 1879 it became evident which of the many early voices announcing Christ’s second coming were being chosen by Jehovah to be united in action as his witnesses. Now, 75 years later, it clearly appears that in those early days Jehovah’s hand was upon the small Pittsburgh (Pa.) Bible group under C. T. Russell’s chairmanship. For the eight years prior to 1879 these “layman” students of the Bible had gained much experience as to right Christian doctrine, prophetic time, and in preaching to the public as well as in printing their new-found truths. They were tested, too, as to their loyalty to the Bible on the issue of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus, even though it meant severing of company with former religious affiliates.

By 1879 they had become sure that Christ’s second coming would begin his invisible presence; that a hard time of world distress was ahead; that thereafter would follow a millennium—the thousand-year reign of Jehovah’s Christ, to bring about restoration (restitution) of paradise conditions on earth with everlasting life for men of good will from all nations; and that the glad tidings of such “restitution” blessings should be heralded the world over. Their field experiences taught them that, as people soon forgot sermons and lectures they heard, it was advisable to add an educational service with the aid of books, pamphlets and magazines. They also came to realize that it was necessary for them to become better equipped to do their own writing, printing and publishing instead of leaving these operations to other so-called “Bible groups.” Those policy-forming experiences have influenced the Society of Jehovah’s witnesses ever since.

Having now withdrawn their editorial and financial support from the Rochester group’s monthly, The Herald of the Morning, the Pittsburgh Bible class decided to embark upon a great project, that of publishing for the first time their own monthly magazine. July 1, 1879, saw release of the first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. Soon 6,000 copies had been distributed.a Class chairman C. T. Russell was chosen to be the editor, with five other mature Bible students serving as regular contributors. The new journal’s first words were—

“This is the first number of the first volume of ‘ZION’S WATCH TOWER,’ and it may not be amiss to state the object of its publication. That we are living ‘in the last days’—‘the day of the Lord’—‘the end’ of the Gospel age, and consequently, in the dawn of the ‘new’ age, are facts not only discernible by the close student of the Word, led by the spirit, but the outward signs recognizable by the world bear the same testimony, and we are desirous that the ‘household of faith’ be fully awake to the fact.”—Page 1.

Here, then, we have the story of the birth of The Watchtower, which since its commencement has been regularly issued to this day. In 1892 it was changed from a monthly to a semimonthly, to keep pace with the ever-expanding flow of new Scriptural material. The record of its circulation is most interesting. From 6,000 copies in 1879, by 1904b there were 25,000 copies regularly printed; and by 1949 the phenomenal peak of 500,000 copies per issue had been reached. But that is not all; by 1955 the world-wide circulation in forty languages had skyrocketed to 1,950,000 copies for every issue. The long, faithful record in the publishing of the Watchtower magazine itself further bears testimony of the fact that Jehovah had chosen the small Pittsburgh group to start a grand publishing work more than seventy-five years ago. Truly now for many decades this journal has proved to be a channel of spiritual communication that is singular and divinely blessed.c

Russell having spent the years 1877 and 1878 largely in preaching afield, zealously going from city to city, and also by this time having closed out most of his previously successful business interests, which had netted him more than a quarter of a million dollars, it became necessary, in 1879, for him permanently to locate in Pittsburgh.d Furthermore, in that year he was married to Maria Frances Ackley, who had become a colaborer and a contributor of articles to the Watch Tower magazine. They came to have no children. Nearly eighteen years later, in 1897, due to Watch Tower Society members’ objecting to a woman’s teaching and being a member of the board of directors contrary to 1 Timothy 2:12, Russell and his wife disagreed about the management of the journal, Zion’s Watch Tower. Thereupon she voluntarily separated herself from him after they had arranged a financial settlement to enable her to live apart from the Society’s headquarters. This agreed separation, however, had absolutely nothing to do with a much later divorce proceeding (1906), charging “adultery,” as clerical enemies of Russell slanderously tried and still try to maintain. The court records plainly fix the lie to all those who falsely accused and even now accuse Russell as having been an immoral man, divorced for adultery.e

During 1879 and 1880 efforts were made to organize small congregations of interested ones, that is, Watch Tower subscribers. More than thirty congregations had come into existence in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, Ohio and Michigan. In 1880 Russell visited these congregations, spending at least six hours of study with each group.f A special congregational songbook had been prepared, called “Songs of the Bride.”g By this time it had become understood from the Scriptures that the Lord’s “evening meal” should be celebrated as a Memorial only once each year on Abib (Nisan) 14, the Passover date.h This was quite contrary to the unscriptural custom of churches that held the “Lord’s Supper” or “Mass” many times each year. In 1879 and for a few years thereafter all the interested associates traveled to Pittsburgh to meet with this first and largest of the early congregations to celebrate jointly what they called the “Anniversary Supper.” At the same time they conducted a small convention for Christian study and fellowship, which annually strengthened the growing association.i

These early congregations were called by the name in the Greek Scriptures, “ecclesias,” and sometimes “classes.” They were organized on the congregational and presbyterian style of church government. All members democratically voted on certain matters of business and also elected a board of seven or more “elders” (presbyters) who directed the general governmental interests of the congregation. (The first-century theocratic form of congregational control was not restored to Jehovah’s witnesses until 1938.) These ecclesias were loosely tied together merely by accepting the leadership and pattern of activity of the Pittsburgh congregation where Russell and other Watch Tower writers were elders. The Pittsburgh (“Allegheny”) congregation held meetings on Sundays from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. to hear Bible lectures; on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 “Cottage Meetings” for prayer and personal testimony were held, and Friday evenings “Dawn Circles” were conducted for Bible study.j

During 1880 Russell and his helpers were further busy in writing several tracts, each being numbered. After 1891 this tract series first regularly marked “Bible Students Tracts” also were called Old Theology Quarterly. They were provided free for general public distribution by Watch Tower readers to expose fallacies of church doctrines.k Soon it was recognized that there was need for organizing a definite society to guide and direct the growing publishing work. So early in 1881 ZION’S WATCH TOWER TRACT SOCIETY was established as an unincorporated administrative agency with Russell as its manager. Russell and others liberally contributed $35,000 to get this tract-publishing organization going.l They then moved from their 1879 headquarters located at 101 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, to new and larger premises in the 40 Federal Street building from where he had formerly directed his early chain-store enterprise. Through this new arrangement began to flow millions of Bible tracts and the printing of additional Watch Tower issues put out as pamphlets. By 1881 Russell had completed writing the large pamphlets entitled Tabernacle Teachings and Food for Thinking Christians, the latter being a 162-page booklet which was printed and distributed as a special edition of the Watch Tower for September, 1881.a

Russell, still under thirty years of age, and his enthusiastic associates were eager to get their message spread broadcast as quickly as possible. This is manifest in the following 1881 Watch Tower announcement, especially so when one recalls that then there were only about a hundred active associates with the movement:

“Wanted 1,000 Preachers. A vast field is open for the employment of the time and talent of every consecrated man and woman to whom the Lord has committed a knowledge of His truth. . . . To those so situated that they can give one-half or more of their time exclusively to the work of the Lord, we have a plan to suggest. . . . viz: That you go forth into large or small cities, according to your ability, as Colporteurs or Evangelists, seek to find in every place the earnest Christians, . . . As few could afford to travel, pay their board and clothe themselves without some income, we propose to furnish the TRACTS and DAY DAWNS [bound books] free, and to allow any such person to take subscriptions for the WATCH TOWER, using the money obtained from both of these sources, . . . in defraying necessary expenses.”b

Eventually by 1888 fifty had volunteered for this full-time service toward the “1,000” eagerly desired. They were requested to submit weekly field reports to the Pittsburgh office.c So here we have the beginning of the full-time pioneer (colporteur) service which in the course of years many thousands have joined as a valiant band of blessed Kingdom preachers. In fact, by 1954, the world over, there were 17,265 of these full-time educators.

An effort also was made to get all Watch Tower readers and especially all congregation-meeting attenders to commence a share in the field witness work by distributing tracts to their friends and neighbors. Note the following early instructions of 1881 as to field preaching:

“To those who would go forth to use either much or little of their time, we would say: It is a matter of great importance not only to teach the right thing but to present truth in a proper manner and order. . . . Present first the Restitution and the beauties of God’s unfolding plan; then show that all this awaits and is dependent on the King and kingdom coming. Then, when your hearer or reader has come to love the King and to long for his kingdom, may be quite soon enough to present the manner of His coming—that it is not Jesus the man but Jesus a spiritual [creature], who comes, unseen, . . . And lastly present ‘the time,’ that now we are ‘in the days of the Son of Man.’”d

In this way gradually hundreds of Christian witnesses were nursed and trained to have a share in the field service. Here again we have the glimpse of a publishing work destined to swell like a mighty flood in our time, to cover the entire earth with a host of over half a million witnesses of Jehovah regularly going from house to house spreading Bibles, tracts and other Bible study aids.

But even today’s swift-moving mass communication seems foreshadowed in what young Watch Tower Society workers shared in projecting in 1881 for serving populous centers with the newly found Bible truths. Those early beginnings included unusual methods. Two examples:

“The manager of the principal paper of New York City agreed to send a copy of the tract [Food for Thinking Christians] to their entire list of subscribers, and several other papers of Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and New York favored us similarly in the work, for which they have our sincere thanks. [We omit the names of the papers only to save them inconvenience from applications from others. They say they have never before granted such privileges to any.]”e

Additionally, for this far-flung task

“from an apparently small beginning, the tract work has spread to the immense proportions of 1,200,000 copies, . . . employed hundreds of men, women and boys in preparation and distribution, nearly 500 boys being employed to distribute in London [England], and about 300 in New York—other cities in proportion. The distribution was made in the larger cities at the church doors on Sundays.”f

Also in 1881 two brothers were sent to Britain to augment spreading the work to Europe and they reported the distribution of 100,000 pamphlets in London and 65,000 in Scotland’s Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.g

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

God’s Love to the Rescue in Man’s Crisis

Any crises is a time for anxiety. In a sickness that might prove fatal the physician intently watches the course of the sickness to the crises, looking then for a decisive change of symptoms to determine by it whether certain death will follow or there will be a recovery to life, Thankful he is if the outward manifestations of the sickness are for a restoration to good health and a prolongation of precious life. You may not be sick physically, but are you sick spiritually? Have you reached the crises, and do the signs in your course of life mark you for a hopeless, lasting death? With the developments in mankind’s history as they are, you, yes, all of us, have reached the turning point. Which way shall we go? The message of this article is to help all its readers to pass the crisis successfully so as to have the brightest hopes for a happy future in a better world. This good news has been heard by more than 427,000 persons in upward of 80 district conventions of Jehovah’s witnesses held world-wide in the summer and fall of 1954.

1. For the existence of what can man be glad, and why especially now?

MAN can be glad that there is such a thing as divine love, God’s love. Especially so now, for man has reached his crisis. That is, he is at a critical time and occasion. The world or system of things is going its way and where it will end is certain. For it there will be no turning. So the crisis is not with respect to this world. The question is not whether it will have a turn for the better or for the worse. Men in ignorance of God’s purpose and of what he has foretold anxiously hope for a turn for the world’s betterment and recovery, but the persons informed of God’s purpose and believing what he has foretold know that there is no hope for this world’s betterment and recovery. Its destruction soon is certain; its violent death in the worst kind of trouble imaginable is in the decree of the Supreme Power of the universe and is beyond recall. Divine love alone can save mankind from destruction.

2. For whom is there now a crisis, and why, and what is it high time to do?

² The crisis is with regard to man or mankind. The question is, Which way will the individual man go? This is where it is a crisis for you, for the word “crisis,” in the language from which it was taken, means “judgment” or “decision,” and now it is a time of decision for each individual. All mankind is at the turning point. Will it make the right turn? Neither all of mankind nor the majority of mankind will make the turn in the right direction. For that reason you cannot afford to follow them, though it may mean a hard decision for you. Yet you have reached the point of time when you must decide whether your personal state of affairs and your course of action must go on being what they are or must undergo some change or must end and something new, with a different goal and outcome, must be taken up by you. You are under pressure of both the times and circumstances to take action. That is why you have reached a crisis. The time of crisis will not go on indefinitely. It will end with consequences—with what kind for you? It is high time to make up your mind and act, if you want to avoid going where the world will end up.

3, 4. Why has the crisis been forced upon us, and with what crisis long ago does it correspond?

³ Why has the crisis been forced upon us? Is it because we have suddenly been hurled into the “Hydrogen Age” by the recent explosion of terrifying hydrogen bombs, and because worse bombs, the cobalt bomb and the nitrogen bomb, have come under discussion? Is it because atomic warfare, which would be the form World War III would take, means the destruction of civilization and imperils the very existence of humanity, according to the word of military and political leaders? No; for the mere fear of those terrible things does not in itself push man to the right decision.

⁴ The crisis existed before we were catapulted into the hydrogen age. The crisis is upon us because we have reached what God’s Word calls the “time of the end.” It is the “time of the end” for this old world, and it takes in both invisible things and visible things on earth. (Dan. 11:35; 12:4) Hence it corresponds with a crisis over four thousand years ago in the days of the forefather of the present human race, Noah, a faithful man who, by his course in life, “walked with God.” A world catastrophe worse than the bursting of countless hydrogen bombs came in his day. It was a deluge that covered the entire globe and completely wiped out the civilization of that time, because it was degraded and corrupt. Humanity was becoming more and more tainted by the invasion of disobedient spirit persons from the invisible heavens; violence was filling the earth; man’s badness had become great, every inclination of the thoughts of human hearts was only bad all the time; and men were hypocritically “calling on the name of Jehovah,” thus belittling the name of the one and only living, true God. (Gen. 4:26, NW) To correct the wrong ideas about the true God and to give the human race a righteous new start, Jehovah God brought on the global deluge, of which there are evidences in the earth even to this day. To preserve a nucleus or seed from which mankind could have a fresh start, Jehovah God ordered Noah to build an immense ark or chest. In this He preserved Noah and the seven members of his family and hundreds of specimens of the animal life of the earth, that they might fill the earth with their offspring after the flood had passed.—1 Pet. 3:20.

5. Because of the addition of what new thing is the situation today even worse than that of old?

⁵ Today, after four thousand years of existence of Noah’s descendants, the situation is even worse. The conditions in the earth are too well known to need our describing them here. Mankind in general may not know, appreciate or believe it, but now one new thing has been added and it helps to explain the reason for all this continual worsening of world conditions in spite of the League of Nations, the United Nations and all the other remedies that human society proposes and applies today. The added new thing is this: That the great originator of badness has been cast down, together with all the demons or spirit persons that he has turned to wickedness. All these have been cast down from a high and powerful position in the invisible heavens to the vicinity of our earth, where they are kept in custody for destruction in due time. This has taken place since A.D. 1914, the year that World War I began. For our warning the cry has rung out in heaven and has been written down in sacred Scripture: “On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:12, NW) Our day is the time of his great anger, because of the shortness of the period of time until he and his demons will be put completely out of action. So he is determined to concentrate into this short period all the wickedness and damage to earth’s occupants that he can. He knows his time is getting shorter all the while, but he tries to keep mankind in ignorance of this, for he schemes for their destruction to occur at the same time that he himself is crushed in the universal war of Armageddon. Hence “woe for the earth and for the sea.”

6. Because of what policy and what power of the Devil is mankind in danger of being all wiped out?

⁶ Not this world or system of things, therefore, but man, the human race, is at the crisis. They could easily all be wiped out in view of the terrible things ahead. As far as the Devil or Satan is concerned, if he could have his own way about it, they would all be wiped out with him and his demons. His insanely mad policy is, “Rule or ruin!” If he cannot rule mankind, then he will ruin it. He is not humane. He has no love for mankind. By his power over the open minds of worldly men he secretly induces them to plot their own destruction, not only by the perfecting of the hydrogen bomb and other deadly weapons of mass slaughter, but especially by their refusing to take the only way for human salvation, regardless of whether hydrogen bombs are dropped directly upon human targets or not. Man-made bombs can merely destroy the present life of men, but man’s refusal of the offer of God’s love for human salvation results in the loss of eternal life in happiness in a righteous new world.

7. By whom especially was this world’s destruction foretold nineteen centuries ago, and from whose prophecy did he himself make a quotation?

⁷ Persons properly instructed in the sacred Scriptures, “The Holy Bible,” know that the destruction of this world or system of things was foretold nineteen centuries ago by the greatest prophet ever on earth, Jesus, the Son of God. His many prophecies concerning it reached a high point when he said: “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. 24:21, 22, NW) Centuries earlier than that Jehovah’s prophet Daniel had foretold this, and Jesus quoted from Daniel’s prophecy in which he said concerning the “time of the end”: “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: . . . But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” In fulfillment of this prophecy we have increased understanding of the “time of the end” and its meaning.—Dan. 12:1, 4, AS.

8. How, even much earlier than that, had the end of this world been foretold?

⁸ But even farther back than Daniel, yes, even before the flood of Noah’s day, the end of this world or system of things had been foretold, for instance, by Enoch, another man that “walked with God.” In sacred Scripture we read: “Yes, the seventh man in line from Adam, Enoch, prophesied also regarding them, when he said: ‘Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.’” (Jude 14, 15, NW; Gen. 5:21-24; Heb. 11:5, 6) But Jehovah God himself was first to tell of the world’s end, away back there in the paradise of Eden when the first man took a condemned course of action and his Creator pronounced the judgment of suffering and death upon him. There, addressing the rebel spirit, who like a serpent had schemed to bring all this about, Jehovah God said: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15, NW) That bruising of the great Serpent of wickedness in the head means also the destruction of his world or system of things in our day by God’s beloved Son, who is specially the seed of God’s woman. So no hope remains for this world of which Satan is the god.

9. How does God answer the question as to whether any of the human race will have an opportunity to survive, to keep our race alive?

⁹ Not the world, but some of the race of mankind—can they be saved and recovered? That is the point in question to be decided in the present crisis. Will all mankind go down with Satan the Devil and his demons at the destruction of his world? Do any of the human race have an opportunity of survival, to perpetuate our race on this earth? Yes! said Jesus the greatest prophet of God. Yes! says God himself in these words: “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded. For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” (Isa. 45:12, 18, AS) Jehovah God will not permit the earth to be laid waste without a human inhabitant during the universal war of Armageddon.

10. With what words does Peter remind us that God’s love will preserve survivors?

¹⁰ The inspired writer, Peter, reminds us that Almighty God can keep humans alive through the end of this world or system of things, saying: “He did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people; Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt! But 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. 2:5, 9; 3:11-13, NW) God’s love will preserve survivors for this new world.

A LOVING GOD

11. Why may the expression “God’s love” be a strange one to the majority of mankind, but is his love a reality?

¹¹ “God’s love” may be a strange expression to the vast majority of mankind. Why? Because they do not know such a Being as a loving God, a supreme and almighty God who has love for his living creatures, and especially for man. The existence of evil and the permission of increasing wickedness have puzzled them and led them to wrong ideas about God, that is, if they believe there is even such a Person as God. The God-dishonoring teachings of scheming, selfish religious leaders have painted God in wrong colors and have pictured him as an unloving, unjust God, taking cruel delight in man’s death and revengefully arranging for sinful man to undergo untold agony of suffering for all time after his bodily death. To this day the religious systems of Christendom have not publicly renounced their unchristian teachings of a fiery purgatory and of a blazing hell of endless torture for human souls after the death of the body. And for those who believe only in the existence of unseen demons who are quick to harm a person if they are not appeased, the idea of a loving, supreme God is something they have never felt the comfort of before. In spite of that, God’s love is a provable reality.

12. Why is our defective condition today not to be charged to our Creator, and how is our existence today a sign of his love?

¹² All created things come from this only living and true God, who is like a rock foundation upon which all creation rests. The prophet Moses sang concerning him, saying: “I shall declare the name of Jehovah. Do you attribute greatness to our God! The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he. They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not his children, the defect is their own.” (Deut. 32:3-5, NW) If the Creator were unloving, mankind would not be here today after these thousands of years of their acting ruinously and not as children of his. Six thousand years ago he created the first man and woman in human perfection and put them inside the paradise of pleasure, a perfect garden land on earth. When they disobeyed their loving Creator and came under the penalty of death, Jehovah God could have blotted them out instantly before ever they had any children. In that way he could have prevented the coming into existence of a sinful race such as we are today; in which case, though, where would we be now? The defect in mankind today is not due to any unloving Creator, but, as God’s own written Word explains the mystery for us, “through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” We were all born from the sinner Adam into this defective, sinful condition.—Rom. 5:12, NW; Genesis, chapters 2 and 3.

13. (a) What other occasion did God have to blot out all mankind, but how has he since shown love? (b) Why has he sent out a message of reconciliation, and what does becoming reconciled mean?

¹³ Almighty God the Creator had another occasion in which he could have blotted out all mankind. That occasion was at the flood of Noah’s day. The flood was global, total, covering even the mountains by many cubits, piling up over earth for forty days, and not sinking down into basins and leaving the dry surfaces of today till an entire solar year had passed. But God spared eight human souls and many pairs of lower animal souls, so that today we have over 2,300,000,000 souls of mankind and much animal life on earth as a result. Although the overwhelming majority of mankind may not know him or love, worship and obey him but may even live as enemies of his, still the loving God Jehovah has made his sun to shine and his rain and snow to fall upon these defective human creatures. If anyone is entitled to command us, “Continue to love your enemies, to do good to those hating you, to bless those cursing you,” it is Jehovah God; and he has had his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to say this for Him in his sermon on the mountain in Palestine. (Luke 6:27, 28, NW; Matt. 5:1, 2, 44) Nineteen centuries ago God laid the foundation for these former enemies to become reconciled to him or be brought back into friendly relations with him again, and he sent out his ambassadors, the true followers of Jesus Christ, to say to us: “We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’” (2 Cor. 5:20, NW) When we become reconciled to Jehovah God it means for us far more than just to enjoy the natural blessings of the sun and rain and the growing things of the earth in common with the rest of mankind now; it means for us salvation to everlasting life in God’s new world.

14. Because of our present painful existence what do many erroneously think real salvation must be, but what if God’s purpose respecting pain and suffering?

¹⁴ In the new world of righteousness living as human creatures will cease to be mixed with pain. The inspired Christian writer, John, who had a glorious vision of that new world of new heavens and a new earth, said: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. . . . And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:1-4, NW) Because human existence is now filled with sorrow and pain; there are many who think that real salvation must be by an escape from all existence. They have formed the wrong idea that to get rid of sorrow, pain and suffering one must get rid of existence. Many suffering persons long for death to end it all, and those who believe in the transmigration of the soul long for the cycle of transmigrations of the soul to come to an end in a nirvana of nonexistence, an unconscious nothingness. Sinful man’s existence may now be unhappy and painful, but not all existence is unhappy and painful. The only living and true God, Jehovah, is declared to be “the happy God.” (1 Tim. 1:11, NW) Those who are now reconciled to him are the only truly happy people on earth today, and they are an illustration of God’s purpose to have all his creatures upon whom he confers everlasting life in the new world perfectly happy, with never a twinge of pain, sorrow or dying.

15. Why is going into nonexistence or annihilation not a salvation, and so what, then, is salvation from God?

¹⁵ The salvation from God is not an escape from existence, but is a rescue from death or nonexistence. Going into nonexistence is the punishment for wrongdoing against God, for God’s Word says: “The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, NW) Those who go into that nonexistent state should not flatter themselves with the thought that they are experiencing a salvation from life or existence. They are undergoing a punishment and are missing the eternal happiness of perfect life in God’s new world. Any animal or brute beast can die; so for mankind dying is nothing superior to the fate of beasts or animals. To quote the inspired wise man: “That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; and man hath no pre-eminence above the beasts: . . . All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” (Eccl. 3:19, 20, AS) Consequently, the salvation from God is a rescue or escape from this beastlike fate, a rescue from nonexistence or annihilation. God does not preserve the lives of his enemies or sinners in order to keep them unhappy and in pain. He preserves the lives of those who love him to make them enjoy complete happiness forever. It is written: “Jehovah preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.”—Ps. 145:20, AS.

16. From whom does the teaching of self-salvation come, what is his purpose in such teaching, and why may we properly indulge in a craving for life?

¹⁶ Man’s great adversary is Satan the Devil, and from him comes the teaching that our salvation comes from no outside God but depends upon our controlling our own minds and then in our own strength controlling our bodies through the mind. The adversary’s purpose in such a teaching is to have men refuse the only salvation that comes from Jehovah God. It does not belong to man to save himself in this crisis or at any other time. “Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah,” says Psalm 3:8 (AS). Living eternally in happiness is something no lower animal can attain. It is something that man can attain, but not through himself. The possibility of it comes from outside man, from Jehovah God. We may rightly crave or desire this salvation from God, and we may do so without suffering and without disappointment for indulging in such a craving or desire. By following God’s way, which he has revealed to us through Jesus Christ his Son, we may have such a craving for salvation satisfied by finally escaping from all suffering, old age and sorrow and attaining to an endless life without pain, imperfection, poverty, mental ignorance and confusion, and alienation from a loving, happy God. So let us not fool ourselves as to how life came, what is its purpose and why it is marked by pain and misery just now. Wrong ideas about life and its purpose are due to man’s not knowing about the one living and true God, with whom is the fountain or source of life. (Ps. 36:9) It is only the adversary Satan the Devil’s wish to have men ignorantly desire and choose for themselves the fate of the ungodly and the wicked. God’s invitation is: “You must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring, by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him, for he is your life and the length of your days.”—Deut. 30:19, 20, NW.

17, 18. (a) Choosing life means doing what? (b) What is the vital reason for God’s gift of everlasting life being offered “by Christ Jesus”?

¹⁷ In the present crisis the sane and reasonable person, the lover of what is right, will choose life, which means to choose the way that leads to it. Remember: “The gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” Life is worth accepting no matter by whom God chooses to offer it. So why get offended because it is offered by means of Christ Jesus? There is a vital reason for its being offered through him. The fall of the entire human race came about through the sin of our first parent Adam. The wages he earned for his unloving sin against God his Father was death, attended by imperfection, sorrow, pain, Devil-rule and alienation from God until he returned in death to the dust from which God had originally formed him in human perfection. His disobedient wife influenced him to sin, and from him and through her all the human race have had passed on down to them the condemnation of sin and death, with all the accompaniments of fear, suffering, unhappiness, war and strife, old age, loss and disappointment. Because he was created by God and received life from God, the Holy Scriptures speak of the perfect Adam in Eden as “the son of God.” (Luke 3:38) The fall of all of Adam’s descendants came about through him, the one man, by departing from the way of perfection and godly devotion. Hence it is possible for the rescue or liberation of all the willing ones of Adam’s descendants to be accomplished by means of another “son of God,” by giving his life as a perfect man for Adam’s descendants. Because no one who receives a brief existence as a man from Adam could give a perfect life in sacrifice for the human family, God sent his only-begotten Son from heaven to become a perfect man in the flesh on earth.

¹⁸ To take on human nature and become a real flesh-and-blood man in human perfection, this Son of God from heaven submitted to being born from a virtuous woman, a Jewish virgin, and then growing to full manhood at thirty years of age. He then undertook the course of sacrifice that God his Father marked out for him, by preaching that the kingdom of God is the only hope for mankind. This faithful preaching led to his being killed as a martyr or witness for Jehovah God, but he died sinless, without having departed from the way of God as man’s first father Adam had done in Eden. Hence God accepted the human life that his Son laid down as a sacrifice in behalf of dying mankind. He also rewarded his faithful, self-sacrificing Son by resurrecting him from the dead to immortal life in the heavens to be the King in the promised kingdom of God over mankind. This is why Jesus Christ is so important in God’s arrangements. This is why we must come to God through him as God’s Chief Officer. This is why God’s gift of eternal life to humankind is “by Christ Jesus our Lord.”

19. (a) Why is there perfect justice, and also economy, in this arrangement? (b) By the choice of his only-begotten Son for this purpose what does God express?

¹⁹ In this arrangement by God there is perfect justice, one perfect human life being given in exchange for the perfect human life that was forfeited by sin in Eden. In this arrangement, too, there is economy or an avoidance of waste, since death, condemnation, imperfection and suffering came by the one man Adam upon all the human family and now the opportunity for everlasting life comes to all the willing ones of Adam’s family through the perfect sacrificed One, Jesus Christ. Therefore God says concerning him: “This is my Son, the Beloved, whom I have approved; listen to him.” (Matt. 17:5, NW; 1 Pet. 1:17) So after sanely considering the matter, it should not offend anyone to learn that God has made the eternal welfare of all mankind dependent upon this one individual and has wrapped up everything in this faithful and worthy Son. What is at fault with this divine arrangement? Where is it incapable of producing the desired results? Why should Almighty God have to call upon many to help, in order to allow you to put your personal religious favorite into the picture? The numerous religions may have each its own religious favorite, so that to please them all it would be necessary to establish a pantheon or temple of all gods. But the only living and true God has his own choice, and it is the proper one, his only-begotten Son, whom he gave in sacrifice. That act expresses love, the highest degree of divine love, to give his most beloved Son to die at the hands of sinners, for those who are in no way deserving of it but who were condemned sinners.

20. Instead of offending us, what should such a love do to us, and what does spurning it signify?

²⁰ Is such an unusual love a thing to get offended at? The unselfishness of such a love recommends itself to us. As one beneficiary of that divine love expressed it: “Christ, while we were yet weak, died for ungodly men at the appointed time. For hardly will anyone die for a righteous man; indeed, for the good man, perhaps, someone even dares to die. But God recommends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:6-11, NW) It really signifies the highest degree of ingratitude to spurn and turn back a love that is recommended to us in such a way.

21. Why should our love be a response to God?

²¹ What man on earth would surrender a dear son to suffer shamefully and die most painfully that those to whom he owes nothing but who deserve destruction may be benefited? God displayed that marvelous degree of love for us humans. To this effect it stands written: “God is love. By this the love of God was made manifest in our case, because God sent forth his only-begotten Son into the world that we might gain life through him. The love is in this respect, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent forth his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:8-10, NW) How could we keep from loving a God like that? When we do learn to love this unselfish God, we are obliged to say, as did the Christian apostle John: “As for us, we love, because he first loved us.”—1 John 4:19, NW.

RESCUE BY MEANS OF A GOOD GOVERNMENT

22. In the love of good government whom are we like and what has he done toward such good government?

²² When righteously disposed persons come to know and love the only living and true God, they joyfully come to realize that his love and their love are alike in one special respect, and that is in the love of good government for mankind. In the love of such a righteous, perfect government we have longed for it but could do nothing about it. The forces for wicked, selfish, oppressive government have been and are too powerful for us. Of ourselves we are unable to fight the Devil and his crowd. However, Jehovah God is the Source of all rightful government, for he is the Sovereign Superior of all the universe. He has not approved of the unrighteous political rulerships of this world, and it is not his purpose to allow them to rule mankind to time indefinite. In his love for good government in every part of his universe he has promised and arranged for a good government over mankind, with the best ruler possible, his only-begotten Son. Since the government comes from him and will be run by his enthroned Son in the heavens, it is called “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of the heavens.” In that government the anointed King Jesus Christ will serve God, and Jehovah points to him in his prophecies and says: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. . . . He will not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.”—Isa. 42:1-4, AS, margin.

23. On earth what did God’s chosen Servant do to recommend that government?

²³ When this chosen Servant was on earth as the man Jesus Christ he showed his devotion to this government by preaching the kingdom of God and urging every willing one to give it the first place in his life. He performed many miraculous works of healing upon the ailing people, even raising the dead to life, in order to show that he was the one whom God has chosen for this kingdom and also to show the mighty works that the kingdom would do for its obedient subjects. “That it might be fulfilled what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, who said: ‘Look! my servant whom I chose, my beloved, whom my soul approved! I will put my spirit upon him, and he will make clear to the nations what judgment is. . . . Indeed, in his name nations will hope.’”—Matt. 12:17-21, NW.

24, 25. (a) Like what caretaker does God want his anointed King to be, and how did Jesus prove himself like that? (b) With what kind of government, then, is it that God’s love now comes to man’s rescue?

²⁴ Jehovah God, in favor of good government, wants the King whom he anoints to that position by his holy spirit to be to his human subjects just as a tender shepherd is to his sheep. Jesus Christ proved to have those shepherdlike qualities. The right kind of shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. Just like that, Jesus as a perfect man laid down his human life for his sheep, his followers. He knew what was required of him as a Shepherd-King, for he said: “I am the right shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I surrender my soul in behalf of the sheep. And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I surrender my soul, . . . The commandment on this I received from my Father.” (John 10:14-18, NW) And Jesus did surrender his soul or life as a perfect human for the sake of his sheep, not only for that little flock of sheep who will be resurrected from the dead to rule with him in the heavenly kingdom, but also for all his “other sheep” who will become the loyal, obedient subjects of his kingdom on the earth.

²⁵ He could have no greater love for his sheep. To quote his own words: “No one has love greater than this, that someone should surrender his soul in behalf of his friends.” (John 15:13, NW) If you are his friend, you can say with his apostle Paul: “The Son of God who loved me and handed himself over for me.” (Gal. 2:20, NW) Jehovah God loves that kind of ruler. That is why the prophecy addressed to this Son of God said: “The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of straight principles. You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. That is why God, your God, anointed you with the oil of great joy more so than your partners.” (Heb. 1:8, 9, NW) It is with this kingdom by his Son, this theocratic government which loves right and truth, that God’s love now comes to man’s rescue. This is the only government that God now recognizes and authorizes to rule over mankind.

26. How can it be that love is a reason why God will destroy this old world?

²⁶ God’s love for a righteous government and a faithful ruler is a reason why Jehovah God will destroy this old world with its wicked governments. His destroying of the doers of wickedness is an expression of love—a love of straight principles, a love of those worthy to live on earth in peace and prosperity without oppression. There are things that God hates, and the existence of those things in this old world makes certain that it must go. We read: “There are six things which Jehovah hateth; yea, seven which are an abomination unto him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that deviseth wicked purposes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” (Prov. 6:16-19, AS) God does not approve of our loving what he hates, and his commandment to us is: “Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:15-17, NW.

27. Why does love bring the greatest trouble of all at Armageddon, and what will it do for the unselfish lovers of the new world there?

²⁷ Viewed from the right standpoint, the passing away of this world or system of things at Armageddon in the greatest time of trouble of all history is an expression of God’s love, no matter how terrible the trouble he will bring by which to destroy it. It will take all that trouble to wipe out not only all the ungodly, wicked systems of earth but also the invisible devilish powers behind this visible system of things, that is to say, Satan and his demons who have been cast down to our earth’s vicinity and who are now causing woe for the earth and the sea. Those who suffer in that worst of all tribulations will have chosen such suffering for themselves by now spurning and rejecting the way of protection and escape that God lovingly holds open to them now. The selfish lovers of the old world he will destroy at Armageddon. The unselfish lovers of the righteous new world he will preserve through that universal war into the clean new world, with its new heavens and new earth, and these, by continuing to do the will of God, will remain forever in the new world of righteousness.

28. What world was it that God loved so much, and how and why did he show his love for it?

²⁸ The providing for the righteous new world and the establishing of it after the universal war of Armageddon are an expression of God’s love. This is the world that Jehovah God has loved so much that he made the greatest sacrifice on his part for its sake. It was for this reason that Jesus Christ the Son of God, when discussing the kingdom of God, said: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” (John 3:3, 5, 16, NW) It was for those who will make up the new world that God has such love that he was willing to send his beloved Son to earth to die a sacrificial death. His death furnished the means for their salvation to life in this precious new world. But to gain the benefits of his sacrifice they must exercise faith in its value and power. By acting on this faith they escape from being destroyed with the lovers of the old world and they are blessed with everlasting life in the new world. Those who will be associated with the beloved King of the new world are themselves believers in the sacrifice that he made, and by reason of their faith God adopts them as his spiritual children, begetting them with his spirit. When he resurrects them from the dead he gives them spirit life, making them the spiritual part of the new world that they may be with Christ Jesus in the heavenly kingdom. All those who become the loved earthly subjects of this kingdom must likewise exercise faith in the sacrifice of their King. This will result in their receiving the gift of everlasting life in perfect happiness in paradise restored to this earth.

29. Why, from its very start, will that be a different world?

²⁹ From its very start that new world will be filled with the fruitage of God’s spirit operating in the lives of its inhabitants. We are told that “the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22, 23, NW) No wonder that will be such a different world!

30. In view of God’s own love, what truth becomes clear to our view, and, in view of the increasing lawlessness what are we in danger of having occur?

³⁰ Since God in love has come to the rescue in man’s crisis, we see the importance of this quality. So a great truth becomes clear to our view: To live, we must love. This is true of each one of us individually. Treating the matter on a larger scale: To live, the human race must love. Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden found that out when they unlovingly sinned against their God and Creator and had to die for failure to love him. Humankind today must find that out, but not when it is too late as in the case of Adam and Eve. All of us today are feeling the bitter consequences of their failure to love—to love God and to love each other. But an increasing number of people today are finding it out now before the violent outbreak of Armageddon signals that it is too late, and they are learning to develop and exercise the required love. Living as we are today in the awful “time of the end” and now so near to its close we are in great danger of succumbing to selfishness and insane hatred. In his prophecy on the end of the world Jesus warned of this, saying: “Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” (Matt. 24:12, NW) To cease to love means death. If we do not want to die, we must love.

31. Disobedience to what commandments is the thing wrong with mankind today, and what does trying to keep only the second of these eventually find?

³¹ What is wrong with mankind today is their disobedience to the two great commandments. And what are those two great commandments? Jesus Christ answers for us. When asked the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” he answered: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40, NW) These two leading commandments are positive. They call for love; first, love for God, then, love for our fellow man as much as for ourselves. Without the love of God, and that first, the seeming love of our fellow man, a seeming humanitarianism, would find eventual disappointment, frustration.

32. Because of the fulfillment of what prophecy is life very hollow for the greater portion of mankind in these last days, and why does this old world remain in death?

³² According to the prophecies of Holy Scripture we are living in the “last days” in which “critical times hard to deal with” are to be here. In these critical days, these days of crisis, life is very hollow for the greater portion of mankind. What is responsible for their hollowness of life? The prophecy answers: “Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, . . . having no natural affection, . . . without love of goodness, . . . puffed up with self-esteem, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” (2 Tim. 3:1-5, NW) Mankind is starving its very life by not loving. Mankind is starving for life because it is starving for love. It is a true comment, “He who does not love [according to these two great commandments] remains in death.” And this loveless, murderous old world, by abiding in death until Armageddon, will be forever destroyed there.—1 John 3:14, NW.

33. How does our effort to gain life in the new world become one not purely selfish, and hence why will the great mass of humanity perish at Armageddon?

³³ Not only to be loved, but also to love, yes, specially to love, is a wholesome, uplifting, enriching, inspiring thing. The loving of God is the most sublime experience. It primarily is the thing that moves us to accept and act upon the divine terms for everlasting salvation in this time of man’s crisis, for then our effort to gain life in the new world is not a purely selfish effort. Really to benefit ourselves and to glorify God in this crisis of mankind we must respond to God’s love and obey his two great commandments. The great mass of humanity will refuse to do so and will abide under divine condemnation without a true, God-given hope of life and will simply perish at Armageddon. They have no love for “Christ’s brothers” nor for his “other sheep.” And having no love for these, they really have no love for Christ nor for his God, Jehovah. So, preferring to remain in death to the fatal hour, they determine their own destiny or end at Armageddon.

34. All mankind are now at the crisis because the nations are in what time, and why?

³⁴ All mankind are now at the crisis, because they are in the time of the judgment of the nations. According to the Bible prophecies and their fulfillment in modern history, yes, according to God’s own timetable set down in the Bible, the “time of the end” began for the nations of this world A.D. 1914 and the due time arrived for God’s kingdom to be established in the heavens. The outbreak of World War I in that year was only one of the foretold evidences to prove that fact. Accordingly at God’s invitation Jesus Christ came into the Kingdom and was seated upon the heavenly throne to rule for the destruction of this old world and for the full introduction of the new world.

35. (a) What separating work is the King on his throne now carrying on, and why are some condemned and others commended? (b) How have those commended passed over already to a life state?

³⁵ In his same prophecy on the world’s end Jesus said he would come in his glory and all the holy angels with him and then he would sit down on his glorious throne and gather all earthly nations before him and begin a separating work. He would separate, not the political nations, but the people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. On his right hand of favor he would put the sheeplike people, on his left hand of disfavor the goatlike people. He reproves the goat class because of their failure to show love for Christ’s spiritual brothers and sentences them to everlasting destruction pictured by “the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” He commends the sheep class because of their love of Christ’s spiritual brothers and ushers these righteous ones into everlasting life in the new world. (Matt. 25:31-46, NW; Mt 24:7) They have hope of being shielded by God’s power through Christ against the destructive forces of Armageddon and being preserved alive through the terrible end of this old world into the gloriously opening new world. Why? Because even now, by learning to love God and his Christ and by learning to love their neighbor as themselves, they pass over from a death state to a life state, getting on the way to eternal life. Let the world hate us for this. Says the Christian apostle John: “We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers.”—1 John 3:14, NW.

36. What can God’s now-opened hand do to us living creatures, but why will some perish in their dissatisfaction at Armageddon?

³⁶ Here we are, then, in the greatest crisis to date. Instead of being worried, happy are we if we awake to the fact that Jehovah God in his wonderful love has come to our rescue and we are willing to be rescued in his way. We can get the satisfaction of our loving heart’s desire if we accept God’s open hand. In describing God’s loving-kindness the beautiful Kingdom psalm addresses God with these words: “Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” But it takes two to make a gift. It takes an accepter as well as a giver. All mankind are selfishly willing to accept and enjoy the material good things that his open hand has provided. Not all, though, appreciate the greatest offer of his open hand, the spiritual offer. They spurn the offer of God’s gift of eternal life because it is through Jesus Christ our Lord, and they bite the hand that offers to feed them with life-giving spiritual provisions as well as material food. So they remain unsatisfied in the highest sense and will perish in their dissatisfaction at Armageddon.

37. (a) So how may we find satisfaction forever? (b) By doing what do we make and carry out the life-giving decision, and in vindication of what?

³⁷ But the psalm says: “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them. Jehovah preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Ps. 145:16, 19, 20, AS) For our part, then, we shall find satisfaction forever by now accepting the loving offer in his open hand. In loving appreciation we will accept his great means for our salvation, his kingdom by Jesus Christ, which is now established in the heavens, and we will preach it in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations until the end comes. (Matt. 24:14) We will band together and regularly meet together as a New World society, doing so without fail, to encourage one another and to incite one another to love and right works, ‘and all the more so as we behold the great day drawing near.’ (Heb. 10:24, 25) Doing this, we make and carry out the life-giving decision in this time of man’s crisis, and God’s love in coming to our rescue will be vindicated.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.—Prov. 9:9, 10, AS.

Questions From Readers

● Jesus said that the night comes wherein no man can work. Was he referring to the battle of Armageddon?—S. S., United States.

Jesus’ words on this are recorded at John 9:4, 5 (NW): “We must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night is coming where no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s light.” He made these remarks when he restored sight to a man born blind. He was not talking about Armageddon. Jehovah sent Jesus to earth to perform works that would magnify God, make known his purposes. Jesus performed a work of spiritual healing, enabling those spiritually deaf and dumb and blind to hear and speak and discern the truth of God’s Word, freeing those held captive by false worship. Also in a literal way he brought sight to some physically blind, to give a striking display of Jehovah’s power.—Isa. 61:1, 2; Luke 4:17-21.

So Jesus was speaking of himself and the works Jehovah sent him to do, and said that he must do them while it was day and before night came, for when night fell he would not be able to work. He also spoke of being a source of enlightenment as long as he was in the world, implying that the time would come when he would make an exit. His death removed him from the world, put him out of existence, plunged him into the darkness of the grave. It was as a time of night for him, a time when he could do no work. Jesus knew that the death state ahead of him would allow for no performance of work then, just as Ecclesiastes 9:10 shows: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

In Jesus’ case the nighttime void of works certainly could not refer to Armageddon, for he will be performing his mightiest work at that time, destroying wicked creatures on earth and binding into inactivity Satan and his demons, and completely vindicating Jehovah’s name. Nor can we conclusively say that Christ’s followers on earth will be wholly inactive. They will not share in the work of destruction, but they may keep right on doing the work they do now, which is singing Jehovah’s praises and warning the wicked of their destruction. From the words of Isaiah 6:11 it seems that they will be declaring Jehovah’s vengeance until the destruction of visible evildoers is completed: “Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.”

So as Jesus used the word “night” in this text it merely meant the time of his judgment, impaling and death, during which time he would be unable to work.

● In view of Revelation 20:8, will there be national divisions in the new world, and who are Gog and Magog in this text?—G. T., Canada.

Revelation 20:7, 8 (NW) reads: “Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison, and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea.” Nations with national boundaries and people collected within them on the basis of nationality will not exist in the new world, but the people living then will have come from nations, will have at one time been members of nations of this old world, just as the “great crowd” come “out of all nations” yet do not bring any divisive nationalism with them. It is with former national extractions in mind that the term “nations” is used in the text.—Rev. 7:9, NW.

Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 discuss Gog of the land of Magog, and in that prophecy Gog represents Satan after he has been ousted from heaven since 1914, and Magog represents his limited spirit realm confined near earth’s vicinity since that time. (See The Watchtower of October 1, 1953.) But at Revelation 20:8 the time location is different and Gog and Magog are names of earthly lands, and Gog could not here refer to Satan because Satan is spoken of as misleading Gog and Magog. Moreover, the text itself identifies Gog and Magog as “those nations in the four quarters of the earth” that allow Satan to mislead them. Just who the Gog of ancient times was or where his land of Magog was located is uncertain, but it is usually located geographically in northeastern Europe and central Asia, the land of the fierce Scythians and Tartars. At any rate, in Revelation Gog and Magog represent the lands or peoples of those lands that fiercely assault Jehovah’s faithful earthly inhabitants under Satan’s goading.

Their number being “as the sand of the sea” does not mean the majority of mankind will rebel with Satan at the end of the thousand year reign, but it means the number is indefinite, as unnumbered as the sand at the seashore. When the number of Christ’s body members was unrevealed they were compared with the sands of the sea for multitude, but when the number was finally disclosed it was only 144,000 and they were called a “little flock.” So those who rebel with Satan at the end of the millennial reign may well be a minority of mankind.—Gen. 22:17; Gal. 3:29; Rev. 14:1; Luke 12:32.

Group Witnessing in Mountainous Italy

IT IS generally admitted that except for feast days the attitude of the working classes in Italy toward religion is that of lethargy. While such may be true of those subscribing to the state religion, it certainly does not apply to those who dedicate themselves to Jehovah and become part of the New World society, as the following report, which is typical of the way the work of Jehovah’s witnesses is carried on in Italy today, will show.

“The congregation at G——, Teramo, has a widely scattered mountainous territory assigned to it for the purpose of giving the witness, some places being fifty miles away. How to see to it that all the people residing in this territory receive the witness has been a problem, because of the lack of automobiles. For some time the stronger brothers have been leaving on their bicycles as early as four o’clock Sunday mornings for a four- to six-hour ride. Then after two hours of witnessing it meant a like trip returning. Time and again they would return soaked to the skin just in time for the congregation Bible studies, which meant that their clothes would have to dry right on them, as they did not have time to change them.

“The problem was finally solved by hiring a bus for the full day at a cost of L.300 or about fifty cents each. The brothers, some 40 to 45, were divided into groups of four, each group having one who was able to give public lectures. Starting off at six in the morning the first group of four was let off at the first village at about seven o’clock. By nine o’clock all were busy preaching from house to house, although it must be added that sometimes it still meant an hour’s walk after getting off the bus. Time was taken off for lunch and by 3 p.m. the groups lined up along the highway to be picked up again by the bus. As many as seven public lectures were given by the various brothers on one Sunday. By this means even sisters over seventy years old are able to preach in the remote areas and to devote at least ten hours a month to Kingdom witnessing.

“It is a real joy to see the brothers so happy over their privileges and to hear them sing Kingdom songs as they travel along to their territory. And on returning each group has interesting experiences to relate, thus encouraging and building up both the ones being trained in the ministry and those doing the training.”

Could one conceive of the average Roman Catholic congregation in Italy having one out of four able to give Bible lectures or sermons and all of its members starting out at six in the morning for the purpose of spending the day trudging from house to house talking religion? Truly the “word of God is alive and exerts power” when it is understood and applied!—Heb. 4:12, NW.

Do You Pray to Saints?

Many people offer their prayers to “saints,” thinking that, as one well-known religious handbook puts it, this is an “aid and help for obtaining benefits from God.” Yet Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. . . . and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do.” (John 14:6, 13, Dy) Since Jesus, of all persons, should have known, and since that is what he said about the matter, then why pray through anyone else?

Announcements

CHOOSE LIFE TO KEEP ON LIVING

Said Jehovah to ancient Israel: “I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction, and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive.” (Deut. 30:19, NW) Similarly, we must make a choice, seriously considering the consequences of the chosen way. The sensible and right-minded person will choose the right way, which is the way of God and the way of life, now and forever. Those choosing to honor and serve God will have opportunity to back up their choice by telling others of God’s loving arrangements for life and offering fellow men a year’s subscription for The Watchtower at the annual rate of $1. Three booklets on vital Bible subjects will be offered with each new subscription.

A SPECIAL REASON FOR ZEAL

Jehovah’s witnesses are zealous in attending assemblies. This year thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses from the United States and Canada who will attend assemblies in England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands will find that encouragement to be especially great. Here they will see evidence that they really are one people, undivided by nationalities or even by language barriers. Unity will be increased, love strengthened, zeal mutually encouraged. You have the opportunity of joining with this happy group of international conventioners. Make plans now!

As announced in the January 1 Watchtower, assemblies in Canada and the United States will be held during June and July. It will be of particular interest to the Spanish-speaking people of southern and western United States, as well as to those of Latin-American countries, to know Spanish programs are scheduled for the Dallas, Texas, convention. It is the only one where such arrangements are being planned.

NUMBERING OUR DAYS

“Teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom” was Moses’ prayer. (Ps. 90:12, AS) To mark each day in a profitable and fitting way, we must give some thought to God’s Word and work. To this end the Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses for 1955 and the calendar are timely aids. In the Yearbook there is a text for every day of the year, together with appropriate comments. There is also a report of Kingdom work as done world-wide. The calendar, marking the days as they pass, provides service themes for each month, as well as a yeartext and appropriate illustration in full color. The Yearbook is now available for 50c; the calendar for 25c. Five calendars are sent to one address for $1.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

February 20: God’s Love to the Rescue in Man’s Crisis, ¶1-18. Page 49.

February 27: God’s Love to the Rescue in Man’s Crisis, ¶19-37. Page 56.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ What encouragement Jesus gave regarding the persecution of Christians? P. 35, ¶1.

✔ Whether even Communist persecution has stopped Jehovah’s witnesses’ work? P. 38, ¶4.

✔ What defeats persecution now? P. 39, ¶6.

✔ When your best is NOT enough? P. 41, ¶2.

✔ How to love God with your whole “soul”? P. 43, ¶3.

✔ The first words ever published in “The Watchtower”? P. 45, ¶4.

✔ How the full-time “pioneer” ministry of Jehovah’s witnesses began? P. 47, ¶4.

✔ What new thing suddenly has made the world’s crisis so severe? P. 50, ¶5.

✔ Why going into nonexistence or annihilation is not a salvation? P. 54, ¶15.

✔ How, in a specific way, Jesus recommended the best government? P. 57, ¶23.

✔ How it is through love that the doers of wickedness will be destroyed? P. 58, ¶26.

✔ Why lives are hollow today? P. 60, ¶32.

✔ Who the Gog and Magog of Revelation 20:8 are? P. 62, ¶8.