The Watchtower — October 15, 1955

Business Teaches Churches Morality?

IN ANCIENT Bible times the people were instructed in what was right and what was wrong by the Levite priests. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah.” There were instances, however, when the priests sank so low that they outraged the moral sense of the people whom they themselves were supposed to instruct in what was right and wrong, a case in point being the delinquent sons of priest Eli.—Mal. 2:7; 1 Sam. 2:12-17, 22-25, AS.

The facts today indicate that the leaders of religion in Christendom furnish a modern counterpart to those wayward sons of Eli. These likewise occupy the position of teachers before the people and yet are willing to stoop to such questionable methods that others are impelled to preach morals to the religious leaders. An instance of this appeared in the April 11, 1955, issue of Advertising Age.

The editorial said, in part: “It continues to amaze us that those whose conduct in all regards should be above suspicion are so willing to use fund-raising devices which smack of the carnival come-on. Most commercial advertisers wouldn’t dare touch this sort of thing, because they know they’d be severely censured. But religious and charitable groups apparently believe it’s all right for them to use devices of doubtful ethical virtue because they’re being used ‘in a good cause.’ This strikes us as a moral sophistry of the highest order, if there is such a thing.”

Big business has no monopoly on morals, to put it mildly. However, corrupt as big business is, it at least is serving some purpose, as industry and commerce are necessary, whether conducted honestly or not. And it must also be admitted that even a corrupt government is better than none at all. But when organized religion, which has arrogated to itself to represent God and teach the people morals, becomes hypocritical, of what use is it?

The foregoing calls to mind God’s judgment on ancient Jerusalem. Because of its wayward course, its failure to bring forth righteous fruits, Jehovah likened it to a scorched vine that was good for nothing but to be burned, for one could not make any work with it such as a peg on which to hang things. “As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” “The fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord Jehovah.” That fire will be Armageddon.—Ezek. 15:1-8, AS; Rev. 16:14, 16.

Was Peter the First Pope?

Is Peter the rock on which Christ built his church? What are the keys that Jesus gave to Peter? Were the keys handed down to successors? Did Peter claim to be the first pope? Did he act like a pope? Here are the answers form God’s own Word.

HONEST-HEARTED persons do not object to an examination of the pope’s titles “Vicar of Jesus Christ” and “Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles.” Are they Scriptural? Priests refer any inquirer to Jesus’ words at Matthew 16:18, 19 in the Catholic Douay Bible: “I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Does this mean, as the Roman Catholic Church claims, that Jesus appointed Peter the head of his church and the first pope?

To understand what Jesus meant it is well to examine, with the benefit of an accurate, modern translation of the Bible, Jesus’ words and their context. One day, while Jesus and his apostles were in the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them: “Who are men saying the Son of man is?” The various answers people gave were wrong. So Jesus asked his apostles: “You, though, who do you say I am?” Simon Peter was quick with an answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To this Jesus replied: “I say to you, You are Peter [Petros, ‘a stone,’ in the masculine gender], and on this rock-mass [Greek, petra, ‘a rock-mass,’ in the feminine gender] I will build my congregation.”—Matt. 16:13-18, NW.

What readily becomes apparent is this: the rock on which Christ built his church is not the same original Greek word that Jesus used when he referred to Peter. Petros, the name Jesus gave Peter, is in the masculine gender and means a movable stone, a piece of rock; but petra, the rock on which the church is built, is in the feminine gender and means a “rock-mass.” If Jesus had meant for Peter to be the head of his church he would have said the obvious: “You are Petros and on this Petros I will build my church.’ But Jesus never said that! Nor did he say: “You, Peter, will build my church.” Rather, Jesus said: “I will build my church.” Who, then, is this petra, the “rock-mass,” upon which Christ builds his church?

THE ROCK-MASS IDENTIFIED

To “make sure of all things,” as the Bible says we must, it is vital to search the Scriptures to find out how Peter himself understood Jesus’ words. Did Peter really think he was the petra, the rock-mass foundation? On the contrary! He understood that foundation to be Christ himself: “Then Peter, filled with holy spirit, said to them: ‘ . . . in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you impaled but whom God raised up from the dead, by this one does this man stand here sound in front of you. This is “the stone which was treated by you builders as of no account that has become chief cornerstone”.’”—1 Thess. 5:21; Acts 4:8-12, NW.

If Peter was the rock on which the church was built, he certainly would have known it; and if he knew it he would have made that powerfully clear in his own epistles. But even in his own writings Peter never calls himself pope or speaks of himself as the head of the church. Rather, he identifies Christ as the rock-mass foundation: “Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected, it is true, by men, but chosen, precious, with God, you yourselves also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . It is to you, therefore, that he is precious, because you are believers; but to those not believing, ‘the identical stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense’.”—1 Pet. 2:4-8, NW.

Peter recognized himself as only one of the living stones that make up the Christian church. True, being an apostle of Jesus Christ, Peter was in the foundation of the Christian church: “The wall of the city also had twelve foundation stones, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” But no Bible writer names Peter as the head of the church. Not a literal building, the church is a spiritual temple made up of 144,000 living stones, who form the bride of Christ, the Christian congregation. That Christ is the head of the congregation the Bible provides abundant testimony. Declared the apostle Paul concerning Christ: “He is the head of the body, the congregation.” And again: “You have been built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, while Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone.”—Rev. 21:14; Col. 1:18; Eph. 2:20, NW.

If there was any doubt remaining as to the identity of the rock-mass, it would be utterly shattered by the apostle’s words at 1 Corinthians 10:4 (NW), which make unmistakably clear the identity of petra, the rock-mass: “They used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass which followed them, and that rock-mass [Greek, petra] meant the Christ.”

So when Jesus spoke those words at Matthew 16:18, he meant that he himself, the one who had just been identified by Peter as the Messiah, was the rockmass foundation on which the Christian congregation would be built.

When did the doctrine that Peter is the head of the church and that he supposedly has successors begin? It was established in the Roman Catholic Church in the Nicene Creed, A.D. 325 and 381. But the pure, uncorrupted Christians living in the days of the apostles never knew such a doctrine. Indeed, up till the fourth century professed Christians did not hold to such a teaching. When the Austrian Roman Catholic bishop Joseph Strossmayer made his speech before the college of cardinals in 1870, the time when the dogma of the infallibility of the pope was discussed, he made that point clear:

“Of all the doctors of Christian antiquity St. Augustine occupies one of the first places for knowledge and holiness. Listen then to what he writes on his second treatise on the first epistle to St. John: ‘What do the words mean, I will build my church on this rock? On this faith, on that which said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ In his treatise on St. John we find this most significant phrase—‘On this rock which thou hast confessed I will build my church, since Christ was the rock.’ The great bishop believed so little that the church was built on St. Peter that he said to the people in his thirteenth sermon, ‘Thou art Peter, and on this rock (petra) which thou hast confessed, on this rock which thou hast known, saying, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, I will build my church—upon Myself, who am the son of the living God: I will build it on Me, and not Me on thee.’ That which St. Augustine thought upon this celebrated passage was the opinion of all Christendom in his time [about 400 A.D.].”

KEYS OF THE KINGDOM

What, though, of the keys that Jesus gave to Peter? Do they prove that Peter was the first pope? To answer we need to know what the keys were. A key is used Scripturally to represent the privilege of unlocking hidden truths. For example, the scribes and Pharisees were duty-bound to explain the truths of God’s Word to the people, but they failed to do this; even worse, they took away from the people the opportunity to understand. So Jesus said of those religious leaders: “Woe to you who are versed in the Law, because you took away the key of knowledge.” The keys that Jesus gave Peter, then, are not literal, but they symbolize or represent the unlocking of the knowledge of opportunity of entering into the kingdom of heaven.—Luke 11:52, NW.

The knowledge that Christ was to have a heavenly kingdom and that 144,000 from among mankind would reign with him in his kingdom was for long a secret. But at Pentecost, A.D. 33, God through Christ used Peter to unlock the meaning of the sacred secret to the Jewish believers. Thus Peter, being directed by heaven, unlocked the meaning of “the sacred secret which was concealed from the past systems of things and from the past generations.”—Col. 1:26, NW.

For three and a half years the apostles preached the gospel to the Jews exclusively. Then the time came for Peter to use the second key. This was A.D. 36. Heaven directed Peter to go to the home of the Roman soldier Cornelius, a Gentile, to explain the good news. Cornelius and his family believed. And to the surprise of the Jewish Christians God’s holy spirit was poured out on non-Jewish believers: “While Peter was yet speaking about these matters the holy spirit fell upon all those hearing the word. And the faithful ones that had come with Peter who were of those circumcised were amazed, because the free gift of the holy spirit was being poured out also upon people of the nations.” And the “sacred secret” had vital meaning for people of the nations for the first time. For now the door of opportunity to enter into the heavenly kingdom was open to people of any nation. “In other generations this secret was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by spirit, namely, that people of the nations should be joint heirs and fellow members of the body and partakers with us of the promise in union with Christ Jesus through the good news.”—Acts 10:44, 45; Eph. 3:5, 6, NW.

So Peter was blessed with the privilege of unlocking the door of opportunity into the heavenly kingdom, first to the Jews and then to the non-Jews. Said Peter: “Brothers, you well know that from early days God made the choice among you that through my mouth people of the nations should hear the word of the good news and believe.”—Acts 15:7, NW.

Notice Peter’s words: “God made the choice among you.” Always God through Christ directed matters. Never did Peter have the prerogative to teach whatever he felt was right to teach. Heaven directed all of Peter’s moves. Said Jesus: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you may bind on earth will have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you may loose on earth will have been loosed in the heavens.” Peter had the power to teach only what was already loosed in heaven by Christ. In other words, Peter was not to formulate any teaching of his own, but must wait for Christ to loose it in heaven. So Peter’s receiving of the keys never gave him absolute supremacy over the church in the matter of teaching.—Matt. 16:19, NW.

Moreover, once Peter used the keys, there was no further use for them.

NO RESEMBLANCE TO ANY POPE

If Peter had been the first pope, would he not have known it? Yet never once did he call himself “Supreme Pontiff” or pope. Nowhere in his writings did he claim supremacy, infallibility or the right to have a successor. On subjects so important as this it is unthinkable that Peter would remain silent.

If Peter was the vicar of Jesus Christ, how is it that he never acted like a pope? Peter never established himself in a sumptuous residence. He never hired a small army of soldiers to guard him. He never dressed in clothes drastically different from his brothers. He never had himself carried about by his brothers on a papal chair similar to one used by Egyptian kings. Why did he never act like a pope? Because he obeyed Jesus’ command: “Do not call anyone your father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders’, for your Leader is one, the Christ.”—Matt. 23:9, 10, NW.

Peter had ample opportunity to act as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church does, but he never did. When Peter used the second key and brought Jehovah’s way of salvation to Cornelius, the Bible account says: “As Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet and did obeisance to him. But Peter lifted him up, saying: ‘Rise; I myself am also a man.’” (Acts 10:25, 26, NW) Did Peter extend a ring to the prostrate Cornelius? No, Peter lifted Cornelius up, saying: “Rise; I myself am also a man.” Who ever heard of a pope lifting up a man prostrate before him, admitting his own comparative unimportance and equality with other men?

And where is the resemblance in the matter of simony? Simon the magician tried to bribe Peter into giving him the privilege of conferring the holy spirit on anyone he wished. Peter refused. Yet the popes are notorious for accepting and offering bribes. Alexander VI, in 1492, gained the papacy by bribery. When the reformer Savonarola made a list of this pope’s crimes, the pope tried to silence him by holding out a cardinal’s hat! Pope Benedict IX sold his popehood to Gregory VI. Julius II, says The Catholic Encyclopedia, “did not hesitate to employ bribery” to gain the papal crown. Though ostensibly opposed to simony, popes have resorted to it so often that in the matter of papal elections alone The Encyclopædia Britannica (ninth edition under “Conclave”) says: “A study of the history of the Papal conclaves leaves the student with the conviction that no election untainted by simony has ever yet been made, while in a great number of instances the simony practiced in the conclave has been of the grossest, most shameless, and most overt kind.” Peter acted most unpopelike when he refused Simon’s bribe: “May your silver perish with you, because you thought through money to get possession of the free gift of God.”—Acts 8:9-24, NW.

If Peter was the first pope, how is it that Jesus did not choose one that could set the proper example for future popes? For popes are not allowed to experience the marital state; yet Peter was married. Both Mark and Luke spoke of “Simon’s mother-in-law.” And the apostle Paul wrote: “We have authority to lead about a sister as a wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas [Peter], do we not?” But popes do not have this authority.—Mark 1:30; Luke 4:38; 1 Cor. 9:5, NW.

If Peter was an infallible pope, how is it that he showed up so many times to be in error? Just a few moments after Christ spoke the words of Matthew 16:18, Peter appeared far from infallible; and Jesus had to rebuke him, saying: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumblingblock to me.” Would Christ address the infallible head of his church with terms such as “Satan” and “stumblingblock”? Time and again Peter showed he was not infallible. Once he lost faith while walking on water, and sank. Once he used his sword when he should not have. He even denied knowing Jesus. And after Christ’s death he still did not understand that Christ must be raised from the dead. Later Peter slipped into a wrong practice and had to be corrected by the apostle Paul.—Matt. 16:22, 23; 14:29-31; Luke 22:31-34; John 18:10, 11; Gal. 2:11, NW.

NOT “PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES”

The pope is called “Successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles.” But the Bible does not give the slightest trace that he was “prince of the apostles.” On the contrary, it gives abundant evidence that he was just one of the apostles and not the chief one. At Galatians 2:9 (NW) Paul writes of “James and Cephas [Peter] and John, the ones who seemed to be pillars.” Yet he puts James first. Would Paul have slighted the “prince of the apostles” by putting his name second in his list, if Peter was really chief of apostles? At a meeting in Jerusalem Peter made a speech but it was James who presided and made the decisions. If Peter was chief apostle it is unthinkable that he would have allowed James to preside over a most important meeting.—Acts 15:13-19, NW.

Finally, the last living apostle was John, not Peter. This would not be the logical arrangement if Peter was a pope. And here is something thought-arousing: The Catholic Encyclopedia lists four popes as succeeding Peter, St. Linus, St. Anacletus I, St. Clement I and St. Evaristus, the last of whom reigned about A.D. 99. Now the apostle John lived until about A.D. 100 or later. Yet John, in his writings, never once mentioned the name of any of these popes or even the fact that any pope existed. Why the silence on such extremely vital matters? Stranger yet is the fact that four popes supposedly succeeded Peter during the life span of the apostle John. Yet, if there was to be a successor, John, the beloved disciple of Jesus and apostle of the Lamb and one of the twelve foundation stones, would be the most logical choice.

What conclusion must we come to, then? That Peter never had a successor. That Peter was merely one of the apostles, one of the twelve foundation stones and not the chief cornerstone or rock mass upon which the congregation is built. That Peter used the keys of the kingdom and that the keys cannot be used again or passed on to another. That Peter was not “prince of the apostles.” That Peter never acted like a pope. That the rock on which Christ builds his congregation is Christ himself. Thus in the error-destroying light of God’s Word lies exposed one of the most colossal hoaxes of all time. Peter was not the first pope.

Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Part 20—Theocratic Warfare by Christian Neutrals During World Conflict

IN 1940 the United States passed the Selective Training and Service Act that authorized the conscription for military service of all young men over 18 years of age. Provision was made in Class IV-D for the exemption of those who were duly ordained ministers. General Lewis B. Hershey, the director of Selective Service for the United States, published an opinion in June, 1941, that members of the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Bethel family and pioneers may be granted exemption. However, like all others, they must establish such claims before the local draft boards.a Then on November 2, 1942, General Hershey published an amended opinion as to whether Jehovah’s witnesses may be placed in Class IV-D as regular or duly ordained ministers of religion exempt from military training and service. In this opinion he expressly shows that Jehovah’s witnesses constitute a religious body.

“The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York for charitable, religious and scientific purposes. The unincorporated body of persons known as Jehovah’s Witnesses hold in common certain religious tenets and beliefs and recognize as their terrestrial governing organization the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. By their adherence to the organization of this religious corporation, the unincorporated body of Jehovah’s Witnesses are considered to constitute a recognized religious sect.”b

This administrative opinion aided many to clarify their respective positions under the legal classification “minister of religion.”

In actual fact Jehovah’s witnesses are already dedicated as ministerial ‘soldiers of Jesus Christ.’ Therefore they cannot take on another dedication to serve in the armies of Caesar. (2 Tim. 2:3) Most of the male witnesses were able to establish their ministerial status before their local draft boards successfully. However, due to local draft board prejudice, some who claimed the status were not granted recognition. This necessitated the bringing of many of such before the courts, with eventual imprisonment from one to five years. Consequently several aspects of the draft issue have been brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, involving cases of Jehovah’s witnesses. Some have been won, others lost. Two thirds of all the thousands of criminal persecutions of those claiming conscientious objector status under the Selective Service Act involved Jehovah’s witnesses.

“This surprising number of prisoners is composed almost two thirds of Jehovah’s Witnesses, practically all of whom demanded recognition as ministers of the gospel and were denied it by their draft boards.”c

To take care of the many prisoners who were witnesses, special camps under the supervision of various federal prisons were established. Upward of 3,500 young ministers were thus confined during the war.d However, these young men did not idle their time away but rather spent their spare hours in vigorous study of the Scriptures and other subjects to equip themselves better for the ministry upon their release. These prisoners were allowed to have weekly group studies of the Bible and at regular intervals were permitted the visit of a special minister sent from the Society’s headquarters to serve them spiritually. The integrity of these young men served as a great witness to the nation. It took more courage to stand for one’s principles of neutrality than to go along with the crowd.

All these legal actions have built up a monumental record that can be read by all men. Note how the late Mr. Justice Murphy, of the United States Supreme Court, put it:

“From ancient times to the present day, the ingenuity of man has known no limits in its ability to forge weapons of oppression for use against those who dare to express or practice unorthodox religious beliefs. And the Jehovah’s Witnesses are living proof of the fact that even in this nation, conceived as it was in the ideals of freedom, the right to practice religion in unconventional ways is still far from secure. Theirs is a militant and unpopular faith, pursued with a fanatical zeal. They have suffered brutal beatings; their property has been destroyed; they have been harassed at every turn by the resurrection and enforcement of little used ordinances and statutes. See Mulder and Comisky, ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses Mold Constitutional Law,’ 2 Bill of Rights Review, No. 4, p. 262. To them, along with other present-day religious minorities, befalls the burden of testing our devotion to the ideals and constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.”e

So at great cost to themselves of time, money and personal suffering the witnesses in the United States during the war period vigorously pursued a consistent course of neutrality. They made a fighting effort to keep open the door of freedom of worship through which to expand their preaching activities. At the close of the war much of the great flood of opposition ceased and they entered calmer waters in which to continue their God-given ministry. Incidentally, the United States Supreme Court up to 1955 has decided fifty cases involving Jehovah’s witnesses, 23 favorable decisions in 37 cases and 10 unfavorable decisions in 13 cases.

Following the end of World War II in 1945 Jehovah’s witnesses dug themselves out of the debris of war. Thousands began to return from concentration camps and prisons. Those first hours of freedom were sweet. Immediately on the way home the witnesses began to preach.f Many are the reports of the moving reception the witnesses were given in their preaching from house to house. To the public they seemed to be as ones resurrected from the dead. Efforts were made to reassemble the witnesses into congregations for organized field-service activity. Branch offices were reopened in country after country as the Nazi armies retreated to final defeat. There was a great demand for organizational servants with sufficient health to become circuit servants. In their poverty, makeshift equipment was gathered together to start the wheels of the publishing work again, to supply printed literature and other Bible helps. Food and clothing were secondary considerations. The prime objective was the re-establishment of the Biblical feeding service, first for the witnesses themselves and then for the vast spiritually starved public of good will.

In the more fortunate countries the witnesses immediately organized a worldwide relief campaign that went into operation January, 1946. The thousands of brothers in the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden voluntarily shared with their less fortunate brothers clothing and money to buy food. The relief program covered two years and a half to rehabilitate the witnesses in the following war-torn countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Philippine Republic, Poland and Romania. The total shipments of clothing amounted to 1,056,247 pounds and of food 718,873 pounds, besides 124,110 pairs of shoes. All of this came to the value of $1,322,406.90.g This figure does not include the value of many hours of time spent in gathering and distributing the materials. Surely this manifests love on the part of the brothers to share their blessings, which flowed both ways. In the one direction flowed material aid and, in exchange, in the other direction flowed the record of integrity that made world news, bringing the witnesses to global fame as champions of Christian principles. Thus the witness work to Jehovah’s praise was made easier in all parts of the earth. (2 Cor. 8:13-15) All of this serves as evidence that Jehovah’s people are a unified world-wide family under the loving direction of a theocratic New World society motherly watching over them.

How did their publishing activities fare during the heavy years of the war? Though in many countries the vast distributions of literature were greatly cut down and thousands of ministers were imprisoned, nevertheless the world distribution is a sizable figure. But the amazing thing is that the peak number of active ministers almost doubled, demonstrating that the heat of war hastens the bringing forth of more honest-hearted ones into the preaching ranks of the witnesses. Note the following global activity figures.

1874-1892 1,535,600 400

1893-1918 9,737,224 21,274

1919-1930 93,500,000 23,988

1931-1939 215,984,991 73,469

1940-1945 158,315,308 141,606i

The spreading of Bible truth grandly moves on, war or no war. This is the time of the end when the good news of the established kingdom is being preached in every continent of earth. Men and demons cannot stop it for long. If they try to fight against God and the irresistible power of his holy spirit, they put themselves in the way of eventual destruction, as well exemplified by that infamous puny fighter against God and his witnesses—that one named Hitler.

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

“Where There Is a Will There Is a Way”

During the 1955 Watchtower subscription campaign one part-time minister in Michigan obtained 204 subscriptions, and this in spite of the fact that this part-time minister works 75 hours a week in an automobile plant, thus giving him very little time to go from house to house preaching and obtaining subscriptions. However, because of the strenuousness of his job he works at it only an hour at a time and then rests an hour, etc. Instead of resting idly this part-time minister uses the time to preach to his fellow employees all over the plant. And like all mature ministers of Jehovah he is following through with return visits on those from whom he has obtained subscriptions.

Missionary Comforts Japanese Mother

THAT there is much preaching work to be done in all parts of the earth cannot be gainsaid. However, it also is true that the Watch Tower missionaries who graduate from Gilead are sent to where the need is the greatest. That there are blessings commensurate with what it costs to be a missionary is apparent from the following report from one in Tokyo, Japan:

“In going from house to house with the good news of God’s kingdom I met a woman who told me that she was so glad I called, as about a year ago she had lost her little girl about four years old, and since then she felt that her world had ended. The fact that her husband was a very kind man, and that she also had a son, did not seem to compensate for the loss of the little daughter she had so grown to love.

“She had been brought up in the very old Japanese ‘Kitsune’ religion, and recently, because she was often feeling so sad, she thought of attending some church in the hopes that this might change her frame of mind. She was looking for someone to tell her about the true God, one who could help her and give her some hope. I told her briefly of Jehovah’s precious promises and of the powerful hope of the resurrection. She listened intently and subscribed for The Watchtower, and then asked, ‘When can you come back and talk to my husband and me?’ A time was set and two days later I called back. They both came to the door to welcome me, the husband saying: ‘My wife has been talking about your visit ever since you called two days ago, and has been waiting impatiently since for your visit tonight.’

“After the first study she was quick to understand God’s purpose and concluded by saying, ‘Oh I’m so glad that I didn’t go to some church, because if I had I would not have wanted to listen to you when you came to my door.’ Two days later I received a letter from her thanking me very much for my visit and telling me that she sets aside two hours each day for personal study, and, please, how soon could I come again, because the day we study together is the best day of the week?

“After each study she insists on walking to the station with me because she says that way we can continue our conversation about Jehovah as we walk along. The other day as I was passing by I dropped in unexpectedly and asked her, ‘Are you busy right now?’ She replied, ‘Just come and look.’ I followed her into the room and there on the table was the Bible and the booklet Basis for Belief in a New World, being carefully studied and underlined, on the table.

“After just three studies she came to hear a Bible lecture at the Kingdom Hall and as I walked home with her she said, ‘I think it’s just wonderful the way you missionaries leave your homes, come here to Japan and learn our difficult language, and all for the purpose of leading us on to the right road.’ Regarding the meeting she said, ‘I’m overjoyed, for I met the finest of people.’

“The next day when I passed her house she was looking for me and asked, ‘Have you a songbook with you? Ever since I sang that song, “Blessed Bible,” I keep trying to remember the words and the melody, so please come in and teach me the song.’ After about ten minutes the ‘singing lesson’ ended, for she had learned the tune, and as I left I could hear her singing it as she went about her work in the kitchen.

“Upon leaving her yesterday after the fourth study she said: ‘Now I have entered Jehovah’s organization; the next thing is baptism and then preaching.’”

Truly those young men and women who leave their own homes and native lands to go to faraway countries and strange peoples to preach the good news of God’s kingdom and to comfort all that mourn do have heartwarming experiences.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those in any kind of tribulation through the comfort with which we ourselves are being comforted by God.—2 Cor. 1:3, 4, NW.

The Triumphant Message of “The Kingdom”

“And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—Matt. 24:14, NW.

1. How did Jesus link earth-wide preaching about the Kingdom with the end of earth’s present system of things?

MORE than nineteen centuries ago, in the spring of A.D. 33, a man sat upon the Mount of Olives, looking at the temple of Jerusalem in the distance. The four men with him were concerned about what he had said about that temple. So they asked him a question about it and other world-important events that were due to take place. In proceeding with his lengthy answer to their threefold question, he said: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14, NW) Today, in this year 1955, the temple of Jerusalem is no more, as he foretold that it would not be, but his prophecy concerning “this good news of the kingdom” is being fulfilled among more and more of earth’s inhabitants and all the nations are being given a witness respecting “the kingdom” by a preaching campaign to which they cannot shut their ears. Triumphantly this message of “the kingdom” has gone out since first it began to be preached, and the preaching of it sounds out as a proof not only that Jesus Christ the prophesier of it is true but that we are approaching the fully accomplished end of earth’s present system of things. The preaching had to come before the end. The end could not come until after the preaching had been done on such a scale that it would be heard in all the inhabited earth and all the nations would have been witnessed to.

2. How much time has been allotted to this preaching?

² How much time has been allotted to this preaching? Down to the middle of the year 1920 it was thought that about nineteen hundred years had been allotted to the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom and that the preaching had begun A.D. 33 at Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost when Jesus’ disciples were anointed with the holy spirit and began preaching miraculously in foreign languages to the great crowd that gathered at the miracle, and that the preaching had continued through the centuries till now. It was thought to be the preaching of a kingdom yet to be established in answer to the prayer that Jesus taught, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”—Matt. 6:9, 10.

3, 4. What gross misunderstandings about God’s kingdom on earth were widely prevalent for centuries until this twentieth one?

³ An honest examination of history, however, shows that shortly after the death of all twelve of Jesus’ apostles by the end of the first century the message of even a coming kingdom of our heavenly Father began to die out. The church came to be understood as the Kingdom, and the Kingdom would come when the church was visibly or powerfully established in the earth. Less and less the emphasis was laid on the coming kingdom as the church fell away more and more from the true Christian hope and became allied to the Roman state. When finally the Roman emperor, Constantine, claimed to be converted and became a Roman Catholic, the religious clergy felt that the Kingdom had come and they sought to increase the rule of this religio-political kingdom. In 800 (A.D.), when the Holy Roman Empire was established by Charlemagne’s being crowned emperor by Pope Leo III at Rome, it was felt still more that God’s kingdom had been established and that, although the kingdom of God was one, it manifested itself in two directions, in the temporal direction through the political empire and in the spiritual direction through the Roman Catholic pope.

⁴ The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was mixed up with politics of western Europe and this led to the marriage union of the Protestant sects with the political states. The political rulers of such religio-political states were declared to rule by divine right and to be the visible representatives of God on earth, ruling in His name. This understanding of matters affected all views regarding God’s kingdom, and although missionaries were later sent out to all parts of the earth their proclamation concerning God’s kingdom was bound to be incorrect because they misunderstood the subject and they preached the teachings of the church systems that had become a part of this world.

5, 6. Christ’s actual second presence, as Scripturally defined, has what connection with the Kingdom-preaching campaign?

⁵ On the other hand, Jesus, when on trial for his life, told the Roman governor of Judea: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36, NW) In no way, therefore, could the preaching that the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Protestant missionaries did during past centuries be interpreted as fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy at Matthew 24:14.

⁶ In this prophecy Jesus did not mean the preaching by such missionaries of apostate Christian religions. The Kingdom-preaching that he predicted had to wait until this twentieth century in order to go into action. God’s timing of events made it so. What is the kingdom the good news of which was to be preached earth-wide to all nations at the foremeant time? The point of the question that the four apostles put to Jesus determines the right answer. They said: “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presencea and of the consummation of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3, NW; Mark 13:3, 4) It was about Christ’s actual presence in his God-given kingdom that those apostles asked. And concerning his “coming” into that kingdom Jesus said in later verses of his same prophetic answer: “Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will go to wailing and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet-sound . . . When the Son of man arrives in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another.” (Matt. 24:30, 31; 25:31, 32, NW) Consequently the kingdom about which this good news would be preached is the kingdom with Jesus Christ present in it in power, on his throne of active rulership. The Kingdom is, not one yet to be set up, but one now established.

7, 8. Since only the fall of 1914, with what effect upon most of earth’s inhabitants has Kingdom-preaching properly proceeded, and why?

⁷ The news of its being established is not good news to everybody, for, instead of everybody’s rejoicing over its establishment in the heavens, Jesus said that all the tribes of the earth would go to wailing at it and that he as King and Shepherd would separate people of all the nations over the matter of the Kingdom, just as a shepherd separates goats from among his sheep. God’s scheduled time to establish that heavenly kingdom with his Son on the throne was at the end of the “appointed times of the nations,” or 2,520 years from when the kingdom of Jerusalem in the land of Judah was desolated in early autumn or in the seventh Jewish month of the year 607 B.C. Those seven “appointed times of the nations” ended in the early autumn of 1914, about October 1. Before then the “good news” of the established kingdom could not be preached.

⁸ In December, 1879, in the sixth issue of the magazine now known as The Watchtower, it called attention to the fact that these times would run out in 1914. Did the professed Christian nations of Christendom take notice of this with any faith or joyful expectation? No! In the early autumn of 1914 the nations of Christendom were in no joyful mood over the establishing of God’s heavenly kingdom with Christ in the throne as his anointed King. The nations were raging in their first world war over world domination, and the religious clergy, Catholic and Protestant, were nationalistically backing up their sides in the gory fight, praying for God to give victory to one part of Christendom over the other part of Christendom. This first world war affected all the world. Ever since then “all the tribes of the earth” have gone wailing, and to this day they have not stopped, even though the sign of the Son of man’s having come into his long-expected kingdom is very clear and convincing to every eye not blinded by the enemy, Satan the Devil. These wailing tribes are not the people that the Shepherd-King Jesus Christ separates to his right side as sheep.

9, 10. (a) By whom is timely preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” being done? (b) Why are faith and courage vital essentials for such preaching?

⁹ In its issue of July 1, 1920, the magazine The Watch Tower published the article “Gospel of the Kingdom.” It was not till then that Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth saw that the “good news” or gospel was about the now established kingdom and that the good news of this kingdom must begin to be preached now, after the “beginning of pangs of distress” experienced during the period of World War I; and that the preaching must continue until the battle of Armageddon, the “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” (Matt. 24:7, 8, 21, NW) Now, in the “time of the end” of this satanic system of things, is when “this good news of the kingdom” must be preached everywhere possible. Now is when it is being preached. It will keep on being preached until this system of things ends and the new system of things, God’s new world of “new heavens and a new earth,” is ushered in with all its blessings. The missionaries of Christendom throughout the earth number into the thousands. Despite all these, it is not too much to say that Jehovah’s witnesses are the only ones preaching “this good news of the kingdom.” Why? Because they are the only ones that see the established kingdom in the light of modern events interpreted by Bible prophecy, and they are the only ones with the faith and courage from God to preach it.

¹⁰ Because Jesus called it “good news” let no one think that it does not take courage and faith in God to preach it. It is indeed God’s kingdom by Christ that is preached, which fact should ordinarily make it a most welcome message. But do you know what preaching it to this anguished world means? It means preaching the news of an enemy kingdom and preaching it in enemy lands. Why? Because the world, including Christendom, is no friend to God’s kingdom, neither are Jehovah God and his Christ friends to this world. The Revelation, which gives a vision of God’s organization giving birth to his kingdom in 1914, pictures that fact this way: “She gave birth to a son, a male, who is destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne.” (Rev. 12:5, NW) That “iron rod” in the hands of God’s kingdom is for dashing the nations of this world to pieces like frail potters’ vessels at Armageddon, as foretold at Psalm 2:7-9. It is no wonder that since 1914 the nations have raged in two world wars, with many lesser wars in between and since, and that they have meditated vain things like the League of Nations and the United Nations and have taken counsel together against Jehovah and against his anointed King Jesus Christ, as that same psalm foretold. (Ps. 2:1, 2, AS) Hence when a true Christian comes preaching the only really “good news” he comes as a publisher of a kingdom that is prophesied to destroy the nations of this world. This fact makes the preaching a work calling for courage that only God can supply.

11-13. (a) Why is it “safe” to be now the kind of “Christian” recently mentioned by one of Christendom’s renowned spokesmen? (b) In contrast, why are genuine Christians relatively unsafe yet undefeatable?

¹¹ On April 23, 1955, at a Y.M.C.A. luncheon in New York city Dean James A. Pike of New York Cathedral said he sometimes felt it was unfortunate that “being a Christian is such a safe thing.” When this orthodox clergyman said that, was he thinking about Jehovah’s witnesses as preachers of this established kingdom? No! Those whom the dean really meant are people who profess to be Christians because they are members of the respected religious systems of Christendom, membership being popular and having the protection of the political governments of Christendom.

¹² Jehovah’s witnesses are endeavoring to be true Christians in accord with the Bible requirements, but they do not find it a “safe thing” anywhere on earth. Even in Christendom they have experienced what Dean Pike next goes on to observe, namely, that in its beginning years Christianity was an “illegal” and “subversive” doctrine and its advocates often came to the attention of the “un-Roman activities committee.” Christianity, Dean Pike contended, has to return to its early dynamism if it is to be completely successful against communism. (New York Times, April 24, 1955) Now it is because Jehovah’s witnesses have returned to the dynamism of the Christianity of apostolic days that even today, after the hysteria of World War II, they are “illegal” in a number of lands in Christendom, not to speak of Communist lands, and that they are falsely accused by their religious foes of being “subversive” and security risks, being classed at one time as Nazis, at another time as Communists, in Communist lands as spies and agents of imperialist countries, and elsewhere as secret agents of Jewish Zionism, any old charge being leveled at them to rouse public feeling against them, to stir up government action against them and to make their existence unsafe.

¹³ But this does not succeed. Jehovah’s witnesses today continue to make a public declaration of their faith and hope and to preach the good news of the Kingdom in the midst of the greatest unsafety in the concentration camps and forced labor camps and prisons of Communist lands and of other lands under totalitarian rule and dictatorship. They triumph over these forms and operations of Devil rule, even as described in Revelation 12:11 (NW): “They conquered [Satan the Devil] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even despite the danger of death.” Nowhere is being one of Jehovah’s witnesses an “easy religion” nor is one safe from some form of hatred and assault by servants and governments of the invisible “ruler of this world,” Satan the Devil. Communists and other totalitarian rulers try to make Jehovah’s witnesses show that theirs is an inferior religion, not able to hold out against this world, but the faithfulness of the witnesses under these efforts to force them to give up their religion administers a defeat to the Communists and other totalitarians. As Dean Pike also said: “Communism is a world religion. It can only be defeated by a better religion. Nothing else can defeat it.” The failure of the ban and persecutions by Communists against Jehovah’s witnesses to stamp them out or to halt their increase is an eloquent testimony that among Jehovah’s witnesses they have met up with the one “better religion,” and it serves notice upon these radical fighters against Jehovah God that his witnesses will be here triumphant after communism and other radicalisms have gone. Their religion is as imperishable as Jehovah’s kingdom that they preach.—New York Times, January 11, 1955.

HOW

14, 15. How does Christendom’s manner of preaching compare with the way Jesus’ command to preach is now being fully obeyed?

¹⁴ The manner in which Jehovah’s witnesses preach “this good news of the kingdom” has come in for criticism. They do not preach in the orthodox, formal way, which is the easy way, in clergy dress in a church pulpit and with one’s religious flock gathered inside before the preacher or priest. This ceremonial, orthodox way of preaching in Christendom has failed to fulfill the command of Jesus to his disciples: “Go [yes, Go] therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20, NW) Because Christendom’s orthodoxy has failed to convert the world or convert even the people in lands called “Christian” and has failed to halt the invasion of the big cities by paganism, the religious systems of Christendom try to force the people to adopt religion or religious practices and confessions by having the lawmakers force religion upon unwilling people by law. This might be in harmony with the treaty of peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years’ War in Europe in 1648 and which ruled that the religion of each province of the Holy Roman Empire was to be thereafter determined by the religion of the particular ruler of that province, be he Catholic, Lutheran or Calvinist. But it has failed to save Christendom’s form of Christianity from corruption, decay and worldliness. This means that orthodoxy, which has held sway in Christendom for centuries, has not worked. It is a failure.

¹⁵ The outstanding way by which Jehovah’s witnesses obey Jesus’ command at Matthew 24:14 and preach “this good news of the kingdom” is by going from country to country, from city to city, from village to village and from house to house. This may not be the way that is orthodox with the clergy and laymen of Christendom, but it is apostolic, yes Christlike. After the apostle Peter and the other apostles had told the Jewish Supreme Sánhedrin at Jerusalem, “We must obey God as ruler rather than men,” and had been flogged and told to stop preaching about Jesus Christ, these apostles went away rejoicing, and, says the account, “every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.”—Acts 5:29, 40-42, NW.

16. In his preaching, how was Paul an imitator of Jesus, and with what result?

¹⁶ At that time Paul was not among those apostles in their house-to-house preaching, but years later he said in a farewell talk to the older men of the congregation of Ephesus: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. . . . I went preaching the kingdom.” (Acts 20:20, 21, 25, NW) When writing to the Christians at Corinth the apostle Paul said: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1, NW) In house-to-house preaching Paul was an imitator of Jesus Christ, for, besides preaching in various public places, Jesus was often reported in the houses of the people telling the occupants about the Kingdom. When sending out his twelve apostles and later also seventy evangelists to preach, he told them what to say at the doors of the people upon whom they called: “Wherever you enter into a house say first: ‘May this house have peace.’” (Luke 10:1, 5, NW) “When you are entering into the house, greet the household; . . . Wherever anyone does not take you in or listen to your words, on going out of that house or that city shake the dust off your feet.” (Matt. 10:5, 12-14, NW) As a result of preaching in this Christlike, apostolic way Paul could write out from his prison in Rome and say that the good news “was preached in all creation that is under heaven. Of this good news I Paul became a minister. I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for you.” (Col. 1:23, 24, NW) All creation under heaven was mainly pagan then.

17, 18. By whom and how, in practice, is the Christlike, apostolic way of preaching used successfully in our day?

¹⁷ After nineteen hundred years Jehovah’s witnesses are still wholeheartedly given to the house-to-house way of preaching in this “time of the end,” because it means obeying theocratic instructions in the Bible; it means imitating successful preachers like Jesus Christ and his apostles. Jehovah’s witnesses today have faith in that original way, that it will prove just as successful with them as with Christ and his apostles. They are not too lazy to follow that way because it is harder than standing in a church pulpit. They are not afraid to do it because it is the unsafe way, exposing them to ridicule, abuse, violent opposition and religious persecution. Instead of imitating the clergy and appealing to the “sword of the state” for help, they wield the “sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God,” and let it do the converting. They use the direct, practical, thorough method of Bible education, giving the people home instruction, private, personal, individual instruction in God’s Word, leaving literature containing printed Bible sermons with the people called upon, then returning later to answer Bible questions and to start home Bible studies. This is the aggressive, sensible way that halts the invasion of paganism into many homes or rescues many individuals from the swelling tide of paganism. For example:

¹⁸ New York city is reputed to be one of the biggest pagan cities on earth; yet by diligent house-to-house work reaching every home possible in this city of over seven million people Jehovah’s witnesses have increased from just one congregation in 1935 to fifty-five congregations thus far in 1955, with 7,048 reporting activity in preaching the good news to others. This means there is now about one active witness of Jehovah to every one thousand persons in the city. In the United States as a whole 187,120 reported activity in preaching during April of 1955, which means that among America’s 165,000,000 inhabitants there is one preaching witness of Jehovah to less than one thousand persons.

19-21. (a) What vital needs are indicated by recently reported remarks of other spokesmen for Christendom? (b) Why are such remarks out of date?

¹⁹ In the face of this is it any wonder that the clergy are beginning to make some observations and recommendations? Without themselves setting the example, the frightened clergy are now belatedly voicing the need for the laity (the members of their congregation) to get out and do some preaching, though not emphasizing the need to do house-to-house preaching. The general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches recently declared there was need for “the witness of Christ in our professional lives as well as our family lives. . . . The only way to bring people to the Christian church is to make them aware of the tremendous grace that is the gift of Christ.” (New York Times, July 12, 1954) Said the minister of Riverside church, New York city: “Overlooked is, the fact that religion is, first and foremost, the glorifying of God amid the everyday activities of life. The world is the place where religion needs to be seen in action.”—New York Times, July 5, 1954.

²⁰ In a report to a meeting of the World Council of Churches at Evanston, Illinois, in 1954, one layman, an army colonel, said: “One of the most important factors bearing on the future of the church is the responsibility of the laity to carry their faith to their jobs, homes, everywhere. We need more everyday Christians rather than the so-called Sunday Christians.” At that same assembly of the World Council at Evanston, in connection with a call for the churches to “break out in a spirit of evangelism of the apostles,” the chairman of the section on Evangelism said: “Evangelism is not a special assignment of missionaries, but a normal action of every disciple. . . . This is a new enlargement to the activities of churches. They will now have to undertake teaching their laymen to go about evangelizing their everyday life.” (Chicago American, August 27, 1954) Notice, please, in all those published statements the lack of any reference to the apostolic house-to-house preaching.

²¹ But when is it hoped to get laymen of the churches trained to carry out their part of the responsibility to preach? Listen to the minister of an Episcopal church in Houston, Texas, as he sermonizes in a New York city church; he said that IN TWO HUNDRED YEARS the source of evangelistic power in the Christian church would pass from the pulpit to “a witnessing fellowship.” Yes, preachers would continue to preach, “but sermons [in the pulpit] will not be the main means by which people are brought to Christ.” This would be accomplished in an atmosphere of awakening faith created by believers who would tell what “God is doing in their lives.” (New York Times, May 31, 1954) This clergyman is at least two hundred years behind the times in his viewpoint, at least as far as Jehovah’s witnesses are concerned. Already in the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses the world over, the preaching is not confined to the speaking by capable speakers from the Kingdom Hall platform but every baptized member of the congregation is encouraged, aided and trained to become a preaching witness, able to go alone from house to house and preach introductory sermons of some minutes’ length at the doors and also to make return visits on the interested sheep and give still longer sermons to show the value of Bible study.

22, 23. Dedicated doers of the will of Almighty God are now alert to what privileges and responsibilities?

²² In the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses everybody is a preaching minister. It is a society of ministers, and none can escape his responsibility to preach in obedience to Christ’s command and example. Each one is keenly conscious of Jesus’ prophecy at Matthew 24:14 concerning these days of the Kingdom’s presence, and each one feels with the apostle Paul as he exclaimed: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!” (1 Cor. 9:16, NW) Each one knows that it is vital, not only to the salvation of others, but also to his own salvation to preach publicly, for with force Paul’s words come home to each one of Jehovah’s witnesses: “If you publicly declare that ‘word in your mouth’, that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Rom. 10:9, 10, NW.

²³ What do Jehovah’s witnesses care whether worldly courts of law rule that they are “regular ministers” specially “set apart” or not? They know that they have dedicated themselves to God to do His will and they know that he commands them through Christ to go out to the people and preach and prove themselves his ordained ministers by actively serving the interests of his kingdom. Jehovah has known better than to wait for 200 years for the clergy of Christendom to stir their laity to action. The limited “time of the end” not allowing for that estimated time, Jehovah has raised up his own witnesses and they are giving the Kingdom witness right on time, just as he has ordered.

OVERCOMING THE WORLD

24. Living now with a Christlike faith includes what proper attitude toward this present world?

²⁴ It requires faith to be a witness for Jehovah. Read Hebrews 11:1 to 12:3 and note that from Abel, the first to die for the worship of Jehovah, down to Jesus Christ it required faith to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses. It was their faith that enabled them to overcome the existent world by seeing a righteous new world under God’s kingdom and therefore refusing to become part of the present world and to live like it and for it. The Christian that has become a spiritual son of God must conquer this world, and he can do so only by unshakable faith. Says the apostle John: “Everything that has been born from God conquers the world. And this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith.”—1 John 5:4, NW.

25, 26. How and why do present-day witnesses of Jehovah conquer the world?

²⁵ In 1914 the promised kingdom was born of God and it will yet conquer the world. It conquered Satan and his demons by casting them out of heaven and down to our earth, and now it goes on conquering in the Kingdom witness work on earth, and it will complete its conquest over Satan’s present world at Armageddon. (Rev. 6:1, 2, NW) On earth today there is a remnant of spiritual Christian sons of God, and they will not prove false to the stated rule that everything born from God conquers the world. They will show their faith in God’s kingdom by preaching it till the end of this world comes. There are also prospective earthly sons of God with us today, a constantly growing “great crowd” of them, who hope for life as His children in the glorious paradise of the “new earth.” They, too, must conquer the world just as the ancient, pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah from Abel to John the Baptist did. To do so they must make the same practical display of their faith in Jehovah God and his kingdom. But though we are surrounded by so great a cloud of ancient, pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah, we are especially looking at Jehovah’s greatest witness in the universe, his faithful and true Son Jesus Christ, for he was the greatest conqueror of this world, even by a martyr’s death on the torture stake at Calvary. He said: “I conquered and sat down with my Father in his throne.” (Rev. 3:21, NW) By him Jehovah God won a grand triumph over the enemy governments and authorities. We read:

²⁶ “God made you alive together with him. He kindly forgave us all our trespasses and blotted out the handwritten document [the law of Moses] against us which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us, and He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake. Stripping the governments and the authorities bare, he exhibited them in open public as conquered, leading them in a triumphal procession by means of it.”—Col. 2:13-15, NW.

27-29. (a) What ancient pagan ceremonial is recalled by Paul’s reference to Jehovah’s triumphant conquest through Christ Jesus? (b) How and against what wrongful accuser did Jehovah act to enable willing humans to share Jesus Christ’s triumphant conquest?

²⁷ Ever since that victory nineteen centuries ago, Jehovah God has been leading a glorious triumphal procession. According to the original Greek word that the apostle Paul used here, the picture is taken from the time of the pagan Roman conquests. To the pagan Romans a triumph was an imposing ceremonial in honor of a general who had gained a decisive victory. He was allowed to enter the city crowned with laurel, bearing a scepter in one hand, and a branch of laurel in the other, wearing an embroidered toga, and riding in a four-horse circular chariot of a peculiar form. He was preceded by the Roman senate and magistrates, musicians, the spoils, the captives in fetters, etc., and followed by his army in marching order. The procession advanced to the Capitoline Hill, where sacrifices were offered and the general was entertained with a public feast.

²⁸ In connection with God’s triumph nineteen centuries ago the apostle Paul mentions the “handwritten document.” This was God’s law through Moses, and it “consisted of decrees” and it “was in opposition to us.” It was “against us,” for it condemned all of us, Jews and non-Jews alike, as sinners deserving of death, because of our inherited imperfection and our inability to keep God’s law. But who are the governments and authorities that Paul says were stripped bare? They are the invisible governments and authorities of Satan and his demons. Moffatt’s Bible translation calls them “angelic Rulers and Powers.” Once these could accuse us before God. Why? Because we sought to worship and serve God perfectly but failed to do so, as proved by the Jews’ inability to keep the Mosaic law. That law could not make us perfect, even by its animal sacrifices. It exposed us as being sinners whom the Devil could tempt and whom he could accuse before God. But what we could not do God did, in order to overcome that accusation of Satan’s governments and authorities against Jehovah’s witnesses. He put Jesus Christ on the earth as a perfect man, and Jesus measured up perfectly to God’s law. Jesus did so although his preaching of God’s kingdom brought against him the opposition of all of Satan’s governments and authorities, visible and invisible. Jesus died unconquered by this world and perfectly loyal to God’s universal sovereignty. He died not only as a martyr or faithful witness to Jehovah’s kingdom but also as a perfect human sacrifice. Upon the basis of this sacrifice God could forgive and cancel the trespasses of which the Mosaic law condemned us. Thus Jehovah God nailed the Mosaic law to Jesus’ torture stake, canceling this “handwritten document against us,” the torture stake being a symbol of Jesus’ sacrificial death.

²⁹ In ancient times living captives from among the defeated were often stripped naked and led in the triumphal procession before the conqueror’s chariot, as the prophet Isaiah was used to illustrate by walking about naked and barefoot for three symbolic years. (Isa. 20:1-4) So when Jehovah God triumphed over the accusing satanic governments and authorities by letting Jesus die faithful and then resurrecting him for his faithfulness, Jehovah in effect stripped those enemy governments and authorities, disarming them and rendering them naked, completely exposed, as conquered. Jehovah was now within his right to forgive the trespasses of his Christian witnesses and to justify them or declare them righteous that they might gain the heavenly kingdom with their Leader Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:1, 6-9, 18, 19) So those satanic governments and authorities could no longer condemn them as sinners already condemned by God’s own law through Moses, for by faith in Christ’s sacrifice they were forgiven and cleansed and declared righteous, and were thus given a good conscience. “Who will file accusation against God’s chosen ones? God is the One who declares them righteous. Who is he that will condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, rather the one who was raised up from the dead, who is on the right hand of God, who also pleads for us.” (Rom. 8:1, 33, 34, NW) As a High Priest who has been admitted to God’s most holy presence with the life value of his perfect human sacrifice Jesus pleads and wins justification from sin for those who become his faithful, spirit-begotten, anointed followers.

30, 31. (a) Since Pentecost, what governments and authorities has Jehovah’s triumphing act kept on exhibiting as conquered and powerless? (b) For whom has such exhibition been progressing?

³⁰ Hence the condemnation of them by Satan’s demon organization does not affect them in God’s sight. In a clash with man-made laws of worldly governments under Satan’s invisible rulership men heap condemnation upon them for keeping God’s perfect law rather than man’s imperfect, ungodly law; but that does not stop them or take away their “good conscience,” for they know they have God’s approval and are suffering for righteousness’ sake. All this unfair, unjustified condemnation of them by men exposes the shame of the worldly governments and authorities, for these have been stripped naked as being enemy governments under Satan and as now being conquered, silenced by God’s justifying arrangement for his faithful servants. Thus the persistent faithfulness of his loyal servants of unbreakable integrity shows that the enemy accusations do not count, and by this Jehovah exhibits these stripped governments and authorities in open public as conquered.

³¹ Ever since Pentecost A.D. 33, when he poured out his holy spirit upon his servants in divine approval, Jehovah has been leading those enemy powers as in a triumphal procession before the gaze of men and angels, and this by means of the torture stake and the One who faithfully died on it. Those satanic governments and authorities may have kept on operating since Pentecost, but still they remain beaten, conquered, and the faith of Christ’s followers conquers them and shames them as being satanic powers of this world with which Christ’s followers cannot be friends and of which they can be no part. So we see those satanic powers for what they nakedly are, and our faith gives us the conquest over them and holds us true to God’s kingdom now born in the heavens. At the battle of Armageddon God’s conquest of them will be completed. Jehovah God will not preserve them alive as captives to be led in a triumphal procession after Armageddon before the eyes of the Armageddon survivors, but he will wipe them out and bring no enemy captives out alive on earth from that universal battle.

PERFUMING THE WAY OF THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION

32-34. (a) Since 1914, what more has been viewed by the God-favored spectators? (b) Under the figure of odors, pleasant and offensive, what other aspects of Jehovah’s triumph are clarified by Paul?

³² Jehovah’s magnificent triumphal procession moves on through this “time of the end” of this system of things, especially now that the Kingdom, born in 1914, has won the victory in the war in heaven between its Archangel King Jesus Christ and Satan the Devil and his angels. These defeated governments and authorities have been cast down to this earth to be detained here for a “short period of time” until they are abyssed and put out of the way at the climax of the battle of Armageddon. Now Jehovah’s triumphal procession is marching along to superb victory at Armageddon. How do we know that? By the odor of the knowledge of Jehovah God that is being spread more and more heavily throughout the earth by the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” on the part of Jehovah’s witnesses, the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” of companion witnesses.

³³ Not all the spectators view the triumphal procession in the same way and not all breathe in the heavy fragrance accompanying it with the same appreciation. To those who are a part of this world and to all who are friends of this foul, doomed world, the odor that is diffused by the Kingdom-preaching accompanying the triumphal procession is offensive, unbreathable, for God’s kingdom means a plague, death, to this world. To those who long for deliverance from this corrupt world and who perceive that God’s kingdom is the only hope of deliverance, that odor is welcome, sweet, delightful. The apostle Paul described it nineteen centuries ago when he was preaching about God’s coming kingdom, but what he says applies more forcefully now during the actual presence of the established kingdom. He had gone to Troas in Asia Minor to declare the good news about Christ, and there a door of opportunity to preach was opened to him. Despite that he left there and went to Macedonia across the Aegean Sea to meet Titus sooner. There, too, he was helped to spread the knowledge of Jehovah God. So in gratitude he exclaimed:

³⁴ “Thanks be to God who always leads us in a triumphal procession in company with the Christ and makes the odor of the knowledge of him perceptible through us in every place! For to God we are a sweet odor of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the latter ones an odor issuing from death to death, to the former ones an odor issuing from life to life. And who is adequately qualified for these things? We are; for we are not peddlers of the word of God as many men are, but as out of sincerity, yes, as sent from God, under God’s view, in company with Christ, we are speaking.”—2 Cor. 2:14-17, NW; 2 Co 7:5-7.

35. From 1919 to the present, why, figuratively speaking, has Jehovah’s triumphal procession included exulting preachers of “this good news of the kingdom”?

³⁵ What an uplifting thought! If we dedicate ourselves to Jehovah God through Christ and then engage as witnesses of Jehovah in preaching the good news of his established kingdom, he leads us in his triumphal procession with Christ the now reigning King. He leads us, but not as captives to our shame and public humiliation. Paul does not say here, as he does of the enemy governments and authorities at Colossians 2:15, that the triumphant Jehovah strips us naked and exhibits us in open public as conquered. No, but Jehovah leads us as a victorious general leads his army in a triumphal procession along a perfumed route through the welcoming capital. He leads us as sharers in His victory through Christ. Yes, he leads us as those by whom he is gaining further victory by making perceptible everywhere through us the knowledge of himself, by our publishing of the Bible and its message of the hour. Since 1919 Jehovah has given us this Kingdom message and wherever we preach it it triumphs. It gains victories, transforming many who formerly were enemies of God by wicked works into witnesses of Jehovah and preachers of the good news of his theocratic kingdom.

36-38. (a) As a repulsive stench, to whom and why are heralds of Jehovah’s kingdom unsatisfying? (b) What is denoted by such Kingdom heralds’ being, to others, “a sweet Christian odor”?

³⁶ Not only is the diffused or published knowledge of God an odor in the midst of which we march triumphantly behind Jehovah God and in company with Christ the King as we make that divine knowledge perceptible to others, but we are also ourselves an odor. But as respects us, noses in this world differ. Not that we of our own accord want to be offensive to anybody on earth, for we seek to be helpful and of benefit to everyone. But all this world is Jehovah’s enemy. So if we dedicate ourselves to Jehovah God through Christ and He uses us in his service as bearers of his kingdom message, then we cannot avoid being, yes, we must expect to be, offensive to many, the many who are the enemies of Jehovah and his theocratic government by Christ. Paul, who tried to please all people in all things for their advantage that they might be saved, had that experience. We ourselves cannot escape it, now especially when the establishment of the Kingdom has made the issue of universal sovereignty the burning question before all people. On this issue we cannot be the friends of this world.

³⁷ As Christians we witnesses of Jehovah copy Jesus Christ, we follow his steps bearing his reproach, we advertise him as now reigning King, and so, as it were, we exhale or give out the odor of Christ. In this respect we wish we smelled sweet to everybody, but we do only to the smaller number of people, to those who are being saved. To these we are like a sweet Christian odor. To these we are as an odor that issues from a life-giving source and that therefore leads to life in God’s new world. Why are we a sweet, life-breathing odor to these? Because it is plain to these few people that Jehovah God, the Source of life, sends us and so we come to them, not for death-dealing purposes, but unselfishly for life-giving purposes. These people are nauseated with this putrid world and its disappointing promises and its desperate, selfish efforts to keep itself in and God’s righteous world out. The message that we preach of God’s present kingdom is really “good news” to them. It breathes of life to them, and it shows them the way to happy life in God’s world of new heavens and a new earth, with now the opportunity of even surviving the battle of Armageddon.

³⁸ As if breathing in a delightful odor, they turn to us and receive us to themselves as Christians sent from God. They listen to our message and accept our Bible literature and our offer to study it with them. They act on our invitation to attend our meetings at area studies and at Kingdom Halls, become a part of the New World society by dedication to God through Christ and then join with us in breathing out this delightful, life-giving odor to others that they too may be helped to everlasting life. Jehovah as represented by his ruling King Jesus Christ is no “stone of stumbling” or “rock of offence” to them. They accept Jehovah as Universal Sovereign, the great Rock of the universe, whose activity is perfect. (Deut. 32:3, 4, NW; Isa. 8:13, 14, AS) The triumph of Jehovah’s kingdom message over these persons of good nose is for their life.

39. Figuratively again, to and from what are noses of lovers of “this world” turned, and why?

³⁹ On the other hand, the prophecy foretold that others, even Christendom itself, would stumble on this great Stone and get offended at this great Rock and hence would fall and be broken and be caught in a snare and be taken for death. (Isa. 8:15) To these the preaching witnesses of Jehovah are a stench, “an odor issuing from death to death.” Our Kingdom message bodes no good to them. It is like a foul smell issuing from a dead thing and contaminating and deadly to breathe in. It issues from a death-dealing source and it spells death to them. Why? Because they are a part of this world and love it and do not want to break loose from it. They do not want to reform and become reconciled to God through Christ. They prefer the company of his enemies, including Christendom with her orthodoxy and human traditions, which tickle their noses as well as their ears. But we preach the “day of vengeance of our God,” and therefore the coming destruction of this world and of all those who remain a part of this world. So we stink to these world-lovers. To them we are pestilential, we are death-dealing, we ought to be buried out of sight, out of smelling and out of hearing. This message of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and of his new world and of the destruction of this old world is an offense to them and puts us in bad odor with them. We give them no promise of life in the eternal future.

40, 41. How do such offended ones act, and with what effect?

⁴⁰ Jehovah, who put Christ in Kingdom power, has become a great Stumbling Stone and an offensive Rock to these. They try to remove the stumbling stone and to overturn the offensive rock by their worldly schemes of conspiracy against Jehovah God and his reigning Christ. In harmony with this they try to silence the Kingdom message proclaimed by Jehovah’s witnesses so foul-smelling to them. They may remove the name of Jehovah from translations of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible, but they cannot remove Jehovah the Rock from his position of Universal Sovereign. Hence they will be squashed flatter than a pancake by that great Stone at Armageddon.

⁴¹ Just as they can never remove the great Rock from his royal sovereignty over this earth, so they have not been able and never will be able to silence the Kingdom message and destroy its preachers. Till now they have had to smell Jehovah’s witnesses, and they will have to keep on smelling us, until their own noses are mashed in at the coming day of the ‘war of God the Almighty’ at Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16, NW; Matt. 21:42-44) It is Jehovah the almighty Unconquerable that leads us, and it is in his triumphal procession that he leads us in company with his King of kings and Lord of lords, the winning King and the winning Lord. The message of Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ has already gained grand triumphs throughout the earth because He backs up and blesses the preaching of this “good news” by his witnesses in all the inhabited earth. It will continue to triumph under his protection and guidance of us until Armageddon, when his own triumphant act of vindication will cause all the earth’s atmosphere to be permeated with the sweet, life-giving odor of the knowledge of God for every praiser of Jehovah that then breathes.—Hab. 2:14, AS.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 625]

SUBVERSIVE

SECRET AGENT

COMMUNIST

Oh, for a Fragment of Faith!

In Kirkcaldy, Scotland, a pioneer witness of Jehovah was having a Bible study with a young lady who was interested in the name “Jehovah.” The witness determined to procure a copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew so that she could show her the tetragrammaton in its original form. She felt that the person most likely to have a copy would be a clergyman; so she visited one in the town. After listening with interest to her reason for wanting the book he willingly loaned her a copy. Then he said that if his, or any other church in town, could boast of having one, yes one, Bible student with a fragment of the faith displayed by every one of Jehovah’s witnesses, they might be hopeful of being on the right pathway. He confessed that the churches were in a hopeless darkness and that he had spoken openly to other clergymen about the manifest faith of Jehovah’s witnesses at a time when God’s true witnesses should be expected to display such outstanding faith. The Bible gives this reply: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”—Prov. 29:18.

An Expression of His Triumph

1, 2. How do those who preach “this good news of the kingdom” differ from peddlers of God’s Word?

DOES anyone ask in Paul’s words: “Who is adequately qualified for these things?” To that we can answer: “We are!” not out of boasting, but out of a grateful realization of Jehovah’s favor to us. We cannot deny what results to us when he assigns us to his service and trains us through his theocratic organization under Christ. True, we do offer the people literature, the Bible itself and books, booklets and magazines and tracts explaining the Bible under the illumination and guidance of Jehovah’s spirit; and we do accept contributions from cheerful givers to the support of the Bible educational work. But that does not make us peddlers of God’s Word. Many religious and commercial men are peddlers of his Word, but they are not of the New World society, for they seek to make selfish, personal gain out of their handling of God’s Word. When anyone presents God’s Word from such a motive he is not sincere in his spreading of that holy Word. But since we have no commercial ends in view, we are sincere in dealing with God’s Word. Our heart’s desire before Jehovah God is just to make the odor of the knowledge of him perceptible through us everywhere we go that it may sweeten the lives of all persons whose lives have been made bitter by Satan’s oppression and false religions, and who want to be the sheep of Jehovah’s Shepherd-King Jesus Christ and to abide in his fold.

² This knowledge could not be diffused to them unless God sent those whom he has equipped with the right knowledge of him. Because he has given us this sweetness-breathing knowledge and thus placed a responsibility upon us not to keep that knowledge to ourselves, he has sent us. So we have this essential qualification from God of being his sent ones. We know he watches us on the way that he sends us; we are under his view, and we want to please him and gain his approval by the way we act and by the use we make of this gift of knowledge from him. From our very hearts we do not want to be peddlers. Being a peddler—well, even a servant of the Devil can be a peddler, and a peddler of God’s Word is a servant of the Devil; but being a peddler of anything is so far below the dignity and lofty honor of being in the triumphal train of the Most High God, sincerely enjoying the pleasure and privilege of sharing his Word unselfishly with others and making the odor of the knowledge of him perceptible to them. If we are in company with Christ we have to handle God’s Word that way, and we do want to stay in his company. We do not want to be in the company of religious peddlers.

3. Why, like Paul, do we preach?

³ So we are truly qualified for participating in the glorious triumphs of the Kingdom message in this day of Jehovah’s march to his greatest triumph by Christ. Therefore, like Paul, “as sent from God, under God’s view, in company with Christ, we are speaking” everywhere the Kingdom message.—2 Cor. 2:17, NW.

4. What additional aid for effective preaching has Jehovah now provided?

⁴ As a reward for our everywhere making perceptible the fragrant odor of the knowledge of Him till now, and to aid us in further breathing out that “odor issuing from life to life,” Jehovah God has given us at this time the second volume of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus the promise made at Yankee Stadium in the international convention of 1950 when the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was released is one step farther toward its complete fulfillment.

5, 6. By what act of separation has the Society better served us in 1955 as respects Volume II of the translated Hebrew Scriptures than it had indicated on page 27 of Volume I (published 1953)?

⁵ Because of the early arrival of these regional conventions of Jehovah’s witnesses in 1955, the limited time did not allow for this Volume II of the translated Hebrew Scriptures to contain, as at first anticipated, the poetic books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. These Bible books will have to appear in the next volume, a distinct volume by itself. But as the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society eagerly desired to release a further part of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, it gratefully grabbed at what the New World Bible Translation Committee had ready and the committee was willing to release it. The result is the publication sooner than anticipated of this translation of the Hebrew Bible books from First Samuel to Esther, inclusive, as Volume II of the series. Rather than be disappointed because Volume II does not contain all the fourteen Bible books originally contemplated, we can be glad that the committee through the Watch Tower Society has not made us wait longer for getting the translation of the nine books from First Samuel to Esther.

⁶ The publication of this additional volume of the New World Translation Bible represents a further triumph of Jehovah’s Kingdom message. Till now the translation committee has been accused of all kinds of base motives and contemptible practices and poor scholarship by religious enemies, by peddlers of the Word of God; but the New World Bible Translation Committee has kept in mind its promise. It has trusted in the great Author of the Bible and has gone ahead undaunted by all the adverse criticism, ridicule and condemnation of this world, and has produced the present volume. It purposes not to stop with this volume but to push ahead as the time and opportunity allow according to the divine time schedule between now and Armageddon, until the last volume is published.

7, 8. Why does the period of history covered by Volume II deserve our most thoughtful study now? and by the publication and the distribution of Volume II what are we helping to make perceptible more keenly?

⁷ In its contents this new volume covers the time of the theocratic kingdom of Israel, with all its typical significance, down to the restoration of Jehovah’s temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls after the overthrow of Babylon, with all the typical significance of those events, much of this typical history finding its fulfillment upon us alive today since 1914. Consequently that period of Jehovah’s dealing with his typical people deserves our most thoughtful study now, and that with the most faithful translation. The Watch Tower Society has confidence in this new volume of the New World Translation and will quote heavily from it in the Society’s future publications. We thank the Bible’s Author and Inspirer for this Volume II of the translated Hebrew Scriptures. We release it with the sense of being honored.

⁸ In publishing it the Society feels somewhat like the priest Ezra, who, as this Volume II calls him, was a “copyist of the law of the God of the heavens.” (Ezra 7:12, 21, NW) By our publishing this Volume II and by your sharing in distributing it to English readers we are all together helping to make more keenly perceptible the sweet odor of God’s knowledge in every place. Like Prime Minister Mordecai, backed up by Queen Esther of the Persian empire that triumphed over ancient Babylon, the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s royal priesthood works on, to prove itself as described in the last words of Volume II of the New World Translation, “delightsome to the multitude of his brothers, working for the good of his people and speaking peace to all their offspring.”—Esther 10:3, NW.

How Today’s Churches Would View Paul

THE Challenge, a New Zealand interdenominational religious weekly, carried a “famous unwritten letter,” from J. Flavius Fluffyhead, Foreign Mission Board Secretary, to Paul, Independent Missionary, Corinth, Greece. Pointed selections from it follow:

“Dear Mr. Paul: We recently received an application from you for service under our Board. It is our policy to be as frank and open-minded as possible with all our applicants. We have made an exhaustive survey of your case. To be plain, we are surprised that you have been able to ‘pass’ as a bona-fide missionary. . . .

“At Antioch, we learn, you opposed Dr. Simon Peter, an esteemed denominational secretary, and actually rebuked him publicly. You stirred up so much trouble at Antioch that a special Board meeting had to be convened in Jerusalem. We cannot condone such actions. Do you think it seemly for a missionary to do part-time secular work? We hear that you are making tents on the side. In a letter to the Church at Philippi, you admitted that they were the only Church supporting you. We wonder why.

“Is it true that you have a jail record? Certain brethren report that you did two years’ time at Caesarea and were imprisoned at Rome. You made so much trouble for business men at Ephesus that they refer to you as ‘the man who turned the world upside down.’ Sensationalism in missions is uncalled for. We also deplore the lurid ‘over-the-wall-in-a-basket’ episode at Damascus.

“We were appalled at your obvious lack of conciliatory behaviour. Diplomatic men are not stoned and dragged out of the city gate, or assaulted by furious mobs. Have you ever suspected that gentler words might gain you more friends? . . . You have caused much trouble everywhere you have gone. You opposed the honourable women at Berea and the leaders of your own nationality in Jerusalem. If a man cannot get along with his own people, how can he serve foreigners?

“You have written many letters to churches where you have formerly been pastor. In one of these letters, you accused a church member of living with his father’s wife, and you caused the whole church to feel badly; and the poor fellow was expelled. You spend too much time talking about ‘the second coming of Christ.’ Your letters to the people at Thessalonica were almost entirely devoted to this theme. Put first things first from now on. . . .

“Your sermons are much too long for the times. At one place, you talked until after midnight and a young man was so asleep that he fell out of the window and broke his neck. Nobody is saved after the first twenty minutes. ‘Stand up, speak up, and then shut up,’ is our advice. . . . You wrote recently to Timothy that ‘you had fought a good fight.’ Fighting is hardly a recommendation for a missionary. No fight is a good fight. Jesus came, not to bring a sword, but peace. You boast that ‘I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus.’ What on earth do you mean? It hurts me to tell you this, Brother Paul, but in all my 25 years of experience, I have never met a man so opposite to the requirements of our Foreign Mission Board.”

So no Pauls serve such Boards today.

Questions From Readers

● What are the unclean inspired expressions mentioned at Revelation 16:13, and who are the dragon and wild beast and false prophet out of whose mouths these expressions come?—M. Q., United States.

Revelation 16:13 (NW) reads: “And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Preceding chapters of Revelation show the identities of the dragon and wild beast and false prophet. Revelation 12:3, 9 (NW) shows the dragon is fiery-colored and has seven heads and ten horns, and that it is the “original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” Revelation 13:1, 2 (NW) speaks of “a wild beast ascending out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads.” This wild beast is Satan’s visible organization that rises up out of the seas of humanity alienated from God, and it is similar in appearance to the dragon, whose evil it images and reflects, and from whom it gets its power: “And the dragon gave the beast its power and its throne and great authority.” One of the heads of the wild beast, each of which represents one of the seven world powers, is then shown in more detail as a beast that “had two horns like a lamb, but it began speaking as a dragon,” and caused “those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the wild beast.” (Rev. 13:11-15, NW) This two-horned beast is the seventh world power, the Anglo-American world power, and it caused the nations of earth to form the “image to the wild beast,” the League of Nations and later the United Nations, and it made great claims as to what these international political organizations would accomplish in the way of establishing world peace. Since these claims were never fulfilled, this two-horned beast that appeared lamblike but actually spoke for the dragon was proved to be a false prophet, and from then on Revelation speaks of it as “the false prophet,” at Re 16:13, Re 19:20 and Re 20:10.

The unclean inspired expressions that come from the mouths of the dragon Satan and his visible agencies, the wild beast and the false prophet, “are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.” (Rev. 16:14, 16, NW) The likeness of these expressions to frogs shows their uncleanness in Jehovah’s eyes, just as the frog was unclean for his people Israel. They are the unclean mouthings of Satan through his visible organizations, the wild beast and the false prophet. Frogs are small, but they make a resounding noise nonetheless, and proclaim things that put the nations against God.

On this point the book “New Heavens and a New Earth” says: “The inspired expressions from Satan the Dragon and through his visible organizations, the wild beast and the false prophet, are unclean in God’s sight like slimy frogs. With big mouths they croak swelling words of peace and security. They produce signs such as the League of Nations and the United Nations and regional treaty organizations and ideological blocks. But where they really are leading the ‘kings’ (the rulers) of the entire inhabited earth is to the greatest war of all times, not a mere World War III with hydrogen bombs, but a universal war involving heaven and earth, the invisible and the visible. It is ‘the war of the great day of God the Almighty’! This will spell mournful defeat and disaster for Christendom and the rest of the demon-worshiping world.”

For more information on the identification of the dragon and the wild beast and the false prophet, and the unclean inspired expressions that come out of their mouths, please see the book “New Heavens and a New Earth”, pages 287-290.

Truth Found in Garbage Heap

IN June, 1954, the Watch Tower Society received the following report from two missionaries stationed in Trois-Rivières, Quebec:

“Upon advice from the Society we made a call on Mr. and Mrs. B————. They welcomed us in, he greeting us with a smile, saying: ‘You have come just in time,’ because his phonograph was just concluding the playing of a symphony. Thinking that there might be some mistake, we stated, ‘We are Jehovah’s witnesses, you know.’ ‘Oh yes, I know,’ he replied, although he had never seen us before. ‘I’ve been expecting you and when I saw your brief cases, I was sure you were Jehovah’s witnesses.’

“He told us that he had read the Book of Mormon and was going to return it as it did not interest him. He had also read the Adventist book The Great Controversy, and while in some respects it impressed him, there were many points in it he differed with. Then he had started to read the books of the Watch Tower Society and has been reading them ever since. What particularly impressed him about its books was the way they kept referring to the Bible for proof on every point.

“He seemed to be remarkably well-informed for one who had never spoken with one of Jehovah’s witnesses before and upon being asked the reason why, he told the following: About three years before, he had lived in an apartment in Montreal and someone had thrown out with the garbage the book Enemies. As at this time he was collecting books for his library (he belongs to a number of ‘Book of the Month’ clubs), he picked it up and added it to his library although not reading it at the time. Then his sister acquired two more of the Watch Tower Society’s publications, which he likewise added to his library without reading. But in the spring of 1954 he began to read the first book he had acquired, Enemies. He liked it so much that he read it through again and then read the other two books he had, ‘Let God Be True’ and ‘The Truth Shall Make You Free’.

“He then sent to the Society for various Bible translations and other Bible study aids and subscribed for The Watchtower. He has been reading the books at every opportunity and has been talking so much about the things he reads that everyone at the place where he works calls him one of Jehovah’s witnesses. ‘Of course, I’m not,’ said he, ‘as I consider that a real honor. You know,’ he continued, ‘this is beginning to interfere with my work, because I have no interest in business any more. When I have any spare time, instead of learning more about my business, I just read one of these books on the Bible. I’m so glad that you have come so that I can get in touch with a Bible study class.’

“Next he asked about the door-to-door activity. ‘If I were to go from door to door, I wouldn’t know what to say. Isn’t there some sort of training to learn how to do this work?’ We explained about the theocratic ministry school and the service meetings at which Jehovah’s witnesses receive training for the ministry and he was pleased to hear about them. He kept asking many discerning questions and appeared satisfied with the answers we gave him. He also brought up the subject of smoking tobacco and said that although he had quit smoking two months ago he had started in again, as he saw no reason for giving it up. After being told of the Scriptural and medical arguments against it, he said: ‘You know, I kind of thought that all along. Besides, I have been thinking that a lot of money is wasted that could be used for other purposes, such as for buying more of these books.’ We started a Bible study with him and his wife and they promised to come to our congregational meetings.”

The foregoing was written in June, 1954. And since then? Since then they have been diligently studying the truth as well as telling others about the things they have learned, especially their own relatives, as a result of which some of these are now also studying the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses. Before the end of the year both were engaging in the field ministry and at the first opportunity, at a circuit assembly held at the beginning of this year, they both gave public testimony of having dedicated themselves to Jehovah, by being baptized. The missionaries state that it is a real joy to note their progress and zeal, both in the field and at the congregational meetings.

Announcements

MAKING WISE USE OF THE TIME THAT REMAINS

Living in these last days of the old system of things, more than ever the apostle’s counsel is seen to be of greatest value: “Keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked.” (Eph. 5:15, 16, NW) Buying out time from other activities in order to have opportunity for serving God is the wise course. It is needful that dedicated witnesses spend time doing their assigned work of witnessing, leaving with people Bibles and Bible literature that will aid them in understanding these times of increased wickedness. During November they will call on all persons with whom Bible studies have been conducted during the year in order to offer them one or more volumes of the New World Translation of the Scriptures on a contribution of $1.50 each. From door to door Jehovah’s witnesses will offer a volume of the New World Translation together with a book on a contribution of $2.

QUALIFIED TO BE MINISTERS

Adequately qualified ministers are needed today more than at any other time in man’s history. That means ministers ordained by God. Further, it means they must have the light from God through Christ shine upon them and they must make public confession of the true faith. As proof that Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses today meet these qualifications, ‘food at the proper time’ is being served to hundreds of thousands who are conscious of their spiritual need. These in turn, adequately fed, grow to maturity, dedicate their lives to do God’s will and prepare themselves for the ministry. Are you one of such? Then you will read with lasting benefit the new 384-page book Qualified to Be Ministers. Not only is it a provision to train and qualify new ministers, but also it is an aid to maturity and advancement for those already engaged in preaching activity. It covers preparation and delivery of speeches, composition, private study, the ministry, congregation activities, worship—clean and unclean—modern history of Jehovah’s witnesses, and theocratic society. Send for a copy for 50c.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

November 20: The Triumphant Message of “The Kingdom,” ¶1-23. Page 621.

November 27: The Triumphant Message of “The Kingdom,” ¶24-41; also, An Expression of His Triumph. Page 629.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ How church money-raising methods have shocked commercial advertisers? P. 611, ¶3.

✔ Who the rock really was on which the church was built? P. 612, ¶4.

✔ What proves Peter was not the first pope? P. 615, ¶2.

✔ What effect World War II had upon the growth of Kingdom-preaching? P. 619, ¶1.

✔ How today’s earth-wide preaching involves the end of this system of things? P. 621, ¶1.

✔ What false idea about God’s kingdom is commonly accepted today? P. 622, ¶3.

✔ What facts prove that orthodox religion has failed in its mission? P. 625, ¶14.

✔ How leading religious leaders have seen the need for a change in evangelism? P. 627, ¶20.

✔ How the Kingdom message is a stench to some and a sweet odor to others? P. 632, ¶33.

✔ How a religious paper pointedly showed the lack of men like Paul today? P. 637, ¶2.

✔ What the unclean inspired expressions mentioned in Revelation 16:13 are? P. 638, ¶3.