The Watchtower — October 1, 1956

Flags and Religion

PATRIOTIC fervor often causes persons to manifest an ardor and zeal that resembles religious devotion. This influences them not only to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s but at times even to give Caesar that which belongs exclusively to God. Such persons might be said to confuse religion with politics. A common example of such patriotic fervor is the devotion that many tender to the flag of their nation.

Note, for example, what the Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 11, page 316, has to say about human attitude toward such flags: “The flag, like the cross, is sacred. Many people employ the words or term ‘Etiquette of the Flag.’ This expression is too weak, too superficial and smacks of drawing-room politeness. The rules and regulations relative to human attitude toward national standards use strong, expressive words, as, ‘Service to the Flag,’ ‘Respect for the Flag,’ ‘Reverence for the Flag,’ ‘Devotion to the Flag.’”

And as regards saluting the flag, this authority, among other things, has the following to say: “In the United States the salute with the right hand, while the person stands at attention, is the common and accepted method. The uncovering of the head is also recognized as a salute. Placing hat above the heart or hand on left breast is also esteemed reverential.”

That such devotion to the flag should be customary is not at all surprising in view of the fact that “early flags were almost purely of religious character,” according to The Encyclopædia Britannica. That authority and others show the development of flags. In the hope of assuring victory pagan soldiers at first carried their idols and carved images with them into battle. Then they made miniatures of their carved idols, which they placed on the end of staffs. Later they painted representations of their idols on cloth and fastened these to the staffs. Thus is seen the evolution from carved idols to modern flags.

It was because of this fact, no doubt, that the Jews of the time of Christ had such an antipathy to national emblems. To them such emblems were a violation of God’s command: “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.”—Ex. 20;4, 5, NW.

Thus history tells of the time Pilate transferred the headquarters of his army from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Of course, the soldiers took along their standards that bore the image of the emperor. Knowing the Jewish temper, they cautiously brought these standards into the city at night, hoping to avoid an uproar. But when the Jews discovered these standards in their holy city of Jerusalem they stormed down to Pilate at Caesarea in large crowds, demanding that these standards be removed. On the fifth day of the discussions Pilate had the Jews suddenly surrounded by Roman soldiers threatening them with death if they did not break off their entreaties. However, the Jews vowed they would rather die than allow the desecration of their sacred city by such idolatrous emblems. Pilate found it expedient to yield.

Early Christians were likewise extremely careful to avoid even the suspicion of compromise with the state or secular rule as regards their devotion. Regarding the Christians of the first three centuries Neander, foremost authority on that period, states: “While they showed the most conscientious obedience to the government in everything which was not against the law of God,” thus willing to give to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar, they refused “to pay any of those species of veneration to the emperors” that were in vogue then, such as offering incense to the busts of the emperors.

To what extent modern patriotism can become religious ardor and the things belonging to God be given to Caesar can be seen from the following report that appeared in the Diario de Justiça, February 16, 1956, page 1906, Federal Capital, Brazil:

“FLAG DAY

“In a public ceremony presided over by the vice president of the [Military Supreme] Court, on the 19th of November, honors were shown to the Brazilian flag. Exactly at 12 o’clock, the national emblem was hoisted on the principal mast of the Supreme Court building.

“After the flag was hoisted, Minister General of the Army Tristao de Alencar Araripe expressed himself concerning the commemoration in this manner:

“‘In expressive symbolism human ingenuity has decreed that, under the protection of the flags, millions of beings live, with the eyes of their spirit and heart turned heavenward, full of confidence, faith and hope.

“‘It should be said that they, the flags, form a great canopy suspended above the vastness of our fatherland under whose protective shadow the people live happily, make progress and consciously affirm the sovereign right and safety of a respected place in the friendly relationship with other peoples.

“‘In this beneficent role the flags have become a divinity of patriotic religion which imposes worship, commandments and services and dispenses favors and benefits. The flag is venerated and worshiped, every moment of one’s life, with profound, pure and almost inborn sentiments of love, gratitude and respect, and with the visible manifestations of a ritual which, far from being mere convention, has infused itself into our habits of life, as normal and spontaneous obligations, in its highly affective aspect.

“‘The flag is worshiped, just as the Fatherland is worshiped, not with the mere rationalism of a devotion calmly accepted and exercised, but in the paroxysm of a passion which leads us to an unrestrained and unconditional veneration for all the good, the grand and the useful that the Fatherland expresses. The flag is venerated, just as the Fatherland is venerated, giving to it all of oneself and placing above one’s own self even the sacrifice of one’s life, in order that they may be magnified and glorified.

“‘Worship, veneration, sacrifice, mark well the divine essence of this symbol and of the sentiments which unite men through love for themselves and through dedication to the common good. It is fitting that on this day, consecrated to the unforgettable divinity—the national flag—emphasis be given to this worship and this veneration which is not just homage, but is, above all, prayer, supplication and reaffirmation of obligations assumed. Prayer that from its Power there may radiate exhalations to stabilize the unity of all Brazilians for the greatness of Brazil and the greater happiness of its people.

“‘I pray that the Flag may always be the lofty and worthy Flag of a Brazil respected and happy.

“‘Reaffirmation of obligations assumed, both publicly and within our very inmost being, to comply each one with his role as Brazilian, so that by means of the effort of each one there may hover above the skies of Brazil the immense canopy that guarantees our blessedness as a nation and as free and happy men.

“‘Be eternal, Flag of Brazil.’”

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, emphasized that while giving Caesar’s things to Caesar we must also give God’s things to God. And what are God’s things? “Exclusive devotion,” namely, “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.” (Mark 12:30, NW) Would not, therefore, one’s veneration and worship of the flag, “every moment of one’s life,” and that “in the paroxysm of passion” that is “unrestrained and unconditional” be a giving to Caesar the things that belong exclusively to God? Think it over.

How Will God’s Kingdom Come?

Jesus taught us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom. What is that kingdom? Who are its rulers and its subjects? How will it come?

AT Evanston, Illinois, in the summer of 1954 the World Council of Churches met. Commenting on the two opposing views presented at that religious gathering, the bishop of London said: “There were the Germans with their idealism who thought the kingdom of God has nothing to do with this world, whereas the Americans, like Charlie Taft, thought that if you had the requisite number of gadgets and the right kind of plumbing you could have the Kingdom of God tomorrow.”—Christian Science Monitor, July 9, 1955.

According to a Roman Catholic authority,a “In the mouth of Christ the ‘kingdom’ means not so much a government to be attained or a place” as it does “a tone of mind.” One leading Protestant authority states that the kingdom of God has “no political designs,” and that “its prime element is mind, pius, devoted to God and pleasing God.” Christ’s kingdom is composed of “all who are true to him in faith and life.”b And according to another, Christ’s kingdom is “primarily a religious conception, not political or economic, though it will have political and economic consequences. It is that condition in human life in which the will of God as revealed in Jesus Christ is in control.”c

What is the kingdom of God? Christ ruling in the hearts of men? And how does it come? By all Christians’ going to heaven? Or by the advance of modern civilization? Or by the conversion of the world?

THE THEME OF THE BIBLE

The Kingdom is the theme of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. God referred to it when he foretold the triumph of righteousness by the Seed of the woman bruising the head of the Serpent. And he revealed still more about his kingdom when he promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would bless themselves in his seed.—Gen. 3:15; 22:17, 18.

By means of the kingdom of Israel God foreshadowed Kingdom blessings, particularly by the peaceful and prosperous reign of Solomon. Time and again in the Hebrew Scriptures we read of Jehovah’s reigning. Miriam and her companions sang of it and so did the psalmist. Daniel and other prophets foretold the coming of the King and God’s kingdom.

And the kingdom of God certainly was the theme of Jesus’ preaching. He announced, “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near,” and taught his followers to pray, “Let your kingdom come.” He commands us to “keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” Time and time again he illustrated various aspects of his kingdom, likening it to a treasure, to a pearl of great price, to a mustard seed, etc. And when he rode into Jerusalem, mounted upon an ass, as was the custom with the kings of ancient Israel, he let the people hail him: “Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah’s name, even the king of Israel!” That was in fulfillment of a prophecy uttered hundreds of years before.—Matt. 4:17; 6:10, 33; John 12:13, NW; Zech. 9:9.

A REAL GOVERNMENT

The Scriptures show the kingdom of God to be a real government with a heavenly king and associate rulers, a domain and subjects. It is not merely a rule of Christ in the hearts of men, a mere tone of the mind. It is The Theocracy. Theocracy? Yes, an exercise of might (kratos) by God (Theós).

What has caused confusion is the expression “the kingdom of God is within you,” of Luke 17:21, as found in some versions, as well as an overlooking of the fact that Jesus was here addressing the hypocritical, greedy, faithless Pharisees. Certainly the kingdom of God was not in those men. Correctly translated this expression, together with its context, reads: “On being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming he answered them and said: ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with striking observableness, neither will people be saying, “See here!” or, “There!” For, look! the kingdom of God is in your midst.’” (Luke 17:20, 21, NW. See also AV and AS margin; RS; ED; Elberfelder, German.) The Jewish Encyclopedia in quoting this text also calls attention to the fact that according to the Aramaic it should read “among you.” Jesus could say that the kingdom of God was in their midst because he, its king, was present.

Jesus Christ proved himself worthy to be the king of God’s kingdom by his faithfulness to God and his unselfish service to his fellow man. “He humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake. For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position.” By his sacrificial death Jesus purchased the human race and therefore will be able to bestow everlasting life on all his obedient subjects. His kingdom will therefore be a paternalistic one. Fitting, therefore, are the Scriptural designations given him, such as “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”—Phil. 2:8, 9, NW; Isa. 9:6, AS.

Sharing his Kingdom rule will be his “bride,” not a lone woman, but a body of associates, a royal family of 144,000 members. The apostle John had a vision of them: “And I saw, and look! the Lamb standing upon the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. . . . These were purchased from among mankind as a firstfruits to God.” These are the footstep followers of Christ who have been specially called and chosen by God. Being found faithful unto death, they will be part of the kingdom that will bless all the families of earth as the spiritual Seed of Abraham.—Rev. 14:1, 4; Gal. 3:16, 29, NW.

That Jesus promised his followers rulership in a real or organized kingdom or government the Scriptures clearly show: “Your Father has approved of giving you the kingdom.” “To the one that conquers I will grant to sit down with me in my throne, even as I conquered and sat down with my Father in his throne.” And again, ‘I covenant with you for a kingdom, that you may sit upon thrones.’ Yes, they “will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”—Luke 12:32; Rev. 3:21; Luke 22:29, 30; Rev. 20:6, NW.

HOW WILL IT COME?

Some have concluded that “coming without observation” means that God’s kingdom will come without the use of force. But in view of the fact that God’s Word shows that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” and that “friendship with the world is enmity with God,” it would be unreasonable to expect the kingdom of God to come by the whole world’s converting to Christ. Preaching the good news of the Kingdom is not for the purpose of converting the world but merely “for the purpose of a witness to all the nations.”—1 John 5:19; Jas. 4:4; Matt. 24:14, NW.

The nations of earth are opposed to God’s kingdom and therefore God commands his Son: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” And so God commands: “Be wise, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way.”—Ps. 2:8-12, AS.

Note also the tenor of Daniel’s prophecy: “In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but”—it shall gradually convert all nations? No, but—”it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44, AS.

And particularly does Revelation describe how God’s kingdom will come. All nations will be gathered “to the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” “to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.” Jesus Christ and the heavenly armies with him will carry on war in righteousness. He will smite the nations with a long sharp sword and “will shepherd them with a rod of iron.” After destroying the wicked nations of earth he will hurl his invisible enemies, Satan and his demons, into the abyss of deathlike inactivity to remain there for a thousand years.—Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-15; 20:1-3, NW.

The physical facts show that we are living in the days of the fulfillment of these prophecies. God is therefore having the good news of his kingdom preached worldwide so that all men of good will may ‘seek Jehovah, righteousness and mildness,’ and so be spared during the battle of Armageddon even as Noah and his family were spared during the Deluge and came forth from the ark upon a cleansed earth. These will furnish the nucleus of the earthly domain of God’s kingdom. During the 1,000-year reign of Christ the earth will be made a paradise, all those in the memorial tombs will be resurrected and all obedient ones of mankind will be gradually restored to perfection.—Zeph. 2:2, 3.

Then Satan and his demons will be loosed for a final testing and all manifesting selfishness will be destroyed together with Satan and his demons. Thus the kingdom of God will accomplish God’s purpose by causing his will to be done on earth as in heaven and will vindicate him as the rightful Sovereign of the universe.—Rev. 20:7-10.

[Footnotes]

‘The Rafter in Her Own Eye’

● In the New York Daily News, November 4, 1955, the following dispatch appeared: “Brothels Warm, So Prices Go Up 4 Cents. Rome, Nov. 3, 1955.—Under the law, Italian hotels and apartment houses do not have to turn on central heating until December 1. But brothels must turn on the heat November 1. Because of this year’s unseasonably cold weather, this quirk in the law has made the 800 legalized houses practically the only warm places in the country, and business has boomed. Today the madames boosted their prices 10 per cent throughout the country and in the northern provinces they slapped on a general admission charge of 25 lire (four cents) to discourage those who drop in just to thaw out. The prices are regulated by the government,” and now range from $.33 to $1.65.

● In the United States and other Protestant lands such as Great Britain, the Roman Catholic Church poses as the guardian of public morals and lashes out against planned parenthood, indecent literature and vulgar movies. However, in view of this situation in a country 99.7-percent Roman Catholic for more than a millennium, the words of Jesus are appropriate: “How can you say to your brother: ‘Allow me to extract the straw from your eye’; when, look! a rafter is in your own eye? Hypocrite! first extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother’s eye.”—Matt. 7:4, 5, NW.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and on his law doth he meditate day and night. For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the wicked shall perish.—Ps. 1:1, 2, 6, AS.

Marriage Obligations and Divorce

“That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he must stick to his wife and they must become one flesh.”—Gen. 2:24, NW.

1. What marriage rule must prevail among Christians, as shown by what scriptures?

FOR his followers Jesus Christ put marriage back where God had started it in the garden of Eden. God gave the perfect man Adam one wife, making him monogamous. The Christian that is justified or declared righteous in God’s sight may have no more than one living wife. In the congregation the overseers, who are spiritually “older men,” and the ministerial servants may be “husbands of one wife” only. They are the men to be followed as examples of the flock, and so all other married persons in the flock may have only one living marriage mate. (1 Tim. 3:1, 2, 12, NW; Titus 1:5-7) Christians must stick to their marriage mates in faithfulness, in love, so remaining in it associated with God.

2. From whom only may a man draw sexual delight?

² This does not permit a man to commit adultery or have sex relations with any other woman. He should be satisfied with and draw delight from sexual relations with only his wife; as it is written: “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Why should your springs be scattered abroad, your streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers along with you. Let your fountain be blessed to you, and get your enjoyment from the wife of your youth. A lovely hind, a graceful doe—let her breasts intoxicate you always, with her love be continually ravished. Why, my son, should you be ravished with the wife of another, and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?” (Prov. 5:15-20, AT) Committing adultery makes the guilty one subject to disfellowshiping from the New World society.

3. (a) What did God’s law provide that a wife should receive from her husband? (b) How did that law safeguard a man’s marriage rights?

³ God created the sexes particularly for the peopling of the earth by bringing forth children. (Gen. 1:27, 28) In his law to Israel God provided that a wife should have from her husband “her sustenance, her clothing and her marriage due,” undiminished. This means she has the right to have children if she wants them. (Ex. 21:10, 11, NW) This was shown by God’s law of brother-in-law marriage, whereby the brother-in-law was obliged to marry the widow in order to give her a child and thus raise up the name of his dead brother and not leave his brother’s widow childless. (Deut. 25:5-10) A man was also entitled to have children by his wife. That is why, when the call to the army of Israel came to him, if he was simply engaged to marry a girl he could not be drafted till after the engagement was over and he was fully married. Even then he could not be drafted until he had lived a year with her as a married man and had the opportunity to have a child by his wife and see and enjoy it. (Deut. 20:1-5, 7; 24:5) The wife’s claim on the man preceded that of the army, for her sake and for the sake of the family name. He must give her the “marriage due.” She must give him his due.

4. What may Christian couples choose to do and that without censure?

⁴ After the great flood Jehovah God repeated to Noah and his family the mandate to have children. But there is now no procreation mandate laid upon Christians. Otherwise, no Christian should remain single and childless. So no Christian obligation exists now before the battle of Armageddon to have children. To keep as free as possible for the direct service of God in preaching the good news of his kingdom, some Christian couples may choose to remain childless, thereby avoiding parental obligations and keeping unburdened. If there were now in force a procreation mandate from God, all married members of the New World society would choose to have children immediately, and not delay it till after Armageddon, if possible. Although under the original procreation mandate from God Adam and Eve did not have any children in the garden of Eden for what time they were there. It was not for their failing to conceive children at once that they were driven out. No married couple should be criticized for refusing or failing to have children now before Armageddon.

5. What misconceptions have caused celibate marriages, and why have these never fared well?

⁵ This is not saying that married couples should not give each other the sexual due. This is not saying that, before getting married, they should make an agreement and enter a common vow before God to live a celibate life even after marriage, having no sexual relations but merely enjoying each other’s companionship. No one should think that this is raising marriage to a spiritual level and keeping it on an exalted, unfleshly plane, and so belittling the marriage of others who have sexual relations. If a married couple does not want to pay marriage dues, then the man and woman should not marry at all and not subject the mate to deprivation of what is natural and craved naturally. By celibacy they are not putting their marriage on a level higher and holier than that of others. They cannot change God’s honorable sexual arrangement. Celibate marriages have therefore never fared well.

6, 7. Celibate marriages involve what inconsistencies, and what advice does Paul give in this regard?

⁶ The others are not degrading their married life by intercourse, but are following an honorable, rightful course. There is no proper marriage for so-called “Platonic friendship” just because the end of the world is so near. If an engaged couple think natural connections are carnal, then why wed at all? Why have one of the opposite sex so close to one all the time, in the most intimate privacy? If it is not good or spiritually upbuilding to touch a woman, why live so intimate with her even in celibate marriage? Be natural, be normal, do not be falsely idealistic. Do not be like some Irish Catholic girls who are in the news, who get married but refuse to give their husband his due because they want to imitate Jesus’ mother Mary and remain “ever virgin.” The apostle Peter instructed them never to handle their married life that way, but to recognize their husband as their “lord.” (1 Pet. 3:5, 6) The apostle Paul, who at least once set the apostle Peter straight, wrote:

⁷ “Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is well for a man not to have intercourse with a woman; yet, because of prevalence of fornication, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife her due; but let the wife also do likewise to her husband. The wife does not exercise authority over her own body, but her husband does; likewise, also, the husband does not exercise authority over his own body, but his wife does. Do not be depriving each other of it, except by mutual consent for an appointed time, that you may devote time to prayer and may come together again, that Satan may not keep tempting you for your lack of self-regulation. However, I say this by way of concession, not in the way of an order.”—1 Cor. 7:1-7, NW.

8. (a) Why is faithfulness in marriage important? (b) What counsel does Peter give husbands?

⁸ The everlasting life of a married person depends upon his faithfulness to his marriage contract. Jehovah, accompanied by his Messenger of the covenant, is now at his spiritual Christian temple and warns that he has come near to judgment and will be a swift witness against adulterers. (Mal. 3:1, 2, 5, Da) The apostle Peter says that a Christian husband should treat his wife understandingly and as a fellow runner in the race for everlasting life in the new world. His words are: “You husbands, continue dwelling in like manner with them according to knowledge, assigning them honor as to a weaker vessel, the feminine one, since you are also heirs with them of the undeserved favor of life, in order for your prayers not to be hindered.” (1 Pet. 3:7, NW) A Christian will therefore not abuse his wife either physically or spiritually. If he does not help his wife and children to gain life in the new world, how could he be expected to help outsiders to do so?

9. How should husbands love their wives, and what are some of the ways in which they can show this?

⁹ Jesus Christ loves his “bride,” who is to be his “wife.” His married followers must also love their wives. “Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it, . . . let each one of you individually so love his wife as he does himself; on the other hand, the wife should have deep respect for her husband.” (Eph. 5:25, 33, NW) To some former pagans the command to love one’s wife may sound strange, but a Christian is under orders to do so. He should love her by deeds as well as words, being concerned “how he may gain the approval of his wife” as far as he conscientiously can. (1 Cor. 7:33, NW) He should sit with her in congregational meetings, he should study the Bible at home together with her and build up a oneness of spiritual interests with her. This may be difficult at first or unusual.

10. How can husbands and wives enhance each other’s happiness, and what common possession ought to provoke love between them?

¹⁰ But as a husband begins showing love in little ways of expressing it and notes the pleasure of his wife over it he will find that he likes it. He will want to do it some more and to enlarge it. It will become normal, natural for him to do so. He will grow in appreciation that this is a showing of the spirit of God, the fruitage of which is love. In turn, let no wife reproach her husband, saying: “You don’t love me. You never show it.” Let her notice his little, embarrassed ways of showing love for her and then let her reveal sincere pleasure at this and also voice appreciation of this, to enhance his happiness. The common possession of the truth and the likeness of their dedications to God and their hope of gaining life together everlastingly in the new world ought to provoke a sympathy and love between them. This will help so much amid the difficulties of married life today.

11. (a) What does God’s Word require of wives, and in what has failure to do so resulted? (b) What is the purpose of all Scriptural advice to married couples?

¹¹ Let the wife show deep respect for her husband, acknowledging him as her married head. (1 Cor. 11:3) “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a savior of this body. In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything.” (Eph. 5:21-24, NW; also Titus 2:3-5) Besides this example of the Christian congregation toward Jesus Christ, the Christian wife has the still loftier example of the subjection and obedience of the universal organization of God toward the Lord Jehovah. (Isa. 54:5, AS) It is interesting for a wife to note the recommendations of March 20, 1956, of Great Britain’s third Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce. Among the factors that it listed as contributing to the rising divorce rate in Britain was “the new position of women as equals rather than inferiors in marriage partnerships.” It is only reasonable to expect that the ignoring of God’s all-wise arrangement for human marriage would lead to trouble and the wrecking of more and more marriages. The purpose of all the advice of God’s Word to married couples is, not only to guide them in making their life together more enjoyable and helpful toward gaining eternal life, but also to keep them living together, to help them avoid divorce.—New York Times, March 21, 1956.

DISSOLUTION GROUNDS: LEGAL AND SCRIPTURAL

12, 13. (a) Upon what various grounds do the laws of man allow divorce? (b) But what did Jesus say was the sole valid ground?

¹² By the laws of states and nations today divorce is granted on a number of grounds. Persons who have lost or killed their love for their marriage mate try to grab hold of whatever legal grounds they can to break the marriage tie, such as mental cruelty, laziness, refusal of conjugal rights, drunkenness, insanity, incurable disease, desertion or abandonment, barrenness, sodomy, bestiality, criminality, incompatibility, change of one’s religion, and so on, besides adultery. But are all these legal grounds Scripturally right, valid for the Christian? Jesus Christ is Jehovah’s Counselor for us. The Jewish Pharisees once tested him with this question: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on every kind of grounds?” Jesus did not answer those questioners by referring to the Roman Caesar’s laws concerning divorce. He referred to the superior law of the Most High God and showed there is but one ground for divorce—adultery or moral unfaithfulness.

¹³ “In reply he said: ‘Did you not read that he who created them at the beginning made them male and female and said: “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh”? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.’ They said to him: ‘Why, then, did Moses prescribe giving a certificate of dismissal and divorcing her?’ He said to them: ‘Moses, out of regard for your hardheartedness, made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but such has not been the case from the beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife except on the grounds of fornication and marries another commits adultery.’” (Matt. 19:3-9, NW) “When again in the house the disciples began to question him concerning this. And he said to them: ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.’” (Mark 10:10-12, NW) “Everyone that divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he that marries a woman divorced from a husband commits adultery.”—Luke 16:18, NW.

14, 15. Adultery results in what sin against one’s own body, and how does God’s Word regard an adulterer?

¹⁴ Adultery is unloving and is a breaking of God’s commandment. (Rom. 13:8-10; Ex. 20:14; Acts 21:25) The adulterer is already married and yoked together as one flesh with his legal mate. But adultery is a putting apart what God has yoked together. The adulterer pulls away from his legal mate and makes himself one flesh with a third person. Three do not make one flesh, but two do become one flesh. A person’s being one flesh must be with only one other, not with two others or more. Addressing himself to anointed Christians who were members of Christ’s spiritual body or congregation, the apostle Paul wrote: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of the Christ away and make them members of a harlot? Never may that happen! What! Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? For, ‘The two,’ says he, ‘will be one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee from fornication. Every other sin which a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body. What! Do you not know that the body of you people is the temple of the holy spirit within you which you have from God?”—1 Cor. 6:15-19, NW.

¹⁵ Many of those here addressed were married persons. Having sexual connection with their married mates was not taking them away from membership in Christ’s body, for one’s wife is one’s own flesh and one is uniting with what is one’s own. But when married Christians commit adultery or single Christians commit fornication, even with a religious temple prostitute, they do something of which God and Christ do not approve. They are taking their bodies that belong to Christ and becoming one flesh with a sinner, a fornicator or a harlot. When committing adultery or fornicating, a Christian sins against his own body. He is misusing it, contrary to his owner Christ. The adulterous Christian also sins against his wife, who is properly one flesh with him. He is breaking his unity with her, thus hurting himself, hating himself because he hates his wife whose flesh he rejects. An anointed Christian cannot take himself as a member of Christ’s body and make himself “one flesh” with an illegal person, a fornicator or a fornicatrix, a harlot, for Jesus has no connection or oneness with such an unclean person. Unless the Christian repents and reforms from his immoral course he shows he prefers union, not with Christ, but with the immoral person, and hence he ceases to be in union with Christ. He is not one in spirit with Christ. He ceases to be part of the virgin class that is espoused to Christ. A confirmed adulterer or fornicator is no Christian. He is no witness of Jehovah. Jehovah God does not make adulterers or fornicators his witnesses.—1 Cor. 5:11-13.

16. What only breaks the marriage union, and, therefore, what kind of divorce does not free one for remarriage?

¹⁶ Since this uniting sexually with an illegal person makes a married person one flesh with someone outside the marriage union, it is only adultery that really breaks the marriage union, snapping the yoke with which God has made the married couple one flesh. Therefore Jesus said that only adultery is the ground that God allows for divorce. Unless adultery has broken the yoke of marriage, a divorce would not be proper or would not really take effect before God. Divorce courts of this world, when decreeing a divorce on grounds other than adultery, are not actually putting apart what God has bound together. The divorced persons are still one flesh with each other, still man and wife. Thus neither one is free to remarry, for to remarry would mean to commit adultery. A man who divorces his wife on unadulterous grounds exposes her to adultery by a remarriage and also exposes himself in a like way. A man who marries a woman not divorced for adultery by herself or by her husband commits adultery with her, uniting himself with flesh that still belongs to another man.

17. (a) Why is a widow or a widower free to remarry? (b) What may persons declared legal widows or widowers do, yet what responsibility must they accept?

¹⁷ Death dissolves a marriage. A widower or widow is therefore free to remarry. “A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law of her husband. So, then, while her husband is living, she would be styled an adulteress if she became another man’s. But if her husband dies, she is free from his law, so that she is not an adulteress if she becomes another man’s.” (Rom. 7:2, 3, NW) One’s husband or wife may be known to be dead through war or a catastrophe but may not happen to be registered as dead or the records may not be at hand to verify the death. Or one’s marriage mate may disappear and be absent so long that the law of the land pronounces him dead. By this a person is legally declared a widower or widow. Such a one may conscientiously remarry. By remarrying he takes upon himself the responsibility for the outcome, and he must live in full submission to the new obligations. God knows the actual facts and he judges in accordance with them, and he determines whether the remarried person is suitable for life in the new world or not. If a mate legally declared dead should put in appearance again and want his legal mate restored to him, the matter would have to be straightened out legally. Under such circumstances anyone marrying a person only legally declared a widower or widow is taking a risk or chance and must be willing to face any turn of events.

IMPOTENCE, UNCLEANNESS, INSANITY, CHANGE OF RELIGION

18. (a) How do God’s law and man’s laws differ regarding impotence as a ground for divorce? (b) Regarding artificial insemination?

¹⁸ The Rabbinical law of the Jews laid emphasis on the duty of the marital act. It allowed the wife to divorce her husband who, because of his physical disability, was unable to give her this due for a period of six months. Likewise a husband could divorce his wife because of her inability to produce children. But mere impotence on the husband’s part Jesus did not recognize as a ground for divorce. The wedding procedure that has legally been carried out before witnesses made the marriage both binding and valid, just as it did for Adam and Eve in Eden. Where a man is impotent today the married couple in their desire for children might agree for the wife to receive the seed of another man by artificial insemination. Some law courts have already held that artificial insemination is adultery and that children produced by such means are illegitimate. The recent British Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce recommended as a ground for divorce the wife’s acceptance of artificial insemination by a donor of seed without her husband’s consent. Such a divorce would be Scriptural. But where the husband consented it would be grounds for the disfellowshiping of both man and wife. Why? Because it is a virtual committing of adultery, and both man and wife consented to the immoral act. The husband in effect gave her to another man to receive the seed of copulation, and the wife gave herself to a man not her husband to become the mother of a child by that other man with whom she was not one flesh. It is an adulterous course, and the fact that the husband adopts the child does not do away with the fact that he consented to the adulterous use of his wife.—Lev. 15:16-18, 32, 33; 19:20; Num. 5:12, 13, NW.

19. What Scriptural examples show barrenness is not a ground for divorce?

¹⁹ Neither is a wife’s barrenness a true ground for divorce. Because of her barrenness for many years, even up to more than twenty-five years, Abraham did not divorce Sarah, nor Isaac Rebekah, nor Jacob Rachel, nor the priest Zechariah Elizabeth.a The sons of Noah did not divorce their wives for barrenness during all the years that the ark was under construction and until two years after the flood. (Gen. 6:18; 11:10) Nor did Jehovah divorce his “woman,” his universal organization, because of her barrenness or failure to bring forth the Messiah for more than four thousand years.—Isa. 54:1-13.

20. (a) How does God’s Word regard filthy sex perversions? (b) Yet why are these no valid grounds for divorce with purpose of remarriage?

²⁰ Sodomy (or the unnatural intercourse of one male with another male as with a female), Lesbianism (or the homosexual relations between women), and bestiality (or the unnatural sexual relations by man or woman with an animal) are not Scriptural grounds for divorce. They are filthy, they are unclean, and God’s law to Israel condemned to death those committing such misdeeds, thus drastically putting these out of God’s congregation. But such acts are not adultery with the opposite sex, making the unclean person one flesh with another of the opposite sex. (Rom. 1:26-32) Yet there is a penalty of disfellowshiping attached to them. They will keep a Christian out of the heavenly kingdom and out of God’s new world, and that means being destroyed like beasts from all future life. “The minding of the flesh means death,” it “means enmity with God, for it is not under subjection to the law of God, nor, in fact, can it be. So those who are in harmony with the flesh cannot please God.” They cannot gain the prize of everlasting life from him. (Rom. 8:6-8; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19-21) Such filthy things by a mate may make life unbearable for the clean married person and are grounds for separation only, though some courts grant a divorce on such grounds. Such separation does not free one to remarry and enter thus into adultery. Writes Paul: “To the married people I give instructions, yet not I but the Lord, that a wife should not depart from her husband; but if she should actually depart, let her remain single or else make up again with her husband; and a husband should not leave his wife.” (1 Cor. 7:10, 11, NW) Only if one of the separated couple committed adultery under the stress of the separation would there be Scriptural basis for the innocent to procure a divorce and be free to remarry.

21. (a) Why are mental illnesses or incurable or loathsome physical diseases no grounds for divorce? (b) Rather, such conditions provide the opportunity for exercising what?

²¹ Should one’s marriage mate in the course of time go insane or contract an incurable disease or a loathsome one, this is no true basis for getting a divorce. In this case the unfortunate mate must be treated just as an injured member of one’s body or as one’s child by one’s mate. The mate should be treated with proper care, not be cut off from relationship by legal divorce. Despite the ailment the sick mate remains one flesh with the healthy one and deserves full attention and faithfulness as his own flesh. This displays love for one’s flesh and helps to lighten the terrible situation, rather than worsen it. “In this way husbands ought to be loving their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh, but he feeds and cherishes it, as the Christ also does the congregation, because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.’” (Eph. 5:28-31, NW) The faithful mate will not forsake the other during illness either mental or physical. By God’s law the healthy one is not freed to do so. Naaman’s wife was not freed from him because he was a leper whose terrible disease only a miracle of Almighty God could cure. (2 Ki. 5:1-4, 8-14) At a wedding the mates usually vow to take each other for better or for worse.

22-24. (a) Why is a change or difference in religion no grounds for separation or divorce? (b) What advice does Paul give mates in such situations, and what should determine whether a Christian should leave his unbelieving mate?

²² Some law courts take as a ground for divorce the change in religion on the part of one’s mate. According to God and Christ this is not right. This law case assumes that, at marriage, both the husband and the wife were members of the same religious system, so that now the one’s change of religion creates a home difficulty on a most vital point. By adopting the new religion the one changing becomes an unbeliever toward the religion of the other mate. Though this may be a bitter experience for the mate that retains the former religion it is no real reason for him to separate from the other either by legal action or by mutual consent. On this Paul writes:

²³ “If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and yet she is agreeable to dwelling with him, let him not leave her; and a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and yet he is agreeable to dwelling with her, let her not leave her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in relation to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in relation to the brother; otherwise, your children would really be unclean, but now they are holy. But if the unbelieving one proceeds to depart, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not in servitude under such circumstances, but God has called you to peace. For, wife, how do you know but that you will save your husband? Or, husband, how do you know but that you will save your wife?”—1 Cor. 7:12-16, NW.

²⁴ So difference of religion, either from before marriage or only since getting married, is no reason why a couple should separate. It is no basis for a divorce that would free them to marry others. If the husband should believe and come into God’s truth before his wife does, he should stick to his wife if his change of religion makes no difference with her or even if she objects. The thing is, Does she want to continue living with him under the circumstances, which his accepting the truth should really make better circumstances? If she does, then he should not leave her. His staying with her gives him the opportunity to talk the truth to her, or at least live the truth before her, and possibly by this course help her to accept the truth and get salvation to life in God’s new world. This opportunity holds true also for the wife who believes the truth and still remains with her husband.

25. How does God consider the children of such marriages, and how should the believing mate treat the unbelieving one?

²⁵ Since the unbelieving one is still “one flesh” with the believer, the unbeliever for this reason alone gains some recognition from Jehovah God. God considers their children, not as unclean, but as holy, and the believer will try to bring them up in true holiness that, at the age of understanding, they too might of their own choice dedicate themselves to God through Christ. The unbeliever is not automatically made a saint or one of God’s holy ones, but the believing mate has dedicated everything to God and treats the unbeliever from that standpoint. The sanctified believer will accordingly treat the unbeliever as God would want it to be done, and that will be all toward aiding the unbeliever to see and accept the truth and also come into relationship with God.

26. (a) What may unjust treatment make necessary, but why is this no ground for divorce with right to remarry? (b) What should be the attitude of separated mates, as noted by Laban’s words?

²⁶ If the unbeliever does not respond to this sanctified treatment, there is still no reason to leave such one. The move toward separation must or should be taken by the unbeliever. In some cases this move may be a virtual abandonment by the unbeliever’s mistreating the believer so badly that it is practically unbearable to live together further. But, as in the case where even fellow believers might separate from each other over some disagreement, the believer must remain single until the departed unbeliever commits immorality and so provides grounds for proper divorce. (1 Cor. 7:10, 11) The believer’s attitude toward the separated mate may be like that expressed in Laban’s words to Jacob against any violation of the marriage alliance: “Let Jehovah keep watch between me and you when we are situated unseen the one from the other.” (Gen. 31:49, NW) Jehovah God watches whether there is any violating of the marriage covenant. He observes who is the guilty mate and determines whether there is Scriptural ground for divorce to free one for remarriage. This must be, not so-called “spiritual adultery,” but physical adultery.

27. Why is spiritual adultery no basis for Scriptural divorce, and why is it well for a believer to continue with an unbeliever?

²⁷ The inspired James did write: “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4, NW) But this spiritually adulterous friendship with the world is no ground for divorce. Why not? Because this mere friendship does not make anybody “one flesh” with one of the opposite sex adulterously. True, an unbeliever is a friend of this world. However, the apostle Paul did not argue from this that a believer had the right and good cause to leave the unbelieving mate. To the contrary, it was perfectly proper, and altogether moral, for them to keep living together if the unbeliever was agreeable to this. By this keeping together as a couple the unbeliever might be helped toward salvation in the new world, which help would not be possible if the two were said to be improperly living together and the believer was therefore said to be conniving at spiritual adultery by the worldling.

MERCIFUL TREATMENT OF A MATE

28. (a) Limiting divorce to adultery does not give mates what allowance? (b) How are some of man’s laws partial in contrast with God’s law?

²⁸ Christ limited the grounds for a divorce that frees one for remarriage to adultery. This does not give either marriage mate the allowance to abuse or neglect the other. This limitation to adultery only emphasizes the divine arrangement that the married couple are one flesh, and should stick together in mutual care, come better or come worse. This is the decree of the infallible Judge of the Supreme Marriage Court. In some lands the law does not make the adulterous conduct of the husband a legal ground for the wife to divorce him, but makes only the morally loose wife the one that can be divorced for adultery. But according to God’s ruling through Christ, if the husband is immoral, it allows a woman to put him away legally and free herself for remarriage without becoming an adulteress by this action. That is why Jesus said: “Whoever divorces his wife [unscripturally] and marries another commits adultery against her, and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11, 12, NW) So Jesus was not setting up for husbands a standard different from that for wives when he said in his sermon on the mountain: “Moreover it was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ However, I say to you that everyone divorcing his wife except on account of fornication makes her a subject for adultery, seeing that whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matt. 5:31, 32, NW) God is not partial. To him adultery by the husband is just as bad as that by the wife.

29. Why may a man not look upon a woman not his wife with the desire to have relations with her?

²⁹ So let no husband covet another man’s wife, nor look upon any other woman with desire to have with her the relations that he owes exclusively to his wife. Let the proverbial married business executive or office man beware that he does not fall in love with his lady secretary, married or single, and take liberties with her. Jesus said: “You heard that it was said, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone that keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27, 28, NW) He is already guilty in the sight of God, who reads the heart. Although this is adultery in the man’s heart and although he may not be divorced by his wife on this ground, covetousness toward someone other than one’s marriage mate, if not blocked, leads to physical adultery.

30, 31. (a) When may an innocent mate forgive the other that has sinned? (b) What course should the congregation pursue where forgiveness is granted? Where refused?

³⁰ If one’s mate does commit adultery one has the right to forgive and not sue for divorce, provided the guilty one shows proper repentance and earnestly asks for forgiveness and promises not to repeat but be faithful to the marriage vow. If the innocent one does not forgive the offending mate, then the offender must be disfellowshiped by the congregation and the innocent mate is authorized by the Scriptures to get a legal divorce if possible or desired. This is a private matter. If, say, the husband forgives the wife, he continues to give her the marriage due, trusting in God to forgive her. Then there is no reason for the wife, whom he treats as “one flesh” with him, to be exposed and punished by the Christian congregation with disfellowshiping, thus undoing the reunion that the husband’s forgiveness has mercifully brought about. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” (Prov. 10:12, RS) “Have intense love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet. 4:8, NW) “My brothers, if anyone among you is misled from the truth and another turns him back, know that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (Jas. 5:19, 20, NW) “Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go lay bare his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you [and admits his sin, expresses his sorrowful repentance and begs forgiveness], you have gained your brother.” If the sinner refuses to listen to even the supervisory committee of the Christian congregation of which the sinner is a member, he must be excommunicated, said Jesus.—Matt. 18:15-17, 21, 22, NW.

³¹ If, in imitation of God and in obedience to Christ, the husband has forgiven his repentant wife and held back from punishing her legally as he might, how has the congregation a right to punish her with excommunication and to put a spiritual barrier between the husband and his wife, whom he is trying to help reform? The congregation should co-operate in the reform effort. But, what if, before the husband decides to forgive his wife, the congregation disfellowships her? If the husband afterward forgives her for Scriptural reasons, this does not automatically lift the excommunication of her from the congregation, for the matter is now directly in the congregation’s hands. She must deal directly with the congregation’s supervisory committee and must satisfy it by taking the necessary steps to be fully taken back into the congregation. (Compare paragraph 41, last fourteen lines.) A similar handling of the matter would take place if it was the faithful wife that forgave the husband, not under any compulsion or insistence or threatening on his part, but because of his unmistakable repentance and primarily with the loving desire to help recover her husband spiritually. “The wife does not exercise authority over her own body, but her husband does; likewise, also, the husband does not exercise authority over his own body, but his wife does.” (1 Cor. 7:4, NW) Consequently, during the time that she was proving the sincerity and thoroughness of his repentance and reform efforts, she would exercise a vigilance concerning his conduct and help him to keep morally and spiritually clean, fit to be associated with the Christian congregation.

32. (a) What course must the forgiving husband pursue if he does not want congregational action to follow? (b) What action should the congregation take against the one with whom the adultery was committed?

³² In the case of a faithful husband, certainly he may be expected to put his wife on probation, closely watching her and helping her to keep from repeating sin, and the congregation will rely upon him to do so. Otherwise the congregation would consider him as not presiding properly over his own household and hence not qualified to hold any responsible office with spiritual oversight in the congregation. In that case, too, the congregation would step in, because he is not conducting his home affairs in a Christian manner, and would take action against man and wife. The person with whom the adultery was committed may be a member of the congregation. If so, that person must be disfellowshiped and thus stripped of service privileges and positions and Christian fellowship. If after disfellowshipment that one shows the fruitage of repentance and seeks to get back into the congregation, that one may be reinstated and put on a long probation, for at least a year, and then, being found on good behavior, he may be formally relieved of the restrictions imposed upon him and be fully received back.—1 Cor. 5:1-5, 13; 2 Cor. 2:5-11.

33. From what suitable congregational action does the innocent one’s forgiveness not protect the guilty mate?

³³ When a congregation withholds an excommunication action because of the innocent mate’s prior forgiveness, this does not mean that the guilty mate may not and should not be deprived of any special responsibilities or service privileges in the congregation. Here, not excommunication, but the qualifications for special service positions in the congregation are involved. The guilty mate, by adultery, has misrepresented the congregation and disqualified himself and should not be kept in any representative or responsible position. The innocent mate’s forgiveness does not protect the guilty mate from the congregation’s power of action to remove the disqualified person and to have in office persons above reproach and offering no stumblingblock to others.

34. What are some Israelite examples of husbands forgiving guilty wives?

³⁴ The forgiveness of a guilty mate calls to mind the prophet Hosea, whom Jehovah instructed to take his adulterous wife back and who obediently did so. (Hos. 1:3-6; 3:1, 2) Long before that, in the days of Israel’s judges, an unnamed Levite journeyed a distance and took his adulterous concubine back, but not to prostitute her. At the Benjaminite city of Gibeah he turned her loose to the mob that stormed the house where he was lodging. But he did not put her at the mob’s mercy because he failed to love her. He did so only to prevent his sacred office as a Levite from being profaned by forced sodomy or effeminacy. He did not approve of the mob’s violation of his wife or concubine. Indignantly he made it an issue that he put before the whole nation of Israel. He provoked the shocked eleven tribes of Israel to punish the guilty city and the tribe of Benjamin by a war that almost brought the wiping out of the guilty tribe. This vindicated the other eleven brother tribes as being upholders of the purity of the nation.—Judges, chapters 19 and 20.

35. In the case of the Corinthian brother who committed fornication with his father’s wife, what consideration may have induced Paul to order only the guilty man to be excommunicated?

³⁵ In the adultery case handled by the apostle Paul, at 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Paul ordered only the man guilty of fornication put out of the congregation as a leavenlike poisonous influence. If the woman was a member of the congregation, why did not Paul, with his apostolic authority, also order the congregation to disfellowship the equally guilty woman in the case? She was the wife of the guilty man’s father, and the apostle Paul would respect the treatment that the husband might extend his guilty wife. Consequently it was only the repentant man that Paul later on recommended to be reinstated by the congregation and saved from Satan’s designs.

36. Why may not financial damages be taken for adultery?

³⁶ This forgiveness of a marriage mate that repents is radically different from letting a wife commit adultery and then collecting what is called “woman damages” from her violator. Some polygamists keep a number of concubines for the express purpose of prostituting them, just to collect “woman damages” over and over again on the same concubine. This is worse than prostituting one’s own daughter. (Lev. 19:29, NW) If a person forgivingly takes an erring mate back again it should be without collecting such damages. Taking the financial damages condones the adultery and makes commerce of it. Forgiving the guilty and seeking no financial damages keeps the innocent one clean. It makes him appreciate more the sinfulness of the unclean course rather than the commercial profit possible by the wicked prostituting of a wife.

37. What may those do who, before coming into the truth, remarried after an unscriptural divorce, and why?

³⁷ Before coming to a knowledge of God’s truth and his requirements a person might have legally divorced his mate on unscriptural grounds and then remarried. If this person is now holding onto the new marriage and accepts the Kingdom message, the Christian congregation cannot do anything about altering his marriage estate. It must accept him in the civil status in which God’s message finds him, trusting in God’s forgiveness of his wrongdoings before he knew better, his sins of ignorance. But the Christian congregation must require that he be found living true to his obligations in his second legal marriage. Otherwise, it could not believe that his dedication to God was accepted and it could not grant him any baptism in water.

38. If a Christian wishes to divorce an unfaithful dedicated mate what should the congregation first do?

³⁸ If a married Christian commits adultery, the Christian mate may want to divorce. However, in order to bring no unnecessary reproach upon Jehovah’s people by the unclean unfaithfulness of one of his witnesses, the Christian congregation should first excommunicate the unfaithful member. Then the clean, innocent mate can take public court proceedings against the unfaithful as one who is now not a member of the congregation, not one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Thus the theocratic organization suffers no public shame.

39, 40. (a) If an unscriptural divorce is obtained what must the congregation observe regarding the divorced ones and when must it take action? (b) Why does repentance after an unscriptural divorce not free anyone for remarriage?

³⁹ All in all, it is the duty of the Christian congregation to take note of the basic reason for a divorce by a member or by a married couple of the congregation. If the reason is unscriptural, the congregation must observe the course of the divorced afterward. The immorality cause of a divorce may not always be stated in the petition for divorce or in the judicial decree. In some lands the reason for the grant of divorce may be stated as injures graves et publiques (“serious and public injuries”). Nearly always this means adultery; however, to protect innocent ones who could be affected by reproach or public embarrassment, the ground for divorce may be worded thus. The congregation should inform itself of the specific reason. It cannot excommunicate any member just for divorcing on unscriptural grounds, but if that member remarries before the death or immorality of the divorced mate, the congregation would disfellowship this member for adulterous remarriage.

⁴⁰ When a Christian merely asks God’s forgiveness for the course he has taken in unscripturally divorcing his mate, it does not free him to remarry. His being forgiven his sins in general does not cancel or annul the legal marriage that was dissolved on unscriptural grounds. It does not change his married status. If it did, then the divorcer of another on unscriptural grounds would not be committing adultery by remarrying. Remember this: a marriage broken up by unscriptural divorce either before or after one dedicates oneself to God is not really dissolved in God’s sight by asking for his forgiveness of sins; any more so than God’s forgiveness of the sins of a criminal in prison would cancel his prison sentence and free him to walk out the prison gates at will. Hence remarriage without Scriptural permission or authorization is adulterous and the congregation will disfellowship the offender. Likewise, if a Christian married a worldly person that was divorced on unscriptural grounds, that Christian is committing fornication and should be disfellowshiped.—Rom. 7:2-4; 1 Cor. 7:39.

41. (a) What does an improper remarriage do for the innocent party that remains single? (b) What action must be taken toward the party improperly remarrying, and from what would such a party be barred ever after?

⁴¹ An improper remarriage will make a divorce effective and will free the innocent party to continue in the congregation and to remarry if that innocent one chooses to do so. However, the one improperly remarrying must be disfellowshiped as committing adultery, and thus comes into a dangerous condition that threatens his eternal existence. “He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.” (Prov. 6:32, RS) Only reinstatement can save him. But the unscripturally remarried person may not be fully taken back into the congregation on mere repentance. He, after reinstatement, must be subject to a sufficiently long period of probation, at least a year, to let him show the fruits of a sincere repentance together with a right respect for marriage. His legal remarriage still holds good before the law of the land and must have proper legal grounds in order to be dissolved in court. Even if his former, unscripturally divorced wife should die or remarry after he did, he is not thereby automatically reinstated. He must still repent, confess, make application for reinstatement and submit to the probation period. If the repentance bears the required fruitage of a proper fulfillment of his obligations in the new legal marriage and if then he is fully readmitted to the congregation, he is ever after disqualified from holding any official, exemplary, responsible office or privilege in the congregation. His private past in the truth is not a good example.

42. Why are those who uphold the divinely imposed obligations of marriage happy?

⁴² Marriage true and clean is a privilege from Jehovah God. He himself arranged it, and “there is no unrighteousness in him.” (Ps. 92:15, AS) Happy are the Christians that are faithful to the divinely imposed obligations of their marriage. They uphold the true dignity and honorableness of this divine institution. They take to heart the Christian commandment: “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” (Heb. 13:4, NW) They enjoy not primarily the pleasures of the fleshly relationship but chiefly the spiritual opportunities that this close union of the two sexes affords them. This fulfills the idealness of marriage and earns God’s approval and blessing. It makes wedlock a help toward gaining salvation and serving the Most High God. It vindicates Jehovah God in lovingly instituting this provision for man’s joy and for fulfilling the divine purpose.

[Footnotes]

‘He That Marries Not Does Better’

1. (a) What proves that an unmarried man is not half a man? (b) What is the only kind of bride Jesus Christ will ever have?

MARRIAGE has joys and blessings that God purposed it to have. By the attraction that he put into play between the sexes it is normal for man and woman to marry, not even leaving out Christians who are in the flesh. However, for Christians God’s Word does not take the view of some tribes or peoples that a man has not reached his full estate unless he is married, so that if he is not married he is only half a man. To take this view means to downgrade Jesus Christ, for he died a virgin, a single man, at the age of thirty-three and a half years. He died unmarried according to his heavenly Father’s will. But by this course of self-control and obedience he wins a spiritual “bride,” a congregation of 144,000 faithful followers who love him with a love surpassing that of a man for a woman, of a husband for a wife. This spiritual bride whom the Father unites to his Son in heavenly beauty and radiance is the only wife that Jehovah God has authorized Jesus Christ to have.—John 3:29; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9-14.

2. What other examples do we have of God’s servants who did not marry?

² The young prophet Jeremiah held back from marriage because Jehovah God, like a father, forbade him to marry and have children inasmuch as it was the “time of the end” for the Jewish kingdom of the line of David. (Jer. 16:1-4, AS) The apostle Paul did not avail himself of his “authority to lead about a sister as a wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas.” (1 Cor. 9:5, NW) The overtowering reason why many Christians in the “time of the end” of this wicked world stay single must be considered and, if understood, wins no reproach but high respect.

3. (a) What may bereaved mates choose to do, and why can married Christians be virgins spiritually? (b) For what powerful reason only do some remain virgins?

³ A Christian bereaved of a mate by death may remarry but may choose not to do so. In the case of a Christian woman, “if her husband should fall asleep in death, she is free to be married to whom she wants, only in the Lord [or, only if he is in union with the Lord]. But she is happier if she remains as she is.” (1 Cor. 7:39, 40, NW) Married Christians may still remain spiritually virgin toward Christ by not becoming adulterous friends toward this world and its womanlike systems: “These are the ones that did not defile themselves with women; in fact, they are virgins.” (Rev. 14:1-4, NW) With commendable virtue many Christians, virgins whether men or women, may choose to remain single, though making no vow to do so. They remain virgin, not because there is a Christian rule “forbidding to marry” in this “time of the end,” in these “later periods of time.” (1 Tim. 4:1-3, NW) The New World society has no such rule. It Scripturally allows freedom to marry before the battle of Armageddon. The powerful inducing reason for virginity is God’s kingdom.

4. How do some make themselves eunuchs for the sake of God’s kingdom?

⁴ Jesus called such voluntary virgins self-made eunuchs. After he told his disciples that adultery alone was the ground that God allowed for divorce, his disciples soberly said: “If such is the situation of a man with his wife, it is not advisable to marry.” In commenting on that saying Jesus said: “Not all men make room for the saying, but only those who have the gift. For there are eunuchs that were born such from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs that were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs that have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of the heavens. Let him that can make room for it make room for it.” (Matt. 19:10-12, NW) They do not make themselves eunuchs by physically castrating themselves as did the religionist Origen, who produced the famous Hexapla edition of the “Old Testament” in the third century. They do it by making room for it in their hearts, willingly resolving to keep themselves physically in the unmarried state like that of a eunuch who could not marry, the state of singleness. What keeps them from marrying is not necessarily a vow of celibacy nor self-castration or some physical disability, but is their overpowering desire to apply themselves to the service of God’s kingdom as fully as possible, and the more so now that the Kingdom was established in the heavens in 1914 and “this good news of the kingdom” must be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, because the complete end of this doomed world is constantly getting closer.

5. How does one receive the gift of singleness?

⁵ As Jesus himself said, not all Christians make room for the saying about the advisability of not marrying under present uncertain, imperfect, evil-infested conditions. Only those who “have the gift” do. A “gift”? Yes, but not one by being born a eunuch or by some miraculous bestowal of powers from God. The privilege of staying unmarried is a gift that God holds out to all single persons who become followers of his Son Jesus Christ. But not all avail themselves of this gift; not all make room for it. Yet there are many who take under consideration all the circumstances and conditions that have to do with them as Christians, and also the opportunities and Kingdom service privileges that are set before them. They look ahead to see what the outcome of a certain course of action or a certain life relationship with another might be. They weigh the married estate and its dues and limitations against the single state and its possibilities, all this with a regard for Jehovah’s precious “treasure” of service. After serious study of the matter they make an intelligent decision, a firm resolve, to stay as they are, single. They then avoid entanglements that might obligate them to leave their singleness.

6. (a) How do these fill up their void, and what blessings result therefrom? (b) How do these fortify themselves for their chosen course?

⁶ To fill up the void that they might naturally feel because of not having a beloved marriage partner, they plan and strive to fill up their lives with all the service to God that they can, becoming full-time servants of his if that is possible, undertaking all the engagements of service that they can. Keeping fully occupied in the divine service holds their hearts and their attention riveted on the urgent work now to be done in the short remaining time. This self-application rewards them with joys and blessings that counterbalance anything that their flesh might at times try to persuade them that they are missing by not being married to a Christian mate. Self-control is one of the fruits of God’s spirit, one of the important things that every Christian must add to his knowledge, faith and virtue. So they specially cultivate the spirit’s fruitage of self-control in order to hold onto their singleness. (Gal. 5:22, 23 and; 2 Pet. 1:5, 6, NW) They strengthen and fortify this specially directed self-control by looking at the advantages they enjoy by this and the undesired things that they avoid by this. Besides that, they plan and make provision to enjoy their singleness to the full, to get the greatest benefit out of it. This is not selfish. It is not depriving someone else of the opposite sex of a marriage due, but it is enjoying that to which they are entitled, while they let married couples enjoy that to which they are entitled. Primarily it is done to the pleasing and praise of Jehovah God and in the interest of his kingdom by Christ.

7. What fine examples are there of keeping single, and why are these not to be pitied?

⁷ By way of example, there are hundreds of Christian women who have gone single into foreign missionary fields. The local population wonder how they manage to keep single, and the married native women may incline to pity these missionaries as undergoing a great deprivation and hence a hardship. But by the spirit of Jehovah they give themselves fully to the missionary work and experience unspeakable joys. They are not to be pitied. While they may pity many of the native women for being married under the prevailing conditions, they do not pity themselves but feel like Jephthah’s daughter.

8, 9. (a) How did Jephthah’s daughter view the vow her father made regarding her? (b) What blessings were hers, and what does like singleness win and gain today?

⁸ When Judge Jephthah her father broke the news that the vow he had made to win victory in battle obliged him to devote her to a life of singleness in full-time service at Jehovah’s house, did she pity herself? Judge from this reply of hers: “My father, if you have opened your mouth to Jehovah, do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, since Jehovah has executed acts of vengeance for you upon your enemies, the sons of Ammon.” She had something real to bewail and she did bewail the virginity to which she had to be devoted in fulfillment of Jephthah’s vow, but for only a short time, two months in isolation with her sympathetic girl companions.

⁹ After that she gave herself over to service full time at Jehovah’s blessed house. She died single, and that without the hope of enjoying married life in God’s new world after she is resurrected from the dead. But what a record she made for herself in vindication of Jehovah’s rightful sovereignty over heaven and earth! And while she lived on in her virginity at God’s house she regularly received encouragement to be faithful in her privileges close to God. “From year to year the daughters of Israel would go to give commendation to the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.” (Judg. 11:34-40, NW) Singleness maintained in the interest of God’s cause, not by one’s being imprisoned in some monastery or convent, but by preaching the Kingdom tidings publicly and from house to house, wins God’s good pleasure and gains commendation from those who are dedicated to God. In Scripture the four daughters of Philip the missionary are favorably mentioned as “virgins, that prophesied.”—Acts 21:8, 9, NW.

“EACH ONE HAS HIS OWN GIFT FROM GOD”

10, 11. (a) For whom is singleness the best course? (b) For whom marriage?

¹⁰ Married life has its joyous, satisfying privileges and these are a gift from God. Singleness, too, has its own peculiar privileges and opportunities and these are a gift from God. Which gift do you want? Paul, in discussing this, wrote: “But I wish all men were as I myself am [he not leading around any sister as a wife]. Nevertheless, each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that way.” Then turning his attention from the married Christians and their marital gift, Paul went on to recommend his own unyoked condition to those having no married mate, saying: “Now I say to the single persons [virgins] and the widows, it is well for them that they remain even as I am. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion.”—1 Cor. 7:7-9, NW.

¹¹ Those being almost consumed with passion did not have the cultivated gift of self-control that Jesus mentioned. Because of the “prevalence of fornication” in this corrupt world, it was and is better for those on fire with passion and distracted by its flames to give up their singleness or their widowhood and safeguard themselves against fornication by having a legal marriage mate. In harmony with this Paul wrote concerning “younger widows” in the congregation: “The one that goes in for sensual gratification is dead though she is living. . . . when their sexual impulses have come between them and the Christ, they want to marry, having a judgment because they have disregarded their first expression of faith. At the same time they also learn to be unoccupied, gadding about to the houses, yes, not only unoccupied [in preaching work], but also gossipers and meddlers in other people’s affairs, talking of things they ought not. Therefore I desire the younger widows to marry, to bear children, to manage a household, to give no inducement to the opposer to revile. Already, in fact, some have been turned aside to follow Satan.”—1 Tim. 5:6, 11-15, NW.

12, 13. What example did Anna give younger widows, and what was her reward?

¹² The way for “younger widows” to avoid following Satan by indulging in fornication or a misuse of time and energy is to specialize on God’s direct service as far as possible. They can take as a strengthening example Anna, a prophetess of the tribe of Asher. “This woman was well along in years, and had lived with a husband for seven years from her virginity, and she was a widow now eighty-four years old.” How did she occupy her time, employ her abilities?

¹³ This way: She “was never missing from the temple, rendering sacred service night and day with fastings and supplications.” Was her long widowhood left unrewarded? Never, and in her old age her widowhood was crowned with the privilege of seeing the promised Messiah as the babe Jesus. Joseph and Mary had brought him to the temple where she served God. “And in that very hour she came near and began returning thanks to God and speaking about the child to all those waiting for Jerusalem’s deliverance.” (Luke 2:36-38, NW) So this keeping of one’s widowhood for a long time can be done and this will not fail of its sweet reward in Jehovah’s service.—1 Tim. 5:3-5, 9, 10, NW.

14. What advantages do the single have over the married?

¹⁴ Nineteen centuries ago Paul remarked that “the time left is reduced” and that “the scene of this world is changing.” That is why he wrote: “I want you to be free from anxiety,” and advised married Christians not to let their marital privileges take precedence over their spiritual opportunities and obligations. In discussing the matter of anxiety he now showed the advantage of being free of marriage ties and dues: “The single man is anxious for the things of the Lord, . . . But the married man is anxious for the things of the world, how he may gain the approval of his wife, and he is divided. Further, the single woman, and the virgin, is anxious for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in her body and in her spirit. However, the married woman is anxious for the things of the world, how she may gain the approval of her husband. But this I am saying for your personal advantage, not that I may cast a noose upon you, but to move you to that which is becoming and that which means constant attendance upon the Lord without distraction.” (1 Cor. 7:29-35, NW) This advice was of personal advantage to Christians nineteen hundred years in the past. It is no less of personal advantage to us now since the Kingdom was born in the heavens A.D. 1914 and the time left of this old world’s “time of the end” has been reduced by more than forty years and not very much appears yet to be left.

15, 16. Who is free to marry in the New World society and who may best stay single for the sake of God’s kingdom?

¹⁵ Remember that no free Christian is forbidden to marry whether he is an overseer, a ministerial servant or just a preaching member of a congregation, a widower or a bachelor. Singleness is forced upon no Christian qualified for marriage. Whoever can muster up enough self-control and proper regulation of his life course as to hold back from marriage in this “present wicked system of things” for the sake of God’s kingdom may do so, crowding out other attractive things that he may make room for this gift. “Let him that can make room for it make room for it,” said Jesus. But if he cannot do so and thinks a change is better, then he may do so. Paul wrote:

¹⁶ “But if anyone thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virginity, if that is past the bloom of youth, and this is the way it should take place, let him do what he wants; he does not sin. Let them marry. But if anyone stands settled in his heart, having no necessity, but has authority over his own will and has made this decision in his own heart, to keep his own virginity, he will do well.”—1 Cor. 7:36, 37, NW.

17. Those remaining single in Paul’s day did so without any prospect of what?

¹⁷ Back there, when Paul wrote that, it was nineteen centuries before the battle of Armageddon, which will be followed by marriage privileges for the “other sheep” of the Lord Jesus who survive the battle. Those Christians faithfully dying single back there did so without hope of any future human marriage on earth because they hoped in a heavenly resurrection to be part in Christ’s bride up above. So virginity back there had no thought of a mere postponing of marriage on earth till after Armageddon.

18. What may be said of him who marries, and yet why can it be said that singleness is the better way?

¹⁸ Nineteen centuries later the Christian that marries now in this time of the end because he feels the necessity “does not sin.” Likewise, the Christian that keeps his own virginity “will do well.” Yet the resulting privileges are different, which leads Paul to write: “Consequently, he also that gives his virginity in marriage does well, but he that does not give it in marriage will do better.” A better course is also open to widows who could remarry. Since her husband has fallen asleep in death, “she is free to be married to whom she wants, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is,” not rebound to a new husband for as long as he lives faithful in this world. We can have faith that singleness is the better way, the happier way, because this counsel is the opinion of the apostle Paul, who certainly thought he also had God’s spirit at the time of writing this.—1 Cor. 7:38-40, NW.

MARRIAGE AFTER ARMAGEDDON

19. (a) When was it first published that human marriage will continue after Armageddon, and what does dissolve marriage? (b) What blessing and command was given the survivors of the Flood?

¹⁹ As far back as 1885 The Watchtower has assured its readers that human marriage will continue after the battle of Armageddon has destroyed this old alien world and will continue as long as God sees fit according to his original purpose for this earth “to be inhabited” with his righteous earthly sons and daughters.a Death cancels the marriage bond. Armageddon will not cancel the marriage bond of those married witnesses of Jehovah who survive it together, any more than the global flood canceled the marriage bond of Noah to his wife and that of their three sons to their wives. But after they had come out of the ark of survival and had renewed Jehovah’s worship in the earth, he blessed them and said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” Noah had already borne the fruitage of three sons, and now those sons were commanded to become fruitful, each son by the one wife that he had. In that prophetic drama Noah pictured the Everlasting Father Jesus Christ and Noah’s wife pictured the spiritual bride of Christ.

20. Who will regulate marriage after Armageddon, for whom, and with what result?

²⁰ After Armageddon the couples surviving will continue in their marital union. Others surviving in a different state, widowers, widows, virgin men and virgin women, will be privileged to marry. Whether there will be an imbalance between the available men and the available women surviving need not worry us now. Marriage then will be regulated by the Everlasting Father whom Jehovah God uses to fight the battle of Armageddon and to bruise the great Serpent, the wicked marriage disturber, in the head. So the Everlasting Father Jesus Christ will have redeemed his earthly children through Armageddon just as much as Jehovah redeemed Noah and his family through the Flood and as Jehovah redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. As all those redeemed ones belonged to Jehovah God, so all the Armageddon survivors will belong to their Redeemer Jesus Christ. As Everlasting Father to his earthly daughters he will give in marriage whomsoever of them he pleases and to whomsoever he chooses. That way there will be no poor selection of mates, and no one will experience a disappointment after marriage.

21, 22. Will marriage conditions will then prevail?

²¹ No one receiving a bride will pay a bride price to the Everlasting Fatherhood. All being his children, all being of one Fatherhood, they may be intermarried regardless of previous race or of color, as he may choose. Marriage, then, will be fruitful with children born of righteous parents, God not increasing the pain of pregnancy of their mothers, thus treating these differently from Eve, who took the lead in eating the forbidden fruit and then used pressure upon her husband to induce him to eat and sin.—Gen. 3:16.

²² Then husbands and wives will cooperate faithfully to stay within the paradise that will be restored to earth by their work and their children’s work and by Jehovah’s blessing through the Everlasting Father Jesus Christ. The proper places of husband and wife in the marriage union will therefore be observed and mutual obligations will be fulfilled. Besides God’s spirit, their approaching closer and closer to human perfection will make this easier and more enjoyable to do.—Luke 23:43.

23. What other privileges will the other sheep surviving Armageddon have?

²³ The populating of the earth with their children and their children’s children will proceed with full regard for the coming resurrection. Jesus said that all those who are in the memorial tombs will in due time hear the voice of the Everlasting Father and come forth to a resurrection with precious opportunities for everlasting life in human perfection on earth. (John 5:28, 29, NW) Aside from marriage privileges, the “other sheep” surviving the battle of Armageddon will have untold privileges of service opened up to them by the resurrection of the dead, and these privileges will continue even after the purpose of marriage has been fulfilled and childbearing on earth ceases and husbands are relieved of the obligation to give their wives children.—Acts 24:15.

24. Then what heavenly and earthly proof will there be that marriage is a complete success?

²⁴ Thus Jehovah’s purpose in beautifying this earth with human marriage will be gloriously accomplished. By Jesus Christ the Everlasting Father, Jehovah God will give eternal proof that marriage was certain to be a complete success on earth. Marriage will have worked in full harmony with his purpose in creating the earth and putting perfect man upon it, namely, to fill an earthly paradise with a perfect, righteous human family, in full vindication of his bringing in the irreproachable arrangement of marriage. Not only will eternally saved mankind on the paradise earth rejoice evermore but also the great heavenly Husband Jehovah and his faithful, beloved wife, his universal organization in heaven under Jesus Christ. Jehovah as an affectionate Grand Father and his universal organization as a tenderhearted Grand Mother will forever join in expressing their loving-kindness to their grandchildren, their God-fearing offspring on earth.

[Footnotes]

Not So Safe to Be a Christian

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, it is very doubtful that he was thinking about Jehovah’s witnesses, who preach God’s kingdom. To be one of Jehovah’s witnesses is not so safe a thing, as the following experience will show:

In eastern Germany the work of Jehovah’s witnesses is banned as it is in all Communist-controlled lands. But the young man of whom we speak was not one of Jehovah’s witnesses; he had just heard of them and had at one time just briefly glanced through some of their literature. But he soon found out that even to breathe the words of Christianity can be a dangerous matter today.

One day, slightly over a year ago, he was traveling from West Berlin to eastern Germany to attend his father’s funeral. On the train he struck up a conversation with some of the travelers. They comforted him with words of religion, but he, forgetting for the moment that he was in eastern Germany, said he found great comfort in what the Bible had to say regarding the dead and the hope of a resurrection.

Immediately his travelers associated him with Jehovah’s witnesses, because it seems that no other religion of any significance in Communist lands professes any belief in the Bible. Before the young man knew it he was taken off the train by the Communist VP (People’s Police) and was arrested. Instead of getting to his father’s funeral, he landed in an East German court and was sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.

While in prison he came in contact with some of Jehovah’s witnesses who had been arrested and tried in the same way. There in prison for the first time he learned about Jehovah’s witnesses, who they were and what they believed. In fact, while in prison he decided that was what he wanted to be—one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Some time later he was baptized in water as a symbol of his dedication and new life.

When he returned to West Berlin after missing his father’s funeral he was a year older, much wiser, a servant of the Most High God and very grateful for his experience and for having tasted some of the sufferings of Christ.

His mind reflected on the words of Peter and Paul, who said: “Beloved ones, do not be puzzled at the burning among you which is happening to you for a trial, as though a strange thing were befalling you. On the contrary, go on rejoicing forasmuch as you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ, that you may rejoice and be overjoyed also during the revelation of his glory. If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy, because the spirit of glory, even the spirit of God, is resting upon you.” “In fact, all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.”—1 Pet. 4:12-14; 2 Tim. 3:12, NW.

So, contrary to Dean Pike’s statement, Christians still find being a Christian is not so safe a thing in this world. But they are happy for it, because it proves them Christians in deed and not in name only.

Writing the Human Recommendation Letter with God’s Spirit

TODAY professional people like to display in their offices the diplomas they received from their college or university. These documents testify to their being qualified and cause others to have confidence in them. They might therefore be said to be printed letters of recommendation signed with pen and ink.

Although Christendom’s clergy also like to point to the diplomas they received from institutions of higher learning to prove that they are ministers, such diplomas do not prove that they are genuine Christian ministers of the true God Jehovah. One of the best Christian ministers of Jehovah was the apostle Paul, yet he had no such diploma or letter of recommendation. But he had letters of far greater merit. And what were they? He tells us:

“Do we, perhaps, like some men, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind. For you are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers, inscribed not with ink but with spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets, but on fleshly tablets, on hearts.”—2 Cor. 3:1-3, NW.a

Of course, before Paul could be such a minister he had to have the light from God shine upon him, he had to repent of his sinful course and accept God’s mercy, had to call upon God’s name and to have his sins washed away in the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, and had to make a public confession of his faith by being baptized. What was required of Paul is also required of all who would be God’s ministers.

And how did Paul write his human recommendation letters by God’s spirit? While working as a tentmaker at Corinth he preached every sabbath in the synagogue to win over both Jews and Greeks. In time he became more “intensely occupied with the word” of God, staying in Corinth about a year and a half. When Paul left there was a Christian congregation there that was a letter of recommendation. And it was written by God’s spirit, for Paul’s preaching was done by the spirit of God through Paul.—Acts 18:1-5.

The same is true of Christian ministers today. While the governments of Christendom may refuse to recognize their Scriptural ordination, they have far better letters that they themselves have been used to write and that show their divine ordination. Yes, far better than any handwritten, typed or printed letters.

Their letters are written on human hearts by means of God’s holy spirit in that they manifest the fruitage of the spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22, 23, NW) This fruitage of God’s spirit motivates them to go from house to house and stand on street corners in search of human “tablets” of the “hearts,” on which to write. And it causes them to call back and conduct Bible studies with all who show any likelihood of letting the spirit of God write on their hearts. And God’s spirit causes these ministers to stay with these persons, bringing them to congregational meetings and assisting them to have a share in the preaching work also.

Soon these take their stand, dedicate themselves to do Jehovah’s will and are baptized, giving public testimony that they now also are ministers of Jehovah. Thus they are read by all men, letters proving that the Christian witnesses of Jehovah are ministers.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Would Adam and Eve in Eden ever have been permitted to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad?—D. A., United States.

After quoting Genesis 2:15-17, the book “New Heavens and a New Earth” says on pages 72 and 73: “According to this, man would not die for not eating from the tree of knowledge but would die for eating from it while prohibited.” This implies that the time would come when the eating of this fruit would not be prohibited. This tree symbolized the power or ability to determine and decree what is good and bad. After Adam and Eve had proved their obedience to Jehovah over a period of time and had shown a conformity with God’s judgment as to what was good and what was bad, after they had absorbed the divine principles governing right as against wrong conduct, then it may be that Jehovah would have permitted them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and bad. This would show that their training under God had equipped them to do this in harmony with God’s judgment of such matters and that they could now correctly determine what was good and what was bad.

But Adam and Eve did not wait, did not experience the necessary period of training and divine instruction, and they failed the test when they ran ahead of Jehovah and ate of the then forbidden fruit. So they never did come to the point where they could properly judge or determine with sureness what was good and what was bad. Nor have their descendants, who inherited sin and imperfection. In the Scriptures there is nothing to show that with the restoration of the earthly paradise under God’s kingdom by Christ the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad” will be restored to test mankind. As page 352 of the above-mentioned book says: “The test on earth will not be by any replanted ‘tree of the knowledge of good and bad’. By the close of the millennium perfected humankind will have gone through good and bad by actual experience. The test will be by means of the same one that led mankind astray at the beginning of their history, Satan the Devil, together with his demons.”

● Concerning Christ Jesus it is written at Isaiah 11:10 (AS): “And his resting-place shall be glorious.” Does this resting place refer to the sabbath rest during the thousand-year reign of Christ?—J. H., United States.

This does not refer to the sabbath rest, but to the heavenly abode of Christ Jesus. During his ministry on earth Jesus did not have a permanent abode, but said: “Foxes have dens and birds of heaven have roosts, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay down his head.” (Matt. 8:20, NW) In contrast, Jesus has a glorious resting place in heaven. A similar use of resting place as an abode is found at Ruth 3:1 (NW): “Naomi her mother-in-law now said to her: ‘My daughter, ought I not to look for a resting place for you, that it may go well with you?’” In saying this Naomi was taking steps to get a permanent home or abode for Ruth. So at Isaiah 11:10 the glorious resting place for Christ refers to his place of heavenly abode.

Professional Ear Ticklers

● In the United States there is an organization called the National Laugh Foundation. It recently gave out its 1956 awards. The winners were a politician and a clergyman. The awards go to Adlai Stevenson and Bishop Fulton Sheen for what the foundation calls their contributions to the humor of the nation. The Laugh Foundation’s awards could not help but remind thinking Christians of the Bible prophecy for the last days when “there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled.”—2 Tim. 4:3, NW.

Announcements

WRITING THE HUMAN RECOMMENDATION LETTER WITH GOD’S SPIRIT—2 Cor. 3:1-3, NW.

Things spoken and heard make an impression on the minds and hearts of listeners. A sort of “writing” may therefore be said to take place, a recording of information and knowledge. It is in a similar sense that Paul speaks of those whom he had taught and guided as being “recommendation letters.” They recommended Paul’s faithful ministry. The writing was effective because of the operation of God’s holy spirit in connection with the preaching of the devoted apostle. The congregations established by Paul were a powerful testimonial to his ordination by Jehovah God. Likewise the ministry of Jehovah’s witnesses has, in its fruitful results, a recommendation letter that cannot be denied. During the present month the witnesses of Jehovah will continue “writing the human recommendation letter” by presenting the message to others in the form of the Awake! magazine. One year’s subscription and three Bible study booklet aids will be the offer on a $1 contribution. Share in this grand work with the local congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses.

THE WAY TO PEACE WITH GOD

World peace is the sincere desire of all honest-hearted men. Whether it can be attained is a question that has been widely discussed. Some insist that it can be achieved only on the battle field, while others believe all differences can be resolved around the conference table. What does the Bible say? For many years now the outstanding exponent of Bible truth, The Watchtower, has proclaimed that peace on earth will follow God’s war in heaven. That war is inevitable. God’s ambassadors of good will, Jehovah’s witnesses, have not been accepted by the ruling powers and the peace terms they have propounded at God’s command have gone unheeded. Now Jehovah God is delivering his ultimatum to the people of the nations. They must individually decide where they stand before the war of God consumes the present system of things and all who side with it. Have you made your choice? You need counsel that comes only from the Bible. It is published twice a month in The Watchtower and is available to you for a year for only $1. Send for it today and find the way to peace with God.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

October 28: Marriage Obligations and Divorce, ¶1-20. Page 585.

November 4: Marriage Obligations and Divorce, ¶21-42. Page 591.

November 11: ‘He That Marries Not Does Better.’ Page 598.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ Why the Jews of Jesus’ day were so vigorously opposed to national emblems? P. 579, ¶5.

✔ How today’s churches disagree on what God’s kingdom is? P. 581, ¶6.

✔ What the Bible’s theme is? P. 582, ¶3.

✔ Whether God’s kingdom will come by the world’s converting to Christ? P. 583, ¶4.

✔ What rights God says the wife should have from her husband? P. 585, ¶3.

✔ What the only valid ground for divorce is? P. 589, ¶16.

✔ What the Christian must do if his mate goes insane? P. 591, ¶21.

✔ Whether an adulterous mate must be divorced? P. 594, ¶30.

✔ What advantage the single have over the married? P. 602, ¶14.

✔ What letter of recommendation Paul had, greater than anything written with ink? P. 606, ¶3.

✔ Whether Adam would ever have been permitted to eat of the tree of knowledge? P. 607, ¶2.