The Watchtower — September 1, 1956

“He Made Out of One Man Every Nation”

PRIEST John A. O’Brien wrote about Jehovah’s witnesses in the national Catholic Action weekly Our Sunday Visitor, May 20, 1956. To show that the witnesses as a group were unattractive and undesirable, priest O’Brien said that basically their numbers were made up of poor persons, relief cases, workingmen and the mentally and economically underprivileged. Pursuing this argument, O’Brien then added:

“According to the Christian Century for July, 1955, every fifth witness is colored. The masses of newly transplanted Puerto Ricans of New York and the Mexicans of California and the Southwest have contributed substantial numbers to the sect’s membership. Indeed, the organization is making some of its most sizeable gains in backward countries where illiteracy abounds.”

Primarily the “backward countries where illiteracy abounds” are Catholic countries where the Catholic Church wields great power and controls the educational facilities. When Jehovah’s witnesses preach there they teach the people to read and write and study the Bible. Then these people start moving forward. They learn from the Bible that the Catholic Church has not taught them the truths of God’s Word. They become Jehovah’s witnesses.

Many of them may be colored or Puerto Ricans or Mexicans, but that does not make them undesirable in the eyes of Jehovah’s witnesses. Jehovah God calls them desirable, when foretelling the time that they would start coming into his organization, coming in from all nations and races: “And I will shake all nations, and the desirable things of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” Their numbers swell the volume of the voices that sing Jehovah’s praises and fill the earth with words extolling his glory.—Hag. 2:7, English Revised Version.

These peoples may not seem desirable to the proud religions of orthodox Christendom, but they are to true Christianity, and the Bible foretold that the majority of true Christians would be drawn from the lowly rather than from the lofty: “For you behold his calling of you, brothers, that not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.”—1 Cor. 1:26-29, NW.

Jehovah’s witnesses do not believe in prejudice or discrimination or segregation because of race or color. Where communities are democratic enough to allow it, Jehovah’s witnesses of different races and colors meet together in one congregation. Colored persons, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, along with all other races and colors, are in the bride of Christ and are in heaven with God. They are not segregated in heaven; they should not be on earth. But there are many things on earth that should not be. These evils will be erased from earth at Jehovah’s war called Armageddon and they will not exist in his New World of righteousness. Jehovah’s witnesses cannot convert the world, do not try to, but await God’s destruction of it. Only in the new world that follows will prejudice and discrimination and segregation completely end.

It is the good news of this incoming new world that Jehovah’s witnesses preach. When they come to your door with this message, do you listen? Do you welcome them into your home for a Bible discussion? If you are a Catholic you certainly should, according to priest O’Brien. He says it is the Catholic’s duty to do so:

“The simple, untutored sincere members who constitute the rank and file of the witnesses are hungering for food and are being fed husks. Their zeal is worthy of a better cause. We must welcome them into our homes, let them quote their dozen memorized texts, then show them from the Scriptures the blinding evidence of the divinity of Christ, the establishment of His Church on earth, His bestowal of authority upon it to teach all mankind and His promise to be with it all days ‘even unto the consummation of the world.’ No matter how pestiferous and cantankerous the misguided witnesses may be, they are the children for whom Christ died and whom He loves and wishes to have in His fold. They are our brothers, and we must love them, be patient with them, pray for them and help lead them to Christ.”

Jehovah’s witnesses hope that the Catholic people heed this advice. The witnesses will consider it a privilege to enter the homes of Catholics and present their message and also to listen to the Bible evidence that Catholics wish to present to them. It is by such discussions that truth is learned and that Jehovah gathers into his fold all persons of good will toward him, regardless of nation, race, language or color. All men seeking God are equal and desirable in his sight and in the sight of his true people, because “he made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.”—Acts 17:26, NW.

In Love with Truth

● The following letter was sent to the Federation of Churches in the United States and forwarded by them to the Society: “I would be obliged if you would get me on to a branch church of Jehovah’s witnesses to take a Bible study course by correspondence and become a minister of the gospel. I am a member of the Baptist Church for many years but I am afraid I’ve not been given enough work to do. By reading the Gospel tracts and magazines of Jehovah’s witnesses I’ve fallen deeply in love with their doctrine. I am anxiously waiting an early reply, A. G. T., London.”

Has God’s Purpose for Mankind Failed?

What is God’s purpose for mankind? Has it failed or will it yet be realized? If it will be, what must we do to benefit from it?

IS GOD’S purpose for mankind the conversion of the world to the so-called Christian religions? That is what the majority of the sects of Christendom teach. These also hold that the earth is merely the temporary home of man, that man’s destiny is heaven and that someday the earth will be consumed by fire.

Definitely disagreeing with such beliefs are the deists who, while believing in the existence of God, deny the inspiration of the Bible. These hold that God, once having created the universe, including the earth and man, is not directly concerned with what goes on upon the earth but lets mankind go its own way.

If God’s purpose for mankind is the conversion of all men to any or all sects of Christendom it has signally failed. How so? Because not only is earth’s population increasing at a greater rate than are the sects of Christendom, but even in Christendom comparatively few can be said to be true Christians.

God is the great First Cause. Of himself he says: “I am Jehovah, that is my name.” And that name literally means “he causes to be.” For God to be the Great Causer, and yet not have a purpose, why, that would be unthinkable. It would indicate a lack of intelligence, and God, above all others, is The Intelligent One, the Source of all knowledge and the Personification of wisdom.—Isa. 42:8, AS.

But why speculate on what God’s purpose is when he has given us his well-authenticated Word for the very reason of revealing to us his purpose for mankind? Failure to make his purpose known to intelligent creatures would be both unjust and unloving and so not at all like God. “Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto his servants.”—Amos 3:7, AS.

GOD’S PURPOSE FOR MANKIND

What is God’s purpose for mankind? His purpose he made known by a mandate he gave the very first human pair in Eden. Incidentally, all mandates or commands issuing from God, the divine One, are divine mandates. To distinguish this one from all other divine mandates it therefore seems best to speak of it as the “procreation mandate.” And of what did this procreation mandate consist? Of three specific commands:

First of all, “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth”; with righteous creatures, of course, like Adam and Eve, having a right to life, living in harmony with their Creator and dwelling in happiness and at peace with one another. Secondly, “and subdue it,” that is, the earth; by making all the earth a paradise even as was the specially prepared garden of delight in Eden. And, thirdly, ‘have in subjection all the lower animals.’ Man was to be a wise and loving ruler, not over fellow humans, but over the lower, unreasoning, brute creation.—Gen. 1:28, NW.

Note that God said nothing to Adam and Eve about going to heaven. Neither did he tell them that someday the earthly globe was to be destroyed. Rather he told them that they would live as long as they obeyed a certain commandment. We must therefore conclude that man’s destiny was earthly, not heavenly. And so we read: “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.” But how could they if someday it were to be destroyed by fire.?—Ps. 37:29, AS.

What a marvelous prospect God’s purpose held out to mankind! What a testimony that procreation mandate was to God’s love, justice, wisdom and power! Yet today, some six thousand years removed from the time God gave that mandate, do we see God’s purpose for mankind practically realized? Far from it!

Instead of man’s making the earth a paradise he has so exploited it that large areas are barren because of dust storms and soil erosion. Destructive wars have ruined other large sections and now scientists warn that production of atomic energy may eventually make the entire earth uninhabitable.

Likewise man has failed to exercise wise, just and loving dominion over the lower animals. Instead, man has abused his charges, causing them much needless suffering, and has wantonly slain them for commercial gain or for sport, even to the extent of completely wiping out some species. And far from filling the earth with a happy and righteous race of humans having the right to life, man has filled the earth with an unrighteous, wretched and dying race.

Why this apparent failure of God’s purpose for mankind? Because of original sin, caused by the rebellion of one of God’s spirit creatures who was placed in charge of the earth and man, and who, because of his rebellion, is now known as Satan the Devil—a record all too well known to need detailed repeating here.—Gen. 3:1-19; Rom. 5:12.

Does that mean that God’s purpose for mankind will not be realized? Not at all. None of God’s purposes ever fail. How could they, when he is both all-knowing and all-powerful? As he himself assures us: “I have purposed, I will also do it.”—Isa. 46:11, AS.

Actually it is merely a matter of God’s purpose for mankind being temporarily interrupted, which God permitted for very good reasons. Such as? To demonstrate his superiority over a rival even when that one is given practically free rein, and also to prove that he can have creatures that will prove true to him in spite of all the temptations and persecutions that God’s enemy Satan can bring against them. For an example see the book of Job.

GOD’S PURPOSE WILL YET BE REALIZED

How will God’s purpose for mankind yet be realized? Necessarily, by removing the condemnation resting upon mankind because of Adam’s transgression. This God made possible by having his Son come to earth and take man’s place in death. As we read of Jesus: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” Yes, even as the sin of one perfect man, Adam, brought death to the human race, so the sacrifice of one perfect man, Jesus, opens the way for all lovers of righteousness to get life.—John 1:29, NW.

However, before mankind can receive the benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice or ransom, Satan and all his cohorts, both visible and invisible, must first be put out of the way, as they would obstruct all such activity in behalf of man. This Jesus Christ and his invisible armies will do at Armageddon, at “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” In that universal war all those on earth who do not take their stand for Jehovah will be destroyed, whereas Satan and his invisible hosts will be hurled into an abyss of deathlike inactivity for a thousand years.—Rev. 16:14, 16; 20:1-3, NW.

Armageddon’s survivors, the lovers of Jehovah and righteousness, will then see Jesus’ prayer being fulfilled: “Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” That will mean a “new heavens and a new earth” in which righteousness will dwell.—Matt. 6:10; 2 Pet. 3:13, NW.

That heavenly kingdom of God, which will realize God’s purpose for mankind, consists of a King, Jesus Christ, and 144,000 royal associates. These associates are chosen from among men, are an exception to the rest of mankind and will be the only ones ever taken to heaven.—Rev. 14:1, 3.

As the seed of Abraham, Christ and his associates will bless all mankind. Under their Kingdom rule the effects of sin and death will gradually be removed. Their first subjects, the Armageddon survivors, the “great crowd” of Revelation 7 (NW), will share in a token fulfillment of the procreation mandate, bringing forth children in righteousness. They will also exercise wise, just and loving dominion over the brute creation and subdue the earth, making it a paradise. And then those in the memorial tombs, or in God’s memory, will hear Jesus’ “voice and come out.”—John 5:28, 29, NW.

At the end of the 1,000-year Kingdom rule Satan and his demons will be loosed so as to try all those dwelling on earth. All who succumb to selfish temptation will be destroyed with Satan and his demons. Those that withstand the test will be declared righteous by God and given the right to everlasting life. Then God’s purpose will be fully realized as all mankind enjoy endless life in an earthly paradise, unitedly worshiping Jehovah in spirit and in truth and dwelling together in happiness, love and peace.

Would you like to share in Jehovah’s glorious purpose for mankind, so certain to be realized, and that soon? Then give him the exclusive devotion all his creatures owe him and he rightfully requires of them. To help you give Jehovah exclusive devotion is the purpose of the Watch Tower publications and the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses. Accept the help they offer, to your lasting benefit.

Blames God for Accidents

● Because of improper religious education imperfect men often blaspheme God by blaming him for accidents, as though God should continually perform miracles to protect men from the consequences of their own folly. Thus a Mr. Joseph Jenkins, Sr., of New Jersey, upon hearing that an auto accident had for the fourth time in five years claimed a grown son of his, said: “I don’t know why God has to take my boys this way.” His spouse gave him small comfort, for she also blamed God, saying, “The Lord gives them to us and the Lord takes them away.” God does not cause automobile accidents. It is blasphemy to blame him for mechanical failure or errors of judgment on the part of men! As the Scripture says: “Time and chance happen to them all.”—Eccl. 9:11, RS.

Triumphing Over Enemies by Kingdom Preaching

JESUS foretold: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth.” (Matt. 24:14, NW) This good news, however, is not that preached by the various missionaries for the past nineteen centuries. How could it be when such have had no proper conception of what God’s kingdom is? Besides, Jesus said that this preaching would be a feature of the sign marking his second presence.a

This particular good news of the Kingdom therefore relates to the kingdom of God as established in this time of the end. Bible chronology pinpoints its having been set up in 1914. This kingdom will wipe out all wickedness and cause God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven, ushering in paradise.

Though this preaching is good news it has many enemies. As foretold, the rulers of the world, and especially communistic rulers, have taken counsel against God and his King Jesus Christ. They oppose all who preach God’s kingdom, because it is to rule all nations with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel. It follows then that when Dean Pike, prominent New York city clergyman, says that “being a Christian is such a safe thing,” he is not referring to those who genuinely follow Christ by preaching his established kingdom. They do not find it a safe thing anywhere on earth. Throughout the entire world their religious foes level any old charge to incite persecution.

But in spite of all this opposition Jehovah’s witnesses continue to preach the good news of the Kingdom. They are triumphing over their enemies in doing so. In New York city alone the number of their congregations has increased from one in 1935 to 57 in 1956. And even in Communist Russia their numbers are increasing amazingly and that even though they refuse to compromise one iota and have to carry on their work entirely underground. If, as Dean Pike also said, communism is a religion and it takes a better religion to defeat it, Jehovah’s witnesses have that better religion.

What accounts for their triumphing over their enemies or theirs being a better religion? For one thing, the manner in which they carry on their work. Not only do they have ordained ministers preaching from the public platform, but each one of them is an ordained minister and preaches. Where? At the doorsteps of the people, in the market places, in the homes and as opportunity affords no matter where they may be. Whether worldly courts recognize them as ministers or not, they know they have dedicated themselves to Jehovah God to do his will, they know he has commanded them, through his Son, to preach the Kingdom and they are preaching.

And, chief of all, their triumphing is owing to their having the courage that only God can supply. They have what it requires to conquer the world, namely, faith. (1 John 5:4) They refuse to become part of the world, to live like it and for it. They are doing Jehovah’s work, and if Jehovah is for them none can be against them and triumph. Having the truth they have the zeal that Jesus showed, a consuming zeal. And their triumphing is also due to Jehovah’s spirit: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Yes, in 1914 the Kingdom proceeded to conquer its enemies in the heavens; at the present time it is triumphing over its enemies by Kingdom preaching and at Armageddon the triumph will be completed.—Zech. 4:6, AS.

[Footnotes]

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by Esther M. Rydell

ON December 25, 1948, I set foot in my foreign assignment as a missionary in South America’s Venezuela. So quickly has the time flown by that I now remember that happy day as though it were yesterday; and as I look back over the past years I realize how good Jehovah has been to me and how rich have been the blessings received from him while pursuing my purpose in life in the foreign field. Through Jehovah’s visible organization we have been well provided for and everything possible has been done to keep us happy in our assignments.

At present I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I wholly forget that I have not always been a missionary. As in all other things, I did start but I did not become a missionary overnight. It was a gradual process. That takes me back about a score of years when, on April 15, 1936, I started pioneering. That day I shall never forget, for it was one of the happiest of my life. For a long time I had been thinking of pioneering, and every time the Society sent out one of those letters encouraging publishers to become pioneers I really worried because I was not one. Oh yes, I had dedicated my life to serve Jehovah, many years before; but it seemed I thought pioneering was not for me, as I was not strong physically. But finally, after hearing one of those letters read and realizing how much I was worrying because I was not putting in as much time in field service as I should, I made a definite decision to arrange my affairs and become a pioneer. I gave up my job as a secretary and my private office in a swanky New York skyscraper. It was easy to say good-by to it all, as I always was sitting dreaming about walking down a nice country road every day with a bookbag under my arm and looking for houses where I might offer someone a drink of the water of life. I was walking on air the first day I started pioneering, for I knew Jehovah had helped me gain that goal. I had faith that he would hear my prayer for help to make the proper decision, and he did.

While I was pioneering in various parts of the United States the blessings were without number. The education I gained in meeting various kinds of people, living in different parts of the country, going in and out of jails here and there, all added to making pioneering interesting, to say the least. But the most important thing of all was the privilege of teaching so many people the truth of Jehovah’s purposes for them. I remember so many persons who said: “Teach me to pray; I don’t know how.” “Read to me from the Bible; I cannot see.” “God must have sent you to me.” “Thank you for calling at my door; your message has meant so much to me.” I could go on and on as I sit here recalling those faces. Today these same ones are experiencing the blessings I received back there. Was I ever sorry I made the decision to be a pioneer? No, never; not for one moment.

I was so happy being a pioneer that I could have kept on being one in my home land, but something more wonderful happened. I was invited to go to Gilead in the spring of 1945. This was beyond my fondest dreams. I remember as a child how I sat for hours reading the “convention reports” (as we called them back in the days of the “pilgrims”), and I often wished I could go around to different places and preach. The few reports from foreign lands entranced me. Little did I realize that one day I should have the opportunity to go to some other part of the world as a missionary. I was delighted.

Gilead’s fifth class included me. I hadn’t heard too much about Gilead from anyone, except that it was wonderful. It was more than that: I felt as if I had stepped right out of this old world into the New World. I accepted it all as a marvelous gift from Jehovah and I shall forever be grateful for the training I received there. It helped me to have a far-deeper appreciation of Jehovah’s organization, both invisible and visible. It showed me my obligation to serve Jehovah efficiently with kindness and love, as only love and kindness were shown me there. It showed me how to study the Bible and get the most out of it. It showed me how to express myself clearly, and most of all how to keep my mind and heart centered on serving Jehovah and filled with worthwhile things. Ever since, I have diligently tried to follow that pattern. Gilead shall always be dear to my heart; I loved every minute of it. I should think every pioneer who is able would love to go to Gilead and be trained for foreign missionary work. I am glad I did. Look where I am today: in Venezuela, South America. Was I sorry I made the decision to go to Gilead? No, because I made that decision also with the help of Jehovah, feeling sure he would help me through that training period.

In July, 1945, I graduated and was eager to go into a foreign field and put into practice all the things I had learned. I did not go at once, but kept busy and happy being a missionary in the United States until at last, in December, 1948, I became one of six happy missionaries scheduled to sail on the Grace Line steamer for Maracaibo, Venezuela. We were so excited we could hardly wait until we got out of New York harbor; then we would feel we were really on our way.

After eight days of sailing we began to see land. Our foreign assignment! The hot air that blew in our faces felt as though it was coming from a furnace. Hundreds of tin roofs gleamed in the sun. It looked like a desert town in a sea of sand. I was so glad to get off the boat that it all looked good to me, and I was thankful to Jehovah that we had arrived safely. What the future held for me in this strange land I did not know; nor was I worried, as I had sufficient faith in Jehovah that as I continued pursuing my purpose in life he would take care of me.

As I write I am smiling while thinking about the six of us getting off that boat, each one loaded down with suitcases, boxes of candy and cake, heavy winter overcoats, hats, gloves, stockings—and the temperature 100 degrees. The perspiration started pouring off and we all started giggling and laughing so much we could hardly stop. There was not a speck of shade anywhere. A native brother met us, along with a brother from another town who spoke English. Here we were with a vocabulary of a few Spanish words, no place to stay and not understanding one tenth of what the native brother was saying, and nearly cooking in the tropical sun. The brother who spoke English told us of a family who might take us in. They had a little house but he thought it would accommodate all of us. The husband had just become interested and the wife was not opposed. They had two children; so we six would make ten. We went to look for this little house and found it on a sand pile. We were more than welcome to share the house with them, but by the time we put our 15 or more trunks, 40 cartons of literature, and all our heavy clothes and bundles inside there was hardly room to turn around. They didn’t mind. But where were we going to sleep? That was easy. They strung up four more hammocks here and there and my sister and I made a nice bed out of book cartons. Was this a hardship? No, it was a real experience. We had never had living quarters like these, and never shared a home with kinder people than they. Though they were very poor, and the husband out of work, their faces beamed with happiness to have us with them. Our conversation was very limited, but a month later when we moved to our own missionary home, they cried, and so did we. They could not understand why we could not continue to live with them. We knew Jehovah would bless this family for their kindness to us. In 1953 the father and mother attended the New World Society Assembly at Yankee Stadium in New York, and the following year the mother and her two children were summer pioneers. These dear friends will never know how much their kindness meant to us. We gladly accepted this humble provision as coming from Jehovah and that is why we liked our assignment from the very first day we set foot in it.

Soon we had our missionary home furnished comfortably. We organized a congregation made up of the one brother, a few people of good will and the six of us. The congregation grew rapidly and by 1954 there were two units in this city.

Two days after we had landed in Maracaibo we started out in the territory, placing much literature. At each door we gave a brief witness, but we did not understand a word the people said. I think they thought it was easier to take the literature than to try to make us understand they did not want it. Two weeks after our arrival the Catholic priests announced that we had come. They described each one of us over the radio, telling the people not to take anything from us. That was fine! Now everyone in town knew who we were and many were the times when people came up to us to ask for books and Bibles. Often we had placed our first book by 7 a.m. Because of the heat the people rose early and so did we.

We worked hard and found many people of good will with whom we conducted studies with our meager knowledge of Spanish. I shall always remember with a great deal of pleasure one of the first studies I had. The lady could not read, so I had to read to her. I could not read very well, but between us we figured out what the paragraphs said. She soon became a publisher and her husband wanted the book read to him. By this time I could read a little better and explain a little more; but as time went on I realized I had to make a real effort to learn the language fast, as here were sheep who wanted information right away and could not wait until I took my own good time learning the language. Learning a foreign language was for me not easy but was interesting, and more satisfying as I came to understand what people were talking about. Daily we bought a newspaper and tried to read it. I studied books on the country and found Venezuela a very interesting land to be in. To this day I keep up with its events and happenings, all of which makes me feel that I belong here.

After working three and a half years in Maracaibo’s heat, we were transferred to Barquisimeto, an interior city, much cooler. An entirely different type of city, its people are very fanatical, poor, and much more than half of them cannot read. That meant we had to work a little harder to find the sheep, and now we have in this place a strong, growing, clean organization. Our hearts go out to these people; they are so blinded by the Catholic priests who continually warn them against us and the Bible. One day while I was witnessing in a store a Catholic priest stepped up and grabbed a booklet from my hand, tore it in four pieces and tried to hand it back to me. I told him it was my property and he would have to pay for it. He fished around in his skirts and came up with the price of the booklet. He didn’t utter a word.

When the “saints” are carried from one church to another thousands of people walk in the streets, carrying lighted candles. Most of them have never seen a Bible, nor do they know who Jehovah is. One woman told me she had her own god and ran into the house and came out with an image of Mary. She said: “This is my god.”

What better career could I have chosen for pursuing my purpose in life than to be a foreign missionary and have the privilege of introducing the Bible, God’s holy word of truth, to these people? Where could I have received more blessings than have been mine in this missionary assignment? Often I think of the rich blessings I would have missed had it become necessary for me to return to my home land during the first few months or first year in my assignment. I would not have learned a new language, nor learned to live in the tropics, where I can enjoy the beautiful flowers that bloom all year round, eat new foods, see congregations spring up where the truth had never been heard of, and associate with the “other sheep” of a different race.

I could just go on and write a book on the joys of being a missionary, but I think the time can be better spent by me in preaching and I’ll let the pages be the “other sheep,” and bind them in love and gild the edges in happiness. Thanks be to Jehovah for giving me the privilege of being a missionary.

Jesus said to him: “If you want to be complete, go sell your belongings and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come be my follower.”—Matt. 19:21, NW.

“Christ Has No Objection to Prosperity”

● Foremost advocate of divine healing in the United States is one Oral Roberts. In February, 1956, he visited Australia and, while putting on a healing campaign at Sydney, registered at the city’s lavish hotel, the Glen Ascham, under an assumed name. When newspaper reporters discovered the subterfuge, Roberts replied: “Christ has no objection to prosperity.” But if Christ has no objection to prosperity and Roberts had a clear conscience why did he register under an assumed name? Because of fear of man? Could it be that he feared some persons might make an unfavorable comparison between Roberts’ choosing the most exclusive hotels and the example and teaching of the One whom Roberts professes to follow, Jesus Christ?

The Divine Origin of Marriage

“Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.”—Matt. 19:6, NW.

1. (a) What is marriage? (b) Who is its main party, who may the lesser party be, and who first thought of it?

MARRIAGE is a close union between two parties. The main party to the marriage is called the husband. The other or lesser party to it is called the wife. The lesser party or wife may be a single person or individual or it also may be an organization made up of two or more persons. But the organization, because it is made up of a number of persons, does not form a number of wives; it forms just one organizational wife, because all the members of the organization are in one union to the one husband. The marvelous idea of marriage to a wife, whether as a single person or as an organization, was not thought out nor worked out by man nor by any of the animals lower than man and before man. Marriage was first thought of and set up by the Creator, the Maker of man and of the animals and plants that mate or pair. That Creator or Maker is God, the producer of all the universe seen and unseen.

2, 3. (a) With what words does God faithfully own up to marriage obligations? (b) To whom were these words really addressed?

² The Creator faithfully confesses or owns up to a marriage connection. He names himself as a party to a marriage. He puts it on record, in writing. He swears to carry out the proper obligations of the marriage and to make it fruitful with children. This remarkable record reads: “Thy Maker is thy husband [bo‛elʹ, or owner]: Jehovah of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For Jehovah hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and as a wife of youth, that hath been refused, saith thy God. . . . For this is [as] the waters of Noah unto me, since I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: so have I sworn that I will no more be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah, that hath mercy on thee. . . . And all thy children [shall be] taught of Jehovah, and great shall be the peace of thy children.”—Isa. 54:5-13, Da, margin.

³ These words were spoken by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah or written by his hand at or near the ancient city of Jerusalem. But the words were inspired or inbreathed into the prophet by Jehovah God in heaven and they were really addressed to some wifelike person or some wifelike organization in heaven. The words were spoken not alone for the benefit of this wife but also for the benefit of her children on earth. Who or what is this wife? One of her children, the Christian prophet Paul, writes to other Christian children of hers and says: “The Jerusalem today . . . is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” Then he quotes from God’s own words to her in the very same chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy. At last Paul ends his proof of their being children of God’s heavenly wife or “woman” by saying: “Wherefore, brothers, we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman. For such freedom Christ set us free. Therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke of slavery.”—Gal. 4:25 to 5:1, NW.

4. What was earthly Jerusalem or Zion, and of what is the heavenly Jerusalem composed?

⁴ The earthly Jerusalem of which Paul wrote nineteen centuries ago was later destroyed, but it was a city with over a million people in it when it was destroyed. It was a city organization. The free “Jerusalem above” is also an organization. The enslaved earthly Jerusalem also used to be called Zion, from the name of one of its hills. The “Jerusalem above” is also called Zion in God’s own Word, the Holy Bible. Heavenly Zion will never be destroyed, for Jehovah God has sworn that his loving-kindness to her will never depart, nor will his covenant of peace be removed. His heavenly wife or woman, the “Jerusalem above,” is the heavenly, invisible organization throughout the universe, his universal organization. He is the Maker of his wife or woman, and so his universal organization is composed of all his heavenly creatures in it. They are subject to him, their Creator, and they are united to him as an organization in a holy union that will never end.

5. What does the Bible say about Jehovah’s existence?

⁵ Before Jehovah began to create his universal organization he was all by himself in endless space. Before ever this heavenly organization was he was God, an eternal, everlasting Being, hence without beginning even as he will be without end, ever blessed. Without overstatement David the king of Israel could pray: “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting.” (Ps. 41:13, AS) The prophet Moses, who wrote the account of earth’s creation, could say to the Lord Jehovah: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”—Ps. 90:2, AS.

6. (a) Why did God not feel the need of a wife? (b) Then why did he create?

⁶ Did he ever need a wife or a living organization in holy union with him? No! Did he ever feel the need of such a wife? No! Was it good for him to be alone? Yes. Everything that gave him pleasure and happiness was in himself; he felt no need of any kind, and his being entirely alone never hurt him or filled him with lonesomeness. His being alone from everlasting never spoiled him, never made him self-centered or introverted and never made him so that he could not begin to enjoy the company of creatures. He did not need a wife to help him produce children. Full creative power was all in himself. No wife demanded offspring by him or obliged him to give her offspring. Why, then, after being alone from eternity did he begin to create? Because he is love. He saw the way to express his love and let creatures enjoy his love. And so, not induced by anything outside, but being moved by his own perfect love, he himself willed to create. His heavenly creatures now know this fact, for they say to him: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.”—Rev. 4:11, NW; Delitzsch.

CREATING A WIFE

7, 8. (a) Who was the first one God created, and in what ways was he the first and the last? (b) What was the relationship of this one to God, and why?

⁷ The first one whom the Almighty God Jehovah created speaks for himself, identifying himself to us, so that there is no mystery. He is the one who was once down here on earth nineteen hundred years ago and who is now known as Jesus Christ. Speaking from heaven in a vision to his beloved apostle John on earth, he said: “I am the First [the Firstborn, Alexandrine Manuscript] and the Last, and the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living for ever and ever, . . . These are the things the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God.” (Rev. 1:17, 18; 3:14, NW) “The First and the Last,” and “the beginning of the creation by God”? Yes. He was the “First” whom the alone God Jehovah created by himself, unaided. He was also the “Last” whom Jehovah God created by or through no one else. In this way he was the beginning of God’s creation, not the beginner of God’s creation. This first creature of God became a man and died as a human sacrifice and was raised from the dead and returned to heaven. So he was also the first to be raised by God’s direct, unaided power and he is the last to be thus raised, for God now uses him to resurrect all the others dead in the graves. He was thus the beginning of a “new creation” of God.—2 Cor. 5:17.

⁸ After bringing this first creature into existence Almighty God empowered and used him to bring into existence all other creatures. (John 1:2, 3; Col. 1:15-18) Well, then, was this first creature God’s heavenly wife because God used him as his agent or instrument in creating all other things? No! He was God’s Son, and this in a way shared by no other creature. He was God’s “only-begotten Son” in that he was the first and only one to whom God gave life directly, through no channel. (John 3:16; 5:26; 6:57) As a Son and a fellow worker he was one with God, never acting contrary to God. That is why he once said: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30, AS) Because of being one with his heavenly Father he was always subject to him and never rebelled against his Father’s will.

9. How did God’s organization come into being, and in what sense did God marry it?

⁹ For unknown time the Father and his only-begotten Son were together, finding full pleasure in each other’s company. Then Jehovah his Father willed to use him in creating other creatures in heaven. Accordingly this joint creative work went ahead and as time went on a great host of angels were created, all of them sons of God because from him the power of life sprang, so that with him is the “fountain of life.” (Ps. 36:9) To all these Jehovah God addressed himself by his only-begotten Son, thus making him “the Word of God” or God’s mouthpiece to all other sons. They became God’s heavenly household and God organized them all under his only-begotten Son, that all together they might do the great Creator’s will, each one doing his assigned part, smoothly co-working with all others and co-working with the Creator their spiritual Father. In that way, after creating all these spiritual sons, God made them an organization, his universal heavenly organization, because it lives and operates throughout the universe. He married this universal heavenly organization to himself, binding it to himself in an unbreakable union as his co-worker and helper. With his faithful only-begotten Son as the leading one in this organization God was sure that this organizational wife would be kept at one with him in loving devotion and submission. Jehovah as Maker was her Head and God. Her becoming his organizational wife did not make her a goddess, a “Queen of Heaven” that later on deserved to be worshiped by men and women here on earth.—Jer. 44:17-19, 25; 7:18.

10. When, where, and how did God bring sex division into being before the creation of man, and for what purposes?

¹⁰ In due time Jehovah’s organizational wife was favored with seeing this principle of marriage put into action in a new way, in a new place—here on the earth. When the Creator by his only-begotten Son laid the foundations of this earth for his good purposes, all these other sons of God shouted in applause. On the third creative day of preparing this earth it was intensely interesting for them to see God’s wisdom in mating certain forms of plant life, even causing some plants to unite in order to reproduce their kind. On the fifth day they saw God create innumerable kinds of fishes and sea animals that were paired or mated in order to bring forth their young, and then also many kinds of flying creatures and bird life. The applying of the marriage principle progressed still farther on the sixth creative day when God caused the earth to bring forth land animals, wild and domestic and crawling or creeping, “none without its mate.” (Gen. 1:11-13, 20-25; Isa. 34:15, 16, Mo) In these unions of plant and animal life were to be seen the arrangement of male and female working together for a common purpose, the drawing powers of sex operating to bring them together. The word “sex” means the dividing of the various kinds of creature life into male and female forms and is actually drawn from the Latin word meaning “to cut or divide.” Nevertheless, the purpose of this sex division is not the producing of a disunion, but is rather for producing a union, a combining of forces to produce a combined result, neither sex being complete without the other, each sex being so constructed as to attract the other and carry out a certain function. Some forms of life are asexual, yet reproduce.

11. (a) What was the crowning feature of God’s earthly creation and when was this created? (b) Why was he able to have the lower animals in subjection?

¹¹ For thousands of years, from the third creative day down into the sixth creative day, the arrangement of sex played a great part in keeping plant and animal life going on this earth. God saw that all this was good, but it was not the end of his purpose toward the earth. It was really preparatory, leading up to a crowning feature. The seven thousand years of the sixth creative day were drawing to their close when Jehovah God spoke to his only-begotten Son, his co-worker in this earthly creative work. “And God went on to say: ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every creeping animal that is creeping upon the earth.’” (Gen. 1:26, NW) This creature called “man” or Adam was to be higher than all preceding forms of conscious life. What made man better and able to have these lower creatures in subjection was that he was made in the image and likeness of God and his only-begotten Son, this Son himself being the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col. 1:15, AS) This was new for the earth.

12. What kind of place did God prepare for man, and how was man created?

¹² First God prepared a home for this creature man. Like no other planter, God made it a paradise, a sizable garden park, an improvement even over the rest of the earth outside, where the lower animals roamed and reproduced their kind before dying. In a separate creation from them God then produced the first man or Adam. “Then Jehovah God proceeded to form the man [a·damʹ] out of dust from the ground [a·da·mahʹ] and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.”—Gen. 2:7, 8, NW.

13. What privileges and obligations did Adam receive, and in what vital respect was he different from the lower animals?

¹³ From the invisible the Creator spoke to man and told him he had been created and settled in the garden of Eden “to cultivate it and to take care of it.” This doubtless meant taking care of the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad,” but man or Adam was commanded not to eat from it. To do so would be disobedience to God. So it would be sin, and the punishment for such a sin would be this: “In the day you eat from it you will positively die.” (Gen. 2:15-17, NW) Then God acquainted the man or Adam with the flying creatures and wild animals that he was to have in subjection to him, and God let him name each one, and each one’s name stuck. Adam interestedly inspected these creatures. He saw that they were of a flesh different from his. He saw how they mated and had sexual connection and how they brought forth their young, also how they lived out their life span and died, leaving their offspring behind them to preserve their kind. But Adam did not need to die; he did not need to produce offspring to keep in existence his kind, human kind. If he continued faithfully to worship his Creator as God and to obey all his commandments, including the one forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, he could live forever and be the caretaker of paradise and hold the lower animals always in subjection.—Gen. 2:19, 20.

HUMAN WEDLOCK BEGINS IN PARADISE

14-16. (a) What lack did Adam note, and what could God have done to supply Adam’s need? (b) How did God supply Adam’s lack, and for what further purpose?

¹⁴ Adam felt no desires of sex. As a perfect man he was balanced and not divided as to sex. But would he have any companions like himself? How would he get them? That was within the purpose of God and it was not man’s part to try to counsel or advise or dictate to God. But God had not left even himself without creatures in his own image and likeness, first his only-begotten Son and then his other heavenly sons, all of whom together made up his organizational wife. Was it his purpose to leave Adam alone of his kind?

¹⁵ Of all the animals that Adam named he could call none of them his fellow man or Ish (Hebrew). He found himself alone of his kind; he must do his work all by himself. He could converse with no one but his God or God’s heavenly representative in the invisible realm—a wonderful, soul-satisfying, all-surpassing experience for Adam. By creation Adam was a human “son of God.” (Luke 3:38) Was God satisfied with only one human son of God on earth? Just as God had foreseen and foreknown it, he saw and knew the state of matters now in actual fact: “for man there was found no helper as a complement of him.” Adam stood out different from all the lower animals; he had no mate with which to reproduce his kind. God could have produced other men just like him from the dust of the ground, each one separate and distinct from Adam, each an immediate creation of God. But that would not have resembled the pattern of life found in other kinds of earthly creatures. To harmonize with the life-patterns of those forms of earthly life and to fulfill God’s purpose concerning man it was not best for him to remain alone. “And Jehovah God went on to say: ‘It is not good for the man to continue by himself. I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him.’” (Gen. 2:18-20, NW) How did Jehovah God do so?

¹⁶ He performed what may be called the first operation of painless surgery. “Hence Jehovah God had a deep sleep fall upon the man and, while he was sleeping, he took one of his ribs and then closed up the flesh over its place. And Jehovah God proceeded to build the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and to bring her to the man.” The man was overjoyed to receive and accept her at his heavenly Father’s hand, and he named her to show she was part of himself. “Then the man said: ‘This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one will be called Woman [or Ish·shahʹ], because from man [or Ish] this one was taken.’” (Gen. 2:21-23, NW) God had now divided the feminine characteristics from Adam and put them in this woman or Ish·shahʹ and thus produced the human sexes. In the fatherly blessing that he now gave them as a married couple he set before them the work that he authorized them to carry on together. As it is written: “And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. Further, God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is creeping upon the earth.’” “This is the book of Adam’s history. In the day of God’s creating Adam he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them. After that he blessed them and called their name Man in the day of their being created.” (Gen. 1:27, 28; 5:1, 2, NW) So human marriage is a divine arrangement and should be viewed as holy.

17. Why was God not making a prophetic picture of Christ and his bride by the manner in which he created Eve?

¹⁷ When Jehovah God caused Adam to sleep soundly and removed one of his ribs and used it as a base with which to build Adam’s wife, was he foreshadowing something future, something four thousand years later? No. He was not foreshadowing that his Son Jesus Christ would become the only other Adam, “the last Adam,” and would fall asleep in death as a human sacrifice for his “bride,” the congregation of his 144,000 followers, and that Almighty God would raise him from that deep sleep of death and afterward present him with his spiritual “bride,” his faithful congregation, in heavenly glory. (1 Cor. 15:45; Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 21:2, 9) Had God done this, it would have meant that he peered into Adam’s future, that he let himself foresee that Adam would sin by eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Thus God would have foreordained that Adam should break his law and come under the sentence of death and that Jesus Christ should die as a corresponding ransom to save his 144,000 followers from among Adam’s descendants that these might become a bridal organization, a wife to Jesus Christ in heaven. To have foreordained that Adam should sin would have made Jehovah God responsible for his sin, whereas God is not responsible for sin and is not bound to make a sacrificial atonement for it.

18. Of what was Eve’s creation an earthly copy?

¹⁸ Rather than foreshadow and foreordain something by the way he created Eve, Jehovah God was copying on an earthly level a great heavenly pattern of his own. As Eve was taken from Adam and was really bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, so Jehovah’s universal organization, his heavenly organizational wife, was taken from himself. It was a creation emanating from himself without pain and beginning with his Word, his only-begotten Son, and finally taking in all his holy angels of heaven. This holy organization of them all he presented to himself as his “woman,” his “wife,” whom he will never divorce, for she will never be estranged from him, come a Devil even.

19. (a) What facts and scriptures show a husband’s closeness to his wife? (b) And, therefore, where is his rightful place?

¹⁹ Because the first woman was taken from the first man instead of being made a distinct creation, not only was she one flesh with him but also all the human family that sprang from them is one flesh. This fact made her man’s closest relative on earth. For this reason he should stick to her. God pronounced this bond of husband and wife to be the closest relationship of two humans on earth, closer than that of a son to a father and mother, and hence the husband should stay with the one to whom he was closest, his wife. In Eden after uniting the man and the woman in wedlock God said: “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) Thousands of years later certain self-wise ones brushed aside this genuine account of the ideal human marriage in the paradise of Eden and the Son of God said to them: “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.” (Matt. 19:4-6, NW) The Christian apostle Paul gave his measure of support to the trueness of this marriage account by quoting from it in his argument and saying: “For, ‘The two,’ says he, ‘will be one flesh.’” (1 Cor. 6:16, NW) A married man’s place, therefore, was to be, not with his papa and mamma, not with his gang, his men’s association or his social club, but with his closest partner, his wife. He was to stick to his wife, not send her back home to her father who gave her to him. He was to permit no one to get in between.

20. (a) What did God not mean, and what result did he purpose in creating Eve? (b) Why would the marriage of Adam and Eve not result in deformed or unbalanced children?

²⁰ When God took the male and female characteristics or qualities that were combined in balance in the original Adam and divided them between the sexes he did not mean to start any battle of the sexes in the paradise of Eden. He did not mean to start any competitive coexistence between the sexes. Though the man Adam had the feminine properties divided from him and embodied in his wife, he was still left perfect; he was still in God’s image and likeness. Eve, with the female characteristics controlling in her, was likewise perfect, but she was one flesh with Adam. One flesh does not hurt itself; it does not fight itself. The living cells of the flesh combine together, hold together in various organs and tissues, according to the law of the great Organizer, Jehovah God. So it was to be with the two sexes, for they are in reality just one flesh. They were to complement each other, the one to supply to the other what the other felt it needed, and vice versa. God so organized the two sexes that they found their greatest happiness and contentment by co-operating together in doing the perfect will of their heavenly Father. The marriage of a woman from his very own bone and flesh to Adam would not result in odd children, overbalanced in any direction, showing unusual peculiarities or deformities. The man and woman were both perfect. Perfection united with perfection produces—perfection. A perfect son of Adam and Eve married to a perfect daughter of theirs would bring forth a perfect child.

21. In what ways was woman to be a helper and a complement, and why did Adam now look balanced?

²¹ That this was God’s will in dividing Adam and producing the sexes male and female God stated at the time he went ahead to produce a wife for Adam. God said: “I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him.” God did not say he was going to give Adam a boss, a head. Adam already had a head. His Creator God was his Head. He did not need another. A complement is not a head. In Hebrew or the language of God’s creation account the word for “complement” means that which is in front of one, in sight of one as if standing opposite. It is not something in opposition but is a counterpart, something that matches one, something that looks or goes suitably and properly with one, making a nice balance. The woman, and no lower animal female, was a satisfying match for Adam and so was a complement for him, especially as she had the bodily organs by which she could become the mother of his children. (Lev. 18:23) She could produce the eggs that would provide the bodies of his children, but only he as the head of the married couple could pass on the life sperm that would start life in her eggs. He was the first to have human life and his wife received her life by being made from his rib, and it was proper that he continue to be the transmitter of life to his children. The man had his function, the woman had her function, subordinate to him and dependent upon him. So according to God’s will the woman was to be her husband’s “helper,” and a helper is not a boss, dictator or commander. A helper takes orders and works with the one that takes on this help. The woman could now furnish a necessary help to Adam in carrying out God’s command to them to become many and fill all the earth with a perfect human family. Standing beside the lordly lion and his lioness or beside any mated pair of animals in Eden, Adam no longer looked one-sided, incomplete, for now his perfect mate, his wifely complement and helper, stood beside him. Everything matched. The sight was lovely. It was good in the Creator’s eyes.

22. (a) When did Adam first have relations with his wife, and what does this show as to when the first marriage was consummated? (b) In their perfection what was their attitude toward each other?

²² When Jehovah God brought this perfect woman to the awakened man in Eden and pronounced his blessing upon them and set their joint duties before them their marriage was consummated. It did not require any physical sexual union between them first to consummate their marriage. If that sexual connection were first necessary to make the marriage a real, valid, binding one, then Adam and his woman were never married in Eden. It is first after this couple found themselves outside of Eden some time later that, we read, “now Adam had intercourse with Eve his wife and she became pregnant. In time she gave birth to Cain.” (Gen. 4:1, NW) Adam and Eve knew that the purpose of the sexual connection was to bring forth children. So in their perfection and with perfect self-control and without shame at their nakedness and without feeling passion at the sight of each other’s unclothed body they refrained from having sexual union and conceiving children while in Eden. Nevertheless, they were fully married and were bound to cleave to each other lovingly in faithfulness. Jehovah God, the divine marriage-maker, had yoked them together. No creature could rightly put them apart.

Marriage Under Imperfect Conditions

1. What had God meant marriage to bring to man and to accomplish?

MARRIAGE has been put under much stress and strain by imperfection. Imperfection is due to sin. Sin is unrighteousness, disobedience to the perfect laws of Jehovah God. The marriage of Adam and Eve in Eden was a perfect one because it was performed by Jehovah God, all of whose activities are perfect, all of whose ways are justice. (Deut. 32:4, NW) The taking of a rib from Adam and along with it the female characteristics that were originally in him did not make him unhappy. God’s presentation of these things back to him in the form of a perfect woman for his wife ushered him into a happiness he had never known before. His wedding day in Eden was a most happy one. The marriage that it inaugurated was meant to be a continuously happy one and was to lead to the unspeakable happiness of being fruitful and bringing forth perfect children of their kind. God himself who had united them would be happy at all this, for thus his purpose in creating the earth would be fulfilled, to have it “inhabited.”—Gen. 1:26-28; Isa. 45:18.

2. (a) What interrupted the complete happiness of the first human pair? (b) How had Adam taught his wife, and by doing what would he show his love for God and her?

² What, then, interrupted the complete happiness of human marriage and brought it under imperfect conditions? First of all, it was a failure to recognize the right relations that God had set up between the husband and the wife and their refusal to hold to those relations. Adam and Eve belonged to each other, just as a head and a body belong to each other. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” (1 Tim. 2:13, NW) Adam taught Eve. He toured her around the paradise garden of Eden with which he was fully acquainted. He told her the names that he had given to the animals. Most important of all, he told her how to live forever in this paradise of pleasure as the mother of a perfect human family by telling her the special commandment of Jehovah God. This was something special, preceding the instructions that God gave to both of them regarding the food for all creatures. (Gen. 1:28-30) As stated to Adam alone, God’s special command was: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.” (Gen. 2:16, 17, NW) This command now applied also to Eve, for she was a part of him; she was one flesh with him. Even as he had taught her this divine command, it was his responsibility as head over her to enforce this life-protecting law. If he loved her he would enforce this law, because to do so would be also to love himself. She was part of his own bones and flesh, and naturally he would not hate his own bones and flesh. By this law enforcement Adam would specially love their precious Life-giver, Jehovah God, whom they were to love more than themselves or each other.

3. (a) What was Eve’s course until a lawbreaker presented himself to her? (b) What did Satan do to accomplish what purpose?

³ For a time Eve submitted to the headship of her husband. She did not question the punishment for the breaking of God’s law. She did not think her husband had been deceived by what God said as to the breaking of his law. She did not think that she ought to decide or lay down the rule as to what was good and what was bad. She was a real helper to Adam and fitted perfectly into his life and found safety and happiness in doing so. Then a lawbreaker, a marriage-disturber, presented himself to her while she was by herself. By means of a serpent in the garden of Eden he asked her for information. She told him what her husband had told her. Then the serpent, or the unseen one speaking by the serpent, did not here resort to any gossip by idly talking trivialities or by repeating a lie. He did what Jesus Christ said he did. He directly lied, and made himself the father of all lies. (John 8:44; 2 Cor. 11:3) Right off he contradicted what Adam had told Eve and what God had first told Adam. “The serpent said to the woman: ‘You positively will not die.’” Then, pretending to know the actual facts about that forbidden tree, he continued: “For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Gen. 3:1-5, NW) The real purpose of the Serpent, Satan the Devil, in opposing and slandering God this way was to begin breaking up the marriage union between Jehovah God and his organization wife, his “woman,” that is to say, his universal organization of holy creatures, to which Adam and Eve then belonged.

4. (a) How should Eve have responded, but whose word did she take in preference to whose? (b) Why was Eve’s a case of marriage insubordination, and what prompted her?

⁴ Did Eve, out of regard for her marriage relationship, now reply: ‘What right have you to contradict the word of my husband, and what right have you to contradict the word of his God who gave me to him? Shall I subject myself to you, a mere beast, instead of to my husband, my God-appointed head?’ No! Nor was it a case of Eve’s taking the word and law of God in preference to the word of her husband. Here it was a case of taking the serpent’s word in preference to the word of her husband in harmony with the word of Jehovah. Here were two witnesses, Jehovah himself and Adam, against the one false witness, the great Serpent. In safe respect for her human head Eve should have said that she would first consult her husband and see whether he approved of eating the forbidden fruit contrary to God’s command, for he knew God better than she did. Rather than look for her husband and go over God’s law with him, Eve looked at the forbidden fruit from the new viewpoint presented to her by a beast. She let desire for it form in her. Her desire led her into temptation, and induced her to take action and thus sin was conceived. This conception of sin was bound to give birth to the death penalty. (Jas. 1:14, 15) “So she began taking of its fruit and eating it.” (Gen. 3:6, NW) She ran ahead of her husband and put her own intelligence above that of her head, her husband. She was grossly deceived, but just the same it was a case of marriage insubordination.

5. What immediate effect did Eve’s eating of the fruit not have, but instead what effect did it have?

⁵ Eve ate the forbidden fruit in outright disrespect of God as her heavenly Sovereign and of her husband as her head. The Bible account does not say that at once her conscience smote her and she realized that she was stark naked, making her feel panicky and want to hide from the opposite sex, from her husband. Proverbs 9:17, 18 (RS) tells us: “‘Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol [mankind’s common grave].” So, totally deceived, not scared of the death penalty, and knowing no sexual shame but tasting the temporary sweetness of the fruit she had stolen from the forbidden tree and had eaten in secret from her husband, Eve self-conceitedly went and offered some of the forbidden fruit to Adam. Now what should he do?

6. What theocratic law, later stated, shows the course Adam should have taken, and why is this so?

⁶ Adam at once knew that Eve had been deceived by the serpent and had sinned. God’s Word says: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression.” (1 Tim. 2:14, NW) Eve did not speak or act for him her head. The head was to decide and Adam must either approve of her sin by joining her knowingly, willingly, in eating the stolen fruit or disavow her act and stop it immediately from becoming the practice in his household. Jehovah’s theocratic law, later stated to the nation of Israel, agreed with this, declaring: “In case a woman should make a vow to Jehovah or she does bind herself with a vow of abstinence . . . if she should at all happen to belong to a husband and her vow should be upon her or the thoughtless promise of her lips that she has bound upon her soul, and her husband has heard it and has kept silent toward her on the day of his hearing it, then her vows must stand or her abstinence vows that she has bound upon her soul should stand. But if her husband on the day of hearing it should forbid her, then he has annulled her vow that was upon her or the thoughtless promise of her lips that she bound upon her soul, and Jehovah will forgive her.” (Num. 30:3, 6-8, NW) So Adam could have reproved Eve and let God be true and the Serpent the Devil a liar, thus vindicating himself as no party to her breaking of God’s law. God had appointed him head. He should have respected God’s appointment and resisted Eve’s acting as head in making decisions.

BAD CONSEQUENCES FROM MARRIAGE DELINQUENCIES

7. Had Adam refused the fruit Eve offered what would he have shown? and by accepting it what did he show?

⁷ Had Adam loved himself, loving life for himself and his offspring, he would have refused to accept forbidden fruit at his wife’s hand. He would have shown her the right course by refusing, for she was his own flesh. Had he loved God more than himself, including his wife, he would have turned down her offer and kept God’s command. He would rather part with his wife than part with his God. Acting the role of a real husband, he would have respected his own divinely appointed headship and made the right decision for himself and his house. He would have shown strength and measured up to his responsibility and kept his integrity toward God. But Adam looked not toward God. He looked at his wife who was holding out the fruit to him. Now a desire for her, not as a helper and complement to carry out God’s procreation mandate but as a means of satisfying his flesh, formed in him. He was enticed by it. Giving more mind or attention to it than to the pleasure of obeying God’s command, he weakened. He disowned, rejected his own headship as husband. He listened to his wife’s voice, not God’s. He accepted the forbidden fruit and put it to his mouth.

8, 9. What was the result of Adam’s preferring his wife to God? And how did they answer to God?

⁸ He stuck to his wife, yes, in wrong, but parted company with his God and Father. Undeceived, he willfully joined the Serpent Satan the Devil in rebelling against God. Without describing the mental battle or the emotions that were called forth, the Bible simply says: “Afterward she gave some also to her husband when with her and he began eating it.” Now both had sinned, but Adam’s sin was the greater sin because he was more responsible. No more could they look at each other in a pure, natural way. “Then the eyes of both of them became opened and they began to realize that they were naked. Hence they sewed fig leaves together and made loin-coverings for themselves.”—Gen. 3:6, 7, NW.

⁹ Between the man and his wife a barrier had now formed, even though represented only by fig leaves sewed together. Not feeling clean-looking before his wife, Adam could not feel clean-looking before his God. He no longer felt comfortable in communing with God; in place of eagerly looking forward to it, he now fled from it. So when they heard the approach of God’s invisible presence Adam as well as Eve hid behind trees. God called for him, not for his wife. Adam told God he did not feel presentable before him. Well, then, why? Had Adam eaten of the forbidden fruit? Well, not directly from the tree, but he had eaten from his wife’s hand in order to please his wife. Why, then, had the woman been the one to eat right from the forbidden tree? The woman now admitted that she had not acted so smart. She said: “The serpent deceived me and so I ate.” (Gen. 3:8-13, NW) She never thought the aftereffect would be like this.

10. (a) What marriage would Satan not be able to break up, and why? (b) What did God decree for Satan and his seed?

¹⁰ So God turned to the great Serpent Satan the Devil, who had now put the marriage of Adam and Eve under great difficulty. But if the Serpent Satan the Devil for one moment thought that he could break up the marriage between Jehovah God and his “woman,” his heavenly universal organization under his only-begotten Son, he was absolutely mistaken. Cursing Satan the Devil to a low-down existence that would feed on mere dust, Jehovah God the Great Husband mentioned his own “woman.” He decreed for his woman a course of action different from the one Eve took, saying: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:14, 15, NW) His heavenly organizational wife would stick to him in love but would hate the Deceiver, the Serpent, Satan the Devil. Her offspring or children would resist the Serpent’s deceitful offspring or seed. The injury that her offspring would give the great Serpent would be worse than the injury the Serpent would give her offspring, which would result in a temporary limp. It would be in a more vital spot and would leave the Serpent’s head crushed in, with destruction to all his seed. God’s organizational wife or “woman” would to all eternity have fruit to show that would bear the name of her Husband, Jehovah.

11. What did God predict for human marriage from then on, and why would woman’s position be especially difficult?

¹¹ Jehovah now predicted that human marriage would from then on have its difficulties and married couples would have “tribulation in their flesh.” The woman’s position in the marriage arrangement would be specially difficult, and what Jehovah said about it in Eden has not proved untrue after six thousand years of experience. “To the woman he said: ‘I shall greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in birth pangs you will bring forth children, and your longing will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.’” (Gen. 3:16, NW) The husband’s domination of the woman was not a mere allowance of him to dominate if he wanted to or if she was willing to submit to it. His domination of her was as sure to operate as the increase in the pain of her pregnancy was to come and she was to bring forth children in birth pangs. Despite all this she would long to have a husband. She would consider it an embarrassment, a reproach, not to have a husband. She would look upon it as a frustration, a defeating of the purpose of her sex, if she were not to have children, a disappointment to herself and a disappointment to her husband. Let him be owner, dominator. Only give her marriage with children.

12. Trying to please his wife brought what results upon Adam?

¹² How humiliating it must have been to the appointed head of the married couple when God began his death sentence upon Adam by saying: “Because you listened to your wife’s voice.” Yes, it was all because of this. He listened to the creature instead of the Creator, who commanded him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. In the effort to please his wife with the hope of not losing her, Adam the husband did something that brought consequences that were not pleasing to her. So he was certain to fall in her estimation and respect. His lack of wisdom showed up in the results. He lost for her the paradise home. He lost his position as an approved son of God to plead with God for her and gain some consideration for her, deceived woman that she was. He left her with no sufficient protection against the further deceptions and the attempted misrule of Satan the Devil. If she did not die first, he might himself die and leave her a widow, without a husband. With him she was driven out of the garden of Eden to die disowned of God.—Gen. 3:17-24, NW.

13, 14. Why could their life outside of Eden not have been a happy one, and what was responsible for this?

¹³ God’s Word tells us very little of the married life of Adam and Eve outside the paradise garden of Eden. It was not a happy life, that is sure. As each one looked at the other and recalled the respective part that each had played in bringing about this sad result, neither one could be happy in the other. Adam had now lost his perfect self-control. It was first outside of Eden that he had sex relations with his wife. It was no happy occasion when he saw her writhing in her birth pangs to bring out their first child, a son. This boy, Cain, turned out to be a murderer, a killer of his own brother, an assassinator of the first human witness of Jehovah, faithful Abel. Cain came under the curse of the God of whom Abel was a witness. He was marked for execution, for destruction by no one but God himself. His married life with one of his sisters in the land of Fugitiveness was not a happy one.—Gen. 4:1-17; 1 John 3:12; Heb. 11:2, 4; 12:1.

¹⁴ Adam and Eve lived long enough to see increasing bad fruitage from their imperfect married life. The marital estate of none of their offspring turned out to be completely blissful. What was responsible for all this? In the first place, the failing of the first man and his wife to love God unitedly and more than each other. Along with lack of love for God and as a result of it, each one failed to respect the God-assigned places of husband and wife in the marriage arrangement and to live up to the responsibilities and the obligations of that place. Adam, as the head, was foremost in responsibility for all this. Pointing to him as chiefly responsible for all the sinfulness and death that have come to us who have been born as a result of their damaged marriage, the Word of God the Judge says: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned— . . . death ruled as king from Adam down.” (Rom. 5:12-14, NW) So the injury caused by the mismanagement of the marriage arrangement originally set up by God can be very far-reaching and disastrous.

15. (a) What can be said about Jehovah’s own marriage? (b) What was Jehovah’s purpose regarding mankind’s marriage, and what did he do in token thereof in the days of Noah?

¹⁵ Jehovah God’s own marriage to his organizational wife, his universal organization in heaven, has continued unbroken and in happiness, and has been most fruitful, in spite of all that the malicious marriage-disturber has tried to do against it. The seed of Jehovah’s woman has been brought forth and soon will crush the Serpent’s head and see that justice is done to the universal sovereignty of the Most High God. In harmony with his own marital happiness Jehovah God originally purposed that the married life of his faithful sons and servants here on earth should also be a pleasurable experience, with no “tribulation in their flesh” that must now unavoidably come because of the imperfection of each and every married couple and because they are living in a worldly system of things the god of which is Satan the Devil. (1 Cor. 7:28, NW) In token of this, in the days of Noah Jehovah God cleared out all the married couples who were a part of the corrupt, violent “world of that time” by sinking them under a mountain-high global flood for a whole solar year. In those days “men were marrying, women were being given in marriage, until that day when Noah entered into the ark.” But God spared alive through the flood only four married couples, all of whom were witnesses of Jehovah, namely, Noah and his wife, and their three sons, each married to one wife.—Luke 17:26, 27, NW.

16. (a) What were the immediate postflood circumstances as regards marriage? (b) What blessing did God bestow on those survivors, and what has this meant until now?

¹⁶ The preflood world was entirely gone when these four married couples stepped out of the ark on Mount Ararat to start life anew on the cleansed earth. The circumstances were then almost like those when Adam and Eve were inside Eden. All the earth outside was without human inhabitants, for which reason God blessed them and gave them a command to bring forth children and fill the earth with them. Apart from the four couples on Mount Ararat human creatures were to be found nowhere else on earth. So in support of his original purpose for the earth God blessed those surviving four married couples, after they had revived the worship of Jehovah God on the dried land. “And God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth. . . . And as for you men, be fruitful and become many, make the earth swarm with you and become many in it.’” (Gen. 9:1-7, NW) That meant the making of many marriages during the thousands of years till now. Today, as a result, the earth swarms with people, and marriages continue to multiply. Under the growing imperfection of the married couples and the conditions under which they live this has led to many complex marital problems. How can these be handled in a way that pleases Jehovah God and that will result to the lasting happiness of those involved in marriage? How these are being handled in the New World society will be explained at length in forthcoming issues of The Watchtower.

Outstanding Assemblies in Korea and Alaska

AS TO Kingdom work, Korea is really bustling. In April, 1956, 1,506 publishers were energetically preaching in major cities and many isolated regions of the country. Newly interested persons are constantly coming to the congregations, wanting to know about the work and why Jehovah’s witnesses are so different. The people are especially amazed but very grateful to see American missionaries preaching from door to door and speaking to them in their own language. When Christendom’s clergy, particularly those of Korea’s strongest churches (Presbyterian and Methodist) talk against the work of Jehovah’s witnesses, the people become all the more curious. Even among unbelieving people there is high respect for the Bible. It is common to see Bibles in people’s hands as they walk along the streets. For these reasons working in Korea is very fruitful.

All of Jehovah’s witnesses in Korea were happily anticipating the assembly in Seoul, April 27-29. The brothers worked hard and quickly to complete arrangements. Indeed they do everything swiftly. In the Korean language two of the most frequently used terms are, “There is no time” and “Do it fast.” The brothers engaged a school auditorium for all sessions except Sunday’s public lecture. Since a larger crowd was expected the swimming pool stadium located inside Seoul Stadium grounds was also obtained. Posters had been put in every streetcar in the city as well as window signs all around town. Days ahead the sisters were busy preparing huge quantities of rice, fish and various Korean dishes. As these arrangements progressed, excitement mounted. The brothers talked of nothing but the convention.

Finally April 27 came. That morning some 800 brothers had met at the various congregations for field service. No announcement had been made concerning the arrival time of the Society’s representatives and it did not seem likely that many of the brothers would be able to go. However, the branch servant and the missionaries did arrange to meet the visitors.

Because of a head wind the plane was late, but by 12:30 p.m. four busloads of Korean witnesses of Jehovah were on hand at the airport—not too much of a surprise, in view of the known disposition of these earnest brothers. Scores of them, representing Seoul’s flourishing congregations and other congregations, were vigorously shaking hands, snapping pictures and discussing Scriptural questions, with their Bible pages fluttering in the breezes. Koreans discuss the truth everywhere. Most of the sisters were dressed in their full costumes, Korean-style—colorful, delightful. Blue lapel badges identified all as Jehovah’s witnesses.

The plane having landed, its giant door opened and soon Brothers Knorr, Barry and Adams came out smiling at nearly 500 brothers who had been waiting to welcome them, the brothers waving and joyful. What a sight! As Brother Knorr walked down the ramp he was greeted by the branch servant and Brother Yuh Wan Chang, who is Minister of Reconstruction for the Republic of Korea. The visitors greatly appreciated the stirring enthusiasm and sincerity of the huge welcoming delegation.

That afternoon the convention opened at the Hui Moon Middle School auditorium. Even before the session started the hall was filled to capacity. Benches were provided to sit on, except in the front part of the auditorium, where straw mats had been placed. By people’s sitting on the floor the space available is conserved for seating more people, and Koreans are used to sitting on the floor. Eager, bright faces, young and old, listened to the address of welcome in Korean by Don L. Steele, branch servant for Korea. Then followed discourses by local brothers and missionaries. That evening the local brothers were thrilled to hear Brother Knorr talk to them for the first time. The 1,330 in attendance went home refreshed and happy, but eager for more. Here in a struggling country, a new republic, Jehovah’s witnesses are really alive, preaching about Jehovah’s new world of righteousness.

A chilly but bright and bracing Saturday morning brought everyone together early for the baptismal discourse. As the talk was concluding the speaker asked the candidates to stand. It was indeed wonderful to see 303 rise from an audience of about 600. There were 202 women and 101 men. This ratio of 2 to 1 was particularly encouraging, as two years before it had been three women to every man. Then manpower was really short, but now many more men are associating with the New World society. Among the candidates was an American soldier who had come into the truth during the previous eight months; also an ROK army general’s wife and the daughter of a former prime minister of Korea.

After the prayer the candidates filed out to the waiting chartered buses. In time the buses arrived at the Han River bridge on the north bank, and minutes later hundreds of happy people were walking along in the sand to a place about a quarter of a mile away, where the baptizing was done.

To reflect on that lovely scene also served to recall that just three years before over these same hills soldiers were crawling and fighting a bloody war. Now all appeared peaceful. The slopes had been gracefully landscaped, including patches of green grass and a few houses scattered here and there. In midsummer the river is filled with floating concessions and small pleasure boats, where thousands lazily spend afternoons escaping city heat. Those attending this assembly were glad it was being held during chilly weather.

At the baptismal site a small house was used as a dressing room, divided into two sections. Brothers and sisters quickly changed clothing and then, five at a time, walked courageously into the cold, cold water. The chilling air did not hold back any of the dedicated ones. Once before in early winter they had broken the ice for an immersion.

As hundreds viewed the immersion, 515 others were busy in the field service. Service arrangements for the entire assembly were directed from the local congregations. Each of the seven Kingdom Halls in the city (except one) is within twenty minutes’ walking distance of any other one. Although Seoul’s population now is 1,500,000, living space is very crowded, making the city’s general area very small. Because of the zealous activity of the 700 publishers in Seoul, every home has been called on several times. The work of Jehovah’s witnesses is well known, making Seoul the most-often-worked city on the Asian mainland.

UNUSUAL INTEREST OF THE KOREAN PUBLIC

During the assembly week the public relations department gave careful consideration to publicity. Good write-ups appeared in every newspaper in Seoul, as well as several published pictures of Brother Knorr. There were also excellent articles in some of Korea’s leading magazines. In addition, a radio interview for Brother Knorr was arranged. It was conducted by a young woman who is employed as an announcer on a leading station in Seoul. She is studying with one of the missionaries.

Sunday was the climax of the convention with Brother Knorr’s public discourse “Making All Mankind One Under Their Creator.” Chilly air and brilliant sunlight beaming down on those seated and standing around the huge empty swimming pool inside the Seoul Stadium grounds made an ideal atmospheric setting for the widely advertised address. People kept pouring in until it became obvious that it was to be a capacity crowd. As for Jehovah’s witnesses present, their joy was overflowing to see their expectations exceeded and the evident blessings of Jehovah thus manifested. The crowd having settled itself, a chorus of brothers sang Kingdom songs over the microphone. During the ninety-minute lecture delivered by the Society’s president through an interpreter, the 3,473 assembled were listening carefully, the majority copying the Scripture citations in their notebooks. To see that throng (more than half of whom were persons of good will) brought real happiness, especially to the missionaries who love working in Korea.

After the lecture hundreds of that audience orderly and quickly boarded chartered streetcars, riding back to the school for the assembly’s closing sessions. Exactly one hour later, despite heavy traffic, 1,408 had reassembled to enjoy Brother Adams’ final talk and concluding remarks by Brother Knorr. Then, after one more delicious meal of rice, “kimchi” and other flavorful dishes, the brothers left the campus and headed for home. Filled with new truths and admonition, they talked of the work ahead—to find others like themselves who want to know Jehovah.

This first national assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Korea not only stimulated the already marvelous zeal of the brothers but helped all to appreciate how necessary it is to advance to maturity. In Korea people usually see the truth very rapidly. Even people in high positions do not allow their pride to hold them from admitting their religious belief to be wrong. Once convinced, they become very diligent about studying and preaching. An example of this was an interesting experience related at the assembly.

A prominent prosecuting attorney and his wife were contacted by one of the missionaries about a year ago and a study was arranged. As Presbyterians, both strongly believed the doctrines of that religion. During the ensuing months the lawyer, Mr. Kim, reserved two hours from his work every Thursday afternoon for a very detailed study of the Bible. So it took a great deal of Scriptural proof to convince them, but slowly and surely they came to see the truth. They stopped supporting the church, despite protests of the wife’s father, a prominent local minister. Mr. Kim was sent on business to America by the Korean government and he has since visited Brooklyn Bethel and factory. He has enjoyed preaching in New York, but writes that he is eager to return to his homeland to help in the preaching there. Recently his wife has become very zealous in the service and she was immersed at the assembly.

Monday, April 30, through Thursday noon, May 3, Brothers Knorr, Adams and Barry visited the branch office to discuss missionary and branch matters. It was pointed out too that missionaries in Korea have a special responsibility to bring the vast multitudes, who have quickly come into the organization, to full maturity. They are diligent in this respect and try hard to do this. To accomplish this, the need to master the language was stressed as the most important step toward becoming an effective missionary. In just a year’s time the new missionaries have done well; but only by becoming qualified to speak fluently in the language of the people can a missionary convey Scriptural and organizational points to brothers and persons of good will. All who received the benefit of the wise and loving counsel were greatly appreciative and eager to carry out the president’s suggestions.

For all, these were a busy six days, and though the missionaries were sorry to see the visitors leave they were eager to put to good use the things they had learned. As the departing plane faded from their view and finally disappeared into the blue sky, these ministers of Jehovah firmly turned around for looking at their country and their responsibilities to its inhabitants. With thankfulness in their hearts they reflected upon the precious privilege they have to serve Jehovah full time in such a sheep-filled land as Korea.

The three travelers now had to return to Japan where Brother Barry would remain while Brother Knorr and Brother Adams went on to Alaska. On the flight back to Tokyo the scenery was outstanding, the plane soaring high above the rugged, picturesque terrain of Korea, then over the Sea of Japan and on by the beautiful mountain Fujiyama. Pleasant it was to be again with the missionaries in Tokyo for two days. This time there was no earthquake as there had been a week earlier just before Brother Knorr spoke at the service meeting in one of Tokyo’s Kingdom Halls, when he had started his speech by saying, “That was my initial nervousness.”

ALASKA

At the Tokyo airport Saturday evening (May 5) at 6:30 Brother Adams and Brother Knorr waved good-by to a happy crowd of missionaries and others of Jehovah’s witnesses. All that night and a good part of the next day they flew over the Aleutian Islands, finally landing at Anchorage, Alaska, at 2:30 Saturday afternoon. How strange one feels to live the same day twice! Again they had crossed the international date line. Before boarding the plane to Fairbanks a few hours were spent with a brother and a sister who were unable to go to the convention. They had met the visitors at the airport, showed them the modern, fast-growing city of Anchorage, and then took them to the new Kingdom Hall—one which any congregation anywhere could be proud of. While the structure was not quite finished, one could see this was due to become an outstanding assembly place for Jehovah’s witnesses.

The plane to Fairbanks took off in the late afternoon, but the sun still shone brightly on the snow-capped hills around Anchorage and on the mountain range to the north—an awe-inspiring sight. The thick layer of snow blanketed the rugged peaks and lowly valleys as far as the eye could see. Towering above everything was Mt. McKinley, North America’s highest point (20,300 feet above sea level), higher above the surrounding country than any other mountain in the world. Although this majestic peak was almost fifty miles to the west of the route to Fairbanks, it stood out prominently on the landscape as a monument to the unfathomable power of its Creator. Its summit under favorable conditions affords a panorama of an area over 200 miles in diameter.

Within an hour after arriving at Fairbanks the brothers were at Carpenters’ Hall where the convention was being held, and a few minutes later Brother Knorr delivered his first discourse to an audience of 152. It was very pleasant to be with this small group. Here everyone was speaking English and this allowed for warm fellowship with the brothers after the talks and during mealtimes. The public meeting on Sunday packed out the hall with 231 in attendance, and the brothers were indeed overjoyed with this largest group ever assembled together for a public meeting of Jehovah’s witnesses in any part of Alaska.

On the previous day nine had been baptized, this bringing great joy to the missionaries and others who had served faithfully in Alaska. One of the brothers had prepared a baptismal font in his basement, as ice prevented an outdoor immersion. Alaska, as some probably think, is a hard territory in which to work. Indeed it is, but the missionaries who have gone there love it and feel right at home. The same is true of many other brothers who have made just one trip to Alaska. They feel the freshness of the air and the freedom of that great expanse of land and decide to make it their home. When they go out in the deep snows of midwinter to witness, the people usually invite them right into their homes and excellent Bible discussions can be carried on. Since Fairbanks is so near the Arctic Circle the days are very short in winter, but in spring and summer it never really gets dark. In fact, while the convention was on the sun rose at 2:51 in the morning. If one is used to getting up at dawn, he would find it a little early in Alaska. All during the assembly beautiful sunshine prevailed.

The brothers had arranged for a fifteen-minute interview on the radio as well as two television programs the day following the assembly. The local congregation was very glad to get all this publicity as they felt it would help the territory greatly by preparing the people for their next ministerial visits.

The day before they were to leave, Brother Knorr and Brother Adams had the pleasure of being with the missionaries and eating moose steaks well prepared by one of the brothers in the missionary service. It was a joy to discuss with them the marvelous increase of the work in Alaska. Eight years had passed since these same missionaries had been visited here by the Society’s president, but they continue faithfully carrying on in their service.

HOMEWARD BOUND

New York was the next stop, but before getting there thousands of miles had to be covered. The first stretch was flight over interesting Yukon Territory of Canada. A stop was made at Whitehorse, where a number of brothers who had traveled by car from Fairbanks over the Alaskan highway the day before boarded the plane for the short one-hour hop over the mountains to their home congregation at Juneau, Alaska. Here again a group came to the airport to meet the travelers headed for New York. These little thirty-minute refreshers along the way certainly made the heart glad, both for the travelers and for the local congregation publishers. From the plane a fine view was enjoyed of the beautiful glacier of Mendenhall, as well as of the snow-capped mountain range along Canada’s west coast. From the Seattle airport Mt. Ranier could be seen in all its glory as a tall cone standing above the low clouds.

The transcontinental flight in the United States was rapid. It was good to see from the air the fine new structure the Society had been building since the summer of 1955 (now completed) at Brooklyn. Thus ended ten weeks of traveling, meeting missionaries, branch servants, special pioneers, circuit and district servants and many thousands of other publishers of Jehovah’s kingdom in far-flung areas of the South Pacific and Far East. Love shown by all these made one’s heart glad and the Society’s traveling representatives rejoiced that they had had the opportunity of serving their brothers and having wonderful fellowship with them in these many lands. Truly Jehovah and his enthroned King continue gathering together the “other sheep” from every nation, kindred and tongue, and the time draws nearer when all surviving mankind will be made one under their Creator. The thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses in all these countries expressed their warm love and greeting to all their fellow workers world-wide, and are determined to stick together in the New World society, giving Jehovah exclusive devotion.

Questions From Readers

● 1 Samuel 28:6 (NW) says: “Although Saul would inquire of Jehovah, Jehovah never answered him, either by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets.” But 1 Chronicles 10:14 (NW) says about Saul: “And he did not inquire of Jehovah.” How can these two texts be harmonized?—N. M., Hawaii.

Apparently Saul made inquiry of Jehovah, but not in the right way or with the right motives. His heart was not clean in the matter and Jehovah could see this, so no answer was given to Saul from God. Then Saul turned to the witch of En-dor, or to the spirit medium located there. He made inquiry of the spirit medium, a practice condemned by God. Saul went through certain forms of inquiring of God, but he did not make inquiry of God in an upright, clean way, and for that reason God did not hear or answer Saul.

A person today may pray to God, but if the person is wicked or prays wrongly God does not hear the prayer. “You do ask, and yet you do not receive, because you are asking for a wrong purpose, that you may expend it upon your cravings for sensual pleasure.” “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”—Jas. 4:3, NW; Prov. 28:9; 15:29, RS.

In one sense it may be said that a person prays, in that he goes through the form of praying. But it may be said in another sense that he does not pray, since he does not do it in the way that is acceptable to God and as a result his prayer is never heard by God. So in the same way 1 Samuel 28:6 may say Saul inquired of God because he went through the form of inquiry, and 1 Chronicles 10:14 may also say correctly that Saul did not inquire of God, meaning he made no proper, acceptable inquiries.

Announcements

TRIUMPHING OVER ENEMIES BY KINGDOM PREACHING—Ps. 110:2; Matt. 24:14, NW.

The continued preaching of the message of God’s established kingdom is evidence of its victory over the enemies of the Kingdom. God has given assurance to his faithful witnesses that the enemies will never be able to silence “this good news of the kingdom” from being proclaimed. Jehovah’s witnesses are now working unassigned territory. Those not able to participate in this work will serve people living in congregation territory with the offer of three books and three booklets on a contribution of $1.50.

TRUTH VERSUS FICTION

“Truth is stranger than fiction,” someone has said—but it is far more beneficial. How much ‘fiction’ actually passes for ‘truth,’ do you suppose? According to Bible prophecy men today have made lies their refuge and have hid themselves under falsehoods. Truth has been obscured by error and wrong accepted by many as right. So the truth may sound strange to you when compared with what you have heard all your life. But that does not necessarily make it false. Remember, Jesus said: “The truth shall make you free.” In the mass of propaganda flooding all means of communication how can you be sure what is right? Why not follow Paul’s advice, “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar”? Accept the Bible as the source of truth. Allow it to expose ‘creed’ and ‘dogma.’ Study it with the three books “Let God Be True”, “The Truth Shall Make You Free” and “The Kingdom Is at Hand”. They will be sent you with three booklets on a contribution of $1.50.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania will hold its annual meeting of members on Monday, October 1, 1956, at ten o’clock in the forenoon at the registered office of the Society, which is located at 4100 Bigelow Boulevard, corner of Parkman Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Members of the corporation should be certain that the secretary’s office has the proper addresses to which to mail the usual letter of notice advising them of the meeting and in which the proxy forms are enclosed. We need to have all the proxies returned to the office of the secretary of the Society not later than the 15th of September. Each member should complete and return his proxy promptly whether he is going to be at the meeting personally or not.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

September 30: The Divine Origin of Marriage, ¶1-20. Page 525.

October 7: The Divine Origin of Marriage, ¶21, 22, and Marriage Under Imperfect Conditions. Page 532.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ What advice Roman Catholics have been given regarding Jehovah’s witnesses? P. 516, ¶3.

✔ Whether Adam expected to go to heaven? P. 518, ¶1.

✔ Why earth’s missionaries have failed to preach the good news of God’s kingdom? P. 520, ¶1.

✔ What a Gilead graduate says about full-time missionary service? P. 522, ¶2.

✔ Who God’s wife or “woman” is? P. 526, ¶4.

✔ Why marriage is holy? P. 530, ¶16.

✔ How the woman was to be a “helper” and “complement” for man? P. 532, ¶21.

✔ Why Eve’s sin was a direct case of marriage insubordination? P. 534, ¶4.

✔ How many of Jehovah’s witnesses are actively preaching in Korea? P. 539, ¶1.