The Watchtower — September 15, 1956

Learn How to Learn

GROWING up requires learning how to learn. To grow up spiritually a Christian needs to learn how to learn. This is because Christianity is based on a learning process; the true Christian must continually take in life-giving knowledge. He must do this to be pleasing to “God, whose will is that all kinds of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth.”—1 Tim. 2:3, 4, NW.

A Christian must learn that he is never too old to learn. He must learn that learning is a cumulative process: the more he learns the more he realizes the need to increase in accurate knowledge of the truth. Not only that, but learning must be productive; like a tree it must some day begin to bear fruit. So learning should make a Christian fruitful in spiritual good works. What is the purpose of learning? “That you may be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual discernment, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him as you go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God.”—Col. 1:9, 10, NW.

Some professed Christians seem to be ever learning, but they never attain an accurate knowledge of the truth; and they never become fruitful. They are unable to take God’s Word, the Bible, and open up its rich meaning to others. Such ones are like those persons the apostle wrote of who were “always learning and yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7, NW) So what is wrong?

No one can come to an accurate knowledge of the truth unless the teaching he receives actually leads to the truth. Jesus said there would be many false Christian teachers in these “last days.” So the Christian who has learned how to learn will “make sure of all things.” He will “keep testing whether” he has accurate knowledge and is “in the faith.” This requires a willingness to examine what he has already learned to make sure that it is the right kind of teaching, that it is in harmony with the standard for accurate knowledge, the Bible.—1 Thess. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:5, NW.

Even with the right teaching some are ever learning and never growing up. What is wrong? The Bible says: “The fool multiplies words” but “wise men store up knowledge.” There may be too much talking. Some people just like to talk. They like to talk more than listen. If one spends more time multiplying words than storing up knowledge, such a person may be ever learning but “never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth.” Talk has its place; it must not be allowed to crowd out listening and diligent personal study.—Eccl. 10:14; Prov. 10:14, AT.

The unproductive ever-learner usually has curiosity; he may just want knowledge for selfish purposes. Or it may be that he does not take time to digest what he learns. That requires thinking and applying learning to oneself. Sometimes it is a matter of curiosity coupled with a flabby will. One must learn to make decisions. The biggest decision a person must make in life is whether to serve Jehovah and his Son. Said Jesus: “He that is not on my side is against me.” It takes courage to decide for truth. But God gives “not a spirit of cowardice, but that of power and of love.”—Matt. 12:30; 2 Tim. 1:7, NW.

Life depends on growing up spiritually. There is no time to waste. Learn how to learn.

The Real Book of Freedom

Does it sound strange that the truth in a book can make men free? How can it do this, and why? This article answers.

“WHY should man need a book to be free today?” you may ask. “Does not the world have greater political understanding, more liberties, greater knowledge and more extensive education than ever before?” Indeed, knowledge has increased and literacy and the means of spreading information have expanded at a tremendous pace. But still, in a real sense, the world is neither physically nor mentally free.

The world is not free when more than one out of every three of its people—nearly a billion persons—are under the control of totalitarian communism, and when smaller totalitarian systems continue to exist even within the so-called “free world.”

Nor is the world free while wars and threats of wars hang ominously over its head and while so much of the resources of nations is directed either toward aggression or defense.

Nor is the world really free as long as slavish anxieties, neuroses and mental illnesses hold so many people in bondage that the president’s commission for the study of national health recently called emotional disabilities the United States’ foremost health problem.

Nor can the world really say it is free as long as religious falsehood and moral bankruptcy hold it in bondage to error and corruption. People are not really free who are held in subjection to false religious traditions. Yet so many contradictory things are taught in today’s churches that some of them must be false. In the United States alone there are at least 23 groups of Baptists, 15 divisions among the Brethren, 15 divisions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, 7 kinds of Pentecostals, 10 groups of Presbyterians, 21 divisions among the Methodists, 9 divisions among the Friends, 20 groups of Lutherans and 13 kinds of Mennonites. Certainly not all of these groups could be right, because they disagree with each other; so some must be in slavery to falsehood.

Even further, the scoffing of science keeps many people away from the true source of freedom. This scoffing leaves the impression that true science contradicts the Bible. Yet modern discovery has demolished many of such theories. For example, the radiocarbon clock has disproved some of the fantastic ages that scientists have attributed to various forms of life. One instance was where they had said a destroyed spruce forest in Wisconsin was an amazing 125,000 years old. This figure was at least 91 percent wrong, for the radiocarbon clock brought the forest’s age down to a mere 11,000 years. Yet some persons still put their confidence on the shifting sands of such false theories rather than on the solid rock of God’s Word that remains always the same.

So the world is still in need of both physical and mental freedom, as well as freedom from all false ideas that lead men into error and away from truth and light. Where can this true freedom be found? The Bible is the book of such freedom. It shows (1) why man is in bondage today, (2) how to get a really free mind now and (3) how to gain permanent freedom of both body and mind under the righteous new conditions that are so near at hand. What does it say about these things?

THE LOSS OF FREEDOM

The Bible says that men are in bondage because of Satan’s rebellion and Adam’s fall. It tells us that originally man was created free, that he was free in both body and mind, and that he was put into a free world that knew neither sin nor unrighteousness nor death. What changed these conditions? A spirit creature rebelled, became Satan and led men away from God. He led them away by promising the first woman, Eve, that through disobeying God “your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.”—Gen. 3:5, NW.

Of course, that was a false promise of freedom. Adam and Eve were free to do everything that was right. But accepting Satan’s false promise that they would be better off by doing wrong brought them into the greatest slavery. They now became slaves to sin and to death and to the great adversary Satan himself, and they passed this slavery on to their descendants. Satan was the real enslaver of mankind, and even today the fight for true freedom is still against this same adversary, Satan. This is why Ephesians 6:12 and 1 Timothy 4:1 (NW) tell us that the Christian’s fight is against “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places,” and against “misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons.”

But Satan’s wicked influence covers far more than just spiritual matters. Sometimes you hear people say about a particular dictator: “He acts like the Devil himself!” There is often more truth to that statement than is realized. The world’s rulers certainly can do the Devil’s bidding, oppressing men and bringing them into both physical and mental slavery. That the nations themselves would thus be in bondage to Satan is shown in Revelation 16:14, which says that “expressions inspired by demons” would “perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.”—NW.

Satan does all that he can to keep all mankind so busy with their troubles and with earth’s difficulties that they will not take time to stop and look around and get their bearings and to learn from the real book of freedom that it is Satan who is actually leading this world, and that he really is the one who is responsible for its wars, troubles and death.

THE SOURCE OF FREEDOM

So true freedom does not come through man’s power. If man could find real freedom by himself then the modern super-wise twentieth-century world could throw off its mental shackles, throw out its psychiatrists, tear down its mental hospitals, abolish its slave-labor camps, remove its dictators, prevent new dictators from replacing them, and exercise the freedom that self-effort would bring. But man cannot do these things on his own. He tries, he makes some improvements, but the basic problems remain. There have been wars since earliest times, there have been totalitarian dictators since the first governments sprang up on the earth, and according to anthropologist George Peter Murdock of Yale University, psychiatry is the lineal descendant of the medicine man who let others become herbalists and bonesetters and confined his practice to curing the ills of the mind. Why do these earliest of problems still plague the twentieth-century world? Because the people who are promising freedom from them cannot overcome Satan’s power. They can only deal with the symptoms, not the real cause. “While they are promising them freedom, they themselves are existing as slaves of corruption.”—2 Pet. 2:19, NW.

Does this mean that there are no free people? No, it does not mean that. There are people today who are free even when thrown into jail or prison. There are people in Communist slave-labor camps today whose mental attitude makes them freer than most of the world’s people. They have the same freedom of mind that men of God in ancient times had. Noah was one of such ancient men. Even when a world’s end was at hand he did not cower in a paralysis of fear, but wisely obeyed God and lived through the flood that cleansed the earth of a corrupt system. Moses, too, was free from fear even when obeying God subjected him to the anger of Egypt’s mighty Pharaoh. Hebrews 11:27 (NW) says: “By faith he left Egypt, but not fearing the rage of the king, for he continued steadfast as seeing the one that is invisible.”

Of course, Christ Jesus was the most outstanding example of such freedom, and he opened the way to real freedom for others who would accept it. He did this by providing the ransom that can cancel out the slavery that Adam’s disobedience brought upon mankind. Romans 5:18 (NW) says: “So, then, as through [Adam’s] one trespass the result to men of all kinds was condemnation, likewise also through [Christ’s] one act of justification the result to men of all kinds is a declaring of them righteous for life.”

Yes, Christ is God’s chief liberator of man. He will free men from all kinds of slavery. He will free earth from its wars, disease, oppression and death. And he will bring perfect peace from God’s hand.

You have prayed for him to do this. You have asked in prayer to God: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” For God’s will to be done all badness must be gone; Satan’s wicked rule must come to its end. Christ would not have taught us to pray for this if it were not going to happen. He did teach us to ask for it, however, and it will happen!—Matt. 6:10.

Would it bring you great peace of mind to know for a certainty that God’s will is soon to be done throughout the earth as it is in heaven? The book of freedom gives you that confidence. It shows that the heavenly part of this new system of things has already been established, and that the earthly part is in process of development. It gives proof that within the lifetime of people who are now living God’s will is going to be done throughout the earth, just as it is in heaven. The Bible is the book of greatest freedom because it tells how you can live at that time, and under its blessings.

Revelation 12:12 (NW) says of our day: “On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”

These woes have come upon mankind since the year 1914. The wars, famine, earthquakes, earth-wide persecution of true Christians, increased lawlessness, global fear and insecurity, and even the juvenile delinquency and today’s earthwide Kingdom-preaching were all foretold as a part of the great sign that would mark the time when Satan had been cast down to earth’s vicinity and when Christ’s kingdom was being established. The fact that these things have come upon our generation marks ours as the time for the end of Satan’s wicked rule, and for the accompanying establishment of really righteous conditions.—Matt. 24:6-21; Luke 21:26; 2 Tim. 3:1-3.

REGAINING FREEDOM

All of this information is from the real book of freedom. This book, the Bible, also says much more about our day. Do you want to benefit from the life-giving information that it contains? Then you must read that book for yourself. You must study other publications, like this one, that will help you to understand it. And you must associate at congregational meetings with other people who are genuinely interested in what this true book of freedom really does say. Remember: “When there is a turning to Jehovah, the veil is taken away. Now Jehovah is the spirit; and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.”—2 Cor. 3:16, 17, NW.

But perhaps you say: “All that sounds good, but I just don’t have the time to do it.” Many people say that, but is it really true? The baseball fan keeps up with the standings of his team. Business people read their trade papers. Multiplied millions of persons spend time every week reading magazines and newspapers or attending movies. All of these may be enjoyable or even profitable at times, but actually the reason why people find time to do them is that they want to do them. Do you want freedom and life? Are freedom and life as important to you as the baseball scores, or a current magazine, a movie or TV program? If so, then you really will find time to study the book of true freedom, and to associate with and study with other people who are likewise concerned with these important things.

A happy fact is that you do not have to do this all by yourself. Jehovah’s witnesses, who are just as busy as you are, will take their own time to come to your home and to help you to gain this needed knowledge of God’s Word. Then, as you gain this Bible knowledge, you will begin to see how God thinks, how he looks at things, how he does things, and what his rules and practices are. Your mind will begin to change. You will fill it with good things. You will no longer think just as the world thinks. You will no longer be enslaved by its selfish course, or by its fears. You will have obeyed the instruction to “quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God.”—Rom. 12:2, NW.

What you think directs what you do, and when you think and do good things you will use your freedom to live a clean, upright, moral life. You will keep separate from the way of mankind’s chief enslaver, Satan, who is soon to be destroyed, and you will be able to live through his destruction into the righteous new conditions that will follow. Under those new conditions of God’s righteous kingdom there will be no unjust rulers, no fear of war, no emotional disabilities, no religious falsehoods, nor any scoffing at the true source of freedom. All of these problems will have been solved through the application of right principles under the leadership of the new system’s king, Christ Jesus.

So, by accepting and believing the Bible, the true book of freedom, and by studying and following it, you too can receive mental freedom now, and complete physical freedom, too, under the blessings of God’s righteous kingdom, which soon will bring lasting peace to this earth and to all the godly people who will live upon it.

Consider the Facts

Is Diversity a Blessing?

● Commenting on the diversity of religions in America, cleric Walter Donald Kring of Unitarian Church of All Souls, New York, recently said, according to the New York Times of October 17, 1955: “It would seem to me that one of the greatest contributions of America to the world has been the concept that actually there is a better chance to find truth if it is sought in as many ways as possible.” If this diversity of religions is such a blessing, Christ’s apostle did not know about it. Or is it that cleric Kring does not know what Christ’s apostle wrote?—”I exhort you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought.”—1 Cor. 1:10, NW.

Agnosticism in Israel

● People often suppose that, of all modern states, the rulers of Israel would be among the most religious. A correspondent for a famed newspaper recently found otherwise. In his article “The People of Israel,” reporter John Beavan wrote in Britain’s Manchester Guardian Weekly of December 8, 1955: “In spite of the concessions it has made to the Orthodox parties, the State has remained remarkably secular, and public men are required neither to believe nor to practice. Indeed, they pay less lip-service to organized religion than is required of agnostic Englishmen in official positions. But more often they are religious in a wider sense. Agnostic, humanist, or rationalist views are expressed with a fervor and conviction I have not found elsewhere in recent years. Somewhere in every conversation it is necessary to speak of ‘the dignity of man.’” Scuttled, then, are any claims that the modern nation of Israel has any connection with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy! The prophesied return was to restore true worship of Jehovah. This has been fulfilled upon spiritual Israel, not natural Israel.

‘Let Us Not Envy One Another’

THE ability to enjoy the successes of others is an important mark of Christian maturity. One is not mature who is jealous of another’s ability or success. When not all in a Christian congregation are spiritually mature, the problem of envy or jealousy can crop up. But it can be conquered. It can be overcome by the power of God’s spirit. Thus an apostle of Christ wrote: “If we are living by spirit, let us go on walking orderly also by spirit. Let us not become egotistical, stirring up competition with one another, envying one another.”—Gal. 5:25, 26, NW.

Just what is envy? It really is an expression of selfishness, of too much self-love. It manifests itself by discontent or ill will at another’s good fortune because one wishes it had been his. So a jealous person resents the success of another. If he cannot have such success himself he does not want to see it in others. Envy is selfishness at work.

Envy manifests itself in a variety of ways. Usually there is a failure to rejoice over another person’s success. A jealous person is full of envy; he cannot rejoice with those who rejoice. He does not live up to the Bible command: “Rejoice with people who rejoice; weep with people who weep.” (Rom. 12:15, NW) A jealous person is not happy himself and he makes others unhappy. It is torment for a jealous person to speak well of the person he envies. In fact, the jealous person shies away from the one he envies. This leads to another manifestation of envy.

This is coolness. The jealous person is cold and unfriendly toward the one he envies. Though the one who is the object of envy may sense this coolness and even put forth an extra effort to be friendly, it is of no use. The envious person has closed the door of his heart. Cruel this is, but “jealousy is cruel as the grave.”—Song of Sol. 8:6, RS.

A DEADLY SIN

The danger of envy is great. It is like an infected wound. The infection spreads. It breeds further infection. It begets all kinds of causes for friction and division in a Christian congregation. For one thing, a jealous man often likes to belittle the person he envies. A selfish, begrudging spirit is now at work. The envious one likes to make all kinds of remarks to other people to try to reduce the stature of the person he envies, for the envious tend to praise only that which they can surpass; that which surpasses them they find fault with or belittle. Thus the envious man shows he is completely unbalanced: “He who belittles his neighbor lacks sense.”—Prov. 11:12, RS.

When envy occurs in a Christian congregation the situation is very serious. If the one envied is a servant in the congregation, the work of advancing the good news may be hindered. Why? Because the jealous person does not co-operate wholeheartedly with the one he envies. He fails to give full help. He fails to put God’s work ahead of self. If not checked, envy can continue its infectious growth. It can beget hatred and hatred can beget strife. True it is that “where jealousy and contentiousness are, there disorder and every vile thing are.”—Jas. 3:16, NW.

Few things can more thoroughly embitter the human spirit and poison brotherly relationships than the spirit of envy. It is of special interest to notice what place jealousy is given in order of vices by Bible writers. Comparing anger and jealousy, wise King Solomon said: “Wrath is ruthless, and anger a torrent; but before jealousy who can stand?” (Prov. 27:4, AT) Anger is like a torrential flood. True, the flood leaves ruin in its wake, but the flood at least subsides. There is some relief. But jealousy—it is overwhelming. It is like the incessant dropping of water on stone. It never stops, it just keeps on and on. Even as a mighty stone cannot stand up under the unending dropping of water, so a man finds it intolerable to associate with an envious individual. There is no relief.

There was no relief for Abel. His brother Cain envied him. Righteous Abel received the blessing of Jehovah God; Cain did not. Cain turned jealousy into hatred; his hatred begot strife and that strife led to murder. Jealousy is a deadly sin. If not conquered, it brings ruin. For “jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies” are all “works of the flesh.” And of these Christ’s apostle emphatically declares: “As to these things I am forewarning you, the same way as I did forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.”—Gal. 5:19-21, NW.

APPEAL TO SELF-INTEREST

How can one conquer jealousy? Self-interest ought to be enough. True, it is self-love that sparks jealousy. But when one truly understands what jealousy leads to, how destructive it can be, genuine self-interest ought to actuate a Christian to “put away all moral badness and all deceitfulness and hypocrisy and envies.”—1 Pet. 2:1, NW.

A Christian who thinks does not want to go back to the world. Then why go back to worldly practices? Says the Bible: “Even we were once senseless, disobedient, being misled, being slaves to various desires and pleasures, carrying on in maliciousness and envy, hateful, hating one another.” (Titus 3:3, NW) The Devil would like to turn all Christians back into the old world. That would mean everlasting death. Now the envious person gives Satan a beachhead, for he is putting on the works of darkness. The Bible command is: “Let us therefore put off the works belonging to darkness and let us put on the weapons of the light. As in the daytime let us walk in good behavior, not in revelries and drunken bouts, not in illicit intercourse and loose conduct, not in strife and jealousy.”—Rom. 13:12, 13, NW.

Then there is this matter of self-interest as viewed from the standpoint of one’s physical health. It is now known that certain emotions, such as jealousy, anxiety and worry, can cause bodily or physical disturbances. So the wrong kind of emotions can harm your body. God’s Word says: “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.” (Prov. 14:30) One really interested in his welfare, both spiritually and physically, will want to conquer jealousy.

LOVE IS NOT JEALOUS

There is a powerful way to conquer envy: by the way of love. “Love is not jealous.” (1 Cor. 13:4, NW) Love knows no jealousy; it feels no envy. Love casts out jealousy. Look at Jonathan’s love for David. Jonathan was the eldest son of King Saul, the one who would have inherited his father’s throne, but Jehovah gave the kingship to David. From the human standpoint, Jonathan should have been fiercely jealous of David. But not so. And why? Because the love between them was great. Love had cast out all jealousy.

Christian love places God and his organization above oneself. Some brothers in a congregation are more gifted than others. These may have certain inborn abilities and manifestations of God’s spirit that others do not have. These gifted ones should not be envied. They are Christ’s gift to the congregation. These “gifts in men” are given “with a view to the training of the holy ones for ministerial work.” (Eph. 4:7-12, NW) So what if others do have abilities that you do not yet have or may never have? Be glad. Be glad because these gifted ones contribute to the congregation’s upbuilding and equipment for the ministry. So benefit from such gifted brothers. Enjoy their services. Rejoice with them in their successes. They were given for your profit, not for your envy.

Pangs of envy and jealousy can easily crop up when we look on those more splendidly endowed than ourselves, especially if such ones are in our age group. But true love is strong. It is strong enough to endure differences in endowment, just as Christian love is strong and pure enough to endow with graciousness and humility those who are so privileged. “Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not get puffed up.”—1 Cor. 13:4, NW.

Love feels no envy. Love actuates one to appreciate abilities in others no matter what the relative effect may seem to be on one’s own position. If you think of the upbuilding of God’s organization, you will not be conscious of self. Those who are truly mature rejoice in the greater success of another even in a sphere similar to that occupied by themselves.

When a Christian congregation meets for study, benefit from the comments of your brothers. Do not envy them. What if some can comment in more appropriate language, more expressive words? It is all for your profit, for the congregation’s benefit. Whether you are listening or commenting yourself, keep your mind on the idea. Think of ideas as impersonal, as something for all to benefit from. If your mind is absorbed in the idea there will be no room for envy of the person expressing the idea.

What if some brothers are more effective in advancing the good news than others? Be glad. Be glad for them. Be glad for the organization.

When envy crops up it hinders God’s work. A brother or a sister in a congregation may be exceptionally zealous. That one may turn back-calls into studies and studies into Kingdom publishers faster than any others in the congregation. Certain brothers may note this one’s fine zeal and effectiveness and by comparison feel that they suffer. They become envious. They may treat the zealous one inconsiderately and fail to give needed help. Such envious persons are unbalanced. They are putting themselves ahead of God’s organization. They fail to understand that Christians are not competing. Mature Christians are not trying to see who is the most zealous, who is the best public speaker, who can make the finest comments or who can place the most literature. So “let us not become egotistical, stirring up competition with one another, envying one another.” (Gal. 5:25, 26, NW) Rather, let us be “encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near.”—Heb. 10:25, NW.

BE ON GUARD AGAINST JEALOUSY

Jealousy is such a despicable, shameful emotion that those who are jealous do not like to admit it even to themselves. Their own consciences may despise and detest jealousy. Then why do they become jealous? It is often because they are not on guard against jealousy. Envy is sinister. It can slip into one’s unconscious mind. One does not need to say to himself, “Well, I’m jealous of that person,” before he shows envy by his actions. You know what the manifestations of jealousy are, such as coldness, unfriendliness, belittling others. If you detect these manifestations in yourself at any time, stop and think. Think deep enough to pull out any roots of jealousy that may have found fertile soil in the unconscious mind. Said Jesus: “Be on the alert and on guard against every kind of covetousness.”—Luke 12:15, NW.

The way to guard against jealousy is to “put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct” and to “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loving-kindness.” (Eph. 4:22-24, NW) Then you will be armed with the right mental attitude, the kind one. Says Romans 12:16 (NW): “Be minded the same way toward others as to yourselves.” You do not begrudge yourself abilities or success. So do not begrudge others what you enjoy and appreciate in yourself. Really, “be minded the same way toward others as to yourselves.”

Guard further against jealousy by doing, as the apostle says, “nothing out of contentiousness or out of egotism, but with lowliness of mind considering that the others are superior to you.” (Phil. 2:3, NW) This does not mean that a Christian should speak slightingly of his own abilities, always disparaging himself. That kind of humbleness lacks sincerity; usually it is nothing but a cover for vanity. But what the apostle means is that a Christian should look to the larger good, leaving himself entirely out of account, “with lowliness of mind considering that the others are superior to you.” True humility, like love, guards against envy.

Envy profits nobody. The Devil envied Jehovah; the Devil will lose everything. Envy brings one to ruin. So why be envious of one another? Even right now the envious are in a sad state of affairs: they are tormented not only by troubles that the old world brings but also by all the good that happens to others. What a miserable existence! So let us not envy one another. Show real maturity. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Encourage others to greater success in Jehovah’s service. That is the way of true Christian love.

Jamaican Youth Teaches Schoolmates

● “So keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked.” That those who heed this admonition of Paul as found at Ephesians 5:15, 16 (NW) are blessed in their doing so is apparent from the following experience of a Jamaican youth: “I am a student in secondary school where there are classes in religious knowledge. During my first attendance at one of these classes the subject of the trinity came up. Right away some of the students put up their hands and told the teacher that I was one of Jehovah’s witnesses and that I did not believe in a trinity. I was asked to explain and so stood up and from the Bible showed why Jehovah’s witnesses do not believe the trinity teaching. The students were so convinced of the correctness of our position on the trinity that when the teacher tried to defend the trinity, using a Catholic publication to back him up on the trinity, the students jeered him. He was dismayed and dismissed the class. I explained to him afterward that that Catholic book was without support, whereas the Bible was authentic. He then said to me, ‘In the future when you hear me say anything contrary to the Bible, you let me know and I will let you explain it to the students.’”

From Catholic Seminary to Jehovah’s Witnesses

THE following are some of my experiences during my preparation for the priesthood in the Catholic religion until I became one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

In my youth I was a lad full of life and illusions about the Catholic religion. A new and zealous priest in my home town of Arroyo Arenas in the Havana Province assisted me in becoming very punctual in church attendance and in joining the Catholic Action youth group. This same priest also organized the Knights of Columbus organization for adults. I was in two of these groups that attended the San Carlos and San Ambrosio seminaries. To me this was really outstanding, as I considered the Catholic Church the true preserver and holder of God’s worship and truths.

However, I must confess that at times doubts entered my mind on subjects like this, for instance: God says not to kill and yet Catholics of different nations kill each other. Why? I asked the priest one day and he said: “Well, they don’t shoot with the idea of killing.” His answer impressed me but didn’t satisfy me.

After serving as the priest’s assistant for about five years I was sent among a group of priesthood aspirants to Belén, a well-known Catholic school for “spiritual retirement.” We were to remain silent five days, not uttering a word, meditating and reading about the lives of “saints” of the Catholic Church. One evening, when I was about to eat my dessert in this place of retirement, a priest came up from behind me and took away that big, generous bowl of ice cream, saying: “Offer it to the Lord.” I refused even to think of protesting, because a priest had done this. Later I read in the Bible that Jehovah desires obedience, not sacrifice.

Sometime later I was called upon to represent my school in a contest that the archbishop of Havana had arranged for as to the best-prepared student on the catechism of Catholic doctrine. Immediately after this contest I began preparing to enter the regular seminary for the priesthood. The wife of an ex-president of Cuba, together with a priest, bought me the necessary garments and clothing required for the course. I am from a poor family and I had no money.

Upon entering the seminary I had to spend another week of meditation as to whether I really and fully desired to be a priest. Not a word could be spoken during that week. I decided that I did want to be a priest. The first four years of the seminary are spent in studying the Spanish language to as close to perfection as possible. I was allowed three outings a year—one on my saint’s day and two on the days of the saints of my parents. These studies are carried on under the strictest discipline.

However, after one of my outings I became sick and was unable to return to the seminary. I dropped the seminary career. Years went by and my faith in the church waned. I was working for a bus company during this time.

One day a new employee was assigned to work with me. I could tell by his speech that he was different; his reasoning was different. On one occasion a political shooting took place in the city and five persons lost their lives. I asked him something about their being brought to justice. He said that there was no such thing as justice in this world, all of which sounded unusual to me but true.

Later he pointed out to me in an argument that what I was saying about the soul was wrong. He suggested I read the Bible. I then went to our local priest and asked for a Bible. He told me that if that individual should give me a Bible I should bring it to the priest to have him explain it to me.

I was then invited by the new employee to accompany him to the Kingdom Hall. Finally one Sunday I went with him. I previously had heard a woman say ‘any day is a good day to read the Word of God’ and that expression ‘Word of God’ stuck with me. So when I went to the Kingdom Hall I thought of it immediately. However, I had a strange sensation there among those people. I had always hated Protestants and repudiated the idea, and here I was in a Protestant temple! I was surely observing everything around me.

Inwardly I liked the speaker’s talk, his comments on the year 1914 and the pleasing ovation given him by the audience. Afterward many of those present showed me many prophecies in the Bible, especially so when they learned I had studied in a seminary. I got a Bible and started reading it from Genesis onward. Upon reading Matthew chapter 23 I made up my mind to quit Catholicism forever. Chapter 24 convinced me of the nearness of the end.

Everything seemed so good that I decided to take the Bible to the priest. I had already begun to talk about the Bible and the priest knew about it before I saw him. The people in our town had seen me many times in processions and religious parades; so the radical change was the subject for much talk. When I visited the priest in the church he first offered me a cigarette and a picture of a saint, both of which I refused. He began telling me about his recent visit to Rome where he saw the absolute holiness in the face and hands of the pope.

Then he started to reprimand me severely for studying the Bible, to which I replied that I believed no man’s word, only the Bible, the Word of God. He then said: “So you think that the Catholic Church is the harlot of the Revelation?” As I indicated she was close to it he became very angry and ended our conversation.

He then published a smearing article in his church magazine against those people who are always selling Bibles in the street and he labeled such as in contrast to ‘doctors of divinity,’ ‘doctors of coffee.’ Since then this same priest has read some of the Watch Tower publications, but there is no evidence of his believing them. Not long ago I presented him with the book “Equipped for Every Good Work” and Evolution versus The New World. I told him Armageddon was at the door. He said he was convinced of his religion the same as I was of mine.

Today my wife and I and two children are publishers of the good news. I pray Jehovah will help us to be faithful to the end.

I will hear what God Jehovah will speak; for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.—Ps. 85:8, 9, AS.

Gilead Graduates Its Twenty-seventh Class

THE intermittent shade of low-flying clouds combined with gentle summer breezes provided pleasant comfort for the open-air assembly on Gilead’s campus. It was the week end of July 28 and 29. The setting was one of natural beauty and the occasion one of rejoicing. It was the graduation program for the twenty-seventh class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead and 4,420 persons had assembled.

All day Saturday was a time of warm Christian fellowship and then at seven o’clock in the evening 2,634 assembled for the weekly Watchtower study. The Society’s president called for twelve volunteers from the student body and these, assembled on the platform, demonstrated that even in small congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses interesting and instructive studies may be conducted if everyone prepares and participates in the discussion. The Watchtower study was followed by music by members of the student body.

Sunday morning the program began at nine. After song and prayer the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, introduced each of the school’s four instructors, who offered final words of counsel. Congratulatory messages from around the world were read next, and then N. H. Knorr delivered the graduation address. The subject: “Irreprehensible Witnesses.”

He made clear to all present that being a witness for Jehovah God is a grave responsibility as well as a joyful privilege. He warned of the many pitfalls that may endanger the position of one of God’s ministers. Materialism ranked high on this list of dangers. The witness of Jehovah must always be keen to distinguish by God’s Word the difference between material advantages and blessings from Jehovah God. Prosperity in material things is not the blessing that Jehovah gives his people now, but rather his blessings are spiritual and make his ministers spiritually strong in his service. He warned against covetousness and, citing Proverbs 28:16, showed that the anxieties of this life and desires for material things possessed by others lead to disappointment and death. To maintain happiness he recommended the Christian course of shunning materialism and turning to full-time service of Jehovah God.

Following the graduation discourse the 108 members of the twenty-seventh class filed across the platform, where each was presented a white envelope containing a personal message from the president, a gift from the Society to aid the graduate to continue in the full-time service, a picture of the twenty-seventh class and, for those who had achieved scholastic marks of merit, a diploma from the school. As each graduate received his gift ministerial assignments were announced. It was noted that whereas these ministers had come from six different countries their assignments would scatter them to twenty lands around the earth. Joy filled the hearts of all as their thoughts turned to new fields of service awaiting them.

A member of the class then read an expression of gratitude addressed to the Society’s president. It was subsequently declared to express the sentiments of the entire group and was adopted as an expression of their gratitude to Jehovah and his organization, which had arranged for the Gilead training they had received.

The two-day program ended with expressions of appreciation from the graduates themselves. Twenty-three representatives of the class spoke and in their brief expressions was a unanimous appeal to all those attending to consider the joys of full-time service and missionary work as being something attainable for them too.

Theocratic Marriage in an Alien World

“You must form no marriage alliance with them. Your daughter you must not give to his son, and his daughter you must not take for your son. For he will turn your son from following me and they will certainly serve other gods.”—Deut. 7:3, 4, NW.

1. Why is marriage highly dignified, and what makes it safe and ensures its happiness?

HUMAN marriage came from the lofty thoughts of the Most High God. It was started by him in an earthly paradise with a perfectly mated couple. Since it came from a pure, divine source, it is something highly dignified. Worthily of its Source, it ought to be entered into and fulfilled according to the will of the God who blessed this marriage union. That is what makes it theocratic or subject to the rule of God. That, therefore, is what calls forth his blessing and makes marriage safe and ensures it happiness.

2. (a) For marital happiness and wisdom to handle marital problems what should we do, and why? (b) What has made the matter so complex, and how can we give both God and Caesar their due?

² The will and rule of God are lovingly written out for all married persons or for all who think of marrying, in his inspired Word, the Holy Bible. If we seek true happiness in marriage or want wisdom to handle marriage problems aright we will go to God’s Word and learn and be guided by the principles that it sets forth governing marriage. During the thousands of years since marriage was disadvantaged by the invasion of sin and death the matter has become a very complex one because of all the different ceremonies, customs, arrangements and laws that have grown up among the many nations, peoples and tribes. We should be confused or uncertain unless we had God’s Word to guide us and hold us to the divine principles of marriage. Those principles apply to his people all over the earth, without exception. By sticking to them and putting them above all the arrangements of men, we shall be giving to God what belongs to God while at the same time we can give to Caesar (or to human governments of this alien world) what belongs to Caesar. This is the Christian rule of action.—Matt. 22:21.

3, 4. (a) What kind of fatherhood did God set before Jesus, and when did Isaiah 9:6, 7 begin to have fulfillment? (b) In what way and because of pursuing what course does Jesus become a better father to us than Adam?

³ When Jesus Christ was on earth nineteen hundred years ago he did not get married. He was the perfect Son of God from heaven and he had not come to this earth to get married and settle down and become a human father, tied down to this earth. Jehovah God had set before his Son Jesus Christ a far grander fatherhood that would be of benefit to untold numbers of the human family, living and dead. When Jesus was born of a godly Jewish virgin in the little city of Bethlehem, then what God had foretold about him began to come true, and God’s people on earth could take up His prophetic words and say: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, . . . The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.” (Isa. 9:6, 7, AS) Take note that he was to live up to the names of Counsellor and Everlasting Father besides those other titles. By marrying a human bride and raising his own human family he could not become an Everlasting Father to us who are children of our first father Adam who sinned and plunged us into death.

⁴ No, but Jesus Christ now stands ready in heaven to become the Everlasting Father of all humans who want a life-giving father, a father able to provide everlasting life for them and to be a father to them everlastingly. Jesus Christ came into that wonderful position because he did not get married on earth but, instead, put aside the opportunity of becoming the father of his own human family by laying down his human life for us. Almighty God raised him from the dead and exalted him to heaven and accepted his human sacrifice for our sakes. Thus Jesus Christ in heavenly glory could pass on everlasting life to us if we would accept it. Thus he becomes a better father to us than Adam.

5. With what kind of wife does God reward his Son?

⁵ In addition to giving Jesus Christ greater glory in heaven Jehovah God also rewards his loving, self-sacrificing Son with a bride, a “wife.” She is not an angel nor any other individual creature. Just as Jehovah’s “woman” or “wife” is an organization of creatures, his universal organization, so the “bride” that he gives to his Son is an organization of faithful, holy creatures, his 144,000 footstep followers called from among mankind, who accept his sacrifice for them. They are likened to a glorious heavenly city full of inhabitants. (Rev. 21:2, 9-23) After these prove their virgin faithfulness to Jesus Christ till their death God resurrects them to heavenly life and marries them as a company to his Son.—Rev. 2:10; 19:7; 20:4, 6.

TERMS OF ESPOUSAL (ENGAGEMENT)

6. Who have had a share in bringing members of Christ’s bride into association with their Head, corresponding to what human custom?

⁶ John the Baptist introduced the first of Jesus’ followers to him. He had much joy at taking these initial steps toward the marriage of God’s Son. John said: “He that has the bride is the bridegroom. However, the friend of the bridegroom, when he stands and hears him [talking to the bride class], has a great deal of joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom. This, indeed, has been fulfilled as my joy.” (John 3:29, NW) So John turned over the bride class to Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul also had the joy of bringing members of the bride class into association with Christ and of preparing them for their heavenly union with him. Having espoused, betrothed or engaged them to Christ, he properly felt a deep concern that they must stay undefiled, faithful and fit to be joined to Christ after their engagement period. He said: “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband [not two or more] that I might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its craftiness, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:2, 3, NW) This corresponds well with the procedure of mankind in general toward forming a marriage. There is no wife-stealing, but an engaging, espousing, betrothing or promising of the girl to the man. A period of time follows before the girl is actually given to the man and the two are united in the privacy of their own place of abode.

7, 8. (a) What Scriptural examples illustrate care in picking a mate? (b) What sensible and Scriptural reasons are there for doing this?

⁷ According to God’s Word a marriage of any of his people was arranged for by the parents of both the boy and the girl or by a go-between, one whom John the Baptist calls the “friend of the bridegroom.” For Christ’s bride John the Baptist was careful to pick persons dedicated to Jehovah God and baptized—repentant Jews looking for the promised Messiah or Christ. Paul the apostle was also careful to pick dedicated, baptized persons. He picked non-Jews as well as Jews now that the wedding invitation was authorized to go to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. That was theocratic procedure. In pagan Canaanland there were many girls, but Abraham refused to take any of them for his son and heir Isaac. He instructed the oldest servant of his household as a “friend of the bridegroom” to go outside of Canaanland northward to the home of his relatives, his own brother’s family, and pick a girl for Isaac, as they were believers in Jehovah God.—Gen. 24:1-9, 34-41.

⁸ There was a sensible, faithful reason for this. It was in order to safeguard the faith of the son in the true God by marrying him to a fellow believer. “Bad associations spoil useful habits.” (1 Cor. 15:33, NW) The intimate married life of a believer with an unbeliever could lead to the spoiling of the believer’s faith in God and thus bring about his spiritual death and his everlasting destruction at the hands of the God to whom he was unfaithful. He could be influenced to this by his marriage partner just as Adam was by Eve. The ones starting this sad result and laying the foundation for it were the contractors for the marriage. God foresaw this possibility, no, rather, this likelihood. So before settling his chosen people, the ancient nation of Israel, in Canaanland, he gave them this as one of his laws, not as a piece of advice: “You must form no marriage alliance with [the pagan inhabitants]. Your daughter you must not give to his son, and his daughter you must not take for your son. For he will turn your son from following me and they will certainly serve other gods.”—Deut. 7:3, 4, NW.

9. What does loyalty to Jehovah indicate as to picking a marriage mate and performing a marriage ceremony?

⁹ The disastrous future history of the Israelites shows the accuracy of that warning and the justice of that law. “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers.” (2 Cor. 6:14, NW) So be theocratic, loyal to Jehovah God, in picking a marriage partner either for yourself or for your child or friend. Keep clear of responsibility for spiritual shipwreck. Do not lay hands hastily, untheocratically, on a marriage mate for anyone: “neither be a sharer in the sins of others; preserve yourself pure.” (1 Tim. 5:22, NW) Whether a marrying agent of the New World society will solemnize the marriage of such an unequally yoked pair is left to his own conscience. If he does decide to perform the ceremony at the Kingdom Hall or elsewhere, he is merely acting as an agent of the state government and he does at least have an opportunity to point out to the worldly or undedicated person the responsibilities of marriage to a Christian and to encourage that person to become one of Jehovah’s witnesses like his partner.

10-12. (a) What customs have arisen regarding dowries? (b) What Scriptural examples show such are not wrong? (c) But what would be wrong, and why?

¹⁰ Abraham’s marriage agent presented many valuable gifts to the girl Rebekah and to her brother and her mother before taking Rebekah away from her home to bring her to Isaac. (Gen. 24:22, 30, 50-53) In some countries or among some peoples the custom has grown up, and even the local law takes recognition of the custom, of paying bride money for the woman or of giving dowry. Among some peoples the dowry is given to the man by the parents of his bride. But more generally the dowry is the gift or the reward that the man or his parents give to the bride or for the bride as a consideration for the marriage. In Africa among some tribes the bride price is called “lobóla” and it is demanded by and given to the bride’s father or his oldest brother, her uncle. It may consist of either money or cattle or both. This lobola may even be required in order to satisfy the local customary law so as to gain a registration of the marriage at the village place of record.

¹¹ Basically is there anything wrong with this? No. Isaac’s son Jacob paid for his wives Leah and Rachel with fourteen years of work for their father Laban. (Gen. 29:18-28) David the giant killer paid two hundred foreskins of the enemy Philistines for his wife Michal, King Saul’s daughter. (1 Sam. 18:20-27) Even Jesus Christ delivered up himself for his “bride,” the Christian congregation of 144,000. (Eph. 5:25) Jehovah gave nothing for his “woman,” because he is the Maker of her, his holy universal organization. (Isa. 54:5) So there is nothing improper in giving a bride price to the father for the loss of his daughter whom he reared and educated. What is wrong about a bride price or lobola is the abuse that is made of it. It is wrong, unchristian, untheocratic, to treat it, not as a compensation, but as a means of making money off one’s own child or children, and then charge excessively or extort more than what is right or require what works a hardship.

¹² God hates all extortioners, including bride-price extortioners, who commercialize their own daughters. Any such greedy person that claims to be a Christian puts himself in the way of excommunication or disfellowshiping from the Christian congregation any and every time that he commits extortion in the case of lobola or bride price. Paul said: “Now I am writing you to quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. . . . ‘Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.’” (1 Cor. 5:11, 13, NW) The extortioner’s price is unreasonably high, inconsiderate of the circumstances and calls for more than a fair compensation for the loss of a daughter. The man’s greed for money will especially be shown up when his high price makes it impossible for a Christian to procure his daughter and he will hold out for his excessive price and marry her off to a pagan who can afford it. It displays a lack of love of the brothers, but an injurious love of money.—1 Tim. 6:10.

13. (a) Why should a father not accept money from a worldling for a Christian daughter? (b) Where parents violate Scriptural rule what course may sons and daughters pursue, and why?

¹³ The accepting of bride money from a worldling in any amount in order to marry a dedicated Christian daughter to him is untheocratic. It does not imitate Jehovah’s strict law to Israel. It endangers the daughter’s eternal welfare, thus to put her in subjection to an undedicated worldling. It disqualifies a brother at least for certain special service privileges in the Christian congregation. He may not be excommunicated for this action, just as a parent elsewhere who allows a son or a daughter to marry outside the New World society may not be disfellowshiped nor even the son or daughter that thus marries ‘outside the Lord,’ outside the truth. But such persons are not good material for congregational overseer or ministerial servants. They are poor examples of the believers. Where sons or daughters have refused to be married off to pagan worldlings they have not failed to obey the commandment to honor their father and their mother, inasmuch as these have not shown themselves to be “in union with the Lord” in making a marriage alliance with the world. The resisting sons and daughters are trying to remain “in union with the Lord,” which is right.—Eph. 6:1-4, NW.

14. (a) When would it be proper for a Christian to pay for a bride? (b) Yet why is it advisable for parents to forego the requiring of bride money?

¹⁴ Should a Christian pay bride money? Yes, if that is the prevailing custom and he or his parents cannot get the girl wanted in any other way. If the making of some gifts according to the ability of the bride seeker will be accepted as a token or sign of appreciation and of devotion to the bride, that would be well to do. There is to be no bride-stealing. Hence pay for what you want if you cannot explain your Christian position and gain some allowance or get it free. A person generally pays the world’s price for goods bought. The fact that bride price or lobola is abused does not make it wrong in itself. Paul as a full-time minister was entitled to support by the congregation that he served, but he did not accept it or demand it, in order not to abuse his privilege and miss God’s approval. He did accept a gift from the congregation at Philippi. (1 Cor. 9:6-18; Phil. 4:15-18) Paul refused to make a money gift to the Roman governor Felix because he did not want to stoop to bribery but wanted to be set free for plain justice alone. (Acts 24:26, 27) So it is advisable for Christian parents to forego the requiring of bride price or dowry in order to guard against imitating this world and abusing the privilege and causing spiritual troubles. But we must let each one’s conscience guide.

15. (a) What view should an African Christian wife take of bride money? (b) If village registration is denied because of nonpayment of bride money what should be done?

¹⁵ A Christian wife married to an unbeliever that demands bride price for a daughter cannot control the matter but she can make suggestions to him. Where Christian brides have been gained by payment of bride money, they should not pride themselves or feel humiliated because of the largeness or the smallness of the bride money paid. No Christian wife should humiliate another by reminding her that she is a cheap-price bride, nor should a Christian husband do this to shame his wife. He is under divine command to love his wife and she to love him. (Eph. 5:25, 28-33; Titus 2:4) If there is love of our brothers this unwise comparing of ourselves with one another or this taunting another will not be done. The number of wives who have been taken without payment of bride price outdoes more and more the number who are gained for a price, and this larger number of wives are not to be reproached for that fact. Where an African marriage has been undertaken with no payment of lobola or bride price and the village registration will not record the marriage for that reason, the married couple should not worry. They can and should register the marriage with their local congregation. There especially it is most vital, for the married pair to be in good standing with the New World society.

NO TRIAL MARRIAGE, BUT CLEAN ENGAGEMENT

16. (a) How enduring is a marriage based on bride money? (b) Therefore what may the bride’s father not do save for what conditions?

¹⁶ When a parent accepts bride money and gives his daughter in marriage, the resulting marriage is permanent. Unless the bride now turns out adulterous in violation of her wifely obligations, the marriage may not be canceled merely because her husband becomes dissatisfied and decides to get rid of the girl and sends her back to her father and demands the return of his bride money. According to the law of God’s Word marriage cannot be canceled by the mere accepting back of the girl and the returning of the bride price. Hence a Christian father cannot see himself free to remarry his daughter to another man either for lobola or for no bride price at all. To do this would be to cause his daughter to commit adultery, unless in the meantime her husband who dismissed her has married again, or has sexual connections with another woman, or has died.

17, 18. (a) When the bride money is not paid all at once, when only may the man have intercourse with the woman? (b) How did God’s law distinguish between virgins engaged and virgins not engaged? (c) What does seducing a virgin merit, and why?

¹⁷ A man may not agree to a certain bride price or dowry and now make a part payment and feel authorized to take his future bride and have sex relations with her and make a trial marriage with her. If not satisfied, he is not authorized by God’s law to return the girl and get the part payment of the bride price back. Till he has finished paying his dowry he has no right to have sexual connection with her. He is merely engaged to her, and to unite with her sexually during this engagement period is to defile her and to commit immorality, fornication. In ancient Israel when a girl was engaged to be married to an Israelite, she was considered as sanctified to him and was treated the same as if married to him. She was treated differently from a virgin not engaged who had relations with a man. “In case a man should seduce a virgin who is not engaged and he has cohabited with her, he is to obtain her without fail as his wife for the purchase price. If her father flatly refuses to give her to him, he is to pay over the money at the rate of purchase money for virgins.”—Ex. 22:16, 17, NW; Deut. 22:28, 29.

¹⁸ Not so with an engaged girl: “In case there happened to be a virgin girl engaged to a man and a man has found her in the city and cohabited with her, then you must bring them both out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones and they must die, the girl for the reason that she did not scream in the city and the man for the reason that he humiliated [whom?] the wife of his fellow man.” (Deut. 22:23, 24, NW) So when the virgin Mary was found pregnant during the time of her engagement to Joseph, he wanted to put her away or divorce her secretly to prevent her being stoned as an unfaithful engaged virgin. (Matt. 1:18, 19) In Mexico and Singapore a marriage can be annulled because immorality was found to have been committed by the woman during her engagement. A man’s seducing a virgin and violating her virginity and then making her feel obligated to marry him is no pure, Christian step toward marriage. It is a ground for disfellowshiping the violator from the Christian congregation, and also the virgin if she passionately consented to the violation.

19, 20. (a) Why may engaged persons not have sex relations with each other, and what responsibility falls on parents in this regard? (b) What congregational action does fornication merit, and then when only may such ones marry religiously?

¹⁹ During the espousal or betrothal period, if the engaged boy and girl had sexual relations with each other, this would be illegal relationship, because the marriage has not yet been legalized and the couple pronounced man and wife with full marriage privileges. It does not matter if they do confine the sex act to just themselves; it is still moral uncleanness, fornication. It is a taking of license to do something without getting a legal license. It is incontinence or lack of self-control over the sexual appetite. It is a loosening of conduct by the engaged pair, hence a work of the flesh that wars against the spirit. If parents permit this or even countenance it and arrange for it, they are delinquent, failing of their theocratic duty. There is good reason here for disfellowshiping the engaged couple for committing fornication with or without pregnancy resulting, and also the parents because of looking on fornication with sanction and approval.—2 Pet. 1:6; Gal. 5:19-21.

²⁰ A marriage agent of the congregation cannot perform the marriage of such an unclean engaged couple while they are disfellowshiped. It is a spiritually curative step for the immoral engaged couple to confess their sin to God and then to the congregation committee and express repentance and prove their repentance by refraining from further unclean relations between themselves and submit to the probation period and requirements that the congregation committee imposes upon them before it can allow them a religious marriage.

21. To keep young persons from being exposed to fornication what may their parents not allow?

²¹ It is against good judgment, therefore, for parents to allow or even encourage a daughter of fifteen or sixteen years to go a long distance from home and get a job and rent a room just to be near her boy friend to whom she is engaged. Likewise it means exposing young persons to fornication where parents allow a single couple, a boy and a girl, to take a vacation trip or a cycling and camping tour together for a week or two. For the two vacationers to camp out together puts them in the way of temptation that can and often does lead to fornication. Says the apostle Paul: “Keep yourselves free from every form of wickedness.”—1 Thess. 5:22, NW.

22. When is there particular temptation to marry outside of union with the Lord but with what responsibility and guilt?

²² It falls to each one’s duty to watch jealously this divine counsel to marry only within the ranks of the dedicated people of Jehovah God, who are faithful followers of his Son Jesus Christ. In places where the girls outnumber the marriageable brothers a temptation exists to marry them off to worldly persons just to see that they get a husband or that the parents are relieved of a burden. On the other hand, where there are fewer marriageable girls than there are brothers there is a passionate pressure to ignore God’s law and warning and to marry ‘outside of union with the Lord,’ outside the New World society. Anyone doing so or arranging for another to do so must take the responsibility before the God of pure, theocratic marriage and must see his guilt for any evil consequences that follow from this unequal yoking.

23. (a) To ensure happy, theocratic marriage what steps should be taken? (b) How should marriage be kept after it is once entered into?

²³ Because of so many serious things that are tied in with the solemn arrangement of marriage, each one should investigate his intended mate’s background thoroughly and then determine whether it would be theocratic or lead to happy bonds to propose marriage or to accept a marriage proposal. If one enters a marriage engagement, then one should keep it clean by pure moral conduct that one may have presented to himself an undefiled mate as in the case of Jesus and his bride: “that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”—Eph. 5:27, NW.

Marriage Ceremony and Requirements

1. What wedding customs prevailed among the Israelites?

The books of the Bible written expressly to and for Christians give no form of marriage ceremony for them. They do show that after the marriage was arranged for by the parents and through a go-between or marriage agent there was an engagement period of about a year in the case of virgin girls. Then on the wedding evening the bridegroom went to the bride’s home and took her away to her new home. There was a procession homeward by the couple amid a joyful group of celebrators. So the wedding became public property and was registered on the public consciousness, and on his bringing her home there was a wedding feast that was joined in by all the invited, as arranged by the bridegroom’s parents. Happy were those who were invited to the wedding evening meal. The bride did not keep her betrothed lover waiting before she put in appearance. She waited for him, all dressed up in her prettiest, ready to be given to him by her father or guardian.—Matt. 1:24; 22:1-11; 25:1-10; John 2:1-11; 3:29; Mark 2:19; Isa. 61:10; 62:5; Rev. 19:7, 8; 21:2, 9-11.

2. What facts regarding marriages are apparent from the Bible record?

² It must be remembered that the first Christians were Jews, or Israelites, even as Jesus himself was. Reasonably, then, these Jewish Christians carried over their marriage customs and arrangements from their former Jewish social system to the new Christian system of things. But one thing is to be noted without fail, that from the days of Abraham forward there was no priest, Levite or other religious official present to perform any marriage ceremony. Yet the marriage was valid and recognized by Jehovah God. It was also registered at the city or village recording office, and births resulting from the marriage union were also recorded there. The two genealogical records of Jesus were doubtless copied from the town records of Bethlehem by Matthew and Luke. This leads to the question, By whom may valid Christian marriages be solemnized? Is a civil or nonreligious marriage just as binding as a religious one, or is marriage a sacrament and so valid only when religious?

3. What does the Bible show regarding the manner in which Isaac’s marriage took place?

³ No, marriage is not a sacrament requiring the presence and performance of a religious clergyman or a Christian minister. As God’s prophet, Abraham was his accepted priest for a large household, but there is no record that he was there when his oldest servant brought Rebekah from Mesopotamia to Isaac in the Negeb of Palestine. Isaac was walking alone, meditating, and the servant brought Rebekah to him and related to Isaac just how he had obtained her for him. “After that Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother. Thus he took Rebekah and she became his wife.” But this taking of her as wife had public witnesses, namely, Abraham’s marriage agent and “the men who were with him” and Rebekah’s “nurse” and her other “lady attendants.” (Gen. 24:2, 54, 59-61, 66, 67, NW) Isaac had not taken out any marriage license, any more than it is necessary to do so in some countries today. Isaac’s father Abraham, the head of the theocratic organization, had authorized it and Jehovah God who was looked to for guidance had directed the steps of the marriage procedure all the way. So a marriage license was not necessary in his case. But his taking her as wife was witnessed by more than four, and it was registered in the records of Abraham’s theocratic establishment and, of course, it is recorded in the Bible today. There was no religious ceremony about it, although God’s will was sought and recognized all the way through.

4. (a) What did the law not outline regarding marriages? (b) Marriage was what kind of affair and how was its binding nature emphasized?

⁴ There is no account of a religious ceremony for Isaac’s son Jacob when marrying Leah and Rachel. (Gen. 29:18-30) Neither did Jehovah God in all his hundreds of laws to his chosen people Israel order and outline a religious marriage ceremony for them. The right and duty to solemnize marriages was not assigned to the priestly family of Aaron or the Levite temple servants at all. The marriage, from the time of the engagement through to the uniting of bride and groom in his father’s home, was all of private, family arrangement without priestly or Levite participation (outside of the tribe of Levi itself). It was publicized to all the community, was duly witnessed and then was registered at the local recording office; which was why Joseph was required to go with his companion Bethlehemite Mary to their native city and get registered in the days of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus.—Luke 2:1-6, NW.

5. At the marriage at Cana what part only did Jesus play and what did he not do as regards marriage among his followers?

⁵ When Jesus performed his first miracle, at Cana, in the province of Galilee, he was at a wedding celebration. But he was not invited there to officiate as a minister, for he was not of the priestly family of Aaron nor of the tribe of Levi and was not recognized as a religious minister. He was invited there with his mother and his disciples merely as a guest, because the city was near his former place of carpenter business. So he did not sanctify the marriage while there, but provided the best of wine for the further enjoyment of all present. (John 2:1-11) In all his commandments to his twelve apostles and his evangelists he never told or commissioned them to solemnize anybody’s marriage, but left the matter of marriage just as it was among Jehovah’s people. He never turned marriage into a sacrament within the exclusive power and under the sanction solely of the apostles or Christian ministers.

6. What is the Scriptural position regarding civil marriages required by law?

⁶ Is, then, a religious marriage strictly necessary? No. Is a civil marriage authorized by God’s Book the Bible? Yes, and in this regard Christians may ‘give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.’ In most countries of Christendom a civil marriage performed by an appointed officer of the state is either allowed or absolutely required. So no social or religious stigma rightfully attaches to a civil marriage, and the Most High God recognizes the civil marriage of his dedicated people and holds them bound by it. In some lands inside and outside of Christendom the governments recognize marriages performed by the Roman Catholic priests and by ministers of other recognized religions. These ministers it licenses to perform marriages in religious buildings or at certain registered places. Along with these the appointed ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses are authorized or licensed to solemnize the marriage. In all these cases the officiating minister of religion acts as a servant of the state in legalizing the marriage. Hence, too, such marriages are binding and have God’s recognition. When persons come into the New World society who have been married by the religious ceremonies of any of these authorized religions, Jehovah’s witnesses recognize the marriage of such incoming persons as binding and still having effect. Where Jehovah’s witnesses do not have authorized ministers of their own to officiate at a marriage, they can conscientiously go to the appointed government offices and have a valid, divinely recognized marriage performed by a state officer.

7. How does the Roman Catholic Church view civil marriages, as shown by what recent event?

⁷ In lands where the government authorizes, requires and recognizes only a civil marriage, the Roman Catholic Church does not look upon the civil marriage as valid and requires Catholics to be married afterward by a priest in a religious wedding. For instance, recently when the Catholic prince of Monaco married the Catholic Hollywood motion-picture star, the New York Times (April 20, 1956) reported: “The 32-year-old Prince and his 26-year-old bride, who were married in a civil ceremony yesterday in the Palace, were united in the eyes of the Church by the Bishop of Monaco, Monsignor Gilles Barthe. They received the blessing of Pope Pius XII through his Nuncio in Paris, Monsignor Paolo Marella. . . . She went to her place before the white marble altar first, custom giving way to a sovereign’s right to be waited upon. The Prince joined her a few moments later.”

8. Of what value is a religious meeting with the bride and groom after the civil marriage has been performed?

⁸ Of course, the Roman Catholic religious marriage after the civil wedding has no legal value, nor does the religious ceremony afterward of any other religious system. But where possible, or where requested, Jehovah’s witnesses may hold a religious meeting with the groom and his bride afterward. This meeting is not necessary and is no marriage and it is not held as if to add any legal value to the civil marriage already performed. It is held to give the newly married couple wholesome, timely Bible admonition and counsel on the opportunities and obligations of marriage and to bring the marriage more prominently before the local congregation and to give a witness to Jehovah’s matrimonial arrangement before all persons of good will present. This also affords a good time and occasion for the marriage to be registered with the congregation and notice of it to be filed with the congregation’s record.

9. When the law requires registration at a distant city not convenient to the newlyweds what can be done about it?

⁹ What is done before the congregation is done “before God,” just as in ancient Israel what was done before the judges or rulers was done before God. (Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28, NW; RS) What if there is an African marriage between Christians and the marriage is held in one town or village but it has to be registered with the government in a distant city, not convenient for the newlyweds to get to right away? At the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses a “Declaration of Marriage” can be filled out. This does not have any legal value and does not take the place of a civil registration, but it does have recognition among God’s people. It testifies before the New World society that the newly united couple acknowledge that their marriage is in force and binding, and that they will register it with the Civil Law as soon as it is convenient. This “Declaration of Marriage” is then filed with the records of the congregation and the Watch Tower Society’s office, and the newlyweds can enter into marriage relations until they get registered civilly. Thus the Society has a record of the marriage during the time that the civil government may not have it, and by its servants the Society can check, after an allowance of time, to see whether the proper civil registration has been made and the married couple have complied with the law.

10. (a) What is it proper for those married by tribal custom to do? (b) What kind of marriages are recommended for tribespeople belonging to the New World society, and why?

¹⁰ Where tribespeople have married according to the tribal custom before they get the Kingdom truth and enter the New World society, their marriage still binds them and is recognized. A remarriage is not necessary, but it is proper to record the tribal marriage with the New World society by signing a Declaration of Marriage if there has been no civil registration with the government. But in a certain land there might be a benefit legally for a man and his family to have such tribespeople remarried under the civil law of the land. For unmarried tribespeople who become part of the New World society we recommend a civil marriage, as it carries with it greater advantages and secures greater protection from the law, which makes provision for the wife and children after death of her husband. Certainly for former pagans to marry according to the pagan custom is a step backward, and if there were unscriptural pagan rites connected with it then it would be making a compromise with this world, a denial of faith, and might call for a disfellowshiping.

11, 12. (a) Why does a bride-price marriage not need to be repeated upon one’s coming into the truth? (b) What assistance may congregations give toward civil registrations? (c) What do reason and theocratic rule indicate as to showers, invitations, weddings, receptions?

¹¹ A dowry or bride-price marriage before one becomes a Christian does not need to be supplemented by an expensive remarriage. Coming into the truth and dedicating oneself to God does not make a previous bride-price marriage null and void nor does it declare or make such persons who were married tribal-style and who are continuing in such marriage fornicators. To help in relieving persons of great matrimonial expenses the records that the New World society requires are drawn up and kept free of charge. If a congregation wants to pay or help pay for civil registration of the marriage of any of its members, this is a very practical thing to do by those who willingly want to help bear this expense. It is not obligatory upon any members of a congregation to give a “shower,” that is, to get together and bestow a mass of presents upon a prospective bride for her use and enjoyment after marriage. A “shower” is a private matter and to share in it must be left to each one’s unpressured choice.

¹² “Showers” and wedding announcements should be made privately, and not from the platform of the Kingdom Hall or by other notices in the Kingdom Hall. As for sending out formal printed invitations to one’s wedding and the reception afterward, reasonableness should be exercised. Some who are not intimate acquaintances or are merely speaking acquaintances or who live at distances making it impractical for them to accept and act on a wedding invitation resent having a wedding invitation thrust upon them because of the feeling of obligation under which it puts them. Wedding ceremonies may be held at the Kingdom Hall at any time that these will not interfere with meetings or other service arrangements. Receptions following weddings should not be held at the Kingdom Hall, converting it into a place of entertainment.

13. How should one be dressed for a wedding, and why is the lack of a ring no discredit?

¹³ The wearing of rich clothes is not necessary for a civil marriage. The main thing is to be dressed neatly, becomingly, and, as a Christian, to be spiritually well-clothed with love, humility, obedience and faithfulness. A wedding ring may not be customary or may be beyond one’s means. The marriage estate is not everywhere symbolized by a wedding ring. It is no essential part of a marriage ceremony. Failure to give a wedding ring is not to one’s discredit. Even where the wedding ring is recognized as marking a married woman and serves notice upon anyone with passionate desires, some may conscientiously object to featuring a ring in the ceremony, having in mind the pagan origin of the customary wedding ring in Christendom. In some places the marriage estate of a woman is indicated by the style of dress that she wears or the new piece that she adds to her garments. Locally this is just as effective as a finger ring, in fact more noticeable. A wedding ring amounts to nothing if there is no real tie or if the marriage tie is not respected. A passionate woman will not let a ring keep her from committing adultery. The use of a ring in a marriage ceremony should therefore be left to each one’s decision according to conscience and local custom.

14. (a) Upon coming into the truth what must a polygamist do? (b) And upon accepting the truth what should a woman do that is married to a polygamist where this is legal or customary?

¹⁴ For a Christian God’s Word rules out polygamy, regardless of how a national or tribal government may rule on it. A Christian man may not be polygynous; a Christian woman may not be polyandrous. If a polygamist wants to come into the New World society, dedicating himself to God through Christ, he may keep only one of the wives that he may have gained by dowry or bride price or lobola. He will have to dismiss the others and send them back home, the way the priest Ezra and the Jewish governor Nehemiah had the Israelites do that had violated God’s law against marrying with pagans. (Ezra 10:1-44; Neh. 13:23-31) If a woman accepting the Kingdom truth is married to a polygamist where this is legal or customary, what should she do? She should explain to him the step that she has decided to take and the obligations before God that this will lay upon her as a Christian and a witness of his. Then she must take the consequences of her stand. Let the polygamist return her to her parents or guardians and reclaim the dowry that he gave for her, and thus free her. God’s law pronounces her relations with the polygamist fornication, not a marriage. Continuing in this relationship debars her from being baptized, although she may attend meetings and talk the truths of God’s Word to others.

CONSENSUAL AND COMMON-LAW MARRIAGE

15, 16. (a) What is common-law marriage and what is consensual marriage? (b) What circumstances and mental attitudes account for many living in such an arrangement?

¹⁵ This leads to the subject of common-law marriage. Such is a marriage according to common law (not civil or canon law), a marriage without a legal civil ceremony or religious ceremony, but where the man and the woman privately decide to live together as man and wife, so making it a consensual marriage also. There is no dowry or bride price given in such a case. Often in lands where the canon law of a church governs and consensual marriage is not legally recognized the two in such a consensual arrangement would like to marry legally but the marriage fees demanded by the clergy who hold it a sacrament are not within the means of the couple; they are too poor. The necessary legal steps, such as presenting a birth certificate that may not exist, are hard steps to take. Or it may be that the national government under no circumstances allows legal divorce, or the getting of a divorce from a mate even on Scriptural grounds is such an expensive and long-drawn-out matter. So the undivorced person who wants to remarry privately enters into relations with another person of the opposite sex to live as man and wife. This is a case of their living together without marriage. But very often a man undertakes consensual marriage because he wants to keep a woman inferior, dependent upon him. If she wants his support in a home that he provides, she must stick faithful in morals to him. But whereas he wants her to stick to him he may not want to keep her always. If he is not legally bound to her by marriage, he can at any time that he chooses feel free to leave his consensual partner and the children and take up such a life with another woman. So the women desire a legal marriage for the protection of themselves and their children, but the man may selfishly refuse to legalize their union.

¹⁶ A postwar reason for many to live together without marriage is that the woman is receiving an allowance from the government as a war widow or otherwise and she would lose this if she remarried. So she and the man agree to live together without marriage to keep the government allowance coming to her, and the illegitimate children of this union are taught to keep up this pretense by calling the man “uncle,” not “father.”

17. (a) How does common-law marriage often begin, and why is this wrong? (b) What is one result of common-law marriages, and how are these legalized in some lands?

¹⁷ Oftentimes a consensual marriage is started by the girl’s letting the man have intercourse with her on his mere promise to marry her. Then after he starts having relations with her he takes up living with her and never takes the legal steps. But a promise to marry is no Scriptural ground for beginning intercourse. Even engaged persons are Scripturally forbidden to indulge in intercourse during their betrothal period. Trial marriages that are not legalized but merely make a test of whether the couple can get along together are not right, for God’s law pronounces them outright fornication, immorality. Some states do recognize common-law marriage so that it is a real binding marriage with legal obligations; but many states and countries (even Catholic lands) that do not recognize it do nothing about consensual marriage. As a result it is very prevalent in most lands, and in most places the neighborhood accepts it as a regular thing. Thus many illegitimate children are born; in one country we know of up to fifty-five percent of the children, in another up to eighty percent. In some lands a consensual-marriage couple are entitled to a legal civil or religious marriage after they have lived together for a minimum number of years or after a child has been born. The court may then rule it a legal marriage automatically. The “de facto” marriage may be registered with the government on the application of one or both consensual partners.

18. What scriptures show that we are to witness to those living in common-law marriage?

¹⁸ The New World society does not recognize consensual marriage and common-law marriage as complete. That does not mean we dare not preach the truth to persons living in such a marriage. At Jacob’s fountain in the Samaritan city of Sychar Jesus himself talked privately to a Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and whose man then having relations with her was not her husband. To this woman Jesus preached salvation and even confessed that he was the promised Messiah or Christ. (John 4:4-30) If the truth could not be preached to the immoral, how could Paul mention fornicators, adulterers and sodomites as unfit for God’s kingdom and then say to faithful Christians: “Yet that is what some of you were”?—1 Cor. 6:9-11, NW.

19. What does the New World society require of its members as regards common-law marriage and consensual marriage?

¹⁹ No one coming into the New World society is permitted to enter into a consensual marriage or a common-law marriage thereafter. As for those who are already in it when the Kingdom message reaches them, they must legalize their marriage with an appropriate legal ceremony before they may be baptized in water in symbol of their having dedicated themselves to God. So they must expressly recognize the legal obligations of marriage as well as put themselves within the protection and other benefits of the law by having the marriage registered and legally recognized. They must have the birth of their children certified legally and must acknowledge their being the parents of them. Then, too, the New World society makes and keeps record of this legal marriage. As it is written: “In whatever condition each one was called, brothers, let him remain in it associated with God.” (1 Cor. 7:24, NW) He cannot be associated with God in it if the condition is unclean.

20. (a) Under what conditions can a consensual marriage be recognized, and under what obligations does this place the woman? (b) In what circumstances must a woman refuse to have anything to do with her onetime consensual husband?

²⁰ Suppose a consensual wife accepts the truth and she wants to have the marriage legalized and registered but the man for selfish reasons absolutely refuses to be talked into it by the woman. The New World society will recognize the marriage as “de facto” provided the helpless woman promises and signs a written statement that she will be faithful to this consensual partner as to a husband and will get the marriage legalized as soon as she can get the man to legalize it. Hence she herself may not thereafter cancel this “de facto” marriage by herself separating from the man. This temporary recognition of her “de facto” marriage gains for the woman no legal benefits but it does result in spiritual benefits to her. Her dedication to God may now be looked upon as accepted by Him and she may be baptized in water and treated as a member of the congregation and entitled to privileges of preaching the Kingdom message. As the apostle Peter advises wives, she will try to bring the man into the truth and thus bring him to an eagerness to legalize their de facto marriage and register it. The registration of a marriage is an obligation that a couple owe to the community in which they live, declaring their relationship as man and wife by law before all the community and before the government under which they live. A man who loves his wife will legalize and register his marriage to her proudly. If a consensual husband will not legalize the marriage and if the woman is not dependent and if she does not choose to declare herself before God’s congregation as his bound wife, she must tell the man to stay away and have nothing further to do with him. She must live single till she can enter legal marriage. In lands or states where the law recognizes common-law marriage, this marriage may be dissolved only by legal steps taken by one or both of the marriage mates.

21, 22. (a) What must a man do if the truth finds him in consensual marriage with two wives? (b) If one or both women accept the truth what is their responsibility?

²¹ In many Catholic-controlled lands a man will carry on two or more consensual marriages at the same time. Here a case presents itself of where two of his women take up the message of God’s kingdom, the man also accepting the message or not doing so. How can the dedication of any one or all of them be viewed as acceptable to God and how can a baptism in water be performed in symbol thereof? If the man takes the truth, he must decide which of the two or more women he wants as his wife and get legally married to her and have no further relations with any of the others. If he does not come into the truth, it is then up to the two women. Both cannot continue relations with the same man in support of fornication. One must arrange with the man to be his one woman and get him to legalize their marriage or she must declare herself before the congregation as bound to him as his chosen woman until legalization is possible. The other woman must recognize this arrangement and have no further relations with the man. Otherwise, both women must have nothing further to do with the man, especially if he is still carrying on other consensual arrangements with other women. They cannot be rendering wifely privileges to a polygynous man.

²² More on this discussion of marriage problems and of the Scriptural view of singleness will appear in the next succeeding issue of The Watchtower.

Added Attraction

● Restaurants are noted for using atmosphere to attract customers. Not long ago the Broadway Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas, decided to improve on its usual after-services refreshment attraction by also adding atmosphere. An “old fashioned” Sunday service was called for and parishioners came attired in old-fashioned clothing. Other atmosphere features included oil lamps, lantern lighting, music by pump organ and segregation of the men and women in the church pews. “This is being done,” explained the pastor, “not to provide entertainment, but in an effort to recapture the atmosphere and spirit of our forefathers.” In view of the dearth of spiritual knowledge in the world, it seems that Christendom’s churches need Bible truths more than they do atmosphere, “for the scene of this world is changing” permanently at Armageddon.—1 Cor. 7:31, NW.

Questions From Readers

● Matthew 20:29 and Mark 10:46 speak of Jesus healing the blind beggar Bartimaeus as Jesus was leaving Jericho, but Luke 18:35 reports the event as Jesus was entering Jericho. How can this contradiction be explained?—B. F., Canada.

The book Archaeology and Bible History, by Joseph P. Free, makes an interesting suggestion on this matter on page 295: “Just before the Lord met Zacchaeus at Jericho, he healed the blind in the same vicinity. In Matthew it says that this healing took place as Christ left Jericho, whereas in Luke the indication is that it took place on the way into Jericho. Some have suggested that these were two different events, and that is a possibility. Archaeology, however, has thrown additional light on this apparent discrepancy. Early in the twentieth century A.D. excavations were made at Jericho by Ernest Sellin of the German Oriental Society (1907-1909). The excavations showed that the Jericho of Jesus’ time was a double city. The old Jewish city was about a mile away from the Roman city. In the light of this evidence, it is possible that Matthew is speaking of the Jewish city which Christ had left, whereas Luke is speaking of the Roman, at which Christ had not yet arrived. Thus, on his way from the old to the new city, Christ met and healed the blind Bartimaeus. Therefore, if these three passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke refer to the same event, there is not any contradiction; and if they refer to different healings, there of course would be no contradiction.”

This well illustrates the folly of arguing that the Bible contradicts itself, as some do. A complete knowledge of the facts of the times in which the events occurred clears up what seems to be a contradiction when viewed centuries later and without the complete background knowledge. Also, these apparent contradictions prove that there was no collusion among the different writers of the Bible or the copyists of the manuscripts. Such obvious contradictions, apparently, as the above one would certainly never occur. The fact that such seeming contradictions are in the Bible proves there is no collusion among its writers, and when the full facts are brought to light even the seeming contradiction itself disappears.

Zionism Has No Inalienable Right

● Arnold J. Toynbee, one of the foremost living historians, cannot be credited with faith in the Bible as God’s inspired Word. He holds that Christians should recognize “all higher religions as revelations of what is good and right,” and not claim exclusiveness. It is therefore of interest to note how Toynbee, on the basis of the Bible, points up the weakness of Zionism’s claim to Palestine. Toynbee accuses Zionists “of an importunity which verged upon impiety in their attempt to take out of God’s hands the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore Israel to Palestine on God’s own initiative.” He points out that Israel was given no inalienable right to Palestine but that her possession of that land depended solely upon God’s favor and Israel’s obedience to God’s commandments and that Zionism ignores these conditions. “In thus leaving God’s will and Israel’s conduct out of his reckoning, the Zionist parted with the spiritual ground which was the only sure basis for the Jews’ title to the soil of the holy land,” according to him. Toynbee goes so far as to say that the surest way for Israel to lose title to the holy land is for Zionism to stray into the delusion that a conditional “grant from Almighty God was an inalienable birthright.” (A Study of History, Vol. VIII, page 601) No question about it, the great Giver of every good gift and every perfect present sets his conditions: “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.”—Isa. 1:19, 20, AS.

Announcements

THE WRITING OF THE HUMAN RECOMMENDATION LETTER

Ones who have listened to, believed in and acted upon the preaching of a minister of Jehovah God “are shown to be a letter of Christ written by us as ministers,” writes Paul at 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (NW). Those who have heartily accepted the truth are real Christians, devoted exclusively to the service of Jehovah God and his Son Christ Jesus. At every opportunity they delight to inscribe on the hearts of good-will persons Kingdom truths. As newly interested persons grow in knowledge and understanding of God’s purposes they are privileged to aid yet others to become human recommendation letters as God’s true ministers. Let all of Jehovah’s witnesses and their companions continue to write recommendation letters during the month of October by presenting Awake! The offer will consist of a year’s subscription for this splendid magazine on a $1 contribution. Three Bible booklets will be given free with each new subscription.

WORTHWHILE POPULARITY

With many people popularity is an accomplishment in itself. If there is good cause for that popularity it might be enhanced in the eyes of a few, but with many the reason is relatively unimportant. In the field of reading matter this is particularly true. A “best seller” is required reading for some, but a discriminating reader will give some thought to the author or the publisher. That is why the magazine Awake! is rapidly growing in popularity. It has the same publisher as The Watchtower, recognized since 1879 as the leading exponent of Bible truth. Just leafing through a copy reveals its wealth of material; it leaves you refreshed, invigorated, happy. That is because it maintains strict neutrality in reviewing the news; it views current events with an eye to the causes and reports them with confidence in the future—not of this present system of things, but of God’s new world now at hand. With an increase of 150 percent in five years its current circulation is over two million. Read it twice a month for a year for $1. Send now and receive three booklets also.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

October 14: Theocratic Marriage in an Alien World. Page 560.

October 21: Marriage Ceremony and Requirements. Page 567.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ Why many professed Christians are always learning, yet never really come to a knowledge of the truth? P. 547, ¶4.

✔ Why men are in such bondage today? P. 549, ¶3.

✔ Where real freedom can be found? P. 551, ¶1.

✔ What change the Bible can make in your life? P. 551, ¶6.

✔ How the problems of envy or jealousy can be conquered? P. 553, ¶1.

✔ How to overcome one’s envy of more gifted brothers? P. 555, ¶1.

✔ What impressed a former Catholic on his first visit to a Kingdom Hall? P. 558, ¶3.

✔ Whether the Christian minister will perform a marriage between a Christian and an unbeliever? P. 562, ¶9.

✔ When a Christian may pay for a bride? P. 564, ¶14.

✔ What a wedding was like among the ancient Israelites? P. 567, ¶1.

✔ Whether a Christian may have a civil rather than a religious marriage? P. 569, ¶6.

✔ What a polygamist who becomes a Christian must do about his several wives? P. 571, ¶14.

✔ What explains the apparent contradiction between Matthew and Mark about where Jesus healed the blind beggar? P. 575, ¶2.