The Watchtower — April 15, 1957

“Go in Through the Narrow Gate”

DO YOU love truth and righteousness? Then you want to go in through the narrow gate of right principle. But beware! You will meet with an enticing crossroad, a road with the wide gateway of selfish expediency. Traveling in through this gate are the masses, the proponents of the idea that “the end justifies the means.”

The Jews in Jesus’ day followed their shepherds in their course of expediency. Speaking of Christ, the Jewish chief priests said: “If we let him alone this way, they will all put faith in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” The Jewish religionists wanted to keep Jerusalem with its rich temple revenues in their control. So the high priest said to them: “It is in your interest for one man to die in behalf of the people and not for the whole nation to be destroyed.” It seemed expedient to them that Jesus should die.—John 11:48, 50, NW.

The early followers of Christ took the way of right principle. It meant going in through a “narrow gate” to “the road leading off into life.” But they did not try to widen the gate by compromise. The broad gate of selfish advantage they rejected, saying: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”—Matt. 7:14; Acts 5:29, NW.

But after the death of the apostles and especially from the fourth century, it happened as Christ’s apostle foretold: “From among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:30, NW) These selfish men wanted followers. How did they get them? Historian Sir James Frazer answers in his work The Golden Bough: “By relaxing the too rigid principles of its Founder, by widening a little the narrow gate which leads to salvation.” As time went on the gateway was widened more and more. A false Christianity appeared.

Drawing a parallel between Christendom’s Christianity and heathendom’s Buddhism, historian Frazer tells us more: “If such faiths were to be nominally accepted by whole nations and even by the world, it was essential that they should first be modified or transformed so as to accord in some measure with the prejudices, the passions, the superstitions of the vulgar. . . . Thus, as time went on, the two religions, in exact proportion to their growing popularity, absorbed more and more of those baser elements which they had been instituted for the very purpose of suppressing.”

There has been one compromise after another. In the area of human relations the narrow gate of divine principle concerning human marriage and morality has been widened. The result? Christendom’s broad way is littered with the wreckage of innumerable marriages and is filled with the shameful headlines of a soaring crime rate and unspeakable immoralities. Writes a clergyman in The Interpreter’s Bible: “We have acquiesced in conventions, practices, and aims which are at entire variance with the ideals and spirit of the religion we profess.”

It could hardly be otherwise when religious leaders abandon divine principles such as separateness from the world. Bible principle is: “Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world.” “The friendship with the world is enmity with God.” (1 John 2:15; Jas. 4:4, NW) For selfish advantage, to gain favor in the eyes of men, the religious leaders have sacrificed right principle.

“Go in through the narrow gate,” declared Christ, “because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”—Matt. 7:13, 14, NW.

Christendom’s compromising clergy, to get whole states and nations to follow them, have leveled the siege guns of expediency at the narrow gate. By blasting down the narrow gate of divine principle with salvo after salvo of compromise the clergy have led people en masse through a gate that is as wide as it possibly can be.

“Go in through the narrow gate,” Jesus advised. Have you?

When All Men Again Worship One God

1. On December 6, 1956, what did two officials of a New York publishing society note at Mars’ Hill in Athens?

One day in 1956—it was the sixth of December—the president and the vice-president of an internationally known publishing societya climbed up Mars’ Hill in Athens, Greece. The pagan Greeks of long ago called the hill A·re·opʹa·gus. Stone steps lead to the top. Near the bottom of these the two men stopped. Look! A bronze plate imbedded in the rock to the right of the steps! It is inscribed with words in the common Greek speech of nineteen hundred years ago. The words are, in fact, a quotation from the Sacred Bible. Yes, they are from that part of the Bible which was first written in Greek to the Christians and which is generally called “The New Testament.” The words quoted are from its book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter seventeen, verses twenty-two through thirty-one. Translated into modern English here are what the words say:

2. What did the inscription on the bronze plaque say?

² “Men of Athens, I behold that in all things you seem to be more given to the fear of the deities than others are. For instance, while passing along and carefully observing your objects of devotion I also found an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To an Unknown God’. Therefore what you are unknowingly giving godly devotion to, this I am publishing to you. The God that made the world and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, neither is he attended to by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things. And he made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, and he decreed the appointed seasons and the set limits of the dwelling of men, for them to seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us. For by him we have life and move and exist, even as certain ones of the poets among you have said, ‘For we are also his progeny.’ Seeing, therefore, that we are the progeny of God, we ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and contrivance of man. True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now he is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent. Because he has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead.”Ac 17:22-31

3, 4. To what fact did that plaque on the rock testify, and how did this happen?

³ Why was that plaque with those remarkable words imbedded in the rock? To testify that Paul of the city of Tarsus, Asia Minor, spoke those words there on Mars’ Hill nineteen centuries ago. Paul was an apostle or envoy of Jesus Christ, who had been unjustly killed about eighteen years before this at Jerusalem, but whom the Almighty God had made alive from the dead on the third day. Paul himself had met this Jesus Christ years after his resurrection from death. This miraculous meeting helped to change Paul from being a persecutor of Christ’s followers to becoming a faithful follower of him. Paul was therefore a witness to the fact that the Almighty God had resurrected Jesus Christ out of death and had transformed him into a glorious spirit person in the invisible heavens.

⁴ So now the Christian apostle Paul stood on top of Mars’ Hill, or the A·re·opʹa·gus. The highest legal court in ancient Athens had brought him up there to listen to him, because on Mars’ Hill was where this court held its meetings. Members of this court were philosophers known as Stoʹics and Ep·i·cu·reʹans. As Paul reminded them, they believed in many deities to whom they had built temples and altars out of fear. They were afraid they might leave out one god. So to avoid punishment they erected an altar to whoever this god might be. They confessed that they were ignorant of this god by inscribing on this altar the words, “To an Unknown God.” Who was He? Paul knew. Those men of Athens did not know.

5. What did Paul prove to the legal court concerning the terms “Jesus’ and “resurrection”?

⁵ What was the name of this Unknown God? Those men of Athens had heard Paul talk about Jesus and about resurrection. So they thought that Jesus and Resurrection were the names of gods strange to them. They brought Paul into the Mars’ Hill court to defend himself against the charge of religious blasphemy, for which he could be put to death. Paul proved to them that Jesus and Resurrection were not the names of the Unknown God. Had Jesus resurrected himself from the dead? No. History tells us that Jesus had resurrected or raised other persons on earth from the dead. But himself he could not raise from the dead. His being dead prevented his doing that.

6. Who, then, had performed the resurrection of Jesus, and what relationship did they therefore hold to each other?

⁶ Who, then, performed the resurrection of Jesus Christ out of death? It was God. He raised Jesus Christ from the dead and not only brought him back to life again but also transformed him into an undying spirit person to live up in the heavens. Do you not think that he had to be God in order to be able to do that? Yes; any Being that could do such a miraculous thing must be the one true and living God. He must be almighty to do such a thing. None of the gods of the men of Athens or of any other people had ever done or could do such a thing. Also, by raising this Jesus Christ from the dead to enjoy superhuman, spirit life with Him in the highest heavens, the Almighty God showed that he was the heavenly Father of this Jesus and that this resurrected Jesus was the Son of God. His receiving body and life from Almighty God made him the Son of God, a heavenly, spiritual Son of God.

7. What else is this Resurrector of Jesus Christ?

⁷ This almighty, immortal God did more than give life to his Son Jesus Christ. In order to make the men of Athens better acquainted with the Unknown God Paul on Mars’ Hill told them that this is the God that “made the world and all the things in it.” He is therefore the great Creator, the greater Former and Shaper of all things that exist, whether unseen to us or seen to us. Well, then, this One is, as Paul says, the “Lord of heaven and earth,” that is, the Master and Owner of all heaven and earth. Hence we rightly call Him the Lord God.

HIS NAME AND WORSHIP

8. By what personal name may we call him, and where and how many times therein does that name occur?

⁸ Can we call this Lord God by a personal name in order that we may set him apart from all others who are called “gods”? Yes, we can. What personal name, then? Well, have you ever heard anyone sing or shout out the long word “Hal·le·luʹ·jah”? That is a Hebrew word and it means “Praise Jah!” But who is this Jah that we are thus called upon to praise? Hebrew scholars tell us that this name Jah is a shortening of the full name Jehovah. Some scholars prefer to pronounce the name Jahʹveh or Jahʹweh, but today Jehovah is the most popular way of pronouncing the name. No man gave him this name. He named himself this way. By his invisible force by which he made the world he also caused a book to be written on earth by men who served and worshiped him. Because he moved these men by his unseen active force to write this book it is called holy or sacred. Some call it the Holy Scriptures, because it is made up of holy writings. Others call it the Holy Bible, because it is made up of many little books, sixty-six books being in most versions of the Holy Bible. The first thirty-nine books were written in the Hebrew language, and in those books the Almighty God tells us that his personal name is Jehovah—at least 6,823 times.

9. What does he declare at Isaiah 42:8, to identify himself?

⁹ In the book of Isaiah, chapter forty-two, verse eight, the Almighty God says: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images.” (AS) So now this only true and living God is no longer unknown to you by his personal name. He is Jehovah God.

10. Why is there today no man-made temple to Jehovah, and what did King Solomon say in this regard?

¹⁰ In most lands of the earth there are thousands of temples made by the hand of man. But do you know of any one of them that is consecrated to Jehovah God? No, you do not. Nineteen hundred years ago there used to be a temple to Jehovah at the city of Jerusalem, now in the land of Jordan. But Jehovah God himself let it be burned and broken down in the year 70 of the Christian era. Why? Because that temple was misused and because, as Paul told the men of Athens on Mars’ Hill, the one living and true God “does not dwell in handmade temples, neither is he attended to by human hands as if he needed anything.” (Acts 17:24, 25, NW) How could the God who made the measureless heavens and the big earth dwell in the really tiny temples that the hands of men make? We must not dishonor God by belittling him. Almost three thousand years ago King Solomon built a glorious temple to Jehovah at Jerusalem. Yet when this wisest king of ancient times dedicated the temple to Jehovah he prayed and said: “But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day; that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place whereof thou hast said, My name shall be there.”—1 Ki. 8:27-29, AS.

11, 12. What state of dependency is there between God and us?

¹¹ The Creator of all things in heaven and on earth is too big to dwell in temples made by our hands. He does not need anything such as a temple of wood, brick or stone. Instead of our needing to give him things to keep him well and happy, “he himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things,” said Paul.

¹² Our life is from God. Our power to breathe and the air that we breathe are from God. The earth and all the things that we enjoy are from God, his gifts to us. Why, then, should we think that He has to depend upon us and that we have to build temples to Him? Since he is our Life-giver and the One upon whom we depend for everything good he ought to be our God whom we worship, adore and please. This should be true of us regardless of what nation we belong to today.

13. Regardless of our nationality, in what sense are we God’s progeny?

¹³ Listen again to what Paul on Mars’ Hill said in explaining this God: “He made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, and he decreed the appointed seasons and the set limits of the dwelling of men, for them to seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us. For by him we have life and move and exist, even as certain ones of the poets among you have said, ‘For we are also his progeny.’ Seeing, therefore, that we are the progeny of God, we ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and contrivance of man.” So we all come from the one first man that God made, no matter of what nation we might now be, no matter where we dwell on this earth. Inasmuch as that one first man was made or created by God and was thus a “son of God,” we are in a way the “progeny of God” because of our coming from that man. Certainly, then, we ought to worship as our God the Creator whose progeny we are.—Luke 3:38.

14. Why do we no longer need to grope for God without hope of finding him?

¹⁴ Times of ignorance of this God have long prevailed on earth, even long before Paul discovered the altar “To an Unknown God” at Athens nineteen hundred years ago. Because of this, many of us who longed to know the living and true God have groped for him. Just think: He is not far off from any one of us, so that we ought to be able to find him! Just think, too: He decreed the appointed seasons for us to seek him, that we might find him! And think of it: Now is the appointed season for us to seek him with good hope of actually finding him and knowing him!

ORIGINAL WORSHIP OF ONE GOD

15. What can finding God lead to, and what was Adam’s condition when he knew Him?

¹⁵ Finding him so as to know and understand him and have friendship with him means finding our heavenly Life-giver and Sustainer. Such a successful find can lead to our gaining everlasting life in perfect happiness and peace. The first man knew him but lost him. That great loss brought death upon that one first man and upon all the nations who were made from him. When the first man, whose name was Adam, knew God as his heavenly Father and had family relationship with God as His earthly son, Adam was in union with the divine Source of his life. Continued life on earth required Adam’s keeping in touch with this only Source of life. Jehovah God desires his sons in heaven and on earth to be perfect. He creates them perfect. “Perfect is his activity.” (Deut. 32:4, NW) His creating of the first man Adam was perfect. To quote from his Holy Bible: “Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7, AS) Not an imperfect dying soul, but the first man became a perfect living soul.

16. What was the possibility before Adam in Eden, and upon what did this depend?

¹⁶ Do we appreciate what that means? As a perfect human soul Adam could have lived on earth forever, and it would have been a pleasure for him and for us his offspring to live here forever. How is that? Because God put him in an earthly paradise, desiring him to stay in it, for he loved this earthly son and wanted him to remain in the family of God. His Holy Bible tells us: “Jehovah God planted a garden [a paradise] eastward, in Eden [Pleasure]; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen. 2:8, 9, AS) Upon what did Adam’s remaining in this paradise of pleasure in union with the Source of life depend? Upon his carrying on the one and only right way of worship.

17, 18. (a) Why would Adam not be inclined to worship ancestors? (b) Nor the trees? (c) Nor the beasts, birds and insects?

¹⁷ But whom would Adam worship? Whom would Adam in his human perfection want to worship? Earthly ancestors? Adam had no human ancestors. Then would he want to worship the trees of that garden or the river that went out of Eden to water that garden? No; he was put into the garden to take care of its trees: “Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen. 2:15, AS) The man Adam had not received his life from trees, not even from the “tree of life” that God had planted in the midst of the garden. If given authority from heaven, Adam could have chopped down any of those trees and killed them.

¹⁸ Well, then, would Adam be inclined to worship any of the lower animals, the beasts and the birds and the insects in the garden, or any of the fish that swam in the river and its branch streams? No; he was put in charge of those lower animal creatures and he named them. Jehovah God “brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” (Gen. 2:19, 20, AS) But Adam did not call even one of them “God.” He had dominion over them, not they over him. They stood in awe of him, not he of them. He had not descended from them, but was created specially separate from them. He saw them die! Why worship any of them?

19. Whom would Adam be inclined to worship, and why, even though such one was unseen?

¹⁹ Whom, then, would Adam be inclined to worship? Himself? No, even though he did hold dominion over the lower animals. His Life-giver, then? Yes, because he had created Adam in perfection and had created all those living creatures and also the beautiful paradise of Eden for him to live in. Jehovah was no unknown God to Adam. He had created Adam of such elements and physical powers that Adam was not able to see God and remain alive. (Ex. 33:20) Yet God talked to him from the unseen and told him why he had been put on this earth. He told him how he could live on earth in his paradise forever. “And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: ‘From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.’” (Gen. 2:16, 17, NW) Adam accepted this information as from his Creator. He cultivated and took care of the paradise garden, but he did not eat from that tree. He wanted to live and be able to keep on talking and having association with his loving Creator in that perfect earthly home.

20. How did God add to single Adam’s happiness, and what worship continued thereafter?

²⁰ In order to add to Adam’s happiness God created for him a perfect wife. That she might be really a part of Adam God put him into a deep sleep and then painlessly removed a rib from his side and used this to build up a woman. God then presented her to Adam in marriage. He explained to them his purpose for them: “God blessed them [he did not curse them] and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is creeping upon the earth.’” (Gen. 2:18-25; 1:26-28, NW) Adam and his wife Eve heard God talk to them. They knew who their Creator was. He was the One and the only One whom they worshiped as God.

21. How did Adam and Eve worship God, and thus what was true of all men then?

²¹ How did they worship him? By building temples? No; God did not need any house in which to talk to them only there. By making an image of some kind of shape? No; no image could be a copy of God. Every man-made image would picture him wrongly and would be a lie against him. By offering up sacrifices? No; God did not command them to kill animals and burn them upon altars. Adam and Eve were perfect human souls and had no sins for which to shed blood and offer up sacrifice. How, then, did they worship their Creator as God? By thanking and praising him and by obeying him as their heavenly Father and Lawgiver. This they did for some time and were pure and happy, knowing no pain, no sorrow, no fear. Adam and Eve and the unborn human race within their loins united in worshiping Jehovah their Creator and Life-giver. Thus the time was when all men worshiped one God. That was the practice of mankind at its very beginning, and it was the one and only correct practice. It was the original pattern for us.

ATTEMPT TO PRODUCE MORE GODS

22. How did the coming into existence of so many gods to worship have its start?

²² Today there are so many that are called gods and worshiped as such. This is all so contrary to what was the case at mankind’s pure beginning in the paradise of Eden. It started when some self-seeking creature wanted to be God and thus to put two Gods in the universe. Unseen, this creature presented himself in the paradise. He began talking to the woman Eve, not directly, the way God did, but indirectly through a serpent in the garden. He lied against the one and only God by telling Eve that God had lied about the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. This liar wanted Eve to worship him as god by obeying him rather than to worship her Creator as God by obeying Him. This self-glorifying creature showed he wanted to be worshiped as a god by saying to Eve: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it [the forbidden tree] your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” He became a god when Eve and then her husband Adam obeyed him by eating from the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.—Gen. 3:1-7, NW.

23. What is sin, and what worship did the sin of Adam and Eve involve?

²³ Disobedience against God is sin; it is the missing of the mark of perfection. God punishes sin with death. He condemned the first man and woman to death for their sin and their worship of a false god and drove them out of the paradise of Eden. But before he did so he let them hear him tell the false god that he would not forever be permitted to steal worship away from Jehovah God.

24. What did God’s warning to the Serpent mean, and why are we all imperfect and dying?

²⁴ Instead of comparing this false god with himself, Jehovah God likened him to the serpent and cursed him and said: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:14, 15, NW) Bruising a serpent’s head would mean killing it. That is what will yet happen to the original false god under the heel of the promised Seed of God’s woman. That, too, is what will yet happen to all the other false gods, these being the “seed” of the first false god. Worship and obedience to any false god is sin. It is punished with death. That is why we read concerning Adam who sinned: “He became father to sons and daughters. So all the days of Adam that he lived amounted to nine hundred and thirty years and he died.” (Gen. 5:4, 5, NW) He could have lived forever in his paradise if he had not sinned either by eating the forbidden fruit or in any other way. All his children down to us today inherited sin and death from him. (Rom. 5:12) Do you know why we are all imperfect and dying? That is why.

25. What did Jehovah call the first false god, and evidently how did the worship of false gods spread from the third generation on?

²⁵ Because the first false god was his enemy and slanderer and had used a serpent to lead Eve and Adam into sin, Jehovah God called him “the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan.” (Rev. 20:2; 12:9, NW) Many of Adam’s grandchildren must have worshiped false gods. Many things that have to do with worship and that searching men have dug up from the earth from long ago serve to show that they did so.b In the days of Adam’s grandson Enosh they even reached the point of calling other things by the name of Jehovah: “At that time a start was made of calling on the name of Jehovah.” (Gen. 4:25, 26, NW) False worship must have been speeded up when angelic sons of God in heaven disobediently came down from heaven by taking on the form of handsome men and marrying the good-looking women and raising children called Nephʹi·lim· “The Nephʹi·lim proved to be in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God continued to have relations with the daughters of men and they bore sons to them, they were the mighty ones who were of that world, the men of fame. Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man had become great in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time.” What wonder that the earth was full of violence as a result of them! False worship always leads to that harmful result.—Gen. 6:1-5, 13, NW.

26. Who was first of men not to give way to false worship, and what did he prove to be?

²⁶ Not all men back there gave way to false worship. Adam’s second son, named Abel, turned to the worship of Jehovah God in whom he had true faith. He is the first one in the Holy Bible who is reported to have offered an animal sacrifice to God, and God accepted such a sacrifice, as a prophetic picture of a greater sacrifice that would really take away sin and lift the condemnation of death off men and women who would have faith in that sacrifice and accept the benefits of it. Because of Abel’s right worship of the one God his older brother Cain jealously murdered him. (Gen. 4:1-8) There is always danger that false worshipers will hate and persecute true worshipers. The Holy Bible names Abel as the first faithful witness of Jehovah on earth. It says: “By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain, through which faith he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness respecting his gifts, and through it he, although he died, yet speaks.” He was the first of “so great a cloud of witnesses” of ancient times.—Heb. 11:4; 12:1, NW.

27. Who next is mentioned as a witness of Jehovah, and concerning what did he prophesy?

²⁷ The seventh man in line of descent from Adam was named Enoch. Like Abel, he also was a faithful witness of Jehovah God, for the Holy Bible tells us: “Enoch kept walking with the God.” (Gen. 5:18-24, NW) Concerning his witnessing for Jehovah we also read: “Yes, the seventh man in line from Adam, Enoch, prophesied also regarding them, when he said: ‘Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.’” (Jude 14, 15, NW) This gives us an insight into the religious conditions on earth in Enoch’s day. It also points forward to the judgment day that Jehovah has set “in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31, NW) Just three generations after Enoch Jehovah God gave a world-wide demonstration of how he can execute judgment upon the whole inhabited earth. Note how this was.—Heb. 11:5; 12:1, NW.

28, 29. How did Noah prove himself Jehovah’s witness, and how did false worship pass from the earth in his day?

²⁸ In the third generation after Enoch there was a man full of faith named Noah. In his days the Nephʹi·lim, the offspring of the disobedient “sons of God” by the daughters of men, were the “mighty ones who were of that world, the men of fame.” They were creatures making a big name for themselves, but Noah bore witness to the name of Jehovah as the one living and true God.—Gen. 6:4, NW.

²⁹ Noah was past five hundred years of age when Jehovah warned him of a global flood to come within the next hundred years. By this destructive flood Jehovah purposed to drown out all the worshipers of false gods, in expression of his judgment against sinful false worship. Early enough before the flood Jehovah told Noah to begin building an ark or large vessel in which to be protected against the engulfing waters. While building the ark Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” and a witness for Jehovah. (Heb. 11:7; 12:1, NW) On the very day that the flood broke from the distant skies Noah and the seven members of his household went into the ark into which they had already brought specimens of all the birds and animals. After God had closed the door behind Noah down came the great deluge, catching all the false worshipers outside. All the Nephʹi·lim perished with them. But the disobedient “sons of God” shed the human bodies in which they had lived with their wives and Nephʹi·lim sons and returned to the invisible spirit realm, there to become demon angels under the ruler of the demons, Satan the Devil. (Gen. 7:11-13; 1 Pet. 3:19, 20, AS) That old world of before the Flood perished unconverted to God. “He did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people.” “By those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.” (2 Pet. 2:5; 3:6, NW) By one big stroke Almighty God destroyed false worship from the earth by wiping out all false worshipers at one and the same time. Will he have to repeat such a performance?

30. What did Noah and his household do after stepping out of the ark, thus what was then true of all mankind?

³⁰ One solar year after Noah and his household of seven members safely went into the ark they safely came out from it upon the mountain range of Arʹa·rat and let loose the birds and animals. What was the first thing that Noah and his household did on stepping out on the cleansed earth? These eight witnesses of Jehovah worshiped him as the one God. “And Noah began to build an altar to Jehovah and to take some of all the clean beasts and of all the clean flying creatures and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar.” Jehovah God was pleased with this renewal of his pure worship and he solemnly promised a global flood would no more bring all flesh to ruin for false worship. He produced the beautiful rainbow as a symbol of this unbreakable promise. (Gen. 8:20 to 9:17, NW) For some time these eight remaining inhabitants of the earth faithfully carried on Jehovah’s worship. Two years after the flood came there was a son born to Shem, Noah’s son whom Jehovah specially blessed. Thus again there was a time on earth when all men worshiped one God. But now due to the coming in of sin and death through Adam animal sacrifice was added to the worship of Jehovah. Mankind again started off with the one right worship, and with fathers who were righteous in God’s sight.

HIGH TIME FOR IGNORANCE TO END

31. How did the ignorance of the true God as commented on by Paul at Mars’ Hill set in and spread?

³¹ Over twenty-four hundred years later the Christian apostle Paul stood on Mars’ Hill and gave a witness to the highest legal court of the city of Athens. He remarked on the fact that there were then many deities—demons—who were being worshiped, by the vastly greater portion of mankind, even by philosophers. The true God, the Creator of heaven and earth and Maker of all nations of men, was unknown to such. This widespread ignorance of Jehovah set in some time after the deluge of Noah’s day. It was due to the efforts of Satan the Devil and his demon angels to break up the oneness of mankind in worshiping the God who had delivered them from destruction in the Flood. Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah through his son Ham, led off in violating the commandments of Jehovah and bringing in hero worship, the idolizing and deifying of men. “He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying, ‘Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.’ And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Baʹbel.” (Gen. 10:8-10, NW) The making of many false religions followed as time moved on and as different tribes and nations were organized, each with its own style of religion.

32. How did the true religion live on from Noah down to Christ?

³² Did not the true religion, the true worship of the one living and true God, live on? Yes. During all those centuries of falling away from the pure faith one thin strain of humanity continued to hold the true faith and to increase in the knowledge of Jehovah God. That strain led from Noah on through other witnesses of Jehovah like him, such as his son Shem and, many generations later, faithful Abraham, who “came to be called ‘Jehovah’s friend’.” (Jas. 2:23, NW) Abraham was the great-grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel. With the ancient nation of Israel Jehovah made a national covenant or agreement through the prophet Moses, and to them he gave his laws and the approved form of worship. To them he sent his prophets to guide and correct them and to give them marvelous revelations of truth. To them finally he sent down his own Son from heaven to live on earth for thirty-three and a half years as a perfect man.—John 3:16, 17.

33. How did Jesus show whether he wanted to get men to worship him, and how is he alone the mediator between God and men?

³³ When Jesus Christ was on earth did he imitate the mighty hunter Nimrod and try to lead men to worship him? No, he did not. When Satan the Devil tried to tempt him into Devil worship, he said: “Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’” (Matt. 4:10, NW) He sought first a share in the kingdom of God and told his followers to do the same thing, saying: “You must pray, then, this way: ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.’ . . . For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:9, 10, 32, 33, NW) To a Jewish questioner Jesus said: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” (Mark 10:18, RS) Then to show there is only one right form of worship and only one way to the one true God, Jesus said to his followers: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6, RS) The reason why Jesus said this was that he had come here to be the go-between or mediator between Jehovah God and men. Under divine inspiration the apostle Paul declares: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6, NW) Being a perfect man on earth and dying sinless as a martyr for God’s kingdom, Christ Jesus offered to God the one acceptable ransom sacrifice for the sins of mankind. So he alone can serve as mediator.

34. How did Jehovah heal the wound of the Seed of his woman, and what is this Seed now in position to do?

³⁴ By inducing the false religious leaders on earth to kill Jesus, Satan the Devil like a serpent bruised the Seed of God’s woman at the heel. But by resurrecting Jesus from the dead on the third day after he died Jehovah God healed the wound inflicted on the Seed of his woman. Jesus thus entered into life immortal in the heavenly spirit realm and presented the value of his human sacrifice to God as a “corresponding ransom.” He could thus act as the “one mediator between God and men” down to our own day in this twentieth century. The resurrected Jesus is now in the position as the Seed of God’s woman to bruise the great Serpent at the vital spot, the head, and thus end all false religion.

35. Why could Paul on Mars’ Hill rightly say something about future judgment?

³⁵ The apostle Paul had a miraculous vision of the resurrected Jesus in his heavenly glory. Paul also personally knew many of the five hundred followers of Jesus Christ who saw him at one time after his resurrection. So when Paul stood on Mars’ Hill before the supreme court of Athens and was reminded of legal judgment, he could rightly say something about a far greater judgment. What? This, that by resurrecting his Son Jesus from the dead Jehovah God had given a guarantee to all men, including us today, that he has set a judgment day for judging all the inhabited earth by the one whom he has appointed, the resurrected Jesus.

36. When, then, is it high time to repent from false religion?

³⁶ Jehovah’s judgment by his appointed Son in heaven has already begun upon all modern-day nations. That is the meaning of all the world-shaking events since the year 1914, when World War I burst upon mankind. Jehovah God overlooks the times of ignorance concerning himself no more. Now as never before, by hundreds of thousands of witnesses of Jehovah throughout the earth, he is “telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent.” (Acts 17:30, NW) It is now high time to repent from false religion, for no false religion will stand up under the execution of his judgment through his appointed Judge Jesus Christ. Jehovah’s time has come when all men must and will again worship the one God.

37. Is it now through world repentance and conversion that all men are to worship the one God, and what is the explanation?

³⁷ Are we, then, at the conversion of all this old world to the worship of Jehovah God? Are all living humans going to become Jehovah’s witnesses? Are all men everywhere going to repent and turn from the many different religions of Christendom and of the non-Christian world to worshiping Jehovah as God? No! World repentance and conversion are impossible! Well, then, how are all men again going to worship one God at his set time? By the stupendous act of God concerning which he has been warning the nations by his witnesses both before and since World War I. He will take action toward all false religion the same as he did during Noah’s presence on earth. Jesus Christ on earth foretold, not world conversion and preservation, but world destruction.

38. How will this old world end, and as in whose days will it occur?

³⁸ When foretelling the end of this world with its confusion of religions, Jesus said World War I would mark the beginning of the world’s “time of the end” and that a time of tribulation such as never was since the world began would mark its close. This final tribulation will come suddenly upon all false worshipers. “For,” said Jesus, “just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man [namely, Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom] will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:7-22, 36-39, NW) The flood swept the Nephʹi·lim, the unnatural children of the disobedient “sons of God,” and all other careless false religionists into sudden, swift destruction. Only the eight worshipers and witnesses of Jehovah God in Noah’s ark lived through the flood. Thus only one religion survived.

39. For what course will false worshipers pay amid the destruction of the old world?

³⁹ Just like that it will be at Jehovah’s set time, although the Flood itself will not be repeated. His Son Jesus Christ is now present in the heavenly kingdom as royal Judge and Executioner. Within this generation of mankind he will, as the greatest Champion of the pure worship of the living and true God, render his decision and will execute judgment against all the many wrong forms of worship that ignore and oppose Jehovah God. All false worshipers will be executed amid the destruction of the unrepentant, unconverted old world. They will thus pay for taking no note of the lifesaving witness and warning that the witnesses of Jehovah have persistently given. As Jesus foretold concerning these days following World War I: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—Matt. 24:14, NW.

40. Who will be preserved through the end of this old world, to enjoy what thereafter?

⁴⁰ The Kingdom is not of this old world, but is of the new world that God will create. The old world will end and with it its billions of false worshipers. Satan the Devil, who is the “god of this world,” will be bound and imprisoned as in a sealed abyss, and with him all his demon angels by whom the nations of this world have been misruled and misguided. (Rev. 20:1-3) But the Kingdom preachers will be preserved through the end of this old world. The Judge and Executioner whom Jehovah God has appointed will not execute these faithful preachers but will protect them and spare them alive into God’s new world. On earth they will enjoy the blessings of God’s established kingdom under Jesus Christ.

THE BEAUTY OF UNITED WORSHIP

41. What will thus be the situation on earth immediately after the great tribulation?

⁴¹ Do we appreciate what that will mean? It will mean Almighty God will have achieved his purpose that all men shall again worship the one God, Jehovah, the Creator and immortal Source of all life. Only his worshipers will survive the great tribulation in which the Devil-worshiping old world will end. By the revelation then of his power and justice the prophecy will be fulfilled: “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14, AS) Like Noah and his family, after the flood had destroyed the ancient, ungodly world, the Kingdom-preaching witnesses of Jehovah will unitedly carry forward the worship of the one God on an earth cleansed of all false religion. The false god Satan the Devil and his demons will not be free to start religious prejudice and wars. The kingdom of the new world will tolerate none but the true religion.

42. What will soon make its reappearance on earth when all men then living are again worshiping one God?

⁴² When all mankind originally worshiped the one God Jehovah it was in an earthly paradise, the garden of Eden. Likewise, when all the Kingdom-preaching survivors practice the one pure and undefiled religion after the great tribulation now near at hand, paradise will soon make its reappearance, not just on the site of the former one in Eden, toward the east, but all around the globe. The terrible results of thousands of years of tribal and international wars between men of different religions will be made to vanish as the tribulation survivors set themselves to the God-given task of subduing the earth. (Gen. 1:28) Through his kingdom under Jesus Christ Jehovah God will bless their efforts in beautifying man’s eternal earthly home, just as he blessed the land of the ancient nation of Israel when its inhabitants worshiped and obeyed him, so that it was a land “flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.”—Ezek. 20:6, 15; Ex. 3:8.

43. What other creatures will enjoy that lovely paradise, and why?

⁴³ Not only will the tribulation survivors enjoy this lovely paradise but harmless animals will roam through it and birds of beauty and of song will flutter and hop around in it. Animals and birds issued forth from Noah’s ark after the flood long ago, and Bible prophecy assures us that animals and birds will likewise be preserved through the time of great tribulation and be in subjection to the inhabitants of the new world. In view of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ it will not be necessary to sacrifice any of them when worshiping Jehovah God.—Gen. 8:15-22.

44. How will the dying evildoer have Jesus’ promise to him fulfilled, but first after whom?

⁴⁴ When Jesus was dying as a sacrifice upon a torture stake, he said to an evildoer hanging alongside of him: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43, NW; Ro) How will Jesus’ promise to this sympathetic evildoer now dead for the past nineteen centuries come true? By his resurrection from the dead under God’s kingdom, when paradise will have been restored on our earth. More than that, all of Jehovah’s faithful witnesses from Abel down to the prophet John who baptized Jesus will be resurrected ahead of that evildoer who died because of crime. Jesus has assured us so. (John 5:28, 29; Matt. 22:31, 32) The resurrection of Jesus is a forerunner and guarantee of a resurrection of the just and the unjust ones.—1 Cor. 15:20; Acts 24:15.

45. How will the one worship of the one God by all men be carried forward and preserved?

⁴⁵ Those resurrected ancient witnesses of Jehovah will resume his worship together with the tribulation survivors, but with greater knowledge and understanding. All those brought forth by resurrection will be taught the knowledge of Jehovah and his right worship. Any refusing to unite in the one pure worship of Jehovah and to obey him as God will be destroyed as unreformable, uncorrectable. The willing and obedient worshipers will receive the benefits of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus and will be freed from condemnation and be healed and uplifted to human perfection, to live for all time in blessed paradise. Forever all men who live will worship one God, the one whose glorious name is Jehovah.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 229]

Mars’ Hill

Christendom’s Spiritual Famine

Is there any evidence of a spiritual famine in Christendom?

You have probably heard of the widespread Bible ignorance in Christendom. You have read about the gross immorality and an alarming crime rate among people who profess Christianity. Likely you have read what educators and clergymen have said about this famine. The president of Harvard University has warned of “a very widespread religious illiteracy.” In the New York Times of January 21, 1957, one may read a statement by cleric David Reed of Manhattan’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. He declared that the world is faced with a “religious vacuum on a scale never seen before.”

Since Christendom has God’s Word the Bible, why is there a spiritual famine?

God tells us why: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13, AS) Christendom’s religions have strayed from God’s Word. They have hewed out for themselves man-made cisterns, cisterns that can hold no real spiritual refreshment. This is admitted by the clergy. Writing in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette of November 5, 1953, preacher Earl L. Douglass asks: “Why have we so often failed in our efforts as ministers?” His answer: “They come seeking for the bread of life, and we frequently offer philosophy, sociology, psychology, politics, and a résumé of current events.” These are broken cisterns that hold no living waters of spiritual truth.

May Christendom’s clergy Scripturally use tradition and philosophy as the ingredients of spiritual food?

Christendom’s fundamentalist clergy have filled their creeds with many traditions, such as the doctrines of trinity, immortality of the soul, eternal torment and purgatory. These make void the Word of God, just as the traditions of the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day. When the Pharisees condemned Christ for ignoring tradition, Jesus countered: “Why is it you also overstep the commandment of God because of your tradition? . . . you have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.”—Matt. 15:1-9, NW.

Christendom’s modernist clergy, together with the higher critics and evolutionists, have built up countless theories of worldly philosophy. As spiritual food this has no nourishment. Warning us against it, Christ’s apostle declared: “Look out: perhaps there may be some man that will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.”—Col. 2:8, NW.

Is it Scriptural for Christendom’s religions to raise money by tithing, the passing of collection plates and the use of gambling devices?

Tithing or the giving of one tenth of one’s income applied only to the Jews. It was one of the decrees in the Law of Moses. By his death Christ abolished that Law so that not even Jewish Christians are obliged to keep the decrees such as tithing. Says the Bible: “By means of his flesh he abolished the hatred, the Law of commandments consisting in decrees.”—Eph. 2:15, NW.

Nor is the passing of a collection plate the Christian way. We remember how Jesus once observed a widow dropping two small coins into the treasury chest in the temple. But this chest was not passed around; it was fixed.

The use of bingo, raffles and other gambling methods is contrary to the Bible rule for Christians: “We have renounced the underhanded things of which to be ashamed.” When the Israelites began sacrificing to some of the pagan deities of gambling, God told them: “Ye that forsake Jehovah, . . . that prepare a table for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny; I will destine you to the sword.”—2 Cor. 4:2, NW; Isa. 65:11, 12, AS.

By stressing money raising and neglecting spiritual food, the clergy have brought about a situation that is similar to the time in Israel when God’s prophet said: “The priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us?” Jesus’ words to those who used God’s temple for commercial purposes are apt today: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a cave of robbers.”—Mic. 3:11, AS; Matt. 21:13, NW.

When clergymen take honorary titles such as “Father” and “Reverend,” are they following the Bible’s example?

The use of honorary titles shows how the clergy have turned away from using the Bible as their guidebook, for nowhere in the Bible does a Christian call himself “reverend.” Only once in the King James Bible does the word “reverend” occur. Then it is applied to God alone: “Holy and reverend is his name.”—Ps. 111:9.

The use of the honorary title “Father” came up in Jesus’ day. As found in the Knox Catholic translation of the Bible, at Matthew 23:8, 9, Christ laid down the rule for all true Christians to follow: “You are not to claim the title of Rabbi; you have but one Master, and you are all brethren alike. Nor are you to call any man on earth your father; you have but one Father, and he is in heaven.”

Should Christendom’s clergy participate in political affairs and controversies of the nations?

By dispensing political fodder and mixing in politics the clergy have exposed their flocks to a spiritual famine. Christ never served politics as spiritual food; he even refused a popular draft to make him political leader: “Jesus, realizing they were about to come and seize him to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain all alone.” Christ’s reason was clear: “I am no part of the world.” “My kingdom is no part of this world.” So true worship is, as the Bible says, “to keep oneself without spot from the world.” The clergy mix in politics and even ask God’s blessing on armies and navies. But God’s Word declares: “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.”—John 6:15; 17:16; 18:36; Jas. 1:27; 4:4, NW.

When clergymen and parishioners pray for this world, are they following Christ’s example?

Even in prayer the clergy are not serving spiritual food. The clergy pray for this world. But Christ prayed: “I make request, not concerning the world, but concerning those you have given me.” Why did Jesus not pray for this world? Because he knew that the Devil, not Jehovah God, is the god of this world, as the Bible clearly shows: “The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” Spiritually famished persons pray for this world, but Bible-fed Christians obey the Bible command: “Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”—John 17:9; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19; 2:15, NW.

Is it Christian to criticize other religions, or should all join the interfaith movement?

If Christendom’s religionists were well fed spiritually, they would not mind criticism. For truth can always stand up to error and overcome it. Because they were serving false spiritual food the clergy of Judaism did not like Jesus’ criticism. Jesus used spiritual truths to expose them as false religionists. He called the clergy “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “fools and blind ones” and “serpents, offspring of vipers.” Jesus even told many religious objectors: “You are from your father the Devil.” And Christ’s apostle told a false prophet who was serving up false spiritual food: “You son of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah?”—Matt. 23:13, 16, 17, 33; John 8:44; Acts 13:10, NW.

Christ rejected interfaith. He did not join with false religious leaders just to gain physical unity, and thus have to give up some spiritual truths. That is what Christendom’s clergy do. But Christ said to his followers: “Let them be. Blind guides is what they are.” Instead of joining interfaith movements, true Christians heed God’s command: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”—Matt. 15:14, NW; Eph. 5:11, Catholic Biblical Assn.

The refusal to expose false spiritual food is the thing that is unchristian.

Is it Scripturally proper for Christians to use images and statues as an aid to worship?

The touchstone for determining the genuineness of spiritual food is the principle laid down by Christ himself: “God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Christ’s apostles also show this to be true. Following are some of their statements as they appear in Catholic translations of the Bible: “We walk by faith and not by sight.” “If only we will fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what we can see.” “If we are the children of God, we must not imagine that the divine nature can be represented in gold, or silver, or stone, carved by man’s art and thought.”—John 4:24, Knox; 2 Cor. 5:7, Dy; 2 Cor. 4:18; Acts 17:29, Knox.

Images and idols do not contribute to the spiritual growth of a Christian; instead they lead to spiritual malnutrition and death, as the Catholic translation of Psalm 113:13-16 Psalm 115:5-8 NWT by Monsignor Knox shows: “They have mouths, and yet are silent; eyes they have, and yet are sightless; ears they have, and want all hearing; noses, and yet no smell can reach them; hands unfeeling, feet unstirring; never a sound their throats may utter. Such be the end of all who make them, such the reward of all who trust them.”

Little wonder the apostle John warned Christians: “Dear children, guard yourselves from the idols.”—1 John 5:21, Catholic Biblical Assn.

Does the Bible foretell Christendom’s spiritual famine?

Yes, God through his prophet foretold: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.”—Amos 8:11, AS.

Will Christendom’s religions recover from the spiritual famine?

After 1,600 years of professed Christianity, Christendom’s spiritual famine has only grown more severe. The famine is, as the clergy admit, “on a scale never seen before.” That is not the way to recovery.

Moreover, Bible prophecy shows that when God’s war of Armageddon breaks out Christendom will be destroyed: “For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; . . . I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Though Christendom will never recover, individuals from among Christendom’s famished religions may, and many are doing so today.—Jer. 25:29, AS.

How can you avoid suffering the fate of Christendom?

Abandon the famished religions of Christendom. Go where you can obtain true spiritual food, food free from philosophy and tradition. Partake of the rich spiritual banquet foretold for these days: “A time is coming when the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts will prepare a banquet on this mountain of ours; no meat so tender, no wine so mellow, meat that drips with fat, wine well strained.”—Isa. 25:6, Knox.

Where is this spiritual banquet? You are partaking of a small part of it by reading this issue of The Watchtower. But there is much more. To partake of it, associate with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, through whom this magazine has been brought to you. Learn the nourishing truths of God’s kingdom. Learn how you may survive Armageddon into God’s new world. Allow Jehovah’s witnesses to bring you spiritual food free of cost. Examine it. Compare it with the Bible. See for yourself—this is the spiritual food foretold by God’s prophet: “Ho! everyone that is thirsty, come to the waters, and he that has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy grain without money, and wine and milk without price! Why should you spend money for what is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? If you but listen to me, you shall eat what is good, and shall delight yourselves with rich nourishment.”—Isa. 55:1, 2, AT.

[Box on page 242]

“FATHER”

“REVEREND”

A Mass of Witness During 1956

● Every day during the past year Jehovah’s witnesses spent an average of more than 238,000 hours in preaching to others, made over 75,000 return visits with interested persons and placed an average of well over 50,000 books, booklets and Bibles, and more than 152,000 copies of the Watchtower and Awake! magazines. That is a remarkable daily total, truly a great mass of witness to the name and majesty of the God and Creator whom they serve. Are you having your part in the expansion of this Christian activity during 1957?

Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.—Matt. 6:33, NW.

Exposing the Red Paradise

Firsthand reports from the Russian slave labor camps disprove communisms claim to be a modern materialistic messiah. What was it like in those camps? This article answers

MORE than one out of every three persons on earth lives under Communist rule. Many were subjugated through military domination, while others were apparently convinced that communism would offer better conditions than those under which they had been living.

It is true that some of the governments that communism overthrew needed to be changed. But the people who accepted communism merely swapped one kind of oppression for another. The promised paradise failed to appear. Instead, secret informers, brutal state police and huge slave labor camps developed.

The entire system of things under Soviet rule has proved to be a failure as far as freedom for the people is concerned, especially in view of the freedom that Marxism had claimed the people would have. Even the religions of Christendom that operated there have been made subservient to the Red empire. But thousands of bearers of the true religion, proclaimers of the real Messianic hope, have been imprisoned and tortured by the brutal masters of the “people’s paradise.”

THE MESSAGE ENTERS RUSSIA

It had long been wondered how the good news of God’s established kingdom would penetrate the Iron Curtain, but the Russians themselves made this possible.

After World War II the Soviet government annexed the territories of Moldavia, Western Ukraine, Carpatho-Ukraine, White Russia and the Baltic States, in which several thousand of Jehovah’s witnesses lived. These Christians immediately began to pour rivers of truth into the mighty Communist desert, aiding in the world-wide preaching that Jesus foretold for our day. (Matt. 24:14) These rivers of truth flowed in all directions within the Red empire—to the north, east and south; to the slave camps of Vorkuta, and to the hundreds of other work camps all over the Soviet Union.

In 1951 alone more than seven thousand of these Christian witnesses were “exiled for life to Siberia,” to try to live or to die in the inhospitable land.

But these seven thousand were not the only ones so treated. One witness, who had been in the slave labor camps longer than most, writes of the torture he underwent simply because of his religion. He says:

“On April 10, 1940, I began my wanderer’s life through the prisons and camps of the Red ‘paradise,’ which lasted fourteen years, during which I was brought into court five times.” In an open railroad car, together with hundreds of others, without any seating, food, drink or wood, he was shipped off in an unknown direction. Often companions he conversed with in the evening he found frozen to death in the morning. No wonder he said: “Not many survived this transport.”

At Wierchaturia in the voivodeship of Sverdlovsk, half frozen to death, weak and on the verge of starvation, he and his companions began a four-day tramp on foot. They were forced to clear the woods, build barracks and then construct a sawmill. He says: “Wooden planks served as beds, our own trousers as a straw sack, our caps as a pillow and our jackets as a blanket. Many died. I have often witnessed some of these half-starved slaves, almost sinking from weakness themselves, carrying one of their companions away on a plank, who had been frozen or died of hunger at his job.”

Later this witness of Jehovah was transferred to Syzran to work at clearing the woods. Here, condemned to starvation, physical weakness prevented him from doing enough work and got him in conflict with Soviet law. This got him another ten-year sentence.

Of this he writes: “I did not have to go far after getting my sentence because there was camp after camp in that territory. A very long valley runs about one kilometer from the Volga and is called the ‘Gawrylov Clearing.’ Here were the camps. Both the prisoners and the free population call this place the ‘death valley.’ It was indeed a camp serving for the mass liquidation of the people by starvation. They died off like flies.”

Did this persecution break his faith? He answers: “The more I suffered, the more I preached. I was sentenced twice to ten years for preaching amongst the prisoners. The moment you get a new sentence the old one is declared invalid. Such sentences frightened hundreds of Pentecostals, Evangelists, Baptists, Revelationists, Sabbatists and others who closed their ears to the good news of the Kingdom. Yet they have also suffered much persecution. One of the Baptists sang one of their hymns and got five years in prison for it.”

These camps were called “educational camps.” One of the “educational” methods used by the officials was to throw anyone they wanted to dispose of into a barrack where the sexual perverts were housed and to let the perverts kill him. The witness said: “My slave masters were astonished when after three and a half months in that barrack I came out alive. There I had felt like Daniel in the lions’ den. With my way of dealing with them, I frustrated all their intentions toward my person. I came out alive and well.”

The bosses of this “educational camp” beat the prisoners black and blue just for the sadistic pleasure of it. “Only in 1950,” says this Christian minister, “could I strike grass and fish bones off my menu. By 1955 conditions had become almost human. I am no more there, but truly it will be easier for those who still remain than for those who ordered these ‘educational camps’ to be built, for they are reserved by God for punishment.”

The experience of this faithful witness, released June 14, 1955, and now hospitalized, certainly gives the lie to the false claim that communism has built a worker’s paradise.

THE PREACHING CONTINUES

The ranks of God’s people have not grown thinner because of this persecution, but have increased. It is no exaggeration to say that there now is no district in the U.S.S.R. where there are not people who know the truth. Apparently some forty percent of the people who have come to a knowledge of the truth have done so in these prisons and camps. Among those who have done so are officers of the Red army, police and prison officials, lawyers, journalists and others.

Why has the Soviet government so persecuted these good people? Apparently one reason is that these rulers cannot allow anyone but themselves to be viewed as masters, not even God. Radianska Ukraina, published last November 30 in Kiev, U.S.S.R., criticized Jehovah’s witnesses for not being satisfied with “celebrating religious rites and ceremonies,” which it says is permitted, but of insisting on teaching such “reactionary propaganda” as “the world ‘is ruled by its Supreme Sovereign Jehovah’ and that humans are simply ‘his servants on earth who do his will.’”

Actually the Soviet government would not lose a thing if it granted full freedom of worship to Jehovah’s witnesses. No government harms itself by granting such fundamental rights to those who really serve God. If the Russians now believe, as they seem to, that Jehovah’s witnesses have never had anything to do with espionage there is certainly no just reason why they should not be granted full freedom of worship.

But whether the Soviets grant that freedom or not, Jehovah’s witnesses will continue to preach the good news of God’s kingdom despite all opposition.

A witness living in Siberia wrote: “We cannot refrain from preaching God’s kingdom. We have gotten used to this territory and we feel happy, being firmly determined to represent the Lord worthily and to make known his glory everywhere. We feel the urge to convey to our brothers throughout the earth the assurance of our love for them, and we hope to have yet an opportunity of assembling ourselves with our brothers from all over the world.”

Their brothers throughout the world share that hope with them.

THE SITUATION EASES

With the deglorification of Stalin in 1956 some improvement was seen, and many of the witnesses, long imprisoned, were given their freedom with written confirmation that they were “acquitted from all guilt.”

Some of the seven thousand “special settlers” who were carried to the Irkutsk region of Siberia in 1951 are now free, but others must continue reporting every month to the local authorities. Many of those freed do not want to return home, because of the witness work that is now developing.

News has come through that there are also some witnesses in Moscow again, and that there are many people in Russia’s capital who wish to hear God’s Word. Many Baptists are also interested, the reason being the compromising attitude of some of their own leaders.

At the Arctic camp of Vorkuta fruitfulness is evident from month to month. All along the line from Kotlas to Vorkuta, a distance of about 700 miles, hundreds of labor camps have been liquidated and the barracks burned down. In that region there now remain only the camps of Vorkuta and its districts. There are many persons who learned the truth in the camps who now, as free men, preach the message of the Kingdom in these territories. During last year house-to-house work was inaugurated in the far north, even in Vorkuta itself, and meetings are held regularly.

An inmate at Vorkuta wrote: “Here the sowing work is now being done extensively. The field that has not been worked for a long time is now more receptive of the seed and promises fruit. Places that for many years have been like a desert are blossoming. The climate has changed here and the weather is more suitable for field work.”

A letter received from the Tomsk region of Siberia says: “The purpose of our transfer to these faraway places was at first hidden to us and incomprehensible, but unspeakable joy fills our hearts when we hear the natives now saying: ‘Come!’ I was sent to work a long distance from our settlement and in my endeavors to communicate to others the fire burning within me I found a family of six persons who now love the truth. I gave them a Bible, and after I had worked with them for several months they too began to witness and to find interested persons. In the evening we always go out on the street of our little village and sing aloud our songs that re-echo in the Siberian forests.”

A repatriated Polish prisoner reports: “When the day finally came to return to Poland, the commander came and said with deep emotion: ‘I recognize that the hand of the great Jehovah is over you, for otherwise you would never have been able to leave Siberia in your capacity as unshakable witnesses of Jehovah. May your God bless you.’”

Many witnesses were freed during 1956, but others remain. For thousands who were sent to Siberia in 1951 there still is no possibility of their getting Bibles or Bible literature. These witnesses, innocent, peace-loving people, are forbidden to maintain contact among themselves, or to form congregations. Why is it, then, that the Russian Orthodox Church, the Baptists and other religions enjoy relative freedom? Only because they have stated their willingness to obey Caesar rather than God. Jehovah’s witnesses refuse to do this because it would be unfaithfulness to God.

IN POLAND AND ELSEWHERE

This oppression of innocent Christians has been evident not just in Soviet Russia, but also in all the satellite countries—in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and elsewhere.

In Poland the people had suffered under a church-supported feudalistic system that comforted the poor and needy only with the distant promise of a reward beyond the grave. The peasants paid with suffering and misery for the lives of pleasure of the privileged, and had ceased to be serfs in name only. But under communism, which overthrew the hated old system, the Poles suffered under the same terroristic machinery that had been set up in Russia.

Economic conditions were extremely severe. Morals worsened. The Communists spoke of freeing women from “the slavery of the kitchen” to work in industry, but the Polish press now blames the collapse of morals, of the family and the increasing banditism among adolescents on the fact that the women left their homes for the factories.

But, despite these difficulties, religious persecution is again one of the outstanding marks of a totalitarian state. The total state butted squarely against the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses. For the first time the Polish Communists met a whole people who stood firm. So determined was their worship that the officials were bewildered.

Thousands of modest, honest men, women and children (workers, peasants and housewives), who were all nonsensically suspected or accused of spying, witnessed of their Kingdom hope to their brutal arresters. All spoke the same thing. They provided a tremendous witness to the name of Jehovah, to his King Christ Jesus and for God’s new world of righteousness. Even the most fanatical Communist official, hearing again and again the same things, had to see that his charges were crumbling to nothing. The majority of those arrested were released after some hours of questioning or a couple of days, but hundreds of such innocent people were kept in prison in that brutal “paradise” of oppression, violence and bloodshed.

Many persons learned the truth, both inside and outside the prison walls. Hundreds and thousands welcomed the witnesses and were willing to be taught by Jehovah. They had seen that it was a defamation to say that Jehovah’s witnesses were in league with the Communists, as the Catholic clergy had done, and that it was also a lie to say that the witnesses were spies, as the Communists had done.

Violence and torture failed to shake them. The Beria-type examination of the Watch Tower Society’s branch servant and other responsible ministers lasted for months, but they came out unbroken in spirit, though often violently hurt in the flesh. A number of the witnesses died, preferring martyrdom to confessing to lies against these men who were doing God’s work in Poland.

But the number of witnesses increased for months without interruption. During all this persecution they suffered no spiritual hunger. They met in small groups, thus not forsaking the gathering of themselves together. Their “public lectures” were the funerals they conducted. Every funeral procession of hundreds of persons moving through towns and cities without priests was always a sensation, and provided a clear evidence that Jehovah’s witnesses were far from being “liquidated.”

Some witnesses had even done house-to-house work in certain villages, and since the de-Stalinization has set in, several tens of thousands of them have gone from house to house with the only message really worthwhile to be preached today.

They recognize, and hope that you will too, the vital difference between man’s failing solutions to the world’s problems and the only true solution now near at hand. That true solution is not a political one but is God’s kingdom. Now is the time to accept and conform to it to survive the end of Satan’s wicked system and to live through into the righteous new conditions that the Creator himself soon will bring to earth.

Communist Leaders Petitioned

“I SHALL put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.” Thus Jehovah God spoke to the Serpent in the garden of Eden. Down to our day that enmity has continued. Today that enmity is especially noticeable in the hatred that Communist rulers bear toward the witnesses of Jehovah.—Gen. 3:15, NW.

In fact, this enmity has been so bitter that for many years the fate of Jehovah’s witnesses in Russia and Siberia was not known. In recent years, however, the proof has continued to mount that there are thousands of witnesses in those places, as well as in other lands behind the Iron Curtain.

Little if any attention was directed to these witnesses until 1949. In July of that year a district assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses was held in the Woodland Stage of Berlin, Germany. At that time a protest against the Communist oppression of the witnesses in Eastern Germany was adopted by some 18,000 assembled. The following year, at the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Yankee Stadium, a resolution was adopted by some 85,000 conventioners. It included a protest “against the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses by Communist powers and by other governmental powers.”

Since then much information has leaked out concerning the activities and sufferings of the witnesses behind the Iron Curtain, of whom there are thousands. This has been published in the secular press as well as in the magazines of the Watch Tower Society.

The witnesses behind the Iron Curtain have longed to get in touch with their brothers on the outside. They have appealed to the rulers but without any relief. So they have expressed their desire that the witnesses in other lands petition the Russian government in their behalf. In view of the accumulating facts concerning the persecution of these witnesses it seemed fitting to petition the key authorities of the Russian government.

Accordingly, from the summer of 1956 to February, 1957, such a petition was adopted by 199 district assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses, held in all parts of the world. At these sessions a total of 462,936 voted enthusiastically in favor of these petitions. The first petition sent to Moscow was adopted in Finland, where the first of the 199 district assemblies was held, and this one is reproduced (translated into English).

THE PETITION ADOPTED

To Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin

Chairman of the Council of Ministers for the Soviet Union

Moscow, U. S. S. R.

Sir:

We, 1,136 delegates gathered together from many congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in a District Assembly at Kemi, Lapland, Finland, this 30 day of June, 1956, do hereby resolve, by the following statement, to draw your attention to our fellow Christians, of whom there are, as you know, many thousands in your vast country.

In the course of the past two years news has come out of Russia by prominent news dispatches and by repatriated persons, according to which (1) there are or have been some 2,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses in the penal camp of Vorkuta; (2) at the beginning of April of the year 1951 some 7,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested from the Baltic States down to Bessarabia and were then transported in freight trains to the distant region between Tomsk and Irkutsk and near Lake Baykal in Siberia; (3) there are witnesses of Jehovah kept in more than fifty camps from European Russia into Siberia and northward to the Arctic Ocean, even on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya; and (4) a number of these, especially of the 7,000 mentioned above, died of malnutrition the first two years of their sojourn in Siberia.

PETITION

An objective investigation of Jehovah’s witnesses will reveal that they have never deserved to be imprisoned, deported and sent to penal camps, and we now deem it most timely to PETITION your Government and request that these sincere Christians, who are distinguished for their ardent love of justice, truth and peace, (a) be freed, and (b) be authorized to organize themselves into Christian congregations, also into circuits and districts, embracing all such congregations throughout the nation, with responsible ministers and servants, according to the same pattern that is followed in all the other countries; (c) be authorized to establish regular relations with the Christian governing body of Jehovah’s witnesses in Brooklyn, New York, United States of America; and (d) be authorized to receive and publish the Watchtower magazine in Russian, Ukrainian and such other languages as may be found necessary, as well as other Bible publications that are used by Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Jehovah’s witnesses are a Christian community of now more than 640,000 ministers carrying on their activity in some 160 countries, practically in every country on earth. Their semimonthly magazines The Watchtower and Awake! have a combined printing of over 4,000,000 copies each half month and are published in forty-four languages.

Jehovah’s witnesses therefore come out of all nations, but, as far as they are concerned, they have completely solved the problem of peaceful, universal and lasting coexistence. In their ranks they have overcome all racial, national and religious barriers and prejudices and have become an association of brothers, followers of Christ, all governed by the two greatest commandments, those of love for God and love for one’s neighbor. In view of this they do not and can not kill one another periodically on the battlefields, as do Catholics, Protestants, and members of other religious systems.

To the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus Christ said: “My kingdom is not of this world,” thereby showing that the Roman Empire, of which Pilate was the representative in Palestine, did not have to be disturbed about his religious activity. He did not fight the political government in power, he had no political interests and ambitions, he was no political party leader, he did not fight for the Jews against the Romans or vice versa. No, but he pointed to the root of all evil and carried on a program of spiritual healing which continues today and reaches into all the nations of the globe by the ministry of his true followers. To Pilate Jesus also said: “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” After that, Pilate said to the Jewish clergy who wrongly and hypocritically accused Jesus: “I find in him no fault at all.”—John 18:36-38.

No crime can be found today in Jehovah’s witnesses. They obey God’s commandments: “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah.” (Isaiah 43:10, 12, ASV) They render first to God the things that belong to God and then to the political ruler on earth the things that belong to him. (Matthew 22:21) According to Christ’s teaching, they constitute a universal brotherhood made up of Russians, Chinese, Finnish and members of many other nations, and their brotherhood is rapidly growing throughout the earth. Jehovah’s witnesses do no harm to anyone. They remain neutral toward the controversies of this world. So they do not engage in any subversive activity and espionage. They are not nationalists, selfish capitalists or imperialists. As true Christians they could never be such, nor could they fight for any political doctrine or ideology, be it communist, democratic or capitalist. In America and other Western lands Jehovah’s witnesses have been called “Communists” and in countries under Communist rule “imperialists” because they keep a neutral position toward world affairs. Communist governments have accused and tried them as “imperialistic spies” and have sentenced them to as many as twenty years in prison. But never have they engaged in any subversive activity or any spying.

Therefore it is absolutely wrong and is a violation of the most elementary justice to imprison, intern and deport them, be it for one day or twenty-five years.

In not only Western countries but also Communist-ruled ones, Jehovah’s witnesses are recognized as reliable, trustworthy, conscientious workers. Thus they do their proper duty as citizens of the country in which they live. They are intelligent people who do not believe in all the oppression and misinstruction by false religions. They do not steal, they do not get drunk and thus slow down production, and they will never engage in any sabotage work. They follow the teachings of the Holy Bible, which the Government of the USSR has recently authorized to be printed and distributed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

One notable point on which Jehovah’s witnesses as followers of Christ differ from their fellow men is that they obediently insist on doing what Christ commanded when he said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, NW) Consequently Jehovah’s witnesses are doing this today among all the nations, and they will continue doing it at the peril of their lives, under persecution and opposition, as Jesus said: “You will be hated by all the nations on account of my name,” and, “Look! I am sending you forth as sheep amidst wolves.”—Matthew 24:9; 10:16, NW.

Does your Government want to share in the responsibility for fulfilling these words of the Founder of true Christianity?

DISCUSSION PROPOSED

We shall be very pleased to have representatives of our governing body, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, discuss this matter further with you, either with your foremost representative in the United States of America or directly with your Government in Moscow.

You have allowed many delegations from Western countries to visit your capital and country. So we would like to suggest that you also examine the possibility of allowing a delegation of Jehovah’s witnesses to proceed to Moscow in order to give you any further information you may require and to ask you for permission to visit our Christian brothers in the various camps, who, we trust, will be freed before long, by your orders.

In the meantime we can do nothing else but inform the world about Jehovah’s witnesses in Russian prisons, penal camps and deportation centers, as we owe it to them as our friends and brothers in the faith to inform the world about their situation. However, we would prefer to be able to tell the world that you, the Government of Russia, have ordered Jehovah’s witnesses to be freed from all such places, in order to be in position to work as free citizens of your country and live a calm and quiet life, which they believe to be in harmony with the example given by Jesus Christ.—1 Timothy 2:1-6.

Trusting that you will study this petition and consider the merits of this case and that we may receive a favorable answer thereto, we remain, Sir,

Yours sincerely,

Jehovah’s witnesses

Kalle Salavaara

Motion to adopt this

Resolution proposed by

Matti K. Tiainen, Assembly Administrator.

Seconded by

Erkki Kankaanpää, Assembly Chairman.

Approved unanimously by the Kemi District Assembly,

as certified by

HOW RECEIVED

At each assembly four witnesses of Jehovah signed three copies of the petition in behalf of those present. One copy was sent directly to Premier Bulganin at Moscow, one was mailed to the Russian ambassador of the country in which the assembly was held, one was forwarded to the headquarters of the Watchtower Society, and additional copies were supplied to the press, which generally gave it good coverage.

How did the Russian government react to this petition? To date it has ignored it. Not a word has been heard. That copies were received at Moscow is proved by national post office receipts indicating that the petition had been delivered to the Russian government and accepted.

Efforts were also made to present the petition personally to the various local Russian ambassadors. However, in almost every instance it was impossible to meet the ambassador himself. In Uruguay the ambassador’s secretary declared the petition to be full of lies and absolutely refused to have anything to do with it. He kept insisting that freedom of worship was guaranteed in Russia. The results of like efforts in other lands such as Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland were similar.

In France the ambassador’s secretary accepted the petition. However, he could not understand why ‘Frenchmen living in France would concern themselves about Russians living in Russia’! Apparently it was incomprehensible to his Communist-trained mind that loyalties could surmount national barriers and differences.

In the United States, since the ambassador was away an appointment was arranged for with the next-ranking official, a Mr. Striganov. In the course of the conversation the witnesses recommended the course taken by the government in Poland, which investigated the witnesses and, finding the charges made against them to be unfounded, released them from prison.

Mr. Striganov, however, claimed that a great many lies had been circulated regarding Russia and that if anyone was imprisoned there it was not because of his religion but because he had violated the law. He found fault with the position the witnesses took regarding war and insisted that the law of Russia was higher than the law of Jehovah and that it had to be obeyed in Russia. He refused to accept the petition, acting as if it were dynamite, not even wanting to touch it.

However, Jehovah’s witnesses are not easily discouraged. They do not easily give up the fight. As an evidence of their sincere and unrelenting efforts to help their oppressed brothers behind the Iron Curtain, on March 1, 1957, they sent the following combined petition to the Communist leaders.

Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin

Chairman of the Council of Ministers for the Soviet Union Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Sir:

The governing body for the world-wide group of Christians called Jehovah’s Witnesses addresses you.

Today, under the direction of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, an ever-expanding organization of Christian ministers, Jehovah’s witnesses are teaching the Word of the Almighty God and Creator of the universe, Jehovah, in 162 countries, republics and colonies throughout the earth. They are true Christians, guided in genuine worship of Jehovah God by the righteous standards and principles set forth in the Holy Bible.

Within the borders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are to be found thousands of these witnesses of Jehovah who are faithfully endeavoring to serve the Supreme God, Jehovah, amid very trying conditions. Many of them have been arrested and are restrained in imprisonment. Others have been sent far from their homes into exile in Siberia. This has not been because of committing any crimes or on account of any type of political activity whatsoever. Jehovah’s witnesses are the most peaceful and law-abiding group of people on earth. They have come under punishment solely because of the fact that they are dedicated Christians who sincerely obey the orders of Jesus Christ. It is true that they seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, for that is what Christ told all Christians to do at Matthew 6:33. But while doing so they also obey all the laws of the land in which they live, except where a law may be made that is contrary to the supreme law of the Creator. They are conscientious and are careful to “pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.”—Matthew 22:21, NW.

For many years now Jehovah’s witnesses within the Soviet Union have endured great difficulties and heavy persecution. They have constituted committees and delegations from among their own ministers for the purpose of registering their religious organization according to the statutes in force, but on each occasion they have been rebuffed and instead of being allowed to register their Christian organization they have had ministers in the delegations arrested. It has become well known around the world that Jehovah’s witnesses by the thousands are imprisoned throughout the Soviet Union and in exile in Siberia on account of their Christian worship.

All of Jehovah’s witnesses make a solemn dedication to serve as ministers of Jehovah God and from this they may not deviate. They are under strict command to preach the good news of God’s kingdom. They must be as faithful to God and guided by the same theocratic laws as the exemplary apostles of Jesus Christ, who faced much opposition and physical suffering on account of their worship. In the Holy Bible at Acts 5:17-40 we find one of the many examples of the trials of early Christians. And on this occasion the noted non-Christian lawyer Gamaliel set out a principle for the ruling council that is true to this day, to which we respectfully draw your attention in connection with the present-day arrests of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Soviet Union: “If this scheme and this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.”

Jehovah’s witnesses are the servants of God. Their work is of God. So in all lands, including the Soviet Union, Jehovah’s witnesses must—and will, with the help of Jehovah God—continue to live Christian lives and worship the Most High.

True Christians love one another and have great concern for their fellow Christians. They come to the aid of one another in any time of need for material or spiritual help. Jehovah’s witnesses are such Christians and that is why in all parts of the earth within the past nine months Jehovah’s witnesses have petitioned you in your honored position in the Soviet Union to investigate the abuses against their fellow witnesses of Jehovah in your country and to grant freedom of worship to our brothers in Christ.

The petition was sent to you in scores of languages from 199 assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses. Every copy was sent by registered airmail. And further to ensure having this important matter reach your attention copies of the petition were also transmitted through Soviet diplomatic representatives in each country.

A total of 462,936 of Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide have endorsed this petition and are awaiting news of the action that will be taken by the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the relief of the suffering Christian witnesses of Jehovah there.

As the governing body for Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide we are authorized to transmit herewith a composite petition covering the problems of Jehovah’s witnesses within the Soviet Union. And as ministers of the Supreme God, Jehovah, we are obligated before Him to ask your consideration of this serious problem. We still stand ready to send our delegation to Moscow for the proposed discussions.

We, representing the 462,936 petitioning witnesses of Jehovah, respectfully request your early reply. The responsibility now rests upon you before the Most High God Jehovah: “Otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.”—Acts 5:39, NW.

Submitted by the Directors,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA

N. H. Knorr, President

F. W. Franz, Vice-President

Grant Suiter, Secretary-Treasurer

H. H. Riemer, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer

T. J. Sullivan, Director

L. A. Swingle, Director

M. G. Henschel, Director

Enclosure

By pressing this issue Jehovah’s witnesses have discharged a threefold duty. They have witnessed to Jehovah’s supremacy; they have pointed out to Jehovah’s enemies the wrongness of their course and they have endeavored to aid their brothers behind the Iron Curtain.

They rest assured in Jesus’ promise: “Shall not God cause justice to be done to his chosen ones who cry aloud to him day and night, even though he is long-suffering toward them? I tell you, He will cause justice to be done to them speedily.”—Luke 18:7, 8, NW.

Questions From Readers

● Why do Jehovah’s witnesses believe human creatures will live forever on the earth, since the Bible declares that the earth is to be burned up?

It is true that the Bible says: “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” But it is also true that the Bible says: “The earth abideth for ever.” These statements seem contradictory. Actually, when properly understood they are not.—2 Pet. 3:7; Eccl. 1:4.

Referring to the attitude of scoffers in the last days, 2 Peter 3:5-7 (NW) says: “For, according to their wish, this fact escapes their notice, that there were heavens in ancient times and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God, and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.”

The apostle Peter here refers to the flood of Noah’s time. The heavens and earth “of that time” were destroyed by water, Peter says. But those flood waters destroyed neither the literal heavens nor the literal planet earth, for these things remain to this day. What was destroyed? The demonic system or arrangement of Satan over men and the ungodly peoples of earth. They were symbolized by “heavens” and “earth.” We are told that “all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom.” The earth has no ears to hear; it was the people who went to hear Solomon. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad,” the psalmist wrote, meaning the inhabitants of heaven and earth.—1 Ki. 10:24; Ps. 96:11.

So “the heavens and the earth that are now,” and which are reserved for destruction, are the invisible wicked heavens of Satan and his demons and the ungodly peoples of earth. It is of these evil heavens and earth that Revelation 20:11 (NW) says: “From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.” After this there will be the “new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” Not a new starry vault overhead, but a new symbolic heavens, Christ and his joint heirs reigning from heaven; not a new planet beneath, but a new symbolic earth, obedient peoples devoted to righteousness. Incidentally, if the earth that is to be burned up is literal so are the heavens that are to go up in smoke with the earth; hence what deliverance will it be for those expecting to be saved from this fire to be caught up into heaven?—2 Pet. 3:13, NW.

Since the heavens and earth to be destroyed by fire are symbolical, just as the heavens and earth destroyed by the Flood were, there is no contradiction when the Bible says that the literal “earth abideth for ever.” And if the earth is to abide forever it will be inhabited forever because “thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.”—Isa. 45:18, AS.

● How can anyone effectively argue against the trinity doctrine in view of John 10:30, where Jesus himself says: “I and my Father are one”?

By these words Jesus did not say that he and his Father together made one God, coequal and coeternal. If you argue that he was saying this, as trinitarians do, then you must also believe that all of Christ’s followers become God: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” Just as Jesus is one with God, so are the followers of Jesus one with God. There is oneness in belief and purpose and work. The Bible speaks of one man planting and another watering to get an increase, and because both work with the same end in view it states: “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.” In this sense God and Jesus and Jesus’ followers are one.—John 17:20, 21; 1 Cor. 3:8.

Before Jesus came to earth, while he was in heaven as a spirit creature, existing in God’s form, since he too was then in spirit form, he “gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God.” When on earth as the man Jesus he said he was not equal to God: “The Father is greater than I am.” After his resurrection and return to heaven as a spirit creature and his reigning there “the Son himself will also subject himself to the one who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.” So before Jesus came to earth, and when he was on earth, and after he returned to heaven, he was and is and always will be beneath Jehovah. “The head of the Christ is God.” Christ and God are not coequal, as trinitarians contend.—Phil. 2:6; John 14:28; 1 Cor. 15:28; 11:3, NW.

They are not coeternal, as supporters of the trinity teaching say. Of Jehovah it is written: “Even from eternity to eternity thou art God.” He is called “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity” and “the king of eternity.” Hence he was not born, was not created, had no beginning. But this is not true of Jesus Christ, for he is called “the firstborn of all creation,” “the beginning of the creation by God.”—Ps. 90:2; Isa. 57:15; Jer. 10:10, Da; Col. 1:15, 16; Rev. 3:14, NW.

However, this point, often overlooked, should be remembered: the trinity doctrine says God and Christ and the holy spirit are three persons making the one true God. That means three in one. John 10:30 speaks of only two being one. That has nothing to do with trinity, the three-in-one doctrine. Only 1 John 5:7 in the King James and Douay Bible versions can be construed to support trinity, and that text is spurious and is left out of most modern Bible versions. No authentic Bible text supports the trinity doctrine.

Announcements

THE USE OF THEOCRATIC WAR STRATEGY

In time of war great effort is made to keep one’s movements or plans from the enemy. To keep the enemy in the dark and divert him from gaining knowledge, war strategy is used. Soldiers for Christ in dealing with enemies of God, who hate truth and want to stop others from learning it, wisely use theocratic war strategy, not to hurt or harm, but to keep the “wolves” from hindering efforts to aid sheeplike people who are hungering for knowledge of truth and righteousness. On meeting “wolves” Christians will use strategy, being wise as serpents yet innocent as doves, in accord with Jesus’ direction at Matthew 10:16. Throughout May, just as in April, Jehovah’s witnesses will continue to seek sheeplike persons by calling from house to house. The May offer will be two Bible study aid books and two booklets on a contribution of $1. All participating in the work during April will want to continue in May and the coming months, honoring Jehovah and aiding other sheep while time permits.

READ “THE WATCHTOWER” REGULARLY

Have you enjoyed this magazine that is in your hand? Ask yourself, Have you not learned at least one important fact about the Most High God or his Word, the Holy Bible? Is that not worthwhile gain? Another thing. Turn to the inside front cover. Note the forty-five languages into which this information is being translated. Note the astounding circulation of this same information. What does this indicate? It means that people all over the world are interested in the announcement of Jehovah’s kingdom that is featured in The Watchtower. It shows that their hope is centered in the provisions of Jehovah God rather than in the continually failing schemes of man. You can join regularly with these hundreds of thousands in the most profitable study that is now available. Send only one dollar today and receive The Watchtower twice a month through the mail for one year. You will also be sent the 96-page booklet What Do the Scriptures Say About “Survival After Death”?

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

May 26: When All Men Again Worship One God, ¶1-24. Page 228.

June 2: When All Men Again Worship One God, ¶25-45. Page 234.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ What enticement can lead you away from the narrow gate of right principle? P. 227, ¶1.

✔ What ancient fact a bronze plaque at Athens’ Mars’ Hill records? P. 229, ¶3.

✔ What “Hallelujah” really means? P. 230, ¶8.

✔ How the first man worshiped? P. 233, ¶21.

✔ Why men die? P. 234, ¶24.

✔ Why Jesus can serve as mediator between God and men? P. 237, ¶33.

✔ Why, since Christendom has the Bible, there is a spiritual famine today? P. 241, ¶3.

✔ Why the religious title “Reverend” is improper? P. 242, ¶5.

✔ Why Christians are not to use images as an aid to worship? P. 243, ¶6.

✔ How the preaching of the Kingdom message became possible in Russia? P. 245, ¶5.

✔ What spiritual fruitfulness is evident at the Russian penal camp at Vorkuta? P. 247, ¶9.

✔ What showed the Poles that Jehovah’s witnesses were far from “liquidated”? P. 249, ¶2.

✔ How many of Jehovah’s witnesses earth-wide petitioned the Russian government for relief of their brothers? P. 250, ¶3.

✔ How various Russian ambassadors received Jehovah’s witnesses’ petitions? P. 252, ¶6.

✔ Whether Jesus’ statement: “I and my Father are one” proves the trinity? P. 255, ¶4.