The Watchtower — December 15, 1957

Is Christmas Giving Christian?

GIVING is a commendable thing. It makes other people happy, but the greater happiness goes to the giver. Christ pointed this out when he said: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” So great happiness should accompany giving. Since this is the time of year when there is more giving in Christendom than usual, happiness should abound. But does the main joy of Christmastime stem from giving?—Acts 20:35.

All too often Christmas givers give merely to conform to what is fashionable and so lose out on true happiness. Some give to gain publicity or personal honor. “When you start making gifts of mercy,” said Christ Jesus, “do not blow a trumpet ahead of you, just as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to you, They are having their reward in full. But you, when making gifts of mercy, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, that your gifts of mercy may be in secret; then your Father who is looking on in secret will repay you.”—Matt. 6:2-4.

The Founder of Christianity thus makes it plain that not all giving merits a reward from God. Not all giving, then, is Christian giving.

Is Christmas giving Christian? If it is, not only should great happiness stem from it, but it should also be based on Bible principle. Christmas giving is basically an exchange of presents. But where is this example set in the Bible?

The so-called wise men or magi gave presents to the young child Jesus. But here there was no exchange of presents. In any event, they set no example for true Christians, for the magi were demon-worshiping astrologers condemned by God’s Word, as at Isaiah 47:13, 14 (AV); 2 Kings 17:16 and other scriptures.

No, Christ never authorized an exchange-of-presents type of giving. Giving just to receive again, as many persons do during the great Christmas exchange, has no encouragement from Christ Jesus. Christmas deludes many into putting a premium on selfishness. Showing that Christian giving is no mere exchange of presents, Christ said: “And if you do good to those doing good to you, really of what credit is it to you? Even the sinners do the same.”—Luke 6:33.

What, then, is Christian giving? Christ defines it: “When you spread a dinner or evening meal, do not call your friends, or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors. Perhaps some time they might also invite you in return and it would become a repayment to you. But when you spread a feast, invite poor people, crippled, lame, blind; and you will be happy, because they have nothing with which to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones.”—Luke 14:12-14.

It is heart-cheering when we see this kind of giving, some of which does occur at Christmastime. But all too often it occurs only at Christmas. Christian giving, on the other hand, is not limited to one day of the year. It is directed toward needy persons the other 364 days of the year too.

Can Christ Be Put into Christmas?

Will clergymen succeed in their efforts to put Christ into Christmas? What does the Bible say about Christmas? Does it tell us when Jesus was born?

“LET’S put Christ back into Christmas!” Those are the recent words of evangelist Billy Graham. Even before this popular evangelist made such a request, observing persons have come to doubt that Christ is in Christmas. Now that more and more religious leaders are requesting that Christ be put into Christmas, it is becoming more and more evident that he is not in Christmas.

Readers of the Corpus Christi Caller of December 28, 1956, for example, were reminded under the editorial heading ‘Too Much’ that the Christlike spirit was missing. Said the newspaper:

“It is a strange folk-manifestation, the way we celebrate the Nativity. If we Americans don’t drink too much, we over-eat, and it is a toss-up which one places the greater strain on the human anatomy. It is a time when intemperate drinking and eating exact their toll, and moderation in all things flies out the window. The spirit of Christmas as we Americans play it is distinguished chiefly by excesses—too much running hither and yon, too much eating and drinking, too much spending, too much loss of sleep and rest, too much of everything—except the true spirit of Christmas, which somehow gets lost in the shuffle.”

CELEBRATED BY NON-CHRISTIANS

This too much of everything except Christianity on Christmas Day was commented upon last year by a Jewish rabbi. Over the NBC radio network Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, spoke on the subject “A Rabbi Looks at Christmas.”

“Has not Christmas become a universal holiday observed by all?” asked Rabbi Eisendrath. “Have not its specifically Christian characteristics and teachings receded into the background, while its more general observance, as a time of lighthearted gift-giving and jovial, even sometimes hilarious partying, has taken over? . . . Do not the voices of the radio and television pitchmen drown out the still small voice of the erstwhile more deeply-moving Christmas carols? Are not the decorations on the streets outside assuming an importance and a role of even greater significance than the message within the heart of peace on earth to men of good will?

“At least so it seems to one who watches from the sidelines—and virtually no one in America is on the sidelines . . . Yes, like the rest of their fellow Americans, many of my brother Jews are likewise captivated by the general atmosphere of this season, and are far from the sidelines. They are in the midst of the jostling, swarming throngs, doing their Christmas shopping, too . . . . Which leads me to the very first thing which I, as a rabbi, would like to say about Christmas.

“If I were a Christian minister instead of a Jewish teacher, there is nothing that I would lament so much, and bitterly resent, as this wholesale transformation by myriads of Christians, by some Jews, and many non-believers in either Judaism or Christianity, . . . of such a holy day into so heathen a holiday, devoid of its profounder spiritual significance.”

And so Christmas is being called more heathen than Christian. “If Santa steals the spotlight from Jesus,” declared Billy Graham, “we make Christmas a pagan feast-day rather than a Christian holiday.” Can things be changed? Can clergymen put Christ into Christmas? The answer certainly must depend on what Christ’s will is in the matter. We can learn his will by going to the Bible and finding out what it has to say on the subject.

JESUS’ BIRTHDAY NOT DECEMBER 25

The reason for Christmas is supposed to be Jesus’ birthday. Many professed Christians believe his birthday was December 25. Is Christ honored by this date? Encyclopedias tell us that this date is not Christian but pagan, that it was the birthday of Mithras, a false messiah. They tell us, as does The Encyclopedia Americana, that “most of the customs now associated with Christmas were not originally Christmas customs but rather were pre-Christian and non-Christian customs taken up by the Christian church.” So not only is Christ not honored by this date, but it is wrong.

When was Jesus born? The Bible discloses enough information so that we know he was not born on December 25. From this information we also learn when Christ was born.

To learn Jesus’ correct birthday we need to know something about the Bible prophecy of the “seventy weeks,” or as the Revised Standard Version of the Bible calls it, the “seventy weeks of years.” This is found in the book of Daniel, chapter nine, verses twenty-four through twenty-seven. The angel Gabriel gave Daniel this prophecy: “From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.”—Dan. 9:25, AV.

So the Bible tells us the set time for Messiah’s appearance. When? It was to be sixty-nine weeks after the command to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given. These sixty-nine weeks are not weeks of days but “weeks of years,” in harmony with the Bible rule “each day for a year,” often found in Bible chronology.—Ezek. 4:6; Num. 14:34, AV.

When do these sixty-nine weeks of years begin counting? In 455 B.C. It was in that year, the twentieth year of his reign, that King Artaxerxes decreed that Jerusalem and its walls be rebuilt. This is found at Nehemiah 2:1-8. So starting with 455 B.C., the sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years, would end A.D. 29. True to prophecy, that year the Messiah appeared. When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan A.D. 29 he became the Anointed One, or Christ, or Messiah, by being anointed with God’s holy spirit.

How does all this help us to learn Jesus’ time of birth? Because the prophecy also tells us when the Messiah would be killed. He would be “cut off” or killed in the middle of the seventieth week of years. So Christ’s ministry was only three and a half years in length. Now we need to know how old Jesus was when he began his ministry. The Bible tells us: “Jesus himself, when he commenced his work, was about thirty years old.” It is reasonable to believe, from the custom in those days, that Jesus began his work as soon as he reached thirty years of age.—Luke 3:23.

When Christ died on the torture stake, after a ministry of three and a half years, he was thirty-three and a half years old. His death was at Passover time. That was about the first of April, A.D. 33. So Christ, having died at the age of thirty-three and a half, would have been thirty-four years old six months later, or about October 1. So Jesus was born, not December 25, but about October 1, 2 B.C.

There is supporting evidence for the October date. For example, the Bible tells us that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus. (Luke 1:26-38) So if we know when John was born we know about when Jesus was born.

The Bible discloses when John was born. John’s father, Zechariah, served as priest just before John was conceived. He belonged to “the division of Abijah.” (Luke 1:5, 8-25) Now 1 Chronicles 24:7-18 tells about the twenty-four divisions of the priests. The division for Abijah, it shows, was the eighth. Of the twenty-four divisions the second round of the eighth division would fall in the fourth Jewish month, or the latter part of June, our calendar. Hence John the Baptist was conceived in the latter part of June, 3 B.C., and so was born in the latter part of March, 2 B.C. Since John was six months older than Jesus, Jesus was born about October 1, 2 B.C.

The Bible, then, does not point to December 25 as the birthday of Jesus. Indeed, this date not only is unsupported by the Bible but is unreasonable, as a comment in Joseph Mede’s Works brings out: “At the birth of Christ every woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city whereto they belonged, whither some had long journeys; but the middle of winter was not fitting for such a business, especially for women with child, and children to travel in. Therefore, Christ could not be born in the depth of winter. Again, at the time of Christ’s birth, the shepherds lay abroad watching with their flocks in the night time; but this was not likely to be in the middle of winter. And if any shall think the winter wind was not so extreme in these parts, let him remember the words of Christ in the gospel, ‘Pray that your flight be not in the winter.’ If the winter was so bad a time to flee in, it seems no fit time for shepherds to lie in the fields in, and women and children to travel in.”

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION NOT AUTHORIZED

Nowhere in the Bible do we read about the early Christians celebrating Jesus’ birth, not even on the right date. Christ never authorized such a celebration.

Christ told us what date to memorialize. He said to remember the date of his death, not his birth. “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” That is Christ’s command concerning his followers’ keeping the Memorial evening meal. There is no such command regarding his birth.—Luke 22:19.

The Bible says of true Christians that “in no way are we giving any cause for stumbling” and “in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers.” How? Among other things, “by purity” and “by truthful speech.” What is pure about Christmas? What is truthful about it? Does Christmas recommend Christianity to non-Christians? Is its false date and its honoring of a false messiah and its false Santa Claus something Christ would want to be associated with? The words of Christ’s apostle answer: “Turn down the false stories which violate what is holy.” “Command certain ones not to teach different doctrine, nor to pay attention to false stories and to genealogies which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith.” “Now that you have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor.”—2 Cor. 6:3-7; 1 Tim. 4:7; 1:3, 4; Eph. 4:25.

No matter how good the intentions, men cannot make a pagan holiday and pagan customs Christian by whitewashing them with Christ’s name, for the Scriptural principle is clear: “What partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial?”—2 Cor. 6:14, 15.

What, then, becomes apparent? Christ is not in Christmas. And even if the celebration was changed from the pagan December 25 to an October date; even if the Santa Clause myth was completely discarded; even if the celebration saw no more gluttons and drunkards; even if crass immorality and crime did not ravage Christmas; even if the pagan practice of exchanging presents was abandoned; even if the churches instead of the department stores moved into the limelight; yes, even if all this took place—and there is not even a remote possibility of its happening—Christ could not be “put back” into Christmas, since never, at any time, has he ever been in Christmas! How unreasonable, how preposterous, then, for any professed Christian, clergyman or otherwise, to think that humans can put Christ into Christmas—the whole principle of which is contrary to the Scriptures!

That is why true Christians shun Christmas, thus obeying the Bible command: “Quit touching the unclean thing.”—2 Cor. 6:17.

“Confess Your Sins”

THE inspired apostle John said: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.” (1 John 1:9, Dy) Do you confess your sins? Do you do it in the way God provided, the way he instructs in his Word? Millions throughout the world enter a confession box and make their confession to a priest. Millions more do not. Personal preference, traditional practice and the opinions of men should not be the factors that determine what we do. It is the Bible that guides a Christian in the path approved by God. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”—Ps. 119:105, AV.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains confession in this way: “The confession is made not in the secrecy of the penitent’s heart nor to a layman as friend and advocate, nor to a representative of human authority, but to a duly ordained priest with requisite jurisdiction and with the ‘power of the keys’, i.e., the power to forgive sins which Christ granted to His Church.” In answer to those who may contend that only God can forgive sins, this same encyclopedia quotes St. Pacian, bishop of Barcelona, as saying: “This (forgiving sins), you say, only God can do. Quite true: but what He does through His priests is the doing of His own power.” And St. Augustine forcibly sets out the scope of that authority to forgive when he says: “Let us not listen to those who deny that the Church of God has power to forgive all sins.”—Vol. XI, pages 619-621.

The Bible too is appealed to as authority for the practice of confession among the Catholic population. Did not Jesus say to Peter: “And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven”? (Matt. 16:19, Dy) And the footnote adds: “The loosing the bands of temporal punishments due to sins is called an indulgence; the power of which is here granted.” By this procedure, we are assured, both the guilt of sin and the eternal punishment for mortal sin are remitted. Jesus’ words to his disciples, in John 20:23, are also called upon: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (Dy) And so that none should miss the point being stressed by the church, the footnote in the Murphy Edition of the Catholic Douay Version states: “See here the commission, stamped by the broad seal of heaven, by virtue of which the pastors of Christ’s church absolve repenting sinners upon their confession.” That Christ could forgive sins is unmistakably shown in the Scriptures. (Mark 2:7-11) Does the foregoing evidence show that priests have like power to “absolve repenting sinners upon their confession”?

There are at least three factors on which the strength of the arguments presented in The Catholic Encyclopedia and in Catholic Bible footnotes depend. Are all sins forgivable? Is there temporal punishment after death for the soul of one sinning? Are Catholic priests the priests of God?

When St. Augustine said we should not listen to any who deny that the church has power to “forgive all sins” he spoke rashly, advising us not to listen to Christ. For Christ Jesus said, in Matthew 12:31, 32, as quoted from the Catholic Confraternity Bible: “Therefore I say to you, that every kind of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. . . . it will not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.” Not all sin is forgivable.

While it is true that one may suffer both mentally and physically while one lives because of sins committed, that suffering ceases at death. “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.” (Job 3:17, AV) But is not the soul yet alive? “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die.” (Eze 18:4, Dy) Consequently, to man, the soul, apply the further texts: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more.” (Eccl. 9:5, Dy) “His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.” (Ps. 145:4, Dy) There is punishment for the wicked, yes. “These shall go into everlasting punishment.” But that punishment, likened to being cast into a lake of fire, is death: this is “the second death.”—Matt. 25:46; Apoc. Re 21:8, Dy.

In the confession box itself the procedure is not in accord with the counsel of Christ, and consequently not conducted by men who show by obedience that they are priests of God. When the penitent enters the confession box she says, “Bless me, father, for I have sinned.” She has been instructed to begin in that way. To whom is she speaking? Ask any Catholic and he will assure you that the priest is being spoken to, of course. Yet Jesus showed that the practice is wrong. He said: “Call none your father upon earth: for one is your father, who is in heaven.” (Matt. 23:9, Dy) Those who ignore his counsel do not act for him.

Where, then, did this practice of auricular (“in the ear”) confession originate? Alexander Hislop shows that in ancient Babylon and Greece secret confession to a priest was required of all who were admitted to the Mysteries, with questions on morals being asked that are comparable to the ones asked in the confessional today. The pretense was that confession was needed to purge the conscience of guilt in order to avoid the wrath of the gods. The fact is that it gave great power to the pagan priesthood over the lives of those who came to them and were required to divulge their inmost thoughts. The doctrine of penance was reconfirmed in the Roman Catholic Church by the Council of Trent in 1551, and again it has served to give the clergy tremendous power over the lives of men.

The enforcing of auricular confession set a moral trap for priests under vows of celibacy. Young men, with the God-given desire for marriage throttled, were now called upon to inquire minutely into the morals of female penitents who came to them to confess. There was no proper outlet for their emotions permitted by marriage, yet the intimacies of sex relations were constantly forced upon their consciousness. Is it any wonder that the church had to bring into existence a body of legislation restricting improper use of the confessional? So widespread was priestly seduction in Spain that Pope Pius IV called on the Inquisition to prosecute the matter. When threatened with punishment if they would fail to report such acts, so many women in Seville alone filed complaints against the clergy that the matter had to be dropped.

But what about John 20:22, 23, quoted earlier? Does it not authorize confession? No; it does not even mention it. If this referred to auricular confession and forgiveness of sins were dependent upon it, is it not strange that not a word regarding auricular confession do we read from Matthew 1:1 to Revelation 22:21?

Nor would it be proper to conclude from Matthew 16:19 that Christian ministers make decisions on forgiving sins that heaven is then called on to ratify. This text is speaking of the keys (or means of opening or unlocking knowledge) of the kingdom of the heavens and the opportunity to enter it. Peter used the first of these keys in unlocking this knowledge to the Jews at Pentecost. Three and a half years later he was directed by heavenly decision to unlock knowledge of this opportunity to the Gentile Cornelius and his household.—Acts, chapters 2, 10.

The pronoun “you” in the Greek text at Matthew 16:19 is singular, addressed to Peter, and the keys were used by him alone. Properly the New World Translation renders it in harmony with the Greek text and in accord with the Biblical principle of the supremacy of God, saying: “Whatever you may bind on earth will have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you may loose on earth will have been loosed in the heavens.”

Matthew 18:18 contains a similar statement, but with the plural pronoun “you.” Here the preceding verses show that the matter being discussed involves a decision on the part of the older men in the congregation on retaining in or expelling from the congregation an individual who has sinned against his brother. But here, too, the matter is already decided upon in heaven. How so?

Christian overseers are appointed by God’s holy spirit, in that they are designated such by the organization on which God’s spirit operates, in harmony with the inspired requirements for overseers found in the Bible and in view of the fact that their life gives evidence of the fruits of God’s spirit. (Acts 20:28) It is this same holy spirit that makes possible the forgiveness of sins. (John 20:22, 23) The spirit-filled Christian overseer knows what decisions have been made in heaven on the matter of forgiveness, because these decisions are recorded in the Bible, and he knows that those righteous principles continue to apply and govern cases of wrongdoing today. (Matt. 18:15-17; Luke 24:27; Gal. 6:1) Consequently, he is called upon to apply the Bible principles to the case at hand, and whatever decision in accord with that written Word he may now make binding on the individuals concerned is the decision already bound in heaven.

This is in accord with the counsel found in James 5:14-16: “Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call the older men of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, rubbing him with oil in the name of Jehovah. And the prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and Jehovah will raise him up. Also if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Therefore openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed.” This in no wise describes Catholic auricular confession. It is sound counsel for Christians who become spiritually sick to seek the help of mature men of the congregation, openly confessing their sin. These older men are not authorized to inquire minutely into every aspect of the individual’s private life.

The erring person has become so sick spiritually that he no longer feels that his prayer has effect. So the mature overseer, having faithfully applied the soothing oil of God’s Word and strengthened with it the one seeking help, aids him by expressing for him his request to God for forgiveness. It is His forgiveness that counts. “I have acknowledged my sin to thee: and my injustice I have not concealed. I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord. And thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin.” (Ps. 31:5, Dy) The overseer does not presume to take the role of God, nor to be the mediator between God and men. Rather, as a loving Christian brother, he approaches God in prayer along with the spiritually sick one, doing so through the one Mediator Christ Jesus, and faithfully pointing out Jehovah’s loving provision for forgiveness. It is Jehovah who restores the truly repentant one.

Do you confess your sins? You should, but do it in the way the Bible instructs.

It Is Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds!

JEHOVAH’S witnesses are arranging to use Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York city in which to hold their international convention July 27 to August 3, 1958. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York has contracted with the baseball management of the Yankees and the New York Giants to use these facilities simultaneously.

In the summers of 1950 and 1953 Jehovah’s witnesses held international assemblies at Yankee Stadium, packing out its facilities. Ever since they learned that another international convention would be held in New York city the question has been, What place is big enough?

It is with deep gratitude that we are able to tell all of you now that the excellent facilities of both Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, situated just four city blocks apart, are now available, and will give the attenders at the assembly a comfortable place to sit, see and hear the happenings at a convention of the size expected. Many of our readers will recall that in 1953 there were 165,829 who attended the assembly on the last day. Of course, not all of those got into Yankee Stadium, but it was packed to the roof inside with 91,562. The rest of the mammoth crowd, numbering 25,240, had to occupy tents and parking lots nearby around the stadium; 49,027 more listened at the trailer camp in New Jersey, forty miles away.

This time it is hoped that in 1958 the greater portion of the crowd can get inside to see and hear what is going on. Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds will seat approximately 120,000 persons, and more seats can be installed.

The Society is arranging a program so that the same speakers in the early part of the afternoon sessions in Yankee Stadium will speak later in the Polo Grounds the same afternoon, and vice versa. The same will be true with the evening program.

There will be certain programs, such as the graduation of the Gilead School student body, that will have to be held in just one place, because we cannot have a duplicate graduation program. The same will be true of the public meeting on the last Sunday, but in those instances everything that is said in Yankee Stadium will be carried by direct wire to the Polo Grounds, so that those who cannot get into Yankee Stadium on these occasions will be able to hear everything at the Polo Grounds.

By Jehovah’s undeserved kindness we are looking forward with keen anticipation to using the two finest stadiums in New York city in the summer of 1958 for our international gathering. From any part of the world, all are welcome to attend; and we already know that thousands are coming from the ends of the earth.

Also, facilities are being arranged for the operation of a small trailer camp somewhere in New Jersey. However, it is hoped that the majority of the delegates will plan to come to New York city itself and will arrange through the rooming committee for their accommodations in hotels or in homes of the New Yorkers that the rooming committee will have listed for accommodating them during their eight or ten days in the city. This may probably be the largest convention ever arranged for by the Watch Tower Society before Armageddon. All of Jehovah’s witnesses who can order their affairs to do so keenly look forward to the time when they will be able to gather together again in such a grand assembly, all to the honor and glory of Jehovah’s name. Certainly in our prayers we will all be mindful of the need of his blessing upon all the arrangements for the coming international assembly of his witnesses on earth. From time to time additional information in detail will be published in these columns for all our readers.

Deliverance for Integrity Toward God

“Do not take away my soul along with sinners, nor my life along with blood guilty men, in whose hands there is loose conduct and whose right hand is full of bribery. As for me, in my integrity I shall walk.”—Ps. 26:9-11.

1. What are many things we want to be delivered from?

DELIVERANCE! There are so many things we want to be delivered from—the sorrows and sufferings, the injustices and oppressions, the ignorance and uncertainties, the dangers to peace and prosperity, the hopelessness and the dying and all the undesirable, evil associations of a broken-down old world!

2. When and how will this deliverance come, and how will the happy future be guaranteed and safeguarded?

² How grand it is, then, that deliverance from all such things is coming in our day! This will mean the bringing of a righteous new world into glorious reality. At his fast-approaching time the Creator of heaven and earth will relieve mankind of this old world with all its woes. He will replace the old with an entirely new world in which the earth will be blessed with gladness and health, justice and uplift, knowledge and confidence, peace, safety, hope, perfection of life and all the good associations that one could desire. To guarantee and safeguard this happy condition on the earth there will be the all-powerful heavenly government in the hands of the Creator’s beloved Son. Long ago, when on earth as a perfect man, his Son taught those who hoped for a new world to pray to his heavenly Father: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matt. 6:9, 10.

3. As a reward for what will our deliverance come, and for how long has this requirement been a matter of interest?

³ Deliverance of any of us from this old world and its woes comes as a reward from the God and Creator of the new world. But as a reward for what? For our living in faithfulness to Him as the one living and true God; for our unwavering obedience to him as the Supreme Ruler of all the universe; and for our constantly keeping ourselves clean from this corrupt old world and living up to the rules for life in his righteous new world. In other words, for keeping integrity toward God. Today very few people on earth know what integrity is. At no time have there been many persons of integrity on the earth. Yet integrity is something that has been discussed from very old times. It is a desirable thing in which the Supreme God has been interested from the time that he created the first man and woman almost six thousand years ago.

4. How did integrity become a problem for us all, and what happy example have we of how God rewards us with deliverance for it?

⁴ This first couple, Adam and Eve, did not keep their integrity toward God. They spoiled their perfection by breaking his law and thus sinning. From them we were all born imperfect and inclined toward sin. This is what has made integrity such a problem for all of us. Sixteen hundred years before the Christian era, at the time that Egypt was becoming a world power, God watched the human family, looking for men of integrity. Over in the Middle East or the southwestern part of Asia, he saw a man of this kind. The man’s name was Job. So God said to his chief enemy, Satan the Devil: “Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like him in the earth, a man of integrity and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad? Even yet he is holding fast his integrity, although you incite me against him to swallow him up without cause.” (Job 2:3) Despite all that Satan the Devil did to God’s servant Job, this man kept his integrity, his blamelessness of life, his completeness of devotion, toward God. In reward God delivered Job from the persecutions of Satan the Devil. Hence Job is an encouraging example of how God can and does deliver men from the wicked god of this old world, Satan the Devil, in reward for their integrity toward their Creator, Jehovah God.—Jas. 5:11.

5. What kind of ruler does God put in the New World government, and what picture did he give of such a chosen ruler?

⁵ Since Jehovah God has purposed to establish a government to rule his righteous new world, we should expect him to put a ruler of integrity on the throne of that New World government. He has sworn to do so. About three thousand years ago he gave us a picture of this. In the Middle East, at the crossroads between Asia and Africa, he set up a pictorial kingdom and put a man of proved integrity on its throne. A song tells about God’s choosing of this man who was once a shepherd boy, and it says: “He chose David his servant and took him from the pens of the flock. From following the females giving suck he brought him in to be a shepherd over Jacob his people and over Israel his possession. And he began to shepherd them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the skillfulness of his hands he began leading them.” (Ps. 78:70-72) As ruler of God’s chosen nation King David always tried to keep his heart pure, loyal and faithful toward God our Creator. For this reason David was a good ruler. As such he was used to picture the One whom God makes ruler of the government of the righteous New World, God’s heavenly Son Jesus Christ.

6, 7. (a) What did David try hard to do respecting him? (b) Why was David eager to be judged by God, and what was his determination?

⁶ For being faithful to God, David had many enemies, men who were bad at heart, hypocritical men who loved untruth. These evildoers felt insulted because King David did not choose to keep company with them and make himself like them. Hence they tried hard to turn him from the path of blamelessness and innocence toward God, so that King David would go over to the worship of the wicked god of this old world. But David knew within himself that he was true and honest in his efforts to walk in faultlessness toward God.

⁷ He was therefore willing to appear before God’s judgment throne and be examined as to his pure, honest intentions and his faithful efforts to worship Jehovah alone as God and to serve Him only as the Supreme Sovereign over all the universe. This eagerness to be judged by the divine court shows itself in these words of David: “Judge me, O Jehovah, for I myself have walked in my own integrity, and in Jehovah I have trusted, that I may not wobble. Examine me, O Jehovah, and put me to the test; refine my kidneys [or, my deepest emotions] and my heart. For your loving-kindness is in front of my eyes, and I have walked in your truth.” Regardless of what other men did, regardless of the opposition and persecution by his enemies, King David was bent on going ahead in his wholeheartedness toward Jehovah God. Prayerfully he said: “As for me, in my integrity I shall walk. O redeem me and show me favor. My own foot will certainly stand on a level place; among the congregated throngs I shall bless Jehovah.”—Ps. 26:1-3, 11, 12, margin.

8. (a) What do we really owe to God, and why? (b) In what, then, must we walk, and how only can we do so?

⁸ Today, so near the end of this old world, if we desire to be redeemed and to be shown God’s favor by being protected clear through the universal war of Armageddon and kept alive into his new world, we too must walk in integrity toward God, as David did. Do we not owe integrity toward God, who is our Creator and who promises to be our everlasting Preserver in his upright new world? Yes, for he has given us our life and, according to his purposes that he has revealed in the Holy Bible, he has given us something to live for. What? That promised new world under the perfect government of his Son Jesus Christ. Our walking in integrity toward our Creator and Preserver can be done in no way other than walking according to the truth and the principles that He lays down for us in his written Word. We know that all his creation moves and operates according to laws that he laid down. So he must be a God of principle in all things. To win his favor for a happy life in his endless new world we must prove ourselves persons of integrity.

9. We must therefore be persons of what principles?

⁹ However, to do this we cannot be persons of our own established principles. We must be people of God’s principles. By this we do not mean the elementary things, that is, the basic things or fundamental teachings of God’s written Word, such as those mentioned in Hebrews 5:12: “You again need someone to teach you from the beginning the first principles of the sacred pronouncements of God.”

10. (a) What do we specially mean by “principle” here? (b) From this standpoint, what did James and Paul say to Christians?

¹⁰ We must remember that a principle is also a settled rule of action, a governing law of conduct, a rule of conduct consistently directing one’s action, a belief or attitude that exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior. (Webster) Because a principle thus means an ordered life, James could say to the apostle Paul: “You are walking orderly, you yourself also keeping the Law.” (Acts 21:24) Paul himself also could say to his brothers in Christ: “To what extent we have made progress, let us go on walking orderly in this same routine”; and, “all those who will walk orderly by this rule of conduct, upon them be peace and mercy, even upon the Israel of God.” (Phil. 3:16; Gal. 6:16) To live according to God’s principles requires us to walk orderly, in harmony with the rules he has laid down for our guidance and government. His Son, Jesus Christ, while he was on earth, set us a perfect example of living according to the principles of Jehovah God, his Father. We are therefore warned against walking “according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ; because it is in him [Christ] that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells.”—Col. 2:8, 9.

THEOCRATIC PRINCIPLES

11. (a) Why must God’s principles apply to all creatures? (b) How have all of us become very much subject to passion?

¹¹ When we keep our integrity by thinking, speaking and acting in harmony with the principles or rules of conduct from Jehovah, we are really theocratic. Jehovah is the one and only Theocrat, in the sense of being the supreme God Ruler. Over all creatures and things in heaven and earth he rules and wields power because he is the one living and true God. That is why his principles or rules of conduct and of government must apply to all intelligent creatures, human and spirit. As our Creator, he made the first man Adam perfect in the image of God and according to God’s likeness. The perfect man was rightly expected to be a person of principle like his heavenly Father, and not to be controlled or moved by mere instinct or by mere feelings of his flesh. When Adam’s wife was deceived by the original Serpent Satan, Adam acted untheocratically by choosing to please his erring wife and hold on to her rather than please his heavenly Father and hold on to His law with integrity or perfectness of conduct. In Adam all his descendants, including us today, have suffered a great fall from principle, and we have become very much subject to passion. By this we mean not just sexual passion, as between male and female, but a strong fondness for anything that makes us feel good or that is selfishly to our own personal interests and pleasure without regard for God’s will.

12. (a) What kind of principles are those of God? (b) How did He arrange that knowledge of his principles might not be lost to men?

¹² God does not turn away from his own principles just to please his creatures. His principles are perfect and changeless, and in all of them his love, justice, wisdom and power are taken into account. His moral and religious principles are not known or recognized by men in general, for they follow the philosophy and principles of this old world. In order that the knowledge of His principles might not be lost but might be learned by all lovers of right principle, the great Theocrat Jehovah caused his principles to be written down in his Sacred Scriptures. There they may be read and studied. In the year 1513 before the Christian era God himself, by his power, wrote down ten basic principles on tablets of stone. He gave them to his prophet Moses, that Moses might display them and teach them to his brothers, the nation of Israel. He added many other principles to the set of laws that he gave the nation through his mediator Moses. Through later prophets Jehovah God declared many other principles as well as prophecies for the future. The writing of this sacred history and of these principles and prophecies produced the Holy Scriptures, which once only the Jews or Israelites possessed. Such Scriptures were also the only sacred writings that the Christian church or congregation possessed at the start of its existence in the year 33 of the Christian era.

13. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, what kind of book are the Holy Scriptures, and what position did Peter and the other apostles show we must give to its contents?

¹³ With those sacred writings in mind the apostle Paul wrote: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) This means that the Holy Scriptures are a book of principle. Its recorded principles are a guiding rule and a righteous force for Christians who find themselves in this unprincipled or untheocratically principled old world. To gain life in any part of God’s new world we need to put the principles and commandments of God’s written Word above those of this old world under Satan, “the god of this system of things.” (2 Cor. 4:4) Let everybody take note that the Christian apostle Peter and his fellow apostles were the ones that declared this rule of action. When the supreme religious court of Jerusalem commanded Peter and the other apostles to stop preaching the newly learned fundamental teachings of Christianity, all those apostles answered the religious court: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom your hands had killed, hanging him upon a stake. God exalted this one as Chief Agent and Savior to his right hand, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.”—Acts 5:29-32.

14. (a) Why were those apostles not seditious or subversive in answering and acting that way? (b) So what did they do regarding the next command of the supreme court?

¹⁴ Peter and the other Christian apostles were not seditious or subversive in answering and acting this way. They were altogether theocratic in declaring God to be the Ruler above human courts and rulers and in obeying God as the Supreme Ruler. The faithful apostles thus stood up for the foremost Christian principle. By doing this they kept their integrity to the universal Sovereign, Jehovah God. The religious court refused to recognize that principle and showed their refusal by punishing the apostles: “They summoned the apostles, flogged them, and charged them to stop speaking upon the basis of Jesus’ name, and let them go.” Did Peter and the other apostles obey this command of that supreme court? God’s own written Word gives us the answer, saying: “These, therefore, went their way from before the Sanʹhe·drin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of his name. And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup [note, without letup] teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.”—Acts 5:40-42.

15. (a) How did God long before Peter state that same principle through Moses? (b) How was this principle of this statement restated by Jesus Christ to a questioner?

¹⁵ Since then nineteen centuries may have passed, but what Peter and his fellow apostles said in that religious court back there stands as a governing principle today. Long before Peter’s day God himself had declared that same principle through his prophet Moses to the nation of Israel, in these words: “You must not bow down to another god, because Jehovah is exclusively devoted to his name. He is a God exacting exclusive devotion.” (Ex. 34:14) This is not just one of the many laws contained in the written agreement or covenant that God made with Israel. It is the statement of a principle or rule of conduct that is eternal and universal, applying to all creatures in heaven and on earth. The principle of it was restated by Jesus Christ himself in answer to the question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40) Thus we are told the main principle that runs through all the Holy Scriptures, including the Law and the Prophets.

16. (a) In comparison with ourselves and our neighbor, how must we love God? (b) How would Jesus’ answer on the tax question come under this requirement?

¹⁶ Human creatures who are theocratic in their principles love Jehovah as God and Ruler or as The Theocrat. To have his love and be favored with everlasting life in his new world we must love him. According to his greatest commandment, as stated by his Son Jesus, we must love Jehovah, not as we love ourselves or as we love our neighbor. We must love him more than ourselves or our neighbor, yes, more than our whole nation of neighbors. Jesus said we must love Jehovah God with our all. This fact gives us a larger understanding of what Jesus meant when he answered the tricky question, “Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not?” Since the tax coin had Caesar’s image engraved upon it, Jesus said: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Matt. 22:15-21) Now, as respects these two rulers, which one was it that gave us creatures our heart and our soul and our mind? Was it the political Caesar? Or was it God? Not Caesar, but God gave us these things essential to our intelligent living. So it is to God, not to Caesar, that we must pay back these things, things far more valuable and far more inclusive than Caesar’s tax money.

17. (a) How do we pay back Caesar’s things, and how God’s things? (b) According to God’s commands, what must our slogan be?

¹⁷ It is proper to pay Caesar’s tax money back to him for the services that the political State renders to Christ’s followers. How, though, can we pay God’s things back to God? By theocratically obeying the supreme commandment of the universe, even by loving Jehovah our rightful God with our whole heart, soul and mind. So in keeping with the underlying principle of the two greatest commandments as stated by Jesus Christ, our slogan must be, not, For God and country, but, For Jehovah and for our neighbor even as for ourselves. Not for our neighbor first, but for Jehovah our God first. Not for our neighbor more than ourselves, but for God more than ourselves and our neighbor.

18. (a) By paying tax was Jesus deifying Caesar Tiberius? (b) How did Jesus command his followers not to deify the State?

¹⁸ Let us not forget that the Roman Caesar had been made a god on earth or been deified by the Romans. But when Jesus Christ paid the tax to Caesar as a Jew or Israelite according to the flesh, he was not thereby acknowledging Caesar Tiberius as a god. Jesus did not deify the Roman emperor or the political State. Jesus’ followers are commanded by him not to deify any political State of this old world. This command was stated by Jesus on the night before he was nailed to the stake by the soldiers of Caesar’s empire. That night he established the Lord’s evening meal with the bread and the wine and then said to his faithful apostles: “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those having authority over them are called ‘Benefactors’. You, though, are not to be that way. But let him that is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the one acting as chief as the one ministering. For which one is greater, the one reclining at the table or the one ministering? Is it not the one reclining at the table? But I am in your midst as the one ministering.”—Luke 22:25-27.

19. How would we be deifying Caesar or the State, and what obligation to Jehovah God would we be violating?

¹⁹ Thus Jesus did not try to deify himself, not to speak of deifying the tax-gathering Caesar. Jesus’ faithful followers must, to keep integrity toward Jehovah, imitate Jesus by sticking to this same principle and not deifying Caesar, to whom we are just now obliged to pay taxes. Christlike Christians would violate their dedication of themselves to Jehovah God by deifying Caesar or the political State in rendering to Caesar their all and thus giving to Caesar God’s place in their worship and in their affections.

WORSHIPING THE WILD BEAST

20, 21. (a) By whom is the picture of Revelation 14:6 being fulfilled today, and how? (b) After that picture, what warning is given against deifying Caesar or the political State?

²⁰ Over eighteen centuries ago Revelation 14:6 prophetically pictured how, in our day, the “everlasting good news” would be declared as glad tidings to every nation, tribe, tongue and people on earth. Even so today, Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth are obeying Jesus’ command at Matthew 24:14. Yes, they are preaching the good news that God’s kingdom was established in 1914 at Christ’s enthronement and crowning in the heavens. As a result of this preaching of such everlasting good news in all the inhabited earth, all the nations are receiving a witness before the end of all these nations comes in the oncoming universal war of Armageddon. After the picture is given of this declaring of the everlasting good news to all nations and peoples, another prophetic picture is presented in Revelation, chapter 14, warning Christians against deifying Caesar or the political State. There we read:

²¹ “And another angel, a third, followed them, saying in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the wild beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the anger of God that is poured out undiluted into the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever, and day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is where it means endurance for the holy ones, those who observe the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’”—Rev. 14:9-12.

22. What kind of animal is this “wild beast,” and what do those who lose out on salvation do toward this wild beast?

²² According to the preceding chapter, or Revelation 13:1-8, the wild beast comes up out of the sea. Yet it is not a marine animal but a land animal, with features of a leopard and a bear and a lion combined. It could not be a real combination animal, for it is said to have the throne of a ruler and to wear diadems. It also talks in blasphemy against God and his name and residence and against heaven’s inhabitants, and it wages war against God’s holy ones and gains authority over every tribe, people, tongue and nation. For this reason human dwellers on the earth worship this wild beast, but all who do so do not gain salvation in God’s new world.

23, 24. According to the comments of Roman Catholic authorities, what does the wild beast of Revelation 13:1 symbolize?

²³ Among the interesting comments on what this wild beast pictures in our day are those of Roman Catholic authorities. In the translation called “The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” by F. A. Spencer, O.P., edited by C. J. Callan, O.P., and J. A. McHugh, O.P. (1946), their footnote on Revelation (Apocalypse) Re 13:1 reads: “This first Beast seems to represent political power arrayed against Christianity.” Another translation, “The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ translated from the Latin Vulgate,” edited by Catholic Scholars under the Patronage of The Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, of 1941, says in its footnote on this same verse: “The picture of the first beast is based on the seventh chapter of Daniel. This beast is the figure of the kingdoms of the world, kingdoms founded on passion and selfishness, which in every age are antagonistic to Christ and seek to oppress the servants of God. Imperial Rome represents this power.”

²⁴ Cuthbert Lattey, S.J., and Joseph Keating, S.J., the general editors of “The Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures,” Volume IV of 1931, say in their footnote on Revelation 13:1: “In the Apocalypse, ‘the beast’ combines the powers of the four various ‘beasts’ or empires described by Daniel. It symbolizes the political power, the material force which the world places at the disposal of the dragon, to oppress God’s servants. That power is represented as embodied in the Roman empire.” One further Roman Catholic comment on this verse will add its testimony: The Murphy edition of The Holy Bible, Douay Version, approved by James Cardinal Gibbons, and issued by John Murphy Company, publishers to The Holy See, says in its footnote: “This first beast with seven heads and ten horns, is probably the whole company of infidels, enemies and persecutors of the people of God, from the beginning to the end of the world. The seven heads are seven kings, that is, seven principal kingdoms of empires, which have exercised, or shall exercise, tyrannical power over the people of God; of these, five were then fallen, viz., the Egyptian, Assyrian, Chaldean,a Persian, and Grecian monarchies; one was present, viz., the empire of Rome: and the seventh and chiefest was to come, viz., the great Antichrist and his empire. The ten horns may be understood of ten lesser persecutors.”

25. What, therefore, does worship of the wild beast picture, and so to whom is this a warning?

²⁵ According to all the above Roman Catholic comment the worship of the wild beast of Revelation 13:1-8 and Re 14:9 could mean nothing less than the worship of the political State. The wild beast does not symbolize any one particular political system but combines or amalgamates them all in one worldly system. This picture of State worship applies, therefore, all around the earth, whether certain political systems are directly included in the symbolic “wild beast” or are merely political allies of it. This is consequently a warning to people all around the earth who want to be true Christians, and we ourselves accept it in all seriousness.

26. Will anybody keep his integrity by refusing to worship the wild beast and receive a brand mark, and how do we know?

²⁶ Will anybody keep his integrity toward Jehovah God by refusing to worship the wild beast and its image and refusing to receive a brand mark on his forehead or upon his hand? Not all men who merely claim to be Christians will keep integrity in holding to the principle of worshiping the only living and true God and loving him with the whole heart, soul and mind. Revelation 20:4 tells who will keep integrity and be rewarded, saying: “I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had worshiped neither the wild beast nor its image and who had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years.” Re 20 Verse 6 adds: “Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.” These are the holy ones that endure to the end while they observe God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus. In these last days they have a great crowd of companions of good will.

27. From what are they delivered for keeping integrity, and in whose service do they sacrifice their lives?

²⁷ For keeping integrity all these are delivered from having to drink the symbolic “wine of the anger of God” and from being “tormented with [the symbolic] fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb.” They refuse to submit to the compulsion that is applied to make men violate the principle of exclusive devotion to God alone, as foretold in Revelation 13:15-17. They sacrifice their lives for God and the Lamb Jesus Christ, not in the service of the wild beast and its image. That wild beast, represented by its sixth head, put Jesus Christ to death and thereafter persecuted true Christians throughout its empire, executing them with the ax or torturing and putting them to death in other cruel ways. The modern relics of the Roman empire continue to manifest the same vicious spirit toward Christlike Christians.

28. In whose service was the centurion Cornelius when Christianity first reached him, and did he resign from military service after being baptized?

²⁸ Cornelius, as “an army officer [or, centurion] of the ‘Italian band’ as it was called,” was in the service of the sixth head of the wild beast when Christianity first reached him. He was not out in field service but was praying in his house in Caesarea when an angel of God appeared in a vision and told him to send for Peter the apostle. It was also in Cornelius’ house that Peter four days later preached to him and his relatives and intimate friends. It was under those circumstances that God poured down his spirit upon Cornelius and the others who believed the message with him. At Peter’s command Cornelius and the other new believers were baptized in water even as they had been baptized with holy spirit. (Acts 10:1-48) What the centurion Cornelius did after that, whether he resigned from military service as a Roman centurion or not, the book of Acts of the Apostles does not state.

29. (a) If Peter had instructed Cornelius to resign, what might have happened? (b) For direct instructions, what would have happened to The Holy Bible?

²⁹ Unquestionably, under the operation of God’s holy spirit Cornelius applied to his personal affairs and relationships the principles of Christianity which he discussed with Peter “for some days” after that. Cornelius was not a circumcised Jew, and, as a Roman centurion, he was not fighting theocratic warfare as Joshua the son of Nun and David the slayer of the giant Goliath did many centuries before that. (Josh. 10:1-11:23; 1 Sam. 17:4-54; 2 Sam. 8:6-14) Had Peter told Cornelius to resign, Peter might have been accused of obstructing the military program of the sixth head of the “wild beast,” and might have been executed for that action instead of for preaching God’s message without compromise or letup. Likewise, if God’s written Word, particularly the so-called New Testament written by Christians under inspiration, had directly told dedicated Christians just what they should do when faced with the call to military service for the sixth and seventh heads of the symbolic wild beast, The Holy Bible would, without doubt, have been forbidden or proscribed in every land under the control of the “wild beast,” particularly for its instructions on the military question.

30. So what help do the Holy Scriptures give Christians in this matter, and who must take the responsibility for making a decision?

³⁰ So in Jehovah God’s wisdom his inspired Holy Scriptures refrain from giving direct advice. His Scriptures merely state the theocratic principles that should govern Christians and then leave it to the dedicated Christians like Cornelius to apply those principles consistently to their personal case, on their own responsibility, so as to maintain integrity toward God. Apart from explaining what the true Scriptural Christian principles in God’s Word are, no individual Christian or body of Christians has the divine commission or the responsibility to instruct another Christian directly what to do in this matter. Each one must decide for himself what to do.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Rom. 8:38, 39.

[Footnotes]

Examples of Keepers of Integrity

1. During the world rule of the third head of the wild beast, what outstanding case of refusal to worship the beast do we have?

THE “wild beast” of Revelation 13:1-8, as explained by Roman Catholic and other Bible commentaries, includes ancient Babylon or Chaldea, the third world power. Even so, in the Bible’s history of Babylon as the third head of the symbolic wild beast, we find an outstanding case of men who refused to worship that beast twenty-five hundred years ago. Daniel 3:1-30 (AS) tells us that the three men keeping integrity were named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (or Sidrach, Misach and Abdenago, Douay). When accusing them before Babylon’s emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, their enemies spoke of them as “certain Jews.” At the request of the prophet Daniel these three Jews had been appointed by Emperor Nebuchadnezzar to high positions over the affairs of the province of Babylon, whereas Daniel himself was in the gate of the emperor as ruler over the whole province of Babylon and as chief governor over all of Babylon’s wise men.—Dan. 2:48, 49, AS.

2, 3. Why were those Jews not violating their covenant with Jehovah by serving in such high positions of a pagan political government?

² But how was it that these Jews, under a national covenant with Jehovah God through the mediator Moses, were serving in such high positions of a pagan political government? Were they not violating their covenant with God, who had given them the Ten Commandments through Moses? No. Why not? Because their own Jewish government, the Kingdom at Jerusalem, was not then in existence. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies had destroyed it in 607 before the Christian era. Even eleven years before its destruction Daniel and his three Jewish companions had been carried away from Jerusalem and been made exiles in Babylon. So both before and after Jerusalem’s destruction these four Jews were captives and slaves of Babylon.

³ Jehovah God had been using Nebuchadnezzar as his servant in executing certain judgments upon the disobedient peoples, and He had told the priests and people of Jerusalem: “Serve the king of Babylon, and live.” But they had refused and so suffered death by the executioner. False prophets, Zedekiah and Ahab, had counseled against submitting to Nebuchadnezzar. For this the king of Babylon roasted those opposing prophets in the fire. (Jer. 27:16, 17; 29:21-23, AS) But Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were obediently serving Nebuchadnezzar as his captives and slaves. However, when it came to paying to Nebuchadnezzar anything that he demanded in violation of the supreme law of their God, they refused to obey this chief ruler then on earth. They did like Peter and the other apostles; they obeyed God as Ruler rather than men.—Acts 5:29.

4. Why did Nebuchadnezzar set up the golden image in the plain of Dura, and what did the enemies accuse Daniel’s three companions of not doing?

⁴ In the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image ninety feet high and nine feet broad. Whether it was an image of his favorite god Marduk or not is left unsaid. One thing at least, it represented the purpose of the emperor to unite all peoples of the empire in one common worship to hold them all together as subjects and to make them worship the “wild beast.” Nebuchadnezzar had all the officials of all the provinces of the empire to come together for the dedication of the image. The herald cried out that at the sound of the many-piece orchestra all should fall down and unitedly worship this golden image. If they did not do so, they would be pitched into a fiery furnace. When the orchestra struck up, whether with a national hymn or not, “all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” But not Daniel’s three Jewish companions who were present. At this the Chaldeans complained to Nebuchadnezzar: “They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

5. With threats, what did Nebuchadnezzar order the three Jewish officials to violate?

⁵ Nebuchadnezzar called the three Jewish officials. He threatened them. He ordered them to violate the first two of the Ten Commandments, namely: “I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God.” (Ex. 20:2-5, AS) In view of this, how did those three slaves answer their captor, the chief of State?

6. How did the three answer the chief of State?

⁶ With integrity toward Jehovah God by holding fast to the principles set down in his commandments. Said they: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

7. What experience did the three have with the fiery furnace, and what acknowledgment did Nebuchadnezzar then make toward their God?

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar was a very devoted worshiper of the false god Marduk and felt outraged at the three Jews’ defiance. In his rage he had them thrown bound into the furnace specially heated up seven times as hot, to show how hot he himself felt at them. Those who threw them in were themselves consumed by the flames of the superheated furnace. Surely, then, the three worshipers of Jehovah must have been consumed also! But not so! As Nebuchadnezzar looked in from a good distance he said: “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Frightened, he called out, not to the fourth one like a son of the gods, but to the three worshipers of Jehovah, saying: “Ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come hither.” As they did so, everybody around saw that “the fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their hosen changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them.” Then the mightiest ruler then on earth blessed their God, “who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. . . . there is no other god that is able to deliver after this sort.” (AS) By this, Nebuchadnezzar meant Jehovah God of the Ten Commandments.

8. By their stand against the emperor and State worship, whose interests did those three Jews seem to endanger, but how has their faithful stand affected God’s people down to this day?

⁸ For their integrity toward him Jehovah delivered them. By their bold, unflinching stand against the world emperor and State worship they seemed to endanger the interests of all the other Jews there in captivity in Babylon. Those three Jewish slave officials knew that. But neither for the seeming benefit of their Jewish neighbors would they compromise with a ruler inferior to their God. They loved God more than themselves and their neighbors. Their faithful stand really incited their Jewish neighbors to love God above all else. It has strengthened all other Jewish slaves and neighbors, as well as all true Christians down to this day, to keep integrity to Jehovah as God, and not to worship any image that any political ruler sets up and commands to be worshiped. This also includes worshiping the symbolic wild beast and its image.

9. How do we know Scripturally whose witnesses Daniel and his three companions were?

⁹ Daniel and the other three Jewish slave officials of Nebuchadnezzar are doubtless the ones specially meant in Hebrews 11:33, 34 as men of faith who “stopped the mouths of lions, stayed the force of fire.” Hebrews 11:1, 2 says: “Faith . . . by means of this the men of old times had witness borne to them.” After chapter eleven names and describes many of those ancient men and women of faith who “had witness borne to them,” Hebrews 12:1 tells Christians: “We have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” Whose witnesses were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Jehovah’s witnesses, obedient to his command in Isaiah 43:10-12 (AS): “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, . . . and I am God.”

10. Whose example, then, must we today follow, and especially looking at whom as an example?

¹⁰ All of us who are dedicated Christians are, like the apostles, surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. The example of these we must follow, especially looking to the greatest of all witnesses of Jehovah, Jesus Christ, “the leader and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb. 12:1, 2) Jesus Christ did not worship the “wild beast.”

11. How did Jesus, under temptation, not act like the “wild beast,” and what principle did he then state for our government?

¹¹ Immediately after Jesus was baptized in water he was led out into the wilderness by the operation of God’s spirit that had come down upon him, anointing him. There he was put to the test by Satan the Devil. Satan was the symbolic Dragon that had caused the wild beast to come up out of the sea and that gave to the wild beast “its power and its throne and great authority.” (Rev. 13:1, 2) Under temptation by this Dragon, Jesus did not act like that wild beast, but kept in harmony with God’s purpose concerning the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens. To tempt Jesus, the Devil showed him “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time” and said: “I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me and to whomever I wish I give it. You, therefore, if you do an act of worship before me, it will all be yours.” Rather than grab after the kingdoms of this old world, like the “wild beast” without understanding, Jesus held to the principle of Jehovah’s worship and stuck to God’s kingdom of the heavens. As the Leader of Christianity, Jesus answered the “god of this system of things” straight and declared the special principle that governs his conduct and also our conduct, if we are Christians: “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.”—Luke 4:5-8; Deut. 6:13.

12. What was the kingdom that Jesus was after?

¹² That is why Jesus mixed in no politics and had no worldly, political ambitions. His kingdom was not of the same source as Caesar’s or as that of the symbolic wild beast. (John 18:36) Jesus gathered no army to free ancient Israel from Caesar’s taxation and control or to establish a political State on earth. He foretold the destruction of natural Israel and he let it be destroyed by the armies of the Roman Caesar at the downfall of Jerusalem and its temple A.D. 70. Why? Because Jesus was for spiritual Israel. The kingdom he was after was the spiritual kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom that he preached and that he commanded his true followers to preach about in this time of the end of the old world.—Matt. 24:14.

13. What was the “throne of Jehovah” upon which Jesus wanted to sit?

¹³ The “throne of Jehovah” upon which Jesus wanted to sit as Anointed Ruler was not that throne on which King David had sat and which King Nebuchadnezzar overturned in 607 B.C.E., but it was Jehovah’s real throne in the highest heavens, where the place was kept for Jesus at Jehovah’s right hand.—Ps. 110:1, 2; Heb. 10:12, 13.

14. If we love Jehovah with our all, whom also must we love and therefore imitate, and why?

¹⁴ If we are commanded to love Jehovah with all our heart, soul and mind, then we must also love Jehovah’s living Image, Jesus Christ. (Heb. 1:2, 3; Col. 1:15; John 14:9) Christians must therefore imitate Jesus Christ their Leader. The imitation of him must be a guiding principle in the lives of his dedicated followers. We must be a people of right worship. Only as such will we be delivered.

NEW WORLD ASSOCIATION

15. (a) In Psalm 26 what did David say to prove he had walked in the principle of Jehovah’s worship? (b) What, therefore, could he implore Jehovah not to do toward him?

¹⁵ To prove that he had walked in the principles of the worship of Jehovah and as a kingdom representative of Jehovah, David said: “I have walked in your truth. For I have not sat with men of untruth, and with those who conceal what they are I do not come in. I have hated the congregation of evildoers, and with the wicked ones I do not sit. I shall wash my hands in innocency itself, and I will march around your altar, O Jehovah, to cause thanksgiving to be heard aloud, and to declare all your wonderful works. Do not take away my soul along with sinners, nor my life along with bloodguilty men, in whose hands there is loose conduct and whose right hand is full of bribery.” (Ps. 26:3-7, 9, 10) King David did not want to be associated with such persons during his lifetime. He did not want to be found even dead with them, whether rulers or political officials or plain citizens. With this desire in his heart he shunned them during his life and kept away from untruth and hypocrisy, from bloodguilt and loose conduct, and from accepting or demanding bribes. On the basis of this he could implore God not to take away his soul and his life along with the sinful and the blood guilty men. He wanted to be delivered from the destruction that would come up on such sinners and bloodstained men from God’s hand. Although the theocratic kingdom of Israel of which he was ruler was in the midst of the world there in the Middle East, yet King David did not want his kingdom to be a part of this world.

16. Accordingly, with whom must we as followers of the Greater David keep from associating, and this according to what principle stated by Jesus?

¹⁶ This points up the principle that must guide us who follow the Greater David, namely, Jesus Christ, who was David’s son according to the flesh, but who is now David’s Lord according to the spirit life he enjoys in heaven. We, if claiming to be his followers, must avoid associating with this old world now so full of men like those whom David avoided. Because we are flesh and blood like other humans, we have to live in this world during its “time of the end.” But we cannot be of this old world and also be of God’s new world which we preach. Jesus himself stated this principle in these words: “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” According to this same principle Jesus prayed to God and said: “I have given your word to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part of the world just as I am no part of the world. I request you, not to take them out of the world, but to watch over them because of the wicked one.”—John 15:19; 17:14, 15.

17. If we were taken out of this world, what could we not do under God’s keeping?

¹⁷ If we were taken out of this world we could not be witnesses of Jehovah as God nor witnesses of Jesus as God’s anointed King reigning since 1914. So we have not been taken out of this world, but have been allowed to remain in it to bear witness to God’s kingdom. But Jesus has prayed for us that his heavenly Father should watch over us because of the wicked one, Satan the Devil, who has now been cast out of heaven and down to this earth.

18. In what universal controversy may we not be neutral, and how do we show we are not neutral according to the principle of Romans 10:9, 10?

¹⁸ Because the chief thing to be proved before all intelligent creation is the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens, is the foremost teaching of his written Word, the Holy Bible. All dedicated Christians are commanded to preach that kingdom as the best news that there is. The controversy now heatedly rages between God’s kingdom established in the heavens A.D. 1914 and the kingdoms of this old world. In this universal controversy we cannot be neutral. True, we must pay tax to Caesar in rendering to Caesar what belongs to him, even in this time of his end. But first, last and all the time we must be for God’s kingdom by Christ. We must openly make known that we are for it by preaching it to Caesar and to everybody else. No political governments of this doomed world are shut out from having the Kingdom witness preached to them. (Matt. 24:14) While believing with all our heart that the resurrected Christ is now King, yet we must make public declaration of our belief if we want to be saved, or if we want to be delivered. That is the unchangeable principle written down in Romans 10:9, 10.

19. How did Peter, and still earlier Joel, set forth that same principle?

¹⁹ Nineteen centuries ago on the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter set forth that same principle, saying: “Before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah arrives . . . anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Acts 2:20, 21) The prophet Joel, from whom Peter quoted, stated that same principle still earlier, hundreds of years before Peter, in Joel 2:31, 32. Today we can keep integrity only by acting on this principle, of calling on Jehovah’s name or declaring it publicly.

20. To act in harmony with that same principle, what house did David prefer, and so for what benefit did his psalms work?

²⁰ Long ago King David acted on that principle at the same time that he prayed to be spared execution with the wicked ones and to be redeemed and shown favor by Jehovah God. This was why he preferred Jehovah’s house of worship to the companionship and association with the wicked. He said: “Jehovah, I have loved the dwelling of your house and the place of the residence of your glory.” Worship at God’s house provided him with the opportunity to march around God’s altar of sacrifice, to cause thanksgiving to be heard aloud and to declare all of Jehovah’s wonderful works. With this as his purpose David closed the twenty-sixth psalm, saying: “Among the congregated throngs I shall bless Jehovah.” (Ps. 26:8, 12) The public declaration that David made and then put down in written psalms worked for his own salvation to God’s new world and works also for the salvation of Christians who read David’s psalms.

21. What is done to make us fail in our obligation and right to preach the good news, and why did Paul not bribe but appeal his case?

²¹ Never may we dedicated Christians fail in our obligation and right to preach the good news of the Kingdom as Christ commanded. He and his disciples warned us that the political and religious powers of this world would try to take away our God-given right to preach, to put the quietus on the message, if not also to kill us and silence our voices. As regards this right the apostle Paul did not compromise. Religious persons, including men who professed to worship the Lord God, stirred up opposition to Paul at Philippi, at Thessalonica, at Beroea and finally at Jerusalem. It was in no sense of compromise that Paul finally appealed to Caesar to put a stop to this interference by religionists and to establish legally the right to preach God’s kingdom. Why, then, did Paul appeal? In order to carry the fight on to the very finish, to the highest court of the Roman empire, asking no quarter of the enemy and giving none. Even the laws of Caesar did not authorize the religionists of that time to interfere with preaching God’s kingdom. Moreover, God’s laws were all for this preaching. So Paul fought with all the weapons he had a right to use. Even for his own personal convenience Paul used no underhanded means, which would leave the issue still undecided, still unestablished legally. Hence he refused to bribe Governor Felix to let him out of prison.—Acts 24:26, 27.

22. To what purpose was Paul committed in this connection?

²² As a Roman citizen Paul dignified the Kingdom message by appealing to the highest earthly judicial authority of that day, Caesar, to whom Paul as a Christian paid tax. (Acts 25:10-12) Paul was entirely committed to the “defending and legally establishing of the [right to preach the] good news.” (Phil. 1:7) This course worked toward the fulfilling of Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 10:18.

23. So, like Paul, how do Jehovah’s witnesses proceed where not banned and where banned, looking for salvation from whom?

²³ Today we stand upon the rightness of the principle that the Christian apostle Paul followed. Where bans do not exist against Jehovah’s witnesses, we as tax-paying citizens appeal to the modern-day Caesar, to estop the foes of the Kingdom preaching by Caesar’s own laws. Where bans do exist, Jehovah’s witnesses under the ban cannot appeal to Caesar inside his own territory. But as regards Jehovah’s command to His witnesses to preach his kingdom, they obey God as Ruler rather than the ban by men who are fighters against God and who will perish now no later than at the universal war of Armageddon. (Isa. 51:12) Salvation to eternal life in God’s new world will come, not through Caesar, who shortly must perish, but by God Jehovah and through Jesus Christ his reigning King.

24. How, then, will we act just as stated by David in Psalm 26, and how, therefore, will our prayers be answered?

²⁴ Like King David, we, the remnant of the heirs of God’s kingdom and also the great crowd of companions of good will toward God’s kingdom, love the dwelling of Jehovah’s house and this place where his glory resides. Here we will continue to worship him in a loving adherence to the principles that he has laid out in his written Word for guiding and governing our Christian conduct. Here among the congregated throngs of his worshipers we will now and forever bless Jehovah. To the end of this old world we will conscientiously walk on in our Scripturally defined integrity toward God. Since we do so, our prayers will be acceptable to him and he will redeem us through Christ. When he takes away the soul and life of the sinners and bloodstained men of this world, he will preserve us amidst their catastrophic end. As a rewarder of those earnestly seeking him he will deliver us into that promised new world of his, a world of godly principle and integrity.

Questions From Readers

● The Watchtower has said that Zipporah was the Cushite woman that Miriam objected to in Numbers 12:1, but how could Zipporah be the Cushite when What Has Religion Done for Mankind? says, on page 115, that she was a descendant of Abraham?—N. R., United States.

Numbers 12:1 in the Authorized Version reads: “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.” The New World Translation reads: “Now Miriam and Aaron began to speak against Moses on account of the Cushite wife whom he had taken, because it was a Cushite wife he had taken.” This started off a controversy that quickly led into the complaint by Miriam and Aaron that Moses took too much upon himself as Jehovah’s spokesman. It was more than an objection against Moses’ choice of a wife. The real motive behind it was a desire by Miriam and Aaron for more power in the camp, and especially on Miriam’s part.

Some Bible commentators say that since Moses had been married to Zipporah for a long time she was not the one involved here, as any objection against her would have been raised long before. So they reason that Zipporah had died and Moses had remarried, this time selecting an Ethiopian woman, and that this remarriage was recent and raised the controversy. But the Bible does not say this, and the circumstances do not require such reasoning. Zipporah had been away from Moses, and now she rejoined him in the camp near Mount Sinai. It was soon after the camp began to move that the contention arose. Hence, while the marriage was not recent, the presence of Zipporah in the camp was.—Ex. 18:1-5.

Miriam feared being replaced as first lady in the camp, now that Zipporah had arrived. She got Aaron to join with her in complaining against Moses, first on the grounds of his wife, and then on the related but more general contention that Moses took too much authority to himself. Jealous ambition was involved in both aspects of the complaint, and logically ties together the first verse of Numbers chapter twelve with what follows. Some commentators fail to see this relationship and therefore argue that verse one does not fit with what follows and must be an interpolation.

For these reasons, and in the absence of any record of Zipporah’s death and a remarriage on Moses’ part, we view the Cushite woman to be Zipporah. But she was the daughter of priest Reuel of the land of Midian, where the descendants of Abraham by Midian lived. She was not an Ethiopian. She was not a Cushite in the sense of being a descendant of Ham’s son Cush, the forefather of the Ethiopians. There were Arabians on the Arabian peninsula called Kusi or Kushim, not Negroes or Ethiopians. This is shown by Habakkuk 3:7 (AT): “The tent-hangings of Cushan were torn to shreds; the hangings of the land of Midian fluttered wildly.” Cushan is made parallel to Midian as the same place. So it seems that “Cushite” was not always limited to Negroes or descendants of Ham through Cush, but also was applied to some of the peoples of the land of Midian. Therefore Zipporah could be referred to as a Cushite at Numbers 12:1.

Announcements

“TELL THE GOOD NEWS FROM DAY TO DAY”—Ps. 96:2.

To tell good news one must have good news to tell. Jehovah’s witnesses have the very best of good news to tell, for they are the bearers of the message of salvation through God’s kingdom by Christ Jesus. Delighting to share the good news of salvation with others, Jehovah’s witnesses are happy to be able to “tell the good news of salvation by him” from day to day. (Ps. 96:2) Throughout the month of December all of Jehovah’s witnesses will joyfully participate in house-to-house ministerial service at every opportunity, in order to have the greatest possible share in telling to all who will listen the good news of salvation. In addition to an enlightening and helpful three- to eight-minute Bible sermon, a Bible-study aid book and booklet will be offered on a contribution of only 50c. Be sure to join in telling the good news of salvation to others at every opportunity.

DAY-BY-DAY REFRESHMENT

When the old passes away, everyone looks forward to the new. That is true of the year now closing and of the one just ahead. Many amazing things have taken place during 1957, but especially is this true of the work of Jehovah’s witnesses and their activity world-wide. Every day of the year and in all parts of the earth, east, west, north and south, in the heat or cold, they keep on proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. Never has a year produced such wide-spread results. You will enjoy the 1958 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses as you consider the heart-warming experiences they had this past year. Each day of the new year you will find inspiring and instructive reading, not only in this fascinating report but in the daily consideration of the scriptures and comments taken from issues of The Watchtower of the past year. A companion to the Yearbook is the 1958 calendar, which displays the year’s Bible text and additional Scriptural periods and themes. Send 50c for the Yearbook and 25c for the calendar.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

January 12: Deliverance for Integrity Toward God, ¶1-15. Page 748.

January 19: Deliverance for Integrity Toward God, ¶16-30, and Examples of Keepers of Integrity, ¶1-3. Page 752.

January 26: Examples of Keepers of Integrity, ¶4-24. Page 758.

Then and Now

● In 1832 the Parliamentary Reform Bill was passed in England and Dr. Thomas Arnold, clergyman and headmaster of Rugby, said: “The English Church as it now is no power can save.” In a book published in 1957—The New Ordeal of Christianity—Paul Hutchinson said: “The most striking fact about Protestant churches in England today—and in this I include the Anglican as well as the free churches—is the emptiness of most of them.”

Scripture Index for Texts Explained, 1957

GENESIS

1:1 293

1:2 223

1:11, 12 7

1:20 286, 293

1:20, 30 543

1:21, 24 7

1:26-28 233

1:28 109, 715

1:30 543

1:31 662

2:7 7, 232, 359

2:8, 9 232

2:15 232

2:16, 17 233

2:17 286

2:18 181

2:19, 20 233

3:1-7 234

3:4-6 110

3:6 399

3:14, 15 234

3:15 596, 678

3:17-19 399

4:1-8 235

4:25, 26 235

5:24 131

5:32 319

6:1-5, 13 235

6:3 319

6:4 236

6:9 131

6:18 319

7:1-4 639

7:6-10 639

7:10 639

7:11-13 236

7:11-13, 16 639

7:22 430

7:23 293

8:20–9:17 236

10:8-10 237

10:9 552

11:26 671

11:32 671

12:3 560

12:4 671

15:4-13 703

21:33 735

22:17 293, 446

22:17, 18 678

22:18 560

23:7, 12 50

25:29 104

27:28, 39 703

27:40 490

36:8 489

39:8 104

41:26 170

46:18 359

49:10 678

49:20 703

EXODUS

1:9, 10 42

2:11, 12, 15 43

3:8 240

4:19 43

5:2 324, 355

6:3 43, 479

9:16 324, 355, 497

11:1-5 43

12:25 698

12:49 383

14:5, 6 43

14:28 43

15:3 151

15:26 560

17:7 265

17:14 36

18:1-5 763

19:5, 6 452

20:2-5 758

20:4, 5 529, 665

20:5 30, 168

20:7 452

20:17 14

23:8 579, 580

31:16 735

31:16, 17 390

31:18 36

32:9 679

32:12, 13 453

32:25 43

32:27, 28, 35 43

33:20 233

34:14 752

40:12-16 390

LEVITICUS

3:17 703

18:4 131

18:24-28 463

19:18 82

24:8 735

24:22 383

NUMBERS

6:6 359

12:1 763

14:14-16 453

15:29 282

16:1-3, 12, 25-32 43

16:3 278

19:16 425

23:22 104

24:17 159

25:13 735

26:33 191

27:4-7 191

35:33 463

DEUTERONOMY

5:3 389

5:16 274

6:6, 7 86

6:7 181

6:16 265

7:6-9 560

7:7 707

7:8 178

7:16 338

8:2 81

8:3, 4 31

8:19 131

9:4 463

9:6 679

9:24-29 453

10:17-19 49

14:21 383

16:19 579

17:15 383

18:9-12 463

19:15 191

21:22, 23 166

23:20 383

30:13 223

32:4 232

JOSHUA

1:8 468, 471

7:10-12 398

7:19 398

JUDGES

4:6, 14 186

7:2 708

1 SAMUEL

2:12 104

8:3-5 579

8:13 104

12:3, 4 579

12:22 453

15:1-3, 11, 22, 23 281

16:1, 6, 7 374

16:7 9, 81

17:40-51 498

2 SAMUEL

7:12, 13, 16 678

23:1, 2 626

23:2 37, 433

1 KINGS

4:20, 21 561

4:30 658

5:12 658

8:1, 6 689

8:27-29 231

10:23, 24 658

10:24 255

11:9, 10 664

2 KINGS

2:11 293

2:24 274

4:9, 10 59

6:16, 17 498

10:20-23 698

14:7 489

17:10-12, 16-18, 23 464

21:9, 11 465

21:12-15 465

23:20 425

1 CHRONICLES

1:28 671

4:40 703

13:6-10 281

15:11-15 281

24:7-18 742

26:30 157

28:9 9, 13, 81

2 CHRONICLES

1:7-12 658

5:2, 7 689

7:12-14 559

25:14, 16 492

30:8 679

36:15, 16 679

EZRA

6:11 166

NEHEMIAH

2:1 678

8:10 703

9:25, 35 703

13:26 104

JOB

1:1-5 595

1:6-12 595

1:8 594

1:20-22 596

2:1-10 599

2:3 749

6:21, 25 600

9:15, 32, 33 601

9:22 601

13:4, 5 600

13:15, 16 601

14:14 360

16:2-4 600

16:19-21 601

17:1 598

19:2-6, 21, 22 600

19:13-20 598

21:34 600

27:5, 6 601

28:28 601, 664

31:6 601

31:28, 35-40 601

32:1-3 602

33:4 433

33:22-30 603

37:23, 24 603

38:1, 2 603

39:27, 28 489

40:2, 15–41:34 603

42:1-6 604

42:7-17 604

42:8 604

PSALMS

1:1, 2 636

1:2 86

1:2, 3 468

2:1-3 626

2:11, 12 636

4:2 104

10:11 398

16:8-11 630

19:1 293

19:1-4 461

19:1-6 479

19:7-11 406

22:1 630

22:8, 14, 15, 18 630

22:16 630

22:22 631

22:27, 28 635

23:1, 2 631

23:2, 3 469

24:1 462

25:14 327

26:1-3, 11, 12 750

26:3-7, 9, 10 760

26:8 282

26:8, 12 762

26:11, 12 637

29:11 311

32:1, 2 632

33:12 323, 560

34:8 88

34:12-16 405

35:18 637

37:7 644

37:11 735

37:31 84

40:4 636

40:6-8 630

40:8 405

40:8-10 631

41:1, 2 636

45:13-15 635

46:8, 9 612

49:7-10 629

49:20 664

50:4, 5 631

51:5, 7 629

51:10 85

68:11, 12 637

69:20, 21 630

77:6 468

77:12 315

78:70-72 749

83:17, 18 324

83:18 455

84:10 376

89:3, 4, 26-29, 34-37 632

90:1-5 628

90:2 255, 735

94:12, 13 636

Psalm 96 634

96:2 9, 19, 28, 719

96:11 255

97:1, 9 634

97:11 274

103:2, 3 656

103:13 178

103:20-22 628

104:5 735

104:35 638

106:8 453

107:31, 32 637

110:1, 2, 4, 5 633

111:9 242

112:1 636

113:13-16 (Knox) 243

115:5-8 (Ibid.) 243

117:1 626

118:23 139

119:1, 2 636

119:11 84

119:18 438

119:105 37, 274

119:165 282, 420

127:1 560

132:10-18 633

133:1 283, 636

133:3 405

136:5-9 663

137:1, 2 556

139:17 408

140:7 628

141:8 628

144:12-15 636

145:5 469

145:10-13 634

145:21 635

146:4 286, 359

146:5, 6 636

148:2, 3, 7-12 461

149:1, 2 637

150:1-6 638

150:6 462

PROVERBS

1:1-6 658

1:7 658, 662

1:20-33 669

2:1-7 313

2:6, 7 658

2:21, 22 473, 670

3:1-3 86

3:5-7 662

3:19, 20 659

3:27, 28 55, 670

4:7 104, 312

4:18 415, 656

4:20-23 665

4:23 82

5:15-20 179

5:21 9

6:6 146

6:20, 23 274

6:32, 33 667

7:4 664

7:6-10 667

8:10, 11 406

8:12, 22-31 660, 689

8:34, 35 671

8:35, 36 661

9:1-6 667, 670

9:10 663

9:10, 11 658

9:14-16 667

10:2, 24, 25, 30 669

10:5 149

10:7 360

10:11 470

10:14 662

10:22 13

11:4 669

11:22 180

11:24, 25 62

11:25 184

11:25, 26 670

12:4 180

12:11 670

13:16 662

13:23 670

13:24 182

14:6 664

14:11 669

14:12 494, 547

14:23 670

14:25 313, 670

15:2, 7 662

15:14 663

15:20 183

15:28 312, 328, 471

15:32, 33 667

16:18 712

16:18, 32 430

17:3 81

17:24 663

18:4 470

18:10 355

18:15 663

18:19 186

19:2 662

19:8 665

19:24 147

19:25 664

20:11 182

20:12 137

21:11 663

21:30 662

21:31 669

22:6, 15 87

22:17 662

23:7, 34 81

23:12 313

23:15, 16 114

23:26 666

23:27-35 667

24:5 154

24:11, 12 670

26:11 338

27:11 183, 597

28:5 663

28:14 85

28:16 15

29:25 342

31:30 179

ECCLESIASTES

1:1, 2, 12 688

1:2 690

1:2, 3 701

1:4 254, 502, 735

1:12-14 691

2:10, 11, 24, 25 691

2:17-21 696

3:1 680

3:1, 10, 11 700

3:12, 13 692

3:18-20 7

3:18-21 692

3:19, 20 286

4:1-3 695

4:9-12 213, 699

5:2-7 699

5:4 523

5:8 696

5:13, 14 693

5:15-17 693

5:18-20 692

6:1, 2 694

6:3-6 694

7:1 471

7:2 471

7:3 87

7:3-5 472

7:6 472

7:7 580

7:9 154

7:16 154

7:18 154

7:27, 28 723

7:29 692

8:2-6 699

8:11 88

8:12, 13 702

8:15 692

8:17 698

9:3 695

9:4-6, 10 697

9:5, 10 286

10:5-7 695

11:4 701

11:6 701

11:9, 10 701

12:1-7 701

12:7 430

12:8-10 689

12:13 472, 583

12:13, 14 702

SONG OF SOLOMON

1:2-4, 7 726

1:5 724

1:5, 6 725

1:6 725

1:8 728

1:8-14 727

1:15, 16 728

2:1-7 728

2:7 724

2:8-14 725

2:12 104

2:15 725

2:16 729

3:1-5 730

3:5, 10, 11 724

3:6-11 730

3:7 726

4:1-6 730

4:3, 7-11 731

4:16 731

5:1 731

5:2, 3, 6, 7 732

5:8, 9 732

5:10-16 732

6:1, 4, 9, 10 728

6:2, 3 732

6:4-13 733

6:11, 12 726

6:13 724

7:1-9 733

7:10–8:4 733

8:5 724

8:6, 7 734

8:11, 12 734

8:13, 14 734

ISAIAH

1:5, 6 52, 656

1:22 342

1:23 580

2:2-4 504

3:24 136

5:20 615

6:1-8 138

6:8 376

6:10 137

8:16, 18 596

9:1, 2 613

9:6, 7 22

13:11, 13 294

13:19 552, 555

13:20, 21 555

14:4 556

14:12, 13 159

14:23 555

24:1, 2, 5, 6 465

24:5 735

25:6 244

28:8 338

29:11 327

29:13 342

30:10, 11 346

31:3 429

32:1 276

32:1, 2 153, 188

32:1, 17 494

40:10, 11 378

40:22 501

40:28 735

40:28-31 154

40:29 311

42:8 231

43:10 48, 328

43:10-12 607, 759

43:10, 12 251

45:1 555

45:18 255, 461, 735

46:11 462

47:9, 13 555

48:10 81

53:4 600

53:12 7, 286

55:1, 2 244

55:8, 9 621

55:10, 11 456

56:10 146

56:10, 11 345

57:4-8 464

57:15 255

59:20 139

60:4 551

60:5 139

60:17 276

60:22 155, 306

61:1-3 656

62:2 607

62:4, 5 369

65:11, 12 242

65:13, 14 339

65:15 607

66:1 294

66:7 275

JEREMIAH

1:19 683

2:13 6, 241, 346

4:22 102

6:13 495

6:14 493

6:15 495

7:18 196

7:25, 26 339

8:9 8

8:10, 11, 15 567

10:10 255, 735

10:12 663

17:9 547

17:9, 14, 1 85

25:29 244

27:6 490

31:3 177

31:31-33 43

31:31, 33 80

33:6-9 569

33:16 285, 607

50:13 556

51:9 554, 568

51:13 553

51:39 502

51:41 552

LAMENTATIONS

3:26 644

EZEKIEL

4:6 62

9:4 52

14:12-20 592

14:22, 23 593

18:4 7, 286, 582

20:6, 15 240

28:13, 14 294

28:14-17 159

33:1-7 670

34:14 703

35:9 492

36:19-24 454

36:25, 26 86

36:32-36 562

DANIEL

2:31-33, 44, 45 496

2:48, 49 757

3:1-30 757

3:17, 18 683

Chapter 4 62

4:28-37 694

4:30 553

5:1 555

5:28 555

7:10 293

7:17 170

9:24-27 319

9:25 678, 742

10:13, 20 430

11:24 703

11:32 155

12:4 316, 325

12:10 327

HOSEA

4:12-14 464

14:2 455

JOEL

1:6 104

2:1, 2, 7, 8 156

2:28, 29 438, 687

3:19 491

AMOS

8:11 244, 339, 346

OBADIAH

vs 3, 4 490

vs 6, 7 490

vs 10 491

vs 10-12 490

MICAH

3:11 242, 345

4:1-3 495

5:2 678

6:8 405

7:6 499

HABAKKUK

2:2, 3 325

2:4 15

2:14 239

3:17 763

ZEPHANIAH

2:3 119, 356

3:9 132

3:16 152

HAGGAI

2:13 359

ZECHARIAH

4:6 154, 439

8:23 369

13:4-6 503

MALACHI

1:4 491

3:10 265

4:2 551

MATTHEW

1:1-16 191

1:20, 21 563, 620

2:1-18 191

3:1 127

3:11 432

4:4 36, 307

4:7 265

4:10 237

4:12-17 563

5:1, 2 520

5:3 18, 103, 647

5:7 186

5:10-12 499

5:17, 18 391

5:23, 24 186

5:28 399

5:45 49

6:1 54

6:2-4 739

6:9 456

6:9, 10, 32, 33 237

6:19-21 19

6:20 12

6:22, 23 137

6:27 135

6:31, 32 116

6:33 12

7:13, 14 75, 107, 228, 402

7:14 227

7:15, 16 614

7:17, 20 344

7:21 88, 327, 500

8:13 351

8:16 429

8:28-32 351

9:36 187

10:3 104

10:5, 11-13 119

10:16 285

10:19 104

10:26, 27 670

10:42 51

11:12 102

11:25, 26 326

11:29, 30 376

12:28 433

12:31, 32 745

12:33-35 81

12:37 341

12:42 659, 690

13:1-3 520

13:3-9, 18-23 90

13:14, 15 564

13:15 137

13:16, 17, 11 138

13:19-23 188

14:11 104

14:23 469

15:1-9 241, 563

15:6 88, 327

15:6-9 343

15:8 81

15:14 243, 278

15:19 81

16:6-12 531

16:16 679

16:18 421

16:19 422, 746

16:22-25 535

16:24-26 67

16:25, 26 17

16:26 621, 694

18:12-14 378

18:15-17 186

18:20 213, 284, 328, 699, 729

19:28 111, 423

21:13 242

21:33-46 679

21:42, 43 563

22:15-21 753

22:21 253

22:35-40 752

22:37-39 456

22:41-45 633

22:42 191

23:5 81

23:8, 9 242

23:8-11 711

23:9 745

23:12 712

23:13, 16, 17, 33 243

23:29-36 340

24:4, 5 614

24:7 104, 494

24:7, 8 612

24:7-22, 36-39 239

24:9-14 13

24:9, 14 569

24:12 500

24:13 535

24:14 28, 754

24:22, 37 593

24:33, 34 568

24:34 502

24:38, 39 118, 639

24:40, 41 499

24:45 91

24:45-47 370, 415, 436

24:45, 47 328

25:14-30 204

25:31-46 277

25:34 55

25:35, 36, 40 54

25:40, 45 347

26:20-25 31

26:26-28 197

26:26, 28 170

26:28, 29 171

26:40, 45 148

26:41 148, 430

27:43, 46 630

28:20 684

MARK

1:10, 11 487

1:12, 13 127

1:14, 15 565

1:30 104

1:35, 36, 45 469

4:18, 19 409

6:6 520

9:47, 48 286

10:14 104

12:30, 31 83

12:41-44 380

13:33, 37 147

14:27-31 21

14:61, 62 678

LUKE

1:1-4 191

1:5, 8-25 742

1:18-20 375

2:2 sq. 319

2:8 319

2:30-32 138

2:46, 47 310

3:1 678

3:23 191

3:23-38 191

3:38 232

4:16-21 314

4:17-19 487

4:18 433

4:42 469

5:16 469

6:33 739

6:35 49

8:1-3 266

8:4-15 188

8:11-15 16

8:15 16

8:18 378

9:25 17

10:1 216

10:21 138

10:30-35 52

10:30-37 646

10:38-42 50

11:13 436

11:27, 28 623

11:52 422

12:15 9, 14, 409

12:18-21 14

12:47 152

12:48 185

14:16 500

16:13, 14 345

16:15 342, 712

17:27 639

17:31, 32 176

18:7, 8 254

19:1-9 50

19:22 341

20:38 360

20:41-44 627

21:9 104

21:15 661

21:19 406

21:20-22 533

21:25, 26 164, 668

21:34-36 150

22:14-23 31

22:25-27 753

22:28, 29 633

22:28-30 31

23:1, 2 565

23:31 166

23:43 240

24:13-32 50

24:25-27, 32 414

24:27 314

24:44-48 627

24:48, 49 684

JOHN

1:1-3 660

1:1-4 703

1:16, 17 13

1:29-42 127

1:29, 36 564

2:17 282

3:7 199

3:13 678

3:16, 17 237

3:29 721

3:36 15, 471

4:23 15

4:24 243, 429

4:25, 26 678

4:34 88

5:17 646, 698

5:22 422

5:28, 29 104, 240, 360

5:29 111

5:39 414

5:44 679

6:15 242

6:38 404

6:44 699, 720

6:54 199

7:31 679

8:31, 32 564

8:44 243

8:58 127, 678

9:4 646

10:29 720

10:30 255

11:26 735

11:52 690

Chapter 13 31

13:21-30 31

13:34, 35 183

14:2 293

14:6 238

14:11 437, 679

14:16, 17 685

14:17 434

14:28 255

Chapters 14 to 17 31

15:8 311

15:16 423

15:18, 19 721

15:19 35, 529, 761

15:26 434, 685

16:2 341

16:2, 3 549

16:7-15 685

16:33 74

17:3 15, 647, 662, 735

17:4 646

17:6 720

17:9 243

17:14 529

17:14, 15 761

17:15 529

17:16 242

17:20, 21 255

18:36 242, 345, 498, 530, 565

18:36-38 251

19:12-15 565

19:23, 24 630

19:28-30 630

Chapter 20 127

20:19, 26 20

20:22, 23 745

21:12-14 20

21:15-17 21, 309, 727

ACTS

1:4, 5 684

1:15, 16 626

2:2-4 428, 686

2:17, 38, 41 432

2:20, 21 761

2:22-31 631

2:32, 33 685

2:32-36 633

2:38 511

2:42, 46 198

5:1-11 435

5:29-32 752

5:29 227, 531

5:30 166

5:39 254

5:40-42 752

5:42 99, 387, 520

7:23-30 43

8:1 340

8:30, 31 414

8:33 328

9:36 646

10:1-48 756

10:2 646

10:22 104

10:38, 39 563

10:39 166

12:4 195

13:10 243

13:48 327

15:14 454, 632

15:19 422

16:15 58

16:31 645

17:3 104

17:17 520, 648

17:22-31 229

17:24, 25 231

17:26 711

17:29 243

17:30 104, 238

17:31 235

20:20 99, 119, 387, 520, 668

20:28 23, 125, 371, 435

20:29, 30 652

20:30 227

20:35 62, 379

21:24 750

21:25 703

22:16 511

24:16 548

24:26, 27 762

25:10-12 762

26:9 548

28:2 104

28:27 137

ROMANS

1:11, 12 184

1:18-32 10

1:20 461, 479

1:24-27 402

1:25 342

1:32 10

2:1-3 10

2:5-11 11

2:7 286

4:17 360

5:12 234

6:14 391

6:23 286, 502

8:13 104

8:14, 16 433

8:15-17 199

8:25 644

8:26 434

8:35, 38 410

10:2, 3 548

10:7 223

10:10 647

10:13-17 623

11:7, 25 148

12:2 309, 327, 468

12:8 22

12:11 149

12:12 164

12:13 54, 187

13:11 145

14:17, 18 372

14:19, 20 186

15:1, 2 383

15:1-3 184, 213

15:4 337

15:7 53

16:1, 2 56

1 CORINTHIANS

1:10 396, 497

1:19, 20 342

1:19, 20, 29 326

1:20-30 661

1:21 622

1:22 437

1:22-31 348

1:26-29 708

2:9, 10 433, 528

2:11, 12, 14 328

2:13 435

2:14 528

2:15 315

3:5-9 90

3:6 380

3:8 255

4:1, 2 221

4:2 379

4:4 548

4:8 727

4:15 605

5:6-13 125

6:9, 10 676

6:10 57

6:19, 20 67

7:3, 4 180

7:7 350

7:23 67

7:28, 29 180

8:1 177

8:5 323

8:13 383

9:1 424

9:16 647

9:20-23 207, 503

9:23 61

10:11 337

10:14 651

10:16, 17 199

10:21 222

10:23, 24 186, 221, 383

10:24, 25 101

10:33 178

11:1 205, 381, 584, 647

11:3 153, 255

11:21 104

11:22 277

11:24 197

11:26 198

12:4-6 686

12:18 370

12:18, 28 276

12:26 283

13:2, 3 177

13:3 61

13:4-6 187

13:4, 7 178

13:5 178, 182

13:8 177, 437

13:13 104

14:1 153

14:20 149

14:26, 31 184

15:10 102

15:28 255

15:33 348, 407, 676

15:33, 34 150

15:45 429

15:50 171, 293

15:53 286

15:58 690

16:13 148, 149, 151, 154

16:13, 14 156

16:15 102

16:16, 18 283

2 CORINTHIANS

1:11 282

2:5 102

2:17 120, 326

3:1, 2 487

3:1-3 377

3:3 86

3:4, 5 624

3:11 390

3:14 148

3:17 429

4:2 242, 342

4:4 159, 243

4:5-7 221

4:18 243

5:7 243

5:10 422

5:20 205

6:1 374

6:4-6 62

6:14-17 531

6:17 743

8:1 104

8:1-4 60

8:8 49

8:12 57, 266

8:24 178

9:5 58

9:7 57, 114, 266

9:11, 12 61

10:3-5 501

10:4 497

10:4, 5 312

11:2 721

11:7-9 59

11:13-15 503

11:23-26 503

11:24-27 340

11:24-28 219

11:28 422

12:2 295

12:7-10 172

12:11, 12 424

13:5 76

13:14 687

GALATIANS

1:1 424

1:1, 12 487

1:4 294

2:11-16 422

3:2 391, 437

3:13 166

3:16, 29 446

3:24, 25 390, 735

3:28 711

4:24 170

4:26 275

5:19-24 526

6:2 186

6:10 55

6:16 750

EPHESIANS

1:17, 18 137

1:18 438

2:2 429

2:6 295

2:14, 15 390

2:15 242

2:20 422

4:2 282

4:2-6 498

4:8, 11, 12 276

4:11, 12 215

4:11-13 185, 436

4:11-14 121

4:11-15 414

4:15, 16 184

4:22-24 468

4:28 646

4:29 214

5:11 243

5:15-17 150

5:21 283

5:23, 25-27 721

5:24 180

5:28 179

6:4 182

6:10 155

6:10-18 207

6:12 294

6:16 76

PHILIPPIANS

1:7 266, 762

1:9-11 379

1:27, 28 150

2:1-4 381

2:2-4 213

2:4 55

2:6 255

2:19-22 219

2:21 123

2:29, 30 277

3:16 750

3:17 527

4:8 408, 470

4:11, 12 60

COLOSSIANS

1:9, 10 459

1:15, 16 255

1:24 599

2:3, 8, 9 661

2:8 5, 241, 343

2:8, 9 750

2:13, 14 703

2:14 391, 525, 735

2:16, 17 390

3:9, 10 583

3:12, 13 186

3:14 183

3:20 182

3:22-24 124

4:2 148

1 THESSALONIANS

2:2, 4 204

2:4 212

2:7, 8, 11 188

2:8, 9 121

4:1-8 12

4:9, 10 54

4:15 102

5:6-9 146

5:12, 13 284

5:12-14 153

5:19 155

5:21 327

2 THESSALONIANS

2:6, 8 652

2:7, 8 103

3:10, 11 58

1 TIMOTHY

1:3, 4 215

1:11, 12 204

1:12 114

1:18, 19 206

2:5, 6 238

2:11 217

3:1 23, 122, 153, 376

3:2 53, 371, 651

3:2-7 123

3:3 372

3:4, 5 182, 373

3:6, 7 373

3:14, 15 211

4:1 430

4:1, 6 214

4:2 547

4:6 207

4:7, 8 93

4:7, 8, 16 205

4:10 150

4:10, 13, 14 206

4:12 211

4:13, 15 212

4:13, 15, 16 306

4:15 117

4:15, 16 155, 381, 471

4:16 61

5:1, 2, 17 217

5:5 217

5:17 22, 180

5:17, 18 56

5:19-21 217

5:22 211, 216

5:23 219

6:6 186

6:6-8 17

6:7-10 208

6:9, 10 14, 401

6:11, 12 19, 209

6:12 93

6:13, 14 19

6:17 49

6:18 55

2 TIMOTHY

1:7 438

1:7, 8, 12, 16 220

1:9 221

1:13 204

1:14 209

1:15 220

1:16-18 59

2:1 206

2:2 213, 306

2:3, 4 533

2:3, 8, 9 210

2:4 208

2:5 209

2:7 471

2:9 488

2:10, 12 220

2:14 215

2:15 206, 459

2:18 220

2:22 211

2:24 200, 217

3:1 174

3:1, 2 61

3:1-5 467

3:10-12 535

3:14-17 210

3:16, 17 37, 751

4:1-5 211

4:2 187, 207

4:3 346

4:4 652

4:5 121

4:7 150

4:11, 16, 17, 19, 20 220

4:14, 15 211

TITUS

1:3 204

1:5 371, 435

1:5-9 371

1:15 547

2:11, 12 408

3:1, 2 280

3:2 56

HEBREWS

1:1, 2 627

1:2 597

1:7, 14 429

2:1, 3 150

2:5-8, 13 596

2:11, 12 631

2:14 62

2:15 357

4:6, 7 137

4:12 374

5:7 74

5:12 379

5:12-14 307

5:12–6:2 526

5:14 470

6:1-3 308

Chapter 7 735

9:22 171, 511

9:24 294

10:1 390

10:5-10 630

10:7 487

10:9 523

10:23-25 184, 214, 375

10:24, 25 407

10:25 118

10:37-39 75

10:38 15

11:1 73

11:1, 2 15

11:4 235

11:6 659

11:7 236

11:32-35 360

11:33, 34 759

11:36-38 339

11:37 465

12:1 235, 759

12:1, 2 308

12:6 179

12:11 87

12:13 383

13:2 50

13:7, 17 375

13:15 114, 455

13:16 60

13:17 280

13:18 282

JAMES

1:5 312

1:14, 15 398

1:27 242, 345, 438

2:4-9 711

2:14, 26 645

2:19 646

2:23 237

2:26 437

3:13 621

3:14-16 712

3:15-18 621

3:17 380

4:1 494

4:4 35, 242, 345, 467, 531, 721

5:9-11 593

5:11 178, 749

5:14-16 746

1 PETER

1:6, 7 81

1:9 311

2:2 135

2:7-10, 24, 25 566

2:9 113, 647

2:9, 10 454

2:11, 12 526

2:13, 14 279

2:21 487

3:1, 2 101

3:1, 2, 8, 9 4

3:3, 4 81

3:7 180

3:15 305, 648

3:16 548

3:18 429

3:19, 20 236

4:1 363

4:1-4 90

4:2, 3 362

4:2-5 468

4:3 404

4:7 173, 175

4:7, 8 156

4:8 181

4:9 57

4:12 175

4:18 176

5:1-3 22

5:1-4 422

5:1-5 124, 377

5:2, 3 185

5:5 278

5:8, 9 76, 148

2 PETER

1:21 433, 435

2:2, 3 399

2:5 236

2:5, 6 403

2:22 338

3:4, 9 456

3:5-7 254

3:6 236, 294

3:7 254, 295

3:9, 10, 13 644

3:11 174

3:13 255, 295

1 JOHN

1:1-4 138

1:9 744

2:15 35, 243, 467

2:15, 16 727

2:15-17 345

2:25 405

3:17, 18 55, 187

4:1 431, 615

4:19 4, 89

5:3 89

5:4 74, 344

5:7 255

5:19 105, 243, 345, 496

5:21 243

3 JOHN

vs 5-8 58

JUDE

vs 6 400

vs 13 295

vs 14, 15 235

REVELATION

1:20 295

2:1 295

2:17 607

3:1 295

3:14 255

3:15, 16 107, 343

3:16 149

3:20 520

5:11, 12 661

6:4 494

11:1-4 62

11:7-10 223

11:15-18 76

11:18 467

12:7-10 597

12:9 235

12:13, 17 597

13:1 223, 671

13:1, 2 759

13:1-8 754

13:15-17 755

13:16-18 75

14:1, 3 295, 446

14:6 753

14:9-12 754

15:2, 3 75

16:13, 14 469

16:13, 14, 16 430

19:20 287

20:1-3 239

20:2 235

20:4 755

20:6 755

20:8 446

20:10, 14, 15 287

20:11 255

21:8 287

21:14 423

22:1, 2 139

22:1-3, 17 568

22:1, 17 91

Subject Index for “The Watchtower”, 1957

including the title of the first study article of each issue

Accurate knowledge necessary to please God, 459

African chooses monogamy, 318

Ancient Israel Backslides, 337

Apostles have no successors, 421-424

Archaeology proves monotheism came first, 46, 47

Armageddon, what marks start of, 95

Assemblies, high lights 1957 district, 617-619

proper conduct at, 392

Babylon, rise and fall of ancient, 552-556

Backsliders, how to avoid becoming, 341-348

record of Israelite, 337-341

Baptism, of Christians not for remission of sins, 511

valid ordination through, 485-487

Bedridden, witnesses even though, 172

Bible, archaisms, poor translations becloud, 101-104

banned by Council Toulouse in 1229, 156

basic aids to understanding, 327, 328

commercialization of, obstacle to understanding, 326

how we got, 36-39

King James Version of, 69-72

“koiné” Greek of, 135

languages used in writing of, 36, 37

marginal observation on Ex. 36:5, 6, 48

movie exposes people’s illiteracy of, 40-43

new light on languages of, 134, 135

obstacles to understanding of, 325-327

reading to understand, 100-104

should apply to oneself, 3, 4

Tischendorf discovers manuscripts of, 132, 133

to taste God’s goodness must study, 88, 89

Tyndale translates into English, 38, 39

Capitalization, rules governing pronouns, 703

Caste, tyranny of, 709-712

Catacombs testify to pure worship, 649-652

Catholics criticized by Guatemalan Catholic, 108

Channel of communication, identified, 370

Child training, discipline aids in, 86-88

Christendom, its leaders admit failure of, 343-347, 360, 620

not true Christianity, 8

plight of, 29

spiritual famine in, 241-244

Christians, early, refused to compromise, 105-107, 531, 681-683

must be manly, 151

must keep separate from world, 534, 535

must preach, 762

must stand firm, 149, 150

must say awake, 145-149

responsibility toward one another, 212-215

right conduct required of, 211, 212

See Ministers

Christmas, Christ cannot be put into, 740-743

giving at, is not Christian, 739, 740

Christs, appearances of false, 613-616

Church buildings, strange decorations of, 425

Churches serve as local social clubs, 510

Cities of refuge, what they represent, 95

Clergymen, accept evolution theory, 5, 6

advice of, boomerangs, 734

as chaplains, 291, 543

defeated by demons, 716

made ashamed by a witness, 223

of Christendom exposed, 242

support wars, 495, 543

Communist(s), exposing paradise of, 245-249

hypocrisy of, 203

petition sent to leading Russian, 249-254

send Jehovah’s witnesses to Siberia, 439

Confession, to whom we are to make, 744-747

Congregator, on works vain and worthwhile, 688-702

Solomon as, pictured Christ, 688-690

Conscience in itself not a sure guide, 547-549

Contest, the Christian’s great, 549-551

Convict bears fruit by taking stand, 683

Course of Hospitality, The, 49

Crime, increase of, 11, 12

Dead Sea Scrolls, discovery of, 136

Deaf, witnessing to the physically, 172

Dedication, living true to one’s, 523

Delinquency, blamed on both God and Devil, 84

grownups responsible for juvenile, 675, 676

Deliverance for Integrity Toward God, 748

Demons, defeat clergymen, 716

guided Swedenborg, 713-716

why allowed to enter swine, 351

Desire(s), cultivating right, 404-410

recognizing the power of wrong, 397-403

sensual, must be controlled, 402, 403

Devil, in what way has “power of death,” 62

Diocletian tried to destroy Christianity, 681-683

Discipline valuable in training children, 86-88

Divine interests must be served first, 157

“Do Not Disturb!” represents wrong attitude, 259

Ears that hear blessed, 137-140

Earth, emptied in times past, 461-465

not to be burned up, 254, 255

why certain to last forever, 735

why to be emptied again, 460, 466

Easter, its pagan origin, 195-197

Ecclesiastes, epitome of book of, 688-702

End does not justify means, 35, 36

Endurance like Job’s in the Time of the End, 592

Endurance required of Christians, 16, 17

Everlasting covenant, is law covenant, 735

Evolution theory, accepted by clergy, 5, 6

is stone of stumbling, 47, 48

warps religious thinking, 5-8

Eyes that see blessed, 137-140

Faith, how it conquers world, 73-76

“Faith on the March,” appreciation of, 395, 403, 410, 447

book review of, 302-304

Fanaticism, bred by false religion, 536

Fatty things, why the command not to eat, 703

Film of Society shown in prison, 639

Gate, going through the narrow, 227, 228

Genealogies, why Matthew’s and Luke’s differ, 191

Gift(s), beware of accepting, 579, 580

each enjoying his from God, 350

Gilead, graduates 28th class, 200

graduation of 29th class, 606

God, electronics leader speaks about, 317

man can safely worship only, 136

man originally worshiped only one, 232-234

when all will again worship one, 228-240

See Jehovah

Gods, man attempted to produce more, 234-236

Romans had multitude of, 63

Good News, obligation to tell the, 27-29, 719

Graham said to play at Christianity, 702

Guard Your Christian Trust, 204

Happy Are the Peaceable, 493

Healing of the Nations Has Drawn Near, 557

Healing, Jesus brought, 563-565

nations in need of, 557-560

not for Christendom, 566, 567

only channel of, 568-570

sicknesses of mind and heart, 656

why nations need, 560-563

Heart, is soil for seeds of truth, 89-91

is where our treasure is, 9-14

lack means want of good motive, 667

letting God write on our, 80-92

safeguarded by wisdom, 665-670

what is symbolized by, 81

Heavens, ten different kinds of, 292-295

High school students Bible illiterates, 580

Holy spirit, how received, manifested today, 436-439

impersonal divine active force, 428, 429, 434-436

Jehovah’s helper to New World society, 684-687

operation of, illustrated, 434-436

Holy Spirit—Third Person of Trinity or God’s Active Force? The, 428

Honesty honors Jehovah, 382

Hospitality, according to needs of others, 55-57

done for sake of good news, 60-62

enriches ones practicing it, 50-51

to be shown without grumbling, 57, 58

House-to-house ministry, most effective, 387, 388

why being done, 99, 100

How Jehovah’s Witnesses View Their Ministry, 113

Images no aid to right worship, 243

“Inspired Misprint,” clarity vs. charity, 702

Integrity, deliverance for keeping, 748-756

examples of keeping, 757-762

Interfaith unscriptural, 243

International Praise to the One God, 625

Israelites’ clothing did not wear out while in

wilderness, 31

Jehovah, able to write on our hearts, 80

displayed wisdom from start of creation, 659-662

fear of him beginning of wisdom, 658, 659

proper to make test of, 265-267

sees what heart is, 9

sharing not with demons but with, 222

tasting goodness of, 88

walking with, 131, 132

why earth to be emptied by, 460-466

Jehovah’s name, conspiracy against, 323, 324

how a strong tower, 355, 356

Jehovah’s organization, appreciating light from, 276, 277

building up confidence in, 282-284

identified as “mother,” 274-276

trusting proved brothers in, 279, 280

various ways of showing respect for, 273-285

Jehovah’s witnesses, falsely accused of kidnaping, 189

in Russian labor camp, 488

keep integrity in Communist Poland, 260-264

persecuted in Dominican Republic, 585-591

victory gained by fearlessness of, 620

view of ministry had by, 113-122

why successful in distributing Bibles, 168

Jesuits not safe teachers, 63

Jesus, a marvelous teacher, 21

time of birth of, 319

why two genealogies of, 191

Job, epitome of book of, 592-606

example of endurance, 592-596

Jehovah answers, 603, 604

persecuted and misrepresented, 597-602

prophetic meaning of testing of, 596, 597, 601, 602, 604, 605

restored, vindicated, approved, 604-606

set straight by Elihu, 602, 603

Kingdom Hall, proper conduct in, 53, 283, 284

“King James Version,” how produced, 69-72

Law, getting God’s on our hearts, 85-92

obedience to the unenforceable, 83

Liars, clergyman exposes, 176

Life, conditions for gaining, 15-19

meaning, value of, 67, 68

“Life” salesman sold on real life, 144

Lightning, extraordinary fertilizer, 92

Light of world, counterfeited, 613-616

Lincoln looked to God’s wisdom, 324

Living, finding the purpose for, 581-583

Lord’s evening meal, meaning of and partakers, 197-199

Love builds up, 177

family circle, 179-183

New World society, 183-189

Loved Woman of the Superlative Song, The, 720

Love, pre-eminence of, 177

Lucifer, in what sense Satan became, 159

Lutheran, becomes a witness, 349

Mahatma Gandhi, impression sermon gave, 168

Manliness required of Christians, 151, 152

Mars’ Hill, Paul makes God known on, 229-232

Materialism, danger and snares of, 16-18, 174, 189, 208, 209, 401, 409, 727

folly of, 15

Maturity require of Christians, 307-311

May God Write on Your Heart? 80

Meetings, importance of attending, 117, 213, 214, 699

Message sent from invisible space, 419, 420

Messiah, identifying the, 677-680

Ministers, behavior befitting, 211, 212

must preach the Word, 207

who determines qualifications of, 144

See Christians

Ministry, done in God’s strength, 154-156

full-time to be striven for, 115, 116

how Jehovah’s witnesses view their, 113-122

most effective way to do, 119, 120

requires budgeting of time, 115

to be guarded as sacred trust, 204-212

Missionar(ies, y), converted by, 158

experiences of Korean, 94

privileges, trials, blessings of, 219

Monotheism preceded polytheism, 44-48

Name, conditions on which God remembers our, 470, 471

what is the new, 607

Nations, why need healing, 557-562

Never Compromising on Christian Principles, 524

New World society, how to keep abreast of, 584

not cities of refuge, 95

“New World Translation on John 8:58, 126, 127

New world, being alive to, 361-364

New York city, religion in, 349

Noah, what day entered ark, 639

Obedience, importance of, 280, 281

Oneness under Creator, helping others to, 396

Open-air preaching Scriptural and legal, 516-520

Optimism, not dead among Christians, 163, 164

Ordination valid through baptism, 485-487

Overseers of Jehovah’s People, 369

Overseers, accepting responsibility as, 376

appointed by holy spirit, 371

how selected, 374

others must recognize, 374, 375

requirements of, 21-23, 122-126, 371-375, 376-381

responsibilities of, 152-154

Paraguay, religious persecution in, 483, 484

Passion governs most men, 525, 526

Patience, need and value of, 643, 644

Peace, why failure of efforts for, 496, 497

Peaceable, fight of faith of the, 499-505

happy are the, 493-499

Petition, to Communist leaders, 249-254

to Generalissimo Trujillo, 585-591

Petra, strangest city built by man, 489-492

Pius V, sainthood bestowed on, 510

Plagiarist becomes witness, 190

“Power of death,” extent Devil has, 62

Preaching, despite handicaps, 655

futility of modern, 383

only activity not vain today, 699-702

President visits Europe and Middle East, 268-273, 296-301, 332-336, 365-368

Principles, are sure guides, 525-530

benefits from applying to oneself Scriptural, 3, 4

may not compromise Christian, 530-536

what are Christian, 524, 525

what are theocratic, 750-753

Protestantism, its twin plight, 451, 452

Proverbs, epitome of book of, 657-671

Psalms, call for international praise, 625-638

cover all Jehovah’s purposes, 628-635

epitome of book of, 625-638

happinesses in book of, 635, 636

written by various ones, 626

Publications, importance of familiarity with

Society’s basic, 311-317

Pursuing My Purpose in Life,

Berry, Bennett, 393-395

Clogston, Julia, 717, 718

Hendrickson, Shirley, 653-655

Klein, T. E., 329-331

Monroe, Doris, 201-203

Parsons, Alma E., 77-79

Pool, Nellena G., 141-144

Spiropoulos, P. C., 521, 522

Tharp, A. E., 457, 458

Rebels, why number of at end of 1,000-year

reign as “sands of sea,” 446

Recognizing the Power of Wrong Desire, 397

Religion, of world has not key to unity, 515

“their real,” 664

Report, comments on 1956, 26-29

of 1956 service year, 24-26

Riches, only true kind of, 13-15

Right desires, how and why cultivate, 404

identified, 405-410

Rome, enlightenment of ancient, 382

Russell did not put own writings ahead of Bible, 414, 415

Russians, church attended by few young, 424

St. Bartholomew’s massacre congratulated, 112

Salvation, gained with difficulty, 173-176

of man secondary to Jehovah’s vindication, 452-456

Sarnoff speaks about God, 317

Seminary education vain, 687

Sensual desires must be controlled, 402, 403

Shaw, G. B., on chaplains, 543

Sheep, fed by back-calls and Bible studies, 120, 121

obligation to feed the, 20, 21

Show Respect for Jehovah’s Organization, 273

Shulammite, pictured bride of Christ, 723, 724

tested, 730

Solomon, as congregator foreshadowed Christ, 688-690

Song of Solomon, epitome and prophetic

application of, 720-734

Sorrow better than laughter, 471, 472

Soul, hope for the, 357-360

immortality first taught, 575

immortality not inherent in human, 7, 286, 358, 359

Spirit, seven Scriptural usages of term, 429-431

Statistics, what they do not tell, 140

‘Stay Awake, Stand Firm, Grow Mighty,’ 145

Striving for the Required Maturity, 305

Study, importance of personal, 205-207, 305-317, 467-470

Suffering, view of Bible vs. that of pope on, 648

Swedenborg, teachings of, compared with Bible, 713-716

Swine, why Jesus let demons enter, 351

Ten Commandments, man’s laws based on, 82

movie of, 40-43

not for Christians, 389-391

Time, how Americans waste, 92

need for budgeting minister’s, 115

rules governing counting of prophetic, 62

Timothy set good example, 204-207, 210, 216, 217, 220

Titles of clergy unscriptural, 242

Toynbee, quotations from, 136, 624

Training, need for active, 93

new ministers need, 121

one another, 215, 217, 218

sharing in program of, 378

Transubstantiation proved unscriptural, 169-172

Trinity, penalty for doubting, 107

unscriptural, 255, 431-435

Trujillo, petition to, 585-591

Trust, must guard Christian, 204-221

Truth makes doomed man happy, 426, 427

Tyndale translates Bible, 38, 39

Vanity, in what sense all is, 690-697

Vice-president reports on round-the-world tour, 411, 440, 473, 505, 537, 571

Vindication of Jehovah’s name paramount, 452-456

War between nations folly, 611, 612

War strategy, using theocratic, 285

WBBR sold by Watch Tower Society, 301

Weak, able to give glory to God, 707, 708

When All Men Again Worship One God, 228

“Where Your Treasure Is There Your Heart Will Be,” 9

Why Jehovah Empties the Earth, 460

Widow waits six years in vain, 542

Wild beast, what it means to worship, 753-755

Wisdom, calls today by preaching of witnesses, 667-670

difference between knowledge, understanding and, 661-664

is fear of Jehovah, 658

Logos the personification of, 660

safeguards heart, 665-667

what is course of, 621-624

Wise sayings for modern day, 657-671

Wom(an, en), privileges of, 185, 186

the loved, of the Superlative Song, 720-734

Works, congregated ones’ worthwhile, 697-702

identifying right Christian, 645-648

what constitutes vain, 690-697

World, re-creation of the righteous, 109-112

Wrong desire, power of, 397, 398

why many have succumbed to, 398-402

Your contribution prospects 265-267

Youth, pitfalls of modern, 675, 676

Zipporah, a Cushite, from Abraham, 763