The Watchtower — October 1, 1957

Beware of Gifts!

WHY the counsel “beware of gifts”? Are we not told to “practice giving”? And is it not true that “there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving”? How could we have that greater happiness if others refused to accept our gifts?—Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35.

All very true, but there are gifts and “gifts.” A mature Christian will give on the basis of need and merit, even as the apostolic counsel urges; we are to give to our brothers in need and to esteem worthy of a double reward those who labor hard in preaching and teaching. (1 John 3:17; 1 Tim. 5:17) But he will not give with an ulterior motive, because the one receiving the gift may be in a position to show him a favor, or in order to put him under obligation. And not only should the one bestowing a gift search his heart as to his motive, but the one accepting the gift should do so, accepting it only if he has reason to believe the gift is offered in good faith.

That is why the Bible counsels, especially those in positions of responsibility and therefore able to return a favor, to beware of accepting gifts: “You must not pervert judgment. You must not be partial or accept a bribe.” “You are not to accept a bribe [gift; present, margin].”—Deut. 16:19; Ex. 23:8.

The judge and prophet Samuel faithfully heeded these commands, and so at the end of his long career he could challenge the people of Israel: “Whose bull have I taken or whose ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded or whom have I crushed or from whose hand have I accepted hush money that I should hide my eyes with it?” In reply the people had to admit: “You have not defrauded us, nor have you crushed us, nor have you accepted anything at all from the hand of a single one.” Note: Samuel had not accepted from anyone a single thing! Of how many politicians could that be said today?—1 Sam. 12:3, 4.

In fact, it could not even be said of Samuel’s sons, for we read that “they were inclined to follow unjust profit and would accept a bribe and pervert judgment.” One reason the older men of Israel gave Samuel for wanting a king was: “Your own sons have not walked in your ways.”—1 Sam. 8:3-5.

But having a king did not remedy matters, at least not for long, fallen human nature being what it is. Thus in Isaiah’s time God stingingly rebuked the nation of Israel: “Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards.”—Isa. 1:23, AV.

In the United States in recent years there has been so much giving and receiving of “gifts” in Washington that books, newspapers and magazines have been filled with reports of exposés. So disgraceful was the situation that legislators were stung into appointing a committee to make “proposals for improvement of ethical standards in the federal government,” an admission that ethics were at an all-time low.

Not that this matter of giving and receiving gifts is limited to politicians. In the spring of 1957 the public press told of a certain clergyman, James J. Stewart, of the Southwest, who was unfrocked at a secret hearing because of his agitation against the practice of church officials soliciting “love gifts” from ministers in their charge, which they in turn presented to their bishops.

About the same time newspaper headlines told of dishonest dealings on the part of labor union officials. Those high in industry not only told of making “loans” and outright gifts to labor union officials but, in certain instances, charged that it was such a common practice that government officials had authorized making such gifts and even furnished the needed money when government contracts were involved.

A rather striking exception was furnished by the president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Dubinsky. He not only established a rule strictly forbidding any officers of his union accepting gifts from employers but even required that those who had accepted gifts before this rule was established must confess to him that they did. Why did he make this rule? Because he knew that such gifts exerted a “corrupting influence” on labor union officials. He thereby was underscoring what God’s law to Moses some 3,500 years ago stated regarding the receiving of gifts or bribes, namely, that they blind “clear-sighted men and can distort the words of righteous men.” Yes, “a bribe destroyeth the understanding.”—Ex. 23:8; Eccl. 7:7, AS.

A person may naively think at the time that there is nothing wrong in accepting a gift from an ostensible friend, but in doing so he unconsciously becomes indebted to the giver and in a way bound to him, and his judgment becomes warped whether he realizes it or not. The counsel to be “cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves” may well be applied to this matter of giving and receiving gifts. A wise person will think twice before he will accept a gift from a person if he is in a position to do such a one a favor. Truly the Bible is a lamp and a light for all those that want to do what is right.—Matt. 10:16.

High School Students Bible Illiterates

● Lutheran minister Walter C. Gerkin recently lamented the widespread Bible illiteracy among high school students. In doing so he observed, as reported in the Rochester (Michigan) News of November 14, 1956: “The religious illiteracy of our day was recently revealed by a questionnaire addressed to 18,434 high school students. 87 percent of them could not name three disciples of Jesus; and 64 percent of them could not name the four Gospels. . . . It is inconceivable that a high school pupil, properly instructed in the rudiments of Christianity, should score less than 100 percent on the above three questions.” The minister made no comment on how many of the illiterates had gone to Christendom’s Sunday schools.

Finding the Purpose for Living

What is it? How does one find it? Why do we need to find it. What man-made barrier hinders an understanding of it?

MOST people fail to find the purpose of living. They go through life without knowing for what purpose they exist. They may go to church and still not find the purpose of living. Clergymen themselves, strangely enough, have confessed ignorance of this purpose, pointing to what startling degree people go through life like a ship sailing without a compass.

A few years ago a writer for a London newspaper interviewed a retired clergyman, a man of considerable note. He was Dr. W. R. Inge, who, for twenty-three years, was dean of St. Paul’s cathedral. He has written more than twenty books, and his articles in the Evening Standard made him one of the most influential figures between the wars. This former high-ranking clergyman told the interviewer something that surprised newspaper readers.

“All my life,” said the former dean, “I have struggled to find the purpose of living. I have tried to answer three problems which always seemed to me to be fundamental: the problem of eternity; the problem of human personality; and the problem of evil. I have failed. I have solved none of them and I know no more now than when I started. And I believe no one ever will solve them.”—Daily Express, July 13, 1953.

If a clergyman who for twenty-three years was dean of one of Christendom’s most celebrated cathedrals has failed to find the purpose of living, what of the average churchgoer? What of the masses who do not go to church or who are not affiliated with any religion? Obviously something is wrong. What is it? What must one do to find the purpose of living?

MAN-MADE DOGMAS BECLOUD PURPOSE

People who are looking for the purpose of living have failed to find it because man has built up for himself a system of religion based on tradition and speculation—human wisdom. These man-made dogmas have beclouded the very purpose of living. John Lord, a noted historian, wrote in his Beacon Lights of History concerning some of these man-contrived doctrines, such as trinity and immortality of the soul: “It may not unreasonably be asked, Has not theology attempted too much? Has it solved the truths for the solution of which it borrowed the aid of reason, and has it not often made a religion which is based on deductions and metaphysical distinctions as imperative as a religion based on simple declarations?”

The result has been to turn men from the simple declarations of the Bible to the complex dogmas of men. This, in turn, has confused so many people that they sail their ship of faith not only without a compass but in a fog. Take, for instance, the former dean of St. Paul’s cathedral, who failed to find the purpose of living. Alluding to the immortality of the soul doctrine, he also told the interviewer: “I know as much about the after-life as you—nothing. I don’t even know there is one—in the sense in which the Church teaches it. I have no vision of ‘Heaven’ or a ‘welcoming God.’ I do not know what I shall find. I must wait and see.”

How many people are in the same boat, as it were, when it comes to one’s ship of faith! They are confused and uncertain. But the Bible states simply and clearly concerning those who are dead: “As for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” And further: “There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol.”—Eccl. 9:5, 10.

But man has gone ahead and devised for himself the immortality of the soul doctrine despite another simple Bible declaration: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”—Ezek. 18:4, AS.

Where, then, did this mysterious doctrine come from that has confused so many people? As William Ewart Gladstone, an eminent British prime minister of the nineteenth century, once said: “The natural immortality of the soul is a doctrine wholly unknown to the Holy Scriptures and standing on no higher plane than that of an ingeniously sustained, but gravely and formidably contested, philosophical opinion. It crept into the Church by a back door—the back door of Greek philosophy.”

GOING TO GOD’S WORD FOR LIGHT

So no man can find the purpose of living until he gets out of the fog of human speculations, traditions and deductions and comes into the light of God’s Word. Concerning this Word it is written: “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway.”—Ps. 119:105.

Only in the Bible do we find the explanation, the right one, for why things are as they are in the world. The problems concerning death and a future life are solved. We learn how God created man to live forever amid paradise conditions. Because of Adam’s sin death has come to all men: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”—Rom. 5:12.

By the Son of God’s coming to earth and his giving up his perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice the way was opened for man to regain what Adam lost for us. Thus Christ Jesus said: “I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance.”—John 10:10.

Though the Bible shows that a “little flock” or a limited number of true Christians will gain everlasting life in heaven with Christ, the hope of most of obedient mankind is the one expressed by the psalmist: “The meek ones themselves will possess the earth and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.” For many this will be through a resurrection from the dead, as Jesus showed: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” Those who did vile things ignorantly will not be judged by their past deeds but by their future deeds during Christ’s thousand-year reign.—Luke 12:32; Ps. 37:11; John 5:28, 29.

But there is a great crowd of people today who will never die at all, for their hope is to survive the coming war of Armageddon into God’s new world. That hope can be yours. We are living at a time when this whole evil system of things will come to an end. And no wonder! It is evil, living contrary to the commandments of God. It is evil because it is misled by the “god of this system of things,” Satan the Devil. Though the Bible tells us that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” there is no reason for you to suffer the fate of this world.—2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19.

A NEW PERSONALITY AND A NEW WORLD

At Armageddon Christ Jesus leads heaven’s armies in a righteous war. The result of this “war of the great day of God the Almighty” will be the end of the “heavens and the earth that are now.” A new world of a “new heavens and a new earth” comes in; the new world will be absolutely righteous. It will be the same earth as we live on today, but there will be a new system of things on the earth.—Rev. 16:14, 16; 2 Pet. 3:7, 13.

To gain everlasting life in God’s new world can be the hope of all lovers of righteousness. It is a hope made valid by God’s own promise. To make that hope a power in your life you need accurate knowledge. This is the knowledge of God’s Word. It is the kind of knowledge that helps the seeker of truth solve the problem of human personality. Until one knows God’s purposes and harmonizes his life in accordance with God’s commandments, he has what the Bible calls an “old personality.” This must be changed. It can be. Thus we read: “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality which through accurate knowledge is being renewed according to the image of the one who created it.”—Col. 3:9, 10.

One with the “new personality” lives for the new world. His hope is not to live just some seventy years and then die but to live forever in God’s new world. So he begins to live now as he will then. He follows the Bible command: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with the tender affections of compassion, kindness, lowliness of mind, mildness, and long-suffering. But, besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love.” And “this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.”—Col. 3:12, 14; 1 John 5:3.

No, it is no burden to keep God’s commands. It is a joy. It makes one happy. It honors God and brings glory to the Creator. God’s Word tells us: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.” Only those who bring glory to God, by both their words and their conduct, will gain the right to live forever in the new world. What reason there is, then, to heed the command: “Do not become envious of wicked people. For there will prove to be no future for anyone bad; the very lamp of wicked people will be extinguished.”—Rev. 4:11; Prov. 24:19, 20.

Live for the new world now. Put on the “new personality.” Give your life purpose; give it meaning: live to glorify the Creator. Do that by obeying his righteous commands, for when one lives by His Word, he has found the purpose of living: “The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: Fear The [true] God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole [obligation] of man.”—Eccl. 12:13.

[Picture on page 581]

Tradition

Trinity

Speculation

Human wisdom

Immortal Soul

Keep Abreast of the New World Society

THE New World society is the group of dedicated Christians organized to witness to Jehovah’s name and kingdom. It is composed of some 700,000 ministers, who are found in 162 different lands and islands.

The Architect and Builder of this New World society is Jehovah God. To him alone goes the credit. Such a marvelous society could not have been produced by mere human efforts, especially not in view of the world-wide opposition directed against it. It is solely his spirit, wisdom, power and love that accounts for this remarkable society and its expansion worldwide.

This New World society is moving on apace.a It is increasing in numbers. It is growing in knowledge and understanding of God’s purposes and his will for his servants. It is improving the quality of its ministry, and its standards are becoming ever more fully in line with Jehovah’s righteous requirements. No question about it, this grand society is marching forward and will continue to do so right through Armageddon and on into the new world.

To become a member of this society a person must gain knowledge and understanding of Jehovah’s Word and purposes and exercise faith in them and in his Son’s sacrifice. Further, he must dedicate himself to do God’s will and to follow in Christ’s footsteps, leaving all things to follow Christ as did the apostles, and give public testimony thereto by water baptism.—Matt. 19:27.

Of course, to enter into the new world with this society we must keep abreast of it. We must heed Paul’s command: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1) And what does it take to keep abreast of the New World society?

It takes, first of all, zeal for Jehovah’s work of preaching the good news of his established kingdom, even as it is Jehovah’s zeal that will cause the increase of that kingdom and of peace to be without end. Yes, as it was true of Jesus, “zeal for your house will consume me”; and as Paul and other early Christians showed a burning zeal, so must we manifest a fiery zeal for all features of Kingdom preaching to the extent of our abilities and opportunities, if we would keep abreast of the New World society.—John 2:17.

To keep abreast of this society we must also learn to exercise self-control. We must discipline ourselves to form good habits, learning to restrain our appetites and tongues. Otherwise we may become disapproved ourselves after having preached to others.

Among other important essentials to keeping abreast of the New World society is recognizing the ones appointed to take the lead by Jehovah’s visible organization, the Society. We dare not grumble as did Aaron and Miriam against Moses, the one Jehovah was using so wonderfully.—Num. 12:1-16.

Instead, we must take to heart Paul’s counsel: “Let the older men who preside in a right way be reckoned worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard in speaking and teaching.”—1 Tim. 5:17.

So, by manifesting zeal for the Kingdom ministry, by exercising self-control and by respecting and co-operating with those in positions of responsibility, we shall keep abreast of the New World society and accompany it into Jehovah’s new world of righteousness. Are you thus keeping abreast of the New World society?

[Footnotes]

Petition to Generalissimo Trujillo

Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Saturday, August 24, 1957

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, GENERALISSIMO RAFAEL LEONIDAS TRUJILLO:

WE, 33,091 delegates assembled here at the Baltimore Memorial Stadium, at Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., on this the fourth day of this five-day “Life-giving Wisdom” District Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, take this special occasion of worldwide importance to address ourselves to Your Excellency. We invite your official attention to a matter that deeply concerns you and the nation that you represent and also concerns us as Christians from many parts of these United States of America.

Recently we have been reading in our newspapers in many cities and also hearing on television programs reports that on Saturday afternoon, August 3, 1957, your government deported ten (10) American citizens from the Dominican Republic, sending them by airplane from Ciudad Trujillo to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. We were astounded and grieved at the action of your government when all these published reports revealed that these ten American citizens are Christian missionaries who represent a religious organization that is very prominent in these United States of America and that has won great respect among the officials and among the common people for the great educational work that it is doing with God’s written Word, the Holy Scriptures, not alone in this vast land but also in more than one hundred and sixty other lands around the earth. The action of your government in this matter has therefore begun to capture world interest and attention.

In addition to reading and hearing by newspaper, radio and television all this publicity that has already been given to your government action, we have been privileged to hear firsthand reports from those who are directly involved in this deportation process. As delegates to this District Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses we have eight of these American citizens here who were, until recently, missionaries to your country. Besides appearing on television in this city they have served on the platform of this assembly and given us a verbal account of the course that has been taken by your government against them and against all the other witnesses of Jehovah in the Dominican Republic. Their direct reports have added verification to what we have already read in many newspapers. The matter has been made so vivid and real and impressive to us that we feel stirred to make this statement of facts and to address this Appeal in behalf of our Christian brothers and sisters, our fellow witnesses of Jehovah, in your land.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Your own government is well aware that Jehovah’s witnesses have been active in your country for now many years. Your government is also aware of the measure of freedom that has been accorded these sincere, humble Christians. Missionaries, graduates from the well-known Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, were admitted to your land and once enjoyed privileges of Christian educational work there, with great spiritual benefit to hundreds of your countrymen.

As your own official records may show, it was in 1945 that the first of Jehovah’s witnesses went to the city of Ciudad Trujillo to extend their Bible educational work in the Dominican Republic. Their preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom both publicly and from house to house met with a favorable reaction on the part of many Dominicans who desired to increase their knowledge of God’s Holy Word and to prepare for the foretold Day when the kingdom of Jehovah God by Christ Jesus will reign over all the earth with blessings to all the people of good will regardless of their nationality today. Many Dominicans thus educated saw their responsibility and acted upon their responsibility to carry out Jesus’ prophetic command: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Quoted from Matthew’s Gospel, Mt chapter 24, verse 14.) By the year 1950 there were twenty-five missionaries that had been sent from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead to your fair land. The response of the humble, righteously disposed Dominicans was notable, and this Bible education spread to many parts.

In June, 1950, the situation changed for them. Your government issued a decree declaring that this religious group of Christians was illegal and that all meetings and propaganda were considered against the political state. This decree, as the open and widely known evidence betrayed, was framed and issued under the instigation of the representatives of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in your land who were displeased at the spreading Bible educational work of Jehovah’s witnesses. During the six years that followed the American missionaries were either obliged to leave Santo Domingo or had to quit their missionary work and take up secular work in order to remain in the country. As for the Dominican witnesses of Jehovah themselves, they continued to hold fast their Christian faith based upon the Holy Bible and to carry on in their ministry, but without what freedom they had enjoyed up until this ban of 1950. They followed the Christlike example of the apostle Peter and his fellow apostles. When the supreme court of Jerusalem arrested them and commanded them to stop preaching the good news about Christ and God’s kingdom, Peter and the other apostles said to the court: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” So when the apostles were beaten and released under further threats by the court, they left the courtroom but they continued to obey God as ruler by keeping on teaching and preaching Jesus Christ every day in the temple and in every house. (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, verses 29-42, New World Translation) By following this apostolic course the Dominican witnesses were not subversive to the political government but obedient to the Most High God Jehovah, and for this He blessed them, and the number of witnesses of Jehovah in Santo Domingo continued to increase. This proved that a ban upon His witnesses by any government does not have Jehovah God’s approval and blessing, but He prospers his faithful, obedient servants and witnesses and prospers them spiritually. We do not here, however, set out in any detail the physical and mental sufferings that Jehovah’s witnesses had to undergo during that period of this ban.

Aware that Jehovah’s witnesses were still in Santo Domingo and practicing their faith, your government, for reasons best known to itself, suddenly lifted the ban upon Jehovah’s witnesses in August, 1956, by publishing a small announcement in the public press, stating that all restrictions were taken off the organization and work of Jehovah’s witnesses and that they could again carry on openly, without governmental interference, in all their religious activities. At this commendable action by your national government Jehovah’s witnesses throughout all the earth rejoiced. This removal of the ban was naturally favorable in its effect upon the Christian organization and work of Jehovah’s witnesses in Santo Domingo. During the long six years of the ban they had given special proof that the national government had nothing to fear from them, but that they were peaceable Christians, not meddling with other religious elements in the politics of the land but specializing on the ministry of God’s Word in Christlike obedience to God.

Then, on June 30, 1957, a Roman Catholic priest launched an open attack upon Jehovah’s witnesses. Newspapers, radio and sound trucks were all mobilized in the attack. Religious pressure was again brought by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy upon the politicians and governmental leaders to put a stop to the educational work of Jehovah’s witnesses. The Dominican people know that between July 2 and 25 of this year there were 638 inches of space, in double column, occupied in the local newspapers to turn popular sentiment against Jehovah’s witnesses. Examination of all this newspaper publicity discloses that these Christian witnesses of Jehovah, despite their world-wide stand against ungodly communism, were branded as forerunners of communism, seditionists, lawbreakers, insulters of the flag and anthem and institutions of the national state. In disrespect of the holy name of the Most High God they were called Jehovahites, and statements were printed no matter how lying and preposterous they proved to be. All such false statements and accusations were taken up and repeated with added comments over the government-sponsored radio stations.

In the presence of a representative missionary of Jehovah’s witnesses your Major General Espaillat said in a telephone conversation with the acting American ambassador in Ciudad Trujillo: “What they are saying in the newspapers about these people and on the radio forces us to take action against them. So we will pass a law banning them from operating in the country.” This was when the acting American ambassador appealed to the major general not to be too severe with Jehovah’s witnesses. Even before the ban was reimposed on them, violent persecution began against Jehovah’s witnesses. In outlying towns and rural sections officials rounded up local witnesses day and night and began beating and mistreating them. Police and army authorities sought out such defenseless, God-fearing men and women, yes, even children. In one sector whole families were taken to prison and the male members of the families were beaten senseless before their own wives and children.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

In the section known as Salcedo, where the beatings took place, three military policemen came to one witness’ home about 5 p.m. with a group of about twenty-five other witnesses, to take her and the rest down to the military prison in Salcedo. On foot they walked about twelve miles, arriving at the prison about 8 p.m. In the prison courtyard the men and women lined up. They were asked if they would sign a statement denying Jehovah’s witnesses and promising to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church. They all refused to sign. Two soldiers now came up and held the men’s arms while a third soldier hit the witnesses of Jehovah with his fists. More than this, they kicked these witnesses and hit them with rifle butts until they bled. Then these witnesses were taken one by one and beaten till they fell exhausted. They were then placed in one cell and their Christian sisters were placed in another. All night long these women could hear the men groaning from their merciless beatings. Next morning about eight o’clock, five of the official servants of the congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses, who were in another cell, were taken one after another to an office. The first one taken out was a witness named Negro Jiménez, about sixty-five years of age, the congregation servant at Los Cacaos. Half an hour after being taken to the office he was dragged out by the feet by two soldiers in full view of the other prisoners and was left unconscious on the ground in the patio. Blood was running out of his ears, nose and mouth. He looked as if he were dead.

Next Pedro German, congregation servant at El Jobo, about thirty-five years of age, was taken into the office. He was later helped out by two soldiers and his face showed the marks of a severe beating, as well as his body. His cheek was cut open and bleeding. He was taken into the patio and put back into the cell with the other congregation servants. Then another witness, Angel Angel, a man sixty years old, was taken into the same office. Later he was brought out unconscious, with blood running from his mouth and nose. A cruel beating in the face had done this. About this same time the soldiers threw three or four buckets of water on the unconscious witness, Negro Jiménez. Only when he gasped did they know he was alive. At this sign of life they dragged him into the cell with Pedro German.

After this, two others, Pedro Gonzalez, about sixty years of age, and Porfirio Gonzalez, his son about twenty-five years old, were taken into the office. When these two were brought out the aged Pedro’s face was swollen where he had been beaten; his son Porfirio was unconscious, and so was dragged out by his feet. Blood issued from ears and nose, and later it was found out his eardrum had been broken. For about an hour he remained unconscious. All the beatings covered a period of about four or five hours, after which they were all put back into the cell and locked up again.

The other prisoners were taken out and asked if they would now sign the statement renouncing Jehovah’s witnesses. According to the public press, about twenty-seven of these prisoners signed the statement. In all, there were about a hundred or more in prison. Many who signed the statement were really not Jehovah’s witnesses but merely persons of good will who had attended some of the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. Many were minors, small children. Many could not read the statement. The signing took place in the provincial government office in the presence of the governor and other political officials. Those signing were taken about five miles toward their homes in a pickup truck and then set free.

According to the newspapers, another group of twenty-eight who had also signed the statement were forced into a big military truck and taken to the Roman Catholic church. There soldiers with rifles and bayonets took them into the church to hear a religious mass. After this they were put in the truck and taken to their homes and released.

In other towns where there were native Dominican special pioneer publishers of God’s kingdom, the brothers were called into the office of the police chief or the government office and told they had to stop their work and get out of town. Some of these had to leave at night and left their property behind, furniture and clothing, in order to avoid arrest. In larger towns Roman Catholic priests went around to business places asking whether they had any of Jehovah’s witnesses employed and, if so, they would have to fire them right away. One witness who was working in a sugar mill was given two minutes to get out of the office and three hours to get out of town with his family. Four other witnesses were picked up and locked up for a week before any charges were filed against them. Then they were charged with seditious activity against the government.

In your capital city, Ciudad Trujillo, a witness was picked up and kept three days in jail without food. He had thirty-five cents in his pocket, which he spent on candy. That was all the food he had for those three days. He was charged with disrespect for the flag. At the five-minute trial the policeman who brought him in said: “This man did not show disrespect for the flag. I know him and he has always respected the flag.” However, the judge sentenced him to one year in prison and $250 in fine.

We again respectfully call your attention to the instigation on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy behind all this religious persecution. On June 30 the Jesuit priest named Vazquez Sanz lectured over the radio station to start off the campaign of hate against Jehovah’s witnesses. The newspapers published this lecture in which this Jesuit called Jehovah’s witnesses Communists, haters of all order, disrespectful of laws of the Dominican Republic, and many other false things. Besides the newspapers, other prominent men in Santo Domingo also wrote like articles, until finally, by July 29, hundreds of inches of space had been used against Jehovah’s witnesses. Another Roman Catholic priest, named Robles Toledano, is also on record as having given a talk. In it he said Jehovah’s witnesses were a cancerous growth and had to be eradicated from the Dominican Republic.

EXPULSION OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES

Already on July 8 the American missionaries began to be called to the Security Police office and questioned by your government officer, Arturo Espaillat. Shortly they were told they had to pick up their things and leave as soon as possible, in view of what had been stated in the public press and over the radio. Later the Security Police office showed impatience because these missionaries had not shown any activity toward their leaving the country. Informed that they had already sold most of their things, your official Espaillat said the missionaries could have till the end of July, at which time they would have to get out of the country. On July 30 the missionaries saw the acting American ambassador, Mr. Spalding, and informed him they were not leaving under any circumstances other than deportation. By Mr. Spalding’s arrangement they had an interview with Mr. Baez, secretary of Foreign Relations. Mr. Baez repeated that they would have to leave the country, but if they signed a statement of willingness to obey the laws of the country and to respect the national anthem and the flag, and to have no further connection with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, his office would see if the missionaries could stay. Several days later they presented a statement to the American embassy advising that they would obey all valid laws of the Dominican government that were not out of harmony with God’s law as laid down in the Holy Bible. They would as heretofore respect the national anthem and the flag. The next day Espaillat’s office told them that the statement of the missionaries was too weak, because, said he, all the laws of the Dominican Republic were in harmony with God’s law inasmuch as the president had signed them and the National Senate had passed them.

An article had been published in a Puerto Rican newspaper detailing how the Dominican soldiers had beaten and mistreated our fellow Christians, Jehovah’s witnesses. Calling Mr. Espaillat into your office, you gave him a copy of this newspaper with the persecution article marked in red. On coming out Mr. Espaillat threw this newspaper down on his desk. “This settles it,” he said. “Now we will deport you. How did this information get out of the country?” After some interchange with the missionaries, your Mr. Espaillat said: “If you want to be martyrs, go ahead, but that went out of fashion a thousand years ago. We will send an official down to your apartment and deport you, if that is what you want.” So he advised them to be ready at 4:30 p.m. to leave on the Pan-American plane. At 1 p.m. the official arrived at the missionary home and said they were to leave at 1:30 p.m. Three taxis came with him. With their baggage the missionaries were taken to the airport, where the Delta plane was held up for half an hour. Your government paid for the taxis and bought the tickets for the flight of the missionaries to Puerto Rico. Orders were issued to arrest or shoot any Dominicans that attempted to see the missionaries off at the airport.

PETITION AND CONCLUSION

Under incitement by the Roman Catholic clergy and their supporters the government of Your Excellency has been led to take an action that is a great injustice to our Christian brothers, Jehovah’s witnesses, in your country. The record that your government has made in doing so is fast becoming news around the world and it stands as a testimony against you, calling into question the adherence to the Declaration of Human Rights that has been issued by the United Nations, to which international organization your own country belongs.

Trusting that the government of Your Excellency is capable of better judgment and open to an appeal to rectify this unjust situation, we have addressed to you the foregoing partial review of the matter. Therefore, while gathered together in our thousands in district assembly, we now appeal to Your Excellency to reconsider this matter and then to take the needed steps to lift this ban that your government reimposed upon Jehovah’s witnesses on July 24 and to issue orders to your officials to cease from mistreatment of these harmless Christians. Certainly your government does not relish the fact that it has placed itself in the same class with Communist Russia and its communistic satellites, who persecute and try to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses merely because they worship God according to the dictates of His Holy Word and because they proclaim to all the world that the only hope of mankind is God’s kingdom by Christ. Certainly you do not relish the fact, either, that your government places itself in the category of those who fight against Jehovah God Most High, by fighting against his witnesses. We appeal to you to heed the warning issued to the religious persecutors of Peter and his fellow apostles: “Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to FIGHT AGAINST GOD.” (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, verses 38, 39) Jehovah’s Holy Word warns that to fight against God means to suffer destruction without any hope of a resurrection from the dead.

Your government unmistakably knows that, from its own experience with Jehovah’s witnesses up till now, it has nothing to fear from them. According to the report appearing yesterday in the Baltimore Afro-American of August 24, 1957, page 16, Mr. Manuel de Moya, your ambassador to the United States, confirmed the report that your country had deported the ten American missionaries on August 3, and he said that it was “because they were suspected of plotting to overthrow President Hector Trujillo’s government.” This charge is so preposterous that it is ridiculous, and it must provoke a smile on the part of even officials of other responsible governments of the world who are acquainted with Jehovah’s witnesses. Throughout the earth it is known that these Christians have no political ambitions and they do not meddle in politics to any extent. They are looking for God’s kingdom of the heavens to take full control of this earth, and He will do so at the oncoming universal war of Armageddon without his witnesses on earth having to raise even their little finger against any of the governments of this old world. In his Word Jehovah tells his witnesses: “The battle is not yours but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20:15) Hence Jehovah’s witnesses warn the people now to seek righteousness and peace and to take their stand now for God’s incoming kingdom, that they may not be destroyed with those who fight against Him in the battle of Armageddon.

We appeal to Your Excellency to consider the consequences before Jehovah God of your recent action against his witnesses in your land. If you persist in persecuting these followers of Jesus Christ you will find that you will have to kill off all of them in your land to silence them and put them out of action. But even Jesus Christ their Leader was killed for worshiping Jehovah as God and preaching His kingdom, but God rewarded him with a resurrection from the dead. So Jehovah’s witnesses in the Dominican Republic are not afraid to face death, for they know assuredly that Almighty God has promised to raise them from the dead to eternal life in His new world for their faithfulness to the death. However, we trust that you will refrain from fighting this losing battle against Jehovah God and that at the earliest possible time we may be able to publish to the world by all the many modern means that the Dominican government of Your Excellency has revoked the ban of July 24 and has once again dignified itself by granting to these Christian witnesses of Jehovah the religious freedom that they enjoy in other noncommunist countries of the world. Due notice has been served upon your government by this Resolution. The responsibility is now yours before the Most High God Jehovah. We await your response, not merely by written word but by the action of your government before the judgment bar of God.

Respectfully submitted,

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Adoption of this Resolution was moved by the chairman of the Baltimore District Assembly:

Malcolm S. Allen

Assembly Chairman

Resolution was seconded by the director of said assembly:

John O. Groh

Assembly Director

UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE “LIFE-GIVING WISDOM” DISTRICT ASSEMBLY OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES ON THE AFTERNOON OF THIS TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF AUGUST, 1957.

[The original copy, duly signed and legally notarized, was sent airmail, special delivery, to Generalissimo Trujillo that same Saturday night, August 24, 1957. Copy also duly signed and notarized was presented by special messenger at the Dominican embassy to the United States of America in Washington, D.C., Monday, August 26, 1957.]

Endurance like Job’s in the Time of the End

“You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and compassionate.”—Jas. 5:11.

1. Which judge does Christendom refuse to recognize and what relationship will not decide whether one should be spared at Armageddon?

MORE and more that section of the world known as Christendom refuses to recognize the God “whose name alone is JEHOVAH,” the Most High over all the earth. (Ps. 83:18, AV) Is it any wonder that his judgments are being executed upon Christendom, which more than all other religious communities of the world ought to recognize the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ? Shortly, in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” he will cause his sword to go through the land of Christendom to cut off those who stubbornly refuse to worship him with spirit and with truth. (Rev. 16:14, 16; John 4:24) In that universal war between Jehovah God and the Devil’s world, family relationships will not decide whether one will be spared and live through the end of the old world and into God’s new world of righteousness and integrity. Setting forth the rule by which he will be guided in executing his righteous judgments, he long ago said to his prophet Ezekiel (shortly before the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the desolating of the Jewish province in the year 607 before the Christian era):

2. In Ezekiel 14:12-20 what rule is set forth by which Jehovah will be guided in executing his judgments?

² “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah. . . . though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate. . . . though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves. . . . though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.”—Ezek. 14:12-20, AS.

3. What were the relationships of Noah, Daniel and Job, and by what survivals was their righteousness rewarded?

³ When God inspired Ezekiel to write those severe judgment notices the prophet Daniel was still alive with Ezekiel in the land of Babylon. The man Job was not alive. The faithful man Abraham, who died in 1844 before the Christian era, was a great-granduncle of Job, and so by Ezekiel’s time Job had been dead for about 900 years. Noah, the survivor of the great flood and the common forefather of Abraham and Job, was also then dead, dying 350 years after the flood, or in 2020 before the Christian era. All three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were men of a blameless way of life. All three were worshipers of the one God, Jehovah; in fact, the record in the Holy Bible shows they were all witnesses of Jehovah. Because of their righteousness before Him, Noah survived the end of the old world that perished in the flood; Daniel survived not only the destruction of Jerusalem but also the overthrow of the great world power Babylon; and Job survived the time of judgment in which he was an unwilling captive of Satan the Devil, “the god of this world,” and lived for 140 years afterward. All three were delivered because of their righteousness, which was why Jehovah God used them as examples of the righteousness that leads to our own deliverance by God’s power.

4. Because Noah, Daniel and Job were not in Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. was no one saved from its destruction? And how was a remnant brought back seventy years later?

⁴ Noah, Daniel and Job were not in Jerusalem when it was destroyed in 607 B.C.E. Does that mean that nobody was saved out of the wreckage of that once holy city? No; a remnant of the Jews, including Jeremiah and Gedaliah, not to speak of non-Jews like the Rechabites and Ebed-melech, were saved from Jerusalem’s destruction. Just as Jehovah had told Ezekiel in this connection: “Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, . . . and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ezek. 14:22, 23, AS) It was from this remnant that many Jews came back from the land of their exile seventy years later and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple to Jehovah’s name for the reviving of his worship.

5. Why will there be a remnant of survivors in our own day?

⁵ Will there be a remnant of survivors in our own day? Noah, Daniel and Job have not yet been resurrected from the dead to be here during the world destruction at Armageddon, to be the only survivors of that destruction of Christendom and of all the rest of the world. But there are now Christian people of true righteousness like Noah, Daniel and Job; and according to Jehovah’s own prophetic promise these righteous witnesses of his will be spared and survive the destruction of the old world into the righteous new world. There will be a remnant surviving. Jesus Christ said, in his prophecy about the end of the world: “On account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:22, 37) We should like to be among these survivors.

6. In accord with James 5:9-11, how do we want Jehovah to be toward us during the coming judgment?

⁶ Jesus’ disciple named James wrote of the coming judgment upon this wicked world and said: “Look! the judge is standing before the doors. Brothers, take as a pattern of the suffering of evil and the exercising of patience the prophets, who spoke in the name of Jehovah. Look! we pronounce happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and compassionate.” (Jas. 5:9-11) In accord with James’ encouragement to us, we too want to be pronounced happy. We too want Jehovah God to be very tender in affection and compassionate toward us and not destroy us during the execution of his judgments in the war of Armageddon.

7. Like what men must we now endure, and why so?

⁷ But there is more to the matter than merely wanting it to be so. We have to endure; we have to suffer evil, and through it all exercise the patience of Jehovah’s prophets. Moreover, the evil that we suffer must not be for our own willful sins against Jehovah God. His prophets did not suffer all the things that they did suffer because they had done wrong and sinned against God. No; they suffered evil unjustly, and there is where the test of their endurance came in. They suffered because they had faith in God and worshiped him without letup and bore witness to him. Their sufferings did not therefore come upon them from God’s hand, but God let the sufferings come upon them unjustly, to test them and to see whether their suffering undeservedly would cause them to turn away from his worship and service, renouncing him to his face. Enduring to the end of the test of their faithfulness, they would vindicate Jehovah as God and universal Sovereign and he would reward them with a happy outcome, with great tenderness in affection and with compassion. He would thereby prove to all accusers that he was just in letting them suffer for such a purpose, and that he could raise up men out of sinful mankind who would keep their integrity toward him. James specifically names Job’s case as a striking example of how God deals. So as an encouragement to us to endure with a happy outcome, we do well to get acquainted with the book of Job.

FORCING THE ISSUE OF ENDURANCE

8. Where did Job live, and at what time was it that he was Jehovah’s witness without equal in the earth?

⁸ Job lived in the land of Uz, in what is now Arabia, and not too far from the Gulf of Aqaba. At that time God himself said concerning Job: “There is no one like him in the earth, a man of integrity and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad.” (Job 1:8) This and other circumstances would locate Job in Uz about the time that his distant cousins, the twelve tribes of Israel, were in slavery down in the land of Egypt. By then Joseph, the son of Israel, had died after he had endured much unjust suffering, but had kept his blamelessness toward Jehovah God. Moses, a distant cousin of Job, had not yet risen up as Jehovah’s prophet to lead the twelve tribes of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. It was therefore fitting that Jehovah God should call attention to Job as his witness, who was then without equal in the earth. How did this occur?

9. What took place at the first meeting before Jehovah God to which Satan was ordered to come?

⁹ God’s power pulls back the veil of invisibility and we look into the spirit world to see a meeting of angels assembling before the Most High God, to which meeting Jehovah God had ordered Satan to come. At the meeting what took place? Here is the account from the book of Job: “Now it came to be the day when the sons of The [true] God came in to take their station before Jehovah, and even Satan proceeded to come in right among them. Then Jehovah said to Satan: ‘Where do you come from?’ At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: ‘From roving about in the earth and from walking about in it.’ And Jehovah went on to say to Satan: ‘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?’ At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: ‘Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? Have not you yourself put up a hedge about him and about his house and about everything that he has all around? The work of his hands you have blessed and his livestock itself has spread abroad in the earth. But, for a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch everything he has [and see] whether he will not curse you to your very face.’ Accordingly Jehovah said to Satan: ‘Look! everything that he has is in your hand. Only against him himself do not thrust out your hand!’ So Satan went out away from the person of Jehovah.”—Job 1:6-12.

10. Of what was Job ignorant at the time, and why was no one better qualified than he to furnish the answer to the question raised?

¹⁰ Job did not know about this meeting in heaven and what the big question was that was put forward and what was to be done about getting the true answer to the question. Here was the thing that caused Job difficulty. He did not know the question that he was picked to prove, namely, that God can raise up the right kind of persons to be his witnesses in the earth, and that they will hold on to their integrity to him despite all the unjust suffering he may allow to test their unselfish worship of him. Job being then the unequaled witness of Jehovah on earth, no one should be better qualified to prove this point in favor of Jehovah than Job.

11. In what office toward God was Job acting in behalf of his family, and why?

¹¹ Job was acting as priest of Jehovah God for his family. His wife was living and he had seven sons and three daughters. Besides that, he had seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, making a total of ten thousand together, and also five hundred spans of oxen and five hundred she-asses, along with a very great body of servants. In spite of all these possessions, Job was not a materialistic man. He did not get so deeply buried in his material goods that he forgot about God, who was the real source of all his wealth. He did not try to increase his material wealth by going crooked and violating the laws of God and showing no fear of God. Job wanted his ten children to fear God and stay in God’s favor. So after his seven sons had spread banquets for their three sisters at their seven houses, Job would always act as an intercessor for them with Jehovah. “Job would send and sanctify them, and he got up early in the morning and offered up burnt sacrifices according to the number of all of them, for, said Job, ‘maybe my sons have sinned and have cursed God in their heart.’ That is the way Job would do always.” (Job 1:1-5) At that time Jehovah God had not yet set up his exclusive priesthood in the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses the prophet.

12. In what way did Jehovah bless Job, and why in this way?

¹² Quite properly Jehovah God blessed Job for his faithful worship as a witness of Jehovah, and quite properly at that time God blessed Job with material goods to be used in a right way. Job could be trusted with them. Long before this God had blessed Job’s granduncle Abraham in this manner, and also Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. So it was nothing new for God to increase the material possessions of his servant Job and to protect them against enemy attack. Certainly God did not bless his servants with material goods just to enrich the thievish enemy. For this reason God kept those goods out of the hands of selfish, greedy evildoers. Neither Job nor Abraham and Isaac and Jacob expected to go to heaven and be rewarded only up there after death. So God was in harmony with their earthly hopes in blessing them upon the earth. Who, then, had a right to object to Job’s having all this material wealth? No one.

13. What test had Job withstood thus far, and so what test did Satan propose, and why?

¹³ However, Satan the Devil did not want God to have any pleasure out of Job. Hence he accused Job. Let it be noted that Satan did not, even as he could not, accuse Job of acting materialistically and misusing all the material goods with which Jehovah had blessed Job. No; up to that point Job had withstood the test of materialism. All that was left for Satan to do, then, was to accuse Job’s heart condition. He was at heart materialistic; he was serving Jehovah God only for the material good that he could get out of it, argued Satan the Devil. To show up Job’s heart condition and the weakness of his integrity Satan suggested that Jehovah take away all those material possessions. Of course, Jehovah would not do that himself; but, to permit the question to be answered, he would let Satan the Devil and his crowd on earth take away such material things. Satan had no confidence in Job. God did, and he was not unwilling to prove this.

14. How was Satan found to be a liar in this first part of Job’s test?

¹⁴ What was the outcome of the first part of Job’s test? He held firm. Deprived of everything but his wife, Job now had to decide whether he would deprive himself of his God. Job refused to part with his God. He went into mourning for his children and proceeded to “bow down and say: ‘Naked I came out of my mother’s belly and naked shall I return there. Jehovah himself has given and Jehovah himself has taken away. Let the name of Jehovah continue to be blessed.’ In all this Job did not sin or ascribe unseemliness to God.” (Job 1:20-22) Satan was found to be a liar.

15. What does Job’s name mean, and whom, principally, did he therefore foreshadow?

¹⁵ In this first part of the prophetic drama of Job we can see a foreshadowing of the trial that came upon Jesus Christ nineteen centuries ago. Job’s name means “object of hostility.” On earth Jesus Christ was the principal object of Satan’s hostility. He was the promised seed of God’s woman, concerning whom Jehovah had told Satan the Devil in the garden of Eden: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) From this Satan knew that Almighty God would at least let him and his wicked seed bruise Jesus Christ “in the heel.”

16. How was Jesus Christ on earth like Job in having such material possessions and children?

¹⁶ Satan the Devil insulted Jesus by questioning Jesus to his face whether he was the Son of God who had laid aside heavenly glory and come to deliver mankind from Satan’s death-dealing rule. (Matt. 4:3, 6) By being born as a perfect human Jesus was deserving to have all that Jehovah God had bestowed upon the perfect man Adam in the garden of Eden. When Jesus was anointed with God’s spirit to be the chosen King for God’s new world Jesus held ownership to the earth and all its wealth and animals. God did not give him a human earthly wife, but did give him what was equal to children. He gave him “children” in the form of faithful disciples, loyal footstep followers, whom he could teach and take care of, just as an earthly father does his children. The prophet Isaiah had foretold these spiritual children of Jesus when he said: “Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. Behold, I and the children whom Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.” (Isa. 8:16, 18, AS; Heb. 2:5-8, 13) Twelve of such spiritual children were apostles of Jesus Christ.

17. How did Jesus, like Job, become bereft of such things, and without violating his integrity?

¹⁷ As in Job’s case, Satan the Devil tried to strip Jesus forever of these things. He found he could not do it by tempting Jesus to materialism or to false worship or to the fear of men or devils. Satan did turn one of Jesus’ apostolic children to materialism. For thirty pieces of silver this traitor, Judas, betrayed Jesus into the hands of his enemies, only to commit suicide by hanging not many hours afterward. When Jesus yielded himself over to the crowd led by Judas the eleven other apostles got scared and fled, leaving Jesus alone to his bloodthirsty enemies. Not much later one of these eleven denied Jesus three times. Jesus was not reunited to all these eleven apostles and other disciples until after his resurrection from the dead on the third day. For the time that Jesus lay dead in another man’s tomb he was indeed bereft of everything—children and possessions—at the instance of Satan, the bruiser of his heel. But even to his dying moment on the torture stake outside Jerusalem, Jesus, like Job, “did not sin or ascribe unseemliness to God.” His lips and his heart were sinless when he said: “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit,” and then: “It has been accomplished,” and finally expired.—Luke 23:46; John 19:30.

18. How did Jehovah then make Jesus most happy, and in him what does Jehovah have respecting Satan’s accusation?

¹⁸ Jehovah’s confidence in his chief Son, his high priest and mediator, had not been misplaced. Jesus Christ had loyally upheld Jehovah’s Godship and universal sovereignty to the last, with full integrity under the most painful and humiliating test. Satan proved himself once more a slanderous liar. Jesus Christ had proved Jehovah God to be true, the one object worthy of our wholehearted love and complete obedience. With very tender affection for this dutiful Son Jehovah healed the wound that Satan had inflicted at Jesus’ heel by raising him out of death to deathlessness in the heavens and appointing him to be “heir of all things.” (Heb. 1:2) Of all God’s family in heaven and on earth Jehovah can now say to Satan and all creatures that there is no one like Jesus Christ in all the universe. In Jesus alone Jehovah God has a complete and everlasting answer to Satan’s false accusation that God cannot put a man on earth who will stay faithful to him under the greatest trial. So God made Jesus most happy. We pronounce him happy.

ENDURING PERSECUTION, MISREPRESENTATION

19. Upon whom has Satan centered his attack in this “time of the end,” and what is it necessary for these to do, and why?

¹⁹ Satan the Devil failed to prove his false accusation against the chief Son of God. Wanting still more of an answer, he keeps accusing Jesus’ anointed footstep followers, the spiritual brothers of Jesus Christ, down to this day. That is why, when the kingdom was born in heaven in 1914 and war broke out in heaven and the victorious King Jesus Christ hurled Satan down from heaven to our earth, a loud voice in heaven said: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!” (Rev. 12:7-10) Since then this accuser of Christ’s brothers has centered his attack on the remnant yet on earth of these spirit-begotten brothers, who, like Christ, are part of the seed of God’s woman. (Rev. 12:13, 17) Therefore in this “time of the end” of Satan’s world the remnant of Christ’s anointed joint heirs have the privilege of showing an endurance like Job’s and proving their integrity to God. Like Job and like Jesus, they must furnish God an answer for Satan that he may have no grounds for reproaching God in their case. To them their heavenly Father Jehovah now says: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.”—Prov. 27:11.

20. Who, especially, would need to understand the book of Job, and how has it been opened to their understanding as an aid?

²⁰ The fulfillment of the prophetic drama of Job now shifts from Jesus’ day to our day. Who, then, would need to understand the book of Job? The remnant of Jesus’ joint sufferers and joint heirs! So it was by nothing less than divine guidance of matters that ten years after the remnant became active, and not before then, the subject of “integrity” was introduced as something brand new to us. That was in the year 1929. Three articles on the book of Job appeared in the July and August issues of The Watch Tower. Then these articles were republished in chapter 11 of the book Life, which was released on August 25, 1929. Two years after that a surprising feature of Job’s prophetic drama began its fulfillment. Later, amid the throes of World War II, an explanation of the entire book of Job, chapter for chapter, was published in the book The New World, chapters 4 to 12 inclusive, released during the New World Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., in September, 1942. And now, in the year 1957, it becomes possible to study the book of Job by using the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Because of the great test of endurance and integrity upon the remnant in this “time of the end” they have had the book of Job opened to their understanding as an aid, and in it they find their own experience dramatically portrayed. How?

21. At the second meeting in heaven what test did Satan propose, and what did Jehovah show by the answer he gave to Satan?

²¹ After Job had taken the loss of all his material possessions and of his ten children without cursing God to his face for permitting Satan to cause this terrible loss, another assembly of the spirit sons of God convened in heaven before God. Again Satan was ordered to be present. The persecutor of Job felt defiant when Jehovah remarked on Job’s unbroken integrity, saying: “Even yet he is holding fast his integrity, although you incite me against him to swallow him up without cause.” In contempt of Job and not yet admitting defeat, faithless Satan retorted: “Skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will give in behalf of his soul. For a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch as far as his bone and his flesh [and see] whether he will not curse you to your very face.” Jehovah was sure that even that form of persecution from Satan would not crack Job’s integrity. In expression of his universal sovereignty and showing that Satan himself could do nothing against Jehovah’s witnesses without the Sovereign God’s permission, Jehovah released Job to Satan’s further abuse, saying: “There he is in your hand! Only watch out for his soul itself!”

22. How was Job now stricken by Satan, and with what consequences, but how did Job brand Satan a liar?

²² However, Satan struck Job with a disease that seemed to mean certain death, so that Job himself said: “The graveyard is for me.” It also looked like a punishment from the true God in the eyes of the people of the Middle East. His own brothers kept their distance from him; his acquaintances turned aside from him, quit him; those whom he well knew forgot him as if dead; he became like a foreigner to sojourners and slaves in his own house, who refused to obey him. His breath became sickening to his wife; his body became foul-smelling to his own brothers; young men no longer paid him respect in word or conduct; intimate associates detested him, and those whom he had loved grew cold toward him. His body became wasted to the bone, and, to explain how he was still living, Job said: “I escape with the skin of my teeth.” (Job 17:1; 19:13-20) Persuaded now that Jehovah had openly renounced Job, his own wife paid him a compliment and yet said it was hopeless. “Are you yet holding fast your integrity?” she said. “Curse God and die!” Still believing in his own integrity, Job sustained this cruel blow from the wife of his love and gave her this deserved correction: “As one of the senseless women speaks you speak also. Shall we accept merely what is good from The [true] God and not accept also what is bad?” This reaction of Job branded Satan a slanderous liar before God, for God’s record says: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”—Job 2:1-10.

23. How did the remnant suffer an experience like that of Job with his wife?

²³ How well this part of Job’s test of integrity prophetically dramatized what has come upon the remnant of Christ’s anointed followers! Each of them can say with the apostle Paul: “I in my turn am filling up what is lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh on behalf of his body, which is the congregation”! (Col. 1:24) During the years of World War I they had many spiritual associates who, like themselves, were engaged to be married to the heavenly Bridegroom in the “first resurrection” from the dead; but under the heavy persecutions that the nations heaped upon Jehovah’s witnesses with the approval of the religious leaders these associates rebelled against having to suffer with the faithful remnant. They said that God had rejected the organization of the remnant and they broke off their ties with the remnant and set up their own religious organization. This was a very painful experience for the faithful remnant, as when Job had his wife turn against him as if a God-forsaken man. But from the Scriptures this Joblike remnant pointed out the senseless course of the rebellious, self-seeking quitters, and declared they were determined to undergo the persecution that Almighty God permitted to come upon them to prove their love and devotion to Him. In the eyes of the religious sects of Christendom that joined in persecuting Jehovah’s witnesses the remnant were spiritually just as diseased and stricken of God as Job was and they abandoned these to destruction at the hands of Satan’s political governments and their military machine. But true to the prophetic drama of Job, the faithful remnant endured all this, though wondering what it all meant.

24. What had Jehovah restrained the enemy from doing to the Joblike remnant, and yet why were their trials on earth not then over?

²⁴ World War I ended in November, 1918, but God had restrained the violent hands of Satan’s political and religious agents from taking away the soul of his faithful remnant. In the spring of 1919 he revived them from their deathlike spiritual condition. He set them to work in proclaiming the good news about God’s kingdom that had been born in the heavens at the close of the “appointed times of the nations” in the fall of 1914. But their trials on earth were not over, as Satan’s further mistreatment of Job prophetically portrayed. An extended period of religious controversy was due, also a period of being misjudged, misrepresented and condemned, this to be offset by consoling enlightenment from God.

JOB’S THREE FALSE FRIENDS

25. What course of action did Satan now maneuver three friends of Job to take, and what series of debates developed?

²⁵ Misguided friends, with misdirected persuasiveness, can prove to be a searching test of our integrity toward Jehovah God. Knowing this, Satan maneuvered three companions of Job’s to come together by appointment and launch a combined triple-blow assault on Job’s integrity, to ruin it if possible. Eliphaz from the land of Teman, Bildad, a descendant of Shuah, and Zophar from Naamah did not recognize the disease-wasted Job at first sight. They put on quite a scene of loud, demonstrative mourning over him. Silently they sat observing him for seven days, opening their minds to Satan’s suggestions as to what Job’s condition indicated. Job at last broke the silence by calling down evil on the day of his birth and expressing wonderment as to why God kept him alive. (Job 2:11 to 3:26) This led to a series of three debates. In the first two debates all three men strongly stated what they thought, and Job defended himself against each one in turn. In the third debate Zophar the Naamathite failed to take part, likely thinking it was useless or having nothing further to say, being put to silence with his two companions.

26. To what judgment toward Job did his three companions come, and on what basis of judgment?

²⁶ On their arrival those three men pretended to have come to sympathize with Job and to comfort him. How far they went from fulfilling their intentions, if such they actually were! They took the attitude of those whom the prophet Isaiah foretold as the critics of Jesus Christ: “We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isa. 53:4, AS) They interpreted God’s dealings with Job wrongly. They understood God’s dealings just as little as Job did. Job interpreted God’s dealings as showing that God brings suffering upon the righteous as well as the unrighteous, and is within his own right in doing so. Job’s three companions judged things by appearances and according to their own twisted reasoning power. So they interpreted God’s dealings as publicly showing up Job to be a hypocrite without integrity and punishing him openly for his sins that he had for a long time kept secret from his unsuspecting associates. Job was thus proved to be bad of heart, but they themselves—well, they were not suffering as Job was, which proved to them that they were righteous in God’s sight and Job was not. They needed no repentance and no sacrifice for sins, but Job needed to repent and get converted and be brought back into God’s favor. They felt self-righteous and gloried in it.

27. What did Job well say to them that exposed their failure to comfort him?

²⁷ Well could Job say to those three agents of Satan: “Now you men have amounted to nothing; . . . How effective the sayings of uprightness have proved! But what does reproving on the part of you men reprove?” (Job 6:21, 25) “You men are smearers of falsehood; all of you are physicians of no value. If only you would absolutely keep silent, that it might prove to be wisdom on your part!” (Job 13:4, 5) “All of you are troublesome comforters! Is there an end to windy words? Or what galls you, that you answer? I myself also could well speak as you men do. If only your souls existed in the place of my soul, would I be brilliant in words against you, and would I wag my head against you?” (Job 16:2-4) “How long will you men keep irritating my soul and keep crushing me with words? These ten times you proceeded to rebuke me; you are not ashamed [that] you deal so hard with me. And, granted that I have made a mistake, it is with me that my mistake will pass the night. If for a fact against me you men do put on great airs and you show my reproach to be proper against me, know, then, that God himself has misled me and his hunting net he has closed in upon me. Show me favor, show me favor, O you my companions, for God’s own hand has touched me. Why do you men keep persecuting me as God does, and not have your fill of my own flesh?” (Job 19:2-6, 21, 22) “So how vainly you men try to comfort me, and your very replies do remain as unfaithfulness!” (Job 21:34) Job’s three would-be comforters showed they had not been anointed with Jehovah’s holy spirit to “comfort all that mourn.”—Isa. 61:1-3, AS.

28. With what words did Job picture himself as in a law court with God as his opponent-at-law?

²⁸ Job pictured himself as in a law court pleading his innocence, with God as his opponent-at-law. “For,” said Job, “he is not a man like me [that] I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. There exists no person to decide between us, that he should put his hand upon both of us.” Job could not expect to win out against God as opponent: “Whom I would not answer, even though I were really in the right. Of my opponent-at-law I would implore favor.” (Job 9:15, 32, 33) Yet Job would continue to plead before him, for Job was certain that God the prosecutor could not find him to be unfaithful, even if God had to kill Job to prove that Job was no apostate: “Even if he would kill me, would I not wait? I would only argue to his face for my own ways. He would also be my salvation, for before him no apostate will come in.” (Job 13:15, 16) “Also now, look! in the heavens is one testifying about me, and my witness is in the heights. My companions are spokesmen against me; to God my eye has looked sleeplessly. And one decides between an able-bodied man and God, as between a son of man and his fellow.”—Job 16:19-21.

29. With what expressions did Job show he was determined to insist on his being a man of integrity, and how did he show his appreciation of wisdom?

²⁹ To the very end Job is determined to insist that he is a man of integrity and to conduct himself in harmony with his claim. To his falsely reasoning companions he says: “It is unthinkable on my part that I should justify you men! Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from myself! On my justness I have laid hold and I shall not let it go; my heart will not taunt [me] for any of my days.” That is why Job came to this conclusion: “One thing there is. That is why I do say: ‘One of integrity, also a wicked one, [God] is bringing to their end.’” And: “He will weigh me in accurate scales and God will get to know my integrity.” (Job 27:5, 6; 9:22; 31:6) Job knew best his own private life, and looking at himself in the light of it Job felt sure of establishing his own integrity. Job reveals how highly he has always appreciated wisdom and how God has said to man: “Look! the fear of Jehovah—that is wisdom, and to turn away from bad is understanding.”—Job 28:28.

30. To show what does Job tell about his private life and with what invitation to his opponent-at-law does he submit his case for judgment in ending his words?

³⁰ Before his three companions and also before the young man Elihu Job openly tells of how he has lived his life, striving to live according to true wisdom, not loving or trusting in money, nor worshiping the visible creations in the heavens: “For I should have denied The [true] God above.” Against the record of his life given over his own signature he invites his opponent-at-law to file charges: “O that I had someone listening to me, that according to my signature the Almighty himself would answer me! Or that the individual in the case at law with me had written a document itself! Surely upon my shoulder I would carry it; I would bind it around me like a grand crown. The number of my steps I would tell him, like a leader I would approach him.” If wrong could be proved against Job, he would be willing to suffer due punishment. So now he submits his case and awaits the judgment of the divine court. “The words of Job have come to an end.”—Job 31:28, 35-40.

31. How have the religious leaders of Christendom in particular played the counterparts of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar?

³¹ In the fulfillment of the prophetic drama of Job during this “time of the end” the religious leaders of Christendom in particular have played the counterparts of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar very well. Maliciously accusing the remnant of Christ’s body, even praying to God against them, they took unfair advantage of World War I, with which the time of the end of this world began, and they brought reproach, persecution and political oppression upon the remnant. After the close of World War I they continued their denunciations and condemnation of the remnant in Job’s position, arguing that these had no good standing with God and were not witnesses of Jehovah and were a security risk to the governments of this world because of first giving Jehovah God what is his and then giving political Caesar what was his. They have tried to take various measures against their witnessing from house to house in ‘preaching this good news of God’s established kingdom in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations before the end of this world comes at Armageddon.’—Acts 20:20; Matt. 24:14.

32. Where therefore, have the remnant been obliged to tell of their manner of life, but before whom especially have they endeavored to maintain their claim of integrity?

³² Hence in thousands of courts of the land the remnant have had to make an open statement of their manner of life and action, to set forth their innocence and to prove their innocence, their integrity. Particularly since 1922 they have proclaimed that a judgment from Jehovah’s spiritual temple has begun upon the remnant, and they have tried to keep their record clean in the divine court before the Supreme Judge regardless of how the legal and ecclesiastical courts might rule toward them. Before God they have endeavored to maintain their integrity, knowing that His is the final judgment upon them, the judgment that counts and that must be executed in the end. It has been a great battle for them to hold fast to their claim that they are Christians of integrity before God, to whom, in the last resort, they submit their case. Jesus Christ their Leader was also misrepresented and persecuted to the death, but that never meant he was minus integrity toward God.

ELIHU, THE WITNESS OF JEHOVAH

33. Who now spoke up, and why was he angry, but why were his words not those of an impertinent boy?

³³ Now that Job as well as his three false friends who had taken Satan’s side in accusing Job had rested from their argumentation, Elihu, a distant relative of Job, spoke up. Respectful of men older than he was, Elihu had held back from expressing himself till there had been a full discussion by the parties involved. By now Elihu became angry. Why? “Against Job his anger blazed over his justifying his own soul more than God. Also against his three companions his anger blazed over the fact that they had not found an answer but they proceeded to pronounce God guilty.” (Job 32:1-3) Modern critics call Elihu “loquacious” and say his speeches were “longwinded,” because he spoke so extendedly, presenting the material that is contained in chapters 32 through 37 in the book of Job. But Elihu saw that the vindicating of Jehovah God was more important than the vindicating of any man. To speak words giving understanding he relied more upon the spirit of God than upon wisdom that is expected to come from one’s growing old in years and having much experience. He was against showing partiality toward any man or bestowing an awesome title upon any man. His words were not those of an impertinent boy.

34. What did Elihu correctly describe to Job in advance, thereby foretelling also what has befallen whom since 1919?

³⁴ Elihu correctly described to Job in advance what was fulfilled upon Job when he was restored to the position of a man publicly recognized as being in God’s favor for proving his integrity and for wisely giving God an answer against Satan, who has reproached God as if God bought the love of those who served him. Because Job here pictured the Christian remnant, Elihu also foretold what has befallen the anointed remnant since 1919, saying:

35. What was it that Elihu said in that description to Job?

³⁵ “His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to those inflicting death. If there exists for him a messenger, a spokesman, one out of a thousand, to tell to man his uprightness, then he favors him and says: ‘Let him off from going down into the pit! I have found a ransom! Let his flesh become fresher than in youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.’ He will make supplication to God that he may take pleasure in him, and he will see his face with joyful shouting, and He will restore His righteousness to mortal man. He will sing to men and say: ‘I have sinned and what is upright I have perverted, and it certainly was not the proper thing for me. He has redeemed my soul from passing into the pit, and my life itself will see the light.’ Look! All these things God performs, two times, three times, in the case of an able-bodied man, to turn his soul back from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of those living.”—Job 33:22-30.

36. How did God spare the remnant from the pit and from death?

³⁶ In 1918 Jehovah God spared the remnant from going down into the pit of death at the hand of their violent enemies. In 1919 he spared them from going into spiritual death. How? By putting his spirit into them to enliven them again in his service, to be his Kingdom witnesses in this “time of the end.”

37. How did Elihu end his words in vindication of Jehovah, and what now shows whom Elihu prefigured in the drama of Job?

³⁷ Confirmation is thereby given to the words of Elihu, who ended his words in vindication of Jehovah by saying: “As for the Almighty, we have not found him out; he is exalted in power, and justice and abundance of righteousness he will not belittle. Therefore let men fear him. He does not regard any who are wise in [their own] heart.” (Job 37:23, 24) Therefore as a character in the prophetic drama of Job, Elihu seems well to prefigure the spiritual governing body of the anointed remnant of Christ’s body. According to modern history since 1919 this governing body of the “faithful and discreet slave” class brought to the remnant as a whole the enlightening information concerning our vital need of integrity and the supreme issue, namely, the vindication of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty by his kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ.

JEHOVAH’S ANSWER

38. How did Jehovah answer, and with what effect upon Job?

³⁸ Job had pleaded that the God whom he worshiped in integrity should speak. He did. “And Jehovah proceeded to answer Job out of the windstorm and say: ‘Who is this that is obscuring counsel by words without knowledge?’” By what he now said and did to Job he proved that modern critics are wrong, and that he is the same Jehovah as Jehovah the God of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the same Jehovah whose witnesses we are privileged to be before all mankind in this great controversial “time of the end.” In lofty language that agrees with the creation account in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Jehovah now showed he was above all faithless questions and false charges, for he had created heaven and earth, into the profound wonders of which Job, a mere recent arrival on earth, had not and could not have fully penetrated. Job had no control of the creation and Almighty God could care for his creation without Job’s help. Said Jehovah: “Should there be any contending of a faultfinder with the Almighty? Let the reprover of God himself answer it.” Deeply humiliated, Job confessed he had nothing to say toward his own justification. Jehovah then described the mighty behemoth and the limber leviathan, as creative marvels well known to man.—Job 38:1, 2; 40:2, 15 to Job 41:34, margin.

39. With what should a study of Jehovah’s works of creation impress us, and so what fact was Job now led to confess?

³⁹ A study of such works of creation should impress us with the wisdom and power of Jehovah God and should make us think hard before we let the outward appearance of our circumstances lead us to think that he is unjust and unloving. Wisely taking the lesson to heart, Job confessed that he had argued his case without understanding. Said he to Jehovah: “In hearsay I have heard about you, but now my own eye does see you. That is why I make a retraction and I do repent in dust and ashes.”—Job 42:1-6.

40. Out of what has Jehovah answered the Joblike remnant, and since when, and with what result?

⁴⁰ Has Jehovah also answered the Joblike remnant out of the windstorm? Yes! This windstorm is the great tribulation that he brings on Satan’s organization to begin and finish this “time of the end” of Satan’s world. This tribulation struck the invisible part of Satan’s organization in 1914, and whirled him and his demons down from heaven to earth’s vicinity. The days of that tribulation have been cut short by allowing Satan a “short period of time” to operate at the earth for the testing of the remnant, while the remnant and their good-will associates are doing a world-wide preaching of the good news of God’s established kingdom. The tribulation will resume at the battle of Armageddon and will destroy Satan’s visible organization and put out of operation his invisible organization. During this in-between period by which the days of tribulation have been cut short, as it were out of the calm eye of the windstorm before the final part of the storm breaks forth, Jehovah has answered the Joblike remnant, particularly since 1919. From then on the spiritual remnant have had a great clearing up of many Bible doctrines. They have been made acquainted with the challenge that Satan has made of their integrity, and also with the paramount issue of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, which must be vindicated by his established kingdom. So we have become his witnesses as never before.

41. How did Jehovah treat Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar and what were they obliged to do?

⁴¹ After speaking to Job out of the windstorm Jehovah severely reproved Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. They were obliged to take sacrifices, offer them up and have Job pray for them. They needed conversion, not Job, for Jehovah said: “His face only I shall accept so as not to commit disgraceful folly with you, for you have not spoken concerning me what is truthful as has my servant Job.”—Job 42:8.

42. What did Jehovah now do for Job, and of what was he an example when he died at an old age?

⁴² Jehovah now delivered Job from Satan’s hand and healed him. It is written: “Jehovah proceeded to accept Job’s face. And Jehovah himself turned back the captive condition of Job when he prayed in behalf of his companions, and Jehovah began to give in addition all that had been Job’s, in double amount.” His brothers and sisters and former acquaintances came and ate and drank and associated with him as formerly, and gave him presents. His wife presented him again with seven sons and three daughters, the most beautiful girls in all the land, and they were given a hereditary share with their seven brothers. Job’s life was miraculously extended for 140 years more, and he saw the fourth generation of his descendants. Finally he died in his integrity, as an example of how tenderly affectionate and compassionate Jehovah is with those who keep integrity toward him and how happy in God his servants come to be for enduring all forms of Satan’s hostility to vindicate him.—Job 42:7-17.

43. How were the remnant made happy between 1919 and 1931?

⁴³ How happy the Joblike remnant have become since 1919, and particularly since 1931! After the end of World War I they were released from spiritual bondage to Satan’s world and their relationship to Jehovah God was healed. He blessed them with youthful vigor to preach the Kingdom message everywhere, and favored them with a grand increase, so great in number that it made up for all of their companions who had turned unfaithful and dropped away during the previous trial, and it also brought the membership of the remnant to completion, that thereby the spiritual body of Christ might have 144,000 members as foreordained.

44. Since 1931 how has the picture of Job’s having a second set of ten children been fulfilled?

⁴⁴ But what since 1931? Ah, then the Right Shepherd of Jehovah God, namely, Jesus Christ, began to gather to the Job-like remnant his “other sheep,” to whom he will become an “everlasting Father” during the thousand years of his blessed reign. He has been using the remnant of his body members in gathering these “other sheep.” Thus these sheep become as spiritual children to the remnant, their children begotten by the Kingdom good news that the remnant have preached. So these “other sheep” correspond to the second set of ten children that Job got after Jehovah turned back his captivity.—1 Cor. 4:15.

45. How are they beautiful like Job’s children, and how do they have an equality in hereditary possession?

⁴⁵ As foreshadowed by the perfect number ten, these “other sheep” have become already a “great crowd,” but they still continue to be gathered during this short period before Armageddon. They are beautiful spiritually, for they are the desirable things of all nations, the precious things of all nations, that have come to Jehovah’s spiritual temple to glorify him. As Job’s three girls had a hereditary possession from him along with their seven brothers, so now the women as well as the men among the “other sheep” share in the privilege of now being Jehovah’s witnesses and of preaching the Kingdom good news. Thus they help to gather still more of the “other sheep.” Even many who were formerly wrongly impressed by Satan’s persecution of the remnant, as in the case of Job’s relatives and acquaintances, have received correction and have become theocratic companions of the remnant.

46. Till when must the remnant and the “other sheep” endure, and how happy will they be made for doing so?

⁴⁶ The remnant must still endure till Armageddon. All the gathered “other sheep” must likewise maintain their integrity toward God and must endure along with the remnant until Satan’s world of persecutors and opposers is desolated at Armageddon. How happy we all are for having endured with integrity till now! How unspeakably happy we shall be for enduring till Jehovah vindicates his universal sovereignty at Armageddon and delivers us into his righteous new world! For there he will glorify the remnant of proved integrity in the heavenly kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ and will also bless the great crowd of “other sheep” with uplift to godlike human perfection in a paradise that will beautify all the earth.

Another Missionary Group Graduated

IT WAS about ten o’clock, July 28, 1957, a beautiful summer morning, as Milton G. Henschel began to speak on the subject “Be like Jesus.” Situated among large pine trees and surrounded by vases of beautiful gladiolas, the yellow-canopied speaker’s platform provided indeed a colorful sight. Immediately before the speaker were seated the 103 graduating students of the twenty-ninth class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. Also attentively listening were some 5,300 guests.

“It is not by accident that we are here today, not by any means,” began Henschel. “This school was born out of necessity. The need for preaching the good news has never been greater.” Jesus had appreciated that need and so devoted his life to it. More than that, he also sent out the twelve apostles to preach, as recorded at Matthew, chapter ten. Taking up this chapter, the speaker applied verse after verse to the missionaries seated before him.

Jesus manifested singleness of purpose and they would need it also not to get sidetracked. Because of their special training more would be expected of them; they would have to take the initiative and get things done. Jesus never doubted, he never feared, neither should you. Let none discourage you.

Following this discourse the students came forward to get their diplomas and other graduation items. They had come from six different lands and were being sent to lands in Asia, Africa, South, Central and North America, to twenty lands in all. A spokesman on behalf of the class then read a letter of appreciation for the training received.

This was the first time that the president of the Watchtower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, was not on hand to preside at a Gilead graduation, a district convention at Los Angeles requiring his presence there. Before Henschel spoke, ably representing the president as his secretary and as one of the board of directors, there were brief remarks by others associated with the school. The program had begun at nine o’clock with song and prayer, after which John Markus, of the Kingdom Farm, pointed out to the students their likeness to nursery trees being transplanted for permanent fruit-bearing.

Next the four instructors spoke: H. K. Jackson reminded them of the value of hard work. K. A. Adams stressed endurance and the importance of prayer. M. G. Friend stressed the qualities of the heart and urged the students to go out and spread happiness, helpfulness, harmony, friendship and affection. A. D. Schroeder contrasted New World education with that of the old world.

The evening before, some three thousand had assembled for a study of the weekly Watchtower lesson, which was followed by a musical program by the students. The final feature of the graduation weekend took place Sunday afternoon, when, for about two hours, twenty students told of the blessings of a Gilead training and urged others to make the missionary field their goal. At four o’clock a song and prayer ended the program.

Questions From Readers

● What is the “new name” mentioned at Revelation 2:17? Is it the name “Jehovah’s witnesses”? And what about similar references at Isaiah 62:2 and Isa 65:15?—M. N., United States.

Isaiah 62:2 (AS) reads: “And the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah shall name.” As shown in “New Heavens and a New Earth”, pages 232-234, the children of Zion were brought back from bondage to antitypical Babylon and joyfully united with their “mother” in 1919. From then on God caused their condition to prosper and their “land” to become populated. It was at this time that God gave his “woman” or heavenly organization a new name, as noted at Jeremiah 33:16 (AS), namely, “Jehovah our righteousness.” It is a name that befits her, a name that Jehovah himself composed. This change of name is in keeping with her changed condition and fittingly describes it; especially as respects her earthly things that have to do with her spiritual sons on earth.

As for the prophecy at Isaiah 65:15 (AS): “And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; and the Lord Jehovah will slay thee; and he will call his servants by another name.” These words are directed to the forsakers of Jehovah, whose name becomes a symbol or illustration of God’s punishment of the wicked. On the other hand (as noted also in the Bible study aid mentioned above), Jehovah’s chosen ones, the spiritual children of Zion who faith fully serve him, he calls by a name different from that of the evil apostate servants. “It is a name or reputation representing the divine favor and blessing upon one and denoting membership in his universal theocratic organization with honorable privileges of service to God.”—“New Heavens and a New Earth”, p. 233.

Thus we see that these texts in Isaiah do not specifically refer to the name “Jehovah’s witnesses,” but rather to the blessed condition and honor enjoyed by God’s woman or heavenly organization and by her spiritual children since 1919. However, harmonizing with all the foregoing, the remnant of Zion’s children did, on July 26, 1931, embrace the new name “Jehovah’s witnesses” as being descriptive of their testifying to Jehovah’s greatness and supporting his side of the issue of universal sovereignty. This they did in harmony with the Scriptural reference at Isaiah 43:10-12 (AS): “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; . . . and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God.”

Referring now to Revelation 2:17, which tells that Christ will give to him that conquers “a little white stone, and upon the little stone a new name written which no one knows except the one receiving it.” Commenting on this little white stone, McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia tells that it ‘has been variously regarded as referring to the pebble of acquittal used in the Greek courts, to the lot cast in elections in Greece, to the stones of the high priest’s breastplate and to the custom of writing on stones.’

Relative to the thought of writing on stones, there was a custom among the Romans and Greeks of ancient times to use a white stone as a token of friendship. It was divided into halves and each wrote his name on one half and then the halves were exchanged. The producing of either half was sufficient to prove friendship and to secure aid if needed, and that even on the part of members of a succeeding generation. Thus the divided stone became a symbol of identification and friendship.

The new name mentioned at Revelation 2:17 does not seem to apply specifically to the name “Jehovah’s witnesses.” Why not? For one thing, note that it is given as a reward to the members of Christ’s body for having conquered Satan and the world. It would therefore apply only to something received upon their being rewarded in the first resurrection. This is in keeping with the rewards mentioned in the same and in the succeeding chapter, such as being given a place with Christ on his throne, being given the crown of life, being given power over the nations, etc. Again, no one knows the new name except the ones receiving it.

It would therefore seem that the new name mentioned at Revelation 2:17 refers to a new position of intimate relationship that will be enjoyed by those sharing in the first resurrection, that cannot be appreciated by others or even known by the overcomers themselves until they receive their heavenly reward for having conquered.

Announcements

KEEP ABREAST OF THE NEW WORLD SOCIETY—1 Cor. 11:1.

The New World society is entirely devoted to the doing of the will of God, whose name is Jehovah. It gives close attention to the commission of preaching the “good news of the kingdom . . . in all the inhabited earth,” knowing that the foretold “accomplished end” is in sight. (Matt. 24:14) All members of the New World society delight to imitate Jesus by talking to whomever they can, wherever they can, about the new world of God’s making. During this month of October many more millions of people will be called on at their home and given opportunity to learn of New World blessings in store for men of good will toward God. Jehovah’s witnesses in calling will give a timely three- to eight-minute sermon and offer the Scripturally helpful magazine Awake! on a contribution of $1 for a year’s subscription. Three enlightening Bible booklets will be given each new subscriber.

PROTECTION FROM MORAL BREAKDOWN

Never before in history have so many words been spoken or written that are not worth hearing or reading. The world is bogged down in a swamp of lifeless and vulgar thoughts. Newspapers have a great potential for raising cultural standards, yet the tabloid that features sex crimes, murders and tragedies becomes the nation’s best seller. Not so with Awake! magazine. One reason for its spiraling circulation is that Awake! does not follow the world’s cultural breakdown. It considers timely world issues as well as scientific, social and economic problems, yet the words it contains are well worth reading. They are upbuilding, strengthening and comforting. That is because Awake! upholds Scriptural principles of honesty, truthfulness, justice, moral cleanness and love for all mankind without racial or national distinction. Awake! follows the admonition given at Philippians 4:8; thus every issue considers things that are true and of serious concern. Its words provide real protection from the world’s cultural breakdown. Read it regularly. Send $1 for a year’s subscription and receive free three timely Bible sermons in booklet form.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

October 27: Endurance like Job’s in the Time of the End, ¶1-16. Page 592.

November 3: Endurance like Job’s in the Time of the End, ¶17-29. Page 596.

November 10: Endurance like Job’s in the Time of the End, ¶30-46. Page 601.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ When one should especially beware of accepting a gift? P. 580, ¶5.

✔ Why many persons fail to find the purpose of living? P. 581, ¶5.

✔ Why a petition was sent to Generalissimo Trujillo? P. 585, ¶3.

✔ Who was beaten so badly because he was one of Jehovah’s witnesses that his nose and ears bled and his eardrum was broken? P. 588, ¶2.

✔ Who in the Dominican Republic started off the campaign of hate against Jehovah’s witnesses? P. 589, ¶2.

✔ Why we need to get acquainted with the book of Job? P. 594, ¶7.

✔ Why there was no one like Job in the earth? P. 594, ¶8.

✔ What the first part of Job’s test foreshadowed? P. 596, ¶15.

✔ How Job’s interpretation of his suffering differed from that expressed by his three companions? P. 600, ¶26.

✔ Why Elihu’s anger blazed against Job and his three companions? P. 602, ¶33.

✔ Why the Bible School of Gilead was born? P. 606, ¶2.

✔ What a little white stone was used as a token of in ancient times? P. 607, ¶6.